CORNELL 
 
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 ^"^^S!}S!X,.9^ scientific iiiustrations a 
 
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Cornell University 
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DICTIONARY OF 
 
 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 AND SYMBOLS 
 
 MORAL TRUTHS MIRRORED IN 
 SCIENTIFIC FACTS 
 
 Desiflnca for tbe THec of tbc Senate, tbc Bar, tbe ipulptt 
 tbc ©rator, an& tbc TLovex of mature 
 
 BY 
 
 A BARRISTER OF THE HONORABLE SOCIETY 
 OF THE INNER TEMPLE 
 
 » 
 
 NEW YORK 
 ^^/'ILBUR B. KETCHAM 
 
 2 COOPER UNION 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 By Wilbur B. Ketcmam. 
 
PREFACE AND GUIDE. 
 
 This book is an assemblage of striking and interesting sci- 
 entific facts, arranged so as to be of immediate use to men who 
 require a suggestive topic, a forcible analogy, a cogent symbol, 
 or a suitable illustration. 
 
 It may also be pleasant reading to busy lovers of Nature who 
 are glad to spare half-hours from time to time in contemplating 
 the marvels of Creation. 
 
 Anecdotes have long been used to illustrate moral truth ; but 
 scientific facts are often preferable. Clergymen are finding out 
 that their hearers are somewhat tired of such of the former as 
 are drawn chiefly from the sentimental side of fife, and do not 
 rest upon reliable historical foundation. 
 
 Scientific facts, being revelations of Nature herself, are not 
 open to cavil. Nature is a parable ; and if we listen with rev- 
 erent, loving ears, and look with sincere, eager eyes where she 
 invites us, we receive eternal truths. Every pond and every 
 star has its distinctive lesson ready for the man who will learn 
 it. Professor H. Drummond, in his suggestive work, speaks of 
 "natural law in the spiritual world." From my point of view 
 these terms should be reversed. Spiritual law is the one and 
 only law. The universe is merely the mirror thereof. 
 
 As regards the mechanical arrangement of the present vol- 
 ume, it is such as should render rapid reference to every part 
 quite easy. All kindred topics are grouped throughout its pages 
 together. Besides this, there is at page 401 an alphabetical in- 
 dex of all the general topics; and on page 410 an index of 
 natural objects, technical terms, places, things, and creatures. 
 
 3 
 
4 PREFACE AND GUIDE. 
 
 In the third place, there is also a list of the books from which 
 various important facts have been culled, and an explanation 
 of those abbreviations which are used throughout these pages 
 to indicate the respective responsible authorities. 
 
 It is to be distinctly understood that no author whom I have 
 quoted is ever responsible for any illustration, symbol, analogy, 
 deduction, inference, or comment which I have anywhere made. 
 The references, which for convenience are placed at the end 
 of the topics, leave all such responsibility with me, and only 
 indicate the source whence the facts are derived. 
 
 In every instance — except that of merely common knowledge 
 ■ — I designate by the abbreviation the name of some authority 
 to whom I am indebted for my information, and who may be 
 regarded as eminently trustworthy. Wherever it has seemed 
 necessary I have given his very words. I thought it better to 
 do so than to curtail them ; because, while it is unnecessary 
 that any application of a particular fact should be more than a 
 few hints, it certainly is requisite, in an important instance, that 
 the fact itself should be stated with precision by the most com- 
 petent person, so that any speaker who uses it may be thereby 
 made master of his subject. 
 
 With a view to condensation I have, whenever possible, 
 compressed the moral application of my facts into the denot- 
 ing headings of the paragraphs. 
 
DICTIONARY 
 
 OF 
 
 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS AND SYMBOLS. 
 
 Abjectness Caused by Dependency. — A condition of 
 long dependence upon the help of others will always reduce 
 men to a state more or less abject. The effect of such depen- 
 dence is also very obvious in the case of some animals, and nota- 
 bly in that of the sheep. With no one quality now to fit it for 
 self-preservation, the sheep makes vain attempts at all. Without 
 swiftness it endeavors to fly ; and without strength sometimes 
 offers to oppose. But these feeble attempts rather incite than 
 repress the assaults of every enemy ; and the dog follows the 
 flock with greater delight upon seeing them fly, and attacks 
 them with more fierceness upon their unsupported attempts at 
 resistance. Indeed, they run together in flocks rather with the 
 hopes of losing their single danger in the crowd, than of uniting 
 to repress the attack by numbers. The sheep, therefore, were 
 it exposed in its present state to struggle with its natural ene- 
 mies of the forest, would soon be extirpated. Loaded with a 
 heavy fleece, deprived of the defense of its horns, and rendered 
 heavy, slow, and feeble, it can have no other safety than what 
 it finds from man. Its long state of dependency has made it 
 abject. A. 
 
 Aborigines, Extermination of. — Englishmen are not the 
 only creatures who are successful colonists. And the credit, if 
 
 5 
 
6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 any, of exterminating aborigines they are entitled to share with 
 insects. Let us take the case of the Australian bee. The 
 Australian bee is about the size of a fly, and without any sting ; 
 but the English bee has been so successfully introduced as to 
 be now abundant in a wild state in the bush, spreading all over 
 the Australian continent, and yielding large quantities of honey, 
 which it deposits in the hollows of trees : the immense quantity 
 of honey-yielding flowers, as Xanthorrhcea, Eucalyptus, Banksia, 
 and a multitude of others, afford an abundant supply of mate- 
 rial. The foreign bee is fast driving away the aboriginal insect 
 as the European is exterminating the Black from the settled 
 districts, so that the Australian bee is now very scarce. Does 
 this illustrate the "survival of the fittest "? G. 
 
 Absolute Rest and Motion. — Motion and rest are either 
 relative or absolute. By the relative motion or rest of a body 
 we mean its change or permanence of position with re- 
 spect to surrounding bodies ; by its absolute motion or rest we 
 mean the change or permanence of its position with respect 
 to ideal fixed points in space. Thus a passenger in a railway- 
 carriage may be in a state of relative rest with respect to the 
 train in which he travels, but he is in a state of relative motion 
 with respect to the objects (fields, houses, etc.) past which the 
 train rushes. These houses, again, enjoy merely a state of rela- 
 tive rest, for the earth itself which bears them is in a state of 
 incessant relative motion with respect to the celestial bodies of 
 cur solar system. In short, absolute motion and rest are un- 
 known to us ; in Nature relative motion and rest are alone pre- 
 sented to our observation. el. 
 
 Accidents, Nature's Governance of The accident of the 
 
 individual may be the design of Nature. We see this illustrated 
 again and again in the lives of men and in the history of nations. 
 In the forest we may clearly observe Nature's governance of 
 accidents. Many noble oaks have been planted by the squir- 
 rel, who unconsciously yields no inconsiderable boon to the 
 domains he infests. Toward autumn this provident little ani- 
 mal mounts the branches of oak-trees, strips off the acorns, and 
 
SCIENTIFIC iLLiJSTRATIOIstS. 7 
 
 buries them in the earth, as a supply of food against the sever- 
 ities of winter. He is most probably not gifted with a mem- 
 ory of sufficient retention to enable him to find every one he 
 secretes, which are thus left in the ground, and springing up 
 the following year, together with others which he accidentally 
 drops, finally grow into magnificent trees. The nut-hatch in 
 an indirect manner also frequently becomes a planter. Hav- 
 ing twisted off their boughs a cluster of beech-nuts, this curious 
 bird resorts to some favorite tree, whose bole is uneven, and 
 endeavors, by a series of manoeuvers, to get it into one of the 
 crevices of the bark. During the operation it oftentimes falls 
 accidentally to the ground, and is caused to germinate by the 
 moisture of winter. Many small beeches are found growing 
 near the haunts of the nut-hatch, which have evidently been 
 planted in this accidental manner. Thus, without design on 
 their part, the squirrel and the nut-hatch are most influential 
 planters of the two finest trees of the forest. When we gaze 
 with awe and admiration upon the grandest oak and the most 
 splendid beech in the landscape, we may reflect that those two 
 trees may actually owe their existence to two trifling accidents 
 — the one being that of a bird with a nut, and the other being 
 that of a squirrel with an acorn — which happened more than 
 a century ago! ro. 
 
 Adaptation a Law of Nature — Nothing is more variable 
 than the appearance of the stem in vegetables and trees. The 
 form, size, and direction of the stem are beautifully adapted to 
 the part which each plant has to take in the vast vegetable pop- 
 ulation which covers and adorns the globe. Plants which re- 
 quire to live in a pure and often renewed air ha-\'e a straight 
 stem, either robust or slender, according to their individual habit. 
 Where they require a moist and denser atmosphere, when they 
 have to creep along the ground, or to glide among the bram- 
 bles, the stems are usually long, flexible, and traihng. If they 
 have to float in the air, supporting themselves by plants of 
 more robust growth, or to hang suspended from forest-trees in 
 graceful festoons and light garlands, they are provided with 
 
8 DICTIOMAKY OF 
 
 flexible, slender, and pliant stems, which enable them to em- 
 brace with their tendrils the trunks of trees or shrubs. Thus 
 Nature fashions the outward forms of plants according to the 
 part which they are intended to fill, and according to the func- 
 tions which have been allotted to them. v. 
 
 Adapting One's self, The Incapability of Many inter- 
 esting facts might be brought forward respecting the difficulty or 
 facility which different animals have in accommodating them- 
 selves to varieties of temperature. It would appear that some 
 animals, particularly those which inhabit the colder latitudes, 
 enjoy a very limited range. Among these may be mentioned 
 the reindeer, the Esquimau dog, and the Arctic or great white 
 bear. All the Esquimau dogs brought to this country have 
 perished. Arctic bears when imported suffer very much from 
 the change of temperature, and, in order to keep them ahve for 
 any length of time, it is necessary to maintain a certain degree 
 of artificial cold in the places where they are kept. Every at- 
 tempt to introduce that beautiful and useful animal, the rein- 
 deer, into England or Scotland, has invariably failed, though in 
 the latter country the moss, which constitutes the principal part 
 of its food, grows in great abundance. On the other hand, it 
 is equally curious that most animals brought hither from trop- 
 ical climates die of some form of scrofula. For there is a law 
 of limitation for animals and men. And the facts respecting 
 the limited range enjoyed by some animals are not more note- 
 worthy than are those respecting the limited range of some 
 men. There are some persons who do well enough in the dull 
 dreary region of a cold official life, whose existence is unendurable 
 in the midst of the associations of wit and romance. The red- 
 tape species die if brought away from the frigid regions of offi- 
 cialism and formahty ; and there are many poor men who live 
 honest useful lives in the scenes of indigence, who, when for- 
 tune unexpectedly transports them into the luxurious scenes of 
 opulence and gaiety, die from some one or other of the results 
 of the change for which they were not constituted. Many at- 
 tempts have been made to remove very good men from one 
 
SCIE.VTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 9 
 
 position into another, and the result has been a termination of 
 their usefulness, and often of their hfe. The notion that men 
 can adapt themselves to anything is an error arising from a 
 want of observation. There is a sphere for every man ; and, as 
 a rule, the removal of him when he is fairly acclimatized either 
 renders him useless altogether, or makes it necessary that he 
 shall be sustained by artificial inventions, and in that case he 
 cannot lead that natural life which is necessary to the full de- 
 velopment of his powers. It will also be found that these diffi- 
 culties in adapting men to great changes of position increase 
 with their age. s. 
 
 Admiration, The Love of. — Man is an animal possessed of 
 a powerful instinct to ornament himself, and to attract the at- 
 tention of his fellows by various external decorations. This is 
 a passion strong in every one of us : whether in the savage, 
 who prides himself on his tattooing ; or the New Zealand chief, 
 who disfigures his face with linear incisions ; or the Red Indian, 
 who considers the ring in his nose as the symbol of nobility ; or 
 the military, arrayed in all the glories of feathers and gold lace ; 
 or the fine lady, in the fantastic creations of Parisian milli- 
 nery. It is the love of admiration that gives the common im- 
 pulse to all. This is the reason why the savage baiters his gold 
 for beads and ostrich-feathers, and why the soldier sheds his 
 blood like water for an iron cross or a silver medal. It is this 
 which makes the courtier sigh for a ribbon, or a star, or a gar- 
 ter ; and the citizen gaze with admiration and awe at the cocked 
 hat of the sheriflF, and the gilded coach of the lord mayor, s. 
 
 Adoration Premeditating the Destruction of its Object. 
 — Every reader of newspapers is familiar with the recurring in- 
 cident of an inquest held over a person who has been killed by 
 another, on the avowed ground that he had for the deceased a 
 passionate adoration. The alliance between the deep feeling 
 of adoration, or even passionate love, and the determination of 
 the will to accomplish the destruction of the object which has 
 called forth the feeling, is one of those paradoxes which, though 
 forced on us, we cannot solve, unless, indeed, we accept as an 
 
10 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 explanation that ready verdict of " insanity," which is an easy 
 mode of shelving many metaphysical problems which are incon- 
 veniently baffling. But the fact is, even that would not ac- 
 count for the anomaly altogether in this case. Because there 
 are people who systematically exhibit this anomaly as a settled 
 principle of their procedure. We refer to the' Samoiedes (or 
 Samoyedes). They are scattered to the number of about a 
 thousand families along the coasts of the Frozen Sea in the 
 government of Archangel, and in Siberia in the governments 
 of Tobolsk, and Torusk. They are heathens, worshiping the 
 sun and moon, the water and the trees; but above all they 
 adore the bear, to whom they pray. Yet they hunt him to 
 death. Howbeit, before they enter upon any expedition against 
 him, so intense is their adoration of him, that they religiously 
 spend time in offering prayers and sacrifices to him. d. 
 
 Adventurers, Our Professional. — The sea-mews, terns, 
 boobies, and cormorants live principally on fish which they catch 
 for themselves. But the skuas {Stercoraria) incessantly pursue, 
 harass, and beat these species until they have forced them to 
 disgorge and drop their booty. Before the fi.sh falls into the 
 sea it is caught by the active persecutors. But these robbers 
 are held in veneration in the Shetland Islands, and the care and 
 protection of the sheep are almost entirely intrusted to them, 
 owing to their possessing an inveterate hatred against eagles, 
 for as soon as an eagle appears in view, three or four of them 
 combine together to give him battle. They never attack him 
 in front, but harass him pitilessly until his strength is so reduced 
 that they can completely conquer him, or at least force him to 
 retreat. , Here we ha^'e what might have been intended as an 
 allegory illustrative of " Our Professional Adventurers." The 
 sea-mews, terns, boobies, and cormorants represent our bill-dis- 
 counters, accountants, syndicate-mongers, and brokers. The 
 skuas represent the lawyers who perpetually hunt, harass, and 
 rob them of their earnings. These lawyers are not ostracized, 
 but, on the contrary, are, like the skuas, encouraged ; because 
 they are supposed to protect a lamblike public from the pillage 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. II 
 
 of even greater rogues. Social skuas are deemed preferable to 
 social eagles. re. 
 
 Adversity, The Uniting Power of Many people who are 
 
 very quarrelsome in prosperity become very good friends when 
 hostile circumstances throw them together. Many statesmen 
 who quarrel desperately when they are in power become firm 
 friends when they are combined together on the Opposition 
 bench. So venomous and non-venomous snakes, when con- 
 fined together, appear to live in good-fellowship ; they are then 
 generally seen mutually entwined in voluminous and intricate 
 folds, and they have enjoyments in common, for they all drink 
 water freely, and seem pleased when any is thrown over them. 
 No doubt, restraint of liberty and metaphorical cold water are 
 good things for pacifying all snake natures. g. 
 
 Aggressive Qlory. — One of the most terrible of insects is 
 that which is appropriately called the driver-ant of Western 
 Africa [Ano?)tma arcens). They drive before them every liv- 
 ing creature. There is not an animal that can withstand them. 
 In their march they carry destruction before them, and every 
 beast knows instinctively tliat it must not cross their track. 
 They have been known to destroy even the agile monkey when 
 their swarming host had once made a lodgment on its body. 
 So completely is the dread of them in every living creature 
 that on their approach whole villages are deserted. Fire will 
 frighten almost any creature, but it has no terrors for the driver- 
 ant, which will dash at a glowing coal, fix its jaws in the burn- 
 ing mass, and straightway shrivel up in the heat.7^- Here is a 
 noble model for aggressive mihtary nations. When ants can 
 be so courageous in the work of destruction, surely men should 
 renew their zeal in that direction. Besides the eclat which must 
 attach to them if they equal the driver-ants, there are ribbons 
 and crosses and decorations awaiting them, and the plaudits of 
 Christendom. h. 
 
 Aggressors, An Example for Human. — It sometimes hap- 
 pens that the bees of an impoverished hive, impelled by hunger, 
 make up their minds to attack and pillage a neighboring hive 
 
12 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 which is well stocked with provisions. Reaumur relates a 
 strange fact which, he says, he has often observed, and which 
 proves that the bees do not fight to satisfy a sanguinary and 
 savage instinct, but (which is less reprehensible) to satisfy their 
 hunger. Bees attacked by a superior force are in no danger of 
 losing their lives if their enemies can induce them to give up 
 their throats — that expression conveys the idea. Supposing 
 three or four are previously attacking one bee : they are pull- 
 ing it by its legs, and biting it on its thorax. The unfortunate 
 object of this attack has then nothing better to do, to escape 
 alive from such a perilous situation, than to stretch out its trunk 
 laden with sweet-scented honey. The plunderers will come 
 one after the other and drink the honey ; then, cloyed, satis- 
 fied, having nothing more to demand, they go their way, leav- 
 ing the bee to return to its dweUing-place. In the latter part 
 of their proceedings they set a good example to human aggres- 
 sors who, when they rob their fellow-men of their property and 
 country, are not content with taking that only which they abso- 
 lutely require. If all human aggressors emulated the bee, and 
 never attacked or sought to obtain the goods of others except- 
 ing when absolutely pressed by hunger, the villainy of the world 
 would be very considerably diminished. i. 
 
 Aggressors, Fortune is Fickle to. — The sea-eagles {Py- 
 thargus) are bold enough to attack even the seal. As they can- 
 not lift him, they cling to his back and force him ashore by 
 means of their wings. But having buried its claws deeply in 
 its prey, it is often buried by its own audacity, for the large 
 seals are sometimes strong enough to dive and drag their foe 
 under water, where, being unable to disengage its talons, it is 
 compelled to stay and meet a miserable death, (i- Here, in the 
 language of Horace, we have the pleasure of seeing " Fortune 
 quitting the proud, and returning to the wretched." The seal 
 is one of the most harmless and intelligent of animals, and the 
 attack made upon it by the rapacious aggression of the sea-eat^le 
 meets a fitting termination when that bold bird is dragged to 
 its just doom under the sea. In many of our history tales, and 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 13 
 
 in most of our novels, we see a working out of this principle of 
 proper retribution overtaking the wrong-doer. The interest 
 very properly centers in the arrival of Nemesis to interview the 
 guilty ; and we all pray 
 
 " May Fortune with returning smiles now bless 
 Afflicted worth, and impious pride depress." 
 
 RE. 
 
 Analogues. — The outline of a tree in full summer foliage 
 may be seen represented in the outline of any one of its leaves ; 
 the uniform cellular tissue which composes the flat surface of 
 the leaf being equivalent to the round irregular mass of the 
 foUage. In fact, the green cells which clothe the veins of the 
 leaf, and fill up all its interspaces, may be regarded as the 
 analogues of the green leaves which clothe the branches of the 
 tree ; and although the leaf be in one plane, there are many 
 trees, such as the beech, whose foliage, when looked at from a 
 certain point of view, is also seen to be in one plane. Tall 
 P5rramidal trees have narrow leaves; as we see in the needles of 
 the pine ; while wide-spreading trees, on the other hand, have 
 broad leaves, as may be observed in those of the elm or syca- 
 more. In every case the correspondence between the shape 
 of the individual leaf and the whole mass of the fohage is re- 
 markably exact, even in the minutest particulars, and cannot 
 fail to strike with wonder every one who notices it for the first 
 time. Not only in trees, but in shrubs, grasses, and all herba- 
 ceous plants, we find the same typical correspondence between 
 the leaf and the whole plant ; we find the plant pattern repeated 
 in the leaf pattern. Every individual plant furnishes a special 
 illustration of it, and in some instances the resemblance is very 
 extraordinary, placing it beyond doubt that it is intentional, 
 and not accidental, design, and not mere coincidence. b. 
 
 Ancestry, Reliance on. — There are persons who seem to 
 have nothing on which to base their claims to notice but the 
 fact that they had noble ancestry, and they are never tired of 
 informing you of that fact. There is every reason for likening 
 them, as Sir T. Overbury did, to that useful esculent, the potato. 
 
14 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 They make a show, and flourish ; but the best part of them, 
 according to their own boasting, is, like the potato, buried and 
 underground. ne. 
 
 Anger, The Uses of. — It might at first appear well for man- 
 kind if the bee were without its sting ; but upon recollection it 
 will be found that the little animal would then have too many 
 rivals in sharing its labors. A hundred other lazy animals, fond 
 of honey and hating labor, would intrude upon the sweets of 
 the hive, and the treasure would be carried off for want of 
 armed guardians to protect it. And it might at first appear 
 well for mankind if the principle of anger was not a part of our 
 constitution. But then we should be overrun with rogues. The 
 presence of anger, always ready to start forth when an injury 
 is done or ifitended, has the effect of suppressing much gross 
 impudence and intolerable oppression. The sting of noble 
 anger applied to a dastard who has bullied the weak or injured 
 the unoffending has a most salutary influence in restraining him 
 for the future, and in warning his fraternity of the like punish- 
 ment which is all ready for them. But man should control his 
 anger as the bee does her sting. It is not to be perpetually 
 projected on every possible occasion, but to be used only when 
 impertinence, laziness, injustice, or fraud requires. a. 
 
 Anger Manages Everything Badly. — When the Hon is 
 irritated, he flogs his sides with his tail, and shakes his mane. 
 If, therefore, a traveler finds himself unexpectedly in the pres- 
 ence of a lion, he may know the animal's intentions, and take 
 precautions accordingly. If the tail does not move, the ani- 
 mal may be passed without fear ; but under the reverse circum- 
 stances no time must be lost in seeking a place of refuge, tinless 
 you are in a position to commence a contest with firearms, and 
 then the more prompt and determined your action the more 
 successful will be the issue. The fact is, that the lion by his 
 anger deprives himself of a good opportunity of stealing a 
 march upon you. He loses ground, and gives you vantage by 
 his manifestation of it. It was an old maxim with Statins, that 
 "Anger manages everything badly." In the transactions of 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 15 
 
 mankind undoubtedly he was right in this. It would seem 
 from the conduct of the hon that the maxim may have some 
 application even to animals. m. 
 
 Animated Nature, The Common Bond of. — When after 
 a lengthened voyage and far from home, says Humboldt, we 
 for the first time set foot in a tropical land, we are pleased to 
 recognize in the rocks and mountain masses the same mineral 
 species we have left behind — clay, slate, basaltic amygdaloid, 
 and the like, the universal distribution of which seems to assure 
 us that the old crust of the earth has been formed indepen- 
 dently of the external influences of existing climes. But this 
 well-known crust is covered with the forms of a foreign flora. 
 Yet here, surrounded by unwonted vegetable forms, impressed 
 with a sense of the overwhelming amount of the tropical organ- 
 izing force, in presence of an exotic nature in all things, the 
 native of the northern hemisphere has revealed to him the won- 
 derful power of adaptation inherent in the human mind. We 
 feel ourselves, in fact, akin to all that is organized ; and though 
 at first we may fancy that one of our native landscapes, with 
 its appropriate features, like a native dialect, would present itself 
 to us in more attractive colors, and rejoice us more than the 
 foreign scene with its profusion of vegetable life, we neverthe- 
 less soon begin to find that we are burghers even under the 
 shade of the palms of the torrid zone. In virtue of the myste- 
 rious connection of all organic forms (and occasionally the feel- 
 ing of the necessity of this connection lies within us), these new 
 exotic forms present themselves to our fancy as exalted and 
 ennobled out of those which surrounded our childhood. Blind 
 feeling, therefore, says the same great traveler, and the en- 
 chantment of the phenomena perceived by sense, in the same 
 measure as reason and the combining faculty, lead us to the 
 recognition, which now penetrates every grade of humanity, that 
 a common bond, according to determinate laws, and therefore 
 eternal, embraces the whole of animated nature. k. 
 
 Annihilated, Nothing is — Denudation is the inseparable 
 accompaniment of the production of all new strata of mechan- 
 
1 6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 ical origin. The formation of every new deposit by the trans- 
 port of sediment and pebbles necessarily implies that there has 
 been somewhere else a grinding down of rock into rounded 
 fragments, sand, or mud, equal in quantity to the new strata. 
 All deposition, therefore, except in the case of a shower of vol- 
 canic ashes, is the sign of superficial waste going on contempo- 
 raneously and to an equal amount elsewhere. The gain at one 
 point is no more than sufficient to balance the loss at some 
 other. Here a lake has grown shallower, there a ravine has 
 been deepened. The bed of the sea has in one region been 
 raised by the accumulation of new matter, in another its depth 
 has been augmented by the abstraction of an equal quantity. 
 Nothing whatever is annihilated. For "matter," says Roucher, 
 " like an eternal river, still rolls on without diminution." Every- 
 thing perishes : yet nothing is lost. e. 
 
 Annoyance a Law of Life.— Every-day events manifest to 
 very superficial observation that no created being, from the 
 monster of the ocean to the insect that feebly creeps on the 
 ground, exists free from the persecutions or annoyances of an- 
 other. Some may be subject to fewer injuries than others, but 
 none are wholly exempt : the strong assail by power, and be- 
 come assaulted themselves by the minute or weak. The hor- 
 net attacks the wasp. The wasp itself seizes the house-fly, and 
 the fly in its turn is conducive after its manner to the death of 
 many an animal. j. 
 
 Annoyances, JWortal Effects of Multiplied. — Near Golu- 
 bacs, on the Danube, there is a range of caverns famous for 
 producing the minute poisonous fly too well known in Servia 
 and Hungary under the name of the Golubacser fly. These 
 singular and venomous insects, somewhat resembling mosquitos, 
 generally make their appearance during the first great heat of 
 the summer, in such numbers as to appear like vast volumes of 
 smoke. Their attacks are always directed against every descrip- 
 tion of quadruped, and so potent is the poison they communi- 
 cate, that even an ox is unable to withstand its influence, for 
 he always expires in less than two hours. This results, not so 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 17 
 
 much from the virulence of the poison, as that every vulnerable 
 part is simultaneously covered by numbers of these most de- 
 structive insects ; when the wretched animals, frenzied with 
 pain, rush wild through the fields till death puts, a period to 
 their sufferings, or they accelerate dissolution by plunging head- 
 long in the rivers. irDuring life's pilgrimage a man has some- 
 times to pass through scenes which are fraught with petty annoy- 
 ances. They harass him like these flies. He may successfully 
 defy several ; but when he is simultaneously attacked by them 
 on all hands he often utterly collapses, or goes mad. Ro. 
 
 Annoyances, Our Allotted. — The gadfly or breeze-fly of 
 the sheep, CEstrus (Cephalemyia) ovis, has obtained notoriety on 
 account of its attacking those animals. Even at the sight of 
 this insect the sheep feels the greatest terror. As soon as one 
 of them appears the flock becomes disturbed. The sheep that is 
 attacked shakes its head when it feels the fly on its nostril, and 
 at the same time strikes the ground violently with its fore feet ; 
 it then commences to run here and there, holding its nose near 
 the ground, smelling the grass, and looking about anxiously to 
 see if it is still pursued. It is to avoid the attacks of the Cepha- 
 lemyia that during the hot days of summer sheep lie down with 
 their nostrils buried in dusty ruts, or stand up with their heads 
 lowered between their fore legs, and their noses nearly in con- 
 tact with the ground. When these poor beasts are in the open 
 country, they are observed assembled with their nostrils against 
 eiach other and very near the ground, so that those which occupy 
 the outside are alone exposed.-^fr It seems singular that an ani- 
 mal so thoroughly harmless as the sheep should be tormented 
 in this manner. Yet so it is. There appears to be a law run- 
 ning through creation ordaining to each creature certain allotted 
 annoyances. Men are no more exempt from this law than 
 sheep. Even the most harmless among them has to endure his 
 gadfly. To one it comes in the form of unaccountable disease, 
 to another in the form of systematic bad fortune, to another in 
 the form of insolent children, to another in the shape of a Xan- 
 tippe-like-wife ; but in some way or other every man has to 
 
i8 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 endure his allotted annoyance. There is not a man who has 
 not his gadfly. ^■ 
 
 Antidote Supplied by Nature, A Needed— The Quin- 
 quinas (genus Cinchona; isxii-iS.-^ Rubiacece) are medical plants, 
 than which none are more precious. They grow along the eastern 
 slope of the Andean Cordilleras in the republics of Venezuela, 
 New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The bark is the 
 most effective of all febrifuges, and is endowed with very valu- 
 able tonic and depuratory properties. Sir Samuel Baker, in an 
 address to the British Association at Dundee, pronounced it the 
 traveler's best friend, the powerful weapon with which he could 
 securely enter the African wilderness, and successfully contend 
 against its demon-host of fevers and agues. And as if by a 
 kind of compensation, the tropical forests, which contain so 
 many poisonous fruits, produce such trees as these. d. 
 
 Appearance at Variance with Character. — The Medusae 
 are among the most beautiful creatures in Nature, and appear 
 absolutely harmless. Wonderfully beautiful as are their form 
 and color, the amount of sohd matter contained in their tissues 
 is incredibly small. The greater part of their substance appears 
 to consist of a fluid difiiering little, if at all, from the sea-water 
 in which the animal swims ; and when this is drained away, so 
 extreme is the tenuity of the membranes which contained it, 
 that the dried residue of a "jellyfish," weighing two pounds, 
 which was examined by Professor Owen, weighed only thirty 
 grains ! Yet these creatures are capable of executing move- 
 ments M'ith considerable vivacity ; their disk contracts and dilates 
 alternately by the action of a band of what must be regarded 
 as a muscular tissue ; their tentacles are capable of seizing upon 
 and destroying, by a subtle venom, animals of far more com- 
 plicated structure than themselves ; and their delicate stomachs 
 have the power of speedily digesting the victim. Small fishes 
 and Crustacea, and all the infinite multitude of minute marine 
 creatures, are seized and paral)zed by their deadly arms ; and 
 as the mouth and stomach are capable of almost indefinite dila- 
 tion, the size of their prey often appears exceedingly dispropor- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 19 
 
 tionate. In fact, in spite of the extreme delicacy of their tissue, 
 these beautiful Medusae are among the most voracious inhabi- 
 tants of the ocean. They afford another instance of the fact 
 that, whether among fishes or men and women, a beautiful 
 and harmless appearance is not inconsistent with a greedy and 
 poisonous character. n. h. 
 
 Appearance with a Bad Character, A Fine. — When the 
 peacock appears with its tail expanded, there is none of the 
 feathered creation can vie with it for beauty, .yet the horrid 
 scream of its voice serves to abate the pleasure we find from 
 viewing it ; and still more its insatiable gluttony and spirit of 
 depredation make it one of the most noxious domestics that 
 man has taken under his protection.t Who has not known 
 peacock-men in every department of life — those who, by their 
 admirable demeanor, elegance, suavity, and graces, have irre- 
 sistibly awakened admiration, yet on acquaintance were detected 
 as the possessors of qualities which belied their appearance and 
 rendered them odious ? Who has not known acquaintances 
 whose appearance suggested everything that was chaste, refined, 
 and graceful, but whose disposition was in every way unlovely 
 • — who, like the peacock, were delightful as a spectacle, but in 
 other respects detestable ? a. 
 
 Appearances Fallacious Tests. — We require to be inces- 
 santly discriminating between the reality and the thing that is 
 like the reality. Even the insect and the leaf enforce this les- 
 son. Look at those singular insects of which the herbivorous 
 tribe Phasmina is composed, to which, from their close resem- 
 blance to vegetable productions, the names of walking-sticks 
 and walking-leaves are commonly given. Both are remarkable 
 in their appearance. In the walking-leaves (Pliylliidce) the body 
 is very flat and thin, and the wings form large, leaflike organs, 
 covering nearly the whole abdomen, and furnished with irregu- 
 larly reticulated nervures, which give them exactly the aspect 
 of a leaf. This leafy structure pervades the whole animal ; the 
 legs, especially the thighs, being always foliaceous. Some 
 species are of a bright green color, while others are of the 
 
20 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 brown of dead leaves ; and the natives of the countries inhabited 
 by these curious creatures generally inform Europeans that the 
 insects are all green at first, but that as the leaves change color 
 they change also. But even amid the changes still the " things 
 are not what they seem." Take another example illustrating 
 the same principle. It is well enough known that many crea- 
 tures formerly supposed to be vegetable, such as the corals and 
 the zoophytes, have since found their proper place in the ani- 
 mal kingdom ; and one consequence of this reformation was, 
 that several real plants were supposed to be animals, because 
 they possessed some of the characteristics which had distin- 
 guished those animals that had been placed in their proper 
 position. Of these plants the coralline is a good example, for 
 until a comparatively late period it was placed among the ani- 
 mals in company with the true corals. There was reason for 
 this error, for the coralline is a very curious plant indeed, gath- 
 ering from the sea-water, and depositing in its own substance, 
 so large an amount of carbonate of lime that when the purely 
 vegetable part of the alga dies and is decomposed, the chalky 
 portion remains, retaining the same shape as the entire plant, 
 and very much resembling those zoophytes with which it has 
 been confounded. While growing, the coralline is of a dark 
 purple color, but when removed from the water the purple tint 
 vanishes, and the white ^toiiy skeleton remains. It is, however, 
 a true vegetable, as may be seen by dissolving away the chalky 
 portions in acid ; there is then left a vegetable framework pre- 
 cisely like that of other algffi belonging to the same subclass. 
 
 N. H. & c. 
 
 Appreciation Intensified by Occasional Deprivation. — 
 
 As a rule men and women do not appreciate keenly those 
 things which they always possess. Occasional absence makes 
 the heart grow fonder. Take, for example, the zest with which 
 we enjoy the return of vegetation in spring, because we have 
 been deprived of it all the winter. The inhabitants of the 
 southern hemisphere — South America, Australia, and the Cape 
 of Good Hope — have no such zest in reference to their vege- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 2 1 
 
 tation, because its leaves are not periodically lost. Thus those 
 people lose the enjoyment of, perhaps, one of the most glorious 
 spectacles in the world — the first bursting into full foliage of 
 the leafless tree. They may, however, say that we pay dearly 
 for our delight by having the land covered with mere naked 
 skeletons for so many months. This is too true ; but our senses 
 acquire a keen relish for the exquisite green of the spring, 
 whieh the eyes of those living within the tropics, sated during 
 the long year with the gorgeous productions of those glowing 
 climates, can never experience. ro. 
 
 Assimilation. — There is in man a principle of assimilation. 
 From books, companions, and circumstances he extracts just 
 those principles which will build up his character. Out of het- 
 erogeneous materials his nature converts to its own use what- 
 ever is appropriate. So it is with his body. However various ■ 
 the articles of food and drink may be, it is clear that there is a 
 process by which all differences are annulled and a uniform re- 
 sult attained. Whatever characters these substances may have 
 outside the organism are altered shortly after their entrance 
 into it ; specific differences vanish, and all varieties are merged 
 in a vital unity. ph. 
 
 Associated Labor, Triumph of. — A single bee, with all its 
 industry, energy, and the innumerable journeys it has to per- 
 form, will not collect more than a teaspoonful of honey in a 
 single season, and yet the total weight of honey taken from a 
 single hive is often from sixty to one hundred pounds.-f A very 
 profitable lesson to mankind of what great results may arise 
 from persevering and associated labor ! i. o. 
 
 Astonishment. — Certain folks are perpetually being aston- 
 ished. The stanch old Churchman is astonished at any inno- 
 vation in the form of worship ; he cannot recognize his religion 
 unless it has always the same surroundings. The old Tory is 
 always astonished at the inevitable changes in the details of the 
 Constitution ; for unless he has all the same externals he can- 
 not believe his position to be safe. Among domestic animals 
 the cow is the worthy representation of this feeling of astonish- 
 
2 2 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 merit. On any alteration of its accustomed haunts, such as the 
 change in the appearance of a building, it is as astonished as a 
 narrow theologian is at a new theological term. The astonish- 
 ment of the cow at a new door has made the proverb, " Like 
 a cow at a new door." Dogs are astonished at any change in 
 the outward appearance of those they are familiar with, and at 
 any strange object : encompassing it repeatedly, and smeUing 
 at it to discover its nature. They cannot recognize their mas- 
 ter in the water, but swim round him, astonished at hearing his 
 voice, without identifying him. P- 
 
 Athletic Qlory. — The young athletic negroes in their ivory 
 hunts well know the prowess of the gorilla. He does not, like 
 the lion, sullenly retreat on seeing them, but swings himself 
 rapidly down to the lower branches, courting the conilict, and 
 clutches at the foremost of his enemies. The hideous aspect 
 of his visage, his green eyes flashing with rage, is heightened 
 by the thick and prominent brows being drawn spasmodically 
 up and down, with the hair erect, causing a horrible and fiend- 
 ish scowl. Weapons are torn from their possessor's grasp, gun- 
 barrels bent and crushed in by the powerful hands and viselike 
 teeth of the enraged athlete. Two negroes will be walking 
 through one of the woodland paths, unsuspicious of evil, when 
 in an instant one misses his companion, or turns to see him 
 drawn up in the air with a convulsed, choking cry, and in a 
 few minutes dropped to the ground a strangled corpse. The 
 terrified survivor gazes up, and meets the grin and glare of the 
 fiendish giant, who, watching his opportunity, had suddenly put 
 down his immense hind hand, caught the wretch by the neck 
 with resistless power, and dropped him only when he ceased to 
 struggle. We make a great boast at the present time about 
 our athletics. Mr. AVilkie Collins, in his masterly preface to 
 " Man and Wife," expatiates upon the disastrous effect which 
 has been produced upon society by " the recent unbridled de- 
 velopment of physical cultivation in England," and clearly 
 proves the intimate connection which exists between that and 
 the " recent spread of grossness and brutality among certain 
 
SCIENTIFIC IILVSTRATIOXS. 23 
 
 classes of the English population." Yet there are thousands 
 of gentlemen who almost venerate one of their number who may- 
 happen to be an athlete. They appear to consider that the quali- 
 ties which make up the character are really noble. Let them 
 study the gorilla, the ape which most resembles man, and then 
 reflect that when they have done their utmost to train for the 
 championship of the world, that awful brute is their superior, ro. 
 
 Atom, The World Mirrored in an. — There are myriads 
 of atoms existing in a single drop of water, recreating and exe- 
 cuting all their functions and evolutions with as much rapidity 
 and apparent facility as if the range afforded to them was as 
 boundless as the ocean. He who has attentively watched the 
 motions of these living atoms in a single drop of water, as dis- 
 played by the oxyhydrogen microscope, must feel impressed 
 with the conviction that their motions are voluntary, and that 
 their lives, like that of man, exhibit a mingled scene of pain 
 and of enjoyment. Their extreme minuteness, as judged of 
 by our feeble senses, does not prevent them from having a mul- 
 tiphcity of organs for their use, probably as perfect as in much 
 larger animals. s. 
 
 Attraction Reciprocal. — Reciprocal attraction is a principle 
 running throughout the world. Its result among men is friend- 
 ship. Its consequence in matter is adhesion. If two leaden 
 bullets are cut with a penknife so as to form two equal and 
 brightly polished surfaces, and the two faces are pressed and 
 turned against each other until they are in the closest contact, 
 they adhere so strongly as to require a force of more than one 
 hundred grams to separate them. The same experiment may 
 be made with two equal pieces of glass, which are polished and 
 made perfectly plane. When they are pressed one against the 
 other, the adhesion is so powerful that they cannot be separated 
 without breaking. As the experiment succeeds in vacuo it can- 
 not be due to atmospheric pressure, but must be attributed to 
 a reciprocal attraction between the two surfaces. The attraction 
 also increases as the contact is prolonged, and is greater in pro- 
 portion as the contact is close. So with true friendship, el. 
 
24 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Attractive may be Perilous, The. — Of the poisonous 
 plants of South America, an interesting one is the manchineel 
 '{Hippomane Majicinella). This tree thrives best, it is said, on 
 the sea-shore. It bears a profusion of very pretty fruit, resem- 
 bHng in form and color the red apple (the Spanish Manzanillo) 
 and exhaling an agreeable lemonlike odor. They are, there- 
 fore, scarcely less beguiling than Dead Sea fruits ; but they are 
 also very poisonous, yet less deadly than the milky juice which 
 flows from the slightest incision made in the tree's thick and 
 grayish bark. This juice, received into the stomach, or intro- 
 duced into the blood through a wound, slays the victim with 
 awful quickness. If it do but touch the skin, it excites a vio- 
 lent irritation, and raises swellings or boils of the worst descrip- 
 tion. The very vapor which it emits causes a painful itching 
 in the eyes, the lips, and the nostrils. It was formerly asserted 
 that to sleep under the shade of a manchineel-tree was certain 
 death, but the naturalist Jacquin, in the interests of science, 
 courageously made the experiment and proved the falsity of 
 the story. d. 
 
 Audacity and Ingratitude as Natural Characteristics. 
 
