587 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Results 



evelations 



tion hold of man ? . This was the obvious 

 inference which the materialism of the sev- 

 enteenth and eighteenth centuries drew from 

 Descartes's principles. WUNDT Psychology, 

 lect. 1, p. 5. (Son. & Co., 1896.) 



29O2. Indefatigable Pa- 

 tience Rewarded Quest in One Line Leads 

 to Discovery of a Different Kind. Indeed, 

 Schwabe himself was far from anticipating 

 the discovery which fell to his share. He 

 compared his fortune to that of Saul, who, 

 seeking his father's asses, found a kingdom. 

 For the hope which inspired his early reso- 

 lution lay in quite another direction. His 

 patient ambush was laid for a possible in- 

 tramercurial planet, which, he thought, must 

 sooner or later betray its existence in cross- 

 ing the face of the sun. He took, however, 

 the most effectual measures to secure what- 

 ever new knowledge might be accessible. 

 During forty-three years his " imperturbable 

 telescope " never failed ( weather and health 

 permitting) to bring in its daily report as 

 to how many, or if any, spots were visible 

 on the sun's disk, the information obtained 

 being day by day recorded on a simple and 

 unvarying system. In 1843 he made his 

 first announcement of a probable decennial 

 period [of sun-spots]. CLERKE History of 

 Astronomy, pt. ii, ch. 1, p. 156. (BL, 1893.) 



29O3. Machinery Improv- 

 ing Weeds Difficulty of Cleansing Wheat 

 Increased. L. H. Dewey, in the Year-book 

 of the Department of Agriculture for the 

 year 1896, p. 276, says: "Cockle-seeds are 

 normally somewhat smaller than wheat- 

 grains. In some parts of the Northwest, 

 where wheat for sowing has been cleaned 

 year after year by steam thrashers, all the 

 cockle-seeds except the largest ones have 

 been removed, and these have been sown un- 

 til a large-seeded strain has been bred which 

 is very difficult to separate from the wheat." 

 BEAL Seed Dispersal, ch. 8, p. 81. (G. & 

 Co., 1898.) 



29O4. RESULTS, UNNOTICED, OF 

 QUIET, PERSISTENT ACTION Thermal 

 Springs Bring Material from Depths of the 

 Earth. Nor are thermal springs by any 

 means ineffective agents in bringing ma- 

 terial from the interior of the earth's crust 

 and depositing it at the surface. The Bath 

 spring contains various saline substances, 

 principally sulfates and chlorids, in solu- 

 tion in its waters. These are quietly car- 

 ried by rivers to the sea, and are lost to 

 our view. The spring has certainly main- 

 tained its present condition since the time 

 of the Romans, and I find that if the solid 

 materials brought from the interior of the 

 earth during the last 2,000 years had been 

 collected they would form a solid cone equal 

 in height to Monte Nuovo. Yet we usually 

 regard the Campi Phlegrsei as a powerfully 

 active volcanic district, and the subterra- 

 nean action in our own country as quite 

 unworthy of notice. JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 8, 

 p. 219. (A., 1899.) 



2905. REVELATION ALLOWS ROOM 



FOR NATURAL LAW "The Dust of the 

 Ground." But what of revelation ? Are its 

 history and doctrines incompatible with the 

 belief that God uniformly acts through the 

 use of means? The narrative of creation 

 is given to us in abstract only, and is told 

 in two different forms, both having appar- 

 ently for their main, perhaps their exclusive, 

 object the presenting to our conception the 

 personal agency of a living God. Yet this 

 narrative indicates, however slightly, that 

 room is left for the idea of a material proc- 

 ess. " Out of the dust of the ground " 

 that is, out of the ordinary elements of Na- 

 ture was that body formed which is still up- 

 held and perpetuated by organic forces act- 

 ing under the rules of law. Nothing which 

 science has discovered or can discover is 

 capable of traversing that simple narrative. 

 ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 1, p. 16. 

 (Burt.) 



2906. REVELATION OF GOD IN 

 NATURE It is a noble object that invites 

 us to these annual gatherings. Leaving the 

 broils of the world to others, we come to 

 contemplate together the teachings of God 

 in Nature. We come with faith in that 

 word which is written around and within 

 us, believing in the truthfulness of the reve- 

 lation, and knowing that he who approaches 

 it with an inquiring, teachable spirit, ever 

 wakeful to the still, small voice, and forget- 

 ful of ambitious self, shall find the truth, 

 and feel its benign influence. We aim to 

 decipher some new words in the volume of 

 Nature, that we may learn the will of Him 

 who has ordered all things well, and compre- 

 hend more fully his laws in the government 

 of the universe. DANA Address as Presi- 

 dent of the Association for 1854 (Proceed- 

 ings of the Amer. Assoc. for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, 1855, vol. ix, p. 1 ) . 



2907. REVELATION OF THE UN- 

 KNOWN Depths of Sea Till Lately Unex- 

 plored. The bottom of the deep sea was un- 

 til quite recently one of the terra? incogni- 

 tcB. It was regarded by most persons, when 

 it entered into their minds to consider it 

 at all, as one of those regions about which 

 we do not know anything, never shall know 

 anything, and do not want to know any- 

 thing. HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, 

 pref., p. 7. (A., 1894.) 



2908. REVELATIONS OF THE SPEC- 

 TROSCOPE Stars Proved To Be Suns Min- 

 erals Found in the Stars Unity of the 

 Universe Stars and Nebula? Discrimi- 

 nated. The immediate effect of the appli- 

 cation of the spectroscope to the stars was 

 very striking. The supposition that they 

 were suns became a certainty, since they 

 gave spectra similar in character and often 

 very closely resembling in detail that of 

 our sun. Aldebaran is one of the most sun- 

 like stars, being yellow in color and pos- 

 sessing lines which indicate most of the 

 elements found in the sun. White stars, 



