731 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Variety 

 Vegetation 



tially depends on the exercise of the faculty 

 of discovering these often very minute dif- 

 ferences of form. The shepherd, for exam- 

 ple, knows every individual of his flock, 

 solely by accurately observing their peculi- 

 arities, while the uninitiated are incapable 

 of distinguishing at all the different indi- 

 viduals of one and the same flock. HAECKEL 

 History of Creation, vol. i, ch. 7, p. 158. 

 (K. P. & Co., 1899.) 



3623. Results Wrought 



from a Few Elements As Language from 

 the Alphabet. The number of substances 

 deemed elementary has varied with the 

 advance of science; but as compared with 

 the variety of their products, that number 

 may be considered as infinitesimally small; 

 whilst the progress of analysis, with glimpses 

 of laws as yet unknown, renders it almost 

 certain that this number will be found to 

 be smaller still. Yet out of that small 

 number of elementary substances, having 

 fixed rules, too, limiting their combina- 

 tion, all the infinite varieties of organic and 

 inorganic matter are built up by means of 

 nice adjustment. As all the faculties of a 

 powerful mind can utter their voice in lan- 

 guage whose elements are reducible to twen- 

 ty-four letters, so all the forms of Nature, 

 with all the ideas they express, are worked 

 out from a few simple elements having a 

 few simple properties. ARGYLL Reign of 

 Law, ch. 2, p. 57. (Burt.) 



3624. VARIETY OF TONES AMONG 



ANIMALS Darwin's Six Modulations in the 

 Bark of the Dog From These May Spring 

 a Full Vocabulary. The howl of the dog, 

 the neigh of the horse, the bleat of the 

 lamb, the stamp of the goat, and other signs 

 are all readily understood by other animals. 

 One monkey utters at least six different 

 sounds to express its feelings; and Mr. Dar- 

 win has detected four or five modulations 

 in the bark of the dog: " the bark of eager- 

 ness, as in the chase; that of anger as well 

 as growling; the yelp or howl of despair 

 when shut up; the baying at night; the 

 bark of joy when starting on a walk with 

 his master; and the very distinct one of 

 demand or supplication, as when wishing 

 for a door or window to be opened." Now 

 these signs are as much language as spoken 

 words. You have only to evolve this to get 

 all the language the dictionary-maker re- 

 quires. DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, p. 158. 

 (J. P., 1900.) 



3625. VASTNESS, SENSE OF Plains- 

 man's First Experience of a Hill. I re- 

 member my first experience of a hill, after 

 having been shut within "these narrow 

 limits." It was one of the range of Sierras 

 near Cape Corrientes, and not above eight 

 hundred feet high; yet, when I had gained 

 the summit, I was amazed at the vastness 

 of the earth, as it appeared to me from that 

 modest elevation. Persons born and bred on 

 the pampas, when they first visit a mountain- 

 ous district, frequently experience a sensa- 



tion as of " a ball in the throat," which seems 

 to prevent free respiration. HUDSON Natu- 

 ralist in La Plata, ch. 1, p. 5. ( C. & H., 1895. ) 



3626. VAULT OF HEAVEN Ancients 

 Regarded the Heavens as Made of Glass 

 The " Crystal Sphere" Altho, according 

 to Stobaeus and the collector of the " Views 

 of the Philosophers," the -designation " crys- 

 tal vault of heaven " dates as far back as 

 the early period of Anaximenes, the first 

 clearly defined signification of the idea on 

 which the term is based occurs in Empedo- 

 cles. This philosopher regarded the heaven 

 of the fixed stars as a solid mass, formed 

 from the ether which had been rendered 

 crystalline and rigid by the action of fire. 

 According to his theory, the moon is a body 

 conglomerated (like hail) by the action of 

 fire, and receives its light from the sun. 

 The original idea of transparency, congela- 

 tion, and solidity would not, according to the 

 physics of the ancients, and their ideas 

 of the solidification of fluids, have referred 

 directly to cold and ice; but the affinity 



between Kpvo-raAAos, K p v o ? , and ttpwraivia, 



as well as this comparison with the most 

 transparent of all bodies, gave rise to the 

 more definite assertion that the vault of 

 heaven consisted of ice or of glass. Thus 

 we read in Lactantius: " Coelum ae'rem gla- 

 ciatum esse " and " vitreum coelum." Em- 

 pedocles undoubtedly did not refer to the 

 glass of the Phenicians, but to air, which 

 was supposed to be condensed into a trans- 

 parent solid body by the action of the fiery 

 ether. In this comparison with ice (*pv<r- 

 T a A A o s ) the idea of transparency predomi- 

 nated, no reference being here made to the 

 origin of ice through cold, but simply to 

 its conditions of transparent condensation. 

 While poets used the term crystal, prose 

 writers . . . limited themselves to the 

 expression crystalline or crystal-like, *pv<r- 

 raAAoeiSijs- In like manner, nayos (from 

 7r>7-yi>u<r0ai, to become solid) signifies a piece 

 of ice its condensation being the sole point 

 referred to. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. iii, p. 

 123. (H., 1897.) 



3627. VEGETATION AND CRYS- 

 TALLIZATION Lake of the Solfatara Con- 

 trast of the Animate and the Inanimate. 

 In the Campagna, between Rome and Tivoli, 

 is the Lake of the Solfatara, called also 

 Lago di Zolfo (lacus albula), into which 

 flows continually a stream of tepid water 

 from a smaller lake, situated a few yards 

 above it. The water is a saturated solu- 

 tion of carbonic-acid gas, which escapes 

 from it in such quantities in some parts 

 of its surface that it has the appearance 

 of being actually in ebullition. " I have 

 found by experiment," says Sir Humphry 

 Davy, " that the water taken from the 

 most tranquil part of the lake, even after 

 being agitated and exposed to the air, 

 contained in solution more than its own 

 volume of carbonic-acid gas, with a very 

 small quantity of sulfureted hydrogen. Its 