 — The cuckoo is a perfect type of a creature endowed by Nature 
 with audacity and ingratitude as its prominent characteristics. 
 Instead of building a nest for itself, the cuckoo always auda- 
 ciously deposits her eggs in the nests of some of the smaller in- 
 sectivorous birds, generally placing only one egg in each nest. 
 The egg of the cuckoo is comparatively of small size, so that the 
 small birds into whose nest the intruder is thus foisted are not 
 alarmed at its presence, but hatch it together with their own 
 offspring, and when hatched pay as much attention to the young 
 parasite as if his presence in the nest was perfectly legitimate. 
 The young cuckoo, however, repays all this care with a behavior 
 which is gross ingratitude ; for as soon as he has acquired suffi- 
 cient strength, he proceeds in the most businesslike manner to 
 get rid of his foster-brothers, in order to appropriate to the 
 gratification of his own inordinate appetite the whole of the sup- 
 plies brought by the parent birds. For this purpose he gently 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 25 
 
 insinuates himself under the body of one of the young birds, 
 and, by the assistance of his wings, contrives to hoist the unfor- 
 tunate httle animal upon his back, which is furnished with a 
 peculiar depression to enable the latter to rest comfortably in 
 that dangerous position. Having succeeded thus far, the young 
 cuckoo proceeds backward to the edge of the nest, and then, 
 with a sudden jerk, throws off his burden. In this manner, in 
 the course of a few days, the usurper remains in undisturbed 
 possession of the nest, and secures to himself the entire atten- 
 tion of the birds which he has thus deprived of their legitimate 
 offspring. This care is continued long after the young cuckoo 
 has left the nest. We see, therefore, that both the audacity 
 and the ingratitude which are the characteristics of this bird 
 are crowned with success. When we reflect upon this singular 
 fact, we cannot fail to be struck by the coincidence that these 
 same qualities are just those which have been such powerful 
 factors in the success of many men. Nor is it less remarkable 
 that there are certain families which Nature has endowed with 
 audacity and ingratitude as their most striking peculiarities. 
 The biography of such persons reveals quite plainly that it 
 was owing entirely to these cuckoolike endowments that suc- 
 cess attended them throughout their career. The cuckoo in- 
 stinct guided them. n. h. 
 
 Audacity a Means of Success. — What may have been the 
 cause of attributing a high degree of ferocity to the tiger, is its 
 incredible audacity. In this it differs from the lion, for when 
 hungry no obstacle, not even the most certain danger, will ar- 
 rest it. Nor does it delay nor employ artifice to entrap its 
 prey, nor will it abandon it if too powerful ; neither does it wait 
 to be reduced by hunger to the last extremity before it braves 
 every obstacle. No ; it throws itself without hesitation on the 
 first object that presents, whether man or animal, and will face 
 death a thousand times in order to carry it off. Thi^ temerity 
 is frequently crowned with success. Not only is it so in the 
 case of tigers, but it is so also in regard to men. The French 
 people consider that the success of the men who imposed the 
 
26 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 first French republic upon the reluctant nation was due to 
 their acting up to "the maxim of one of their grand proto- 
 types of 1793, de I'audace, encore Vaiidace, toujours de Paiidace." 
 Whether this estimate be correct or not, certain it is that many 
 of the vast things of history owe their accomplishment to the 
 exhibition of that same quahty which distinguishes the tiger — 
 " audacity, always audacity.'' m. 
 
 Authors, Posthumous Mischief of Immoral. — It is a 
 remarkable fact, and is proved by Dr. Bell (in his " History of 
 British Insects "), that the poison of the rattlesnake is even se- 
 creted after death. Dr. Bell, in his dissections of the rattle- 
 snakes which have been dead many hours, has found that the 
 poison continued to be secreted so fast as to require to be dried 
 up occasionally with sponge or rag4l- The immoral author, like 
 these rattlesnakes, not only poisons during his lifetime, but after 
 death : because his books possess the subtle power of secreting 
 the \-enom to a horrible degree. A moral sponge is constantly 
 called into requisition to obliterate his poison for many years 
 after he himself has been dead. re. 
 
 Autocrats, The Jealousy of. — Autocrats, whether elected 
 or usurping, are all more or less jealous. The female autocrat 
 is in some respects worse than the male. Two queen bees will 
 not live together in the same hive. And indeed, as soon as a 
 young queen bee is about to lay her eggs, she is anxious to 
 destroy all the royal pupas which still exist in the hive. When 
 she has become a mother, she attacks one after the other the 
 cells which still contain females. She may be seen to throw 
 herself with fury upon the first cell she comes to. She tears 
 an opening in it large enough for her to introduce her sting. 
 When she has stung the. female which it contains, she with- 
 draws to attack another. 1 Man is not much behind these jeal- 
 ous insects. Among certain tribes of Ethiopians the first care 
 of the nf wly crowned chief is to put in prison all his brothers, 
 so as to prevent wars by pretenders to the throne. And even 
 among more civilized nations the records are numerous of the 
 mean and petty tricks and cruelties adopted by kings and 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 27 
 
 queens for disposing of any possible rivals. In favor of Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty the Queen Bee it must be said that 
 when she has fairly got rid of all dread of rivalry, she does set 
 to her own legitimate work for the benefit of the bee commu- 
 nity with indefatigable zeal. It is to be regretted that equal 
 commendation cannot be given to the human autocrat, whose 
 laziness and roguery usually increase when security is assured. 
 
 I. 
 
 Avarice, A Retribution on. — In the island of Ternate, 
 belonging to the Dutch, a place that had been long celebrated 
 for its beauty and healthfulness, the clove-trees grew in such 
 plenty that they in some measure lessened their own value : for 
 this reason the Dutch resolved to cut down the forests, and thus 
 to raise the price of the commodity,, but they had soon reason 
 to repent of their avarice ; for such a change ensued by cutting 
 down the trees that the whole island, from its being healthy and 
 delightful, having lost its charming shades, became exti-emely 
 sickly, and has actually continued so to this day. a. 
 
 Avidity, The Utilization of. — The cormorant [Fhalacro- 
 corax carbd) has an insatiable appetite. The havoc it commits 
 in rivers where it successfully dives for fish is very great. The 
 Chinese and Japanese utilize its habits for their own purpose. 
 They turn them loose into waters abounding with fish, and 
 place a ring round their neck which prevents them from swal- 
 lowing the prey when it is caught. The bird is trained to know 
 its master's voice, and at his call brings him all the fish it cap- 
 tures. ^It is wonderfully dexterous and successful in securing 
 the fish, and thousands of small rafts and boats are used en- 
 tirely for this species of fishery. This is one of the many ways 
 in which men show that they can profit by the avidity of others. 
 A natural thief is so greedy that he is often employed by offi- 
 cial authority to catch others ; and hence we have the proverb, 
 " Set a thief to catch a thief." Lawyers are so rapacious for 
 money that they can be employed to hunt to the ends of the 
 earth a man who owes any to their client ; so that Lord 
 Brougham once defined a lawyer as " a man who wins back 
 
28 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 your estate for you, and keeps it himself." The legal cor- 
 morant is, however, in these clays under better control, and, 
 hke the ringed bird, now illustrates how avidity may be safely 
 utilized. RE. 
 
 Beautiful, The Production of the. — Beauty, of course, is 
 a mere mental conception. But if we once possess the idea 
 and love it, we shall find that we enjoy a great capacity for 
 the production of that which corresponds to our idea of what 
 is beautiful. This does not only apply to the moral world, but 
 also to the material. There we can produce the beautiful even 
 out of very unpromising materials. Who could have antici- 
 pated that matters so dull and common as sand and the ash of 
 a wood fire should, under certain circumstances, unite to form 
 bright transparent glass ? What feat can be conceived more 
 wonderful than, from a substance so dingy, dirty, and unprom- 
 ising as coal-tar, to create the beautiful series of aniline colors 
 which we admire as mauve, magenta, solferino, and bleu de 
 Paris ? To such perfection, indeed, has chemistry now carried 
 this branch of manufacture, that there is hardly any tint which 
 may not be obtained from coal-tar by skilful treatment, be. 
 
 Beauty, Subtleness and Fragility of Forms and exis- 
 tence of beauty, how evanescent they are ! How subtle, how 
 fragile, yet what a fascination they possess ! Behold them on 
 a humble scale in the life of the Cydippe pileiis, which is fragile 
 as its form. It plays about rapidly, for a time, in its little world 
 of water, then dies, and disappears as if it had melted into noth- 
 ing. Yet when alive, even if it be cut in pieces or broken up 
 by the force of the waves, as is often the case, its ciliated bands 
 still continue to perform their work, and the iridiscent light 
 plays over the fragments as beautifully as when the existence 
 was entire. But, beyond compare with these forms of beauty, 
 see yonder glowing sunset, and its wondrous tints and lights in 
 their vast supernal splendors ! Oh, \-ision of beauty ! Alas ! 
 as we gaze the tints are fading, and the lights gi'ow dim ; the 
 celestial panorama is dissoh'ing ; the night winds blow across 
 the dismal sea, and a few darkening clouds and faint streaks 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 29 
 
 of amber light alone remain to tell of the evanescence of 
 beauty. d. 
 
 Beauty, Unostentatious. — The name of Aphrodite, the 
 Greek goddess of beauty, was first given to the sea-mouse on 
 account of its marvelous loveliness. The beauty of its hairs 
 is almost inconceivable. They are as magnificently colored 
 as the plumes that decorate the throat of the humming-bird, 
 and, unlike those feathers, change their color with every move- 
 ment. Every color of the rainbow is reflected from these hairs ; 
 and as each individual hair reflects a different color, it may be 
 imagined that the appearance of the animal is indeed beautiful. 
 Why the creature should be endowed with such a gorgeous 
 dress is not easy to see, because it hves where the light seldom 
 penetrates, and where its splendid clothing is all hidden. The 
 chosen habitation of the aphrodite is in the muddy bed of the 
 sea, and as if not satisfied with humbly hiding its beauties in 
 the black and fetid mud, it creeps beneath stones or shells, so 
 as to be completely hidden from the light. It is an illustration 
 of a too retiring unostentatious beauty, and is the reverse of 
 the picture of flaunting elegance exhibited by both the peacock 
 and the vain belle of fashionable society. f. 
 
 Being, How to Test the Worth of any. — If we put our- 
 selves entirely on one side, and try to look at animal life as a 
 thing in which we had no part, we should, of course, in attempting 
 to fix the rank of any being, be guided almost exclusively by the 
 range and complexity of the duties the creature was enabled to 
 fulfil. We should use function almost by itself as a test of worth, 
 and should look upon structure as simply the means to an end. 
 Dignity of function, springing as it does out of intricate and 
 finished machinery, must, when we look at animals apart from 
 ourselves, form the standard by which rank in life can be 
 judged. On the one hand, we may ponder over the dreary 
 simphcity of a fish's life, the monotony of its daily swim, the 
 low character and even small amount of nervous energy re- 
 quired to move its uniform masses of muscle, and the feeble 
 working of its diminutive brain — limited, apparently, to the 
 
30 DICriONARY OF 
 
 Stirring up, through rough and gross sensual perceptions, of a 
 turbid consciousness, which the accumulation of even years of 
 experience can hardly mold into anything hke intelUgence. 
 Even in performing that duty which usually calls forth the high- 
 est cerebral activity, viz., the care of the young, the greatest 
 effort of the fish is perhaps to construct a nest of the rudest 
 kind. But turning from these cold and flabby creatures to the 
 gifted bee, and meditating upon its bright and varied life — on 
 those wonderful exhibitions of its power and skill which never 
 fail to excite the admiration of mankind, and on its finely 
 wrought and compact organization put to use in the facile ac- 
 complishment of difficult and delicate tasks — we think it natural 
 to rank so full a life above that of the plainer vertebrate. The 
 bee's life is as short as it is bright : it has httle time to learn ; 
 little opportunity of accumulating experience either for itself or 
 for its offspring. If it were long-lived, and the race to con- 
 tinue long-lived through many generations, there would prob- 
 ably cease to be any dispute about the reason and instinct of 
 bees. If we are to consider mankind as standing at the head 
 of creation, we can only do so by virtue of our many powers 
 and resources, and by reason of our mastery over the circum- 
 stances of life. If we are to single out of the human race par- 
 ticular individuals for especial rank, it should be those who are 
 qualified for high service by reason of the range and character 
 of their virtues and faculties. q. 
 
 Benignant Soul, The. — The benignant soul possesses a 
 vital energy and an ubiquity which resemble the moss. It 
 matters not to the healthy action of the mosses' functions 
 whether the surrounding air be stagnant or in motion, for we 
 find them on the mountain top amid howling winds and dri- 
 ving storms, and in the calm, silent, secluded wood, where hardly 
 a breeze penetrates to ruffle their leaves. The range of flower- 
 ing plants is circumscribed by conditions of light, temperature, 
 elevation above the sea, geological character of the district, and 
 various other physical causes ; but the wonderful \-ital energy 
 with which the mosses are endowed enables them to resist the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 31 
 
 most unfavorable influences, to grow freely and luxuriantly even 
 in the bleakest circumstances, and to acclimatize themselves, 
 without changing their character, in any region of the earth, 
 and every kind of situation upon its surface. They symbolize 
 the benignant soul. It is found in connection with every form 
 of religion, and where there is no form of rehgion at all. In 
 the fierceness of a world's persecution it maintains its place, yet 
 graces the humble secluded paths of private life. It is found 
 in men of all colors and climes ; and, in various forms, dwells 
 wherever there is suffering which needs solacing, or calamities 
 which demand heroism. fo. 
 
 Biter Bitten, TFie. — The common pinna (Pinna pectinatd) 
 are plentiful on the southern coasts of England, particularly in 
 Cornwall. One or two inches of the pointed end of the shell 
 are inserted in the soil. In its ordinary position this opening 
 in the shell is about two inches wide, exposing the contained 
 aninial, which occupies but a small portion of the cavity, and 
 seems to offer itself as a prey to the first creature that may 
 choose to devour it. Some fish is thus tempted to enter, but 
 the first touch within is a signal for destruction. The shell 
 closes not only at the side but top, the latter action being 
 effected by the separation of the pointed ends, and the captive 
 is either crushed to death, or soon perishes from confinement. 
 Here is a lesson to men who are audaciously aggressive in their 
 cupidity. The pinna which you covet may encompass you ! 
 
 c. s. 
 
 Blessings in Unexpected Places. — Poor as may be the 
 fauna of the desert, there is yet cause enough for astonishment 
 that the species which compose it, especially the herbivora, 
 should be able to find subsistence in these seas of sands, where 
 they can find but a few saline plants scattered at rare intervals, 
 and where fresh water is almost wholly wanting. It is, how- 
 ever, well known nowadays that the wilderness provides its 
 denizens with an aliment, which is sometimes very abundant, 
 suitable for man, the camel, and the beasts, and is considered 
 identical by many authorities with the manna of the Bible This 
 
32 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 substance is a cryptogamous vegetable, variously christened 
 Lichen escukntus (Acharius), Lecanora esculenta (Pallas), luttarut 
 (by the Arabs), and vassela-el-ard (by the Algerines). It some- 
 times forms on the sand, in the morning, a layer one or two 
 inches in thickness, and appears to have dropped from heaven, 
 or to have sprung spontaneously from the soil during the night. 
 It is probable that its spores, transported by the wind, are 
 developed by the humidity which is condensed through the 
 nocturnal coldness. A growth like this teaches us not to be 
 depressed on occasions when we may happen to be in the wil- 
 derness tracts of our life. For we often find blessings in unex- 
 pected places. Do not be afraid of the wilderness when you 
 remember the manna, and observe in this wonderful provision 
 of Nature how much of aptness there is in Isaiah's allusion to 
 the wilderness as a fruitful field. d. 
 
 Blessings are Relative. — In the recesses of the great cave 
 of Kentucky, miles underground, there are waters which no 
 ray of sunlight ever reaches, and which are inhabited by blind 
 insects and blind fishes. Dr. Wyman examined fourteen of 
 these fishes [Amblyopsis spelceus), and in three or four of them 
 only was he able to detect an eyeball beneath the skin. These 
 he dissected, and found that the eye was wholly covered by 
 areolar tissue, and was not organized to receive images of ex- 
 ternal objects. Now, it is universally affirmed that light is one 
 of the greatest blessings in the world ; and it might be supposed 
 that if it could be made to penetrate into any such recess as 
 this cave it would be a vast benefit. Yet what waste of energy 
 it would be to break through the rocks and open the rayless 
 ■"."aters to the sunlight! For here you have creatures which do 
 not need light ; " eyes which see not," and lives which are in- 
 dependent of the sun. That which would be an unspeakable 
 blessing to others would be no blessing here. To labor to light 
 up this place would be as unnecessarily disappointing as are 
 the labors of those educationists who carry the blessings of 
 music to unharmonious souls ; of reasoning to addle-pated dolts ; 
 of poetry to blockheads ; of Christliness to hypocritical formal- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. ZZ 
 
 ists. Blessings are relative things. It is absurd to judge that 
 the same thing will benefit all. It is waste time to attempt to 
 carry the light of knowledge to creatures whose natures are dis- 
 qualified for its reception. The spiritual eyes of some men are 
 not organized to receive impressions. All, therefore, that we 
 have a right to expect from such individuals is that they will 
 harmlessly fulfil their destiny in the darkness which is natural 
 to them. MU. 
 
 Blessings Neutralized. — The world is full of instances of 
 blessings which are neutralized by surrounding circumstances. 
 Springs of fresh water are often found rising up in the sea. 
 Nevertheless the sailor dies of thirst, because the properties of 
 the fresh water are merged in and rendered inert by the sea ; 
 so he wails with the Ancient Mariner, 
 
 " Water, water everywhere, 
 But never a drop to drink.'' 
 
 In social life we may see people blessed with ample riches, but 
 the benefit of them is rendered inactive by reason of disease or 
 meanness. In the domestic world we may often see all the 
 pure springs of home enjoyment completely neutralized by the 
 bitter waters of discontent, peevishness, vanity, and female self- 
 ishness. MA. 
 
 Blessings, Tlie Diffusion of. — The globe of the earth is 
 surrounded with a mass of atmosphere extending forty or fifty 
 miles above the surfaice. Each particle of air is a luminous 
 center, receiving its light from the sun, and it radiates light in 
 every direction. Were it not for this, the sun's light could only 
 penetrate those spaces which are directly accessible to his rays. 
 Thus, the sun shining upon the window of an apartment would 
 illuminate just so much of that apartment as would be exposed 
 to his direct rays, the remainder being in darkness. But we 
 find, on the contrary, that although that part of the room upon 
 which the sun directly shines is more brilliantly illuminated than 
 the surrounding parts, these latter are nevertheless strongly illu- 
 minated. In the social world, too, there are luminous centers. 
 
34 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 These are noble souls, who, being especially blessed themselves, 
 diffuse in every direction some of the blessings which they have 
 received. Were it not for them, and their power of spreading 
 brightness, goodness, and joy, the world would be indeed ray- 
 less and cold. ha. 
 
 Blusterer's Demeanor and Collapse, The. — The blusterer 
 reminds us of the dor-beetle {Scarabaiis stercorarius), for he is 
 noisy and affects fearlessness, yet is a great coward. The dor- 
 beede, with a violent and noisy flight, proceeds on its way, or 
 circles around with an apparent fearlessness of harm ; yet the 
 instant it is touched, or interrupted in its progress, though in 
 no way injured, it will immediately fall to the ground, generally 
 prostrate on its back, its limbs extended, stiff, and seemingly 
 devoid of life, and suffering itself to be handled without mani- 
 festing any signs of animatioi;i. In time, finding no harm ensues, 
 it resumes its former state. j. 
 
 Braggadocio, The Destiny of the. — The ruffed grouse 
 {Bonasa umbellus) found in the United States of America 
 measures about eighteen inches in length, and furnishes an ex- 
 ceedingly delicate food. The most remarkable of the American 
 species is the pinnated grouse (Teiraro cupido), which is found, 
 though rarely, in many parts of the United States. A remark- 
 able habit of these birds is thus described by Mr. Mitchell in 
 Wilson's " American Ornithology " : " During the period of mat- 
 ing, and while the females are occupied in incubation, the males 
 have a practice of assembling principally by themselves. To 
 some select and central spot, where there is very little under- 
 wood, they repair from the adjoining district. From the exer- 
 cises performed there, this is called a scratching-place. The 
 time of meeting is the break of day. As soon as the light ap- 
 pears, the company assembles from every side, sometimes to 
 the number of forty or fifty, ^^^hen the dawn is past, the cere- 
 mony begins with a low tooting from one of the cocks ; this is 
 answered by another. They then come forth one by one from 
 the bushes and strut about with all the pride and ostentation 
 they can display. Their necks are incurvated ; the feathers on 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOKS. 35 
 
 them are erected into a sort of ruff ; the plumes of their tails are 
 expanded like fans ; they strut about in a style resembling, as 
 nearly as small may be illustrated by great, the. pomp of the 
 turkey-cock. They seem to vie with each other in stateliness ; 
 and, as they pass each other, frequently cast looks of insult, 
 and utter notes of defiance. These are the signals for battles. 
 They engage with wonderful spirit and fierceness, leaping a 
 foot or two from the ground, and uttering a cackling, scream- 
 ing, and discordant cry.'' Occasionally, however, these exhibi- 
 tions of pride receive rather an unpleasant interruption ; for the 
 hunters often find out the scratching-places, and by concealing 
 themselves overnight, with their guns, in huts of pine branches, 
 within a few yards of the spot, deal wholesale destruction upon 
 the unfortunate bircjs, while these are engaged in strutting 
 about or fighting. -"It is the destiny of the braggadocio to be 
 caught in his work. Whether the braggadocio be feathered or 
 human, the end must be the same. Noise, swagger, vainglory- 
 ing, and fighting must attract the attention of strong enemies. 
 Those enemies, of course, bide their time ; and when proud 
 braggarts are utterly engrossed in their fightings, they make 
 them an easy prey. Emperors and grouse are equally fated 
 when they assume the character of the braggadocio. nd. 
 
 Bright Tints in Unexpected Places The bright and the 
 
 beautiful often arrest our attention where we should not have 
 expected to have discovered them. Take colors, for example. 
 All transparent bodies, solids, liquids, or gases, when in suffi- 
 ciently fine laminae, appear colored in very bright tints, espe- 
 cially by reflection. Crystals which cleave easily, and can be 
 obtained in very thin plates, such as mica and selenite, show 
 this phenomenon, which is also well seen in mother-of-pearl 
 and in soap-bubbles. A drop of oil, unattractive enough in 
 its own appearance, when spread rapidly over a- large sheet of 
 water, exhibits all the colors of the spectra in a constant order. 
 Even a soap-bubble, when it is blown out, is brilliant and iri- 
 descent. 
 
 Brightness in Combination with Impurity The illu- 
 
36 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 minating power of phosphorus appears due to an extremely- 
 slow chemical reaction, and it is affirmed that vegetable and 
 animal substances may grow phosphorescent at a certain stage 
 of decomposition, or even without any appearance of putrefac- 
 tion. Accredited authorities cite a host of examples of fresh 
 or stale meats which have been seen to shine during the night 
 with a more or less vivid clearness. Fish, and especially salt- 
 water fish, when no longer fresh, acquire a phosphorescence 
 which brightens during the first period of putrefaction. Leave 
 for two or three days dead salt-water fish in non-luminous sea- 
 water : at the end of that time the water will be covered with 
 a thin pellicle of fatty matter, and will soon become phospho- 
 rescent. But it is not only in material nature that we thus find 
 brightness in combination with impurit)'. Genius itself has been 
 found shining amid moral putrefaction. When so found its 
 light is ephemeral and phosphorescent, but when allied to moral 
 goodness its blaze is like the sun. my. 
 
 Brilliant, but Nasty. — The luminous shark {Squalus ftil- 
 gens) emits, from its head and body, a vivid greenish phospho- 
 rescent gleam. Yet this imparts to the fish a truly ghastly and 
 terrific appearance. You are fascinated by the brilliancy, but 
 repulsed by the creature which it reveals. The same feeling 
 is excited in our minds by certain men and women of genius 
 whose wit and fancy sparkle over moral hideousness in three- 
 volume novels. Their intellectual light may be attractive ; but 
 the appearance of their moral nature, under their own irradia- 
 tion, is horrible. G. 
 
 Bully, The Characteristics of a. — There is no animal, 
 how contemptible soever, that will venture boldly to face the 
 turkey-cock, that he will not fly from. With great insolence, 
 however, on the other hand, he pursues everything that seems 
 to fear him, ]iarticularly lap-dogs and children, against both 
 which he seems to have a peculiar a\'ersion. On such occa- 
 sions, after he has made them scamper, he returns to his female 
 train, displays his plumage around, struts about the yard, and 
 gobbles out a note of self-approbation. In fact, he exemplifies 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 37 
 
 all the characteristics of a bully. Like the human bully, he is 
 officious, insolent, and loves self-display. His victories are 
 trumpery, yet he is full of self-applause. He is an arrant cow- 
 ard, and therefore struts and swaggers, and delights in brag. 
 
 A. 
 
 Bumbledom, The Philosophy of. — The Cristatella nmcedo 
 is one of the most singular beings that America, or indeed any 
 country, produces. It appears much as if it had been made of 
 soft, woolly silk, and at first sight bears a resemblance to a long- 
 haired caterpillar that had been flattened by accident. The 
 strange point in this creature is that it is locomotive, and can 
 crawl along with a steady and slow motion. How it manages 
 to crawl is really a wonder. If it were a single animal, there 
 would be no mystery about it ; but it must be remembered that 
 it is an aggregation of separate animals, each distinct in itself, 
 though preserving a connection with all the others. To all ap- 
 pearance these animals have no particular organs of sensa- 
 tion, and their tentacles are merely outspread as nets to en- 
 tangle any particles of food that may happen to float against 
 them. It seems almost incredible that beings thus constituted 
 should have any power of concerted action. Yet that such is 
 the case is evident from the fact that the aggregated mass is 
 able to crawl about, for unless the multitudinous animals agreed 
 to move consentaneously, the entire mass would remain still. 
 To prove that there is really a concerted action, and that the 
 movement is not involuntary, it will be seen that the Cristatella 
 does clearly choose the direction in which it goes, inasmuch as 
 it shuns the dark and shady places, and loves to crawl in shal- 
 low water, where it can enjoy the light and heat of the sun- 
 beams. This oddity is typical of Bumbledom. Bumbledom is 
 one of the queerest forms of nineteenth-century social life. 
 Considering the elements of stupidity, vulgarity, obstinacy, and 
 jobbery of which it is agglomerated, it is wonderful that it makes 
 any progress at all. Yet it does so ; and it is remarkable that 
 before it can take one single step even to secure benefits for 
 itself, all the separate heads of stupidity, vulgarity, obstinacy, 
 
38 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 and jobbery have to concur in the movement. Of course its 
 pace is dismally slow; and since it resembles the Cristatella 
 mucedo in so much, it would be satisfactory if we could add 
 that, hke its prototype, it is directed away from " shady places, 
 and always toward the light." f. 
 
 Business Aptitude. — It is a noteworthy fact that an ant 
 will always avail itself of any accidental circumstance that may 
 assist it in building. One of these industrious little beings has 
 been observed to take advantage of some straws that happened 
 to cross one another, and to convert them into beams where- 
 with the ceiling of its home could be supported, depositing little 
 clay pellets in the angles formed by the straws, and then laying 
 several rows of the pellets along the sides of the straws. On 
 account of these extemporized beams, the ceiling was neces- 
 sarily of much greater strength than those which were con- 
 structed in the usual manner. This insect possesses an apti- 
 tude for the business in hand. It understands how to turn 
 everything to account in connection with the task in which it 
 may be engaged. In this respect there is a great contrast be- 
 tween it and the jackdaw, who, when he flies toward his nest 
 with a branch which he has selected as suitable for use in its 
 construction, carries it crosswise, and so cannot enter any small 
 aperture leading to his nest, and therefore has to abandon his 
 load. This sort of business aptitude which the ant possesses is 
 just that quality which, in a man, helps to make a fortune. 
 Some men in a preeminent degree possess the antlike tact, 
 which turns anything to account on the instant. h. 
 
 Calmness under Attack. — When attacked, either by force 
 or by argument, we often lose our vantage-ground by our want 
 of calmness. We may take a useful hint from the deportment 
 of the gray heron. When this bird is closely pursued by its 
 enemies, which generally are the eagle and the falcon, it makes 
 an admirable but quiet defense. Its usual tactics are to wait 
 for its enemy, using its bill like a lance in rest, and to allow the 
 attacker to pierce himself through merely by his own impetuos- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 39 
 
 ity. Sometimes the adversary gets completely impaled. " Be 
 steady under attack," was the wise advice of Mr. Justice Willes 
 to a young barrister. And the heron inculcates the same sug- 
 gestion to everybody. re. 
 
 Cantankerous Character, The The life of the cantan- 
 kerous man is like the life of the hamster rat in nearly all promi- 
 nent particulars. The life of the hamster rat is, like his, divided 
 between eating and fighting. It seems to have no other passion 
 than that of rage, which induces it to attack every animal that 
 comes in its way, without in the least attending to the superior 
 strength of its enemy. Ignorant of the art of saving itself by 
 flight, rather than yield it will allow itself to be beaten to pieces 
 by a stick. If it seize a man's hand, it must be killed before 
 it will quit its hold. The magnitude of the horse terrifies it as 
 little as the address of the dog, which last is fond of hunting 
 it. This ferocious disposition prevents the hamster from being 
 at peace with any animal whatever. It even makes war with 
 its own species. Whether the creature prides itself, like the can- 
 tankerous man, on being very brave because of all this unneces- 
 sary biting and fighting, we have no means of knowing. p. 
 
 Capacity Determined by Sphere Lyell mentions that 
 
 when companies were formed in England to work the mines in 
 Mexico, some of the English miners who were sent out, being 
 fond of field-sports, brought grayhounds with them, to have the 
 pleasure of cotusing on the Mexican mountains, which abound 
 in hares. They found, however, to their great mortification, 
 that the dogs were quite unable to come up to the hares of 
 Mexico. This is explained by recollecting that these gray- 
 hounds, being transferred from the low and flat lands of Eng- 
 land to a mountainous country raised several thousand feet 
 above the level of the sea, and thus experiencing a consider- 
 able diminution of atmospheric pressure, became short-winded, 
 a"nd incapable of running down their game. But in the course 
 of a few years, their offspring which were born and brought up 
 in the new country, having their chests and respiratory systems 
 
40 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 adapted to this elevated situation, proved themselves in ranning 
 down hares fully equal to their parents in England. s. 
 
 Capricious Disposition, The — The genus Gueiion com- 
 prises about thirty species of monkeys. GeoffroyjSaint-Hilaire 
 says : " They have a singular aptitude in passing from gaiety, 
 which is otherwise their usual state, to melancholy, from melan- 
 choly to joy, and from joy to anger in a few seconds, and from 
 the shghtest causes. We see them ardently desirous of obtain- 
 ing a certain object, testifying the liveliest pleasure if allowed 
 to possess it, and almost immediately after throwing it away 
 with indifference, or breaking it in a fit of rage. We also see 
 them delighting in the society of another animal, evincing in 
 their own way the most tender- regard for it, and then suddenly 
 becoming irritated, pursuing it with hoarse cries, and biting it 
 as if it wfere an enemy ; immediately peace is made, and the 
 caresses recommence and continue, until a new caprice brings 
 about the same results." How much all this resembles the pro- 
 ceedings which we see among men and women who are types 
 of the capricious disposition ! m. 
 
 Carcass=Seekers. — Where the carcass is, there will the vul- 
 tures be gathered. Directly an enterprise is brought to commer- 
 cial ruin, what an awful array of hungry accountants, lawyers, 
 jobbers, and rogues alight upon the scene, greedy, desperate, 
 and keen! Their example seems to be the sociable vulture, 
 an inhabitant of the interior of the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 of the eastern parts of Africa. It dwells in the mountains, 
 where the numerous caves and fissures furnish it with a good 
 shelter in which to pass the night, or to repose during the day 
 after a full meal. At sunrise they are seen perched upon the 
 rocks in large bands ; and from these stations they soar into the 
 air to such a height as to become quite invisible. But, even 
 at their greatest elevation, they still keep a sharp lookout upon 
 the occurrences in the world below them ; for no sooner does 
 an animal die than the vultures are upon it, " seeming," as Le 
 Vaillant expresses it, " to escape from a cavern in the sky." If 
 a hunter kill an animal which he cannot remove at once, he 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 41 
 
 will find on his return that the vultures are already busy on its 
 carcass, although a quarter of an hour previously not one was 
 to be seen in the neighborhood. mu. 
 
 Cast Down, but not Destroyed. — The hawk's-bill turtle is 
 the animal which furnishes the valuable " tortoise-shell " of com- 
 merce, and is therefore a creature of great importance. The 
 scales of the back are thirteen in number, and as they overlap 
 each other for about one third of their length, they are larger 
 than in any other species where the edges only meet. In this 
 species, too, the scales are thicker, stronger, and more beauti- 
 fully clouded than in any other turtle. The removal of the 
 plates is a very cruel process, the poor reptiles being exposed 
 to a strong heat which causes the plates to come easily off the 
 back. In many cases the natives are very rough in their mode 
 of conducting this process, and get the plates away by lighting- 
 a fire on the back of the animal. This mode of management, 
 however, is injurious to the quality of the tortoise-shell. After 
 the plates have been removed, the turtle is permitted to go free, 
 as its flesh is not eaten, and after a time it is furnished with a 
 second set of plates. These, however, are of inferior quality, 
 and not so thick as the first set. # na. 
 
 Casuist's Defense, A. — A peculiar organ possessed by 
 many Cephalopoda is the ink-bag, a small pyriform sac, which 
 secretes a dark-brown fluid ; its contents may be discharged 
 into the water, which is thus discolored for a considerable ex- 
 tent. When attacked, the animals constantly employ this arti- 
 fice to facilitate their escape, the inky secretion producing a 
 thick cloud in the water, under cover of which the cuttlefish 
 rapidly retreats to a safe distancQ^ from the object which has 
 excited his apprehensions. He saves himself by this mystifica- 
 tion. The' mind of a casuist performs an analogous feat when 
 hard pressed in argument by an opponent. It is wont to en- 
 velop itself in a thick cloud of words. Under cover of theii* 
 hidden meanings the casuist withdraws in great dignity, and 
 the disputant, who would have been his match in a clear con- 
 troversy, is left alone in defeat. N. h. 
 
42 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Cemetery, The Greatest The crust of our earth is a great 
 
 cemetery, where the rocks are tombstones on which the buried 
 dead hav.e written their own epitaphs. si. 
 
 Change, The Instinctive Love of — The quail, even when 
 bom in captivity and domesticated, burns with that instinctive 
 love of change which distinguishes its species generally. At 
 the usual season of migration captive quails become very un- 
 easy, walk up and down their cages, and throw themselves 
 against the bars with such force that they frequently fall back 
 stunned, and sometimes even crush in their skulls, j^ In their 
 case there obviously is operating something beyond the ordi- 
 nary considerations of climate and need of food which stir 
 many descriptions of wild birds to migrate. It would seem to 
 be an instinctive love of change. The same inspiration is often 
 seen in human beings. Some who, like the captive quails, have 
 never had liberty to move into unknown spheres, and therefore 
 cannot know whether removal were better or worse, are never- 
 theless often stirred with the strongest impulses to make some 
 sort of change. The captive-born quail cannot know that 
 numbers of his species every year leave the regions of Africa, 
 cross the Mediterranean, and about the commencement of May 
 spread themselves over Europe, returning again in September 
 to accomplish the same journey. Yet there is within him an 
 impulse as strong as they possess to seek liberty and change at 
 Nature's appointed time. The instinct is not superseded by 
 domestication. Like some men whom monotony drives nearly 
 mad, he will risk his life in the attempt to follow where in- 
 stinct prompts. RE. 
 
 Change the sine qua non of Life. — Oxide of carbon is a 
 poisonous gas. It is truly called a poison, because its action 
 is deleterious even in slight doses, no matter what may be the 
 slate of th« atmosphere. Carbonic acid is only deleterious when 
 the quantity in the atmosphere is such that the absorption of 
 oxygen is frustrated. Carbonic acid passes to and fro, leaving 
 the blood otherwise unaltered ; but oxide of carbon really kills 
 the blood. If we take a little venous blood and expose it to 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 43 
 
 oxide of carbon, it becomes instantly scarlet. In appearance 
 the change has been nothing more than would have occurred 
 had oxygen instead of the oxide been employed. But in fact 
 die change has been very considerable. The effect of oxide is 
 to render the blood-disks incapable of that process of exhalation 
 on which the activity of the organism depends. The blood, to 
 all appearance, preserves its vitality, for neither the form nor 
 the color of its disks is altered ; but the blood is really dead, 
 because its restless changes are arrested.' Ever wonderful is the 
 fact constantly obtruding itself upon us, that life is inseparably 
 linked with change, and that every arrest is death. Only 
 through incessant destruction and reconstruction can vital phe- 
 nomena emerge — an ebb and flow of being. The moment we 
 preserve organic matter from destruction we have rendered it 
 incapable of the restless strivings of life. A spirit like that of 
 Faust seems ranging through all matter ; and if ever it should 
 say to the passing moment, " Stay ! thou art fair," its career will 
 be at an end. ' ph. 
 
 Change without Radical Alteration, Superficial. — The 
 Indians of South America have a curious art by which they 
 change the colors of the feathers of many birds. They pluck 
 out those from the part which they wish to paint, and inocu- 
 late the fresh wound with the milky secretion from the skin of 
 a small toad. The feathers grow of a brilliant yellow color, 
 and on being plucked out, it is said, grow again of the same 
 color without any fresh operation. 1 Here we have an illustra- 
 tion of an attractive change which is merely of a superficial 
 character. Of course the birds which are operated upon in 
 this way remain quite unaltered in habits and disposition ; and 
 any person who judges of the nature of the bird by its colors 
 is utterly deceived. One of the triumphs of civilization con- 
 sists in decking out men and women so as to improve their ex- 
 ternal appearance as much as these Indians improve that of the 
 birds. One of our greatest follies consists in being taken in 
 by the imposture. Decorations and stylish behavior no more 
 alter the character of men and women than the milky secretion 
 
44 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 of the toad alters the character of the birds. Do not judge the 
 habits of the birds by colored feathers. Do not accept human 
 beings as worthy your confidence merely because their aspect 
 is attractive. They may be detestable persons in nature, and 
 the appearance which has pleased you may be merely the 
 superficial attraction with which the tricks of art have endowed 
 them. TR. 
 
 Character, Tests of. — There are tests by which the char- 
 acter of rock may be understood. The presence of carbonate 
 of lime in a rock may be ascertained by applying to the surface 
 a small drop of diluted sulphuric, nitric, or muriatic acid, or 
 strong vinegar ; for the hme, having a greater chemical affinity 
 for any one of these acids than for the carbonic, unites immedi- 
 ately with them to form new compounds, thereby becoming a 
 sulphate, nitrate, or muriate of lime. The carbonic acid, when 
 thus liberated from its union with the hme, escapes in a gase- 
 ous form, and froths up or effervesces as it makes its way in 
 small bubbles through the drop of liquid. This effervescence 
 is brisk or feeble in proportion as the limestone is pure or im- 
 pure ; or, in other words, according to the quantity of foreign 
 matter mixed with the carbonate of lime. Without the aid of 
 this test, the most experienced eye cannot always detect the 
 presence of carbonate of lime in rocks. It does not do to rely 
 upon mere appearances either in the geological world or the 
 social world. In neither sphere is it wise to assume that things 
 are exactly what they seem. In the one world we test with 
 acids, and in the other with questions. The chemical test, as 
 we have seen, tells us the quality of our rocks ; and the second 
 enables us to ascertain how much manhood is in human bipeds. 
 This moral test consists of questions directed with a view to 
 ascertain how an individual is affected by vice, virtue, misery, 
 nobility, ahd the like ; and according to the effects produced 
 upon him by these test problems depends the character which 
 we assign to him. Goethe intimates that one capital way of 
 testing a man's true character is by ascertaining what are the 
 things which he considers to be ridiculous. e. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 45 
 
 Character Defacement. — The late George Newport, 
 F.R.S., showed clearly by many experiments that if insects 
 were injured accidentally or intentionally in their larval or 
 chrysalidal state these insects showed traces of the injury in their 
 perfect state. For instance, if a foot was injured in a grub, or 
 the place where the wing or antennse would be developed in 
 the pupa, the foot, the wing, or other organ was defective in 
 the perfect insect.Jtin like manner it constantly happens that 
 human character when mature exhibits the defacement of in- 
 juries done to it in its earhest stages. We can trace imperfect 
 fidelity, imperfect honesty, imperfect truthfulness, and many 
 other blemishes in the dispositions of our friends, to the unfor- 
 tunate injuries inflicted upon ^-arious sides of their character by 
 nurses, parents, teachers, or companions in the early days of its 
 development. mu. 
 
 Character and Circumstances — Man ought not to be 
 the creature of circumstances, you say ; but, as a matter of fact, 
 you must admit that he is so. The vacillating man, the firm 
 man, the suspicious man, the brave man, are they not all very 
 much what circumstances have made them ? Circumstances 
 are like the soil, and men are like roots. The composition of 
 the soil, like the circumstances of social life, varies singularly 
 in different parts of the globe. In order that every point of 
 the surface of the earth should be covered with vegetation, and 
 that no part of it should be without that incomparable adorn- 
 ment, roots must take very varying shapes in order to accom- 
 modate themselves to these varieties in the composition of the 
 soil. In one place the soil is hard and stony, heavy or light, 
 formed of sand or clay ; in another it is dry or moist ; else- 
 where it. is exposed to the heat of a burning sun, or swept on 
 the heights by the violence of the winds and atmospheric cur- 
 rents ; sometimes it is sheltered from these movements of the 
 wind in the depth of some warm valley. Roots, hard and 
 woody, separated into strong ramifications, yet finely divided at 
 their termination, are requisite for mountain plants whose roots 
 are to live in the midst of rocks or between the stones, in order 
 
46 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 that they may penetrate between the chinks of the rocks, and 
 chng to them with sufficient force to resist the violence of hmri- 
 canes and other aerial tempests. Straight tap-roots and sHghtly 
 crouching plants are fit for light and permeable soils. They 
 would not suit close, clayey, and shallow soils. Such districts 
 are suitable for plants whose roots stand horizontally just under 
 the surface of the soil. So the circumstances in which some 
 men can flourish would kill others. The brave, self-denying 
 soul would perish in the hothouse of servility : the court fop 
 would wither in the regions of bracing industry. Their roots 
 are adapted to their localities. v. 
 
