717 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Unity 



and general character, and one unchanging 

 striving toward the same goal. The unity 

 of this tendency, and the results by which 

 it was crowned, combined with the activity 

 of whole races, give to the age of Columbus, 

 Sebastian Cabot, and Gama,a character both 

 of grandeur and enduring splendor. In the 

 midst of two different stages of human 

 culture the fifteenth century may be regard- 

 ed as a period of transition which belongs 

 both to the Middle Ages and to the begin- 

 ning of more recent times. It is the age 

 of the greatest discoveries in space, embra- 

 cing almost all degrees of latitude and all 

 elevations of the earth's surface. While 

 this period doubled the number of the works 

 of creation known to the inhabitants of 

 Europe, it likewise offered to the intellect 

 new and powerful incitements toward the 

 improvement of natural sciences, in the 

 departments of physics and mathematics. 

 HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 228. 

 (H., 1897.) 



3552. UNITY OF THE SCIENCES 

 Perhaps All Elements One Alchemist's 

 Dream May Come True. Every important 

 discovery establishes a closer kinship be- 

 tween the sciences. The time has already 

 come when to know any one of the sciences 

 thoroughly it is necessary to know the rest; 

 in fact, all the so-called natural sciences 

 are different branches of one great science. 

 It is doubtless true that there is but one 

 energy, and it may be that there is but 

 one element of matter out of which all the 

 various so-called elements come. ELISHA 

 GRAY Nature's Miracles, vol. ii, ch. 20, p. 

 170. (F. H. & H., 1900.) 



3553. UNITY OF THE UNIVERSE 



It is every day becoming more and more 

 clear that our earth is bound by ties of the 

 closest resemblance to the other members 

 of that family of worlds to which it belongs, 

 and that the materials entering into their 

 constitution and the forces operating in all 

 are the same. . . . There are the strongest 

 grounds for believing the interior of our 

 globe to consist of similar materials to those 

 found in the small planetary bodies known 

 as meteorites. That the comets are merely 

 aggregations of such meteorites, and that 

 the planets differ from them only in their 

 greater dimensions, may be regarded as 

 among the demonstrated conclusions of the 

 astronomer. The materials found most abun- 

 dantly in meteorites and in the interior of 

 our globe are precisely the same as those 

 which are proved to exist in an incandescent 

 state in our sun. Hence we are led to con- 

 clude that the whole of the bodies of the 

 solar system are composed of the same 

 chemical elements. JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 12, 

 p. 360. (A., 1899.) 



3554. Continuity of the 



Law of Gravitation through All Worlds. 

 The most striking examples of the continu- 

 ousness of law are, perhaps, those furnished 

 by astronomy, especially in connection with 



the more recent applications of spectrum 

 analysis. But even in the case of the sim- 

 pler laws the demonstration is complete. 

 There is no reason apart from continuity 

 to expect that gravitation, for instance, 

 should prevail outside our world. But 

 wherever matter has been detected through- 

 out the entire universe, whether in the 

 form of star or planet,~comet or meteorite, 

 it is found to obey that law. " If there 

 were no other indication of unity than this 

 it would be almost enough. For the unity 

 which is implied in the mechanism of the 

 heavens is indeed a unity which is all-em-, 

 bracing and. complete. The structure of our 

 own bodies, with all that depends upon it, 

 is a structure governed by and therefore 

 adapted to the same force of gravitation 

 which has determined the form and the 

 movements of myriads of worlds. Every 

 part of the human organism is fitted to con- 

 ditions which would all be destroyed in a 

 moment if the forces of gravitation were 

 to change or fail. DBUMMOND Natural Law 

 in the Spiritual World, p. 36. (H. Al.) 



3555. Earthly Elements 



Found in Far-off Stars Aldebaran. The 

 light of this star [Aldebaran] is of a pale 

 red. Seen in the spectroscope it presents 

 at a glance a great number of strong lines, 

 particularly in the orange, green, and blue. 

 The positions of about seventy of these lines 

 have been measured, and coincidences have 

 been found with the spectra of sodium, mag- 

 nesium, hydrogen, calcium, iron, bismuth, 

 tellurium, antimony, and mercury. Seven 

 other elements have been compared with 

 this star, namely nitrogen, cobalt, tin, lead, 

 cadmium, lithium, and barium; but no co- 

 incidence has been observed. FLAMMABION 

 Popular Astronomy, bk. vi, ch. 6, p. 608. 

 (A.) 



3556. Gravitation Holds 



through Boundless Space. In the front rank 

 of all ... is the law of gravitation. 

 The celestial bodies, as you all know, float 

 and move in infinite space. Compared with 

 the enormous distances between them, each 

 of us is but as a grain of dust. The nearest 

 fixed stars, viewed even under the most 

 powerful magnification, have no visible di- 

 ameter; and we may be sure that even our 

 sun, looked at from the nearest fixed stars, 

 would only appear as a single luminous 

 point, seeing that the masses of those stars, 

 in so far as they have been determined, have 

 not been found to be materially different 

 from that of the sun. But, notwithstanding 

 these enormous distances, there is an invis- 

 ible tie between them which connects them 

 together, and brings them in mutual in- 

 terdependence. This is the force of gravi- 

 tation with which all heavy masses attract 

 each other. We know this force as grav- 

 ity when it is operative between an earthly 

 body and the mass of our earth. The force 

 which causes a body to fall to the ground 

 is none other than that which continually 



