Subsidence 

 Summation 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



664 



related to have occurred at Lisbon during the 

 catastrophe [the earthquake of 1755] was 

 the subsidence of a new quay, built entirely 

 of marble at an immense expense. A great 

 concourse of people had collected there for 

 safety, as a spot where they might be beyond 

 the reach of falling ruins; but suddenly the 

 quay sank down with all the people on it, 

 and not one of the dead bodies ever floated 

 to the surface. A great number of boats 

 and small vessels anchored near it, all full 

 of people, were swallowed up as in a whirl- 

 pool. No fragments of these wrecks ever 

 rose again to the surface, and the water in 

 the place where the quay had stood is stated, 

 in many accounts, to be unfathomable; but 

 Whitehurst says he ascertained it to be one 

 hundred fathoms. LYELL Principles of 

 Geology, bk. ii, ch. 29, p. 495. (A., 1854.) 



3284. SUBSISTENCE OF PRIMEVAL 

 IMPULSE The Instinct of Habitation Man 

 Seeks at Once Shelter and Protection. 

 There can be no doubt that the instinct to 

 seek a sheltered nook, open only on one side, 

 into which he may retire and be safe, is in 

 man quite as specific as the instinct of birds 

 to build a nest. It is not necessarily in the 

 shape of a shelter from wet and cold that 

 the need comes before him, but he feels less 

 exposed and more at home when not alto- 

 gether unenclosed than when lying all abroad. 

 Of course the utilitarian origin of this in- 

 instinct is obvious. But to stick to bare 

 facts at present and not to trace origins, 

 we must admit that this instinct now ex- 

 ists, and probably always has existed, since 

 man was man. Habits of the most compli- 

 cated kind are reared upon it. But even 

 in the midst of these habits we see the 

 blind instinct cropping out; as, for example, 

 in the fact that we feign a shelter within 

 a shelter by backing up beds in rooms with 

 their heads against the wall, and never 

 lying in them the other way just as dogs 

 prefer to get under or upon some piece of 

 furniture to sleep, instead of lying in the 

 middle of the room. The first habitations 

 were caves and leafy grottoes, bettered by 

 the hands; and we see children to-day, when 

 playing in wild places, take the greatest 

 delight in discovering and appropriating 

 such retreats and " playing house " there. 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 24, p. 426. 

 (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3285. SUBSTITUTES FOR NAILS, 

 CLAMPS, AND SCREWS AMONG AMER- 

 ICAN INDIANS Fire as a Tool For nails 

 and screws the Western mechanics employed 

 "tree-nails" and all sorts of rope and 

 twine and sinew-cord and rawhide string. 

 They also made excellent glues and cements, 

 from both vegetal and animal substances. 

 For tightening a joint, they knew how to 

 take advantage in the twisting of a rope. 

 The power that can be put into a half-inch 

 sinew-rope, by means of a trusty lever, is 

 very great. The Eskimo bow is thus tight- 

 ened. These mechanics were well versed in 



the use of fire as a tool, excavating and 

 bending wood thereby, and among some 

 tribes the bow was rendered more elastic in 

 this manner. MASON Aboriginal American 

 Mechanics (Memoirs of International Con- 

 gress of Anthropology, p. 74). (Sch. P. C.) 



3286. SUBSTITUTES FOR VISE AND 

 PINCERS Ingenuity of Adaptation. For 

 grasping hot stones the American mechanics 

 used tongs of wood, and in lieu of vises and 

 strong pincers they resorted to the shrinking 

 of vegetable fiber and of rawhide. They made 

 a kind of clamp of two stout bits of wood, 

 wrapped the two ends with spruce-root or 

 rawhide, wet, and allowed it to dry. In 

 this way the parts of a box could be held 

 until they were sewed. MASON Aboriginal 

 American Mechanics (Memoirs of Interna- 

 tional Congress of Anthropology, p. 73). 

 (Sch. P. C.) 



3287. SUBSTITUTION OF FACUL- 

 TIES GIVES ECONOMY OF POWER 



Aids to Memory Dependence on One's In- 

 dividuality. The same result may, in many 

 cases, be achieved by different faculties. A 

 man who can only remember facts should 

 not trouble to try to learn by heart; there 

 are very few cases in which the substance 

 is not sufficient. 



Those who can very easily learn by heart 

 should use concise books, as their tendency 

 will be to learn the words and miss the 

 sense. 



A man who - cannot remember details 

 should try to classify everything, and re- 

 member a general rule for the whole, as 

 French words by the terminations, etc. 



A man who can remember reasons better 

 than anything else should try to find a rea- 

 son for everything, simply as an aid to mem- 

 ory, using a bad reason instead of none 

 at all. 



The artist should make mental pictures 

 of a subject, if not in a position to be able 

 to draw them on paper. An artist's sketch- 

 book often forms an admirable diary that 

 is, directly he looks at the drawings he has 

 made the accompanying circumstances oc- 

 cur to his mind, and those which happened 

 about that time, the names of the friends 

 he was staying with, and the amusements 

 they indulged in, all "coming back." 

 ELDRIDGE-GREEN Memory and its Cultiva- 

 tion, pt. ii, p. 275. (A., 1900.) 



3288. SUCCESS AT OUTSET Habit 

 of Achievement Barbarians and Europeans. 

 The need of securing success at the outset 

 is imperative. Failure at first is apt to 

 dampen the energy of all future attempts, 

 whereas past experience of success nerVes 

 one to future vigor. Goethe says to a man 

 who consulted him about an enterprise, but 

 mistrusted his own powers : " Ach ! you need 

 only blow on your hands!" And the remark 

 illustrates the effect on Goethe's spirits of 

 his own habitually successful career. Pro- 

 fessor Baumann, from whom I borrow the 



