Results. 

 Revelations 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



586 



merit from certain trees, which has seeds 

 that must be transported by certain birds, 

 and which has flowers with separate sexes 

 absolutely requiring the agency of certain 

 insects to bring pollen from one flower 

 to the other, it is equally preposterous to 

 account for the structure of this parasite, 

 with its relations to several distinct organic 

 beings, by the effects of external conditions, 

 or of habit, or of the volition of the plant 

 itself. DARWIN Origin of Species, int., p. 3. 

 (Burt.) 



2897. RESULTS OF DISTANT 



CAUSES Coal Deposits. We find in certain 

 localities subterranean deposits of coal, con- 

 sisting of vegetable matter, formerly drifted 

 into seas and lakes. These seas and lakes 

 have since been filled up, the lands where- 

 on the forests grew have disappeared or 

 changed their form, the rivers and currents 

 which floated the vegetable masses can no 

 longer be traced, and the plants belonged 

 to species which for ages have passed 

 away from the surface of our planet. Yet 

 the commercial prosperity and numerical 

 strength of a nation may now be mainly 

 dependent on the local distribution of fuel 

 determined by that ancient state of things. 

 LYELL Principles of Geology, ch. 1, p. 2. 

 (A., 1854.) 



2898. RESULTS OUTREACHING 

 NARROW LIMITS The Mediterranean in 

 History True Conception of Plato. Plato, 

 in his *' Phaedo," describes the narrow limits 

 of the Mediterranean in a manner that ac- 

 cords with the spirit of enlarged cosmical 

 views. " We, who inhabit the region extending 

 from Phasis to the Pillars of Hercules, occupy 

 only a small portion of the earth," he writes, 

 " where we have settled ourselves round the 

 inner sea like ants or frogs round a swamp." 

 This narrow basin, on the borders of which 

 Egyptian, Phenician, and Hellenic nations 

 flourished and attained to a high degree of 

 civilization, is the point from which the 

 most important historical events have pro- 

 ceeded, no less than the colonization of vast 

 territories in Africa and Asia, and those 

 maritime expeditions which have led to the 

 discovery of the whole western hemisphere 

 of the globe. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. 

 ii, p. 119. (H., 1897.) 



2899. RESULTS, SECONDARY, MOST 

 PERNICIOUS Bacteria Poison by Their 

 Products Toxins Ptomaines. From the 

 careful study of a number of epidemics due 

 to food poisoning, this patient observer [Dr. 

 Ballard] was able, without the aid of mod- 

 ern bacteriology, to arrive at a simple prin- 

 ciple which must not be forgotten. Food 

 poisoning is due either to bacteria them- 

 selves or to their products, which are con- 

 tained in the substance of the food. In cases 

 of the first kind, bacteria gaining entrance 

 to the human alimentary canal, set up their 

 specific changes and produce their toxins, 

 and by o doing in course of time bring 



about a diseased condition, with its conse- 

 quent symptoms. On the other hand, if the 

 products, sometimes called ptomaines, are 

 ingested as such, the symptoms set up by 

 their action in the body tissues appear ear- 

 lier. From these facts Dr. Ballard deduced 

 the simple principle that if there is no in- 

 cubation period, or at all events a compara- 

 tively short space of time between eating 

 the poisoned food and the advent of disease, 

 the agents of the disease are products of 

 bacteria. If, on the other hand, there is an 

 incubation period, the agents are probably 

 bacteria. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 6, p. 176. 

 (G. P. P., 1899.) 



29OO. RESULTS UNINTENDED 



Bradley Herschel Fraunhofer Colum- 

 bus. This method of measuring the distance 

 of the stars by the effect of perspective due 

 to the annual displacement of the earth had 

 already been divined by the astronomers of 

 the last century, and in particular by Brad- 

 ley, who, in attempting to measure the dis- 

 tance of the stars by observations made at 

 intervals of six months, found another thing. 

 Instead of discovering the distance of the 

 stars, which was the object of his obser- 

 vations, he discovered a very important op- 

 tical phenomenon the aberration of light, 

 an effect produced by the combination of 

 the velocity of light with the earth's motion 

 in space. His case was similar to that of 

 William Herschel, who, in searching for the 

 parallax of stars by comparisons between 

 bright stars and their near companions, 

 found the double-star systems; or, like 

 Fraunhofer, who, in seeking the limits of 

 the colors of the solar spectrum, found the 

 rays of absorption, the study of which 

 founded spectrum analysis. The history of 

 the sciences shows us that discoveries have 

 very often been made by researches which 

 are only indirectly related to them. In at- 

 tempting to reach by the west the eastern 

 frontiers of Asia, Christopher Columbus dis- 

 covered the New World. He might not have 

 discovered it, and he might not have looked 

 for it, if he had known the true distance 

 from Portugal to Kamchatka. FLAMMARI- 

 ON Popular Astronomy, bk. vi, ch. 5, p. 594. 

 (A.) 



29O1. Descartes Support- 

 ing Materialism Animals as Automata 

 Why Not Man the Same? When Descartes 

 denied mind to animals, on the ground that 

 the essence of mind consists in thought, and 

 man is the only thinking being, he could 

 have little imagined that this proposition 

 would do as much as the strictly mechanical 

 views which he represented in natural phi- 

 losophy to further the doctrines which are 

 the direct opposite of the spiritualism which 

 he taught the doctrines of modern mate- 

 rialism. If animals are natural automata, 

 and if all the phenomena which general 

 belief refers to sensation, feeling, and will 

 are the result of purely mechanical condi- 

 tions, why should not the same explana- 



