I nion 

 Unity 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



tinents, the rich deltas and great alluvial 

 plains, are prevented from being constantly 

 under water. LYELL Principles of Geology, 

 ch. 14, p. 207. (A., 1854.) 



3524. UNION OF WEAKNESS AND 

 STRENGTH Plastic Bodies Weak Enough to 

 Yield to an Influence Strong Enough Not 

 to Yield All at Once. Gradual yielding [of 

 plastic bodies] often saves the material from 

 being disintegrated altogether. When the 

 structure has yielded, the same inertia be- 

 comes a condition of its comparative per- 

 manence in the new form, and of the new 

 habits the body then manifests. Plasticity, 

 then, in the wide sense of the word, means 

 the possession of a structure weak enough 

 to yield to an influence, but strong enough 

 not to yield all at once. Each relatively 

 stable phase of equilibrium in such a struc- 

 ture is marked by what we may call a new 

 set of habits. Organic matter, especially 

 nervous tissue, seems endowed with a very 

 extraordinary degree of plasticity of this 

 sort; so that we may without hesitation 

 lay down as our first proposition the fol- 

 lowing, that the phenomena of habit in liv- 

 ing beings are due to the plasticity of the 

 organic materials of which their bodies are 

 composed. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 4, 

 p. 104. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3525. UNITY AMID DIVERSITY 



Disease Reveals Correlation of Parts of an 

 Organism. The truth is that all the parts 

 of an organism are bound together as one 

 whole by a pervading system of correla- 

 tions as intricate as they are obscure. When 

 the organism is in health, and all its parts 

 are working in harmony, the wonder of 

 these correlations is not perceived. But they 

 are brought out in a marked degree by the 

 phenomena of disease, and also by the 

 phenomena of monstrosity or malformation. 

 The "sympathy" which the most distant 

 and apparently unconnected parts of an or- 

 ganism show with each other, when one 

 of them is affected by disease, is the index 

 of correlations whose nature is utterly be- 

 yond the reach of our anatomy. ARGYLL 

 Reign of Law, ch. 5, p. 147. (Burt.) 



3526. 



Physics and Meta- 



physics Complementary, Not Antagonistic. 

 Thus we arrive at the singular result 

 that, of the two paths opened up to us in 

 the " Discourse upon Method," the one leads, 

 by way of Berkeley and Hume, to Kant 

 and idealism ; while the other leads, by way 

 of De la Mettrie and Priestley, to modern 

 physiology and materialism. Our stem di- 

 vides into two main branches, which grow 

 in opposite ways, and bear flowers which 

 look as different as they can well be. But 

 each branch is sound and healthy, and has 

 as much life and vigor as the other. If a 

 botanist found this state of things in a new 

 plant, I imagine that he might be inclined 

 to think that his tree was monoecious that 

 the flowers were of different sexes, and that, 



so far from setting up a barrier between 

 the two branches of the tree, the only hope 

 of fertility lay in bringing them together. 

 I may be taking too much of a naturalist's 

 view of the case, but I must confess that this 

 is exactly my notion of what is to be done 

 with metaphysics and physics. Their dif- 

 ferences are complementary, not antagonis- 

 tic; and thought will never be completely 

 fruitful until the one unites with the 

 other. HUXLEY Lay Sermons, serm. 14, p. 

 337. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



3527. Uniform Motion 



of Planets and Satellites One Common 

 Impulse Affecting All. All the planets trav- 

 el the same way round. This is true not 

 only of the eight primary planets, but of the 

 asteroids, now more than a hundred and 

 thirty in number. Again, all the secondary 

 planets or satellites travel the same way 

 round ( this direction of revolution being the 

 same as that in which the planets revolve 

 round the sun) except the satellites of 

 Uranus, which, however, can hardly be said 

 to have any direction of motion with refer- 

 ence to the general level in which the plan- 

 etary system circuits, for they travel in 

 planes nearly square to that level. Lastly, 

 as respects direction of motion, all the plan- 

 ets whose rotation has been observed, in- 

 cluding our earth and the moon, and the 

 sun also, rotate on their axes in the same 

 direction. It must be understood that this 

 direction is one and the same for all these 

 motions the revolutions of the planets 

 around the sun, of the satellites round the 

 planets, and of the planets on their axes. 

 It seems natural to infer that the uniform- 

 ity is the result of some general condition 

 affecting the whole scheme from the begin- 

 ning. PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 179. 

 (L. G. &Co., 1897.) 



3528. Various Adjust- 

 ments Accomplish a Single End Insects 

 Compelled to Fertilize Orchids. Thus the 

 use of all the parts of the flower (namely, the 

 inflected edges, or the polished inner sides 

 of the labellum the two orifices and their 

 position close to the anthers and stigma 

 the large size of the medial rudimentary 

 stamen) are rendered intelligible. An in- 

 sect which enters the labellum is thus com- 

 pelled to crawl out by one of the two nar- 

 row passages, on the sides of which the 

 pollen masses and stigma are placed. We 

 have seen that exactly the same end is 

 gained in the case of Coryanthes by the 

 labellum being half filled with secreted fluid ; 

 and in the case of Pterostylis and some 

 other Australian orchids by the labellum 

 being irritable, so that when touched by an 

 entering insect it shuts up the flower, with 

 the exception of a single narrow passage. 

 DARWIN Fertilization of Orchids, ch. 8, p. 

 231. (A., 1898.) 



3529. "UNITY" BECOMES A 



SNARE Systematizing Overdone Perfection 

 by Diversity. The fons errorum in M. 



