iiliir 

 Variation 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



726 



the salmon, the Norwegian reduces it nearly 

 to the condition of codfish, concerning which 

 I learned a curious fact from two old Dog- 

 ger Bank fishermen with whom I had a long 

 sailing cruise from the Golden Horn to the 

 Thames. They agreed in stating that cod- 

 fish is like bread, that they and all their 

 mates lived upon it (and sea-biscuits) day 

 after day for months together, and never 

 tired, while richer fish ultimately became 

 repulsive if eaten daily. This statement 

 was elicited by an immediate experience. 

 We were in the Mediterranean, where boni- 

 to were very abundant, and every morning 

 and evening I amused myself by spearing 

 them from the martingale of the schooner, 

 and so successfully that all hands ( or rather 

 mouths) were abundantly supplied with 

 this delicious dark-fleshed, full-blooded, and 

 high-flavored fish. I began by making three 

 meals a day on it, but at the end of about 

 a week was glad to return to the ordinary 

 ship's fare of salt junk and chickens. 

 WILLIAMS Chemistry of Cookery, ch. 3, p. 

 29. (A., 1900.) 



3598. VALUE OF THE MINUTE 

 THINGS Bacteria Essentially Beneficial 

 Man's Perversion of Nature Makes Them 

 Noxious. We learn, too, another lesson 

 from this latest discovery of the secrets of 

 the living universe. . . . For these mi- 

 nute bacteria of various kinds are present 

 everywhere in the air, in the water, in the 

 soil under our feet. Their function appears 

 to be to break up by putrefactive processes 

 all dead organized matter, and thus prepare 

 it for being again assimilated by plants, 

 so as to form food for animals and for man; 

 and it seems probable that they prepare 

 the soil itself for plant-growth by absorbing 

 and fixing the nitrogen of the atmosphere. 

 They are, in fact, omnipresent, and under 

 normal conditions they are wholly beneficial. 

 It is we ourselves who, by our crowded cities, 

 our polluted streams, and our unnatural and 

 unwholesome lives, enable them to exert 

 their disease - creating powers. WALLACE 

 The Wonderful Century, ch. 14, p. 146. 

 (D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



3599. VALUE OF THE UNKNOWN 

 AND HIDDEN Utility of the Earth's Mass 

 Stability Depends on Gravity Difference 

 of Weight on the Earth and on Mars. A 

 body which would weigh 27 pounds on the 

 earth would, if removed to Mars, weigh only 

 10 pounds. . . . Whewell remarks that 

 in such a case " we should discover the want 

 of the usual force of gravity by the insta- 

 bility of all about us. Things would not 

 lie where we placed them, but would slide 

 away with the slightest push. We should 

 have a difficulty in standing or walking, 

 something like what we have on shipboard 

 when the deck is inclined; and we should 

 stagger helplessly through an atmosphere 

 thinner than that which oppresses the res- 

 piration of the traveler on the tops of the 

 highest mountains." And he very well notes 



that all this shows the real importance of 

 those dark and unknown central portions 

 of the earth which we are apt to regard 

 as ** deposits of useless lumber without effect 

 or purpose. We feel their influence on every 

 step we take and on every breath we draw; 

 and the powers we possess and the comforts 

 we enjoy would be unprofitable to us if 

 they had not been prepared with reference 

 to those as well as to the near and visible 

 portions of the earth's mass." PROCTOR 

 Expanse of Heaven, p. 71. (L. G. & Co., 

 1897.) 



3600. VARIABILITY GENERAL 

 AMONG PLANTS AND ANIMALS Indi- 

 vidual variability is a general character of 

 all common and wide-spread species of ani- 

 mals or plants ; and, further, . . . this vari- 

 ability extends, so far as we know, to every 

 part and organ, whether external or inter- 

 nal, as well as to every mental faculty. Yet 

 more important is the fact that each part 

 or organ varies to a considerable extent in- 

 dependently of other parts. Again, we have 

 shown by abundant evidence that the vari- 

 ation that occurs is very large in amount 

 usually reaching 10 or 20, and sometimes 

 even 25 per cent, of the average size of the 

 varying part; while not 1 or 2 only, but 

 from 5 to 10 per cent, of the specimens 

 examined exhibit nearly as large an amount 

 of variation. WALLACE Darwinism, ch 3, 

 p. 58. (Hum.) 



3601. VARIABILITY OF ADJUST- 

 MENT Constancy of Force Admits Variety of 

 Adaptation Contrivance in Constitution of 

 the Universe. The superstition which saw 

 in all natural phenomena the action of ca- 

 pricious deities was not more irrational than 

 the superstition which sees in them nothing 

 but the action of invariable law. Men have 

 been right, and not wrong, when they saw 

 in the facts of Nature the variability of ad- 

 justment even more clearly and more surely 

 than they saw the constancy of force. They 

 were right when they identified these phe- 

 nomena with the phenomena of mind. They 

 were right when they regarded their own 

 faculty of contrivance as the nearest and 

 truest analogy by which the constitution of 

 the universe can be conceived and its order 

 understood. They were right when they re- 

 garded its arrangements as susceptible of 

 change, and when they looked upon a change 

 of will as the efficient cause of other changes 

 without number and without end. It was 

 well to feel this by the force of instinct; 

 it is better still to be sure of it in the light 

 of reason. It is an immense satisfaction 

 to know that the result of logical analysis 

 does but confirm the testimony of conscious- 

 ness, and run parallel with the primeval 

 traditions of belief. ARGYLL Reign of Law, 

 ch. 7, p. 231. (Burt.) 



3602. VARIABILITY IN THE COM- 

 BINATION OF FORCES Witt Finds Room 

 in the Variation. When . . . scientific men 

 speak, as they often do, of all phenomena 



