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SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Science 



construction may accordingly be said to 

 mark the ne plus ultra of effort in one 

 direction, and the beginning of its conver- 

 sion towards another. It became thence- 

 forward more and more obvious that the 

 conditions of observation must be amelio- 

 rated before any added efficacy could be 

 given to it. The full effect of an uncertain 

 climate in nullifying optical improvements 

 was recognized, and the attention of as- 

 tronomers began to be turned toward the 

 advantages offered by more tranquil and 

 more translucent skies. CLEBKE History of 

 Astronomy, pt. i, ch. 6, p. 148. (Bl., 1893.) 



2980. SCIENCE DESTROYING IDOL- 

 ATRY Sun-worship Impossible Mind Alone 

 Adorable. Has not science, for example, 

 even in these last few years, rendered forever 

 impossible one of the oldest and most nat- 

 ural of the idolatries of the world? It has 

 disclosed to us the physical constitution of 

 the sun that great heavenly body which is 

 one of the chief proximate causes of all that 

 we see and enjoy on earth, and which has 

 seemed most naturally the very image of 

 the Godhead to millions of the human race. 

 We now know the sun to be simply a very 

 large globe of solid and of gaseous matter, 

 in a state of fierce and flaming incandes- 

 cence. No man can worship a ball of fire, 

 however big, nor can he feel grateful to it, 

 nor love it, nor adore it, even tho its beams 

 be to him the very light of life. Neither in 

 it nor in the mere physical forces of which 

 it is the center can we see anything ap- 

 proaching to the rank and dignity of even 

 the humblest human heart. " What know 

 we greater than the soul? " It is only when 

 we come to think of the coordination and 

 adjustment of these physical forces as part 

 of the mechanism of the heavens it is only, 

 in short, when we recognize the mental . . . 

 element, that the universe becomes glorious 

 and intelligible, as indeed a cosmos a sys- 

 tem of order and beauty adapted to the 

 various ends which we see actually attained, 

 and to a thousand others which we can 

 only guess. ARGYLL Unity of Nature, ch. 8, 

 p. 183. (Burt.) 



2981. SCIENCE DOES NOT CON- 

 TROL ACTIVITIES Logic and Reasoning- 

 Ethics and Conduct. The science of logic 

 never made a man reason rightly, and the 

 science of ethics (if there be such a thing) 

 never made a man behave rightly. The 

 most such sciences can do is to help us to 

 catch ourselves up and check ourselves, if 

 we start to reason or to behave wrongly, 

 and to criticize ourselves more articulately 

 after we have made mistakes. A science 

 only lays down lines within which the rules 

 of the art must fall, laws which the follower 

 of the art must not transgress; but what 

 particular thing he shall positively do with- 

 in those lines is left exclusively to his own 

 genius. .TAMES Talks to Teachers, ch. 1, p. 

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



2982. SCIENCE DOES NOT DISDAIN 

 THE KITCHEN Meat Cooked at Lower Tem- 

 perature. At Munich water boils at 209% 

 (on account of its elevation), while in Lon- 

 don the boiling-point is 212. "Yet nobody, 

 I believe, ever perceived that boiled meat 

 was less done at Munich than at London. 

 But if meat may without the least difficulty 

 be cooked with a heat of 209% at Munich, 

 why should it not be possible to cook it with 

 the same degree of heat in London? If this 

 can be done in London (which, I think, can 

 hardly admit of a doubt), then it is evident 

 that the process of cookery which is called 

 boiling may be performed in water which 

 is not boiling hot." COUNT RUMFORD, quo- 

 ted by WILLIAMS in Chemistry of Cookery, 

 eh. 2," p. 16. (A. 1900.) 



2983. SCIENCE, ECONOMIC VALUE 

 OF Pasteur Saves Silk Culture of France. 

 If also you will read the account ... of 

 Pasteur's researches into the nature and 

 cause of the great silkworm disease, known 

 as " pebrine," which decimates that insect 

 species as cholera slays its human thousands, 

 you will discover how a zoological study 

 saved the commercial prosperity of France. 

 Prior to Pasteur's researches the silkworms 

 died in multitudes from the mysterious 

 epidemic, and blank ruin stared the silk- 

 growers and -cultivators in the face. When, 

 however, by careful study of the causes and 

 conditions of the disease, Pasteur had made 

 himself master of the situation, and had 

 found that a minute plant-organism, propa- 

 gating itself within the bodies of the silk- 

 worms and readily conveyed from one to 

 the other, was the cause of the disorder, 

 his countrymen fully realized the truth of 

 the proverb that " knowledge is power," and 

 that to scientific research was due the sal- 

 vation of their commerce and the rescue of 

 their happiness and prosperity. ANDREW 

 WILSON Science-Culture for the Masses, p. 

 32. (Hum., 1888.) 



2984. SCIENCE FAVORS SIMPLIC- 

 ITY Plain Language Required by Royal So- 

 ciety. It [the Royal Society in time of 

 Charles II.] " exacted from all its members 

 a close, naked, natural way of speaking, 

 positive expressions, clear senses, a native 

 easiness, bringing all things as near the 

 mathematical plainness as they can, and 

 preferring the language of artisans, coun- 

 trymen, and merchants before that of wits 

 or scholars." Thence sprang that require- 

 ment which enters into all highly developed 

 modern systems of patent law, that a speci- 

 fication shall not be addressed to the erudite 

 and learned, but shall be written in such 

 full, clear, and exact terms that any person 

 skilled in the art to which it nearest re- 

 lates shall be able to understand it and put 

 it in practise. In a word, the Royal Society 

 completely revolutionized didactic and tech- 

 nical writing and the mode of expressing 

 scientific thought, and thereby did enough, 

 had it immediately afterwards gone out of 



