Temperature 

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SCIP:NTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



682 



depths than in shallower ones, and that the 

 deeper the thermometer is lowered into the 

 sea the lower the mercury sinks. This is 

 consistent with physical laws. If there 

 is any difference at all in the temperature 

 of a column of water that has had time to 

 settle, the thermometer will always reach 

 its highest point at the top of the column 

 and its lowest at the bottom, for the colder 

 particles, being of greater specific gravity 

 than the warmer ones, will sink, and the 

 warmer ones will rise. HICKSON Fauna of 

 the Deep Sea, ch. 2, p. 28. (A., 1894.) 



3373. TEMPERATURES DIFFER IN 

 DEEP SEA Ridges Shut Off Polar Cold. 

 If the ocean were a simple basin somewhat 

 deeper at the equator than at the poles, the 

 cold water at the poles would gradually 

 sink down the slopes of the basin towards 

 the latitude of the equator, and the bottom 

 temperature of the water would be constant 

 all the world over. A few hills here and 

 there would not affect the general state- 

 ment that for a constant depth the tem- 

 perature of the lowest stratum of water 

 would be constant. But in some places 

 ridges occur stretching across the oceans 

 from continent to continent, and these ridges 

 shut off the cold water at the bottom of the 

 sea on the polar side from reaching the 

 bottom of the sea on the equator side. . . . 

 These facts then show that, altho at the 

 bottom of the deep sea the water is al- 

 ways very cold, the degree of coldness is 

 by no means constant in the same latitude 

 for the same depth. HICKSON Fauna of the 

 Deep Sea, ch. 2, p. 31. (A., 1894.) 



3374. TENACITY OF LIFE OF BAC- 

 TERIA Disease-germs Living in Soil Sixteen 

 Years. Farm soils have, as is well known, 

 been contaminated with anthrax in the late 

 summer or autumn, and have retained the 

 infectious virus till the following spring, 

 and it has even then cropped up again in 

 the hay of the next season. In 1881 Miquel 

 took some samples of soil at a depth of 

 ten inches, containing six and a half million 

 bacteria per gram. After drying for two 

 days at 30 C., the dust was placed in her- 

 metically sealed tubes, which were put aside 

 in a dark corner of the laboratory for six- 

 teen years. Upon reexamination it is re- 

 ported that more than three million germs 

 per gram were still found, amongst them 

 the specific bacillus of tetanus. Whether 

 or not there is any fallacy in these actual 

 figures, there is abundant evidence in sup- 

 port of the fact that bacteria, non-patho- 

 genic and pathogenic, can and do retain their 

 vitality, and sometimes even their virulence, 

 for almost incredibly long periods of time. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 5, p. 174. (G. P. P., 

 1899.) 



3375. TENDERNESS OF ANTS TO 

 THEIR YOUNG Feminine Care and Delicacy 

 toward the Newly Born. After remaining 

 some days in this [pupal] state they [ants] 



emerge as perfect insects. In many cases, 

 however, they would perish in the attempt 

 if they were not assisted; and it is very 

 pretty to see the older ants helping them 

 to extricate themselves, carefully unfolding 

 their legs and smoothing out the wings, with 

 truly feminine tenderness and delicacy. Our 

 countryman, Gould, was the first to observe, 

 and the fact has since been fully confirmed 

 by Forel, that the pupae are unable to emerge 

 from the cocoons without the assistance of 

 the workers. AVEBURY Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps, ch. 1, p. 7. (A., 1900.) 



3376. TERROR OF DARKNESS AND 

 GLOOM HEREDITARY Caverns Inspire 

 Dread. Black things, and especially dark 

 places, holes, caverns, etc., arouse a peculiar- 

 ly gruesome fear. This fear, as well as that 

 of solitude, of being " lost," are explained 

 after a fashion by ancestral experience. 

 Says Schneider: 



" It is a fact that men, especially in child- 

 hood, fear to go into a dark cavern or a 

 gloomy wood. This feeling of fear arises, 

 to be sure, partly from the fact that we 

 easily suspect that dangerous beasts may 

 lurk in these localities a suspicion due to 

 stories we have heard and read. But, on 

 the other hand, it is quite sure that this fear 

 at a certain perception is also directly in- 

 herited. Children who have been carefully 

 guarded from all ghost-stories are neverthe- 

 less terrified and cry if led into a dark 

 place, especially if sounds are made there. 

 Even an adult can easily observe that an 

 uncomfortable timidity steals over him in 

 a lonely wood at night, altho he may have 

 the fixed conviction that not the slightest 

 danger is near. 



" This feeling of fear occurs in many 

 men even in their own house after dark, 

 altho it is much stronger in a dark cavern 

 or forest. The fact of such instinctive fear 

 is easily explicable when we consider that 

 our savage ancestors through innumerable 

 generations were accustomed to meet with 

 dangerous beasts in caverns, especially bears, 

 and were for the most part attacked by such 

 beasts during the night and in the woods, 

 and that thus an inseparable association be- 

 tween the perceptions of darkness of caverns 

 and woods, and fear took place and was in- 

 herited." JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 24, 

 p. 418. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3377. TERROR OF EARTHQUAKE 

 UNCONQUERABLE Dr. Tschudi, in his 

 interesting work, " Travels in Peru," de- 

 scribes strikingly the effect of an earthquake 

 upon the native and upon the stranger. " No 

 familiarity with the phenomenon can blunt 

 this feeling. The inhabitant of Lima, who 

 from childhood has frequently witnessed 

 these convulsions of Nature, is roused from 

 his sleep by the shock, and rushes from his 

 apartment with the cry of M isericordia ! 

 The foreigner from the north of Europe, 

 who knows nothing of earthquakes but by 

 description, waits with impatience to feel 