 Character Consolidated by Time. — By far the greater 
 number of the stones used for building and road-making are 
 much softer when first taken from the quarry than after they 
 have been long exposed to the air ; and these, when once dried, 
 may afterward be immersed for any length of time in water 
 without becoming soft again. Hence it is found desirable to 
 shape the stones which are to be used in architecture while they 
 are yet soft and wet, and while they contain their " quarry- 
 water," as it is called ; also to break up stone intended for 
 roads when soft, and then leave it to dry in the air for months 
 that it may harden.;}: Dr. MacCulloch mentions a sandstone in 
 Skye, which may be molded like dough when first found ; and 
 some simple minerals, which are rigid and as hard as glass in 
 our cabinets, are often flexible and soft in their native beds : 
 this is the case with asbestos, salite, tremohte, and chalcedony, 
 and it is reported also to happen in the case of the beryl. 
 The marl recently deposited at the bottom of Lake Supe- 
 rior is soft, and often filled with fresh-water shell ; but if a 
 piece be taken up and dried, it becomes so hard that it can 
 only be broken by a smart blow of the hammer. But it is 
 not alone in the geological world that we find an illustration 
 of the fact that character is hardened by time. We see the 
 same truth stamped upon all human experience. For good 
 or evil every man's character becomes consolidated by time. 
 If it is to be shaped so as to be fit for a corner-stone in the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 47 
 
 Temple of Virtue, the process of preparation should begin early. 
 History is replete with instances of men whose characters might 
 have been wrought into harmonious proportions if the necessary 
 care had been bestowed upon that task at the proper stage ; 
 characters which, in the absence of the requisite shaping, be- 
 came difficult to handle and unsightly to gaze upon. Nor is 
 there any deficiency in- the record of those other characters 
 which, though too plastic for rehance in their earliest stages, 
 nevertheless became, under the seasoning influence of time, like 
 sti-ong monumental columns in the commonwealth. e. 
 
 Character, A Test for. — A solid is buoyant in a liquid in 
 proportion as it is light and the liquid heavy. Thus the same 
 solid is more buoyant in quicksilver than in water, and in the 
 same liquid cork is more buoyant than lead. A solid which 
 will float in one liquid will sink in another : thus glass sinks in 
 water, but floats in quicksilver; ebony sinks in spirits of wine, 
 but floats in water iUash and beech float in water, but sink in 
 ether. All these effects are explained by the fact that in each 
 case the solid sinks or rises according as it is heavier or lighter, 
 bulk for bulk, than the liquid. The character of man, as he is 
 found in modern society, may be tested upon a somewhat simi- 
 lar principle. Find out what sort of society the man has been 
 able to float in, and you will ascertain something concerning his 
 moral and intellectual weight. The societ)' which will buoy up 
 one man will have no sustaining power for another. A man 
 of solid worth cannot float in giggle. A charlatan has no moral 
 weight, and therefore can always, and in all societies, keep up 
 with the scum. ha. 
 
 Character and Reputation, The Distinction between. 
 — The size of the pholas and the sharpness of its markings vary 
 in inverse ratio to the hardness of the rock in which it burrows. 
 From the softest sea-beds are taken the largest and most per- 
 fect shells, while those specimens which are obtained from the 
 hard limestone rocks are comparatively small, and the surfaces 
 are rubbed nearly smooth. The very worst examples, however, 
 are those which are found in gritty rocks, interspersed with peb- 
 
48 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 bles. The shells that have burrowed into such substances are 
 dwarfed, abraded, and often misshapen, and are regarded as 
 valueless except to the physiologist. To him, of course, the 
 pholas which they contain is just as good as any other pholas, 
 for it is in all essentials the same sort of creature, though by 
 reason of its shell an inexperienced amateur might judge other- 
 wise. We must not always judge a creature by its shell, or a 
 man by his reputation. The reputation which a man acquires 
 is somewhat analogous to the pholas shell. It depends a good 
 deal upon the kind of place where he has to work. Some men's 
 reputations get much deformed by constant contact with harsh, 
 objectionable, and unfriendly influences. Other men's reputa- 
 tions become beautiful because of the propitious and happy cir- 
 cumstances which surround the men. Yet the real character 
 of all the men may be identical. We can detect the pholas by 
 his life and habits. We detect a true man in the same way. 
 Many men have had a hard time of it in boring their way 
 through the adamantine social rocks. We must take that fact 
 into account when we are considering their external appearance 
 and reputation ; and we must not doubt but their real character 
 is just as good as that of the smooth courtier who has lived an 
 easy life in burrowing in the luxuriance of palaces. h. 
 
 Cheering Trifles. — A somber night may, unless you are in 
 an objectionable bed, be made less somber by even the presence 
 of insects. In Canada you may often see the whole air, for a 
 few yards above the surface of a large field, completely filled 
 with fireflies on the wing, thicker than stars on a winter's night. 
 The light is redder, more candlelike, than that of our glow- 
 worm, and, being in each individual alternately emitted and 
 concealed, and each of the million tiny flames performing its 
 part in mazy aerial dance, the spectacle is singularly cheerful. 
 Thus, and in many other ways. Nature provides us with cheer- 
 ing trifles which often enliven the mind when there is nothing 
 else at hand to break the gloom or divert the thoughts. A 
 sparkhng crystal, a sweet flower, a gay bird, a child's song, will 
 often create thoughts which will flit with cheerful brightness 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLVSTRATIONS. 49 
 
 across man's melancholy mood, and make him grateful for the 
 • diversion which they have afforded to his musings. ro. 
 
 Circumstantial Men — The independent man has an ap- 
 pearance which marks him off from the things which surround 
 him. But the circumstantial man takes his color entirely from 
 tlie present circumstances. You notice them, but you might 
 pass him unobserved. He cannot be said exactly to have lost 
 his individuality, but he has abandoned all those evidences by 
 which it is usually indicated. He may have his party colors, 
 but he selects those which are so common as to prevent his 
 ever being distinguished by them anywhere. He is like the 
 caterpillar of a moth .{Noctua algce) which assumes the color of 
 the lichens upon which it feeds, being gray when it feeds on a 
 gray one [Farmelia saxatilis), and always yellow when it feeds 
 on a yellow one (Cetraria juniperina). Or like the caterpillar 
 of the coronet moth [Acronycia ligusirt), which feeds upon the 
 privet, and is so exactly of the color of the under side of the 
 leaf, to which it usualty clings during the day, that a person 
 may have the leaf in his hand without discovering the cater- 
 pillar. ■ p. 
 
 Circumstances, Accommodation to. — Plants continue 
 closed through the night. Morning brings them recruited 
 vigor, expanding their leaves and flowers to the fullest extent. 
 It has been found, however, that the Leguminosce, placed in a 
 room from which daylight was rigidly excluded, and where 
 they were subjected to artificial light at night, have, after a short 
 period of indecision, been brought to conform to this altered 
 condition, and have closed their leaves during the darkened 
 day, and expanded them at night. mar. 
 
 Circumstances, Independent of — Nature sometimes cre- 
 ates minds which seem independent of circumstances. She also 
 creates other things which appear to be equally so. Take one 
 example. Owing to their geographical position, the central and 
 western regions of South Africa are almost constantly deprived 
 of rain. They contain no flowing streams, and A'ery little water 
 in the wells. The soil is a soft and light-colored sand, which 
 
50 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 reflects the sunlight with a glaring intensity. No fresh breeze 
 cools the air ; no passing cloud veils the scorching sky. We 
 should naturally have supposed that regions so scantily sup- 
 phed with one of the first necessaries of life could be nothing 
 else than waste and lifeless deserts : and yet, strange to say, 
 they are distinguished for their comparatively abundant vegeta- 
 tion, and their immense development of animal life. The evil 
 produced by want of rain has been counteracted by the admi- 
 rable foresight of the Creator in providing these arid lands with 
 plants suited to their trying circumstances. The vegetation is 
 eminently local and special. Nothing like it is seen elsewhere 
 on the face of the earth. Nearly all the plants have tuberous 
 roots, buried far beneath the ground, beyond the scorching 
 effects of the sun, and are composed of succulent tissues, filled 
 with a deliciously cool and refreshing fluid. They have also 
 thick fleshy leaves, with pores capable of imbibing and retain- 
 ing moisture from a very dry atmosphere and soil ; so that if a 
 leaf be broken during the greatest drought, it shows abundant 
 circulating sap. Nothing can look more unlike the situations 
 in which they are found than these succulent roots, full of fluid, 
 when the surrounding soil is dry as dust, and the enveloping air 
 seems utterly destitute of moisture ; replete with nourishment 
 and life when all within the horizon is desolation and death. 
 They seem to have a special vitality in themselves ; and, unlike 
 all other plants, to be independent of circumstances. b. 
 
 Circumstances, Power of Utilizing. — Humming-birds, 
 colibris, and their brothers of every hue, live with impunity in 
 the fearful forests where tropical Nature, under forms often- 
 times of great beauty, wages her keenest strife in those gleam- 
 ing solitudes where danger lurks on every side : among the 
 most venomous insects, and upon those most mournful plants 
 whose every shade kills. One of them (crested, green, and 
 blue), in the Antilles, suspends his nest to the most terrible and 
 fatal of trees, to the specter whose fatal glance seems to freeze 
 your blood forever, to the deadly manchineel. It is this par- 
 rakeet which boldly crops the fruits of the fearful tree, feeds 
 
SCIEXTIFJC ILLUSTKATJONS. 51 
 
 upon them, assumes their hvery, and appears from its sinister 
 green to draw the metallic luster of its triumphant wings. Life 
 in these winged flames, the humming-bird and the colibri, is so 
 glowing, so intense, that it dares every poison. They beat their 
 wings with such swiftness that the eye cannot count the pulsa- 
 tions ; yet meanwhile the bird seems motionless, completely 
 inert and inactive. Leaves, as we know, absorb the poisons in 
 the atmosphere ; flowers exhale them. These birds live upon 
 flowers, upon these pungent flowers, on their sharp and burn- 
 ing juices — in a word, on poisons. From their acids they seem 
 to derive their sharp cry, and the everlasting agitation of their 
 angry movements. That part of the earth where man peri.shes 
 or decays is the scene of triumph of the bird, where his extraor- 
 dinary pomp of attire, luxurious and superabundant, has justly 
 won for him the name of bird of paradise. It matters not! 
 Whatever their plumage, their hues, their forms, this great 
 winged populace, the conqueror and devourer of insects, and, 
 in its stronger species, the eager hunter of reptiles, sweeps over 
 all the land as man's pioneer, purifying and making ready his 
 abode and rendering practicable the entrance to this dangerous 
 fairy-land. Nature endows the birds, as she also endows men, 
 with a marvelous capacity of accommodation to circumstances. 
 Beautiful birds are not made out of what we should consider 
 wholesome food, and beautiful characters are not made out of 
 the choice events of human history. Nature supplies us with 
 an appropriate power whereby we transmute everything to the 
 purposes which she intends us to serve. We see what the birds 
 can do with poison. We know to what splendid purposes 
 genius has been able to turn poverty, jails, cruelty, persecution, 
 and torture. Some of the finest characters in history liave been 
 reared by, and flourished upon, these unpromising elements. 
 We degrade not ourselves and our purposes to circumstances, 
 but utilize circumstances for our necessities and purposes. The 
 bird does not take the poison and submit to death : it trans- 
 mutes it into life and beauty. The hero does not let circum- 
 stances subdue him : he makes circumstances subserve the 
 growth of his character. 
 
52 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Circumstantial Evidence, A Hint Respecting — It is 
 
 impossible to be too wary in our reception of circumstantial 
 evidence. Countless errors are committed through that class 
 of evidence being accepted without proper inquiry. Let us 
 illustrate this by a reference to conchology. Generally when 
 a shell is found on our shores, it is presumed to be a genuine 
 American species and is classified as such ; on the same principle 
 that any plant, insect, reptile, bird, or mammal is considered as 
 indigeneous if it be discovered in a living state within our 
 waters. But this ought not to be the case with shells. A collector 
 might discover some spot on our coast which was rich in shells 
 hitherto excluded from the American list, and yet be entirely 
 mistaken if he were to consider them as true inhabitants of our 
 shores. The fact is, that great quantities of shells are often 
 conveyed from one country to another among the ballast, and 
 when the sailors throw away the ballast overboard, they also 
 iiing into the sea various shells among the stones and sand. 
 These shells are subsequently washed up by the tides, or dashed 
 on the shore in a storm, so that they are picked up by hand, or 
 inclosed in the multifarious contents of a dredge. Sometimes, 
 too, a ship in ballast is cast upon the shore and beaten to 
 pieces by the waves, when the ballast is necessarily thrown out, 
 and in a year or two becomes a part of the shore. In this way 
 many enterprising collectors have been deceived, and their mis- 
 take has not been discovered until many years afterward. 
 
 c. s. 
 
 Civilization a River — In its influence upon barbarism, 
 and in its fructifying, fertilizing movement throughout the world, 
 civilization resembles a beneficent river in a desert land. We 
 may compare it, for example, to the Nile. The ancient Egyp- 
 tians looked upon their country as a gift from the river, whose 
 periodical inundations yearly deposit on the soil a new layer of 
 that fertile mud to which the land of the Pharaohs owes its 
 proverbial fecundity. Fluvial deposits, by their gradual accumu- 
 lation through a long series of years, have constituted immense 
 masses and entire strata of soil. Egypt, in fact, N\as conquered 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSI^RATIONS. 53 
 
 from the desert by the river. " The world," says Miss Marti- 
 neau, " has seen many struggles, but no other so pertinacious, 
 so perdurable, and so sublime as the conflict of these two great 
 powers. The Nile, ever young, because perpetually renewing 
 its youth, appears to the inexperienced eye to have no chance, 
 with its stripling force, against the great old Goliath the desert, 
 whose might has never relaxed from the earliest days till now ; 
 but the giant has not conquered it." The river has completed 
 its mighty task ; as civilization, in due time, will accomplish 
 hers. MV. 
 
 Climate and Character. — The disposition of the animal 
 seems not less marked by the climate than the figure. Both 
 at the Line and the Pole the wild quadrupeds are fierce and 
 untamable. Africa has ever been remarkable for the fierce- 
 ness of its animals : its lions and its leopards are not less terri- 
 ble than its crocodiles and its serpents ; their dispositions seem 
 entirely marked with the rigors of the climate ; and being bred 
 in an extreme of heat, they show a peculiar ferocity that neither 
 the force of man can conquer nor his arts allay. The food also 
 is another cause in the variety which we find in quadrupeds of 
 the same kind. Thus the beasts which feed in the valley are 
 generally much larger than those which glean a scanty subsis- ' 
 tence on the mountain. Such as live in the warm climates, 
 where the plants are much larger and more succulent than 
 with us, are equally remarkable for their bulk. The ox fed in 
 the plains of Hindustan is much larger than that which is more 
 hardily maintained on the sides of the Alps. The deserts of 
 Africa, where the plants are extremely nourishing, produce the 
 largest and fiercest animals. But it is not only in the case of 
 the lower animals that we see the omnipotent influences of 
 climate upon character, for those same influences are obser- 
 vable in mankind. The color, the form, the pursuits, the habits, 
 the diseases, and the religions of men are often the result of 
 climate. This being so, we ought to correct some of those 
 bigoted judgments which we are too prone to pronounce upon 
 the ways of other nations when they differ from our own. a. 
 
54 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Climate on Intellect and Morals, The Effects of. — It 
 
 may startle to declare that the intellect and even the morality 
 of peoples have hitherto been wonderfully affected by climate. 
 The Laplanders inhabit the northernmost coasts of the Scandi- 
 navian peninsula. They are ignorant, uncultivated, and torpid 
 rather than savage. In spite of their frequent contact with the 
 Russians and the Swedes, they have no industrial resources, 
 no art, no other commerce than that which is afforded by the 
 products of the chase, of their fisheries, or their herds of rein- 
 deer. Christianity, to which they were converted about two 
 centuries ago, has not aroused them as yet from their moral 
 and intellectual lethargj?-. All religion being reduced, so far as 
 they are concerned, to oral tradition, the devotion of each is in 
 proportion to his memory. Education among them has attained 
 to this standard, that a Laplander who knows his alphabet 
 corresponds to a young man among us who has graduated at 
 Harvard or Yale. d. 
 
 Colony Wisely, How to Inaugurate a. — At certain pe- 
 riods of the year the penguins assemble on the beach as if they 
 preconcertedly met for deliberation. These assemblies last for a 
 day or two, and are conducted with an obvious degree of solem- 
 nity. When the meeting results in a decision, they proceed 
 to work with great activity. Upon a ledge of rock, sufficiently 
 level and of the necessary size, they trace a square with one of 
 its sides parallel and overlooking the edge of the water, which 
 is left open for the egress of the colony. Then with their beaks 
 they proceed to collect all the stones in the neighborhood, which 
 they heap up outside the lines marked out, to serve them as a 
 wall to shelter them from the prevailing winds. They after- 
 ward divide the inclosure into smaller squares, each large 
 enough to receive a certain number of nests, with a passage 
 between each square. | No architect could arrange the plan in 
 a more regular manner. What is most singular is that the alba- 
 tross, a bird essentially aerial and adapted for flight, associates 
 at this period with these half-fish, half-birds, the penguins ; so 
 that the nest of an albatross may be seen next the nest of a 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 55 
 
 penguin, and the whole colony, so differently constituted, ap- 
 pears to live on the best terms of intimacy. Each keeps its 
 own nest. Other sea-birds come to partake of the hospitality 
 of the little republic. With the permission of the masters of 
 the coterie they build their nests in the ^'acancies that occur in 
 the squares. Now, if we contrast the way in which these birds 
 inaugurate their colony with that which is often pursued by 
 mankind, we shall find that the former exhibit quite as much 
 wisdom as the latter, and perhaps more so. For instance : 
 before the birds start they have an open assembly of all those 
 who are interested in the question. There is no limitation of 
 the franchise. AVhen they meet there is no hurry and no 
 wrangling ; their whole demeanor is that of deliberation. After 
 coming to a decision they act upon it. The conference does 
 not end in sentiment ; it results in most systematic work — work 
 undertaken and carried out without any further hesitation or 
 planning. Then, having effected their own arrangements, they 
 proceed upon a liberal policy toward other tribes. They are 
 not arbitrary, aggressive, or exclusive. They freely allow others 
 to come and take up their residence with them. The result of 
 all this wisdom is a happy and prosperous community. When 
 modem men colonize, they are apt to pass swaggering resolu- 
 tions at big assemblies, and with much noise to proceed to their 
 work with the Bible in one hand and murderous weapons in the 
 other. They bluster about their rights and are intolerant of the 
 existence, anywhere near them, of even the men whose land they 
 liave taken for their colony. It is a question whether, with all 
 their shrewd policy and their stupendous and unscrupulous use 
 of brute force, they are as successful or happy as they might be 
 if they learned their colonization catechism from the penguins. 
 
 RE. 
 
 Colored by our Associations. — Although the natural hue 
 of the pholas (boring-shell) is white, it is often stained with 
 the color of the substance in which it is embedded ; and when 
 it lives in the red sandstone, the red is often so deep that it 
 might easily be taken for the natural color of the shell. Like 
 
56 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the stock-jobber on the Exchange, the man at the clubs, or the 
 conventional rehgionist, the pholas is toned by its associations, 
 and cannot preserve an independent color. c. s. 
 
 Colossal Works Unconsciously Achieved. — When the 
 sea has left a coral reef for some time it becomes dry, and ap- 
 pears to be a compact rock, exceedingly hard and rugged ; but 
 no sooner does the tide rise again, and the waves begin to wash 
 over it, than millions of coral worms protrude themselves from 
 holes .on the surface which were before quite invisible. The 
 growth of coral ceases when the worm which creates it is no 
 longer exposed to the washing of the tide. Thus a reef rises 
 in the form of a gigantic cauliflower, till its top has gained the 
 level of the highest tides, above which the worm has no power 
 to carry its operations, and the reef, consequently, no longer 
 extends itself upward. "/fThe surrounding parts, however, ad- 
 vance in succession till they reach the surface, where they also 
 must stop. Thus, as the level of the highest tide is the even- 
 tual limit to every part of the reef, a horizontal field comes to 
 be formed coincident with that plane, and perpendicular on all 
 sides. The reef, however, continually increases, and, being pre- 
 vented from going higher, extends itself laterally in all direc- 
 tions. The nature of the coral worm does not permit of its 
 working in any other way, and thus, without any design on its 
 part, the necessary result of its activities is the accomplishment 
 of grand results. It is more than probable that the human 
 race are, in like manner, working out some grand design of the 
 great Architect of the universe, of which they ha^'e no more an 
 adequate conception than the coral worm has of the fact that 
 it is engaged in making an island. mv. 
 
 Combination of Utility and Beauty, A. — Sometimes 
 we meet a man whose character is as beautiful as his versatile 
 abilities are useful. We are amazed almost at the many differ- 
 ent ways in which our admiration is challenged by the variety 
 of his valuable works and accomplishments, and the diversity 
 of uses to which his great powers may be apphed. He re- 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 57 
 
 minds one of that native tree of South America, -the papaw. 
 7lts splendid appearance resembles the palm. But it has more 
 than mere beauty of form. It is embellished with luxuriant 
 yellow fruit ; and this fruit, besides being savory and aromatic, 
 has many extremely remarkable properties. Its milky juice ex- 
 hales, when burned, an ammoniacal odor, and chemical analysis 
 has recognized therein the presence of fibrine. Mix some of 
 this juice in water, plunge into the mixture fresh hard meat, 
 and in a few minutes it will become exquisitely tender.-^^ The 
 very exhalations of the tree operate in the same manner, and 
 the inhabitants of the regions where it flourishes suspend to its 
 branches such meat and poultry as they wish to soften. Won- 
 drous combination of beauty and utihty ! d. 
 
 Combination Is Strength. — The house-martin [Chelidon 
 urbica), a common summer visitor to all parts of Europe, 
 seems quite to understand that combination is strength. These 
 birds possess some sort of inteUigence with each other which 
 enables them to combine their efforts to effect some desired 
 purpose. Dupont de Nemours says : " I once saw a martin 
 which had unfortunately, I know not how, caught its foot in 
 the running knot of a thread, the other end of which was at- 
 tached to a gutter of the College des Quatre Nations. Its 
 strength being exhausted, it hung and cried at the end of the 
 thread, which it raised sometimes by trying to fly away. All 
 the martins of the great basin between the bridge of the Tuile- 
 ries and the Pont Neuf, and perhaps from a still greater dis- 
 tance, collected to the number of several thousands. They 
 formed a cloud, all emitting cries of alarm and pity. After 
 much hesitation and a tumultuous consultation, one of them 
 invented a mode of delivering their companion, made the others 
 understand it, and commenced its execution. All those that 
 were within reach came in turn, as if running at the ring, and 
 gave a peck to the thread in passing. These blows, all directed 
 upon the same point, succeeded each other every second, or 
 even still more frequently. Half an hour of this work was suffi- 
 
58 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 cient to cut through the thread and set the captive at liberty." 
 No union of men for a common purpose could more completely 
 illustrate the truth that combination is strength. mu. 
 
 Combination and Recombination : Principles of Na- 
 ture. — It is noticeable that, in human society, individuals rarely 
 have any independent action. Men combine into sects and 
 parties, or cliques or partnerships, dissolve their associations 
 and recombine again, in order to carry on the affairs of the 
 world. Isolated action is seldom seen. It is remarkable of 
 the simple substances that they also are generally in some 
 compound form. Thus oxygen and nitrogen, though in mix- 
 ture they form the aerial envelope of the globe, are never found 
 separate in Nature. Carbon is pure only in the diamond. And 
 the metallic bases of the earths, though the chemist can disen- 
 gage them, may well be supposed unlikely to remain long un- 
 combined, seeing that contact with moisture makes them burn. 
 Combination and recombination are principles largely pervad- 
 ing Nature. There are few rocks, for example, that are not 
 composed of at least two varieties of matter, each of which is 
 again a compound of elementary substances. What is still more 
 wonderful with respect to this principle of combination is that 
 all the elementary substances observe certain mathematical 
 proportions in their unions. When in the gaseous state, one 
 volume of them unites with one, two, three, or more volumes 
 of another, any e.xtra quantity being sure to be left o\-er, if such 
 there should be. Combinations by weight are also governed 
 by fixed and unchanging laws of the greatest beauty and sim- 
 plicity. It is hence supposed by some that matter is composed 
 of infinitely minute particles or atoms, each of which, belonging 
 to any one substance, can only (through the operation of some 
 as yet hidden law) associate with a certain number of the atoms 
 of any other. There are also strange predilections among 
 substances for each other's company. One will remain com- 
 bined in solution with another, until a third is added, when it 
 will abandon the former and attach itself to the latter. A 
 fourth being added, the third will perhaps leave the first and 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 59 
 
 join the new-comer. The extent to which this law of combina- 
 tion operates in human society, and has operated since the be- 
 y'nning of the world, is obvious. ve. 
 
 Combination, Results of Right. — The lovely and fragrant 
 rose is composed of no more than a little carbon and water, 
 some ammonia, and perhaps some iron superadded ; and when 
 disintegrated in the chemist's laboratory, can be presented as a 
 few grains and drops of colorless relic. th. 
 
 Commerce the Great Uniter Diversity of chmate and 
 
 season — of summer and winter — over the globe has produced 
 for man's advantage a corresponding variety of animal and 
 vegetable life. Man himself has an organic strength which 
 enables him to exist in every clime ; but other animals and all 
 plants have a more limited geographical distribution, and are 
 endowed with constitutions which enable them to thrive in cer- 
 tain regions only. By means of commerce, however, the short- 
 comings of one climate are happily supplemented by the riches 
 of another, and all the most useful productions growing upon 
 the earth are thus more widely scattered. The necessary inter- 
 change fulfils its purpose of knitting the whole world together 
 in bonds of mutual dependence ; and the man, or set of men, 
 who would restrict commerce between the various countries 
 have obviously failed to understand one of the greatest and 
 most important of Nature's designs. be. 
 
 Commotion, The Advantages of a. — A political com- 
 motion often does immense service in clearing the moral atmo- 
 sphere of its corruption. A religious commotion is often of 
 incalculable value in driving away cant, hypocrisy, priestcraft, 
 and fraud. These things may be well illustrated by a storm of 
 wind. It is often observed that storms are followed by a sensi- 
 ble improvement in the air, and by a feeling of increased com- 
 fort ; hence it may be inferred that they are sent to cure some- 
 thing going wrong in Nature's household. "We know that the 
 storm frequently checks the pestilence when human skill fails. 
 On the banks of La Plata in South America, there is a wind 
 which comes charged with the germs of intermittent fever from 
 
6o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the marshes lying to the north. The wretched inhabitants 
 droop and sicken and shiver into their graves. Suddenly a 
 hurricane sweeps across the pampas from the cold summits of 
 the Andes in the southwest, and in a few days the seeds of 
 the disease are roughly yet effectually expelled by its searching 
 force. Cholera epidemics in this country have usually been 
 attended with great stillness in the atmosphere, by which the 
 operation of causes tending to concentrate the poison was no 
 doubt favored. Therefore when we hear the stormy wind howl- 
 ing round our houses, or sweeping through courts and streets, 
 let us think of it as one of Nature's most efficient sanitary 
 agents, by which she renovates the air, tainted through stagna- 
 tion, and destroys the seeds of the pestilence that were growing 
 up for our destruction. be. 
 
 Compensation, The Law of. — The makers of nice astro- 
 nomical instruments, when they have put the different parts of 
 their machine together and set it to work, find, as in the chro- 
 nometer for instance, that it is subject in its performance to 
 many irregularities and imperfections — that in one state of 
 things there is expansion, and in another state contraction 
 among cogs, springs, and wheels, with an increase or diminu- 
 tion of rate. This defect the makers have sought to overcome, 
 and, with a beautiful display of ingenuity, they have attached 
 to the works of the instrument a contrivance which has had 
 the effect of correcting these irregularities, by counteracting the 
 tendency of the instrument to change its performance with the 
 changing influences of temperature. This contrivance is called 
 a cojiipeiisation, and a chronometer that is well regulated and 
 properly compensated will perform its office with certainty, and 
 preserve its rate under all the vicissitudes of heat and cold to 
 which it may be exposed. In the clockwork' of the ocean, and 
 the machinery, of the universe, order and regularity are main- 
 tained by a system of compensations. A celestial body as it 
 revolves around its sun flies off under the influence of centrifu- 
 gal force ; but immediately the forces of compensation begin 
 to act, the planet is brought back to its elliptical path, and held 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 6 1 
 
 in tlie orbit, for which its mass, its motions, and its distance 
 were adjusted. Its compensation is perfect. t. 
 
 Compensation in Modes of Power If an insect's power 
 
 of flying is not considerable, its power of traction and propulsion 
 are immense compared with the vertebrate animals, and in the 
 same group of insects those that are the smallest and lightest are 
 the, strongest. The proportion between the muscular strength 
 of insects and the dimension of their bodies would not appear 
 to be on account of their muscles being more numerous than 
 those of the vertebrate animals, but on account of greater in- 
 trinsic energy and muscular activity. i. 
 
 Compressibility, The Limits of. — Compressibility is the 
 property in virtue of which the volume of a body may be dimin- 
 ished by pressure. This property is at once a consequence and 
 a proof of porosity. Bodies differ greatly with respect to com- 
 pressibility. The most compressible bodies are gases : by suffi- 
 cient pressure they may be made to occupy ten, twenty, or even 
 a hundred times less space than they do under ordinary circum- 
 stances. In most cases, however, there is a limit beyond which, 
 when the pressure is increased, they become liquids. The 'com- 
 pressibility of solids is much less than that of gases, and is found 
 in all degrees. Stuffs, paper, cork, woods, are among the most 
 compressible. Metals are so also to a great extent, as proved 
 by the process of coining, where the metal receives the impres- 
 sion of the die. Here also there is in most cases a limit beyond 
 which, when the pressure is increased, bodies are fractured or 
 reduced to powder. So, too, with bombastic sermons, and with 
 sensational newspaper articles. Comjiression reduces the former 
 into sentimental drivel, and the latter into intellectual dust. 
 
 EL. 
 
 Conduct Shaped by Constitution. — Among the Albinos 
 of the Isthmus of Darien, the practice of sitting up at night 
 and sleeping in the day is prevalent. Speaking of them. Wafer, 
 an old traveler, says : " They see not well in the sun, their eyes 
 being weak and running with water if the sun shines toward 
 them, so that in the daytime they care not to go abroad, unless 
 
62 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 it be a cloudy, dark day. But notwithstanding their being thus 
 sluggish and dull in the daytime, yet when moonshiny nights 
 come they are all life and activity, running about in the woods 
 and skipping about like wild bucks, running as fast by moon- 
 light even in the gloom and shade of the woods as the other 
 Indians do by day." s. 
 
 Congregational Union, A. — C(f)ngregationalism reminds 
 one, said the Rev. T. T. Lynch, of what the naturalists sometimes 
 talk about, and a queer thing it is. ivThere is a composite crea- 
 ture called the king-rat. It is not common, but it is to be seen 
 in certain museums. It appears that rats, which are very fra- 
 ternal creatures after a fashion, associate with one another in 
 such a way that their tails get fastened together, and there are 
 sometimes as many as twenty rats making up one king-rat. 
 Their heads are all stretched outward in a circle, and their 
 tails all compacted and agglutinated together, nobody exactly 
 knows how;.;. Congregationalism is very much like that. All 
 the tails are agglutinated together ; it is a compound creature, 
 the heads all outward ready to run different ways, the tails 
 amalgamated in this queer fashion, so, that no individual can 
 move freely, and neighbors hamper instead of helping one an- 
 other. Behold in figure a Congregational Union ! t. l. 
 
 Conscience, The. — The hour of the day can be told be- 
 tween the tropics by the motion of the magnetic needle as 
 well as by the oscillations of the mercury in the barometer, the 
 mysterious march of the needle being equally influenced by the 
 course of the sun and change of place upon the earth's surface. 
 There are regions of the earth where the seaman, enveloped for 
 days in fog, without light of the sun or stars, without all other 
 means of ascertaining the time, can still accurately determine 
 the hour by the variation of the dip of the needle, and know 
 whether he be to the north or south of the part toward which 
 he would steer his course. And does not every enlightened 
 man carry with him an inward monitor which, in like manner, 
 enables him rightly to steer his course amid all the conflicting 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOX.S. 63 
 
 expediencies and surging tempests of his daily life ? Whether 
 it be called conscience matters not. We are not concerned 
 about the name when we are conscious of the power. That 
 power we know exists, and is our safe regulator and unfailing 
 guide in all our experiences on life's changeable sea. k. 
 
 ' Conscious Strength Despises Tricks There are many 
 
 little birds which, in order to decoy aggressors away from their 
 nests, are obliged to resort to tricks of deceit which are often 
 successful. Large birds, like great souls, despise tricks, and rely 
 solely upon their strength. The swan is a good illustration of 
 this. Swans care but little for concealing their broods, as they 
 feel confident of their power to protect them against every 
 enemy. They will fight even with the eagle itself, harassing it 
 with beak and wings until the marauder is glad to make a more 
 or less honorable retreat. In the protection of their young they 
 display extraordinary courage and resort to no stratagem. As 
 it is always gratifying to see courage conquer cunning, it is in- 
 teresting to know that even foxes are sometimes killed by the'm. ^ 
 
 RE. 
 
 Consumption without Proportion Some caterpillars 
 
 daily eat double their weight in food ; a cow eats forty-six 
 pounds daily, and a mouse eats eight times as much in propor- 
 tion to its own weight as is eaten by a man. * This consumption 
 without proportion is a wonderful fact, and we may recognize 
 its operation among mankind. We need not confine our view 
 to princelings or courts to discover men who are constantly con- 
 suming that which we should have judged was out of all rea- 
 sonable ratio to their needs. One man absorbs the emoluments 
 of pensions and sinecures the value of which would make whole 
 villages happy ; the rent-roll which another appropriates would 
 furnish substance for victualing an entire city. In contemplat- 
 ing such a spectacle, which coexists with the poverty and suf- 
 fering of a portion of mankind, we may consider we have indeed 
 discovered an anomaly ; for this gigantic-personal-appropriation 
 order of men cannot, in defense, require that we place them in 
 
64 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the same list with the cow, the mouse, and certain caterpillars 
 — for the simple reason that these creatures are obeying the 
 natural law which applies equally to all their kind. ph. 
 
 Contrariety in Character. — The quick and sprightly eye 
 of the swallow, the ever-twittering voice, now a low plaintive 
 cry, and now a ga);- shrill scream, all denote a being of marked 
 character. And this character is strange enough ; it might be 
 termed a psychological riddle. For while the swallow builds 
 her nest confidingly and with domestic quiet beneath man's 
 roof, beside his hearth even, she at the same time pursues her 
 noisy journeys and gives way to her love of unrestrained and 
 aimless wandering. While she, on the one hand, carries her 
 vaunted cleanliness to wearisome punctuality, she, on the other, 
 builds up the walls of her dwelling with dirt and mud. She is 
 an illustration of that contrariety in character which is exhibited 
 by so many of the human family. ST. 
 
 Contrast, Things Appreciated by. — We appreciate things 
 by contrast. For example, nowhere, from the force of contrast, 
 is summer more brilliantly joyous or its approach welcomed 
 with greater delight than in polar regions, where amid perennial 
 frost and snow winter seems to be enthroned forever. The 
 long-continued night, after passing through a tedious dawn, at 
 length opens into that bright, brief intei-val, in which spring, 
 summer, and autumn are blended into one. In rays of warmth 
 the sun sends forth her signal and Nature answers to tlie call. 
 As heat increases, the sohtude once more shows signs of life 
 and movement. The frozen lumps and ledges covering the sea 
 begin to strain and crack and split asunder, and glacier masses 
 breaking loose from their icy cables yield themselves up to the 
 current and to the wind. Creatures that have long been slum- 
 bering in caves, or amid the snow, now shake off their torpor. 
 The short thick grass and moss spread their carpet of green 
 over every sheltered nook from which the snow has melted, 
 and the rest of the scanty but often brightsome flora of remot- 
 est North puts on with marvelous rapidity its summer aspects. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRAIIONS. 65 
 
 Here is indeed a scene which, by contrast, can be well appreci- 
 ated. Spenser in his " Faerie Queene " indicates others : 
 
 " Sleepe after toyle, 
 Port after stormie seas, 
 Ease after warre, 
 Death after life, 
 Doth greatly please." BE. 
 
 Conventional Opinion. — The clearest proofs abound that 
 in numberless cases rivers have simply availed themselves of 
 the courses prepared for them by previous breaks in the rocks, 
 opening depressions along which the waters have passed. Take 
 one of the largest of European streams, the Danube, and trace 
 it from its source in the flat plateaus of Central Germany in which 
 it rises, and you see that while it never can have been a torren- 
 tial stream, it simply maintains a steady slow-flowing current 
 as it winds through the steep defiles and high cliffs of the hard- 
 est gneiss and granite which had been opened out to receive it ; 
 for even now, where the gorges are deepest and narrowest, and 
 where the river must therefore have exerted its greatest power, 
 the buildings of Roman times have been daily bathed by the 
 stream, and not a fragment of them has been worn away. 
 When, indeed, we look to the lazy-flowing, mud-collecting 
 Avon, which at Bath passes along that line of valley, how 
 clearly do we see that it never deepened its channel ! Still 
 more when we follow it to Bristol and observe it passing 
 through the steep gorge or hard mountain limestone at Clif- 
 ton, every one must then be convinced that it never could have 
 produced such an excavation. In fact, we know that from the 
 earliest periods of history it has only accumulated mud, and 
 has never worn away any portion of the rock. The clear infer- 
 ence then, in these and countless other instances, is that rivers 
 in all such cases simply flow in the gorges and depressions pre- 
 pared for them by previous geological conditions. They resem- 
 ble the serene movement of conventional opinion as it flows 
 through society. It never cuts out for itself an independent 
 
66 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 course, never invents a new turn or change, never removes any 
 objectionable impediment. It flows torpidly along the old chan- 
 nels which superstition has made convenient for it. Its his- 
 tory is altogether unlike that of the current of sincere thought, 
 which, bursting up from the deep wells of truth, carves its own 
 way through every obstruction, however mighty, and accom- 
 plishes its destiny without any adventitious aid. si. 
 
 Convulsive Action, Evils Attendant on.^ — Convulsions, 
 whether religious, political, or material, are attended with alarm- 
 ing contingencies. For instance : rivers are stated to have 
 sometimes run dry during earthquakes, and again begun to 
 flow after the shock. This is presumed to arise either from 
 the transit of an earth-wave along their courses up-stream, thus 
 damming off their sources, or from sudden elevation of the 
 land and as sudden depression. In like manner, in times of 
 religious revivals common sense and reason are often dammed 
 completely up, and the wild tide of fanaticism rushes over every- 
 thing ; while in political convulsions the liberty of the press and 
 of the subject are either elevated in a manner absolutely dan- 
 gerous to any community, or crushed into depths which plunge 
 a country into despair. In point of fact, all sorts of convul- 
 sions are attended with all sorts of inconveniences and dan- 
 gers ; and no sensible man, however anxious for any change, 
 would in the face of facts wish for it to be effected by that 
 kind of phenomena. ma. 
 
 Counterfeiting, The Power of. — Montaigne records some 
 singular instances of counterfeits which were followed by sad 
 realities. We have, on the other hand, to notice very often in 
 the present day counterfeits which escape punishment. People 
 counterfeit sickness and piety, and are most successful. They 
 are equal to the fox in their power to sham. One of the most 
 ''frequent stratagems of the fox, and which denotes an extraordi- 
 nary amount of intelligence, consists in simulating death when 
 surprised by the hunters and there is no hope of safety by flight. 
 It may then be handled, kicked about in every direction, even 
 lifted by the tail, hung up in the air, or carried thrown over 
 
SCIEXriFIC ILLL'STRATIOA'S. 67 
 
 one's shoulder, without showing the shghtest sign of vitality. 
 But as soon as released and opportunity for escape offers, it 
 will decamp with all haste, to the great amazement of those so 
 cleverly duped. m. 
 
 Cowardice, The Tactics of. — Cowards are like cats. Cats 
 always take their prey by springing suddenly upon it from some 
 concealed station, and if they miss their aim in the first attack, 
 rarely follow it up. They are all accordingly cowardly, sneak- 
 ing animals, and never willingly face their enemy unless brought 
 to bay or wounded, trusting always to their power of surprising 
 their victims by the aid of their stealthy and noiseless move- 
 ments. ND. 
 
 Cowards, The Insolence of. — In the Western States there 
 exists a very curious species of rodents, belonging to the subgenus 
 Spermophilus or Spermatophilus, that is, grain-eaters. They are 
 better known by the hunter's name, prairie-dogs. The Hon. 
 C. A. Murray, in his " Travels in North America," remarks that 
 their number is incredible, and their cities (for they deserve no 
 less a name) full of activity and bustle. They seem on the ap- 
 proach of danger always to retire to their own homes ; but their 
 great delight apparently consists in braving it with the usual 
 insolence of cowardice when secure from punishment ; for as 
 you approach they wag their little tails, elevate their heads, and 
 chatter at you like a monkey, louder and louder the nearer you 
 come ; but no sooner is the hand raised to any missile, whether 
 gun, arrow, stick, or stone, than they pop into the hole with a. ■J 
 rapidit)#)nly equaled by that sudden disappearance of Punch 
 with which when children we have been so much dehghted, 
 
 D. 
 
 Crafty, The Tricks of the. — You cannot do business with 
 the crafty bad man with any safety. You may take what you 
 consider guaranties and securities for his appearance at the 
 right time to perform the agreement that he has made with 
 you, but somehow or other you cannot hold him even in this 
 way. Subtle and deceitful, he contrives to slip away at the 
 moment you thought him secure. He represents honor and 
 
68 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 truth as being parts of himself, but somehow or other he is not 
 detained when you want him by the one or the other. He 
 eludes you like the glass-snake, which, when pursued and 
 touched, will contract the muscles of its tail with such exces- 
 sive force as to snap off that member, or will even divide itself 
 into two or more pieces, and thus uncatchable will then glide 
 away from even these parts of itself into some place where its 
 snake life can recuperate itself in safety. The tricks of this 
 man and the movements of this snake warn us to avoid alike 
 the biped and the reptile. il. 
 
