681 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Telegraph 

 Te 



perature 



lumbus) in respect to our knowledge of ter- 

 restrial space. It not only infinitely ex- 

 tended our insight into creation, but also, 

 besides enriching the sphere of human ideas, 

 raised mathematical science to a previously 

 unattained splendor by the exposition of new 

 and complicated problems. Thus the in- 

 creased power of the organs of perception 

 reacts on the world of thought, to the 

 strengthening of intellectual force and the 

 ennoblement of humanity. To the telescope 

 alone we owe the discovery in less than two 

 and a half centuries of thirteen new planets, 

 of four satellite systems (the four moons 

 of Jupiter, eight satellites of Saturn, four 

 or perhaps six of Uranus, and one of Nep- 

 tune), of the sun's spots and faculae, the 

 phases of Venus, the form and height of 

 the lunar mountains, the wintry polar 

 zones of Mars, the belts of Jupiter and Sat- 

 urn, the rings of the latter, the interior 

 planetary comets of short periods of revolu- 

 tion, together with many other phenomena 

 which likewise escape the naked eye. While 

 our own solar system, which so long seemed 

 limited to six planets and one moon, has 

 been enriched in the space of 240 years with 

 the discoveries to which we have alluded, 

 our knowledge regarding successive strata of 

 the region of the fixed stars has unexpected- 

 ly been still more increased. Thousands of 

 nebulae, stellar swarms, and double stars 

 have been observed. The changing position 

 of the double stars which revolve round one 

 common center of gravity has proved, like 

 the proper motion of all fixed stars, that 

 forces of gravitation are operating in those 

 distant regions of space, as in our own lim- 

 ited, mutually disturbing planetary spheres, 

 . . . The astronomical knowledge of the 

 solar system has gradually extended to that 

 of a system of the universe. HUMBOLDT Cos- 

 mos, vol. iii, p. 61. (H., 1897.) 



3369. TEMPERAMENT DETERMIN- 

 ING ACTION A Wide-spread Belief Incor- 

 porated in Language. The various words in 

 use to characterize the different tempera- 

 ments are highly instructive. They show the 

 persistent and wide-spread impression that 

 the lines are laid down, within which the 

 development of the individual takes place, 

 by some form of physical influence that 

 operates upon the original " make-up " of 

 the individual. When men believed in as- 

 trology they found in the determining power 

 of the planets a reason why some were " Jo- 

 vial," others " Saturnine," and still others 

 "Mercurial" in temperament. When they 

 more justly recognized the influence of the 

 circulatory and digestive systems over every 

 one's " temper " of mind, they came to speak 

 of the " sanguine " (or " full-blooded ") man, 

 of the "choleric" (or "full of bile") man, 

 of the "melancholic" (or "full of black 

 bile") man, and of the "phlegmatic" (or 

 " full-phlegmed") man. Thus, in Shake- 

 speare's " King John " we read: 



Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, 

 Had baked thy blood and made it heavy, thick, which 

 Else, runs tickling up and down the veins. 



LADD Psychology, ch. 27, p. 649. (S., 

 1899.) 



3370. TEMPERANCE OF SAVAGE 



WOMEN A remarkable result of abstinence 

 and morality is the fact that neither in 

 America nor in Africa nor in the Indo-Pa- 

 cific were women guilty of indulgence in the 

 native forms of intoxication. In the New 

 Hebrides and elsewhere Turner found that 

 the women and girls were total abstainers 

 from drinking kava. " Drunkenness," says 

 Dodge, " is not a female vice. In all my 

 experience I have never seen a drunken In- 

 dian woman." Similar testimony could be 

 gathered concerning beer-drinking in Africa. 

 MASON Woman's Share in Primitive Cul- 

 ture, ch. 10, p. 235. (A., 1894.) 



3371. TEMPERATURE IN EUROPE 



AND AMERICA Land a Conductor of Cold 

 Ocean Tends to Produce Uniform Climate. 

 On comparing the two continents of Eu- 

 rope and America, it is found that places 

 in the same latitudes have sometimes a mean 

 difference of temperature amounting to 11, 

 or even in a few cases to 17 F.; and some 

 places on the two continents, which have 

 the same mean temperature, differ from 

 7 to 17 in latitude. Thus, Cumberland 

 House, in North America, having the same 

 latitude (54 N.) as the city of York in 

 England, stands on the isothermal line of 

 32, which in Europe rises to the North 

 Cape, in lat. 71, but its summer heat ex- 

 ceeds that of Brussels or Paris. The prin- 

 cipal cause of greater intensity of cold in 

 corresponding latitudes of North America, 

 as contrasted with Europe, is the connection 

 of America with the polar circle, by a large 

 tract of land, some of which is from three 

 to five thousand feet in height; and, on the 

 other hand, the separation of Europe from 

 the arctic circle by an ocean. The ocean 

 has a tendency to preserve everywhere a 

 mean temperature, which it communicates 

 to the contiguous land, so that it tempers 

 the climate, moderating alike an excess of 

 heat or cold. The elevated land, on the 

 other hand, rising to the colder regions of 

 the atmosphere, becomes a great reservoir 

 of ice and snow, arrests, condenses, and con- 

 geals vapor, and communicates its cold to 

 the adjoining country. For this reason, 

 Greenland, forming part of a continent 

 which stretches northward to the 82d degree 

 of latitude, experiences under the 60th 

 parallel a more rigorous climate than Lap- 

 land under the 72d parallel. LYELL Prin- 

 ciples of Geology, bk. i, ch. 7, p. 94. (A., 

 1854.) 



3372. TEMPERATURE OF THE 



DEEP SEA Depths Intensely Cold. The 

 temperature of the water in the abyss is by 

 no means constant for a constant depth, nor 

 does it vary with the latitude. It is true 

 that, as a rule, the water is colder at greater 



