Victory 

 Vision 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



736 



are registered in the Eocene rocks. The 

 ancient world had found its Waterloo. Gone 

 were the dragons \vho so long had lorded it 

 over both hemispheres brontosaurs, iguano- 

 dons, plesiosaurs, laelaps, pterodactyls all 

 gone; their uncouth brood quite vanished 

 from the earth, and nothing left alive as a 

 reminder, save a few degenerate, collateral 

 kin, such as snakes and crocodiles, objects 

 of dread and loathing to higher creatures. 

 Never in the history of our planet has there 

 been a more sweeping victory than that 

 of the mammals, nor has Nature had any 

 further occasion for victories of that sort. 

 The mammal remains the highest type of 

 animal existence, and subsequent progress 

 has been shown in the perfecting of that 

 type where most perfectible. FISKE 

 Through Nature to God, pt. ii, ch. 11, p. 

 125. (H. M. & Co., 1900.) 



3646. VIEW, ANCIENT, OF FIXED 

 STARS Stars Supposed To Be Riveted to the 

 Vault of Heaven The " Crystal Sphere." 

 The inappropriate expression of fixed stars 

 (astro, fixa of Manilius) reminds us . . . 

 of the connection, or, rather, confusion of 

 the ideas of insertion, and of absolute im- 

 mobility or fixity. When Aristotle calls the 

 non-wandering celestial bodies (air\avrj a<rrpa) 

 riveted (evSeSe^eVa), when Ptolemy desig- 

 nates them as ingrafted (wpoo-n-e^uKOTej), these 

 terms refer specially to the idea entertained 

 by Anaximenes of the crystalline sphere of 

 heaven. The apparent motion of all the 

 fixed stars from east to west, while their 

 relative distances remain unchanged, had 

 given rise to* this hypothesis. " The fixed 

 stars (ait\a. v j} aarpa) belong to the higher and 

 more distant regions, in which they are riv- 

 eted, like nails, to the crystalline heavens; 



the planets (aorpo. irAavw/meva Or irAairjTa), which 



move in an opposite direction, belong to 

 a lower and nearer region." [Stobus, 

 "Eclog. Phys.," p. 582.] HUMBOLDT Cos- 

 mos, vol. iii, p. 122. (H., 1897.) 



3647. VIRTUE AMONG SAVAGES 

 Names Wanting for Love and Gratitude. 

 Neither faith, hope, nor charity enters into 

 the virtues of a savage. The Sichuana lan- 

 guage contains no expression for thanks; 

 the Algonquin had no word for love; the 

 Tinne no word for beloved; mercy was with 

 the North- American Indians a mistake, and 

 peace an evil ; theft, says Catlin, they " call 

 capturing " ; humility is an idea which they 

 could not comprehend. Among the Kou- 

 pouees the greatest misconduct, says Major 

 McCulloch, " is to forgive an enemy, the 

 first virtue is revenge." AVEBURY Prehis- 

 toric Times, ch. 15, p. 541. (A., 1900.) 



3648. VIRTUES, PATERNAL, DIF- 

 FERENT FROM MATERNAL As Neces- 

 sary to the Race Heredity Blends the Two. 

 The acquisitions of the manly life are as 

 necessary to human character as the virtues 

 which gather their sweetness by the cradle; 

 and these robuster elements strength, cour- 

 age, manliness, endurance, self-reliance 



could only have been secured away from 

 domestic cares. Apart from that, it was 

 not necessary to put the father through 

 the same mill as the mother. Whatever 

 the mother gained would be handed on to 

 her boys as well as to her girls, and with the 

 law of heredity to square accounts, it was 

 unnecessary for each of the two great sides 

 of humanity to make the same investments. 

 By one acquiring one set of virtues and the 

 other another, the blend in the end would 

 be the richer; and, without obliterating the 

 eternal individualities of each, the measure 

 of completeness would be gained more quick- 

 ly for the race. Before heredity, however, 

 could do its work upon the father a certain 

 basis had to be laid. With his original 

 habits he would squander the hereditary 

 gains as fast as he received them, and unless 

 some change was brought about in his mode 

 of life the old wild blood in his veins would 

 counteract the gentler influence, and leave 

 all the mother's work in vain. Hence Na- 

 ture had to set about another long and dif- 

 ficult process to make the savage father 

 a reformed character. DRUMMOND Ascent of 

 Man, ch. 9, p. 293. (J. P., 1900.) 



3649. VIRULENCE OF BACTERIA 

 INCREASED BY ASSOCIATION Banded 

 Evils Most Deadly. The virulence of ... 

 bacteria is ... increased by means of 

 association. The Bacillus coli is an example; 

 for, in conjunction with other organisms, 

 this bacillus, altho normally present in 

 health in the alimentary canal, is able to 

 set up acute intestinal irritation, and vari- 

 ous changes in the body of an inflammatory 

 nature. It is not yet possible to say in 

 what way or to what degree the association 

 of bacteria influences their role. That is a 

 problem for the future. But whilst we have 

 examples of this association in streptococcus 

 and the bacillus of diphtheria, B. coli and 

 yeasts, tetanus and putrefactive bacteria, 

 Diplococcus pneumonice and streptococcus, 

 and association amongst the various suppu- 

 rative organisms, we cannot doubt that there 

 is an explanation to be found here of many 

 hitherto unsolved results of bacterial ac- 

 tion. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 1, p. 32. (G. 

 P. P., 1899.) 



3650. VISIBLE VS. ACTUAL Other 

 Worlds than Ours Like Lands Beyond the 

 Sea. The world in which we live is a round 

 ball of a determined magnitude, and occu- 

 pies its own place in the firmament. But 

 when we explore the unlimited tracts of 

 that space which is everywhere around us, 

 we meet with other balls of equal or su- 

 perior magnitude, and from which our earth 

 would either be invisible, or appear as small 

 as any of those twinkling stars which are 

 seen on the canopy of heaven. Why then 

 suppose that this little spot, little at least 

 in the immensity which surrounds it, should 

 be the exclusive abode of life and of intelli- 

 gence? What reason to think that those 

 mightier globes which roll in other parts of 