 Crafty Rogue, The. — To what shall we compare that crafty 
 rogue who, either in the character of a cunning director of 
 bubble companies, or in that of a jobbing promoter of impos- 
 sible undertakings, or in that of a plausible trickish attorney, 
 gives himself up to the work of entrapping his fellow-men that 
 he may ruin them for his own benefit ? He is similar to that 
 elegant dragon-fly-like insect, the ant-lion [Mynneleon formka- 
 riiis), which is, found in the environs of Paris. Its larvae are 
 met with in great abundance in sandy places very much ex- 
 posed to the heat of the sun. There they construct for them- 
 selves a sort of funnel in the sand, by- describing backward the 
 turns of a spiral whose diameter gradually diminishes. Their 
 strong square head serves them as a spade with which to throw 
 the sand far away. They then hide themselves at the bottom 
 of the hole, their head alone being out, and wait with patience 
 for some insect to come near. Scarcely has the ant-lion per- 
 ceived its \'ictim on the borders of its funnel when it throws at 
 it a shower of dust, to alarm it and make it fall to the bottom 
 of the precipice, which does not fail to happen. Then it seizes 
 it with its sharp mandibles and sucks its blood, after which it 
 throws its empty skin out of the hole and resumes the lookout. 
 When this larva reaches perfection it takes wings, and it diffuses 
 an odor of roses not suggestive of pitfalls or tricks, but very 
 pleasant — as are the varied elegances which, when rising into 
 fashion and success, the human craftv rogue displays, i. 
 
 Credit Wrongly Ascribed.— 'When a New Zealander has 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 69 
 
 received a gunshot or other injury, the priest prays over him, 
 the wound is frequently washed, and all extraneous substances 
 are removed, and no external application is used but water. 
 The invocations of the priests to the spirits are repeated occa- 
 sionally during the time. No married man or woman (except- 
 ing his own wife) is permitted to see the patient during his ill- 
 ness, from a superstitious idea that the spirits would be angry 
 and retard the cure. The excellent constitutions of the natives 
 prevent any unfavorable result, and they recover from most 
 serious injuries in a short time. But the priest gets the credit 
 for having moved the spirits by his prayers, just as in America 
 some fanatics get credit for having moved the Almighty to 
 effect cures which would have been accomplished entirely with- 
 out their intervention. ga. 
 
 Crises and the Crisis, Tlie. — We have many changes in 
 life, but after all not, perhaps, so many as caterpillars. For the 
 life of a caterpillar seems one continued succession of changes, 
 and it is seen to throw off one skin only to assume another, 
 which also is divested in its turn, and thus for eight or ten 
 times successively. We must not, however, confound this 
 changing of the skin with the great metamorphosis which 
 it is afterward to undergo. The throwing off one skin and 
 assuming another seems in comparison but a slight operation 
 among these animals ; this is but the work of a day, the other 
 is the great adventiu-e of their lives. Probably, without heed- 
 ing the caterpillers, we think too much on the changes through 
 which our life passes. No doubt those changes are impor- 
 tant ; but surely the metamorphosis of the butterfly into wings 
 is trivial compared with the vastness of that last inevitable 
 transformation which we shall undergo, when all our little crises 
 will end in the great crisis of Being. a. 
 
 Cultivation, The Effects of. — What marvelous encourage- 
 ment man has to work! In all departments of action what 
 splendid results have followed his labor! By what wondrous 
 processes he has been able to develop the beautiful from the 
 crude, the valuable from the worthless! See his work trans- 
 
70 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 forming even the vegetation of the globe. It has often been 
 remarked that England does not owe a single iiseful plant to 
 Australia or the Cape of Good Hope, countries abounding to an 
 unparalleled degree with endemic species, or to New Zealand, or 
 to America south of the Plata, and according to some authors 
 not to America northward of Mexico. Mr. Darwin does not 
 believe that any edible or valuable plant, except the canary- 
 grass, has been derived from an oceanic or uninhabited island. 
 If nearly all her useful plants, natives of Europe, Asia, and 
 South America, had originally existed in their present condi- 
 tion, the complete absence of similarly useful plants in those 
 great countries would indeed be a surprising fact. But these 
 plants have been so greatly modified and improved by culture 
 as no longer to resemble any natural species, and so one can 
 understand why those countries have given her no plants of use 
 to her in her present state of civilization, for they were either 
 inhabited by men who did not cultivate the ground at all, as 
 in Australia and the Cape of Good Hope, or who cultivated it 
 very imperfectly, as in some parts of America. These coun- 
 tries do yield plants which are useful to savage man ; and Dr. 
 Hooker, in his " Flora of Australia," enumerates no less than 
 one hundred and seven such species in Australia alone ; but 
 these plants have not been improved, and consequently cannot 
 compete in England with those which have been cultivated and 
 improved during thousands of years in the civilized world. By 
 proper cultivation they will become able to do so. They may 
 be almost transformed ; for by his labor man is able out of the 
 growths of the wilderness to develop the blossoms of the rose. 
 
 VA. 
 
 Curiosity Seized as a Snare. — In the Makololo territories 
 Dr. Livingstone met with numbers of dragon-fly-looking insects, 
 the larvae of which prey upon ants. These they capture in a 
 peculiar manner. The larva puts its head into a little hole in 
 the ground and quivers its tail rapidly. The ants come near to 
 examine the novel object, and, urged on by curiosity, ad^-ance 
 somewhat too closely, when they are suddenly seized by the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 7 1 
 
 forcers or graspers with which the vibratory tail is furnished, 
 and thus are killed. Not only do insects and the lower animals 
 understand that the curiosity of their victims may be effectively 
 employed as a snare for them, but human beings understand 
 and act upon the same principle. How many a young man 
 has been utterly ruined by a vicious thing through adopting 
 the apparently harmless course of " going to see what it was 
 like " ! The proprietors of the gaming-tables and the many 
 other depraved resorts of vice have all caught their victims by 
 ensnaring their curiosity. Curiosity is a good servant but a bad 
 master. We should hold its bridle with a firm hand, or it may 
 gallop with us to the point where ruin is ready to clutch us. 
 
 I. 
 
 Danger, The Philosophic Way of Meeting. — The hedge- 
 hog upon the approach of any danger rolls itself up in a lump, 
 and patiently waits till its enemy passes by, or is fatigued with 
 fruitless attempts to annoy it. Every increase of danger only 
 increases- the animal's precautions to keep on its guard. The 
 dog vainly attempts to bite it, since he thus more frequently 
 feels than inflicts a wound ; he stands enraged and barking, 
 and rolls it along with his paws ; still, however, the hedgehog 
 patiently submits to every indignity, but continues secure. In 
 this manner the dog, after barking for some time, leaves the 
 hedgehog where he found him, who, perceiving the danger past, 
 at length peeps out from its ball, and, if not interrupted, creeps 
 slowly to its retreat^ Thus, by being patient, wary, and unre- 
 sentful, the hedgehog escapes all injury. An ill-natured cur 
 under similar circumstances would at least have been bitten 
 and worried by the attacking dog. The very fussiness of his 
 defense would have brought him into peril. The lesson to be 
 learned is that in the presence of danger a purely philosophical 
 defensive policy is the most effective. a. 
 
 Danger ,The Unphilosophic Way of Meeting. — The earth- 
 worm meets threatened danger in a most unphilosophic way. 
 Directly it feels a slight shock in the earth it will hasten to the 
 surface, because it attributes that to the proximity of its enemy 
 
72 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the mole. The knowledge that the wormian easily be panic- 
 stricken has been acquired by the lapwings ( Vaiiellus), and these 
 birds use it for their own advantage and the destruction of their 
 victim. The lapwings settle down on fields recently plowed, 
 where they can find an ample supply of worms, and striking 
 against the ground with their feet, induce the worms to come 
 to the surface under fear that the shock is caused by the mole. 
 As fast as the worms come jn fear to the surface they are 
 snapped up by the lapwings. \\ Thus by endeavoring to escape 
 an imaginary danger, the worm encounters a real one. There 
 are many creatures, far higher in intelligence than the poor 
 worm, who follow exactly the same panic-stricken policy in the 
 supposed presence of danger. All weak natures, in fact, are 
 naturally impelled to adopt it. Hence among mankind, for 
 want of self-control and discretion, half our miseries, and often 
 our doom, may be traced to acts caused by the dread of a dan- 
 ger which has existed only in our fears. re. 
 
 Danger is Slight when Evil is Offensive. — Gas is a great 
 spoiler of the air ; but it has the merit of giving timely warn- 
 ing of the. danger by the horrible smell which accompanies its 
 escape. This smell is perceptible when there is only one part 
 in a thousand parts of air ; becomes very offensive when the 
 proportion is ^io or ¥^0) ^nd is almost insupportable as the 
 proportion increases. If the gas has escaped from a crack in 
 the pipes, and been allowed to mingle with air in which a 
 free circulation by ventilation is impossible, so that the propor- 
 tion of gas amounts to fij-, it explodes on the introduction of a 
 candle. But the reason why this catastrophe so seldom occurs 
 is because the smell of gas is so utterly offensive that the evil 
 demands and receives proper attention long before it reaches 
 danger-point. Tliis fact illustrates very well a great truth in 
 the moral world, namely, that when evil is offensive in itself its 
 danger to the community is sHght. In exact ratio to the plea- 
 santness of vice is the danger to be apprehended from it. ] f 
 gas was not in itself objectionable there would be more ruinous 
 conflagrations^ ph. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 73 
 
 Danger and Finding Death, Escaping. — We often find 
 men making an attempt to escape from an apparent danger, 
 and by the very act running into a fatal difficulty. They are 
 something like those singular creatures whose habits, and carti- 
 lage, batlike wings have obtained for them the name of flying- 
 fish, which the mariner finds after he has passed about the 
 twenty-seventh degree of latitude. When pursued by other fish 
 they fly in shoals out of the water, and, seeking protection, they 
 alight upon the passing ships. As they have no power to take 
 wing again they fall an easy prey to the sailor. me. 
 
 Dead to tlie Living, The Ministry of the. — When, says 
 Louis Figuier, the leaves have performed their functions, when 
 the fruits have appeared, matured, ripened, vegetation has en- 
 tered into a new phase ; the lea\'es lose their brilliant green and 
 assume their autumnal tint. A certain air of sadness pervades 
 these ornaments of our fields, which proclaims their approach- 
 ing dissolution. The leaves, withered and deformed, will soon 
 cumber the ground, to be blown hither and thither by the wind. 
 But when separated from the vegetable which has given birth 
 to and matured them, they are not lost to the earth which' 
 receives them. Everything in Nature has its use, and leaves 
 have their uses also in the continuous circle of vegetable repro- 
 duction. The leaves which strewed the ground at the foot of 
 the trees, or which have been disseminated by the autumn 
 winds over the country, perish slowly upon the soil, where they 
 are transformed into the htimus, or vegetable mold, indispen- 
 sable to the life of plants. Thus the debris of vegetables pre- 
 pares for the coming and formation of a new vegetation. Death 
 prepares for new life ; the first and the last give their hands, so 
 to speak, in vegetable Nature, and form the mysterious circle of 
 organic life which has neither beginning nor end. When man 
 has performed his functions here and ended his labors, he too 
 fades like the leaf, and is borne away by the cold breeze of 
 death. But like the leaf in death, so man, though dead, min- 
 isters to the living. He has not merely consumed so much of 
 the productions of the earth, leaving nothing in return. He 
 
74 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 has left behind him his thoughts, his acts, his example, his ex- 
 periences, written or unwritten, and these will all perform their 
 valuable ministration to the living, as do those lea\'es of autumn 
 to the younger life which grows over their graves. v. 
 
 Death Better than Starvation. — Sometimes we hold in- 
 quests upon persons who have been destroyed because they 
 would not consent to starvation and to reaching death by that 
 slow process. We are surprised at these suicides, and our com- 
 fortable optimists denounce them. But if you rob life of all 
 that is capable of making it worth having, it is not to be won- 
 dered at that those who are conscious that this has been done, 
 or is about to be done, do not prize hfe. Destruction does not 
 in such a case imply brutality. It may indicate great nervous- 
 ness, fear of the coming ill, or a certain mistaken prudence. 
 -^ The wasps understand all this quite well. Look at the slaugh- 
 ter which goes on in a wasp's nest at the approach of winter. 
 At first the wasps are remarkably tender toward their offspring. 
 They tend the cells where the eggs are hatched, and they nurse 
 the new-born grubs with a devotion quite equal to that displayed 
 by their more esteemed neighbors the bees. Yet no sooner 
 does the first sharp pinch of frost nip them in the autumn than 
 their whole nature, undergoes a change. Their love by some 
 mysterious impulse of instinct is then converted into hate, and 
 falling on the young brood of the nest they ruthlessly destroy 
 them all. But, we may ask, had these grubs been spared, would 
 their fate have been improved ? Food was getting scarce and 
 starvation was in immediate prospect, f^ The progeny of a single 
 wasp in spring mounts up to twenty thousand or thirty thou- 
 sand before the end of autumn, and if most of these were to 
 survive the winter, even supposing there were food for them, it 
 would not be compatible with man's comfort, if even with his 
 existence. be. 
 
 Death, Anticipating Another's. — M. D'Orbigny describes 
 the Caracaras of South America as accompanying the traveler 
 throughout the vast solitudes of the South American forests, 
 but never making their appearance until he comes to a halt; 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 75 
 
 then suddenly he will see these vultures perching upon the 
 trees in his vicinity, and apparently waiting for the remains of 
 his dinner. Mr. Darwin, however, attributes a far less amiable 
 object to these intruders, and regards this conduct on their part 
 as an evidence of their desire to indulge their carrion-eating 
 propensities at the personal expense of the traveler. Of this 
 he says any one may convince himself " by walking out on one 
 of the desolate plains, and then lying down to sleep : when he 
 awakes, he will see, on each surrounding hillock, one of these 
 birds patiently watching him with an evil eye." It is sad to 
 think that there are among men vulture natures which resemble 
 these birds in the eagerness with which they await the death of 
 other people. Under the names, among others, of heir at law, 
 reversioner, residuary legatee, and executor, there are many 
 keen natures perched about in society, watching for death to 
 strike down other individuals whose remains will be enjoyable. 
 Of course they do not let their wishes become known. From 
 a superficial glance at their demeanor you would judge them 
 to be only interested in their friends' dinner-parties. mu. 
 
 Death and Resurrection, Our Daily. — We die daily. 
 We are constantly returning to the earth the materials we re- 
 ceived from it. Every movement of our bodies, every exer- 
 cise of thought and will, every muscular and nervous effort, is 
 accompanied by a corresponding change in the structure of 
 our frames — exhausts the vitahty of so much brain, and nerve, 
 and muscle. Every part of our body is undergoing a process 
 of constant disintegration and renovation ; constantly throwing 
 off old effete matter, and constantly receiving deposits of new 
 and hving matter. Day and night, sleeping and waking, this 
 ceaseless dying and ceaseless resurrection is going on with more 
 or less rapidity ; the river of life flows on, changing its particles, 
 but preserving the same form and appearance. In seven years 
 the whole structure is altered down to the minutest particles. 
 It becomes essentially a different body, though the individual 
 still retains his original form and his personal identity unim- 
 paired. B. 
 
76 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Death, An Example and an Emblem of. — Though geo- 
 graphical research has dissipated most of the wild stories for- 
 merly accepted in reference to the pecuharly fatal concomitants 
 of the Dead Sea, it well deserves its expressive name. It is a 
 dead sea ; it has neither the ocean's living movement nor deep- 
 sounding roar ; the surf and the spray never sparkle on its 
 rocks ; that " multitudinous laughter " which Homer ascribes to 
 the sea is wholly wanting ; the wind never wakes a smile on 
 its passive and somber countenance. By its shores one might 
 realize Shelley's mournful wish, and feel 
 
 "In the warm air his cheeks grow cold, and hear the sea 
 Breathe o'er his dying brain its last monotony." 
 
 It is lifeless, untenanted ; the fish found there, and brought 
 down by the Jordan, are dead. Unlike the Caspian, it is 
 never stirred by the whir of wings — by the flight of gulls, or 
 pelicans, or sea-mews. Tlie migratory birds sweep across it 
 without even a pause, without seeking the prey which they 
 could not find. Its waters are denser than those of other 
 seas : their constituents are different, and mingled in different 
 proportions. d. 
 
 Deceit, Lucrative. — The fishing-frog is a sluggish fish, and 
 as its ferocious appearance by no means belies its character, it 
 might be supposed that it would have some difficulty in gratify- 
 ing the enormous appetite which must apparently be associated 
 with such a tremendous mouth. It is said, however, that the 
 fish possesses a stratagem by which to satisfy the cravings of 
 its maw without the necessity of subjecting its unwieldy person 
 to any very violent exertion. On the upper surface' of the front 
 of the head are two long movable bony filaments, the foremost 
 of which is dilated at its tip, which has a silvery luster. Lying 
 close to the ground, the fish disturbs the sand or mud so as to 
 obscure the water around it, justly thinking, no doubt, that its 
 appearance is not sufficiently amiable to inspire much confi- 
 dence in the weaker inhabitants of the deep ; it then elevates 
 the filamentous appendages just described, and waves them to 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 77 
 
 and fro in the water, when the small fishes, which are soon at- 
 tracted by the hope that this silvery object is something to eat, 
 become instead the prey of their artful foe. This is said to be 
 the ordinary mode of procuring its -food followed by this fish : 
 and since it is really a mode of living by deceit, it is to be con- 
 fessed that the morality of the creature is no better than that 
 of a number of men and women who really make a form of 
 lucrative deceit the work of their lives. nh. 
 
 Deceivers, The Ingratitude of. — The Volucellce. have a 
 strong resemblance to the humblebee. Certain kinds make 
 use and abuse of this resemblance to introduce themselves 
 fraudulently into its nests and to deposit their eggs therein. 
 When these eggs have hatched, the larvae, which have two 
 mandibles, devour the larvae of their hosts the bees. This is 
 the return they make for the hospitality they have received. 
 
 I. 
 
 Deep Tliought, The Language of — Popular ignorance 
 mistakes a bombastic, turbulent, opaque style. It regards it as 
 the emanation of vast depths of thought which are unrevealable. 
 The fact is that such a style can only exist where thought is 
 shallow, and where the products of scholarship have not been 
 assimilated. The style of the deep thinker is clear because he 
 is a deep thinker, and the style of the charlatan is obscure be- 
 cause he is only a charlatan. In deep ocean the water is won- 
 drously transparent. And why? Because the mineral and 
 organic substances which enter into the composition of the 
 ocean waters are so thoroughly incorporated that, far from 
 altering their limpidity, they seem on the contrary to increase it. 
 In certain parts of the Arctic Sea shells are distinctly visible at 
 a depth of four hundred and fifty feet ; and in the Antilles, at the 
 same depth, the sea-bed is as distinct as if it were nigh the sur- 
 face. The sea grows turbid and yellowish only in those regions 
 where its bed is shallow — muddy only where its agitated waves 
 stir up the sand and hold it in suspension. my. 
 
 Defenseless, A Natural Defense for the. — There are 
 many kinds of " leaf -rolling " caterpillars, each employing a 
 
78 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 different mode of rolling the leaf, but in all cases the leaf is 
 held in position by the silken threads spun by the caterpillar. 
 There are plenty of birds about the trees, and they know well 
 enough that within the circled leaves little caterpillars reside. 
 But they do not find that they can always make a meal on the 
 caterpillars, and for the following reason : the cm-led leaf is 
 like a tube open at both ends, the caterpillar lying snugly in 
 the interior. So when a bird puts his beak into one end of 
 the tube, the caterpillar tumbles out at the other, and lets itself 
 drop to the distance of some feet, supporting itself by a silken 
 thread that it spins. The bird finds that its prey has escaped, 
 and not having sufficient inductive reason to trace the silken 
 thread and so find the caterpillar, goes off to try its fortune 
 elsewhere. The danger being over, the caterpillar ascends its 
 silken ladder, and quietly regains possession of its home.'fl 
 
 CO. 
 
 Degree Makes all the Difference When a substance 
 
 combines with oxygen, heat is evolved, and if the union is 
 rapid and fussy, light may be emitted as well. The burning 
 of a candle seems to be a very different thing from the rusting 
 of a nail ; but in truth the latter process is simply a mild and 
 dilatory species of combustion. It is really a little conflagra- 
 tion, though it does not afford sufficient heat to singe the wings 
 of a moth, or sufficient illumination to enable us to read a line.^ 
 
 PO. 
 
 Delude, Self and Circumstance Conspire to. — The 
 
 effects of the mirage are extraordinary, but undoubtedly they 
 are heightened by the imagination of observers, generally over- 
 excited by fatigue, by privations, or sometimes by fever. These 
 causes contribute to vary the nature of the phenomenon as seen 
 by different eyes. Thus some gaze enraptured on verdurous 
 islands, bright as Armida's enchanted garden, with feathery 
 palms, and blooming flowers, and delicious sparkhng lakes ; 
 others see in that dim far-off which is never reached the laugh- 
 ing waves of the ocean, with ships calmly at anchor, or 
 
 " Veering up and down, they know not why," 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 79 
 
 and camels browsing quietly upon its shores ; others again see 
 before them the rolling river, its banks studded with groves and 
 palaces ; and all this while there is not a solitary real object on 
 the horizon whose presence might serve in some degree as a' 
 foundation for their visions. It is the very phantasmagoria of 
 Nature — her wildest, most wayward, and most fantastic sport. 
 The reiiection of the sky, modified by the inequalities of the 
 soil and the vibratory movements of the air, can alone account 
 for the singular deception. Imagination shows its victim, in 
 the reflected image of the cloudless sky, a sheet of water, which 
 is variously taken for a sea, a lake, or river ; it invests the 
 slightest objects on the earth's surface with forms, colors, and 
 dimensions, which are easily metamorphosed into houses, ships, 
 men, animals ; and it seems certain that those which in Nubia 
 our fancy converts into camels would in the Soudan be trans- 
 formed into elephants, and at Venice into gondolas. Imagina- 
 tion makes us its dupes, and gives to airy nothings 
 
 "A local habitation and a name." 
 
 It becomes absolutely necessary, therefore, to distinguish these 
 wholly personal illusions born of a heated brain from those 
 which are really due to a definite physical cause. The latter 
 necessarily suppose the existence of actual objects below or very 
 little above the horizon. Under such conditions, the most fre- 
 quent illusion is that which shows the sky or rocks reflected in 
 the expanse of rarefied air superincumbent on the earth's sur- 
 face, and which through this cause also resembles water. It is 
 then that the ignorant or inexperienced traveler, overwhelmed 
 with fatigue and devoured by thirst, hastens his eager steps to 
 reach more quickly that limpid water where he hopes to refresh 
 and reinvigorate himself, but which flies before his advance, 
 and speedily vanishes altogether. Sometimes it is an inverted 
 representation of terrestrial objects which appears in the air ; 
 or rather these same objects, several times reflected, appear to 
 multiply themselves. d. 
 
 Delusive Daintiness. — There is a hothouse plant, Pilea 
 
8o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 allitruhoides, of tender, brittle, and juicy aspect, which looks 
 as if it would be good to eat in a cooling salad, but which is 
 really of so explosive a temperament that it might fairly be called 
 the pistol-plant. When near flowering, and with its tiny buds 
 ready to open, if the plant is either dipped in water or abun- 
 dantly watered, each bud will explode successively, keeping up 
 a mimic Sebastopol bombardment, sending forth a puff of gun- 
 powder smoke or a little cloud of dusty pollen as its stamens 
 suddenly start forth to take their place and form a cross. Some 
 charming acquaintances, whose appearances promise us great 
 pleasure, turn out to be as explosive and delusive as this use- 
 less plant. V. 
 
 Democratic Principle, The. — The political atmosphere is 
 most healthy whe.i composed of a variety of elements. We 
 know that the theory of the philosophical democrat is, that in 
 order to have a perfect political Constitution you must have a 
 proper representation of all classes of society. In order that 
 the air should be wholesome it is necessary that it should not 
 be of one kind, but the compound of several substances, and 
 the more various the composition to all appearances the more 
 salubrious. But it is chiefly by the predominance of some 
 peculiar vapor that the air becomes unfit for human support, 
 and a thousand accidents are found to increase these bodies 
 of vapor. Heat may raise them in too great quantities, and cold 
 may stagnate them. Minerals may give off their effluvia in 
 such proportion as to keep all other kind of air away ; vegeta- 
 bles may render the air unwholesome by their supply; and ani- 
 mal putrefaction seems to furnish a quantity of vapor at least 
 as noxious as any of the former. All these united generally 
 make up the mass of respiration, and are when mixed together 
 harmless ; but any one of them for a long time singly predomi- 
 nant becomes at length fatal. In like manner it is maintained 
 that society is most safe and most healthy when, on the one 
 hand, no one class is imduly powerful, and when, on the other, 
 no class is unfairly lessened in influence : and that because the 
 objectionable qualities of each are balanced by the compensat- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 8 1 
 
 ing ingredients of all, it is desirable to preserve to them sev- 
 erally their natural influence and scope, and perfect freedom to 
 insure vitalizing action. a. 
 
 Depravity, The Specious Appearance of Moral A 
 
 species of very destructive blasting is known to the farmer 
 under the name of bunt, and to the botanist as Ustilago fcetida, 
 on account of the intolerable odor which it exhales. It is one 
 of the most common diseases to which wheat is subject. 
 Scarcely a field is free from its attacks ; and in favorable cir- 
 cumstances it spreads widely and proves very destructive. It 
 confines its ravages entirely to the grain. Externally the in- 
 fected ear presents no abnormal appearance. There is no 
 black dust, no stunted growth or malformation by which the 
 presence of the insidious foe may be recognized. On the con- 
 trary, the infected ears continue growing, and appear even 
 plumper and of a richer and darker green than the sound ones. 
 The very stigmata of the flowers remain unaltered to the last. 
 Stealthily and secretly the process of poisoning is accomplished ; 
 and not in many cases till the harvest is reaped and the wheat 
 ground for flour is the discovery made by the odor and color 
 that the produce is unfit for human food. Under this external 
 mask of health all fecundation is rendered impossible ; there 
 is no development of the parts of fructification ; no embryo 
 whatever can be detected ; the whole interior of the seed when 
 broken and bruised is found to be filled with a black fetid pow- 
 der, which contains on chemical analysis an acrid oil, putrid, 
 gluten, charcoal, phosphoric acid, phosphate of ammonia and 
 magnesia, but no traces of starch, the essential ingredient in 
 human food. Certain sections of society are blasted by a 
 moral depravity which this " bunt " typifies. Externally, the 
 persons affected appear to be as honorable and respectable as 
 the best of the world. Sometimes, indeed, they appear to be 
 the most Christian of the Christian. But there is no germ of 
 moral goodness in them. Under the mask of social propriety 
 there is moral blackness. The infection of their wickedness 
 rapidly spreads all around them. Yet it is often neither seen 
 
82 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 nor suspected by the ordinary observer. But when the preacher 
 of the gospel goes forth to " gather in his sheaves," the disap- 
 pointing discovery is made that there is no moral harvest to be 
 rejoiced over, but a disheartening spectacle of moral waste and 
 worthlessness to be deplored. b. 
 
 Desolation. — There are epochs in some men's lives when 
 faith, hope, and happiness all vanish, and the human mind, 
 driven into gloom, experiences the awful sense of desolation. 
 This mournful mood of soul has its symbol in the " Desolate 
 Sea." In the angle comprised between Humboldt's current 
 and the warm artery which flows to meet it from the center of 
 the Pacific, there exists a vast area, a liquid desert of sinister 
 aspect, desolate and barren, where nothing lives or moves, and 
 which seems stricken with an eternal curse. " The motionless 
 sea," says Felix Julien, " seems here deserted and abandoned. 
 No whale ever furrows its waves ; no halcyon or petrel ever 
 skims its surface. All the logs of ships and all the narratives 
 of voyagers agree in representing in the same dreary colors the 
 picture exhibited so efificaciously by this desolate sea. When 
 the mariner has doubled Cape Horn, he is surrounded and pur- 
 sued for several weeks by clouds of birds very common in the 
 austral regions. The booby, the petrel, the albatross, the sea- 
 swallow escort his vessel, wheel around it, and follow unfatigued 
 in its rapid track. But as soon as we approach the Desolate 
 Sea all things quit us, disappear, and change. We no longer 
 descry the halcyon, no longer hear the hoarse voice of the sea- 
 gull. The atmosphere is without sound, the waves of the ocean 
 are dumb, nothing animates the blank horizon. The whole 
 universe seems deprived of life, and it is under the impression 
 of this indescribable sentiment of melancholy that man finds 
 himself alone in the presence of God and the immensity!" 
 
 MY. 
 
 Desolation, A Type of. — Betweeli Humboldt's current and 
 the great equatorial flow there is an area marked as the " deso- 
 late region." It was observed that this part of the ocean was 
 rarely visited by the whale, either sperm or right. Why it did 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 83 
 
 not appear, but observations asserted the fact. Formerly this 
 part of the ocean was seldom whitened by the sails of a ship, 
 or enlivened by the presence of man. Neither the industrial 
 pursuits of the sea nor the highways of commerce called him 
 into it. Now and then a roving cruiser or an enterprising 
 whaleman passed that way ; but to all else it was an unfre- 
 quented part of the ocean, and so remained until the gold-fields 
 of Australia and the guano islands of Peru made it a thorough- 
 fare. All vessels bound from Australia to South America now 
 pass through it, and in the journals of some of them it is de- 
 scribed as a region almost void of the signs of life in both sea 
 and air. In the South Pacific Ocean especially, where there is 
 such a wide expanse of water, sea-birds often exhibit a com- 
 panionship with a vessel, and will follow and keep company 
 with it through storm and calm for weeks together. Even 
 those kinds as the albatross and Cape pigeon, that delight in 
 the stormy regions of Cape Horn and in the inhospitable cli- 
 mates of the Antarctic regions, not unfrequently accompany ves- 
 sels into the perpetual summer of the tropics. The sea-birds 
 that join the ship as she clears Australia will, it is said, follow 
 her to this region, and then disappear. Even the chirp of the 
 stormy petrel ceases to be heard here, and the sea itself is said 
 to be singularly barren " of moving creatures that have life." 
 This is a type of desolation. It represents that portion of the 
 life of an unhappy man which by age or circumstances is de- 
 tached from society, and remains in desolation. Now and then 
 pilgrims, like ships of passage, may cross the man's path, but 
 his own sense of desolation remains the same. No cheerful 
 thoughts ever flit with birdlike beauty across the horizon of 
 his mind ; and the depths of his soul are solitary with sorrow. 
 
 T. 
 
 Despicable, The, the Destructive. — There is nothing noble 
 in the power to destroy, though soldiers seem to think so. The 
 most despicable creatures are always the most capable as in- 
 struments of destruction. The larvae of an insect or fly, no 
 larger than a grain of rice, silently, and in one season, destroy 
 
84 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 some thousand acres of pine-trees, many of them from two to 
 three feet in diameter, and a hundred and fifty feet high! 
 Whoever passes along the highroad from Georgetown to 
 Charleston in South Carolina, about twenty miles from the 
 former place, can have striking and melancholy proofs of the 
 fact. In some places the whole woods, as far as you can see 
 around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-look- 
 ing arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in 
 ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of desola- 
 tion. This work of destruction would take any of the creatures, 
 which we call the noble ones of creation, an immense time to 
 accomplish. They could not at all compete with these despi- 
 cable insects in this work of destroying the growth of years. 
 An armed banditti in a few days can destroy pictures, statues, 
 rnonuments, palaces, and temples, which are the result of the 
 wisdom and work of a thousand years. One breath of pesti- 
 lence in the breeze can kill a population more rapidly than all 
 the armies of Europe. There is no difficulty about destruction, 
 and despicable instrumentalities are always its agents. But the 
 power to create or restore, do you ever find that in association 
 with the despicable or contemptible? in. 
 
 Despicable Conquerors. — Military brag has thrown a false 
 halo around the word "conqueror." The fact is that even des- 
 picable insects may be conquerors. In Africa there are flies 
 which are the actual lords of certain extensive districts, ruling 
 with so absolute a sway that not only man and his cattle are 
 fain to submit to them, but even the most gigantic animals, the 
 elephants and rhinoceroses, cannot stand before them. There is 
 the zimb of Abyssinia, the very sound of whose dreaded hum 
 sends the herds from their pastures, and makes them run wildly 
 about till they drop with fatigue, fright, and hunger. There is 
 no resource for the pastoral inhabitants but instantly to vacate 
 the country, and retire with their herds to their nearest sands, 
 where they will not be molested. This they would do though 
 they knew that hostile bands of robbers were waylaying them. 
 Such is the terror of a fly. When the British army hunts the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 85 
 
 Zulus, the Abyssinians, the Afghans, the Egyptians, or other 
 helpless people, immense honor is always given to its deeds. 
 They are covered with a blaze of glory. To drive away a 
 mass of human creatures in terror is a performance which the 
 lovers of militarism deem to be exceedingly grand. Let them 
 then do honor to the transcendent zimb! Without the aid of 
 even a drum, he makes a noise before which men and animals 
 retreat. He can depopulate and annex a country by the fright 
 which he can inspire. With chaplains and generals, and all 
 the paraphernalia of costly war contrivances, blessed by the 
 bishops and prayed over by civilized aggressors, the British 
 army is still unable to do the work of cruelty much better than 
 the zimb. bt. 
 
 Despotism, A Weak Point in Though the Hon pos- 
 sesses colossal strength, it is wanting in confidence in itself. 
 Indeed its distrust is excessive. It frequently happens that, 
 against its inclinations, it lea\'es a prey which it deems to have 
 been too easily obtained, suspecting it to be a bait. Frequently, 
 owing to this, man and animal who have been its defenseless 
 prey on the ground have been abandoned by the brute, and 
 have thus miraculously escaped what seemed certain death. :^ 
 Other despots resemble this one in that they have the same 
 weak point of character, suspiciousness. If they never faltered 
 in self-behef they would often be able to crush out human lib- 
 erties with the force of their violence. But our sultans, czars, 
 emperors, kings, and other tyrants are apt to tremble with sus- 
 picion at their own doings. From distrustfulness springs \-acil- 
 lation of policy ; and during the despot's doubtings Liberty 
 saves herself from mutilation. m. 
 
 Destroyer without Sense of Sliame, A. — The horror of 
 the desert does not lie only in its aridity, in its vacuity — this 
 vacuity is not absolute ; in default of life, death peoples its soli- 
 tudes. The glens or gorges frequented by the caravans are 
 lined with stones, symmetrically disposed at certain intervals. 
 These stones mark the places where rest the remains of the 
 hapless pilgrims who have attempted to cross the wilderness, 
 
86 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 and perished in the attempt. Round and about each rugged 
 tomb lie the skeletons of animals which none have troubled 
 themselves to bury in the sand. Frequently you may see, on 
 the sandy vifastes of Africa or the desolate plains of Asia and 
 the New World, these carcasses laid out in two interminable 
 rows, indicating the gloomy track which should be followed by 
 the traveler, and never failing to remind him of the tribute 
 death levies upon mankind in these accursed regions. Thus 
 does the desert show itself more relentless than even the hungry 
 ocean, which at least devours its victims whole, and affronts 
 the eye with no traces of its murders. But the Moloch of the 
 desert has no shame ; it cynically exposes the hideous remains 
 of those whom it has killed ; it strews the earth with their 
 bones ; it has its museums of skeletons, or rather of preserved 
 animals. d. 
 
 ^ Destroyer's Art and Force, A One of the most danger- 
 ous denizens of the marshy plains of equatorial America is the 
 gigantic boa-constrictor, a frightful reptile often attaining to the 
 length of thirty-six to forty-five feet. In the morning and even- 
 ing he places himself in ambush on the border of some lake or 
 watercourse to surprise the quadrupeds which flock thither to 
 quench their thirst. By means of his prehensile tail he sus- 
 pends himself to a tree on the shore, and patiently awaits the 
 coming prey. When an animal passes within his reach, he 
 swiftly seizes it, enfolds it in his spiral coils, crushes it against 
 the tree which serves for his point d'appui, compresses its bleed- 
 ing mass into a convenient form, covers it with a glutinous 
 saliva, and swallows it. In this fashion he will de^■our a stag 
 or even an ox entire, nor does he fear to attack the puma and 
 jaguar. d. 
 
 / Destroyers, Destruction of. — The green-and-black cater- 
 pillar of the white cabbage butterfly devastates our cabbage 
 beds, makes sieves of the leaves, and is disagreeably tenacious 
 of its rights of possession. Pest as it is to the gardeners and 
 cooks, it would be a hundredfold worse but for the exertions of 
 a fly so small as hardly to be noticed but by its effects. Small 
 
SCrENTTFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 87 
 
 though it be, one such insect can compass the destruction of 
 many a caterpillar, though not one-thousandth part of the size 
 of a single victim. While the caterpillar is feeding, the ich- 
 neumon-fly, as it is called, settles upon its back, pierces its skin 
 with a little drill wherewith it is furnished, and in the wound 
 deposits an egg. This process is repeated until the ichneumon's 
 work is done. As each wound is made the caterpillar seems to 
 wince, but shows no further sense of uneasiness and proceeds 
 with its eating as usual. But its food serves very little for its 
 own nourishment, because the ichneumon's eggs are speedily 
 hatched into ichneumon-grubs, and consume the fatty portions 
 of the caterpillar as fast ^ as it is formed. In process of time 
 the caterpillar ought to take the chrysalis shape, and for that 
 purpose leaves its food and seeks a convenient spot for its 
 change. That change never comes, for the ichneumons have 
 been growing as fast as the caterpillar, with whose development 
 they keep pace. And no sooner has their victim ceased to 
 feed, than they simultaneously eat their way out of the doomed 
 creature, and immediately spin for themselves a number of 
 bright yellow cocoons, among which the dying caterpillar is 
 hopelessly fixed. Sometimes it has sufficient strength to escape, 
 but it never survives. co. 
 
 Destroyers, Detection of. — When the caterpillars of the 
 buif-tip moth have increased to a tolerably large size, they dis- 
 band their forces, and each individual proceeds on its own 
 course of destruction. Were it not for the colors they assume, 
 these creatures would do great damage ; but the ground being 
 yellow and the stripes black, the caterpillars are so conspicuous 
 that sharp-sighted birds soon find them out, and having dis- 
 covered a colony, hold revelry thereon, and exterminate the 
 band. CO. 
 
 Destruction and Renovation : Principles of Nature. — 
 The uniformitarian, who would explain every natural event in 
 the eariiest periods by reference to the existing conditions of 
 being, is stopped at the foundation-stones of the great natural 
 edifice, each story of which has been inhabited by different 
 
88 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 creatures. Nature herself, in short, speaks to him through her 
 ancient monuments, and tells him that, though she has worked 
 during all ages on the same general principles of destruction 
 and renovation of the surface, there were formerly distributions 
 of land vastly different in outline from those which now pre- 
 vail. The primeval sediments were penetrated by outbursts of 
 great volumes of igneous matter from the interior, the violence 
 of which is made manifest by many clear evidences. Fractures 
 in the crust of the earth caused by earthquakes that suddenly 
 removed masses to positions far above or beneath their previ- 
 ous levels were necessarily productive of such powerful transla- 
 tions of water as abraded and destroyed solid materials, and 
 spread them out over continents, or altogether swept them 
 away by operations infinitely surpassing any changes of which 
 the historical era affords examples. We could cite the works 
 of many eminent writers for numerous evidences of the grander 
 intensity of causation in former epochs, by which gigantic strati- 
 fied masses were sometimes inverted, or so wrenched, twisted, 
 and broken as to pass under the very rocks out of which they 
 were formed. The traveler amid the Alps and other mountain- 
 chains will there see clear and unmistakable signs of such former 
 catastrophes, each of which resulted from fractures utterly inex- 
 plicable by reference to any of those puny oscillations of the 
 earth which can be appealed to during historical times. si. 
 
 Destruction, Elements that Wait for Perhaps the most 
 
 distinctive feature of the prairies or savannas from the pampas 
 and llanos is that the dryness in the former is never sufficiently 
 severe to destroy vegetation, as is the case in the latter. But 
 the herbs and grasses often grow so dry in summer that the 
 most trivial accident, such as a lighted match flung carelessly 
 away, or the ashes dropped from a hunter's pipe, will kindle 
 the most awful conflagrations, and the flames will spread de- 
 vouringly over leagues of open ground, consuming trees and 
 shrubs, and burning to death the cattle or wild animals which 
 haply fall within their range. With the crackHng, hissing, seeth- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 89 
 
 ing noises of the fire mingle the groans of the perishing beasts, 
 while huge clouds of smoke roll before the wind like the bil- 
 lows of a wind-swept ocean, and live tongues of flame ever 
 and anon light up the terrible scene with lurid splendor. These 
 " prairie-fires " are sometimes kindled in revenge by the In- 
 dians, and occasionally the settlers resort to this dangerous but 
 summary method of clearing the encumbered ground. d. 
 
 Development Dependent on Proper Conditions, Proper. 
 — Plants, as well as animals, nurtured and grown in perfect 
 darkness, never acquire their natural color. The former be- 
 come white instead of green. This fact is observed in the etio- 
 lation or blanching, as it is termed, of certain kinds of vegeta- 
 bles, such as celery, sea-kale, endive, etc. Their leaves, deprived 
 of the sun's rays, do not attain their normal growth or form, 
 neither is the natural odor of such plants fully developed. Pro- 
 fessor Robinson, descending into a coal-mine, accidentally met 
 with a plant growing luxuriantly. Its form and qualities were 
 new to him. The sod on which it grew was removed, potted, 
 and carefully attended to in his garden. The etiolated plant 
 languished and died, but the roots speedily threw out vigorous 
 shoots which, from the form of the leaves and their peculiar 
 odor, he readily recognized as tansy. He repeated similar ex- 
 periments upon other plants, viz., lovage, caraway, and mint, with 
 analogous results. The biography of mankind affords innumer- 
 able examples illustrative of this same principle, that the proper 
 development of every kind of life is dependent on proper con- 
 ditions. It is not thereby necessarily implied that man is the 
 slave of his circumstances, because, unlike the lower creation, 
 he possesses within certain limits power to bring himself under 
 the influence of the conditions favorable to the proper develop- 
 ment of his intellect and character. Certain, however, it is that 
 where opportunities for the exercise of that power have been 
 wanting, and where the man has not been brought under suit- 
 able conditions, his faculties have dwindled into insignificance, 
 or become abnormally distorted in their growth. A stunted 
 
90 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 moral and physical manhood is inevitably the result of certain 
 conditions of existence which can easily be named : and the 
 converse is also true. il. 
 
