569 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Purpose 

 Qualifications 



insects? Instead of building further in the. 

 projected direction they bent the comb round 

 at the extreme point, and carried it at a 

 right angle towards one of the inner sides 

 of the hive which was not covered with 

 glass, and there fastened it. The form and 

 dimensions of the cells must necessarily have 

 been altered thereby, and the arrangement 

 of their work at the angle must have been 

 quite different from the usual. They made 

 the cells of the convex side so much broader 

 than those of the concave that they had 

 a diameter two or three times as great, and 

 yet they managed to join them properly 

 with the others. They also did not wait 

 to bend the comb until they came to the 

 glass itself, but recognized the difficulty be- 

 forehand, which had been interposed by 

 Huber while they were building with a view 

 to overcome the first difficulty. ROMANES 

 Animal Intelligence, ch. 4, p. 177. (A., 

 1899.) 



2 8 O 7 . PURPOSE THE MARK OF MIND 



Theist vs. Atheist and Materialist. The 

 pursuance of future ends and the choice of 

 means for their attainment are the mark 

 and criterion of the presence of mentality 

 in a phenomenon. We all use this test to 

 discriminate between an intelligent and a 

 mechanical performance. We impute no 

 mentality to sticks and stones, because they 

 never seem to move for the sake of anything, 

 but always when pushed, and then indiffer- 

 ently and with no sign of choice. So we 

 unhesitatingly call them senseless. Just 

 so we form our decision upon the deepest 

 of all philosophic problems: Is the Kosmos 

 an expression of intelligence rational in its 

 inward nature, or a brute external fact pure 

 and simple? If we find ourselves, in con- 

 templating it, unable to banish the impres- 

 sion that it is a realm of final purposes, 

 that it exists for the sake of something, we 

 place intelligence at the heart of it and have 

 a religion. If, on the contrary, in survey- 

 ing its irremediable flux, w r e can think of 

 the present only as so much mere mechanical 

 sprouting from the past, occurring with no 

 reference to the future, we are atheists and 

 materialists. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 

 1, p. 8. (H. H. $ Co., 1899.) 



2 808. PURPOSE WROUGHT OUT IN 

 DISCOVERY OF AMERICA The Result of 

 Scientifi-c Thought. Wholly different from 

 the first discovery of the New Continent in 

 the eleventh century, its rediscovery by 

 Christopher Columbus and his explorations 

 of the tropical regions of America have been 

 attended by events of cosmical importance, 

 and by a marked influence on the extension 

 of physical views. Altho the mariners who 

 conducted this great expedition at the end 

 of the fifteenth century were not actuated 

 by the design of attempting to discover a 

 new quarter of the world, and altho it would 

 appear to be proved that Columbus and 

 Amerigo Vespucci died in the firm conviction 

 that they had merely touched on portions 



of Eastern Asia, yet the expedition mani- 

 fested the perfect character of being the 

 fulfilment of a plan sketched in accordance 

 with scientific combinations. The expedition 

 was safely conducted westward, through the 

 gate opened by the Tyrians and Colaeus of 

 Samos, across the immeasurable dark sea, 

 mare tenebrosum, of the Arabian geogra- 

 phers. They strove to reach a goal, with the 

 limits of which they believed themselves 

 acquainted. They were not driven accident- 

 ally thither by storms, as Naddod and Gar- 

 dar had been borne to Iceland, and Gunli- 

 jorn to Greenland. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. 

 ii, pt. ii, p. 238. (H., 1897.) 



2809. PURSUIT OF THE TYPE The 



Struggle of Nature The Ideal of Christian- 

 ity. We have been dealing with Christi- 

 anity at its most mystical point. Mark here 

 once more its absolute naturalness. The pur- 

 suit of the type is just what all Nature is. 

 engaged in. Plant and insect, fish and rep- 

 tile, bird and mammal these in their sev- 

 eral spheres are striving after the type. To 

 prevent its extinction, to ennoble it, to peo- 

 ple earth and sea and sky with it this is. 

 the meaning of the struggle for life. And 

 this is our life to pursue the type, to popu- 

 late the world with it. DRUMMOND Natural 

 Law in the Spiritual World, essay 8, p. 279. 

 (H. Al.) 



20 1O. PUTREFACTION IMPOSSIBLE 

 IN GERMLESS AIR Experiments of Schwann. 

 Schwann placed flesh in a flask filled to 

 one-third of its capacity with water, sterilized 

 the flask by boiling, and then supplied it for 

 months with calcined air. Throughout this 

 time there appeared no mold, no infusoria,, 

 no putrefaction; the flesh remained unal- 

 tered, while the liquid continued as clear 

 as it w r as immediately after boiling. 

 Schwann then varied his experimental ar- 

 gument, with no alteration in the result. 

 His final conclusion was that putrefaction 

 is due to decompositions of organic matter 

 attendant on the multiplication therein of 

 minute organisms. These organisms were 

 derived not from the air, but from some- 

 thing contained in the air, which was de- 

 stroyed by a sufficiently high temperature. 

 TYNDALL Floating Matter of the Air, p. 

 282. (A., 1895.) 



2811. QUALIFICATIONS OF ARABS 

 FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH-The Arabs 

 possessed remarkable. qualifications alike for 

 appropriating to themselves, and again dif- 

 fusing abroad, the seeds of knowledge and 

 general intercourse, from the Euphrates to 

 the Guadalquivir, and to the south of Cen- 

 tra] Africa. They exhibited an unparalleled 

 mobility of character, and a tendency to 

 amalgamate with the nations whom they 

 conquered, wholly at variance with the re- 

 pelling spirit of the Israel itish castes, while, 

 at the same time, they adhered to their na- 

 tional character, and the traditional recol- 

 lections of their original home, notwith- 



