583 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Repair 

 Respm 



expiration 



checked either by lack of food or by the 

 accumulation of their own excreted prod- 

 ucts, which are injurious to them. But the 

 figures do have interest, since they show 

 faintly what an unlimited power of multi- 

 plication these organisms have, and thus 

 show us that in dealing with bacteria we 

 are dealing with forces of almost infinite 

 extent. CONN Story of Germ Life, ch. 1, p. 

 21. (A., 1900.) 



2879. 



Growth of Yeast 



The Budding of a Plant (Matt, xiii, 33). 

 Budding, division, and spore-formation are 

 the three chief ways in which [bacteria] 

 reproduce their kind. Budding occurs in 

 some kinds of yeast. . . . The capsule 

 of a large or mother-cell shows a slight 

 protrusion outwards, which is gradually en- 

 larged into a daughter-yeast and later on 

 becomes constricted at the neck. Eventually 

 it separates as an individual. The proto- 

 plasm of spores of yeast differs, as Hansen 

 has pointed out, according to their condi- 

 tions of culture. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 1, 

 p. 16. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



288O. RESERVE OF POWER Phys- 

 ical Endurance without Food. On the east- 

 ern end of the ridge [of the Matterhorn] we 

 halted to take a little food; not that I 

 seemed to need it it was the remonstrance 

 of reason rather than the consciousness of 

 physical want that caused me to do so. 



Facts of this kind illustrate the amount 

 of force locked up in the muscles which 

 may be drawn upon without renewal. I 

 had quitted London ill, and when the Mat- 

 terhorn was attacked I was by no means 

 well. In fact, this climb was one of the 

 means adopted to drive the London virus 

 from my blood. The day previous I had 

 taken scarcely any food; and on starting 

 from the cabin half a cup of bad tea, with- 

 out any solid whatever, constituted my 

 breakfast. Still, during the five hours' climb 

 from the cabin to the top of the Matterhorn, 

 tho much below par physically and mentally, 

 I felt neither faint nor hungry. This is an 

 old experience of mine upon the mountains. 

 The Weisshorn, for example, was climbed on 

 six meat lozenges, tho it was a day of nine- 

 teen hours. Possibly this power of long- 

 continued physical effort, without eating, 

 may be a result of bad digestion which deals 

 out stingily, and therefore economically, to 

 the muscles the energy of the food previous- 

 ly consumed. TYNDALL New Fragments, p. 

 491. (A., 1897.) 



2881. 



The Sun's Energy 



Stored in Wood or Coal Operative after Any 

 Lapse of Years. The sun [has] locked up 

 in each tree a store of energy thousands 

 of times greater than that which was spent 

 in merely lifting the trunk from the ground, 

 as we may see by unlocking it again when 

 we burn the tree under the boiler of an 

 engine ; for it will develop a power equal to 

 the lifting of thousands of its kind, if we 



choose to employ it in this way. This is 

 so true that the tree may fall and turn to 

 coal in the soil, and still .keep this energy 

 imprisoned in it keep it for millions of 

 years till the black lump under the furnace 

 gives out, in the whirling spindles of the 

 factory or the turning- wheel of the steam- 

 boat, the energy gathered in the sunshine 

 of the primeval world. LANGLEY New As- 

 tronomy, ch. 3, p. 73. (HTM; & Co.) 



2882. RESISTANCE TO INFECTION 



Some Persons Insusceptible. There is am- 

 ple evidence in support of the fact that not 

 all the persons partaking of infected food 

 suffer equally, and occasionally some escape 

 altogether. We know little or nothing of 

 the causes of such modification in the effect 

 produced. It may be due to other organ- 

 isms, or chemical substances already in the 

 alimentary canal of the individual, or it 

 may be due to some insusceptibility or re- 

 sistance of the tissues. Be that as it may, 

 it is a matter which must not be neglected 

 in estimating the effects of food contami- 

 nated with bacteria or their products. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 6, p. 180. (G. P. P., 

 1899.) 



2883. RESOLVES STRENGTHENED 

 BY ACTION Motor Effects in Brain Endure 

 Practical Opportunity the Fulcrum of 

 Moral Power. Seize the very first possible 

 opportunity to act on every resolution you 

 make, and on every emotional prompting 

 you may experience in the direction of the 

 habits you aspire to gain. It is not in the 

 moment of their forming, but in the moment 

 of their producing motor effects, that re- 

 solves and aspirations communicate the new 

 " set " to the brain. As the author last 

 quoted [Bahnsen] remarks: 



" The actual presence of the practical op- 

 portunity alone furnishes the fulcrum upon 

 which the lever can rest, by means of which 

 the moral will may multiply .its strength 

 and raise itself aloft. He who has no solid 

 ground to press against will never get be- 

 yond the stage of empty gesture-making." 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 4, p. 124. (H. 

 H. & Co., 1S99.) 



2884. RESPIRATION IN RAREFIED 

 AIR Man at Great Heights Wonderful Power 

 of Condor. Ulloa, more than a hundred 

 years ago, expressed his astonishment that 

 the vulture of the Andes could soar at 

 heights where the pressure of the atmos- 

 phere was less than fifteen inches. An opin- 

 ion was at that time entertained, from the 

 analogy of experiments made with the air- 

 pump, that no animal could exist under 

 this slight amount of atmospheric pressure. 

 I have myself . . . seen the barometer 

 fall to 14.85 inches on the Chimborazo; and 

 my friend, M. Gay-Lussac, breathed for a 

 quarter of an hour an atmosphere in which 

 the pressure was only 12.9 inches. It must 

 be admitted that man, when wearied by 

 muscular exertion, finds himself in a state 