 Directness of Course. — The lemmings are natives of the 
 mountains of Lapland, where they feed on mosses and lichens. 
 At very irregular dates the lemmings migrate in immense num- 
 bers, and make their way towa:rd the south in crowded columns. 
 It seems as if they were drawn on by some irresistible power to- 
 ward a certain fixed point, so straight is the character of their 
 march. They never go round any obstacle, except when it is 
 absolutely impossible to surmount it, and then, as soon as the 
 impediment is past, they again take their former direction. If 
 a large rick of hay happens to stand in their path, they bore 
 right into it, and make a thoroughfare through it. If a boat is 
 moored in a river, and thus crosses their direct road, they will 
 climb over it and take to swimming again on the other side of 
 it. They are not only determined to pursue directness of pur- 
 pose, but also directness of course^^l It is an old proverb that 
 "sometimes the longest way round is the shortest way home." 
 They are never influenced by such a consideration. There are 
 human minds which, in this peculiarity, resemble the lemmings. 
 They will have not only a direct purpose, but also a straight 
 road to it. No ingenuity is ever called into play to avoid an 
 unnecessary difficulty. A blunt honesty requires them to move 
 in one line only. To them the line of march seems of as much 
 importance as their destination. m. 
 
 Disappointment, Tlie Influence of After many disap- 
 pointments' we cannot do our work well. We are disheartened. 
 The poetry of life has departed. With the loss of our hopes 
 was the loss of our love. The bird whose nest has been robbed 
 several times builds up her last in a \-ery slovenly manner. 
 And we act much as that bird does, if, after repeated failures, 
 we again attempt our disappointing task at all. a. 
 
 Disappointment, Excusable. — There is plenty of disap- 
 pointment which is not excusable. People do things which 
 their own common sense, if they would use it, could tell them 
 
SCrEKTIFIC ILLUSl^RATIONS. 91 
 
 must end only in one way. Yet, when the inevitable misfor- 
 tune comes, they call it disappointment. On the other hand, 
 there is an excusable disappointment, as when one trusts to a 
 fixed law of Nature and finds it has suddenly varied. Take, 
 for instance, the case of people who, having always found rain- 
 water to be clear and clean, are disappointed to find a shower 
 of a wholly different character. This experience happened in 
 South America to the inhabitants of one of the Argentine prov- 
 inces — the city of San Juan. They once had black rain ! For 
 many hours during a day and a night this black disappoint- 
 ment poured down upon them. Clothes left out to dry were 
 saturated with black water ; and all the vessels which should 
 have gathered pure water were filled instead with black water. 
 No one could have been prepared for this. No one could have 
 guarded against it. People expect rain-water to be clear, just 
 as they expect a good bank to pay its depositors. i. o. 
 
 Discontented Character, The. — There are people who are 
 constitutionally discontented. Nothing gives them satisfaction. 
 They are like the hermit-crabs, and may well be designated 
 " crabbed." We see that the animal and the shell are mostly 
 well suited to each other ; but it is a remarkable fact that, how- 
 ever well the shell and the crab may seem to be suited to each 
 other, the crab always thinks that a shell belonging to another 
 crab would make a better house. Consequently they will wage 
 direful battles over a few empty shells, although neither of the 
 shells would make so commodious a habitation as that which 
 was already occupied. f. 
 
 Discretion is the Better Part of Valor In the forests 
 
 of Tartary and South America, says Lord Brougham, where 
 the wild horse is gregarious, there are herds of five or six hun- 
 dred, which, being ill prepared for fighting, or indeed for any 
 sort of resistance, and knowing that their safety is in flight, 
 when they sleep appoint one in rotation who acts as sentinel 
 while the rest are asleep. If a man approaches, the sentinel 
 walks toward him, as if to reconnoiter and see whether he 
 may be deterred from coming near ; if the man continues, he 
 
92 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 neighs aloud and in a peculiar tone, which rolises the herd, and 
 all gallop away, the sentinel bringing up the rear.- Nothing 
 can be more judicious or rational than this arrangement, simple 
 as it is. R. 
 
 Disseminators, Unconscious. — One of the most extraordi- 
 nary of microscopic plants is the Achlya prolifira, whose soft 
 silky threads may sometimes be seen adhering to the surface 
 of goldfishes, and covering them, as it were, with a whitish 
 slime. This appearance is generally looked upon as a species 
 of decay or consumption in the animal itself, and not as an 
 external clothing of parasitic plants. It is, however, a true 
 vegetable growth, each individual consisting of a single fila- 
 ment with a minute pear-shaped ball on the top containing 
 numerous grains, which are the seeds or embryos of futiue 
 plants. The unconscious fish is the means of their dissemina- 
 tion, and they may be caiTied by him unwittingly into places 
 where no such plants ever grew before.-; Birds unknowingly 
 often carry seeds to great distances ; so do the winds. But the 
 methods by which Nature uses unconscious agents for the dis- 
 semination of seeds are not more remarkable than the processes 
 by which ideas get scattered throughout the human race. A 
 falling apple carries with it a suggestion respecting the law of 
 gravitation. The failure of a quadruped caiTies with it notions 
 of better mechanical locomotion. A tea-kettle sings a song 
 which tells of the apphcation of steam. Balaam's ass even has 
 a commimication to make. In a thousand ways all sorts of 
 things and events are used as the unconscious agents for the 
 dissemination of ideas. There is a mighty mass of things for- 
 ever moving about the world, carrying with them associations 
 which, on coming in contact with the mind of man, develop 
 into germs of thought. ch. 
 
 Dissimilar Causes may Produce Like Effects The 
 
 natures of some people seem to be utterly stupefied and dead- 
 ened by prosperity. Others are chilled into torpor and petri- 
 faction by adversity. These different processes work out the 
 same result — inactivity. So in the tropics the intensely hot 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 93 
 
 season causes the crocodile and other amphibious animals to 
 conceal themselves in the mud and he apparently dead ; while 
 in the cold regions the severities of the winter throw other ani- 
 mals into a state of hybernation. vi. 
 
 Dissimilar Effects of the Same Cause, The Consider 
 
 the totally different effects which the same thing has on differ- 
 ent people. An act simple in itself will rouse the joys of one 
 and the rage of another. A substance which is food to one 
 man is poison to another. The same medicine which effects a 
 cure in one case will in a similar case in another man aggravate 
 the malady and enhance his sufferings. Look again at the ef- 
 fects of the tempest on creation. A large number of the exis- 
 tences on the globe are terrified. But the seals love above all 
 the tempest, the roaring of the waves, the whistling of the wind, 
 the mighty voice of the thunder, and the vivid flashings of the 
 lightning. They delight to see, rolling along in a somber sky, 
 the great black clouds which predict torrents of rain. Then it 
 is that they leave the sea in crowds and come and play about 
 on the shore, in the midst of the fury of the elements. They 
 are at home in the tempests. It is in these crises of Nature that 
 they give full play to all their faculties, and to all the activity 
 of which they are capable. When the weather is fine and the 
 rest of creation is full of enjoyment they fall asleep, and resign 
 themselvesJflrzily^o the dolce far niente. m. 
 
 Distance, The Delusive Effects of. — Not unfrequently 
 we discover that the distance between a friend and ourselves 
 has caused us to take an entirely wrong view of him and his 
 proceedings. We contemplate him through a medium which is 
 illusory. When we approach near, however, we see the reality 
 to be the reverse of what it appeared. Now in like manner a 
 natural object of the landscape, when seen from a distance, 
 may appear to the eye to be in a state exactly the reverse of 
 what it really is. Who does not acknowledge instantaneously 
 the magical truth of Wordsworth's saying of a cataract, seen 
 from a station two miles off,. that it was " frozen by distance " ? 
 It looks all ice. In all Nature, however, there is not an object 
 
94 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 SO essentially at war with the stiffening of a frost as the head- 
 long and desperate life of a cataract, and yet notoriously the 
 effect of distance is to lock up this frenzy of motion into the 
 most petrific column of stillness. Such is the illusory effect of 
 distance. de q. 
 
 Distance, The Illusions of — The three bright stars which 
 constitute the girdle or bands of Orion never change their form ; 
 they preserve the same relative position 'to each other, and to 
 the rest of the constellation, from year to year and age to age. 
 And yet in the profound rest of these stars there is a ceaseless 
 motion, in their apparent stability and everlasting endurance 
 there is constant change. In vast courses with inconceivable 
 velocities, they are whirling round invisible centers, and ever 
 shifting their positions in space, and ever passing into new col- 
 locations. They appear to us motionless and changeless be- 
 cause of our great distance from them. b. 
 
 Distinctiveness. — Every blade of grass, leaf, flower, tree, 
 or animal ha,s distinctiveness. No two things of the same sort 
 can be found exactly alike. Mr. Dixon remarks that even " to 
 every hen belongs an individual peculiarity in the form, color, 
 and size of her egg, which never changes during her lifetime, 
 so long as she remains in healthfland which is as well known to 
 those who are in the habit of taking her produce as the hand- 
 writing of their nearest acquaintance." dx. . va. 
 
 Diversity of Form but Unity of Benefit Diversity of 
 
 climate circumscribes within limits more or less narrow many 
 of the most useful of our food-producing plants ; but this un- 
 avoidable evil has sometimes been lessened or obviated in a way 
 which affords another instance of the kind forethought of our 
 Father. One of the most valuable elements of vegetable diet 
 is sugar, and Nature has taken care that many articles in com- 
 mon use shall contain a fair proportion of it. At the same time 
 there are certain plants in which it e.xists so abundantly that we 
 are accustomed to resort to them for our large supplies. Of 
 these the chief is the well-known " cane." But the sugar-cane 
 flourishes only in the tropics and adjacent regions ; and there- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLVSTRATWXS. 95 
 
 fore all sugar from this source, consumed in extratropical 
 countries, must be brought to them by commerce. Many a 
 wide district, however, lying far in the interior of continents, 
 is unfavorably situated for thus receiving its supplies ; and it 
 might either have been deprived of this nutriment altogether, 
 or at least have been inadequately provided with it, had not 
 Providence, with kind intent, created other sugar-producing 
 plants constitutionally suited to different climates, for the pur- 
 pose of distributing the gift more generally over the world. 
 Thus we find that, from the tropical " cane " region to the 
 Mediterranean, the supply of sugar is maintained by several 
 plants, among which may be mentioned the date-palm and the 
 fig. Beyond this, in climates corresponding to Southern Europe, 
 there are the sorghum and maize, from which much sugar is 
 now manufactured in France and America. Farther to the 
 north, the beet-root in the field and the maple in the forest ex- 
 tend the series of sugar-producing plants almost to the verge of 
 the Arctic circle. Farinaceous food is tropically represented 
 by the rice-plant in great abundance. Proceeding northward, 
 rice is associated with the maize or Indian corn ; that is suc- 
 ceeded by wheat ; and, lastly, we have oats and barley flourish- 
 ing almost up to the North Cape. The same representative 
 system is observed in regard to many other important vegetable 
 principles. In this manner, then, the difficulties interposed by 
 climate to the wide distribution over the globe of some of the 
 most valuable products of the vegetable kingdom have been 
 entirely surmounted. According to the laws regulating the 
 vegetable kingdom, it was impossible for the same useful plants 
 to .flourish everywhere ; but Providence created duplicates, as 
 it were, to yield abundantly the same products, and adapted 
 them by their constitution to take up their position in the dif- 
 ferent climatic belts of the world, in order that no extensive 
 region should be without them. There is an endless diversity 
 of form but unity of benefit. The form is not of any impor- 
 tance, but the food, of course, is essential. If we turn to the 
 human world we shall see the same principle illustrated in poli- 
 
96 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 tics, in religion, and in institutions. It is necessary that men 
 should have some government, but the form of it must depend 
 upon local conditions, and, therefore, will be repubhcan, mon- 
 archical, or tribal, according to exigencies. They must have 
 religion, but its forms are protean, and grow according to the 
 necessities and aspirations of nations. They must have dress 
 and speech, but whether broadcloth or linen, whether English 
 or Arabic, will depend upon zone. In an infinite diversity of 
 forms we obtain all our important blessings. be. 
 
 Diversity Concealed by Resemblance The resemblance 
 
 between two objects may be so striking as to blind our eyes to 
 the diversity which, on inspection, may be found to be more 
 striking than the resemblance. For instance, if we compare 
 the buffalo with our common cow, no two animals can be more 
 nearly alike either in their form or their nature ; both equally 
 submissive to the yoke, both often living under the same roof, 
 and employed in the same domestic services ; the make and the 
 turn of their bodies so much alike that it requires a close atten- 
 tion to distinguish them, and yet, after all this, no two animals 
 can be more distinct/tor seem to have stronger antipathies to 
 each other. / , a. 
 
 " Doldrums " of Life, The. — Seafaring people have, as if 
 by common consent, divided the ocean off into regions, and 
 characterized them according to the winds ; e.g., there are the 
 " trade-wind regions," the " variables," the " horse-latitudes," the 
 " doldrums," etc. The " equatorial doldrums," besides being a 
 region of calms and baffling winds, is a region noted for its 
 rains and clouds, which make it one of the most oppressi\'e and 
 disagreeable places at sea. The emigrant ships from Europe 
 for Australia have to cross it. They are often baffled in it for 
 two or three weeks ; then the children and the passengers who 
 are of delicate health suffer most. It is a frightful graveyard 
 on the wayside to that golden land. In crossing the equato- 
 rial doldrums the mariner has passed a ring of clouds that en- 
 circles the earth. And do not these doldrums illustrate a class 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 97 
 
 of influences to which we are all subject? Are we not all cer- 
 tain in our journey to have days of deep melancholy, when all 
 is dismal, when our hopes are baffled, when we make no pro- 
 gress and yet have no calm ? Then, indeed, we suffer ; and 
 depression clouds the sky of all its light. Take courage, droop- 
 ing heart, and remember that thou too hast a golden land in 
 view! T. 
 
 Drawbacks, Every Condition has its. — The man-of-war 
 or frigate-bird is virtually nothing more than wings, scarcely any 
 body — barely as large as that of the domestic cock — while his 
 prodigious pinions are fifteen feet in span. The great problem 
 of flight is solved and overpassed, for the power of flight seems 
 useless. Such a bird, naturally sustained by such supports, need 
 but allow himself to be borne along. The storm bursts ; he 
 mounts to lofty heights where he finds tranquillity. When he 
 chooses to oar his way seriously, all distance vanishes : he break- 
 fasts at the Senegal, he dines in America. He may continue his 
 progress through the night indefinitely, certain of reposing him- 
 self. Upon what? On his huge motionless wing, which takes 
 upon itself all the weariness of the voyage ; or on the wind, his 
 slave, which eagerly hastens to cradle him. This strange being 
 is gifted with the proud prerogative of fearing nothing in this 
 world. Little, but strong and intrepid, he braves all the tyrants 
 of the air. He can despise, if need be, the pygarg and the 
 condor ; those huge, unwieldy creatures will with great difficulty 
 have put themselves in motion when he shall have already 
 achieved a distance of ten leagues. From all this it might be 
 concluded that this bird was a type of freedom worthy of envy, 
 and that its condition was nearly perfect. But, as often hap- 
 pens in other cases which we consider exempt from disadvan- 
 tages, a little more information suggests a different judgment. 
 Every condition of life — whether that of statesmen, authors, 
 travelers, or birds, beasts, and fishes — has its drawbacks. It is 
 so with this frigate-bird. If we examine it a Httle closer we 
 shall find to our astonishment that, when contemplated from 
 
98 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 near at hand, this bird, the first of the winged kingdom, has 
 nothing of the serenitjr which a free hfe promises. His eye is 
 cruelly hard, severe, mobile, unquiet. His vexed attitude is 
 that of some unhappy sentinel doomed, under pain of death, to 
 keep watch over the infinity of ocean. On looking at him 
 closely you perceive that he has no feet ; or, at all events, feet 
 which, being palmate and exceedingly short, can neither walk 
 nor perch. With a formidable beak, he has not the talons or 
 strength of a true eagle of the sea. He strikes and slays ; can 
 he seize? Thus, then, this being, so well armed and winged, 
 leads but a trembling and precarious life. Superior to all others 
 in power of flight and vision as in daring, his life is uncertain, 
 and he would die of hunger had he not the industry to create 
 for himself a purveyor whom he cheats of his food. His ignoble 
 resource is to attack a dull and timorous bird, the noddy, fa- 
 mous as a fisher. The frigate-bird, which is of no larger dimen- 
 sions, pursues him, strikes him on the neck with his beak, and 
 compels him to yield up his prey. All this takes place in the 
 air ; before the fish can fall he catches it on its passage. Such 
 is the character, and such are the drawbacks in the condition, of 
 the beautiful bird which at first sight appeared to be a noble 
 type of a grand existence. The biography of many a man 
 whom we admire suggests numerous reflections which are simi- 
 lar to those which the story of this bird life furnishes. 
 
 Dreams and Time's Silver-Thaw, Boyhood's. — Noth- 
 ing produced by the magic touch of winter can excel a phe- 
 nomenon which may often be seen in the woods of some 
 American countries, where it is familiarly called silver-thaw. It 
 is caused by rain descending when the stratum of air nearest 
 the earth is below 32O, and consequendy freezing the instant 
 it touches any object. The ice accumulates with every drop 
 of rain, until a tran.sparent, glassy coating is formed on the 
 shrubs and trees ; the effect is magical, and reminds one of 
 fairy scenes described in Oriental fables. Every little twig, 
 every branch, every leaf, every blade of grass, is enshrined in 
 crystal ; the whole forest is composed of sparkling, transparent 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 99 
 
 glass, even to the minute leaves of the pines and firs. The sun 
 shines out. What a glitter of light! How the beams, broken, 
 as it were, into ten thousand fragments, sparkle and dance as 
 they are reflected from the trees! Yet it is as fragile as beau- 
 tiful. A slight shock from a rude hand is sufficient to destroy 
 it. The air is filled with a descending shower of the gUttering 
 fragments, and the spell is broken at once. It is a representa- 
 tion of the visions of boyhood vanishing in Time's silver-thaw. 
 At first they are full of pure splendors, all loveliness, all allure- 
 ments, all graces. Time touches them with harsh hand, and 
 they vanish from our gaze like the beautiful ice phenomenon, 
 leaving only a gorgeous memory behind. ro. 
 
 Drones, Nature's Sentence upon. — It will be profitable 
 to idle people to observe the arrangement whereby Nature con- 
 demns the drones to death in the bee community. No sooner 
 is the business of swarming ended, and the worker-bees satisfied 
 there will be no lack of fertile queens, when issues the terrible 
 edict for the massacre of the drones. j'Toor fellows! It is to 
 be hoped they comfort themselves with the reflection that theiil 
 fate is an everlasting homily, presented by Nature in dogmatical 
 but most effective fashion, of the uselessness of all who labor not 
 for their living. If one must die for the good of one's kind,J 
 by all means let it be as a martyrj Poorlellowsf how they 
 dart in and out, and up and down, the hive, in the vain hope of 
 escape ! The workers are inexorable. Huber tells us the latter 
 plant their stings so deeply — for the most part between the 
 segments of the abdomen — that they cannot extricate them- 
 selves without turning as upon a pivot. The cruelty apparent 
 in the fierceness of the attack is perhaps only kindness, for the 
 wound is immediately fatal ; the drones expand their wings and 
 die. \ B. w. 
 
 Dull Natures are Splendid Pain=Bearers. — In reptiles 
 and batrachians the brain is small, a peculiarity which explains 
 their slight intelligence and the almost entire impossibility of 
 teaching them anything. They can, it is true, be tamed ; but 
 although they seem to know individuals, they do not seem to 
 
100 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 be susceptible of affection; the slight compass of their brain 
 renders them very insensible. This insensibility to pain enables 
 them to support mutilations which would prove immediately 
 fatal to most other animals. For instance, the common hzard 
 frequently breaks its tail in its abrupt movements. But this 
 curtailment does not seem to affect him ; he waits patiently for 
 the return of the organ, which complaisant Nature renews as 
 often as it becomes necessary. A tortoise will continue to live 
 and walk for six months after it is deprived of its brain^ It is 
 obvious, therefore, that these kinds of creatures can endure very 
 splendidly that which, in the ordinary way, would be called 
 pain, not because they have fortitude, but because they have 
 insensibility. They remind us in this of many men and women 
 who get great credit for the manner in which they endure the 
 ills of life. Some are praised for their Christianity, others for 
 their philosophy, others for their magnanimity, when investiga- 
 tion will often reveal the fact that the real reason of their com- 
 posure is to be found in their low organization. When a moral 
 hero bears pain with bravery he does so at an immense effort, 
 because, since he has capacity for vast feeling, so also has he 
 capacity for vast suffering. When a dull and stupid man en- 
 dures suffering with resignation it is because his nature is not 
 endowed with high sensibility. Extremes meet, and he often 
 takes his stand by the hero and is applauded for virtues which 
 he does not possess. A tortoise-brained man will actualty en- 
 joy himself under calamities which would crush a poet. re. 
 
 Earth, The Transitional Nature of the. — There is in the 
 delta of the Indus a singular region, called the Runn of Cutch, 
 which extends over an area of 7000 square miles, which is 
 neither land nor sea, but is under water during the monsoons, 
 and in the dry season is incrusted here and there with salt about 
 an inch thick, the result of evaporation. Dry land has been 
 largely increased here during the present century by subsidence 
 of the waters and upheavals by earthquakes. " That successive 
 layers of salt may have been thrown down one upon the other 
 on many thousand square miles in such a region is undeniable," 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. loi 
 
 says Lyell. " The supply of brine from the ocean is as inex- 
 haustible as the supply of heat from the sun^ The only as- 
 sumption required to enable us to explain the great thickness of 
 salt in such an area is the continuance for an indefinite period 
 of a subsiding movement, the country preserving all the time a 
 general approach to horizontality." The crust of the globe is 
 constantly changing in some form or other in all places. It is 
 true in a material sense that the fashion of the world passeth 
 away. w. 
 
 Economy that is Loathsome. — Like all the reptiles, the 
 toad changes its skin, but the cast envelope is never found, 
 although those of the serpents are common enough. The rea- 
 son why it is not found is this : the toad is an economical ani- 
 mal, and does not choose that so much substance should be 
 wasted. So after the skin has been entirely thrown off, the 
 toad takes its old coat in its two fore paws, and dexterously rolls 
 it, and pats it, and twists it, until the coat has been formed into 
 a ball. It is then taken between the paws, pushed into the 
 mouth, and swallowed at a gulp like a big pill. co. 
 
 Education, The Virtue and Limits of. — Education is the 
 development of a man's capacities. It gives nothing ; it only 
 brings out what there may be to bring out. The child contains 
 in himself the germ of all he will ever be. Hazlitt contends in 
 his essay " On Personal Character " that no one ever changes 
 his character from the time he is two hours old ; that under all 
 circumstances the internal original bias remains the same al- 
 ways, true to itself to the very last. His development is anal- 
 ogous to that of humbler creatures. The material which is 
 capable of expansion is settled once for all. That which is not 
 settled is the mode of its development — the education of it. 
 In this men are like insects. All insects, whatever transmuta- 
 tions they seem to undergo, are yet brought forth with those 
 very limbs, parts, and wings which they afterward seem to ac- 
 quire. In the most helpless caterpillar there are still to be seen 
 the rudiments of that beautiful plumage which it afterward ex- 
 pands when a butterfly ; and though many new parts seem un- 
 
102 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 folded to the view, the animal acquires none but such as it 
 from the beginning possessed. The grasshopper, though seem- 
 ingly without wings, is in reahty from the first possessed of those 
 instruments, and only waits for sufficient force to break the 
 bonds that hold them folded up, and to give them their full 
 expansion. an. 
 
 Effects, The Dissimilar, of an Easy and Anxious Ex= 
 istence. — Those animals whose food is always within their reach 
 are in general indolent and peaceful, and possess but little men- 
 tal activity ; and such are the herbivores, with few exceptions. 
 But, on the other hand, the carnivores are extremely prompt 
 and lively ; their bones are more compact, their muscles stronger, 
 their faculties keener, and their sense of perception greater ; and 
 hence their sensations are more intense and more easily excited, 
 their actions quick and resolute, hesitating at neither plunder 
 nor destruction. Those men whose worldly fortune has been 
 made for them, and who are not challenged to think about the 
 every-day wants of life, are often phlegmatic, stupid, dense. ) 
 Those other men, who have to produce by their own mental 
 and physical energy everything needful for their own existence, 
 what a different sort are they! Of them come our legislators, 
 poets, artists, inventors, the mental and moral aristocracy of the 
 world. PA. 
 
 Effort is not Lost, The Smallest The smallest effort 
 
 which is honestly put forth for the public good must have an 
 influence. It is never lost. It works marvelously though we 
 trace it not. Is any one incredulous ? Let him observe the 
 effect on old ocean of one single act on the part of a tiny in- 
 habitant, and he will be astonished at the influence which a unit 
 may exert. Let us suppose the ocean to be perfectly at rest ; 
 that throughout it is in a state of complete equilibrium ; that, 
 with the exception of those tenants of the deep which have 
 the power of extracting from it the solid matter held in solution, 
 there is no agent in Nature capable of disturbing that equilibrium, 
 and that all these fish, etc., have suspended their secretions, in 
 order that this state of a perfect aqueous equilibrium and repose 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 103 
 
 throughout the sea might be attained. In this state of things 
 — the waters of the sea being in perfect equihbrium — a single 
 mollusk or coralline, we will suppose, commences his secretions, 
 and abstracts from the sea-water solid matter for his cell. In 
 that act this animal has destroyed the equilibrium of the whole 
 ocean, for the specific gravity of that portion of water from 
 which this solid matter has been abstracted is altered. Having 
 lost a portion of its solid contents, it has become specifically 
 lighter than it was before ; it must, therefore, give place to the 
 pressure which the heavier water exerts to push it aside and to 
 occupy its place, and it must consequently travel about and 
 mingle with the waters of the other parts of the ocean until its 
 proportion of sohd matter is returned to it, and until it attains 
 the exact degree of specific gravity due to sea-water generally. 
 
 T. 
 
 Eloquence, A Condition of. — Proper burning depends upon 
 proper conditions. All bodies which burn in the air bum with 
 increased brilliancy in oxygen gas ; and many substances, such 
 as iron, which do not readily burn in the air may be made to 
 do so in oxygen. A red-hot chip of wood, or a taper with 
 glowing wick, is suddenly rekindled and bursts into flame when 
 plunged into a jar of this gas. Sulphur, which in the air burns 
 with a pale lambent flame, emits in oxygen a bright violet 
 light; and, a small piece of phosphorus, when inflamed and 
 placed in oxygen, burns with a dazzling light. It is therefore 
 obvious that .successful burning depends upon a suitable atmo- 
 sphere. We may say just the same of successful oratory — it 
 depends upon suitable pervading influences. If the best orator 
 in the world is placed in an uncongenial moral atmosphere he 
 cannot glow with proper brightness. But if he be placed where 
 his sympathies are fired by the enthusiasm of his audience, his 
 eloquence is kindled and he shines with a glorious luster. It 
 has been said paradoxically that " eloquence is in the audience." 
 The fact is that the audience supplies the moral oxygen which 
 enables the orator to display his brilliancy. e. c. 
 
 Enemies, Power of Small. — Sometimes most gloomy fears 
 
104 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 are entertained for the noble oak and pine forests of Germany. 
 It is stated that millions of fine trees have already fallen un- 
 der the insidious attacks of a beetle, a species of extreme mi- 
 nuteness, which lays its eggs in the bark, whence the larvae pen- 
 etrate between the bark and the wood, and destroy the vital 
 connection between these parts, interrupting the course of the 
 descending sap, and inducing rapid decay and speedy death." 
 In the north of France the pubhc promenades are almost every- 
 where shaded by avenues of noble elms. In very many cases 
 these trees are fast disappearing before the assaults of a similar 
 foe. And the grand old elms of London parks and gardens 
 are becoming so thinned that great alarm has been felt, and the 
 resources of science employed for the checking of the mischief. 
 Fifty thousand trees, chiefly oaks, have also been destroyed in 
 the Bois de Vincennes, near Paris. In all these cases the 
 minute but mighty agent has been some species or other of 
 the genus Scolytus. This is an illustration of the singular power 
 for mischief often possessed by small enemies whose capacity 
 seems but is not despicable. ro. 
 
 Enemies, The Power and Method of Small Very often 
 
 the little cares of life break down the constitution which suc- 
 cessfully dared great dangers and defied vast difficulties. Very 
 often the little traitor has ruined the enterprise which authority 
 could not crush. Very often man finds his worst enemies 
 among the smallest creatures. Very often the greatest creatures, 
 having braved even man, succumb to little enemies which ap- 
 pear contemptible. Thus the whale, that giant of the sea, finds 
 the narwhal a worse enemy than man. It may escape the lord 
 of creation, his fleets and harpoons ; but these narwhals, as- 
 sembling in a troop, advance in line of battle against the whale, 
 attack it on all sides, bite it, harass it, fatigue it, force it to open 
 its mouth, and then devour its tongue. The wounded whale, 
 then losing a quantity of blood, is worn out and becomes the 
 easy prey of white bears, dogfish, and like enemies whom it 
 could before defy. The leviathan is vancjuished by insignifi- 
 • cant fishes, j ! Little enemies look out for weak places. They 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 105 
 
 always know the value of the tongue, and have brought down 
 many a strong personage by a strategic method of attack hav- 
 ing that for the object. m. 
 
 Enemies, Our Own Peculiar. — Even different sorts of 
 animals seem to have allotted to them their own peculiar ene- 
 mies. One of the causes which render tlie center of Africa 
 difficult to be explored is a fly not larger than the house-fly. 
 The tsetse-fly is of brown color, with a few transverse yel- 
 low stripes across the abdomen, and with wings longer than its 
 body. It is not dangerous to man, to any wild animals, or to 
 the pig, the mule, the ass, or the goat. But it stings mortally 
 the ox, the horse, the sheep, and the dog, and renders the coun- 
 tries of Central Africa uninhabitable for those valuable animals. 
 It seems to possess very sharp sight. It darts from the top of 
 a bush as quick as an arrow on the object it wishes to attack. 
 This sucker of blood secretes in a gland, placed at the base of 
 his trunk, so subtle a poison that three or four flies are sufficient 
 to kill an ox. "^ Men all the world over are subject to some sort 
 of moral tsetse-fly. The tormentor seems specially adapted 
 for injury to the particular persons whom it attacks, and it 
 passes over others. The tsetse wife, tsetse mother-in-law, 
 tsetse inquisitor, are all creatures who have a mission to sting 
 to death the various classes of victims which have been spe- 
 cially allotted to them by Nature. The moral mules and moral 
 pigs may escape their tsetse-fly. But the more highly organ- 
 ized and the most useful specimens of humanity are as certain 
 to be attacked by their tormentor on their journey through the 
 " barren land " as are the valuable animals in the center of 
 Africa. i. 
 
 Enemy, No one is too Contemptible to have an Life 
 
 is strangely beset with enemies. No man is too contemptible 
 to have one. Even humble creatures like caterpillars have ene- 
 mies. For example, the ichneumon-fly deposits its eggs upon 
 caterpillars, boring holes in their skin with its pointed oviposi- 
 tor, and inserting its eggs in the perforations. Minute as is the 
 insect when compared to the caterpillar, bearing about the same 
 
io6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 relationship that a rabbit bears to an elephant, the legs are so 
 long that they can include a considerable portion of the skin in 
 their embrace, and so strong that they can retain their hold in 
 spite of the contortions with which the poor caterpillar tries to 
 rid itself of its persecutor. h. 
 
 Enemy, The Unexpec^ 1 How often the enemy is found 
 
 to be the person who appeared to be ignorant of even our exis- 
 tence — one fully occupied with objects far away, and totally 
 engrossed in nobler things. Now behold his emblem in yonder 
 kite. Notice the bird. Its flight is singularly graceful and easy. 
 The extended wings seem to have the power of supporting their 
 owner in the air almost without the least exertion : it glides 
 smoothly along without effort, now rising gently, now descend- 
 ing, to use the words of Buffon, " as if sliding upon an inclined 
 plane," now wheeling round in graceful circles, and all with 
 scarcely a perceptible movement of the wings, but simply by 
 the action of the rudderlike tail. It seems all occupied with 
 the sky. During his graceful evolutions, however, the kite has 
 his eyes steadily fixed upon the ground beneath him, with which 
 he seems to have so little to do ; and the moment his prey makes 
 its appearance in the shape of a mole, a mouse, a young rab- 
 bit, or leveret, or any other small terrestrial animal, the long 
 wings are closed in an instant, and the kite descends with aston- 
 ishing velocity upon his surprised and unsuspecting quarry. 
 
 T. B. 
 
 Enjoyment, The Perils of. — Enjoyment is often attended 
 with deadly peril. We set our heart on obtaining some sweet 
 pleasure ; little resistance is ofifered, and we obtain our desire ; 
 but the price is ruin. We are caught like the winged creature 
 which seeks the sweets of the glaucous birthwort. The whole 
 of the internal surface of the tubular flower of the glaucous 
 birthwort [Arisiol glauca) is beset with minute strong spines 
 pointing downward ; these present no impediment to the ani- 
 mal which may seek for the sweet liquor lodged upon the nec- 
 tarium at the base of the blossom, nor is there any obstruction 
 provided for its return by means of valves or contractions, the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 107 
 
 tube remaining open ; but the creature cannot crawl up by rea- 
 son of the inverted spines ; and to prevent its escape by flying 
 up the tube, the flower makes an extraordinary curve, bending 
 up hke a horn, so that any winged creature must be beaten 
 back by striking against the roof of its neck as often as it at- 
 tempts to mount, and falling back to the bulbous prison at the 
 base of the flower, dies by confinement and starvation. j. 
 
 Enthusiasm, The Deobstruent Power of Vapor of a 
 
 high temperature is capable of dissolving sihca, and Mr. Dar- 
 win alludes to an instance in Terceira (one of the Azores), where 
 steam, issuing from fissures in the trachytic rock, gradually 
 softens and decomposes the crystalline mass till the whole is 
 reduced to a white chalky clay, with which the inhabitants 
 whitewash their houses. In like manner the high enthusiasm 
 of a people when it issues forth against petrified constitutional 
 monstrosities possesses a power to melt them away. No time- 
 hardened opposition of colossal forces can resist its opera- 
 tions. Its warmth will reduce them, and from the residuum will 
 obtain properties for the general benefit. Though the enthu- 
 siasm of the people is sometimes designated " mere vapor," we 
 can see that " vapor " possesses a power to melt and to re- 
 move. AD. 
 
 Error, The Instinct and Operations of. — Moral error has 
 in it the instinct of mischief. It is bred of mahce, works mali- 
 ciously, and rears its progeny often on the unsuspecting and 
 the unoffending. This is the law of its existence, and all its 
 family follow it. In the history of its birth, its insidiousness, 
 and its cowardice, it resembles the flies of the ichneumon tribe. 
 All the flies of the ichneumon tribe are produced in the same 
 manner, and owe their birth to the destruction of some other 
 insect, within whose body they have been deposited, and upon 
 whose vitals they have preyed till they came to maturity. As 
 moral error attacks everything within its reach, so also do the 
 flies. There is no insect whatever which they will not at- 
 tack in order to leave their fatal present in its body ; the cater- 
 pillar, the gnat, and even the spider himself, so formidable 
 
io8 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 to others, is often made the unwilHng fosterer of destructive 
 progeny. a. 
 
 Error, The Recuperative Power of. — Error is a worm 
 which it is difficult to destroy. It possesses a power of wrig- 
 gling away from its assailants and recuperating its existence even 
 when, to all appearances, it has been annihilated. Its vitahty 
 resembles that of the earthworm which we often see an object 
 of contention between two birds, neither of which is willing to 
 part with it. In the contest the worm is frequently divided into 
 three parts, each of the birds flying away with a portion, and 
 leaving the center part of the animal behind, which, if the situa- 
 tion where it is left be favorable, begins in a few days to repair 
 its loss, and in a short time restores its deficient parts and re- 
 sumes activity. In like manner an error often revives after tri- 
 umphant controversialists have departed in complacency, rejoic- 
 ing in their spoils. p. 
 
 Error, The Annihilation of. — The Fiume Salso in Sicily 
 enters the sea so charged with various salts that the thirsty 
 cattle refuse to drink of it. A stream of sulphureous water, as 
 white as milk, descends into the sea from the volcanic mountain 
 of Idjeng, on the east of Java ; and a great body of hot water, 
 charged with sulphuric acid, rushed down from the same vol- 
 cano on one occasion, and inundated a large tract of country, 
 destroying, by its noxious properties, all the vegetation. In hke 
 manner the Pusambio, or "Vinegar River," of Colombia, which 
 rises at the foot of Purace, an extinct volcano, 7500 feet above 
 the level of the sea, is strongly impregnated with sulphuric and 
 hydrochloric acids, and with oxide of iron. AVe may easily sup- 
 pose the waters of such streams to have properties noxious even 
 to marine animals. It is a marvelous fact, however, that when 
 these and other bad waters commingle thoroughly with the great 
 ocean they lose all their power to injure. They are absorbed in 
 its infinite purity, and their badness is extinguished. Sir Isaac 
 Newton likened truth to the sea. Accepting his metaphor, we 
 may with more patient eyes watch all the vicious and erroneous 
 currents of pestilent pubhc opinion running their course, and 
 feel siu-e that their power to injure mankind is circumscribed, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 109 
 
 because they will eventually be neutralized by and absorbed in 
 the sublime ocean of truth. e. 
 
 Errors, The Reappearance of Old It is very remarkable 
 
 that errors which are buried in one generation often arise and 
 are current in subsequent generations. You think they have 
 disappeared forever, but lo ! they are again in motion yonder. 
 They remind us of the subterranean courses of some of the 
 rivers which we meet with, more particularly in the Secondary 
 Limestone districts of some countries. Styria and the neigh- 
 borhdbd of Trieste are examples. Suddenly emerging in large 
 volumes from the base of a lofty moimtain, the waters flow 
 across rich alluvial plains, and are then as suddenly lost in the 
 cavities of another mountain, again to issue forth to the light 
 of day in a distant region after their subterranean course. 
 
 MA. 
 
 Eternal Cycle, The. — On the surface of our globe there 
 moves an eternal cycle of interchanges. The inorganic is con- 
 tinually being fashioned into the organic, and this, after pass- 
 ing through successive changes, and after having displayed the 
 manifestations of life, is ever passing again into the inorganic, 
 ever again giving up its fashioning forces. The crude and form- 
 less mass of the air, gradually organized in vegetables, passes 
 without change into animals, and becomes the instrument of 
 sensation and thought ; then vanquished by this effort, and, as 
 it were, broken, it returns as crude matter to the source whence 
 it had come. Thus is the mysterious cycle of organic life upon 
 the surface of the globe completed and maintained. The air 
 contains or engenders the oxidized substances required — car- 
 bonic acid, water, nitric acid, and ammonia. Vegetables, true 
 reducing apparatus, seize upon the radicals of these, carbon, 
 hydrogen, azote, ammonium, and with them they fashion all 
 the variety of organic or organizable matter which they supply 
 to animals. Animals, again, true apparatuses of combustion, 
 reproduce from them carbonic acid, water, oxide of ammonium, 
 and azotic or nitric acid, which return to the air to reproduce 
 the same phenomena to the end of time. bl. 
 
 Eventide Favorable to Meditation. — The dimness of 
 
no DICTIONARY OF 
 
 evening is favorable to meditation, because much light stimu- 
 lates the optic nerve to a degree that distracts the attention 
 from remembered ideas, and impresses reahties too forcibly to 
 permit imagination free exercise. u. 
 
 Evil, The Good of. — When the minarets of Asia sparkle in 
 the morning's rays, the vultures, crows, storks, ibises, set out 
 from their balconies on their various missions; some to the 
 fields to destroy the insect and the serpent ; others, aUghting in 
 the streets of Alexandria or Cairo, hasten to accomplish their 
 task of municipal scavengering. Did they but take the briefest 
 hoKday, the plague would soon be the only inhabitant of the 
 country. If the sun is punctual in fertilizing life, these scav- 
 engers — sworn in and hcensed by Nature — are no less punctual 
 in withdrawing from his rays the shocking spectacle of death. 
 Seemingly they are ignorant of the importance of their func- 
 tions. Approach them and they will not retreat. When they 
 have received the signal from their comrades, the crows, which 
 often precede them and point out their prey, you will see the 
 vultures descending in a cloud from one knows not whence, as if 
 from heaven. Naturally solitary and without communication, 
 mostly silent, they flock to the banquet by the hundred, and 
 nothing disturbs them. They quarrel not among themselves, 
 they take no heed of the passers-by. They imperturbably ac- 
 comphsh their functions in a stern kind of gravity, with de- 
 cency and propriety ; the corpse disappears, the skin remains. 
 In a moment a frightful mass of putrid fermentation, which man 
 had never dared to draw near, has vanished — has reentered the 
 pure and wholesome current of universal hfe. The vulture is 
 an offensive bird, and typifies moral evil. Like moral evil, it 
 has to accomplish good. Our tyrant kings, our brutal soldiery, 
 our dishonest speculators, what have they, the high priests of 
 moral evil, been compelled to accomplish in spite of their own 
 designs ? They have been used by Nature as vultures. They 
 have cleared the way for settled government, strong laws, rail- 
 ways, roads, and civilization. t. b. 
 
