SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, il 



A CHRISTMAS GREETING. 



Although still an infant, having scarcely at- 

 tained the age of two years, Science does not 

 appear to-day in its usual leading-strings, but has 

 been granted a certain license in accord with the 

 season, of which it does not in the half know the 

 meaning, and has been decked in a new dress to 

 fit the day. That what the child says may be 

 rambling, is to be expected : that what it may 

 mean shall be clear, its lispings shall be trans- 

 lated. First look at its new dress, all salmon 

 and brown. ' Arbor scientiae ' does not mean 

 that the plant is a scientific tree, nor yet a tree 

 upon which science grows, but rather the tree 

 is to symbolize the fact that science does grow. 

 Inside the cover you will find a picture of the 

 sun, taken at the Harvard college observatory, 

 but of a composite nature, as all the prominences 

 with which it is circled were actually observed, 

 though not all at one time.. 



The sun has in all times been worshipped by 

 some ; but since it has been reduced to nothing 

 more than a ball of fire rolling on through space, 

 according to laws fixed by Sir Isaac Newton, his 

 worshippers have many of them abandoned him. 

 Still to a few faint souls it occurred that their old 

 favorite could not fail them so utterly ; and they 

 have sought to show his influence on the growth 

 of wheat, the price of stocks, and the pointing of 

 the compass : of this there is more in the open- 

 ing article. They would also call attention to 

 the effect the sun has in bringing out the flowers, 

 and the early birds, and the insects that the birds 

 may have whereon to feed. We had not meant to 

 give the sun-worshippers such vantage-ground ; 

 but, looking down the pages, we find something 

 about tornadoes, about the variations of tempera- 

 ture at different points in the United States, and 

 a map showing by lines the points at which the 

 average mean temperature for the year is the 

 same, — phenomena which depend on the sun, 



No. 99. — 1884. 



— and certain advice to farmers which would be 

 of little avail if the sun should fail to perform its 

 part. Whether earthquakes can be made to de- 

 pend on the sun, we dare not say ; but there are 

 those who would not deny him even that power. 



But at last we find some small evidence of a 

 revolt against the tyranny of the sun. For years 

 people would rise as the sun rose, they aimed to 

 eat their dinners as the sun crossed the meridian, 

 and they donned their nightcaps as the sun went 

 down. A few wise men have long pointed out 

 that the sun had by no means the regular habit 

 he had the credit for; that often good people 

 had eaten their pudding, and got well into their 

 broth, before the sun had crossed the noon-mark. 

 This is all changed. Man now gets up by a rail- 

 way-whistle, eats his dinner by a railway-whistle, 

 and counts his sleepless hours at night by railway- 

 whistles. That it may be clear just how these 

 whistles blow, we give a map showing the limits 

 of railway-time. So the sun at last has lost a 

 part of his former pre-eminence, and yielded it 

 to the railway-king. 



The natural instinct with each of us is to live 

 within himself ; he is quite startled when, at times, 

 he notes that he is only one among a large commu- 

 nity ; and, as we view with indifference the toils of 

 some distant Tasmanian, so does the Tasmanian 

 live in utter ignorance of our toils. The maps of 

 the stars we give are from some point in the solar 

 system. We look at the stars as pretty, bright ob- 

 jects in a frosty sky. Suppose the maps made from 

 the point of view of a dweller in the planetary 

 system about o- Draconis : would our sun be given ? 



The innovations which science has brought to 

 pass have startled a few ; to allay which fear, 

 Science, casting about in search of an anchor 

 still left to which a well-regulated life may be 

 moored, has hit upon the almanac, and therefore 

 gives up the closing pages to such data of sun 

 and moon risings and settings, of high tides and 

 low tides, of planets good and planets bad, as 

 may enable all its readers to know at least when 

 it is day, and when night. 



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