SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



TombfltODi 



3438. TIME, THE BEGINNING OR 

 END OF, INCONCEIVABLE We are al- 

 together unable to conceive time as com- 

 mencing; ... we are conscious to our- 

 selves of nothing more clearly than that it 

 would be equally possible to think without 

 thought as to construe to the mind an abso- 

 lute commencement or an absolute termina- 

 tion of time. . . . Goad imagination to 

 the utmost, it still sinks paralyzed within 

 the bounds of time, and time survives as the 

 condition of the thought itself in which we 

 annihilate the universe. HAMILTON Meta- 

 physics, lect. 38, p. 529. (G. & L., 1859.) 



3439. TIME WORKS VAST RESULTS 

 WITH TRIFLING FORCE Crevasses of 

 Glacier. [Upon the glacier] an explosion is 

 heard. . . . The sound is repeated, sev- 

 eral shots being fired in quick succession. 

 . . . After an hour's strict search we 

 discover the cause of the reports. They 

 announce the birth of a crevasse. Through 

 a pool upon the glacier we notice air-bub- 

 bles ascending, and find the bottom of the 

 pool crossed by a narrow crack, from which 

 the bubbles issue. Right and left from this 

 pool we trace the young fissure through long 

 distances. It is sometimes almost too feeble 

 to be seen, and at no place is it wide enough 

 to admit a knife-blade. . . . The great 

 and gaping chasms on and above the ice-falls 

 of the G6ant and the Talefre begin as nar- 

 row cracks, which open gradually to crev- 

 asses. We are thus taught in an instructive 

 and impressive way that appearances sug- 

 gestive of very violent action may really be 

 produced by processes so slow as to require 

 refined observations to detect them. In the 

 production of natural phenomena two things 

 always come into play, the intensity of the 

 acting force and the time during which it 

 acts. Make the intensity great and the time 

 small, and you have sudden convulsion; but 

 precisely the same apparent effect may be 

 produced by making the intensity small and 

 the time great. TYNDALL Forms of Water, 

 p. 98. (A., 1899.) 



3440. TIME-KEEPING IN SLEEP 



Waking at a Specified Hour Power Varies 

 in Different Persons Unconscious Chro- 

 nometry. There are many individuals who 

 have the power of determining, at the time 

 of going to rest, the hour at which they shall 

 awake, and who arouse themselves at the 

 precise time fixed upon not from the rest- 

 less sleep which such a determination would 

 ordinarily induce (the writer, for example, 

 would be prevented by it from obtaining 

 an hour of continuous repose through the 

 whole night), but from a slumber that re- 

 mains unbroken until the appointed time 

 arrives. This fact . . . seems to point 

 to a kind of unconscious chronometry, which 

 is in some way connected with the sequence 

 of the organic functions. . . . The whole 

 series of such phenomena has a peculiar in- 

 terest, in connection with the pretensions 



advanced by mesmerizers to exercise a spe- 

 cial control over the " subjects " of their 

 manipulations. CARPENTER Mental Physi- 

 ology, bk. ii, ch. 15, p. 583. (A., 1900.) 



3441. TIMIDITY TAUGHT YOUNG 



BIRDS BY ELDERS During the past sum- 

 mer, while living near Kew Gardens, I 

 watched the sparrows a great deal, and fed 

 forty or fifty of them every day from a 

 back window. The bread and seed were 

 thrown on to a low roof just outside the win- 

 dow, and I noticed that the young birds 

 when first able to fly were always brought 

 by the parents to this feeding-place, and 

 that after two or three visits they would 

 begin to come of their own accord. At such 

 times they would venture quite close to me, 

 showing as little suspicion as young chick- 

 ens. The adults, however, altho so much 

 less shy than birds of other species, were 

 extremely suspicious, snatching up the bread 

 and flying away; or, if they remained, hop- 

 ping about in a startled manner, craning 

 their necks to view me, and making so many 

 gestures and motions, and little chirps of 

 alarm, that presently the young would be- 

 come infected with fear. The lesson was 

 taught them in a surprisingly short time; 

 their suspicion was seen to increase day by 

 day, and about a week later they were 

 scarcely to be distinguished in behavior 

 from the adults. It is plain that, with these 

 little birds, fear of man is an associate feel- 

 ing, and that, unless it had been taught 

 them, his presence would trouble them as 

 little as does that of horse, sheep, or cow. 

 HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 5, p. 84. 

 (C. & H., 1895.) 



3442. TOMBSTONES OF ANCIENT 



ANIMALS Limestone Largely Composed of 

 Sea-shells. Limestone strata in the crust of 

 the earth are found in all the periods of 

 the earth's formation. All forms of sea- 

 shells that were once the homes of animal 

 life are constructed of this compound; and 

 in the later formations of limestone, in the 

 Secondary and Tertiary periods, we find this 

 rock to be made up almost entirely of ma- 

 rine shells, some of them microscopic in size. 

 The earlier or older formations of limestone 

 that are found deeper down in the earth's 

 crust are less mingled with these marine 

 shells. This comes from the fact that the 

 first deposition of limestone strata occurred 

 before the later forms of sea life had de- 

 veloped. W T hatever signs of life are found 

 in these lower stratifications are of the 

 very lowest order. It is not to be under- 

 stood that animal life is a necessary factor 

 in the formation of limestone, but it has 

 been an incidental feature which no doubt 

 has been the chief means of gathering up 

 from the water this compound and precipi- 

 tating it into the great limestone strata that 

 are everywhere found. ELISHA GRAY Na- 

 turc's Miracles, vol. i, ch. 2, p. 13. (F. H. 

 & H., 1900.) 