 Evil, Destroyers of. — The secretary-bird, or serpent-eater 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. ill 
 
 [Serpentarius reptilivorus), is found upon the dry plains of South- 
 ern Africa, where it wages an incessant and deadly war with 
 the infinite multitude of snakes and reptiles of all kinds with 
 which that region abounds. Its wings, which are of large size, 
 and covered with strong quill feathers like those of most Fal- 
 conidce, are further armed with blunt but strong spurs at the 
 wrist-joint, and these wings the bird holds before him like a 
 shield, keeping them in continual agitation, sparring, as it were, 
 as he advances sidelong toward his intended prey. His long 
 legs, which enable him to run with rapidity, also give him a 
 great advantage in this mode of attack, by raising his head to 
 a safe height from the ground ; and as he gradually approaches 
 the snake, he watches carefully for the moment when the latter 
 is about to spring upon him, and to fix its poisonous fangs in 
 some vulnerable part of its adversary's body. But this is usu- 
 ally a vain attempt ; as the rSptile dashes upon its enemy, a sud- 
 den and most violent blow from the bird's armed wing throws 
 him writhing upon the ground, and this process is repeated if 
 the snake be strong enough to return to the attack. After re- 
 ducing his foe to a helpless condition by these tremendous 
 blows, the bird, like a victorious gladiator, proceeds to despatch 
 his opponent, whom he swallows whole if of a convenient size, 
 or tears to pieces if too large to be disposed of at a single gulp. 
 He has sometimes been seen to carry up a snake, which refused 
 to die easily, to a great height in the air, and then let him fall 
 to the ground. He confers great benefits upon the inhabitants 
 of a region so overrun with reptilesjas Southern Africa. It is 
 somewhat difficult to understand the reason for the creation of 
 these poisonous reptiles, as also it is to account for the introduc- 
 tion into our world of moral evil and its mischievous progeny. 
 The secretary-bird may be taken to illustrate the very impor- 
 tant truth that although Nature has produced and does rear evil 
 things she also provides adequate means for their destruction. 
 To help in the destruction of noxious reptiles we have the sec- 
 retary-bird. For the piupose of combating the vices we have 
 the preacher and the reformer. MU, 
 
112 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Evil, The Power to Reject It is a remarkable fact that 
 
 the venom of poisonous snakes (indeed any morbid and venom- 
 ous virus) can be swallowed with impunity. It is neither acrid 
 nor burning, and only produces a sensation on the tongue anal- 
 ogous to that caused by greasy matter. If healthy, there is a 
 power within us to neutralize the operation of this poison, and 
 to reject it. The mind possesses an analogous power. It may 
 imbibe moral poison, but if in a healthy condition it will not 
 appropriate it into the system. re. 
 
 Evil, The Limitation of — The Raptores, or birds of prey, 
 live only by rapine, and are naturally plunderers and blood- 
 thirsty. Like the Carnivora among mammalia, they live on 
 animals either dead or living ; like them too they possess the 
 strength and adroitness which are necessary to satisfy their san- 
 guinary appetites. They enjoy no power of song. Destruc- 
 tion seems the sole object of their existence. Nocturnal and 
 diurnal, they are the terror of all the rest of the feathered crea- 
 tion, among whom they make numerous victims. They are 
 cruelly despotic, and reign as lords and masters in the districts 
 which they choose for their territory. But Nature puts a limit 
 to evil, physical as well as moral. And so, with her ever-ad- 
 mirable foresight, she has wisely limited the reproduction of 
 these destructive and cruel creatures. The largest of then 
 only lays two eggs a year ; the others on an average five or 
 six. A^'hat^ a horrible thing it would be if they possessed the 
 fecundity of the domestic fowl ! fl--A few specimens of evil are 
 quite enough, and so Nature provides that there shall only be 
 a few. Cahgulas, Neros, Buonapartes, and all that class of 
 creatures — the human Raptores — are also beneficently kept 
 within limits as to numbers. re. 
 
 Evil in Unexpected Places. — Evil is not limited to any 
 locality or set of circumstances. Men sometimes think that if 
 they could get away from the din and jargon of the city, and 
 the tricks and snares of the market, they could discover some 
 quiet sacred glen, or lovely peaceful retreat, where baseness 
 and depravity could not enter. Never was there a greater 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 1 13 
 
 error. Of old the serpent found his way into even paradise. 
 Commerce and religion are two mighty streams whose civihzing 
 influences are felt all the world over; yet even in closest con- 
 tiguity to their influences what horrible forms of evil and gro- 
 tesque shapes of barbarity are discernible ! The physical world 
 suffers like the moral world from the intrusion, into its most 
 beautiful associations, of incongruous and detestable forms. 
 Look at those two magnificent rivers — the Orinoco and Amazon. 
 Behold the forests which cover the region that divides them — 
 forests the growth of thousands of years, grand and noble, al- 
 most sublime. What have we in this noble panorama to mar 
 the beauty and to chill our joy? Why, where the shallow parts 
 of the river disclose a sand-bank, the crocodile may be seen, with 
 open jaws, and motionless as a rock, its uncouth body often 
 covered with birds ; while the checkered boa-constrifctor, its tail 
 lashed round the trunk of a tree, lies coiled in ambush near the 
 bank, ready to dart with certain aim on its prey. Rapidly un- 
 coiling, it stretches forth its body to seize the young bull, or 
 some feebler prey, as it fords the stream, and moistening its 
 victim with a viscid secretion, laboriously forces it down its 
 dilating throat. Let the lesson be learned that in this world 
 there is no scene into which evil will not creep, no place where 
 danger does not lurk. vi. 
 
 Evil Detected though in New Modes ol Existence. — 
 
 It is not at all uncommon for honey to be unwholesome on ac- 
 count of its having been collected by bees from poisonous plants. 
 The honey of Trebizond, for example, has long been notorious 
 for its deleterious properties ; it poisoned the soldiers of Xeno- 
 phon during the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand. Pliny, 
 too, speaks of it ; and to this day its intoxicating effect is fre- 
 quently witnessed. It arises, no doubt, from the plants, chiefly 
 the Azalea pontica, from which the honey is gathered. Mr. 
 Barton has given us a similar account of the poisonous quality 
 of the honey gathered by bees from the savannas of New Jer- 
 sey, where the kalmia and the azalea are the principal flower- 
 ing shrubs. L. 
 
114 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Evil, The Breaking Forth of Hidden — Sometimes the 
 moistened clay on the margin of the swamps near the Orinoco 
 will blister and swell slowly into a kind of mound, until, with a 
 violent noise, like the outbreak of a small mud-volcano, the ac- 
 cumulated earth is cast high into the air. The spectator who 
 comprehends the purport of this strange scene immediately re- 
 treats, for he knows that the birth of the portentous travail will 
 be a gigantic water-snake or huge crocodile aroused from its 
 torpidity. d. 
 
 Evil Thing, The Terrific Force of an. — The lance- 
 headed viper, or Trigonocephalies [Bothrops lanceolatus), is most 
 common in the West Indian Islands, where it is justly dreaded. 
 It has been computed that at Martinique fifty persons out of a 
 population of one hundred and twenty-five thousand souls die 
 annually from the bite of these odious reptiles. Their fecundity 
 is frightful. Every female bears sixty young, which on their 
 very advent into the world are completely formed and able to 
 wound. This viper, unlike the rattlesnake, carries no warning 
 rattle ; nothing indicates its presence. d. 
 
 Exaction, The Unwisdom of. — The llama, or guanaco 
 [Auchenia llama), is found among the recesses of the Andes. 
 In the silver-mines his utility is very great, as he frequently 
 carries the metal from the mines in places where the declivities 
 are so steep that neither asses nor mules can keep their footing. 
 The burden carried by this useful animal, the camel of the New 
 World, should not exceed from one hundred to one hundred 
 and twenty-five pounds. If the load be too heavy he hes down, 
 and no force or persuasion will induce him to resume his jour- 
 ney until the excess be removedrjl Thus he teaches us the un- 
 wisdom of endeavoring to exact tSo much from those who are 
 willing to serve us well. vt. 
 
 Existence by Instalments. — There are creatures which 
 possess existence by instalments. " The Vibrio, Rotifer, JSIacro- 
 biotus, etc., are," says Professor Owen, " organisms which we 
 can devitalize and revitalize, devive and revive, many times." 
 Living together as these sorts of organisms generally do, tenant- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTIiATIONS. 115 
 
 ing the same tufts of moss or the same patches of lichen, they 
 eke out their existence by instalments, instead of enjoying a 
 more or less definite and continuous span of life. They possess 
 the power of resuming active vital manifestations, after these 
 have been completely in abeyance for five, ten, fifteen, or even 
 twenty years. During the suspension of their functions they 
 can no more be looked upon as living things than can the dor- 
 mant seeds in the Egyptian catacombs. Though not living, 
 they, like these seeds, possess the potentiality of manifesting hfe ; 
 and for each alike, in order that this potentiality may pass into 
 an actuality, the first requisite is water, without which life in 
 any real sense is impossible. b. l^ 
 
 Expansion, Room for. — The narrow dogma makes no allow- 
 ance for the expansion of men's hearts and brains, and there- 
 fore becomes obsolete. The society which is based on rigid 
 bigoted small rules and pedantic formulas breaks up, because 
 no arrangements have been made for the inevitable expansion 
 of the hopes and opinions of its members. There'must be room 
 for expansion. This is perfectly well understood in the arts, 
 and practical men make proper arrangements in obedience to 
 this law. The bars of furnaces must not be fitted tightly at 
 their extremities, but at least must be free at one end, other- 
 wise in expanding they would split the masonry. In making 
 railways a small space is left between the successive rails, for 
 if they touched, the force of expansion would cause them to 
 curve or would break the chairs. Water-pipes are fitted to one 
 another by means of telescopic joints, which allow room for 
 expansion. In every department there must be provision made 
 for expansion, ti- el. 
 
 Exteriority Secondary to Utility The swallow caught 
 
 in the morning and closely examined is seen to be a strange 
 and ugly bird ; but this fact perfectly well agrees with what is, 
 par excellence, the bird — the being among all beings born for 
 flight. To this object Nature has sacrificed everything; she 
 has laughed at mere form, thinking only of movement, and has 
 succeeded so well that this bird, ugly in repose, is when flying 
 
Il6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the most beautiful of all. Scythelike wings, projecting eyes, 
 no neck (in order to treble her strength), feet scarcely any or 
 none ; all is wing. These are her great general features. And a 
 very large beak always open, which in flight snaps at its prey with- 
 out stopping, closes, and again, reopens. Thus she feeds while 
 flying; she drinks, she bathes while flying; while flying .she 
 feeds her young. Her exteriority having been made in all re- 
 spects entirely subservient to her efficient performance of her 
 movements, she does all these things easily and well.r' It would 
 be a good thing if some of our fashionable ladies and gentle- 
 men would learn the lesson which Nature teaches by means of 
 the swallow. Why cannot they so arrange their externals as to 
 make them helpful instead of retardatory in the work of life ? 
 Why must they put the proper discharge of duties in the second 
 place, and showy exteriority in the first? t. b. 
 
 External Change without Radical Alteration. — It is of 
 
 paramount importance to discriminate between a mere change 
 of form of a thing and a radical alteration in its nature. Here 
 is the test question for solution : " Is the change in question 
 merely an external one, or is it a change in essence ? " Be not 
 deceived ; you may have a total change in the outside which 
 leaves the subject of it still the same. Look among the bushes 
 there and you behold clearly enough the skin of a snake. He 
 has certainly changed. Yes, but only in his skin. The snake 
 is still alive, and as much a snake as ever. Even this modifica- 
 tion of his external appearance too was (as it often is with other 
 existences besides the snake) a mere matter of convenience. 
 The external covering just thrown oif was not so good as the 
 one which was to supersede it, and which had been in prepara- 
 tion some time. So as soon as the new .skin was quite ready 
 the snake wriggled to the bushes most expedient for his pur- 
 pose, and by their help literally crawled out of his old skin and 
 left it there on the bush. A wonderful change no doubt in one 
 sense ; and yet it is one which is unattended by any alteration in 
 the nature of the snake. We often observe total changes in 
 the manners of society, and in the tricks of politics, which are 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 117 
 
 not at all important, and superficial alterations which have no 
 radical significance whatsoever. When the acorn develops into 
 the oak, the transformation is wonderful. But when the snake 
 sheds its skin, it is still a snake. The proceeding is just one of 
 those many surface changes which the world sees whereof noth- 
 ing important issues. c. o. 
 
 Extremes, The Love for The force of attraction varies 
 
 in different parts of the magnet ; it is strongest at the two ends, 
 and is totally wanting in the middle. This may be seen very 
 clearly when a magnetic bar is placed in iron filings ; these 
 become arranged round the ends of the bar in feathery tufts, 
 which decrease toward the middle of the bar, where there are 
 none. That part of the surface of the bar where there is no 
 visible magnetic force is the neutral line, and the points near 
 the ends of the bars where the attraction is greatest are the 
 poles. Men are often like these iron filings on the magnet. 
 They shun the neutral linie, and riish to one or other of the 
 opposite poles of thought.:^n nearly all departments of thought 
 and action, and among all religionists and politicians, we see 
 the masses attracted by some extremes. In times of passion 
 and excitement it seems of little service to point out to men 
 that experience teaches that truth often resides between the 
 extremes. The attractive force of that abstract fact is not 
 enough for them. The magnetism of the extreme view is all- 
 powerful ; and thus the partizans draw ofif, not only as far as 
 possible from each other, but also a very long way from the 
 truth itself, which, though they heed it not, remains like a 
 neutral line drawn between them both. el. 
 
 Eye not Infallible, The.— One of the most curious mirage 
 effects is to be seen on the Wash during hot summer weather. 
 The mirage is there known as the "looming of the land," and 
 when it is about it is impossible at moments to distinguish the 
 sand and weed banks from the sea, while the distortion, both 
 perpendicular and horizontal, of ship-masts, etc., is ludicrous. 
 In one case a herd of seals on a sand-bank seemed transformed 
 into a row of long-legged monsters, wading in water, or rather 
 
Ii8 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 rooted by their long legs to the legs of a similar row of mon- 
 sters below them, which was their distorted reflection in wet 
 mud. NAT. 
 
 Eyes, Creatures without — Men who have no intellectual 
 perception and men who have no spiritual perception may be 
 met with. Natiue produces creatures without eyes sometimes. 
 In the grotto of the Madalena at Adelsberg, in Illyria, many 
 hundred feet below the surface are seen creatures like slender 
 fish moving in the mud below the water. These are the pro- 
 tei : the animal is of a fleshy whiteness and transparent in its 
 natural state, but when exposed to light its skin gradually be- 
 comes of a darker color, and at last gains an olive tint. Being 
 abundantly furnished with teeth, it is inferred that the animal 
 is one of prey, yet in its confined state it has never been known 
 to eat, and it has been kept alive for many years by occasion- 
 ally changing the water in which it was placed. In dry seasons 
 the protei are very seldom seen in the lake of the Madalena, 
 but after great rains they are often abundant. Their natural 
 residence is an extensive subterraneous lake, from which in 
 great floods they are sometimes forced through the crevices of 
 the rocks into the place where they are found. These singular 
 creatures have no organs of vision, but in their place are two 
 small dots which occupy the position of eyes. It has not been 
 ascertained that they have any power of perception. The en- 
 tire absence of color, and the imperfect development of their 
 organs in at least their intermediate condition, between those 
 of a reptile and a fish, seem to be the result of the absence of 
 light. SA. 
 
 Fallen, The Tempting Instinct of the. — One of the most 
 remarkable examples of the instinct to tempt others into a lower 
 condition is shown in the method by which the tame female 
 elephant is trained to catch wild males. The females appear, 
 from the accounts which we have of their proceedings in Sir 
 Stamford Rafifles's Life, and in " WilHamson's Sports," to mani- 
 fest a desire to bring the males, which the hunters point out to 
 them, into the same condition in which they are themselves. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 1 19 
 
 They will in\'eigle any one to which their attention is directed 
 with the most artful and curious wiles ; they will- lead him about 
 so as to divert his attention from the huntsmen or drivers ; and 
 when the cords are passed round his legs, they will even assist 
 in fastening them. How similar is all this to the efforts which 
 those who have become slaves to habit and sin put forth in 
 order to reduce other persons into a like bondage ! r. 
 
 Falling, Obstacles to. — Since a body falls to the ground in 
 consequence of the earth's attraction on each of its molecules, 
 it follows that, everything else being the same, all bodies, great 
 and small, light and heavy, ought to fall with equal rapidity, 
 and a lump of sand without cohesion should, during its fall, 
 retain its original form as perfectly as if it were compact stone. 
 The fact that a stone falls more rapidly than a feather is due 
 solely to the unequal resistances opposed by the air to the de- 
 scent of these bodies. The resistance opposed by the air to 
 faUing bodies is especially remarkable in the case of liquids. 
 The Staubbach in Switzerland is a good illustration. An im- 
 mense mass of water is seen falling over a high precipice, but 
 before reaching the bottom it is shattered by the air into the 
 finest mist. In a vacuum, however, liquids fall, like solids, with- 
 out separation of their molecules. The resistance opposed by 
 the customs and ethics of society is the reason why many men 
 are deterred in a rapid fall into ruin. Take away all the resis- 
 tance which etiquette, conventional morality, philanthropy, and 
 religion offer to the downfall of men, and, like things in a 
 vacuum, how sadly fast the descent would become ! Many 
 men in respectable elevation owe their adventitious position to 
 the happy accident of strong resistance offered to their fall by 
 the circumstances and influences surrounding. el. 
 
 Family, Unlike the. — We are sometimes in human society 
 startled to find a member of a family utterly unlike every other 
 member of it in character, appearance, and habits. No ances- 
 tor can be discovered to bear resemblance to him. This is 
 strange ; but the peach-tree can tell a stranger story. Occasion- 
 ally, at long intervals of time, a peach-tree in Virginia, or under 
 
120 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the widely different climate of England, produces a single bud, 
 and this yields a branch which ever afterward yields nectarines. 
 Now nectarines differ, as every one knows, from peaches in 
 their smoothness, size, and flavor, and the difference is so great 
 that some botanists have even maintained that they are spe- 
 cifically distinct. Thus does Nature intimate to us that she 
 can make use of the parent to produce something quite unlike 
 the parent's family. a. p. 
 
 Fascination a Weapon of Destruction. — The rattlesnake 
 ( Crotaliis horridus) feeds principally upon smaller mammals and 
 upon birds, which it seems certain it possesses a peculiar power 
 of fascinating — the effect, it may be, of intense fear. " When 
 the piercing eye of the rattlesnake is fixed upon them,'' says 
 Mr. Murray, " terror and amazement render them incapable of 
 escaping ; and while involuntarily keeping their eyes fixed on 
 those of the reptile, birds have been seen to drop into its mouth 
 as if paralyzed, squirrels descend from their trees, and leverets 
 run into the jaws of the expecting devourer.'' Hogs and pec- 
 caries, however, are unaffected by this panic, and feed greedily 
 upon the reptile which causes it, whose venomous fangs cannot 
 penetrate their formidable hide. Jk d. 
 
 Fear, The Stupefying Effects of — At the mere sight of 
 one of the falcon tribe a partridge will stop as though struck 
 with stupor, and so overcome with fear as almost to be incapa- 
 ble of concealing itself, remaining absolutely immovable, and it 
 is not until the dreaded enemy is gone that it regains self-con- 
 trol. - It will even permit itself to be stifled in its hiding-place 
 rather than expose itself to the falcon, vulture, or sparrow-hawk. 
 The like stupefying effects of fear are constantly seen among 
 mankind. The lives of many are- subject to constant misery 
 as the result of fears, sometimes reasonable, sometimes un- 
 reasonable, respecting the intentions of real or imaginary ene- 
 mies. And probably there is no individual who has not at 
 some time or other been under the horrible spell of fear which, 
 whether acting on man or bird, has for the time the power 
 to snatch from the muscles and nerves all their vigor and tone, 
 and deprive its .subject of all capacity for action. re. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTKATIOKS. 12 1 
 
 Feeble, The Might of the. — Before despising what may 
 appear feeble and impotent, it is worth while to pause to learn 
 a lesson from some of Professor Bailey's examinations. Pro- 
 fessor Bailey having examined deep-sea soundings obtained by 
 Brooke's deep-sea-sounding apparatus from the bottom of the 
 ocean, at the depth of more than two miles, found them, he tells 
 us, all filled with microscopic shells. They were chiefly made 
 up of perfect little calcareous shells (Forammiferce), and con- 
 tained also a small number of sihcious shells [DiatomacecE). It 
 would seem that these little marine insects, which, when alive, 
 glow and sparkle on the surface of ' the sea, and there build 
 their habitations, when they die sink in vast multitudes, and 
 settle at the bottom, as if for the purpose of filling up the vast 
 chasms of the ocean. They are the atoms of which mountains 
 are formed, plains spread out. Our marl-beds, the clay in our 
 river-bottoms, large portions of many of the great basins of the 
 earth, are composed of the remains of just such little creatures 
 as these, which the ingenuity of Brooke and the industry of 
 Berryman have enabled us to fish up from the depth of more 
 than two miles (twelve thousand feet) below the sea-level. 
 These Foraminiferce, therefore, when living, may have been pre- 
 paring the ingredients for the fruitful soil of a land that some 
 earthquake or upheaval in ages far away in the future may be 
 sent to cast up from the bottom of the sea for man's use. Now 
 who does not recognize in history that something of a similar 
 process goes on all the world over ; that the influences which 
 appeared merely transient have not been so, but have reap- 
 peared in other forms and places ; that the little things which 
 were forgotten have not been obhterated, but have been accu- 
 mulating and gathering power ; that the multiplication of Httle 
 things has produced vast changes ; that society is not renovated 
 by rapid alterations upon its surface, but by the operation of an 
 immense number of individuals ; that, in fact, the weak things 
 of the world often confound the mighty, and the base things 
 are those chosen to fill up social chasms and effect stupendous 
 changes? That which the hurricane is powerless to accomplish 
 
•122 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 is quietly done by the Foraminiferce. The change which revolu- 
 tions are impotent to achieve is realized merely by accumulated 
 words of wisdom and deeds of benevolence. t. 
 
 Feminine Masculinity. — It is a singular fact that the males 
 in certain sub-breeds of fowls have lost some of their secon- 
 dary masculine characters, and from their close resemblance in 
 plumage to the females are often called "hennies." Mr. Grant- 
 ley F. Berkeley relates the still more singular case of a cele- 
 brated strain of " polecat game-fowls " which produced in nearly 
 every brood a single hen-cock. The great peculiarity in one 
 of these birds was that he, as the seasons succeeded each other, 
 was not always a hen-cock, and not always of the color called 
 the polecat, which is black. From the polecat and hen-cock 
 feather in one season he molted to a full male-plumaged black- 
 breasted red, and in the following year he returned to the 
 former feather. But this is not the only specimen of feminine 
 masculinity exhibited by creatures under domestication. There 
 is the modern married man, whose ancestors have been under 
 severe conjugal training — the half-man. This curiosity of de- 
 jection always reminds one of the " hennies.'' For a season he 
 has the appearance of being a manikin, but for quite an equal 
 period he resembles the shrew. Unfortunately there is, in his 
 case, no fixed time for his alternations of character, so you can 
 never be sure as to how you may find him. He ma^ show 
 signs of the masculine character at the very moment when you 
 expect to behold him in his most interesting effeminacy ; and, 
 on the other hand, you may find him with all the -^-ices of the 
 female at the very moment when you had anticipated that he 
 would exhibit himself as a man. He is most often met with 
 among the middle classes of our large towns, and is clearly an 
 interesting addition to the list of organisms which ha\'e very 
 much varied under domestication. va. 
 
 Fictitious Prestige. — It would be a marvelous investiga- 
 tion to ascertain the principles upon which honor and credit 
 and reputation are bestowed on men by their fellows. Very 
 often there is no more just ground for the reputation men are 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 123 
 
 enjoying than there is for the reputation which the chimpanzees 
 have acquired. "The chimpanzees Hve in troops in the forest, 
 or at least they congregate for the purpose of repelhng the at- 
 tacks made upon them by the Carnaria, and to drive from their 
 domains such other animals as may attempt to install themselves 
 therein to their disad\'antage. Their weapons are ready to their 
 hand — stones and the branches of trees. Like the orangs, they 
 construct rude beds or couches of interwoven boughs stripped 
 of their greenery.^ In consequence of this the negroes of Guinea, 
 scarcely much higher in the scale of intelhgence than themselves, 
 look upon them as a nation, and believe that if these men of 
 the woods do not speak, it is because they fear to be con- 
 demned to work or carried off into slavery, and not from incapac- 
 ity. So these creatures have credit for being a nation, and as 
 it also seems, for being very acute and shrewd. It is obvious 
 that in many other instances among men individuals and classes 
 are credited with powers and a stahis which are entirely ficti- 
 tious. " In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is 
 king." Stupid conventionality, stoUd prejudice, cold formahty, 
 and long habit have all had the effect of so dwarfing our men- 
 tal capacity that we are constantly ascribing to those whom the 
 accident of birth has placed in a sphere different from our own, 
 some wonderful ability which they cannot possess, and some 
 extraordinary power which does not exist. In all this we are 
 like those negroes of Guinea, for we look up at assemblages of 
 little men in elevated positions, and ascribe to them fictitious 
 prestige, as they look up at the chimpanzees, and actually con- 
 ceive them to be in mind sagacious and in social power a 
 nation ! d. 
 
 Finical Disposition, The. — Humboldt states that the capu- 
 chin saki (a monkey inhabiting Brazil, Guiana, and Colombia) 
 takes the most minute precautions not to wet its beard. When 
 it is thirsty, it seats itself by the side of a stream, and scooping 
 up the water in the hollow of its hand, carries it to its mouth, 
 repeating these movements as often as may be necessary to 
 quench thirst, but without ever wetting or rumpling its valued 
 
124 DICriOKAKY OF 
 
 chin appendage. It is not, however, with all this affectation 
 of nicety, superior to other monkeys in other particulars. It is 
 a good representative of the finical character among men — of 
 that individual who is punctiliously careful not to crease a glove, 
 ruffle a hat, or soil a boot, yet in all essential particulars and 
 habits is not one whit better than his fellow-men. m. 
 
 Fits and Starts. — It is sometimes complained of a great 
 genius that he works by " fits and starts." The fact, however, 
 is that this is in some cases the natural way of making up the 
 required work. Let us refer to the phenomena of the sea. 
 Instances of commotion in the sea at uncertain intervals — the 
 making, as it were, of efforts by fits and starts to keep up to 
 time in the performance of its manifold offices — are not unfre- 
 quent, nor are they inaptly likened to spasms. The sudden dis- 
 ruption of the ice which Arctic voyagers tell of, the immense 
 bergs which occasionally appear in groups near certain latitudes, 
 the variable character of all the currents of the sea — now fast, 
 now slow, now running this way, then that — may be taken as 
 so many signs of the tremendous throes which occur in the 
 bosom of the ocean. Sometimes the sea recedes from the shore, 
 as if to gather strength for a great rush against its barriers, as 
 it did when it fled back to join with the earthquake and over- 
 whelm Callao in 1746, and again Lisbon nine years afterward. 
 Colossal power cannot be expected always to work with the 
 mechanical precision of a watch, and perform a uniform num- 
 ber of movements each minute. t. 
 
 Flagging Energies, Refreshing Influences for. — In order 
 to watch ants, Huber constructed a vivarium in which they 
 could work, and supplied them with earth, sand, and other nec- 
 essaries. As in this artificial state of existence the insects could 
 not procure moisture from the depths of the earth, moisture from 
 other sources was necessary. Whenever the insects had ceased 
 to work, they could almost always be induced to renew their 
 labors if water was supplied them so as to descend like very 
 fine rain upon the earth. As soon as the formerly quiescent 
 ants felt the shower they regained their activity, ran about with 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 125 
 
 renewed energy, and set to work upon the soil.7 In their artifi- 
 cial state they especially needed refreshing influences. So do 
 we in ours. We often feel that we can work no more. Our 
 societies and institutions sometimes seem to come to a stand- 
 still. But if some refreshing influence from outside is brought 
 to bear upon us, the whole appearance of things is at once 
 changed. If we take the history of church and chapel debts, 
 and of philanthropic and political societies, we shall have a long 
 record of the instances in which the suspended activities of 
 communities were entirely resuscitated by opportune refreshing 
 influences from without. h. 
 
 Fools as a Species. — When we see how perverse, ridiculous, 
 and incapable of being made wise are some of the persons who 
 thrust themselves upon public notice, and observe that in all 
 ages and countries the man whom Solomon persistently desig- 
 nates as " the fool " has been a well-known character, we are 
 reminded of what Mr. Darwin says of the goose. He remarks 
 that " this bird deserves some notice, as hardly any other an- 
 ciently domesticated bird or quadruped has varied so little." 
 In the year 3.88 B.C. these birds were kept in the capitol at 
 Rome as sacred to Juno. But the goose has proved inflexible 
 in its organization under long-continued domestication. The 
 chief variation which can be detected is that the bird has in- 
 creased in size and in productiveness, and varies from white to 
 a dusky color, " The amount of variation which it has under- 
 gone, as compared with most domestic animals, is singularly 
 small. This fact can be partially accounted for by selection 
 not having come largely into play. Birds of all kinds, which 
 present many distinct races, are valued as pets or ornaments ; 
 no one makes a pet of the goose : the name indeed, in more 
 languages than one, is a term of' reproach." va. 
 
 " Footprints on the Sands of Time." — In the British Isles 
 footmarks of Sauroid animals have been detected in the coal- 
 field south of Edinburgh, and the impressions of the feet of 
 another reptilian animal have been found in the coal-field of 
 the Forest of Dean. American geologists have evidences, in our 
 
126 DICTIOiXAKY OF 
 
 lowest Silurian (Potsdam) beds, of numerous trails of animals, 
 probably crustaceans, by which a film of mud or sand formed 
 by one tide was tracked and burrowed before another covered 
 the impressions, and left them to future ages as proofs of layers 
 deposited on the shores of former lands. Some of the coal 
 sandstones in the environs of Manchester, England, exhibit on 
 their siu-faces the clearest indications of having been shore 
 deposits, certain tracks having been marked on them by ani- 
 mals which must have crawled at ebb-tides. Longfellow 
 speaks of " footprints on the sands of time " ; and here they are 
 literally. In a metaphorical sense we may trace also through 
 the centuries the footprints of our intellectual giants. They are 
 seen in our literature, in our picture-galleries, in our sculpture, 
 in our architecture, and our laws. si. 
 
 Forces, The Mightiness of Silent. — We often overlook 
 the mightiness of forces because of their silence. Were we en- 
 dowed by Nature with a microscopic eye, and were the integu- 
 ments of plants completely transparent, the world of vegetation 
 would not meet us with that aspect of immobility and repose in 
 which it now presents itself to our senses. The interiors of the 
 cellular structures of vegetables are ceaselessly animated by the 
 most diversified currents, rotary, rising and falling, dividing and 
 ramifying, or altering their direction, as is made manifest by the 
 movement of the granular sap-corpuscles in the leaves of sev- 
 eral winter plants {Najades, Characece, ffydrocharidece), and in " 
 the hairs of phanerogamous land plants. There is at the same 
 time seen a confused molecular movement, first observed by 
 the distinguished botanist, Robert Brown, but which also occurs 
 among finely divided particles of matter of all kinds, the phe- 
 nomenon not taking place only within organic cells ; the cir- 
 cular movement of the globules of the cambium, in a system 
 of special vessels (cyclosis) ; lastly, the singular ai-ticulated fih- 
 form vessels of the anthers of the Chara, and the reproductive 
 organs of the liverworts and seaweeds, which have the faculty 
 of uncoiling themselves, and in which Meyen, snatched too soon 
 from science, believed that he recognized the analogues of the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 127 
 
 spermatozoa of the animal creation. If to the multifarious excite- 
 ments and movements we add those that belong to endosmose 
 and the processes of nutrition and growth, and, further, to the 
 penetration (and exhalation) of air, we have a picture of the 
 forces which, almost unknown to us, are active in the silent life 
 of the vegetable world. k. 
 
 Foreknowledge and Prophecy What decides birds to 
 
 emigrate? It is not want of nourishment, for most begin the 
 journey while they have abundance. Those confined in cages 
 are very resriess at the time of their proper migration. Atmo- 
 spherical currents are not the cause ; nor do the changes of sea- 
 son explain it, as the greatest number set off while the weather 
 is yet fine, and others, as the larks and starlings, arrive while 
 the season is bad. Atmospherical influences can only hasten 
 the migration in autumn, or retard or derange it in spring. It 
 is the foreknowledge of what is to happen which determines 
 birds to begin their journey. It is an instinct which urges them, 
 and which initiates them into the meteoric alterations that are 
 preparing. They ha\'e a particular faculty of foreseeing the 
 rigor of the coming season, and exquisite sensibility for atmo- 
 spherical changes which have not yet arrived, but are approach- 
 ing. Some men are also endowed by Nature with a foreknow- 
 ledge which is even more wonderful than that which has been 
 bestowed upon the birds. They are furnished with a faculty 
 for foreseeing future events and describing future processes. 
 These men are prophets, and are among the most valuable of 
 the human race, 'f t. b. 
 
 Foresight. — The " hand-to-mouth " people are a sad nui- 
 sance. As long as they have anything which they can consume 
 they will consume it, no matter whether they can do as well 
 without it or not, and when they are in distress through their 
 prodigality they beg. Utterly improvident, wasteful, and self- 
 indulgent, destitute of all foresight, they act like apes. For the 
 ape will indulge himself very completely and recklessly. Cove- 
 tous of and appropriating everything, he not only lays by no 
 store, in consequence of the abundance of food with which he 
 
128 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 is surrounded, but even throws away the food he is eating to 
 possess himself of the next object which attracts him. But the 
 " hand-to-mouth " people need not imitate such antics as these 
 when they know the penalty they always bring. Creatures less 
 like themselves than the ape can teach them a wiser method. 
 For some animals during hybernation always lay up provisions ; 
 nor is this precautionary economy confined to that period alone. 
 The satiated spider secures its new captives in its web ; and the 
 shrike spits beetles on thorns as a reserve for a future meal. 
 Owls, ravens, magpies, and nuthatches hide their superfluous 
 food ; the wolf, the fox, the lynx, and the wild dog bury por- 
 tions of their food against the next calls of hunger. Even here 
 we have foresight. p. 
 
 Forethought. — The leopard every day, before going in 
 search of its prey, sharpens its claws dn a tree, against which 
 it stretches all its length. Learn from him to prepare yoiuself 
 for the work you mean to do. Good" work needs forethought 
 and preparation quite as much as bad.-7^ m. 
 
 Forewarned is Forearmed. — The negroes of Martinique, 
 who of necessity are assiduous reptile-hunters, state as an in- 
 controvertible axiom, confirmed by immemorial experience, that 
 " a serpent seen is a serpent dead." The Trigonocephalus or 
 lance-headed viper (a most poisonous reptile) is only formida- 
 ble to man when not perceived, and when one treads upon it 
 accidentally in the countries which it inhabits. If the wayfarer 
 be prudent and beat the herbs and bushes as he advances with 
 a switch, the reptile, which is too large to glide away unseen, 
 will reveal itself and take flight. In the open field its defeat 
 and death are inevitable, however little coolness or skill its as- 
 sailant may possess. d. 
 
 Formalists, The — The formalists devote all their energies 
 to modifying or altering the external appearances of things. 
 There are civilized formaUsts and uncivilized formalists. Among 
 the latter it is in point to rt-fer to those who give their attention 
 to the appearance of the head. Now it is possible to modify 
 the shape of the head very considerably, without inflicting any 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 129 
 
 great or abiding injury on the mental faculties, by applying com- 
 pression in a particular way, so as to make the skull assume a 
 different shape from the natural one without lessening its vol- 
 ume or the mass of its contents. Dr. Graves tells us that some 
 of the Indian tribes called Flatheads compress the skull laterally, 
 and by this means the head is made to assume a flattened and' 
 elongated shape, so that a line passing from beneath the chin 
 to the vertex, instead of measuring seven or eight inches, is 
 nearly twice that length. The origin of this disfigurement is 
 to be traced to that all-prevailing principle, vanity, a flat and 
 elongated head being looked upon by the Indians as an un- 
 equivocal mark of nobility and beauty.^^ Other tribes compress 
 the head backward and downward so as to make it project 
 posteriorly in a very curious manner. Which of these modes 
 is the most physiological it is not necessary to pronounce, but 
 they certainly succeed in altering the shape of the skull and 
 braip to a very considerable extent ; and what is equally curi- 
 ous, this unnatural treatment does not appear to interfere much 
 with the development of their intellectual faculties. It would 
 appear that though the natural shape of the brain is greatly 
 changed, still this organ retains its usual size and weight. 
 Among the civilized formalists we have those who are always 
 aiming at alteration in the forms of the Church ; others, who 
 by an enforced improvement in the customs of society seek to 
 put a new appearance upon the country. The like amount of 
 work expended with an intelligent desire to change the inner 
 character of the people would produce glorious results. Of 
 what consequence are mere forms if the great mind of the world 
 is all right ? What can the form, either of the skull or of the 
 institution, matter if the brains are strong and healthy ; for if 
 the latter be really all right, of what possible importance is it 
 whether the former have or have not the appearance of being 
 either broad or narrow, expanded or contracted ? And if that 
 which is contained in the form be not strong and healthy, how 
 can you produce the strength and the health by merely operat- 
 ing upon the outside form ? s. 
 
13° DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Fortune=Fishing, Running Risks in The Pondicherry 
 
 eagle [Haliastur Indus) is a common and conspicuous species 
 in India. It is seen constantly sailing over the tanks, rice-fields, 
 ' and rivers at a moderate height, often passing up and down the 
 course of a river, ready to pounce down in a moment at any 
 "unlucky fish that may make its appearance at the surface of the 
 water. It usually snatches up its prey from the surface without 
 immersing itself, but occasionally it dips entirely under water, 
 when it experiences some difficulty in rising again with its prey, i' 
 It then risks its being upon its speculation. In this it resem- 
 bles the human fisher for fortune. Sometimes he departs from 
 his proper course and stakes upon a novel and greedy adven- 
 ture his whole nature — his health and his soul. He dives into 
 the very waters of the poisonous Styx to obtain what he wants. 
 He may escape being drawn down into the stream of hell, but 
 it is with difficulty that he rises to enter again into the sunny 
 air of rectitude. Mu. 
 
 Friends, Even the Vile liave When the crocodile of the 
 
 Nile takes his food, his mouth is constantly covered with m}T- 
 iads of insects called Bdella, which are no other than Euro- 
 pean gnats. They fly into the reptile's mouth in such num- 
 bers that they cover the entire surface of the palate and form 
 a brownish crust. They pierce the reptile's tongue with their 
 stings, and even excite it to madness. The Charadrius ^gyp- 
 tiiis, or Nile bird, comes to the rescue. It flies to the mouth of 
 the monster to catch them and deliver him from such innumer- 
 able enemies, and is perpetually seeking even in the mouth of 
 the crocodile the insects which form the principal part of its 
 nourishment. The rapacious crocodile, though it lives on flesh, 
 and with one bite could destroy, sJiows its repognition of the 
 service, and never harms the bird, j It would seem that as it is 
 among reptiles, so it is among men ; there is none so vile as to 
 be utterly deprived of friends. Even some of our vilest burg- 
 lars and murderers have been blessed with wives and children 
 who have tended to their necessities and been faithful unto 
 death. Mutual advantage is the bond of union between the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 131 
 
 crocodile and the Nile bird ; and it is often (though of course 
 not always) the explanation of many queer human coalitions, 
 from which monsters derive vast advantage. re. 
 
 Friendship, Emblems of True. — You may learn a lesson 
 from that prettily marked pilot-fish, with its beautiful purplish- 
 colored back and head, although it is only between four and 
 eight inches long. It is reputed to be a guide to the shark ; 
 and whenever the shark is alone it is a rare occurrence to find 
 him without the attendance of one or two pilot-fish. But when 
 there are several sharks together, the faithful attendant seems 
 too retiring to intrude himself, for he is then absentru If you 
 are a humble friend to any one, learn from this to come when 
 you are wanted, and do not intrude yourself when your com- 
 pany is not required. ga. 
 
 Frotliy Period, The. — The aphrophora lives in froth. In 
 the months of June and July one sees on nearly every tree, 
 and on plants of the most different kinds, a sort of white froth, 
 composed of air-bubbles, deposited on the leaves and branches. 
 It is produced by the aphrophora, which lives in it, and only 
 leaves it when it has wings. The animal which lives in this 
 froth is a six-legged grub. If the froth is cleared away from 
 it, it will hurry to certain parts of the stalk of plants, where by 
 dint of its operations on the sap it laboriously creates for itself 
 another covering of froth. If withdrawn from this froth the 
 volume of its body diminishes perceptibly, and the poor grub 
 dies, like a fish taken out of its natural element^) There are 
 many beings besides the aphrophora who have their frothy sea- 
 son. The adolescence of the litterateur, the preacher, and the 
 orator is often a period of froth. It should be remembered 
 that this is a mere passing phase of their existence. They grow 
 out of it by the time that their mental wings are strong enough 
 for use. It is unkind to attempt to accelerate the emergence 
 of any one from the froth, for you may unnecessarily destroy a 
 genius who would have raised himself out of it at the proper 
 epoch, and who, until then, will be best left to his bubbles. 
 
