577 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Reconstruction 

 lie flection 



observations of the heavenly bodies which 

 gave rise to the science of astronomy. The 

 nation which wrote its name thus largely 

 in the book of civilization dates back into 

 the same period of high antiquity as the 

 Egyptian. TYLOR Anthropology, ch. 1, p. 

 22. (A., 1899.) 



2847. RECORDS OF ANCIENT DEAD 



Histories Self-written in the Rocks. In- 

 deed, the fossil remains of all times tell 

 us almost as much of the physical condi- 

 tion of the world at different epochs as they 

 do of its animal and vegetable population. 

 When Robinson Crusoe first caught sight 

 of the footprint on the sand he saw in it 

 more than the mere footprint, for it spoke 

 to him of the presence of men on his desert 

 island. We walk on the old geological 

 shores, like Crusoe along his beach, and the 

 footprints we find there tell us, too, more 

 than we actually see in them. The crust 

 of our earth is a great cemetery, where the 

 rocks are tombstones on which the buried 

 dead have written their own epitaphs. They 

 tell us not only who they were, and when 

 and where they lived, but much also of the 

 circumstances under which they lived. We 

 ascertain the prevalence of certain physical 

 conditions at special epochs by the presence 

 of animals and plants whose existence and 

 maintenance required such a state of things, 

 more than by any positive knowledge re- 

 specting it. AGASSIZ Geological Sketches, 

 ser. i, ch. 2, p. 30. (H. M. & Co., 1896.) 



2848. RECORDS OF GEOLOGY Com- 



pared with Human Traditions. There is a 

 rabbinical tradition that the sons of Tubal- 

 cain, taught by a prophet of the coming 

 deluge, and unwilling that their father's 

 arts should be lost in it to posterity, erected 

 two obelisks of brass, on which they in- 

 scribed a record of his discoveries, and that 

 thus the learning of the family survived 

 the cataclysm. The flood subsided, and the 

 obelisks, sculptured from pinnacle to base, 

 were found fast fixed in the rock. Now, the 

 twin pyramids of the Old Red Sandstone, 

 with their party-colored bars and their 

 thickly crowded inscriptions, belong to a 

 period immensely more remote than that 

 of the columns of the antediluvians, and 

 they bear a more certain record. MILLER 

 The Old Red Sandstone, ch. 9, p. 172. (Gr. 

 & L., 1851.) 



2849. RED A PREVALENT COLOR 

 IN FAUNA OF THE DEEP SEA The fau- 

 na of the deep sea, . . . taken as a whole, 

 is not characterized by the predominance of 

 any one color. The shades of red occur 

 rather more frequently than they do in the 

 fauna of any other zone or region, but 

 whether this is in any way connected with the 

 fact that red is the complementary color 

 to that of the phosphorescent light, in which 

 many of these animals live, it is at present 

 difficult to say; it is possible that when 

 we have further information concerning the 



colors of the animals living in the deeper 

 parts of the neritic zone another explana- 

 tion may be forthcoming. HICKSON Fauna 

 of the Deep Sea, ch. 4, p. 66. (A., 1894.) 



2 85O. REENFORCEMENT, MUTUAL 



Bacteria Gain Power by Association. The 

 association of organisms ... is ... a 

 fact that is rapidly becoming of the first im- 

 portance in bacteriology. When species were 

 first isolated in pure culture it was found 

 that they behaved somewhat differently un- 

 der differing circumstances. This modifica- 

 tion in function has been attributed to dif- 

 ferences of environment and physical con- 

 ditions. Whilst it is true that such external 

 conditions must have a marked effect upon 

 such sensitive units of protoplasm as bac- 

 teria, it has recently been proved that one 

 great reason why modification occurs in pure 

 artificial cultures is that the species has 

 been isolated from amongst its colleagues 

 and doomed to a separate existence. One of 

 the most abstruse problems in the immedi- 

 ate future of the science of bacteriology is 

 to learn what intrinsic characters there are 

 in species or individuals which act as a 

 basis for the association of organisms for a 

 specific purpose. Some bacteria appear to 

 be unable to perform their regular function 

 without the aid of others. An example of 

 such association is well illustrated in the 

 case of tetanus, for it has been shown that 

 if the bacilli and spores of tetanus alone 

 obtain entrance to a wound the disease may 

 not follow the same course as when with 

 the specific organism the lactic-acid bacillus 

 or the common organisms of suppuration or 

 putrefaction also gain entrance. There is 

 here evidently something gained by associ- 

 ation. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 1, p. 31. (G. 

 P. P., 1899.) 



2851. REFLECTION AND J U D G - 

 MENT SHOWN BY A WASP Securing 

 Facilities of Transportation. Th. Meenan 

 (Proceedings of the Acad. of Nat. Sci., 

 Philadelphia, January 22, 1878) observed 

 a case with Vespa maculata. He saw one of 

 these wasps try in vain to raise from the 

 ground a grasshopper it had killed. When 

 all its efforts proved to be in vain it pulled 

 its prey to a maple-tree, about thirty feet 

 off, mounted it with its prize, and flew away 

 from it. " This," adds the writer, " was 

 more than instinct. It was reflection and 

 judgment, and the judgment was proved to 

 be correct." [It could carry the load when 

 once raised into the air, tho it could not 

 fly up with it.] ROMANES Animal Intelli- 

 gence, ch. 4, p. 197. (A., 1899.) 



2852. REFLECTION AND REFRAC- 

 TION The Two Unite to Make the Rainbow. 

 A beam of solar light falling obliquely 

 upon a rain-drop is refracted on entering 

 the drop. It is in part reflected at the back 

 of the drop, and on emerging it is again 

 refracted. By these two refractions at its 

 entrance and at its emergence the beam of 



