585 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



gespiration 

 esults 



perfect stillness, and apparent rest, in many 

 forms of matter is but the result of a bal- 

 ance or equilibrium maintained between 

 forces of the most tremendous energy, which 

 are ready to burst forth at a moment's no- 

 tice, whe*n the conditions are changed under 

 which that balance is maintained. And this 

 principle, which has become familiar in the 

 case of what are called explosive substances, 

 because of the ease and the certainty with 

 which the balanced forces can be liberated, 

 is a principle which really prevails in the 

 composition of all material substances what- 

 ever, the only difference being that the ener- 

 gies by which their molecules are held to- 

 gether are so held under conditions which 

 are more stable conditions which it is 

 much more difficult to change and condi- 

 tions, therefore, which conceal from us the 

 universal prevalence and power of force in 

 the constitution of the material universe. 

 It is, therefore, distinctly the tendency of 

 science more and more to impress us with 

 the idea of the unlimited duration and in- 

 destructible nature both of matter and of 

 the energies which work in it and upon 

 it. ARGYLL Unity of Nature, ch. 4, p. 80. 

 (Burt.) 



2891. REST, UNREAL Parasitism 

 Not Christian. Whatever rest is provided 

 by Christianity for the children of God, it is 

 certainly never contemplated that it should 

 supersede personal effort. And any rest 

 which ministers to indifference is immoral 

 and unreal it makes parasites and not 

 men. DBUMMOND Natural Law in the Spir- 

 itual World, essay 9, p. 301. (H. Al.) 



2892. RESULT, CpMBINATION TO 



SECURE Force of Association in Memory 

 All Circumstances Must Converge upon Hid- 

 den Thought. The writer of these pages 

 has every year to learn the names of a 

 large number of students who sit in alpha- 

 betical order in a lecture-room. He finally 

 learns to call them by name as they sit in 

 their accustomed places. On meeting one 

 in the street, however, early in the year, the 

 face hardly ever recalls the name, but it 

 may recall the place of its owner in the 

 lecture-room, his neighbors' faces, and con- 

 sequently his general alphabetical position; 

 and then, usually, as the common associate 

 of all these combined data, the student's 

 name surges up in his mind. A father 

 wishes to show to some guests the progress 

 of his rather dull child in kindergarten in- 

 struction. Holding the knife upright on 

 the table, he says, " What do you call that, 

 my boy?" "I calls it a knife, I does," is 

 the sturdy reply, from which the child 

 cannot be induced to swerve by any altera- 

 tion in the form of question, until the 

 father recollecting that in the kindergarten 

 a pencil was used, and not a knife, draws a 

 long one from his pocket, holds it in the 

 same way, and then gets the wished-for an- 

 swer, " I^calls it vertical." All the concomi- 

 tants of the kindergarten experience had to 



recombine their effect before the word " ver- 

 tical " could be reawakened. JAMES Psy- 

 chology, vol. i, ch. 14, p. 568. (H. H. & Co., 

 1899.) 



2893. RESULT, VAST, FROM SMALL 

 EXPERIMENTS Soda from Sea-salt. As a 

 single example out of a thousand, take the 

 manufacture of carbonate of soda from sea- 

 salt, more than 200,000 tons of which, of 

 the value of two millions" sterling, are an- 

 nually made in the alkali works of Great 

 Britain. The salt is first converted into 

 sulfate of soda by the action of sulfuric, 

 acid; the sulfate of soda is then converted 

 into carbonate of soda by being heated with 

 chalk and carbon. This important sub- 

 stance was formerly manufactured from ba- 

 rilla, and the interesting chemical process 

 now employed on so gigantic a scale was 

 the result of an experiment with substances 

 heated in an evaporating-dish by means of 

 a spirit-lamp. LOWE Nature-Studies, p. 1. 

 (Hum., 1888.J 



2894. RESULTS ATTAINED, DUE 

 APPRECIATION OF It is true that our 

 plummet is not long enough to measure the 

 depths of the sea, but that is no reason why 

 it should lose value for us; if it helps us 

 for the time being to avoid the rocks and 

 the sand-banks, that service is great enough. 

 LIEBIG Vorrede zur Thierchemie. (Trans- 

 lated for Scientific Side-Lights.} 



2895. RESULTS, NATURAL TO SEEK 



Return Impression Completes Cycle of Ac- 

 tivity. It would seem only natural to say 

 that, since after acting we normally get 

 some return impression of result, it must 

 be well to let the pupil get such a return 

 impression in every possible case. Never- 

 theless, in schools where examination marks 

 and " standing " and other returns of re- 

 sult are concealed, the pupil is frustrated 

 of this natural termination of the cycle of 

 his activities, and often suffers from the 

 sense of incompleteness and uncertainty; 

 and there are persons who defend this sys- 

 tem as encouraging the pupil to work for 

 the work's sake, and not for extraneous re- 

 ward. Of course, here, as elsewhere, con- 

 crete experience must prevail over psycho- 

 logical deduction. But, so far as our psy- 

 chological deduction goes, it would suggest 

 that the pupil's eagerness to know how well 

 he does is in the line of his normal com- 

 pleteness of function, and should never be 

 balked except for very definite reasons in- 

 deed. JAMES Talks to Teachers, ch. 5, p. 

 37. (H. H. & Co., 1900.) 



2896. RESULTS NOT ACCOUNTED 



FOR Structure of Organic Beings Not Ex- 

 plained by External Conditions. It is pre- 

 posterous to attribute to mere external con- 

 ditions the structure, for instance, of the 

 woodpecker, with its feet, tail, beak, and 

 tongue so admirably adapted to catch in- 

 sects under the bark of trees. In the case 

 of the mistletoe, which draws its nourish- 