 I, 
 
132 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Fuss, Great Effects without Without storm or noise the 
 
 winds in their usual course accomplish surprising feats. All ex- 
 panses of shifting sand, whether maritime or inland, like the 
 deserts of Africa and Asia, are j'early modified by the agency 
 of wind-drift, the wind carrying the dry sand left by the tides 
 forward and landward beyond the reach of the waters ; and 
 where the aerial current blows steadily for some time in one 
 direction, as the trade-winds and monsoons of the tropics, it 
 will carry forward the drifting material in that direction. Hence 
 the gradual entombment of fields, forests, and villages that lie 
 in the course of such progressive sand-waves as on the Biscay 
 seaboard of France and on the western verge of Egypt. Re- 
 sults like these arise from merely the ordinary operations of 
 wind ; its extraordinary operations are manifested in the de- 
 structive effects of the hurricane, the whirlwind, and tornado. 
 Gentle as it may seem, the continuous drifting of sand over the 
 surface of hard rocks has been known to wear and polish down 
 their asperities, and even to grind out grooves and furrows like 
 those prodilced by the motion of glacier ice or the flow of run- 
 ning water. Here then we may observe great effects produced 
 without fuss ; and we may easily observe, in the phenomena of 
 ' social life, that there are plenty of illustrations there of the same 
 principle. The whirlwind of revolutions and hurricane of in- 
 surrections have no doubl produced startling consequences. 
 But the influence of noble ideas, spoken by undemcpnstrative 
 men, or embalmed in unpretending volumes, and of pious lives 
 lived in seclusion, has produced a far greater effect upon the 
 civilization of the world than all the blustering storms of war 
 raised by kings and factions and reverberating through history. 
 
 AD. 
 
 Genius, Tlie Irresistible Current of. — Arctic voyagers 
 tell us of an undercurrent setting from the Atlantic toward the 
 Polar basin. They de.scribe huge icebergs, with tops high up 
 in the air, and of course the bases of which extend far down 
 into the depths of this ocean, ripping and tearing their way with 
 terrific force and awful violence through the surface ice or against 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 133 
 
 a surface current, on their way into the Polar basin. Captain 
 Duncan, master of the English whale-ship Dundee, says at 
 page 76 of his interesting little narrative : " It was awful to 
 behold the immense icebergs working their way to the north- 
 east from us, and not one drop of water to be seen ; they are 
 working themselves right through the middle of the ice."/;-They 
 were moved by an invisible power which no superficial facts 
 could account for. They remind us of those great men in his- 
 tory who, in defiance of all the frozen opposition of the world, 
 have worked themselves onward to the accomplishment of their 
 destiny. Upon the surface of things there has been nothing to 
 account for either their course or their might. Fixed in their 
 places by concrete conventionalities, what is it which has moved 
 them right through all consolidated obstacles ? An unseen in- 
 fluence^ — the stream of genius. The minds which are moved by 
 that current plow their way in splendor through all the world's 
 superficial opposition. t. 
 
 Genius, The Perpetuating Power of. — At Knaresborough 
 in Yorkshire is a dripping well, which appears to convert every- 
 thing into stone. It actually covers over everything with a 
 coating of stonelike material, which of course takes the form 
 of the objects which it incrUsts. Mr. Frank Buckland exam- 
 ined, among other things, a pheasant, birds' nests and eggs, all 
 beautifully preser\'ed under a stonelike cover. The reason of 
 the petrifaction is that the surrounding rocks of the dripping 
 well are composed of magnesium limestone, and the lime be- 
 comes dissolved in the spring-water. So highly charged, indeed, 
 is it with mineral matter, that in a gallon of water there are of 
 carbonate of lime 23 parts, sulphate of magnesia 1 1 parts, and 
 sulphate of lime 132 parts ; and a pint weighs 24 grains heavier 
 than common water. The water, by giving up its mineral trea- 
 sures to all the things within its reach, confers upon them the 
 perpetuity of stone.|;LThe well of human genius possesses a simi- 
 lar power to confer perpetuity. Poetic men have placed all 
 sorts of objects within its influence, and have given them end- 
 less duration. Burns brought a " field-mouse " ; Coleridge, " an 
 
134 DICTIONARY OP 
 
 ass " ; Wordsworth, " a kitten " ; Byron, " many ladies " ; Bulwer 
 Lytton, "the bones orRaphael"; Thomas Moore, "a pretty 
 rose-tree " ; Tennyson, " a goose " ; Milton, his " deceased wife '' ; 
 and many other men who are not poetic many other things, 
 and they have been perpetuated by genius, all of them, even 
 to Charles Lamb's "roast pig," — perpetuated as effectually as 
 if they had been petrified by stone in the well at Knaresborough. 
 
 cu. 
 
 Gluttons and Geese. — The glutton and the goose are alike 
 in many respects. In these days of liver complaints we will 
 take an example of their anatomical resemblance. Look at the 
 size of the liver in the case afforded by the celebrated Strasburg 
 geese. By feeding these geese in a particular way, and keep- 
 ing them in artificial heat, the liver becomes diseased, grows to 
 an enormous size, and in this way furnishes the materials of a 
 pAtevsxMoh. sought after by the scientific gourmand. How many 
 instances occur where our citizens, exposing themselves to the 
 long-continued operation of the very same causes — confinement, 
 overfeeding, heat, and want of exercise — are affected by them 
 exactly in the same way ! How slight the difference between 
 the morbid phenomena displayed in the post-mortem of a city 
 feaster and the autopsy of an overfed goose! s. 
 
 Gluttony, The Fate of. — The favorite haunt of the Pytho7i 
 is the low marshy ground, rank with moist herbage, where they 
 prey upon birds and small animals, swallowing them whole — 
 swallowing them even alive — after having seized them in the 
 invincible folds of their long sinuous bodies, and always com- 
 mencing with their hinder parts.' So greedy a repast must ne- 
 cessarily be followed by a slow and difficult digestion, and can- 
 not be renewed at any very brief interval. They eat in effect 
 but once a month, or once in two months. During the lethargic 
 and semi-somnolent condition which invariably follows their 
 debauch, they fall easy victims to the attacks of their enemies. \ 
 
 D. 
 
 God, Human Opinions Concerning. — It cannot be too 
 clearly impressed upon the inquirer that human opinions re- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLVSTRATIOKS. 135 
 
 specting God have frequently merely the effect of obscuring 
 the glories of God. They are only the media, often the dense 
 and unhealthy media, through which certain human intelligences 
 look at Him ; and so far from revealing Him, they, rising from 
 impure sources, obstruct the clear view which under other in- 
 fluences might be obtainable. Let men's opinions in different 
 ages and lands be what they may respecting God, He is still 
 absolutely the same and unchanged. That which changes is 
 the human opinion or medium through which men gaze. And 
 it is pestilent or wholesome according to an infinitude of cir- 
 cumstances. Sometimes we see the sun with absolute clear- 
 ness. When there are less favorable conditions it is enveloped 
 in dimness. But the change is not in the sun : it is contingent 
 upon the exhalations of sublunary things; For it is evident 
 that at each hour of the day the solar rays come from the parts 
 above the atmosphere with the same power whether the sky be 
 clouded or clear. If no cloud intervenes, all the rays come to 
 the surface of the earth and heat it, but if one half or one fourth 
 of them should be intercepted by cloud, only the other half or 
 three fourths of the rays can affect the surface ; and when the 
 whole sky is covered with dense clouds, the greater part of the 
 solar rays will be intercepted by them. on. 
 
 Qold and Silver, The Accuracy of Job's Reference to. 
 
 — The fear that gold may be greatly depreciated in value rela- 
 tive to silver (a fear which at one time seized upon the minds ' 
 of some people) seems unwarranted by the data registered in 
 the crust of the earth ; for looking to all the recent discoveries, 
 we may be assured that gold is much the most restricted (in its 
 native distribution) of the precious metals. p^Argentiferous lead, 
 on the contrary, expands so largely downward into the bowels 
 of the rocks as to lead us to believe that it must yield enormous 
 quantities of silver for ages to come, and the more so in pro- 
 portion as better machinery and new inventions shall lessen 
 the difficulty of subterranean mining. It may indeed well be 
 doubted if the quantities both of gold and silver procured from 
 regions unknown to our progenitors will prove more than suffi- 
 
136 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 cient to meet the exigencies of an enormously increased popu- 
 lation and our augmenting commerce and luxury. And the 
 author of ■" Siluria " as a geologist says that Providence seems 
 to have adjusted the relative value of these two precious metals 
 for the use of man, and that their relations, having remained 
 the same for ages, will long survive all theories. Modern sci- 
 ence, in short, instead of contradicting, only confirms the truth 
 of the aphorism of the Patriarch Job, which thus shadowed 
 forth the downward persistence of the one and the superficial 
 distribution of the other : " Surely there is a vein for the sil- 
 ver. . . . The earth hath dust of gold." si. 
 
 Good Feeding, The Political Value of. — Zimmermann has 
 correctly observed that " hunger is the mother of impatience 
 and anger." Those of the ruling classes who are quick to de- 
 nounce, and ready to be apprehensive of the mob, would do 
 well to bear this in mind. Depend upon it, good feeding has 
 a far greater political value than they suppose. History does 
 not furnish accounts of riots, uproars, or atrocities committed 
 by well-fed mobs. A hungry mob is a dangerous mob. I If the 
 supercilious politician has no real sympathy whatever with the 
 people, he should still even as a measure of expediency do what 
 he can to feed them if he fears them. He may look upon the 
 hungry classes as very inferior creatures, but he will find they 
 are uncommonly like himself in being easily accessible to the 
 influences of good feeding. The serpents of faction, however 
 much they hiss around the altars of sedition, are much like 
 other serpents. Whenever any of the serpent kind have gorged 
 themselves to a great extent, whenever their body is seen par- 
 ticularly distended with food, they then become torpid, and may 
 be approached and destroyed with safety. Patient of hunger 
 to a surprising degree, whenever they seize and swallow their 
 prey they seem like surfeited gluttons, unwieldy, stupid, help- 
 less, and sleepy; they at that time seek some retreat, where 
 they may lurk for several days together and digest their meal 
 in safety : the smallest effort at that time is capable of destroy- 
 ing them ; they can scarcely make any resistance, and they are 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 137 
 
 equally unqualified for flight or opposition. That is the happy- 
 opportunity of attacking them with success ; at that time the 
 naked Indian himself does not fear to assail them, and the 
 most timorous politician would not be too cowardly to follow. 
 A proverb in the Efik language says : " It is the stomach which 
 rules the man." a. 
 
 Good Found where Least Expected. — The eggs of the tur- 
 tle are thought as great delicacies as its flesh ; and it is rather a 
 remarkable fact, that although the flesh of the hawk's-bill turtle 
 is distasteful to all palates, and hurtful to many constitutions, 
 the eggs are both agreeable in flavor and perfectly harmless. ^ 
 
 IL. 
 
 Great, The Loneliness of the. — Great men, as a rule, are 
 not club-men. The thinkers of the world have not been society 
 fractions. In their isolation they remind us of the oak, which 
 is never seen in a crowd, forming what may be properly termed 
 a wood. An oak forest is nothing more than a poetical figure ; 
 for the oak stands alone, or mingled with other trees of differ- 
 ent foliage, which it dominates with venerable feudal sover- 
 eignty. We have one Dr. Johnson and a number of Boswells 
 round about him. <" ST. 
 
 Great Britain, Healthfulness of — The following is a 
 comparative estimate pf the rate of mortality in the European 
 states : One in twenty-eight in the Roman and Venetian states ; 
 one in thirty in Italy in general ; one in thirty in Greece and 
 Turkey ; one in thirty-nine in the Netherlands, France, and 
 Prussia ; one in forty in Switzerland, Austria, Spain, and Por- 
 tugal ; one in forty-four in European Russia and Poland ; one 
 in forty-five in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden ; one in forty- 
 eight in Norway ; one in fifty-three in Ireland ; one in fifty-eight 
 in England ; one in fifty-nine in Scotland and Iceland ; so that 
 we perceive that the duration of life in Great Britain is very 
 great when compared with others, and that whatever foreigners 
 may say about its dull and foggy climate, it is a fact that its 
 inhabitants live much longer than those of the sunny climes of 
 southern Europe.! The boasted climate ©f Italy, with its soft 
 
138 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 vernal breezes and cloudless skies, gives a mortality of one in 
 thirty, vchereas among the Irish bogs it is only one in fifty- 
 three ; while in the Roman and Venetian states more than twice 
 as many out of a given number die as among the bleak districts 
 of the Scotch Highlands. It is, then, perfectly well ascertained 
 that in England, Ireland, and Scotland the mortality is much 
 lower than in the poetic "lands of the sun," Italy and Greece. 
 
 s. 
 
 Great is Composed of the Small, Everything — Let us 
 
 contemplate a drop of rain, multiplied raindrops, and their in- 
 fluence. Few persons have ever taken the trouble to compute 
 how much the fall of a single inch of rain over an extensive region 
 in the sea, or how much the change of even two or three degrees 
 of temperature over a few thousand square miles of its surface, 
 tends to disturb its equilibrium, and consequently to cause an 
 aqueous palpitation that is felt from the equator to the poles. Let 
 us illustrate by an example : the surface of the Atlantic Ocean 
 covers an area of about twenty-five miUions of square miles. 
 Now let us take one fifth of this area, and suppose a fall of rain 
 one inch deep to lake place over it. This rain would weigh 
 three hundred and sixty thousand millions of tons ; and the salt 
 which, as water, it held in solution in the sea, and which, when 
 that water was taken up as vapor, was left behind to disturb the 
 equilibrium, weighed sixteen millions more of tons, or nearly 
 twice as much as all the ships in the world could carry at a 
 cargd each. It might fall in an hour, or it might fall in a day ; 
 but occupy what time it might in falling, this rain is calculated 
 to exert so much force — which is inconceivably great — in dis- 
 turbing the equilibrium of the ocean. If all the water dis- 
 charged by the Mississippi River during the year were taken 
 up in one mighty measure, and cast into the ocean at one effort, 
 it would not make a greater disturbance in the equilibrium than 
 would the fall of rain supposed. Now this is for but one fifth 
 of the Atlantic, and the area of the Atlantic is about one fifth 
 of the sea-area of the world ; and the estimated fall of rain was 
 but one inch, whereas the average for the year is sixty inches, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 139 
 
 but we will assume it for the sea to be no more than thirty 
 inches. In the aggregate, and on an average, then, such a dis- 
 turbance in the equihbrium of the whole ocean as is here sup- 
 posed occurs seven hundred and fifty times a year, or at the 
 rate of once in twelve hours. When we reflect that this mighty 
 work is accomplished by multiplied raindrops, we cannot but 
 remember the old Latin proverb, that " Everything great is 
 composed of many things which are small." In further illustra- 
 tion of the same truth are the words of Young : 
 
 " Sands form the mountain, moments make the year." T. 
 
 Great Tyrants Sometimes Succumb to Small Heroes. 
 
 —The Raftores are daring, cruel, and strong, yet, like other 
 tyrants, they can be frightened. We read in Wilson that a 
 tiny bird, a flycatcher, such as the purple martin, will hunt the 
 great black eagle, pursue it, harass it, banish it from its district, 
 give it not a moment's repose. It is a truly extraordinary spec- 
 tacle to see this little hero adding all his weight to his strength 
 that he may make the greater impression, rise and let himself 
 drop from the clouds on the back of the large robber, pount 
 without letting go, and prick him forward with his beakfin lieu 
 of a spur. David in his dealings with Goliath, and other men 
 in all lands and times, show us that in the human family, as 
 among the feathered tribes, great tyrants will often succumb to 
 small heroes. t. b. 
 
 Greatest Good Occasioning the Greatest Evil, The. — By 
 
 universal consent religion is man's greatest blessing ; and water 
 is the greatest bpon of the thirsty all the world over. Yet what 
 a confirmation both religion and water afford of the fact that 
 the greatest good' may occasion the greatest evil ! Take, first 
 of all, the illustration supplied by the water, and in the words 
 of Ohver Goldsmith. In those burning countries where the 
 sun dries up every brook for hundreds of miles round, when 
 what had the appearance of a great river in the rainj^ season 
 becomes, in the summer, one dreary bed of sand, a lake that is 
 
140 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 never dry, or a brook that is perennial, is considered by every 
 animal as the greatest convenience of Nature. As to food, the 
 luxuriant landscape supplies that in sufficient abundance ; it is 
 the want of water that all animals endeavor to remove, and, 
 inwardly parched by the heat of the climate, traverse whole 
 deserts to find out a spring. When they have discovered this, 
 no dangers can deter them from attempting to slake their thirst. 
 Thus the neighborhood of a rivulet in the heart of the tropical 
 continents is generally the place where all the hostile tribes of 
 Nature draw up for the engagement. On the banks of this lit- 
 tle envied spot thousands of animals of various kinds are seen 
 venturing to quench their thirst, or preparing to seize their prey. 
 The elephants are perceived in a long line, marching from the 
 darker parts of the forest ; the buffaloes are there, depending 
 on numbers for security ; the gazelles, relying solely upon their 
 swiftness ; the lion and tiger, waiting a proper opportunity to 
 seize ; but chiefly the larger serpents are upon guard there, and 
 defend the accesses of the lake. Not an hour passes without 
 some dreadful combat ; but the serpent, defended by its scales, 
 and naturally capable of sustaining a multitude of wounds, is 
 of all others the most formidable. Ever on the watch until their 
 rapacity is satisfied, few other animals will venture to approach 
 their station. Now take the illustration which religion supplies 
 of the fact that the greatest good may occasion the greatest 
 evil. The splendid anthem of Spohr only tells us, in beautiful 
 music, the fact which history in unmusical language proclaims, 
 that as the hart pants after the water, so all souls seek after 
 God. Here, then, is admitted to be the great source of all 
 good. How have men approached that source ? Do you find 
 peace, love, charity, and all happiness characterizing their pro- 
 ceedings ? Look at the religions of the world, with their cruel- 
 ties and barbarisms ; listen to the brayings- of cant and the 
 howlings and ravings of sectaries and bigots , and notice the 
 insidious craft and poisonous malice with which some of the 
 smooth zealots do their work ! Behold how fiercely they fight 
 among one another ; how eagerly they pounce upon any who 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 141 
 
 are not of their number, but whom they descry afar off, eagerly 
 seeking after the source of All-purity ; and how desperately they 
 struggle, each with each, for the mastery and capture of the 
 anxious humble seekers of living water ! What brings all these 
 rampant men together, and occasions this hoarse clamor of 
 coarse voices where we anticipated gentle forms and loving 
 sounds ? The banks of the river of life have brought them 
 there, and by their presence they occasion the greatest evil 
 where we have a right to expect the greatest good. a. 
 
 Greediness, Insatiable — Insatiable greediness appears to 
 characterize all the movements of some men. Everything they 
 do has for its object the acquirement of some benefit for them- 
 selves. They resemble the fishes whose ruling impulse is the 
 desire to obtain something. This appetite compels them to en- 
 counter every danger, and indeed their rapacity seems insatia- 
 ble. Even when taken out of the water and almost expiring, 
 they greedily swallow the very bait by which they were allured 
 to destruction ; just as the miser at the point of death will still 
 excite himself about obtaining more of the gold which has been 
 his ruin. '' a. 
 
 Greedy Disposition, Tlie. — The king-vulture will not per- 
 mit any other bird to b6gin its meal until his own hunger is satis- 
 fied. The same habit may be seen in many other creatures, in- 
 cluding some men, the more powerful lording it over the weaker, 
 and leaving them only the remains of the feas^ instead of per- 
 mitting them to partake of it on equal terms.* If the king-vul- 
 ture should not happen to be present when the dead animal has 
 reached a state of decomposition which renders it palatable to 
 vulturine tastes, the subject vultures would pay but httle regard 
 to the privileges of their absent monarch, and would leave him 
 but a slight prospect of getting a meal on the remains of the 
 feast. Thus the greedy disposition, whether in the high or low, 
 never concerns itself about the want of others. il. 
 
 Gross Natures in Useful Employment. — The pig is an 
 important auxiliarj' in keeping rattlesnakes at a distance in coun- 
 tries where they abound. In the west and south of America 
 
142 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 when a field or farm is infested by these ferocious reptiles it is 
 usual to put a sow with its young brood there, and the snakes, 
 it is said, will soon be eaten up. It appears that, owing to the 
 fatty matter which envelops the body of this animal, it is safe 
 from the venomous bite. Besides, it likes the flesh of the snakes, 
 and eagerly pursues them. When a pig sees a rattlesnake, it 
 smacks its jaws and its hairs bristle up : the snake coils itself up 
 to strike its enemy ; the pig approaches fearlessly, and receives 
 the blow in the fold of fat which hangs upon the side of its 
 jaw. Then he places a foot on the tail of the snake, and with 
 his teeth he begins to pull the flesh of his enemy to pieces, and 
 eats it with evident enjoyment. Tplnfidehty, intemperance, and 
 tyranny are horrible social reptiles, and they are often success- 
 fully attacked by ferocious, ilhterate, gross "revivalists" and 
 demagogues, who bristle up to their work of annihilating them 
 on a method and with a zest not inferior to this rattlesnake-de- 
 stroyer. These men are not pleasant beings, but like those 
 other coarse creatures, they are useful for coarse work. Their 
 grossness is their qualification ; for the stings and wounds by 
 which the progeny of vice would kill other public men do not 
 affect that bloated self-complacency and dense coarseness in 
 which their rude nature is entirely enveloped. And our feel- 
 ings of loathing and disgust for these rpugh sons of coarseness 
 should always be tempered by the remembrance that they are 
 not quite so bad as that which they destroy. The pig, after all, 
 is better than the rattlesnake. re. 
 
 Habit, The Force of. — It is, as Mr. Darwin says, notorious 
 how powerful is the force of habit. The most complex and 
 difficult movements can in time be performed without the least 
 effort or consciousness. It is not positively known how it 
 comes that habit is so efficient in facihtating complex move- 
 ments ; but physiologists admit that the conducting power of 
 the nervous fibers increases with the frequency of their excite- 
 ment. This apphes to the ner\'es of motion and sensation as 
 well as to those connected with the act of thinking. That some 
 physical change is produced in the nerve-cells or nerves which 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 143 
 
 are habitually used can hardly be doubted, for otherwise it is 
 impossible to understand how the tendency to certain acquired 
 movements is inherited. That they are inherited we see with 
 horses in certain transmitted paces, such as cantering and am- 
 bling, which are not natural to them ; in the pointing of young 
 pointers and the setting of young setters ; in the peculiar man- 
 ner of flight of certain breeds of the pigeon, etc. We have 
 analogous cases with mankind in the inheritance of tricks or 
 unusual gestures. As to the domination which evil habit ac- 
 quires over men, that needs not even a passing allusion. It is 
 remarkable that the force of habit may affect even caterpillars. 
 Caterpillars which have been fed on the leaves of one kind of 
 tree have been known to perish from hunger rather than to eat 
 the leaves of another tree, although this afforded them their 
 proper food under a state of Nature. jfrTheir conduct might sug- 
 gest reflection to men who are tempted by habit to risk death 
 by adherence to debauched courses rather than return to a 
 natural mode of Kving. ex. 
 
 Habit, Age Altering. — A few years often change the habits 
 of a man. The middle-aged man has scarcely any of the habits 
 of the youth left. And if the proof of his identity depended on 
 their resemblance, it would indeed be hard to establish. A like 
 change of habit is observable in many other existences. We 
 may take from a class of mollusks the acorn-shells {Balamis 
 balanoides) as an example. It is a very remarkable fact, that 
 although the Balamis never moves from the spot on which it 
 has taken up its habitation, and, indeed, is incapable of any 
 kind of locomotion, yet when very young it was an active, 
 wandering little creature, furnished with jointed limbs, much 
 resembling a shrimp or crab, and swimming freely through the 
 water with a succession of bounds. ^Vhat a complete settling 
 down to quiet ways ! what a thorough transformation is here ! 
 But is it more striking than the metamorphosis of the hobble- 
 dehoy youngster into the sedate sage ? d. 
 
 Half -Truths and Hemiopia There is an affection called 
 
 hemiopia, in which the patient can only discern a part or the 
 
144 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 half of an object. He may see a man walking without head 
 and shoulders ; or with the upper portion of his frame hovering 
 in the air, but no lower limbs to sustain it ; or with a trunk like a 
 mutilated statue ; or with a body which has only a single eye, 
 half a nose, half a chin — appearing, in fact, to be sliced down 
 the center, as if the one moiety were not only divorced from 
 the other but absolutely annihilated. Dr. WoUaston was twice 
 attacked in this manner, and states that he could perceive but 
 half of an individual whom he met, and that on attempting , 
 to read the name of Johnson over a door, he saw only '' son." ^ 
 There is a mental hemiopia. The men who are affected by it 
 are never able to see the whole of any question. They are often 
 emphatic in stating precisely that which they do see, because 
 their vision respecting that is clear enough. These enuncia- 
 tions of theirs constitute the " half-truths " which we so constantly 
 meet witJi in society, in books, and in legislation. Men who 
 are affected with mental hemiopia are, as an almost universal 
 rule, quite unconscious of the fact. The great difficulty in mak- 
 ing them aware of it arises from a strong hallucination which 
 accompanies the disease and assures the sufferer that he is ex- 
 ceptionally strong and perfect in his mental vision. People 
 affected in this way will often declare that they have discovered, 
 and can proclaim, " the whole truth of God," the fact being 
 that they have barely seen half of it. Mental hemiopia is either 
 chronic or acute. The former is incurable. The latter will 
 yield to judicious treatment and the removal of the proximate 
 and exciting cause, which is usually passion, avarice, bigotry, 
 love, or jealousy. p. 
 
 Hangers=on. — The remora, instead of swimming far by its 
 own exertions, greatly prefers being transported from place to 
 place on ships' bottoms, or even the bodies of sharks. When 
 one of the sharks to which a remora is clinging is caught by a 
 hook, and is pulled out of the water, the little parasite is shrewd 
 in its own interest, for it drops off and makes for the bottom of 
 the ship. As long as a ship remains within the tropics, num- 
 bers of remoras chng to its bottom, whether that be coppered 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 145 
 
 or not, whence they dart off occasionally to pick up any morsels 
 of greasy or farinaceous matter that may be/ thrown overboard, 
 retiring again rapidly to their anchorage Jj: These hangers-on 
 resemble our social ones in the following particulars : they like 
 traveling about ; they do not care what they attach themselves 
 to so long as it suits their purpose for the time.; they will not 
 get along by their own exertions if they can find others to carry 
 them ; they are sharp in their own interests, and know quite 
 well when to desert a supporter ; and they are ready to avail 
 themselves of discarded or accidental aliment. mu. 
 
 Happiness is Relative. — The PeloncBa corntgata is remark- 
 able as much for its habits as its shape. It is not fixed to any 
 object, but is as motionless as if it were attached to a rock, 
 and seems to pass a singularly unenjoyable existence. Yet it 
 is doubtlessly happy in its own way, though that way is a very 
 strange one. It lives embedded in the mud, its whole body being 
 sunk, and only the ends of the two apertures projecting into 
 the water. The existence led by some men and women seems 
 almost as much at variance with our antecedent notions of a 
 happy life as is that of this Peloticea corrugata. Their sluggish, 
 impassive natures grovel in low pursuits, and never move 
 about among the intelligent currents of human society. No 
 doubt their existence has its pleasures. Happiness is a relative 
 thing. The Peloncza corrugata would find no gratification in the 
 conditions of life which the mackerel enjoys. The delights of 
 a clown would be misery to a sage. c. s. 
 
 Harmless yet Armed. — The hedgehog is one of the most 
 harmless animals in the world. Unable or unwilling to offend, 
 all its precautions are only directed to its own security ; and it 
 is armed with a thousand points to keep off the enemy, but 
 not to invade him. While other creatures trust to their force, 
 their cunning, or their swiftness, this animal, destitute of all, 
 has but one expedient for safety ; and from this alone it finds 
 efficient protection. As soon as it perceives itself attacked, it 
 withdraws all its vulnerable parts, rolls itself into a ball, and 
 presents nothing but its defensive thorns to the enemyflthus, 
 
146 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 while it attempts to injure no other quadruped, they are equally 
 incapable of injuring it. One might suppose that the noisy dog 
 with its sharp teeth was more capable of defending himself than 
 this quiet animal, but it is not so. Indeed it is by no means 
 certain that the very defiant-looking creatures are the most in- 
 vulnerable. Quiet men and peaceable nations are often quite 
 as well able to defend themselves as those who swagger about 
 their defensive power. Inoffensiveness does not mean help- 
 lessness, though the cur thinks it does when he essays to worry 
 the hedgehog, and cur-natures think so under all circumstances. 
 
 A. 
 
 Harmony where Least Expected. — Before Captain Mau- 
 ry's researches, ocean appeared to the most judicious observers as 
 nothing more than a grand mass of water, inert, passive, obedi- 
 ent to blind and changeful forces. He has demonstrated, how- 
 ever, that there, as in all other parts of the economy of Nature, 
 harmony and order reign ; that everything is planned, weighed, 
 and compensated ; and more, that ocean is endowed with a 
 combination of movements similar to those which nourish life 
 in the plant and the animal ; that it has a circulation, free and 
 regular as that of the blood ; a pulse ever throbbing and beating ; 
 veins and arteries, ay, and a heart ; and that beyond the purely 
 physical causes to which we may attribute this circulation, there 
 exists an essential agent which we should seek in vain else- 
 where, a vital force — that of the myriads of invisible beings 
 which are born, hve, multiply, and die in the teeming womb of 
 its waters. Each of these imperceptible existences changes the 
 equilibrium of the ocean; they also help to regulate the cli- 
 mates of the earth and to preserve the purity of the seas. The 
 principal agents of this circulation are three in number. The 
 first and most apparent is caloric, the solar radiation ; but of 
 itself this would be insufficient. The second and most impor- 
 tant is the salt. The third is the animal life — the " hving infinite 
 of the sea," as Michelet calls it — the infusoria. Truly, as we 
 contemplate this wonderful arrangement we may say, " He 
 divideth the sea with His power." my. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS, 147 
 
 Hateful to the Happy, Through the. — Few of our joys 
 are ever reached until we have journeyed through much that is 
 vexing and hateful. To endure the vexing and the hateful, 
 moreover, we often need to think of the goal beyond. Our 
 road is often like that leading to a place named Wady Nassoub, 
 situated a short distance from Sarabit-el-Kadim, on the road 
 from Sinai to Suez. It is gained after traversing Ramleh (" the 
 sandy "), a sandy ravine which serv^es as a retreat for horrible 
 black serpents, both big and little, and for enormous hzards. 
 It is followed by a narrow valley, " Widy Nassoub," one of the 
 most magnificent spectacles in the world. It is a circuit of 
 twenty to twenty-five leagues in extent, surrounded by huge 
 rocks arranged in successive terraces, and of incomparable 
 beauty of form and color. Its arena is an immense sheet of 
 black basalt, furrowed here and there by torrents of yellow sand. 
 A dazzling sun kindles up this landscape, which is one of in- 
 credible splendor. The traveler can now afford to look back 
 triumphantly on the serpents in the valley he has passed ; and 
 as he does so, his position is not unlike that of him who, hav- 
 ing borne himself nobly in the journey of life, and having at- 
 tained a glorious consummation, looks back at the vexations 
 he has passed forever. d. 
 
 Heads Worth Little, Some If a man lo^es his head, he 
 
 dies immediately ; but an insect is not nearly so fastidious, and 
 continues to live a long time without any head at all. Indeed 
 there are some insects, which, if beheaded, die not so niuch on 
 account of the head, but of the stomach ; for having then no 
 mouth, they cannot eat, and so die of hunger.'jHAnd some in- 
 sects there are which positively live longer if decapitated than if 
 left in possession of their head. c. o. 
 
 Health, The Sun a Source of " Where there is sun there 
 
 is thought." All physiology goes to confirm this. Where is 
 the shady side of deep valleys there is cretinism. Where are 
 cellars and the unsunned sides of narrow streets there is the 
 degeneracy and weakliness of the human race, mind and, body 
 equally degenerating. Put the pale withering plant and human 
 
148 . DICTIONARY OF 
 
 being into the sun, and, if not too far gone, each will recover 
 health and spirit. i. l. 
 
 Heavenly Bodies, The Ministration of The. — In Arctic 
 regions the moon and the stars alone temper the darkness of 
 the long winter's flight, and all who have read the story of polar 
 voyages will recollect the thankfulness with which the moonlight 
 is. welcomed. The Arab of the desert steers on emergency by 
 the light and position of the moon. Over the pathless seas 
 the moon is the navigator's friend and counselor, and places 
 within his reach a sure means for measuring the longitude and 
 fixing the spot where the ship may be. ^AVhen we think of the 
 fleets of noble vessels with their wealth of merchandise, and the 
 thousands of lives whose safety is dependent on its teachings, 
 we may form some estimate of the value of this blessing. 
 " Without the moon's aid,'' an astronomer observes, " our ships, 
 instead of fearlessly traversing the ocean from pole to pole, 
 would probably even now be incapable of performing long 
 voyages, and would content themselves with exchanging com- 
 modities and intelligence between well-known and neighboring 
 shores." be. 
 
 Hereditary Peculiarities, The Transmission of Ten- 
 dencies to particular vices are inherited, and are exhibited in 
 cases where the early death of parents, or the removal of the 
 children in infancy, prevents the idea of any imitation or effect 
 of education being the cause. That the organisation of a thief 
 is transmitted from father to son through generations seems tol- 
 erably certain. Gall has cited some striking examples. And 
 murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families. 
 Parents with an unconquerable aversion to animal food have 
 transmitted that aversion ; and parents with the horrible pro- 
 pensity for human flesh have transmitted the propensity to chil- 
 dren brought up away from them under all social restraints. 
 
 PH. 
 
 Hereditary Results.— It appears that many habits, phys- 
 ical as well as moral, are to a remarkable extent hereditary; 
 of this we could adduce numerous instances. The hereditary 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 149 
 
 tendency to certain moral or immoral habits in particular per- 
 sons has long been known ; and it has been frequently remarked 
 that the offspring of such individuals share in the same tenden- 
 cies, and are exposed to the same dangers in passing through 
 life. The same hereditary resemblance exists, also, with respect 
 to certain habits of body. Thus if the parents are accustomed 
 to the use of a certain species of aliment, the same will be found 
 to agree with their offspring. Our infants would soon sicken 
 and die if obliged to take the food on which the infants of the 
 Greenlander and Esquimau subsist and thrive. s. 
 
 Hidden Enemies. — Nocturnal birds of prey fly without 
 making the least noise. They can, therefore, pounce unawares 
 on their victims, seizing them before they have any idea of 
 necessity for escape. AVhen they lay hold of their prey it is 
 immediately devoured. But their large staring eyes cannot 
 bear the light of midday, l^hey therefore remain hidden in 
 their retreats while the sun is high, and do not begin to hunt 
 until the luminary has approached the horizon, when they are 
 able to distinguish with .surprising clearness the objects on which 
 they prey.^ Some of a man's human enemies resemble these 
 birds. They never attack openly in the daylight. They are 
 sly and quiet, and pounce upon their victim before he is aware 
 of their approach, and when surrounding conditions are such 
 as to prevent his being able to defend himself. re. 
 
 Hideous Implies tlie Dangerous, The There is a close 
 
 connection between ugliness and vice. Among human beings 
 a hideous expression of face usually implies a wicked person, 
 excepting, of course, in cases where it is accounted for by ill- 
 ness or accident. There are men whose badness is written in 
 repulsive characters upon their complexions, so that any ob- 
 server may avoid them. Not only so. It curiously happens 
 that in some of the creatures whose rage is likely to be fatal to 
 man, there should be something in the physiognomy which puts 
 him on his guard. It is so in regard to the sharks ; it is so in 
 the crocodiles ; it is so preeminently in the venomous serpents.f^ 
 There is in most of these an expression of malignity which well 
 
150 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 indicates their deadly character. Their flattened head, more 
 or less widened behind, so as to approach a triangular figure ; 
 their wide gape, and the cleft tongue ever darting to and fro ; 
 and, above all, the sinister expression of the glaring, lidless eye, 
 with its linear pupil, are sufficient to cause the observer to re- 
 treat with shuddering precipitancy. Darwin, speaking of a sort ^ 
 of viper which he found at Bahia Blanca, says : " The expres- 
 sion of this snake's face was hideous and fierce ; the pupil con- 
 sisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery iris ; the jaws.were 
 broad at the base, and the nose terminated in a triangular pro- 
 jection. I do not think I ever saw anything so ugly, except- 
 ing, perhaps, some of the vampire bats." 2/ RO. 
 
 Higher Life Requires tlie Higher Aliment, The. — The 
 air which has once passed through the lungs of a man, and which, 
 in losing four or five percent, of its oxygen, has become charged 
 with three or four percent, of carbonic acid, will yield but 
 very little of its remaining oxygen when again passed through 
 the lungs ; and if this air be breathed over and over again until 
 the sense of suffocation force a cessation, the air will still be 
 found to contain ten percent, of oxygen — that is to say, nearly 
 half of its original quantity.! In air thus vitiated the respiratory 
 process is impossible, but only impossible for warm-blooded ani- 
 mals in health: frogs, reptiles, fish, and moUusks, instead of per- 
 ishing when the air has lost about half its oxygen, continue to 
 breathe and absorb .oxygen almost as long as there is an)' left, 
 ■^pallanzani, Humboldt, and Matteucci have placed this beyond 
 a doubt by their experiments. It is equally beyond a doubt 
 that in the intellectual world also the higher life requires the 
 higher aliment. The conversation which will kindle and sustain 
 all the vitality of a number of weak-minded gossips will cause a 
 man, of intellect to experience a sensation of suffocation. The 
 intellectual atmosphere of some churches and chapels, which is 
 fully adequate to the wants of a certain tepid order of mind, 
 who can exist on the same truth uttered over and over again, is 
 one in which men composed of vigorous brain and warm heart 
 could not possibly exist. Their nourishment can only be de- 
 rived where purity and light abound. ph. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 151 
 
 Hissing. — As a fact, hissing is the only sound in Nature 
 which makes no echo. If criticism, at the meeting or at the 
 desk, be naught but hissing, and can do naught but hiss, it is 
 altogether a poor affair, and will awaken no echo of sympathy. 
 Therefore an earnest man may ignore it when it assails him in 
 his endeavors to do good. He should go on his course remem- 
 bering the ancient words of Sanai : " What matters it whether 
 the words thou utterest for religion are Hebrew or Syrian, or 
 whether the place in which thou seekest for truth is Jabalki or 
 Jabalsa." G. s. 
 
 Home Associations, Power of Early. — Early home asso- 
 ciations have a far more potent influence than is generally sup- 
 posed. Some natures, of course, are more susceptible to them 
 than are others, but over many men they have a sovereign 
 power. Nor is their influence confined to the human family. 
 The affection of birds is frequently extended to their own 
 haunts, and they cling with constancy to the place where they 
 were born. Nightingales, swallows, and many othersfind their 
 way back to the spot where their early days were spent, and 
 often to the very nest homes with which their joys were associ- 
 ated. ^ Everybody knows with what fideUty rooks stick to their 
 native trees, and how doggedly they resist every effort to dis- 
 lodge them. Though all the trees of the country are open to 
 their choice, rooks sometimes prefer a nest in a solitary tree in 
 some great city, because it is the home where they were born. 
 For eight months of the year not a bird, perhaps, is to be seen 
 there ; but with commencing spring the constant rooks, wing- 
 ing their way over streets and houses, once more appear and 
 ■ set about patching up the old nest. be. 
 
 Home Instinct, The. — Swallows {Hirimdo) are celebrated 
 for their migratory journeys. In the early days of spring they^ 
 reach Europe, not in flocks, but as isolated individuals or in 
 pairs. They occupy themselves almost immediately either in 
 repairing their last year's nests, or, if these have been destroyed, 
 in constructing new ones. Among the arrivals are many young 
 birds of the previous year which have not had nests ; and yet 
 it is not a little extraordinary that these, after six months' ab- 
 
152 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 sence, return with unerring certainty to the old dwelling where 
 hatched. This fact has been too often recorded to admit of 
 any doubt on the subject. This home instinct exists, also, very 
 strongly in some families of men. Though the various members 
 may roam far and wide over the whole surface of the world, 
 they return always to the old birthplace, impelled by an impulse 
 which seems irresistible, and which operates independently of 
 the fact that the companions of the old place have departed 
 this life. RE. 
 
 Home=Leaving. — When the adult termites of southern 
 America leave their homes they fly off in large clouds, but as 
 soon as they touch the ground they shed their wings, and then 
 they begin to find how many enemies they have. Of the myriad 
 host that pour into the evening air, not one in twenty thousand 
 survives. They have foes above, below, and on every side. 
 The bats and goat-suckers hold high festival on these evenings 
 when the termites are abroad ; and after the insects have cast 
 their wings they are pursued by ants, toads, spiders, and a host 
 of other enemies. Yes, the loss of the home wings is a crisis, 
 not only in the life of the termites, but in that of men. A 
 young man flies off from home with his companions, full of high 
 hopes, and settles himself down, as he thinks, in some suitable 
 place. He is no sooner settled than his troubles commence, j^ 
 When soaring aloft he had no conception of the fact that he 
 was to be at once set upon by enemies and troubles, nor in his 
 home dreams did he suspect their number or their nature. 
 Happy is he if he saves himself from the spiders of the law, 
 the toads- of malice, and the many social grubs who are ready 
 to ruin him. h. 
 
 Horrible very Arbitrarily Chosen, Emblems of the 
 
 .Painters always represent their imps as upborne by bats' wings, 
 furnished with several supplementary hooks ; and sculptors fol- 
 low the same principle. In consequence all bats and objects 
 connected with bats are viewed with great horror. It is said 
 that the African negroes depict and describe their evil spirits 
 as white; and that, in consequence, the negro children fly in 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 153 
 
 consternation if perchance a white man comes into their terri- 
 tory. Yet the white man is not so horrid an object after all if 
 one only dare look at him ; and the same remark holds good 
 with the bats. c. o. 
 
