605 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Science 



are thus utterly powerless to conceive or 

 comprehend the idea of an Infinite Being, 

 almighty, all-knowing, omnipresent, and 

 eternal, of whose inscrutable purpose the 

 material universe is the unexplained mani- 

 festation. Science is in presence of the old, 

 old mystery; the old, old questions are 

 asked of her : " Canst thou by searching 

 find out God? canst thou find out the Al- 

 mighty unto perfection? It is as high as 

 heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than 

 hell; what canst thou know?" (Job xi, 7.) 

 And science answers these questions as they 

 were answered of old : " As touching the Al- 

 mighty, we cannot find him out" (Job 

 xxxvii, 23 ) . PROCTOR Our Place among In- 

 finities, p. 34. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



2991. SCIENCE, INSTRUCTION IN 



Progress of Germany through Scientific 

 Education. If we investigate more closely 

 the causes of the wonderful strides which 

 Germany has made in all directions, we 

 shall find that it is not due to the mystified 

 and inexplicable ponderous phrases of their 

 philosophers, nor to the beautiful and de- 

 scriptive verses of their poets, nor yet to the 

 system of federation and the great victories 

 due to their statesmen and warriors. On 

 the other hand, we will find that this prog- 

 ress is due directly to the system of instruc- 

 tion in science, which during the last hun- 

 dred years has permeated all parts of the 

 German Empire, dominating the faculties of 

 its universities and absorbing all the ener- 

 gies of its technical schools. And among 

 the sciences whose teachings have made this 

 great progress possible chemistry easily 

 stands at the head. 



Directly springing from the instruction 

 given in the universities and technical 

 schools have grown the great industries 

 which have pushed the German people to the 

 forefront in many of the leading pursuits of 

 civilized life. WILEY Relations of Chemis- 

 try to Industrial Progress (Address at Pur- 

 due University, Lafayette, Ind., 1896, p. 16). 



2992. SCIENCE IS EXACT, SYSTEM- 

 ATIZED KNOWLEDGE Material for Sci- 

 ence Gained Even by Savages. Science is 

 exact, regular, arranged knowledge. Of 

 common knowledge savages and barbarians 

 have a vast deal, indeed the struggle of life 

 could not be carried on without it. The 

 rude man knows much of the properties of 

 matter, how fire burns and water soaks, the 

 heavy sinks and the light floats, what stone 

 will serve for the hatchet and what wood for 

 its handle, which plants are food and which 

 are poison, what are the habits of the ani- 

 mals that he hunts or that may fall upon 

 him. He has notions how to cure, and much 

 better notions how to kill. In a rude way 

 he is a physicist in making fire, a chemist 

 in cooking, a surgeon in binding up wounds, 

 a geographer in knowing his rivers and 

 mountains, a mathematician in counting on 

 his fingers. All this is knowledge, and it 

 was on these foundations that science proper 



began to be built up, when the art of writing 

 had come in and society had entered on the 

 civilized stage. TYLOR Anthropology, ch. 

 13, p. 309. (A., 1899.) 



2993. SCIENCE JUSTIFIES PRAC- 

 TICAL SAGACITY -Solidification of Alpine 

 Snow. Upon the wall of rock was placed a 

 second wall of snow, which dwindled to a 

 pure knife-edge at the top. It was white, 

 of very fine grain, and a little moist. How 

 to pass this snow catenary I knew not, for 

 I did not think a human foot could trust it- 

 self upon so frail a support. Bennen's prac- 

 tical sagacity, however, came into play. He 

 tried the snow by squeezing it with his foot, 

 and to my astonishment began to cross it. 

 Even after the pressure of his feet the space 

 he had to stand on did not exceed a hand- 

 breadth. I followed him, exactly as a boy 

 walking along a horizontal pole, with toes 

 turned outwards. Right and left the preci- 

 pices were appalling. We reached the op- 

 posite rock, and an earnest smile rippled 

 over Bennen's countenance as he turned 

 towards me. He knew that he had done a 

 daring thing, tho not a presumptuous one. 

 " Had the snow," he said, " been less perfect, 

 I should not have thought of attempting it; 

 but I knew after I had set my foot upon the 

 ridge that we might pass without fear." 



It is quite surprising what a number of 

 things the simple observation made by Fara- 

 day in 1846 [see REGELATION] enables us to 

 explain. Bennen's instinctive act is justi- 

 fied by theory. The snow was fine in grain, 

 pure, and moist. When pressed, the attach- 

 ments of its granules were innumerable, and 

 their perfect cleanness enabled them to freeze 

 together with a maximum energy. It was 

 this freezing which gave the mass its sus- 

 taining power. TYNDALL Hours of Exercise 

 in the Alps, ch. 9, p. 99. (A., 1898.) 



2994. SCIENCE, MODERN, IS PRAC- 

 TICAL Bacteriology Studies Prevention of 

 Disease Life-and-Death Battles under the 

 Microscope. The object of modern bacteri- 

 ology is not merely to accumulate tested 

 facts of knowledge, nor only to learn the 

 truth respecting the biology and life-history 

 of bacteria. These are most important 

 things from a scientific point of view. But 

 they are also a means to an end; that end 

 is the prevention of preventable diseases 

 and the treatment of any departure from 

 health. In a science not a quarter of a cen- 

 tury old much has already been accom- 

 plished in this direction. The knowledge 

 acquired of, and the secrets learned from, 

 these tiny vegetable cells, which have such 

 potentiality for good or evil, have been, in 

 some degree, turned against them. When 

 we know what favors their growth and vi- 

 tality and virulence, we know something of 

 the physical conditions which are inimical 

 to their life; when we know how to grow 

 them, we also know how to kill them. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 9, p. 322. (G. P. P., 

 1899.) 



