Repair 

 Respiration 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



582 



of repair, yet repair is in progress ; and tho 

 during sleep repair is in excess of waste, 

 yet some waste is necessitated by the carry- 

 ing-on of certain never-ceasing functions. 

 The organs of these never-ceasing functions 

 furnish, indeed, the most conclusive proofs 

 of the simultaneity of repair and waste. 

 Day and night the heart never stops beating, 

 but only varies in the rapidity and vigor of 

 its beats, and hence the loss of substance 

 which its contractions from moment to mo- 

 ment entail must from moment to moment 

 be made good. Day and night the lungs 

 dilate and collapse, and the muscles which 

 make them do this must therefore be kept 

 in a state of integrity by a repair which 

 keeps pace with waste, or which alternately 

 falls behind and gets in advance of it' to a 

 very slight extent. SPENCEK Biology, pt. ii, 

 ch. 4, p. 216. (A., 1900.) 



2875. REPOSE IS DEATH Knowl- 

 edge and Progress from Action. Some years 

 ago I found myself in discussion with a 

 friend who entertained the notion that the 

 general tendency of things in this world 

 is towards equilibrium, the result of which 

 would be peace and blessedness to the human 

 race. My notion was that equilibrium 

 meant not peace and blessedness, but death. 

 No motive power is to be got from heat, 

 save during its fall from a higher to a lower 

 temperature, as no power is to be got from 

 water save during its descent from a higher 

 to a lower level. Thus also life consists, 

 not in equilibrium, but in the passage to- 

 wards equilibrium. ... In times of 

 strife and commotion w r e may long for 

 peace, but knowledge and progress are the 

 fruits of action. TYNDALL New Fragments, 

 p. 10. (A., 1897.) 



2876. REPOSE SUCCEEDING 

 STRESS AND STRAIN Quiet Hills the Re- 

 mains of Once Vast Volcanoes The British 

 Isles Volcanic. In Devonian or Old Red 

 Sandstone times, volcanic activity was re- 

 newed with fresh violence upon that part of 

 the earth's surface now occupied by the 

 British Islands. Along the line which now 

 forms the Grampians there rose a series 

 of volcanoes of the very grandest dimen- 

 sions. Ben Nevis, and many others among 

 the higher Scotch mountains, have been 

 carved by denudation from the hard masses 

 of granite, quartz-felsite, and other Plutonic 

 rocks which formed the/ central cores of 

 these ancient volcanic piles. The remains 

 of the great lava-sheets and of the masses 

 of volcanic agglomerate ejected from these 

 grand Devonian volcanoes make up hill 

 ranges of no mean altitude. JUDD Volca- 

 noes, ch. 10, p. 274. (A., 1899.) 



2877. REPOSE SUGGESTED BY 

 ASPECT OF STARS Vast and Swift Motion 

 the Contrasted Fact. The motions taking 

 place within the star-system are also al- 

 together amazing when rightly apprehended. 

 Contemplating the stars on a still night, 



the idea of infinite repose is suggested by 

 their serenity of aspect. Judging the stars 

 again by the ordinary tests of motion, the 

 astronomers of old had abundant reason to 

 regard them as the very emblems of fixity. 

 But in the light of modern astronomical re- 

 search, we have this lesson forced upon 

 us, that every one of these bright orbs, and 

 all the millions that are unseen save by tele- 

 scop ically strengthened vision, are urging 

 their w r ay so swiftly through space that 

 the most rapid motions familiar to us must 

 be regarded as absolute rest by comparison. 

 We know with what startling rapidity an 

 express train rushes past a quiet country 

 station. In its swift motion and heavy 

 mass it seems the embodiment of might and 

 energy. Yet the swiftest express train moves 

 but at the rate of about one mile in a min- 

 ute of time, and its bulk is utterly insignifi- 

 cant compared with that of the smallest 

 member of the solar system. What incon- 

 ceivable energy must we recognize, then, in 

 the motion of our sun through space, at a 

 rate of hundreds of miles per minute, the 

 whole of his attendant family (each member 

 of which is traveling rapidly around him) 

 accompanying him in his swift rush through 

 the interstellar depths ! Yet even this won- 

 derful energy of motion seems little when 

 compared with the flight of Sirius, an orb 

 a thousand times larger than the sun, and 

 traveling many times more swiftly. And 

 we have abundant reasons for believing that 

 amongst the stars revealed by powerful 

 telescopes there are thousands as large as 

 Sirius, and millions as large as our sun 

 all with their attendant systems speed- 

 ing with inconceivable rapidity on their 

 several courses! PROCTOR Our Place among 

 Infinities, p. 232. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



2878. REPRODUCTION OF BAC- 

 TERIA Almost Incredible Fertility Checks 

 upon Their Increase. Their minute size 

 would make them harmless enough if it 

 were not for an extraordinary power of 

 multiplication. This power of growth and 

 division is almost incredible. Some of the 

 species which have been carefully watched 

 under the microscope have been found un- 

 der favorable conditions to grow so rapidly 

 as to divide every half-hour or even less. 

 The number of offspring that would result 

 in the course of twenty-four hours at this 

 rate is of course easily computed. In one 

 day each bacterium would produce over 16,- 

 500,000 descendants, and in two days about 

 281,500,000,000. It has been further cal- 

 culated that these 281,500,000,000 would 

 form about a solid pint of bacteria and 

 weigh about a pound. At the end of the 

 third day the total descendants would 

 amount to 47,000,000,000,000, and would 

 weigh about 16,000,000 pounds. Of course 

 these numbers have no significance, for they 

 are never actual or even possible numbers. 

 Long before the offspring reach even into 

 the millions their rate of multiplication is 



