uiisliinr 

 Superstition 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



670 



pecially owing to the vast increase of our 

 smoke - producing manufactories. . . . 

 When this fact is thoroughly realized we 

 shall surely put a stop to such a reckless 

 and wholly unnecessary production of in- 

 jurious smoke and dust. WALLACE The 

 Wonderful Century, ch. 9, p. 84. (D. M. & 

 Co., 1899.) 



3313. SUNSHINE, DURATION OF 



A Sunshine Autograph. For determining 

 the duration of sunshine use is made 

 of a simple apparatus called the sun- 

 shine autograph. Its common form is that 

 of a ball of clear glass set up free, which 

 collects the sun's rays like a burning 

 glass, burning an index in a paper strip 

 fastened behind the globe if the sunshine 

 is bright enough. Since the paper strip 

 is divided into hours it can be easily read 

 when and how long the sun has been shining 

 upon the apparatus. If the duration of sun- 

 shine thus obtained is compared with the 

 length of day, the actual with the possible 

 number of sunny hours, we obtain a number 

 that in fact not only announces during what 

 fraction of the hours of the day the sun 

 was uncovered, but which harmonizes very 

 well with the estimates of the entire 

 cloud-covering. Many an important deduc- 

 tion concerning the thriving as well as the 

 possibility of the improvement of plants, 

 grapes, fruits, beets, etc., for whose develop- 

 ment sunshine is particularly important, can 

 be thus derived. BORNSTEN Leitfaden der 

 Wetterkunde, 1901, p. 58. (Translated for 

 Scientific Side-Lights.) 



3314. SUN-SPOTS EASILY SEEN 



Overlooked by Minds Unprepared to Recog- 

 nize Them. An object of this size [30,000 

 miles] upon the sun's surface can easily be 

 seen without a telescope when the brightness 

 is reduced either by clouds, or nearness to 

 the horizon, or by the use of a shade-glass. 

 At the transit of Venus, in 1882, every one 

 saw the planet readily without telescopic 

 aid. Her apparent diameter was about 67" 

 at the time, which is equivalent to about 

 31,000 miles on the solar surface. Probably 

 a very keen eye would detect a spot meas- 

 uring not more than 23,000 or 24,000 miles. 

 Hardly a year passes, at times when spots 

 are numerous, without furnishing several 

 as large as this, so that it is rather surpri- 

 sing than otherwise that we have not a 

 greater number of sun-spot records in the 

 pretelescopic centuries. The explanation 

 probably lies in two things: the sun is too 

 bright to be often or easily looked at, and 

 when spots were seen they would be likely 

 to be taken for optical illusions rather than 

 realities. YOUNG The Sun, ch. 4, p. 27 

 (A., 1898.) 



3315. SUN-SPOTS, SUPPOSED 

 APERTURES IN SOLAR CLOUDS-Her- 



schel's Theory. Sir William Herschel, rea- 

 soning from terrestrial analogies, was led to 

 look on the spot cavities as apertures 



through a double layer of clouds. He ar- 

 gued that were the solar photosphere of any 

 other nature, it would be past comprehension 

 that vast openings should form, in it, to re- 

 main open for months before they close 

 up again. . . . And because the solar 

 spots present two distinct varieties of light, 

 the faint penumbra and the dark umbra 

 or nucleus, Herschel saw the necessity of 

 assuming that there are two beds of clouds, 

 the outer self-luminous and constituting the 

 true solar photosphere, the inner reflecting 

 the light received from the outer layer, and 

 so shielding the real surface of the sun from 

 the intense light and heat which it would 

 otherwise receive. PROCTOR Other Worlds 

 than Ours, ch. 2, p. 36. (Burt.) 



33 1 6. SUPERFICIALITY OF MATE- 

 RIALISM Science Does Not Include Philos- 

 ophy Eternal Problems behind Phenomena. 

 Nothing is more common than to find men 

 who may be trusted thoroughly on the facts 

 of their own science, who cannot be trusted 

 for a moment on the place which those facts 

 assume in the general system of truth. Phi- 

 losophy must include science; but science 

 does not necessarily include philosophy. 

 There are, and there always have been, some 

 special misconceptions connected with the 

 prosecution of physical research. It is, how- 

 ever, on the surface of things, rather than 

 below it, that the suggestions of material- 

 ism lie thickest to the eye. They abound 

 among the commonest facts which obtrude 

 themselves on our attention in Nature and 

 in human life. When the bursting of some 

 small duct of blood upon the brain is seen 

 to destroy in a moment the mind of man, 

 and to break down all the powers of his 

 intellect and his will, we are in presence 

 of a fact whose significance cannot be in- 

 creased by a million of other facts analogous 

 in kind. Yet on every fresh discovery of a 

 few more such facts there is generally some 

 fresh outbreak of old delusions respecting 

 the forms and the laws of matter as the su- 

 preme realities of the world. But when the 

 new facts have been looked at a little long- 

 er it is always seen that they take their 

 place with others which have been long 

 familiar, and the eternal problems which lie 

 behind all natural phenomena are seen to 

 be unaffected and unchanged. Like the most 

 distant of the fixed stars, they have no 

 parallax. ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 2, p. 

 68. (Burt.) 



3317. SUPERNATURAL, THE, VS. 

 THE SUPERHUMAN True and False Views 

 of Law Classification Is Not Explanation. 

 Theological and philosophical writers fre- 

 quently use the supernatural as synonymous 

 with the superhuman. But of course this is 

 not the sense in which any one can have 

 any difficulty in believing in it. The pow- 

 ers and works of Nature are all superhu- 

 man more than man can account for in 

 their origin more than he can resist in 

 their energy more than he can understand 



