prct m in 

 Speed 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



640 



of any terrestrial element. Apart from the 

 proof of two well-known terrestrial elements, 

 this discovery was of the utmost importance, 

 since it furnished the first unmistakable 

 proof that the cosmical nebulae are not, for 

 the most part, small heaps of fine stars, but 

 that the greater part of the light which they 

 emit is really due to gaseous bodies. HELM- 

 HOLTZ Popular Lectures, lect. 4, p. 152. (L. 

 G. &Co., 1898.) 



3171. SPECULATION CONFIRMED 

 BY OBSERVATION Herschel's Explorations 

 of the Heavens. The purely speculative con- 

 clusions arrived at by Wright, Kant, and 

 Lambert, concerning the general structural 

 arrangement of the universe, and of the dis- 

 tribution of matter in space, have been con- 

 firmed by Sir William Herschel, on the 

 more certain path of observation and meas- 

 urement. That great and enthusiastic, altho 

 cautious, observer was the first to sound 

 the depths of heaven in order to determine 

 the limits and form of the starry stra- 

 tum which we inhabit, and he, too, was the 

 first who ventured to throw the light of in- 

 vestigation upon the relations existing be- 

 tween the position and distance of remote 

 nebulse and our own portion of the sidereal 

 universe. William Herschel, as is well ex- 

 pressed in the elegant inscription on his 

 monument at Upton, broke through the 

 enclosures of heaven (ccelorum perrupit 

 claustra), and, like another Columbus, pene- 

 trated into an unknown ocean, from which 

 he beheld coasts and groups of islands, whose 

 true position it remains for future ages 

 to determine. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. i, p. 

 87. (H., 1897.) 



3172. SPECULATION, GEOLOGICAL 



Supposed Ancient Union of England and 

 France. Whether England was formerly 

 united with France has often been a favor- 

 ite subject of speculation. So early as 1605 

 our countryman, Verstegan, in his " Antiq- 

 uities of the English Nation," observed that 

 many preceding writers had maintained this 

 opinion, but without supporting it by any 

 weighty reasons. He accordingly endeavors 

 himself to confirm it by various arguments, 

 the principal of which are, first, the prox- 

 imity and identity of the composition of the 

 opposite cliffs and shores of Albion and 

 Gallia, which, whether flat and sandy or 

 steep and chalky, correspond exactly with 

 each other; secondly, the occurrence of a 

 submarine ridge, called " our Lady's Sand/' 

 extending from shore to shore at no great 

 depth, and which, from its composition, ap- 

 pears to be the original basis of the isthmus ; 

 thirdly, the identity of the noxious animals 

 in France and England, which could neither 

 have swum across, nor have been intro- 

 duced by man. Thus no one, he says, would 

 have imported wolves, therefore " these 

 wicked beasts did of themselves pass over." 

 He supposes the ancient isthmus to have 

 been about six English miles in breadth, 



composed entirely of chalk and flint, and 

 in some places of no great height above 

 the sea-level. The operation of the waves 

 and tides, he says, would have been more 

 powerful when the straits were narrower, 

 and even now they are destroying cliffs com- 

 posed of similar materials. He suggests the 

 possible cooperation of earthquakes; and 

 when we consider how many submarine for- 

 ests skirt the southern and eastern shores 

 of England, and that there are raised beach- 

 es at many points above the sea-level, con- 

 taining fossil shells of recent species, it 

 seems reasonable to suppose that such up- 

 ward and downward movements, taking 

 place perhaps as slowly as those now in 

 progress in Sweden and Greenland, may 

 have greatly assisted the denuding force of 

 " the ocean stream." LYELL Principles of 

 Geology, bk. ii, ch. 19, p. 315. (A., 1854.) 



3173. SPECULATION, PRECARIOUS- 

 NESS OF Newton Timid There Doubt, Con- 

 jecture, Question. Sir Isaac Newton never 

 went beyond this field [of actual observa- 

 tion] without a reverential impression upon 

 his mind of the precariousness of the ground 

 on which he was standing. On this ground 

 he never ventured a positive affirmation, but, 

 resigning the lofty tone of demonstration, 

 and putting on the modesty of conscious 

 ignorance, he brought forward all he had 

 to say in the humble form of a doubt, or a 

 conjecture, or a question. CHALMERS As- 

 tronomical Discourses, disc. 2, p. 52. (R. 

 Ct., 1848.) 



3174. SPEECH, LOSS OF POWER OF 



Motor Aphasia. Motor aphasia ie neither 

 loss of voice nor paralysis of the tongue or 

 lips. The patient's voice is as strong as 

 ever, and all the innervations of his hypo- 

 glossal and facial nerves, except those nec- 

 essary for speaking, may go on perfectly 

 well. He can laugh and cry, and even sing; 

 but he either is unable to utter any words 

 at all, or a few meaningless stock phrases 

 form his only speech; or else he speaks in- 

 coherently and confusedly, mispronouncing, 

 misplacing, and misusing his words in vari- 

 ous degrees. Sometimes his speech is a mere 

 broth of unintelligible syllables. In cases 

 of pure motor aphasia the patient recognizes 

 his mistakes and suffers acutely from them. 

 Now whenever a patient dies in such a con- 

 dition as this, and an examination of his 

 brain is permitted, it is found that the 

 lowest frontal gyrus is the seat of injury. 

 Broca first noticed this fact in 1861, and 

 since then the gyrus has gone by the name 

 of Broca's convolution. The injury in right- 

 handed people is found on the left hemi- 

 sphere, and in left-handed people on the 

 right hemisphere. JAMES Psychology, vol. 

 i, ch. 2, p. 37. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3175. SPEECH, ONOMATOPCEIC, 

 LIMITATIONS OF Imitative Words Few- 

 Language a System of Arbitrary Signs. 

 When the Englishman and the Australian 



