Sustenance 

 System 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



676 



served to nourish them during their period 

 of torpor. MIVABT Types of Animal Life, 

 ch. 12, p. 343. (L. B. & Co., 1893.) 



3344. SWIFTNESS OF EARTH'S 

 REVOLUTION Maw Like Dust on Flying 

 Cannon-ball. In order to accomplish, as it 

 does in 365*4 days, this immense distance 

 round the sun our sphere is obliged to travel 

 a distance of 2,544,000 kilometers [1,580,- 

 765.28 miles] a day, or 106,000 kilometers 

 [65,865.22 miles] an hour, or 29 kilometers 

 [18 miles] a second! This is an absolutely 

 demonstrated mathematical fact. 



We sail, then, in immensity with a velocity 

 eleven hundred times quicker than that of 

 an express train. . . . This velocity of 

 our globe in its celestial orbit is seventy-five 

 times swifter than that of a cannon-ball. 



Upon this moving globe we live, almost in 

 the same situation as grains of dust adher- 

 ing to the surface of an enormous cannon- 

 ball shot into immensity. * * * Sharing 

 absolutely in all the motions of the globe, 

 with all that surrounds us, we cannot per- 

 ceive these motions, and we can only detect 

 them from observations of the stars, which 

 do not participate in the motion. Marvelous 

 sidereal mechanism the force which trans- 

 ports our planet is exercised without an 

 effort, without friction, and without shocks 

 in the midst of absolute silence in the eter- 

 nal heavens. Smoother than the barge upon 

 the limpid river, smoother than the gondola 

 moving on the mirror of the Venetian canals, 

 the earth glides majestically in its ideal or- 

 bit, showing no perceptible trace of the 

 powerful force which guides it. Thus, but 

 not with such perfection, glides the soli- 

 tary balloon in the midst of the transparent 

 air. How many times, entrusted to the car 

 of the aerial ship, either during the bright 

 hours of the day above the verdant fields, 

 or in the darkness of night, with the melan- 

 choly light of the moon and stars how 

 many times have I compared the glorious 

 course of the balloon in the atmosphere to 

 that of the earth in space! FLAMMARION 

 Popular Astronomy, bk. i, ch. 1, p. 8. (A.) 



3345. SWIFTNESS OF MOTION 



A Gnat's Wings Corresponding Quickness 

 of Perception. " A gnat's wings," says Mr. 

 Spencer, "make ten or fifteen thousand 

 strokes a second. Each stroke implies a 

 separate nervous action. Each such nervous 

 action or change in a nervous center is prob- 

 ably as appreciable by the gnat as is a quick 

 movement of his arm by a man. And if 

 this, or anything like this, is the fact, then 

 the time occupied by a given external change, 

 measured by many movements in the one 

 case, must seem much longer than in the 

 other case, when measured by one move- 

 ment." JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 15, p. 

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



3346. SYMPATHY A GENUINE 

 HUMAN IMPULSE Not a Result of Calcula- 

 tion. Sympathy is an emotion as to whose 



instinctiveness psychologists have held hot 

 debate, some of them contending that it is 

 no primitive endowment, but, originally at 

 least, the result of a rapid calculation of the 

 good consequences to ourselves of the sympa- 

 thetic act. Such a calculation, at first con- 

 scious, would grow more unconscious as it 

 became more habitual, and at last, tradition 

 and association aiding, might prompt to ac- 

 tions which could not be distinguished from 

 immediate impulses. It is hardly needful 

 to argue against the falsity of this view. 

 Some forms of sympathy, that of mother 

 with child, for example, are surely primitive, 

 and not intelligent forecasts of board and 

 lodging and other support to be reaped in 

 old age. Danger to- the child blindly and 

 instantaneously stimulates the mother to 

 actions of alarm or defense. Menace or 

 harm to the adult beloved or friend excites 

 us in a corresponding way, often against aW 

 the dictates of prudence. It is true that 

 sympathy does not necessarily follow from 

 the mere fact of gregariousness. Cattle do 

 not help a wounded comrade; on the con- 

 trary, they are more likely to despatch him. 

 But a dog will lick another sick dog, and 

 even bring him food; and the sympathy of 

 monkeys is proved by many observations to 

 be strong. In man, then, we may lay it 

 down that the sight of suffering or danger 

 to others is a direct exciter of interest, and 

 an immediate stimulus, if no complication 

 hinders, to acts of relief. JAMES Psychol- 

 ogy, vol. ii, ch. 24, p. 410. (H. H. & Co., 

 1899.) 



3347. SYMPATHY AND KINDNESS 

 AMONG APES Here is a case which I my- 

 self witnessed at the Zoological Gardens, and 

 published in the Quarterly Journal of Sci- 

 ence, from which I now quote : " A year or 

 two ago there was an Arabian baboon and 

 an Anubis baboon confined in one cage, ad- 

 joining that which contained a dog-headed 

 baboon. The Anubis baboon passed its hand 

 through the wires of the partition, in order 

 to purloin a nut which the large dog-headed 

 baboon had left within reach expressly, I 

 believe, that it might act as a bait. The 

 Anubis baboon very well knew the danger he 

 ran, for he waited until his bulky neighbor 

 had turned his back upon the nut with the 

 appearance of having forgotten all about it. 

 The dog-headed baboon, however, was all the 

 time slyly looking round with the corner of 

 his eye, and no sooner was the arm of his 

 victim well within his cage than he sprang 

 with astonishing rapidity and caught the 

 retreating hand in his mouth. The cries of 

 the Anubis baboon quickly brought the keep- 

 er to the rescue, when, by dint of a good 

 deal of physical persuasion, the dog-headed 

 baboon was induced to leave go his hold. 

 The Anubis baboon then retired to the mid- 

 dle of his cage, moaning piteously, and hold- 

 ing the injured hand against his chest while 

 he rubbed it with the other one. The Arabi- 

 an baboon now approached him from the 



