Protection 

 Psychology 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



562 



feather. It is not difficult to imagine how 

 this comes about: either a thicker line, or a 

 greater stiffness or tenacity of the viscid 

 fluid composing the web and attached to the 

 point the spider drops from, causes one to 

 fall slower than the other. HUDSON Natu- 

 ralist in La Plata, ch. 14, p. 182. (C. & H., 

 1895.) 



2772. PROTECTION IMPOSSIBLE IF 

 NATURAL LAW NEGLECTED Guardian 

 Leucocytes Powerless To Save an Enfeebled 

 or Corrupted Organism. It seems prob- 

 able, and, in fact, almost certain, that 

 so long as we live in tolerably healthy con- 

 ditions, these leucocytes [or white corpus- 

 cles of the blood] are able to deal with all 

 disease-germs which can gain access to our 

 system; but when we live in impure air, 

 or drink impure water, or feed upon un- 

 wholesome food, our system becomes en- 

 feebled and our guardian leucocytes are un- 

 able to destroy the disease-germs that gain 

 access to our organism; they then increase 

 rapidly, and are in many cases able to 

 destroy us. WALLACE The Wonderful Cen- 

 tury, ch. 14, p. 145. (D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



2773. PROTECTION OF ALPINE 

 PLANTS BY SNOW The Greenhouse Proves 

 a Fitting Substitute. The most striking il- 

 lustration of the protection which a cover- 

 ing of snow affords against cold is furnished 

 by the way in which it was at last found 

 possible to naturalize in gardens on the 

 continent of Europe some of the peculiarly 

 beautiful and brilliantly colored plants of 

 the Alpine regions, which it had often been 

 attempted to naturalize in vain. During 

 the winter they always died, till an in- 

 genious gardener hit upon the device of 

 affording them artificially the protection 

 against cold which in their native seats they 

 regularly obtain from their covering of snow. 

 He did so by putting them in the green- 

 houses along with the orange and pome- 

 granate trees of warmer climates, and his 

 experiment was crowned with success. The 

 protection which snow affords against cold 

 is perhaps the most important function that 

 it fulfils in the economy of Nature, but it 

 is not its only function, nor its only im- 

 portant function. CHISHOLM Nature-Stud- 

 ies, p. 30. (Hum., 1888.) 



2774. PROTECTION OF EARTH BY 

 VEIL OF VAPOR Freezing Power of Radia- 

 tion through Dry Air. A freedom of escape, 

 similar to that from bodies of vapor at 

 great elevations, would occur at the earth's 

 surface generally were the aqueous vapor 

 removed from the air above it ; for the great 

 body of the atmosphere is a practical 

 vacuum as regards the transmission of radi- 

 ant heat. The withdrawal of the sun from 

 any region over which the atmosphere is 

 dry must be followed by quick refrigeration. 

 The removal, for a single summer night, of 

 the aqueous vapor from the atmosphere 

 which covers England would be attended 

 by the destruction of every plant which a 



freezing temperature could kill. The moon 

 would be rendered entirely uninhabitable 

 by beings like ourselves through the oper- 

 ation of this single cause. With a radiation 

 uninterrupted by aqueous vapor the differ- 

 ence between her monthly maxima and mini- 

 ma must be enormous. The winters of Tibet 

 are almost unendurable. Witness how the 

 isothermal lines dip from the north into 

 Asia, in winter, as a proof of the low tem- 

 perature of this region. Humboldt has 

 dwelt upon the " frigorific power " of the 

 central portions of this continent, and con- 

 troverted the idea that it was to be ex- 

 plained by reference to the elevation, there 

 being vast expanses of country, not much 

 above the sea-level, with an exceedingly low 

 temperature. But not knowing the influence 

 which we are now studying, Humboldt, I 

 imagine, omitted the most potent cause of 

 the cold. The refrigeration at night is ex- 

 treme because the air is dry. In Sahara, 

 where " the soil is fire and the wind is 

 flame," the cold at night is often painful 

 to bear. TYNDALL Heat a Mode of Motion, 

 lect. 13, p. 385. (A., 1900.) 



2775. PROTECTION OF 'LABOR Nat- 

 ural Laws Inadequate Positive Enactments 

 Needed The Old English Apprenticeship. 

 And now for the first time appeared some 

 of the consequences of gregarious labor un- 

 der the working of natural laws, and under 

 no restrictions from positive institution. 

 The mill-owners collected as apprentices 

 boys and girls, and youths and men, and 

 women, of all ages. In very many cases no 

 provision adequate, or even decent, was pro- 

 vided for their accommodation. The hours 

 of labor were excessive. The ceaseless and 

 untiring agency of machines kept no reckon- 

 ing of the exhaustion of human nerves. The 

 factory system had not been many years in 

 operation when its effects were seen. A 

 whole generation were growing up under 

 conditions of physical degeneracy, of mental 

 ignorance, and of moral corruption. 



The first public man to bring it under the 

 notice of Parliament with a view to remedy 

 was, to his immortal honor, a master manu- 

 facturer, to whom the new industry had 

 brought wealth and power and station. In 

 1802 the elder Sir Robert Peel was the first 

 to introduce a bill to interfere by law with 

 the natural effects of unrestricted compe- 

 tition in human labor. ARGYLL Reign of 

 Law, ch. 7, p. 207. (Burt.) 



2776. PROTECTION OF TREE 

 AGAINST LOSS OF HEAT MM. De la Rive 

 and De Candolle have remarked upon the 

 influence which its feeble conducting power 

 in a lateral direction must exert, in preserv- 

 ing within a tree the warmth which it ac- 

 quires from the soil. But Nature has gone 

 farther and clothes the tree with a sheath- 

 ing of worse conducting material than the 

 wood itself, even in its worst direction [viz., 

 the bark]. TYNDALL Heat a Mode of Mo- 

 tion, lect. 9, p. 253. (A., 1900.) 