 Hospitality, A Test for. — If the two hands be plunged, 
 one in water at the temperature of 200°, and the other in snow, 
 and being held there. for a certain time are tratisf erred to water 
 of the intermediate temperature of 100°, this water will appear 
 warm to one hand and cold to the other — warm to the hand 
 which has been plunged in the snow, and cold to the hand 
 which has been plunged in the water at 200°. The anomaly 
 is easily explained. The sensation of heat is relative. When 
 the body has been exposed to a high temperature, a medium 
 which has a lower temperature will feel cold, and when it has 
 been exposed to a low temperature, it will feel warm. 2^ow 
 this fact will suggest, by analogy, a way for testing hospitality. 
 It is not uncommon to hear a man speak about the " warmth " 
 of somebody's hospitality. Perhaps that same " warmth " seemed 
 very much like coldness to us. How are we to explain the dif- 
 ference in the sensations of our friend and ourselves ? Simply 
 by remembering that hospitality, like heat, is a relative thing. 
 A man who has just come out of the cold house of Mrs. Nig- 
 gard will feel the tepid house of Mrs. Moderate to be quite a 
 warm, hospitable place. On the other hand, a man who goes 
 to Mrs. Moderate's house after a prolonged stay at the genial 
 mansion of the generous Lady Bountiful, will feel that estab- 
 lishment to be rather chilly in its hospitality. When your friend 
 talks of "warm" hospitahty, you cannot accurately gage his 
 meaning unless you know the temperature of the hospitahty 
 which he has accustomed himself to. ha. 
 
 Human Body Constructed on Musical Principles, The. 
 — The universal disposition of human beings, from the cradle 
 to the death-bed, to express their feelings in measured cadences 
 of sound and action, proves that our bodies are constructed on 
 musical principles, and that the harmonious working of their 
 machinery depends on the movements of the several parts being 
 
154 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 timed to each other, and that the destruction of health as re- 
 gards both body and mind may be well described as being put 
 out of tune. Our intellectual and moral vigor would be better 
 sustained if we more practically studied the propriety of keeping 
 the soul in harmony by regulating the movements of the body ; 
 for we should thus see and feel that every affection which is 
 not connected with social enjoyment is also destructive of in- 
 dividual comfort, and that whatever tends to harmonize also 
 tends to promote happiness and health. u. 
 
 Human Society, An Archetype of. — The picture of a 
 bee-kingdom, which Shakespeare has drawn in the following 
 lines, has the precision of a naturahst, united to the fancy of a 
 poet and the wisdom of a philosopher : 
 
 " So work the honey-bees, 
 Creatures that by a rule in Nature teach 
 The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 
 They have a king, and officers of sorts. 
 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home ; 
 Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; 
 Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings. 
 Make loot upon the summer's velvet buds ; 
 Which pillage they with merry march bring home 
 To the tent royal of their emperor : 
 Who, busied in his majesties, surveys 
 The singing masons building roofs of gold; 
 The civil citizen kneading up the honey ; 
 The poor mechanic-porters crowding in 
 Their heavy burdenis at his narrow gate ; 
 The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum 
 Delivering o'er to executors pale 
 The lazy, yawning drone.'' B. w. 
 
 Human Sympathy — No part of the world affords a more 
 difficult or dangerous na\'igation than the approaches of our 
 northern coast in winter. Before the warmth of the Gulf Stream 
 was known, a voyage at this season from Europe to New Eng- 
 land, New York, and even to the capes of the Delaware or Ches- 
 apeake, was many times more trying, difficult, and dangerous 
 than it now is. In making this part of the coast, vessels are 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 15S 
 
 frequently met by snow-storms and gales which mock the sea- 
 man's strength and set at naught his skill. In a little while his 
 bark becomes a mass of ice ; with her crew frosted and help- 
 less, she remains obedient only to her helm, and is kept away 
 for the Gulf Stream. After a few hours' run she reaches its* 
 edge, and almost at the next bound passes from the midst of 
 winter into a sea.^summer heafi-'JaM'ow the ice disappears from 
 her apparel ; the sailor bathes his stiffened limbs in tepid waters ; 
 feeling himself invigorated and refreshed with the genial warmth 
 about him, he realizes out there at sea the fable of Antaeus and 
 his mother Earth. He rises up and attempts to make his port 
 again, and is again as rudely met and beat back from the north- 
 west ; but each time that he is driven off from the contest, he 
 comes forth from this stream, like the ancient son of Neptune, 
 stronger and stronger, tmtil, after many days, his freshened 
 strength prevails, and he at last triumphs and enters his haven 
 in safety. His experiences bear a resemblance to those of the 
 man who is tempest-tossed upon the sea of social life. This 
 man, struggling in what Shakespeare designates " a sea of trou- 
 bles," has to brave great billows of adversity and to face the 
 chilling blasts of misfortune.- He is well-nigh hopeless and 
 powerless, when he suddenly encounters the warm stream of 
 human sympathy which flows even into society's most icy 
 regions. Under its vitalizing influences the horrors of his de- 
 spair melt away ; his heart glows with renewed hope ; he is 
 nerved with fresh strength for a successful struggle against his 
 calamities, so that he is able at length to accomplish his des- 
 tined purpose. T. 
 
 Humility, Tlie Fecund Force of. — The little and the lowly 
 may be found in combination with wondrous energy. The 
 coralline (Corallina officinalis], which may be found most abun- 
 dantly on any of our coasts, growing in greatest perfection near 
 low water-mark, is a small plant seldom exceeding five or six 
 inches in height, and not even reaching that size. However, 
 it compensates for its low stature by its luxuriant growth, being 
 usually found in dense masses wherever it can find a convenient 
 
'3 
 
 6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 shelter. If the vital force of this plant had shot upward, push- 
 ing out numerous and majestic branches in the air, and cover- 
 ing itself with abundant leafage and blossom, it would have 
 attracted more attention and admiration, but it would not have 
 gained force, or perhaps usefulness, thereby. Thus with human 
 minds. Those whose powers shoot upward by some .splendid 
 feat of genius in literature or battle, arrest public attention and 
 win public plaudits. AVhereas possibly they neither gain more 
 strength nor achieve more usefulness than those less showy men 
 who work modestly for the common good in the obscurer 
 regions of human life, and who, like the coralline plant, are al- 
 ways accessible to those who seek them at the low water-mark 
 of life's affairs. c. 
 
 Hypocrite, The. — Would the hypocrite like to behold a 
 creature something resembling himself ? Let him look at the 
 mantis. The insects of the tribe Mantida are principally in- 
 habitants of hot climates, although a few species are common 
 in the south of Europe. The Mantidm move slowly along, and 
 their whole attitude is so solemn that they are regarded with 
 veneration by the inhabitants of all the countries in which they 
 occur. In the south of Europe they are universally known by 
 names indicative of the belief that their singular attitude is one 
 of prayer. All this, however, is purely imaginary. The mantis 
 is one of the most voracious of its class, and only assumes this 
 solemn and devout appearance for the beguilement of its unsus- 
 pecting victim. Slowly and cautiously it steals along by almost 
 imperceptible degrees until within striking distance of its prey, 
 when one of the fore legs is instantly extended, and the strug- 
 ghng victini is soon mangled by the tremendous weapons of 
 the .destroyer.!- These insects are excessively pugnacious, and 
 as is the case with sanctimonious hypocrites, two of them can 
 scarcely come together without a combat. In the case of the 
 mantis the termination of the quarrel is generally fatal to one 
 if not to both of the combatants. Here the analogy unfortu- 
 nately must end, for when hypocrites quarrel, their crafty selfish- 
 ness teaches them how to survive. n. h. 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 157 
 
 Idiosyncrasy Defies Coercion. — There are persons even 
 in America to whom a mutton-chop would be poisonous. Cases 
 are known where animal food has been poisonous to people. 
 Some persons cannot take coffee without vomiting ; others are 
 thrown into a general inflammation if they eat cherries or goose- 
 berries. Manjr persons are unable to eat eggs, and cakes or 
 puddings having eggs in their composition produce serious dis- 
 turbances in such persons : if they are induced to eat them 
 under false assurances of no eggs having been employed, they 
 are soon undeceived by the unmistakable effects.'^ Only gross 
 ignorance of physiology, an ignorance unhappily too widely 
 spread, can argue that because a certain article is wholesome 
 to many it must necessarily be wholesome to all. Each indi- 
 vidual organism is specially different from every other. How- 
 ever much it may resemble others, it necessarily in some points 
 differs from them, and the amount of these differences is often 
 considerable. If the same wave of air striking upon the tympa- 
 num of two different men will produce sounds to the one which 
 to the other are inappreciable ; if the same wave of light will 
 affect the vision of one man as that of red color, while to the 
 vision of another it is no color at all, how unreasonable is it to 
 expect that the same substance will bear precisely the same rela- 
 tion to the alimentary system of one man as to that of another! 
 Experience tells us that it is not so. ph. 
 
 Ignorant Bigots. — On entering the Gudarigby Caverns, 
 near the Murrumbidgee River, New South Wales, you will see 
 large numbers of the great-leaved horseshoe bat. If you pro- 
 ceed with torches they will become so eager to escape from your 
 light that they will annoy you exceedingly by flapping against 
 your face in their eagerness to escape into a congenial dark- 
 ness. How much they remind one of those ignorant bigots 
 who, when the torch of truth is carried into the recesses of su- 
 perstition, dash in wild exasperation against the enlightener, and 
 do their utmost to seek intellectual gloom ! ga. 
 
 Images, Accidental — A colored object being placed upon 
 a black ground, if it is steadily looked at for some time, the eye 
 
158 DICTIONARY Of 
 
 is soon tired, and the intensity of the color enfeebled ; if now 
 the eyes are directed toward a white sheet, or to the ceiling, 
 an image will be seen of the same shape as the object, but of a 
 complementary color ; that is, such a one as united to that of 
 the object would form white. For a green object the image 
 will be red ; if the object is yellow, the image will be violet. 
 Accidental colors are of longer duration in proportion as the 
 object has been more brilliantly illuminated and the object has 
 been longer looked at. When a lighted candle has been looked 
 at for some time, and the eyes are turned toward a dark part 
 of the room, the appearance of the flame remains, but it gradu- 
 ally changes color; it is first yellow, then it passes through 
 orange to red, from red through violet to greenish blue, which 
 is gradually feebler until it disappears. If the eye which has 
 been looking at the light be turned toward a white wall, the 
 colors follow almost the opposite direction ; there is first a dark 
 picture on a white ground, which gradually changes into blue, 
 is then successively green and yellow, and ultimately cannot be 
 distinguished from a white ground. The reason of this phe- 
 nomenon is doubtless to be sought in the fact that the subse- 
 quent action of light on the retina is not of equal duration for 
 all colors, and that the decrease in the intensity of the subse- 
 quent action does not follow the same law for all colors. But 
 the illusion is very startling ; and it bears some analogy to the 
 occasional remarkable creations of the memory when, in repro- 
 ducing certain events and personages, it presents them in forms 
 somewhat discernible, yet distorted ; similar, yet totally differ- 
 ent ; true to life in outline, yet wholly erroneous in detail. 
 Wonderful, under such circumstances, is the correspondence 
 between the objective truth and 'the subjective reality. Yet 
 the disparity is as tremendous as its existence is unsuspected, 
 where the clearness of the mind's image is mistaken for its cor- 
 rectness. EL. 
 
 Imitation, The Habit of. — Animals living in societies often 
 copy or imitate the actions of an individual leader ; and among 
 insects this is particularly remarkable with the procession cat- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. I 59 
 
 erpillars, which move more or less in processional order. The 
 procession is always headed by a single caterpillar ; sometimes 
 the leader is followed by one or two in a single file, and some- 
 times by two or three abreast, and the whole train pursues its 
 track thro,ugh every turn and sinuosity without the slightest 
 devjation;fe Wild-fowl, in the various forms they assume in their 
 flight, are led by one individual whose movements direct the 
 flock. An entire flock of sheep following each other through 
 a hedge will often jump when they reach a particular spot be- 
 cause their leaders jumped there, and they do so although the 
 particular obstruction which first rendered the movement neces- 
 sary has been actually removed. In like manner, we constantly 
 see men following leaders, not because they have elected them 
 to be their leader, but because of that strong principle of imita- 
 tion which stirs them to follow. iP^Oj) too, we may observe that '' 
 when one fanatic commences his crawlings over the tree of 
 bigotry, there will always be a procession of fanatics ready to 
 follow him in his peculiar courses. And when the mob has the 
 example of one of the most audacious of its numbers, there is 
 soon a goodly following. The working of the same principle 
 is perhaps more observable in the world of fashion than any- 
 where else. A royal personage, as the result of illness, is 
 obliged to walk with a limp. Forthwith fashionable ladies, the < 
 necessity for the limp being entirely absent, go about limping. - 
 Alexander the Great having a wryneck, it at once became the 
 fashion in a nation of slaves. To-day any little dapper fellow, 
 moving in privileged circles, can, in matters of fashion, rely on 
 the following of a flock of the sheepsheads among us. P. 
 
 Imitation as a Deceiver's Art. — The natives of South 
 Africa designate the puff-adder ( Vipera inflatd) the Noga-pout- 
 sane or the goat's serpent, because it makes at night a bleating 
 exactly resembling that animal. There were, says Livingstone, 
 certainly no goats in the place where he happened to hear it. 
 The natives suppose that by this bleating it hopes to deceive 
 the traveler, and draw him within its reach. d. 
 
 Imitation, Ludicrous Effects of. — What ludicrous results 
 
i6o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 may be observed where men imitate with servility the doings of 
 others ! The ambitious young preacher who is setting up as a 
 genius copies the pecuharities in attitude and manner of the 
 popular preacher near him, and causes actual merriment in the 
 very matters in which he thinks he is rnost effective. Tom 
 Snob, the rich soap-boiler, and his corpulent spouse, affect the 
 airs, elegances, and foibles of the aristocracy, and either get 
 themselves into serious difficiilties by the attempt, or at least 
 make a fortimate escape amid the derision of all beholders. 
 ' These folks in their antics are very like those monkeys whose 
 imitative power, Harris says, the Indians turn to destruction in 
 this way : coming to their haunts with basins full of water or 
 honey, they wash their faces in the sight of these animals, and 
 then, substituting pots of thin glue instead of the water or honey, 
 they retire out of sight. The monkeys, as soon as they are 
 gone, come down and wash their faces likewise, and sticking 
 their eyes together, become blind and are easily captured. it In 
 other places they brought boots into the woods, and putting 
 them on and off, left them, well lined with glue or a sort of 
 bird-lime ; so that when the unhappy monkeys put them on, 
 they stuck fast, and hindered their escape. How many men 
 have found it impossible to extricate themselves from corre- 
 sponding difficulties into which they have been drawn through 
 attempting to " swell " it off in the boots of the aristocracy ! 
 
 p. 
 Impermanence of Life's Forms, The. — Life's forms are 
 forever changing. Not only do individuals perish, but even 
 types. Numberless creatures which once flourished on oiu: 
 earth are. not even represented here now. The dodo will be 
 seen no more; the race has fleeted away. Among birds, the 
 emu, the cassowary, and the apterix are species rapidly van- 
 ishing ; among quadrupeds, the kangaroo, the platypus ; others 
 slowly, but not less surely. After a while, they will be gone 
 from the earth wholly, as bears, woh-es, mammoths, and hyenas 
 have gone from the British Isles. The Bos' primigenus, or great 
 wild bull, was common in Germany when Julius Caesar flour- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. i6i 
 
 ished. The race has become wholly extinct, if, indeed, Mt in- 
 corporated with the large tame oxen of northern Eiirope^-The 
 beaver built his mud-huts along the Soane and the Rhone up 
 to the last generations of man ; and when Hannibal passed 
 through Gaul on his way to Italy, beavers in Gaul were com- 
 mon. Thus have animals migrated or died out ; passed away, 
 the balance of life remaining. s. n. 
 
 Impertinence, The Model of The sparrows are a tame, 
 
 troublesome, and impertinent generation, and nestle just where 
 you don't want them ; they stop up your stoves and water-pipes 
 with their rubbish, and build in the windows and under the 
 beams of the roof, and would stuif your hat full of stubble in 
 half a day if they found it hanging in a place to suit them. 
 They are extremely pertinacious in asserting their right of pos- 
 session, and have not the least reverence for any place or thing. 
 
 LA. 
 
 Impostor, The — If the opossum is surprised by the farmer 
 flagrante delicto it lies down on the ground, counterfeits death, 
 and takes any amount of beating without wincing ; but as soon 
 as the man, thinking that he has killed it, turns his back, the 
 rogue decamps as fast as he can, and regains the forest./fcHow 
 like is this to the sleek sanctimonious impostor ! ,m. 
 
 Impressions, Distinct and Faint. — The organs of percep- 
 tion are like wax, and outward events are the seals which are 
 stamping impressions. If the organs or faculties of perception, 
 like wax overhardened with cold, will not receive the impres- 
 sions of the seal from the usual impulse wont to imprint it, or, 
 like wax of a temper too soft, will not hold it well when well 
 imprinted, or else supposing the wax of a temper fit but the 
 seal not applied with a sufficient force to make a clear impres- 
 sion — in any of these cases the print left by the seal will be 
 obscure. lo. 
 
 Impudence Balked by Stupidity — The jackal is most 
 impudent ; but its impudence would be more profitable were it 
 not checked by stupidity. It sometimes happens that a jackal 
 
1 62 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Steals silently into an outhouse to seize the poultry or devour 
 the furniture, but hearing others in full cry at a distance, with- 
 out thought it instantly answers the call, and thus betrays its own 
 depredations. The peasants sally out upon it, and the impu- 
 dent animal finds, too late, that something more than impudence 
 is requisite to success. Many men and boys have had to learn 
 the same lesson. If impudence could insure the triumph of 
 their plans, all would be well with them ; but it often happens 
 that Nature, by way of counterpoise to their impudence, has 
 weighed them with stupidity. Society is thereby protected from 
 some of their rascality. a. 
 
 Incongruous Advantages. — There is a peculiarity atten- 
 ding the constitution of the great water-beetle [Dytiscus margi- 
 nalis) which marks it as a creature especially endowed for the 
 station in which it is placed. Multitudes of insects exist in the 
 larval state for a certain space of time in water ; and having ac- 
 complished a given period in this state, perfecting their forms, 
 they take wing, and become aerial creatures, after which a re- 
 turn to the element whence they sprang would be death to them. 
 But this beetle, when it has passed from the larval state and 
 obtained its wings, still lives in water, and never uses them ex- 
 cept in the case of having to leave one pool for another. It 
 would, therefore, on a superficial view appear to enjoy super- 
 fluous advantages which are incongruous with its position. In 
 this it resembles a large number of persons in the middle and 
 upper circles of human society. We see many of them raised 
 from lower states and endowed with the wings of wealth, 
 prestige, and honor, which should enable them to rise into the 
 azure realms of benevolence and good taste ; yet they never 
 ascend to their possibilities. These advantages are superfluous 
 and incongruous endowments, and in spite of them they remain 
 in their old world of coarseness, sensuality, and selfishness. 
 Libertine Jockey develops into an earl, yet his coronet cannot 
 alter his tastes for the slums ; Rhahab Wanton changes into a 
 duchess, but her instincts direct her to the old ways and haunts. 
 
 J- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 163 
 
 Incongruous Combinations. — Mr. Darwin found near 
 Buenos Ayres a shallow lake of brine, which in summer is con- 
 verted into a field of snow-white salt. The border of the lake, 
 like others of the sort in Siberia, is a fetid black mud, in which 
 are embedded large crystals of gypsum three inches long, and 
 of sulphate of soda. " The mud in many places was thrown 
 up by numbers of some kind of wonn. How surprising is it 
 that any creatures should be able to exist in brine, and that 
 they should be crawling among crystals ! " Truly this is an in- 
 congruous spectacle ! Yet human society presents views which 
 are equally incongruent. Men who are in goodness and intel- 
 ligence the very " salt of the earth," are often hemmed in in their 
 narrow grooves of action by that which is morally putrescent. 
 A ring of loathsome law and customs has often surrounded and 
 inclosed saints and martyrs. In the midst of society's basest 
 pollution we often catch a ray of moral goodness, and discover 
 that, like the crystal glittering in the black mud, there are some 
 better elements than first appearances suggested. The presence 
 of worms crawling among pure salt and beautiful crystals is 
 not more unbecoming than the sight of rascals wearing coro- 
 nets, rogues assuming the ermine, and tyrants wearing crowns. 
 
 N. V. 
 
 Incongruous Situations. — Neither animals nor men look 
 well in incongruous situations. On the ground the sloths are 
 about the most awkward and pitiable creatures that can well 
 be imagined, for their fore legs are much longer than the hind 
 ones ;■ all the toes are terminated by very long curved claws ; 
 and the general structure of the animals is such as entirely to 
 preclude the possibility of their walking on all fours in the man- 
 ner of an ordinary quadruped. In this, which is an unnatural 
 situation, they certainly appear the most helpless of animals, and 
 their only means of progression consists in hooking their claws 
 to some inequality in the ground, and thus dragging their bodies 
 painfully along. But in their natural home, among the branches 
 of trees, all these seeming disadvantages vanish. It is obvious, 
 therefore, that when the sloth is not in the trees he is in an 
 
164 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 incongruous situationrjT And what a lesson his absurd position 
 there should be to us not to make ourselves ridiculous by ap- 
 pearing on scenes where we can only exhibit our incapacity, 
 and evoke either the pity or laughter of mankind ! A man 
 with an inapt, injudicial mind, presiding on the bench of jus- 
 tice and performing his functions under the inspiration of a bad 
 heart and an uneven temper, is a spectacle whose incongruity 
 equals that presented by the most clumsy sloth that ever ambled 
 out of its element. Monstrously incongruous, too, is that other 
 spectacle, of a man who has a jockey's tastes and bulldog's 
 nature, stalking down to the gilded chamber occupied' by the 
 highest wisdom in England, for the purpose of displaying him- 
 self as an hereditary legislator ruling a free people. Poor awk- 
 ward sloth ! dragging yourself in unhandy fashion over the 
 ground along which you were never intended to travel, you 
 may be a sad illustration of a creature in an incongruous posi- 
 tion, but you are not the most laughable one. These men dis- 
 pute with you the prize for being the most ridiculous, n. h. 
 
 Inconsiderable Creatures, The Strength of The 
 
 strength of some creatures, especially insects, considering the 
 smallness of their size, is in several instances prodigious. The 
 strength of the black ants is manifested by the quantity and 
 magnitude of the materials which they cellect for their heaps ; 
 but the common little red ant {^Formica rtifa), a much smaller 
 creature, gives daily proofs of its abilities to remove heavy sub- 
 stances equal to any that we meet with. One of these htlle 
 creatures, thirty-six of which only weigh a single grain., has 
 been seen to bear away the great black fly as its prize, equal 
 to a grain in weight, with considerable easelfehd even the wasp, 
 which exceeds forty times its own weight, will be dragged away 
 by the labor and perseverance of an individual emmet. Learn 
 from these facts not to estimate the strength of things by mere 
 reference to their material magnitude. One very little man like 
 Pope may possess poetic power to shape a nation's literature. 
 One hero, not six feet high, may create a kingdom or overturn 
 it. J. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 165 
 
 Industry over Adversity, The Triumph of. — Nothing is 
 more absurd than to throw up the hands in wild despair, or to 
 sit down in sullen despondency, when calamity overtakes us. 
 The remedy for the evil is work — hard, earnest work. Let us 
 " go to the ant ; consider her ways, and be wise." " When,'' 
 says Mr. Frederick Smith, "the habitations of the ants are by 
 any means injured or destroyed, no time is lost in useless de- 
 spair ; one spirit animates each individual ; simultaneously they 
 set to work to repair their misfortune ; unceasingly they labor ; 
 nothing damps their ardor or abates their industry, until, as if 
 by a magic wand, their habitation again rises to its former height 
 and beauty, and all trace of ruin has disappeared." mu. 
 
 Inexplicable Beauty. — The crimson topaz (Topaza pelld) 
 is a bird of magnificent beauty, but curiously enough, although 
 it is bedecked with resplendent hues which seem to need the 
 priesence of daylight, and to be made expressly for the purpose 
 of reflecting the brightest beams of the sun, yet the lovely bird 
 is one of the night wanderers, being seldom seen as long as the 
 sun is above the horizon, and preferring to seek its food while 
 the world is shrouded in darkness. yThe sea-mouse, too, whose 
 iridescent garment possesses all the tints of the rainbow, is also 
 a darkness-lover, and passes its life sunk in the black mud of 
 the sea-shore. Here, therefore, we have two instances of inex- 
 plicable beauty. " Beauty which is not explicable is," says a 
 great thinker, " dearer than a beauty which we can see the end 
 of." Certainly in Nature we never see the end of it. It is ever 
 coming upon us as a new surprise. It is an eternal symbol. 
 
 H. 
 
 Inexplicable Services. — The most singular species of all 
 the white ants is' that of the parasol ants of Trinidad in the 
 West Indies, which walk in long procession, each carrying a cut 
 leaf over its head, as a parasol in the suft, and these they de- 
 posit in holes ten or twelve feet under ground, apparently with 
 no other object than to form a comfortable nest for a species 
 of white snake which is invariably foimd coiled up among them 
 or digging out the deposit. What regard they can have for 
 
1 66 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 this snake, or why they should render him any service, is quite 
 a mystery,3fas also are the acts of men who have bequeathed 
 vast wealth to rich people whom they have never seen and who 
 never did them any good. Such proceedings rank among the 
 inexplicable services of the world. i. l. 
 
 Infernal, Earth's Hints of the. — Beauty, says Akenside, 
 was sent from heaven, the loving mistress of truth and good to 
 this dark world. And beauty gives us many a splendid picture 
 in every chme and on every shore, which, suggests a glory yet 
 to come, a paradise elsewhere. But there are in Natiu'e many 
 scenes over which beauty does not preside — views which are 
 overshadowed by appalling forms, colored with awful hues, and 
 portraying the huge, the poisonous, the hideous, moving in hor- 
 rible and stupendous combination around abyssmal depths, or 
 on plains vast and terrible in their gloomy grandeur. Look 
 where the densely leaved cypress of the New World grows in 
 company on the plains of California, Louisiana, and Virginia, 
 forming extensive forests. There with the tree of some thou- 
 sand years — in some instances the age has been computed at 
 four thousand — the grandeur becomes a demoniac power. As 
 yet, says Dr. Herman Massius, no ax has thinned these aborig- 
 inal wildernesses, no skill drained these moors abounding in 
 terrors, and which have been denounced under the name of 
 cypress swamps, described by Sealsfield with such terrible and 
 lively coloring. Gigantic trunks, more than three hundred feet" 
 in height and of unheard of strength, crowd close together, en- 
 twining their branches, and spreading even over the brightest 
 day the obscurity of night ; so that the foot which penetrates 
 hither can only venture its timid step by the gleam of 
 torches. Blocks of stone and half-rotten trunks of trees, piled 
 up in wild confusion, rise from out the bottomless mire. Here 
 alligators, serpents, and the biting tortoise lie in ambush, the 
 sole lords of this frightful pool, reeking under the burning heat 
 of an almost tropical sun.^\ Such is the aspect of things in sum- 
 mer ; while in spring the thick and muddy waters of overflow- 
 ing rivers pour tumultuously for miles over this ungenial vege- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 167 
 
 tation. With our eye upon a scene like this, may we not say 
 that, though the world possesses many emblems of paradise, it 
 also has some which are, at least, hints of the infernal ? ST. 
 
 Influence Lost in Form but not in Force. — The Ama- 
 zon, the River Plata, Orinoco, Mississippi, Zaire, Senegal, In- 
 dus, Ganges, Yangtsee, or Irrawaddy, etc., etc. — these, and such 
 like stupendous rivers, extend their influence to a considerable 
 distance from the coast, and occasionally perplex and delay the 
 navigator in open sea, who finds himself struggling against a 
 difficulty, wholly unconscious of the cause. The River Plata, 
 at a distance of six hundred miles from the mouth of the river, 
 was found to maintain a rate of a mile an hour ; and the Ama- 
 zon, at three hundred miles from the entrance, was found run- 
 ning nearly three miles per hour, its original direction being 
 but little altered and its water nearly fresh. We are reminded 
 by this of other influences which also lose their form but not 
 their force. Though the man dies, his influence still lives.TrHe 
 no longer acts upon the world in the capacity of public speaker, 
 writer, or statesman, but his influence has gone forth and joined 
 the great ocean of thought. The sect or party changes its form 
 and loses its individuality, but its influence has gone forth and 
 is felt in the current of opinion. All the separate and distinct 
 influences of men and sects become universahzed in the great 
 sea of eternity. ma. 
 
 Injured but not Destroyed — Though your attempt to de- 
 stroy a man's position may fail to accomplish that object, it 
 may be productive of serious injury to him. Yet, fortunately 
 for him, that very injury may afterward bring forth good results. 
 His friends may rally round him ; his resources may be added to 
 through the medium of the sympathetic ; or he may be so acted 
 on as to put forth power from within which develops new graces 
 and fresh vigor. You injure a tree, and you will discover rep- 
 aration is at work even there. The wheel of your cart, for in- 
 stance, grazes the trunk, or the root of the tree is wounded by 
 your passing plowshare ; the result is, an adventitious bud comes. 
 Wherever you see those adventitious buds which come without 
 
1 68 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 any order, you may recollect that their formation is frequently 
 thus produced, by the irritation caused by injury JJ'Tou cut 
 down the heads of a group of forest-trees ; you have not de^- 
 stroyed them. Like the men you have injured, they live to tell 
 the tale. The pollarded dwarf remains to declare what the 
 forest-tree would have become but for you. Even the date of 
 your attack can be ascertained ; for the stunted group will cover 
 themselves with branches all of the same age and strength, 
 which will exhibit to the sky the evidence of the story : in- 
 jured these all are ; yes, but not destroyed. v. 
 
 Injured, The Persecution of the. — It is a strange fact 
 that both animals and men enter heartily into the persecution 
 of the injured. The motive which induces animals to attack 
 and even destroy the wounded and disabled of their own species 
 arises from an impulse which certainly is not easily, defined ; 
 but it is clear the deed is perpetrated, and that under feelings 
 of the most intense hatred. When a wolf or hyena is womided, 
 its companions instantly tear it to pieces and devour it ; and 
 among domestic dogs, the persecuted, defenseless cur, yelping 
 in its flight from the brutality of the idle urchins in the streets, 
 is chased and worried by every dog within hearing of its dis- 
 tress. There exists an instinctive repugnance to everything 
 which cannot defend itself. IfThe motive which permits men to 
 attack or neglect those who are disabled is also impenetrable. 
 But the sad spectacle is sometimes seen ; and the man who is 
 in search of protection from a horde of persecutors goes from 
 one man to another for aid only to be snapped at, cuffed, brow- 
 beaten, and snubbed. p. 
 
 Injured, The Recuperative Powers of the — Like many 
 other beings that occupy a very low position in the animal king- 
 dom, the starfishes have a very great power of reproducing lost 
 or damaged members. It is a common thing to find specimens 
 of this very species with only three rays, and sometimes a five- 
 finger starfish ( Uraster riibeiis) is found with only one ray com- 
 plete. Now the fisherman, either ignorant of their reproductive 
 powers, or faihng to draw a just inference from his knowledge. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 169 
 
 has a custom of tearing the starfish in two, and throwing the 
 pieces back into the sea. The consequence is, that the two 
 halves become two individuals, and the fisherman has only 
 doubled the power of his foe instead of destroying it. itFroni 
 these facts persecutors might learn a very useful lesson. The 
 creatures they wantonly injure have a recuperative power which 
 is not taken into adequate consideration. All history will attest 
 this fact. When inquisitorial and brutal " fishers for men " have 
 been sent forward by despots, who have desired to break up 
 religious sects and destroy pohtical parties, it has never been 
 properly understood that the very means for extermination which 
 have been adopted have been the very ones which would muU 
 tiply the power of those whom these scoundrels intended to in- 
 jure. Tyrants may exert their utmost force against their humble 
 enemies,, and find, too late, that they have multiplied in conse- 
 quence of it. The recuperative power has come into work, and 
 multiplication has joined it. F. 
 
 Injurers, Unconscious. — The little boring wood-beetle at- 
 tacks books, and will even bore through several volumes. An 
 instance is mentioned of twenty-seven folio volumes being per- 
 forated in a straight line by one and the same insect, in such a 
 manner that by passing a cord through the perfect round hole 
 made by it the twenty-seven volumes could be raised at once. 
 It also destroys prints and drawings, whether framed or kept in 
 a portfolio. These poor insects have no conception of the value 
 of the things they may destroy. Any common trash of closely 
 packed paper would suit them just as well ; but in their igno- 
 rance they are destroyers of that which is of value to the world. ;«i 
 They have their imitators among humanity. There are dull 
 men in societies who nibble away in their petty line of action 
 until the program of the entire institution is defaced. There 
 are others in churches and chapels, who, boasting that they 
 " will go straight," bore their petty lines of attack even through 
 the most beautiful of spiritual designs. There are women in 
 households whose narrow spirit blemishes the entire glory of 
 home. All of these creatures belong to the class of beings who 
 
170 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 in asserting their own rights destroy that which is valuable with- 
 out even knowing that they are so doing. i. o. 
 
 Injuries, The Propagation of Postliumous. — The alK- 
 gator lays her eggs in some secluded place in the sand, on the 
 banks of a river ; or else in some places, such as the neighbor- 
 hood of Cayenne and Surinam, she buries them under a kind 
 of mound raised by the collection of damp leaves and herba- 
 ceous stems. She departs altogether, and then, without any 
 further assistance from her, the eggs get hatched ; in the first 
 tase by the solar rays, and in the other by fermentation and 
 the increase of temperature. It does not matter if the parent 
 dies. The infant alligator is sure to be hatchedirin the archives 
 of solicitors' offices we have found that the mind of man often 
 propagates its ideas upon a similar general principle. They 
 look harmless, are wrapped up in inoffensive form, and put out 
 of sight for a time. But, as in the case of a will, the day comes 
 when the little ideas have to see the light, and they soon come 
 forth panoplied in all the strength of their base progenitor. 
 They live and work their mischief for generations, and again 
 propagate themselves as curses to families whom the parent alli- 
 gator mind had never seen. Like the reptile, the mind of man 
 possesses the capacity for propagating posthumous injuries upon 
 the world. re. 
 
 Innovation without Destruction. — You say you hate in- 
 novation, are afraid of it ; it is destructive. Ask your gardener 
 to explain how he effects an innovation with which you are 
 always pleased but never are afraid of. He will show you a 
 trunk of a tree cut through horizontally, with a vertical cleft 
 made in its center some inches deep. Into this cleft the branch 
 of a graft with several buds, and cut to the shape of the cleft, 
 is inserted, which is closely in contact with the sides of the cleft. 
 The cleft is then covered with mortar of some kind, and bound 
 firmly together by means of cord. He will tell you that cleft- 
 grafting is operated successfully both on the trunks and roots 
 of your trees. Horticulture has instructed him how, by this 
 means, to change with advantage the products of trees of the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 171 
 
 same species, making the head bear fruit and flowers other than 
 those belonging to the principal stem. In fact he restores the 
 vigor and/ sweetness of youth to a tree already aged and ex- 
 hausted^ls not this operation innovation without destruction? 
 Nay, more, is it not innovation effecting actual improvement ? 
 Now in society there are many old institutions like that trunk 
 of a tree of yours and those stumpy roots. They have flour- 
 ished out their day, are now nearly efi^ete. But they have just 
 enough vitality to. supply to a new principle all that. that new 
 principle requires in order to make it grow in men's esteem 
 and bud and blossom like the rose. You do not want the old 
 institution removed : you do not merely desire it to cumber the 
 ground in its present melancholy barrenness to tell the tale of 
 better days. The perpetuation in inelegance and uselessness 
 of the worn-out forms of once beautiful growths cannot be a 
 very sacred duty when it is obvious that by a little proper man- 
 agement, and a judicious grafting of new life upon them, they 
 may be made to flourish with new glor)-- and produce new bless- 
 ings for a thousand years to come. Learn a lesson from the 
 garden, and let the sweet odor of your grafted roses and varied 
 flowers and blossoms waft to your appreciative soul softened and 
 refined feelings concerning the ugly word " innovation." v. 
 
 Inquisitiveness Punished. — How actively inquisitive are 
 some people ; and* into what strange predicaments does this their 
 strong propensity land them ! They remind us of the crested 
 anolis {Xiphosurus velifer), a species of the lizard tribe. It is. 
 a timid yet restlessly inquisitive animal ; for although it hides 
 itself with instinctive caution on hearing the approach of a foot- 
 step, it is of so curious a nature that it must needs poke its head 
 out of its hiding-place, and so betray itself in spite of its timid- 
 ity. ii^So absorbed, indeed, is the anolis in gratifying its curiosity, 
 that it will allow itself to be captured in a noose, and often falls 
 a victim to the rude and inartificial snares made by children. 
 
 IL. 
 
 Insensibility Mistaken for Safety. — The "oyster-catcher" 
 birds, if pursued, hide their heads in the first hole they come 
 
172 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 to, as if thinking, like the ostrich, that if they cannot see you, 
 you cannot see them, f hi. 
 
 Insignificant, The Mightiness of the. — The debris of the 
 Infusoria, which may be called the world-makers, are discovered 
 in prodigious quantities among the remains of the primitive 
 creation. The name Infusoria has been given to them be- 
 cause they were first observed in liquids holding in dissolution 
 or in infusion putrescible matter. The accumulated spoil of 
 these infinitely small organisms constitutes a notable part of the 
 solid crust of oiu' globe ; and we ourselves are eye-witnesses of 
 the phenomena of continual reproduction and destruction by 
 which they made ready, at the epoch of the ancient geological 
 formations, the habitation of man. According to Ehrenberg, 
 a cubic inch of the Tripoli sand, which is still in course of for- 
 mation in the environs of Bilin, in Bohemia, contains eleven 
 millions of the shells of the infusorias which produce this friable 
 substance. The same naturalist states that, so great is their power 
 of reproduction, one million of these animalcules are born in 
 ten days of a solitary individual. Bearing these facts in mind, 
 it is not difficult to understand what immense masses of matter 
 must have been deposited by the innumerable generations which 
 have succeeded one another during the long periods of the 
 primitive epochs, and which have covered with accumulated 
 strata, mingled with sedimentary earths, the rocks of igneous 
 origin that formed the first crust of the earth.F^The fossil debris 
 of such shells as ammonites, nautih, and nummulites, are also 
 found in vast masses, which sufficiently indicate the infinite 
 multiplication of life in the dense warm waters of the primeval 
 seas. The illustrious geologist. Dr. Buckland, affirms that the 
 nummuhtes form a considerable portion of the entire mass of 
 several mountains ; as, for instance, the tertiary calcareous de- 
 posits of Verona and Monte Bolca, and the secondary stratified 
 earths in the cretaceous formations of the Alps, the Carpathians, 
 and the Pyrenees. The famous colossal Sphinx, and the hugest 
 of the Egyptian pyramids — that which is generally distinguished 
 by the name of Cheops — are constructed of a limestone wholly 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 173 
 
 composed of these Foraminifera, which are everywhere widely 
 distributed, and which, by their countless legions, seem to have 
 sought a compensation for their extreme diminutiveness. " The 
 sand of the sea-shore,'' says Dr. Chenu, " is so filled with Fora- 
 minifera that one may justly say it is half composed of them. In 
 an ounce of sand in the West Indies were nearly four millions 
 of individuals. The banks formed by these beings impede navi- 
 gation and render it dangerous, obstruct the gulfs, fill up the 
 harbors, and in conjunction with the madrepores construct 
 those islands which from time to time emerge in the warm 
 regions of the great ocean ; and this role, actually played out 
 to-day by living species, was formerly filled by those which are 
 now found only in a fossil condition. At the epoch of the 
 coal-measures (or carboniferous formation), a single species of 
 Fusulina built up in Russia enormous beds of limestone. The ^ 
 cretaceous deposits reveal an immense quantity in the white 
 chalk that extends from Champagne into England. Finally, in 
 the tertiary formations of numerous localities, and especially in 
 the environs of Paris, the limestone grit incloses an infinite num- 
 ber ; and it has been calculated that a cubic yard of this stone, 
 excavated from the quarries of Gentilly, contained more than 
 three millions of individuals. Paris, as well as many neighbor- ^ 
 ing towns and villages, is almost wholly built with these Fora- 
 minifera. Thus, then, animals hardly perceptible to the unas- 
 sisted eye change to-day the depth of the waters, and have, at 
 various geological epochs, filled- basins of a considerable area. 
 This fact shows us that each animal has its allotted task, and 
 that with time — time of which Nature takes no count — the ani- 
 mals which appear to us so contemptible on account of their 
 smallness might change the aspect of the globe." ^' my. 
 
 Instinct. — The operations of instinct are unvarying. The 
 ant and the hen act now as they acted in the days of King 
 Solomon, and are incapable of altering their course of action. 
 "What can we call the principle," asks Addison, "which directs 
 every kind of bird to observe a particular plan in the structure 
 of its nest, and directs all the same species to work after the 
 
174 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 same model ? It cannot be imitation ; for though you hatch 
 a crow under a hen, and never let it see any of the works of its 
 own kind, the nest it makes shall be the same to the laying of 
 a stick with all the other nests of the same species.-#~It cannot 
 be reason ; for were animals endowed with it to as great a de- 
 gree as man, then buildings would be as different as ours accord- 
 ing to the different conveniences that they would propose to 
 themselves." The .young crocodile or alligator, on issuing from ■ 
 the egg, is drawn toward the nearest water. It wiU even pro- 
 ceed in a direct line for the stream, just as if it had been there 
 many times before, and was perfectly acquainted with the 
 ground/Jp'So it is with the young of turtles. The turtle, though a 
 ^marine animal, goes on shore to lay her eggs and make a nest 
 for them in the sand. Yet no sooner do the little turtles come 
 forth from their shells, and peep over the surface of the sand, 
 than they commence a direct line of march toward the sea, mak- 
 ing no stop till they reach the water's edge ; and it is observed, 
 says Humboldt, that though they may have burst the shell of 
 the egg during the day, they are never known to come forth 
 from the nest but at night ; so that they are not assisted by day- 
 light to find their way to the deep. Experiments have been 
 made on the young, says the same writer, by putting them into 
 a bag, carrying them to some distance from the shore, and then 
 letting them out with the tail turned toward the water, but it is 
 always found that they turn about, and take without hesitation 
 the shortest way to the beach, apparently discriminating on 
 which side the air is most humid. J r. 
 
 Instinctand Somnambulism'. — Working-bees, says Cuvier, 
 have since the beginning of the world constructed the most in- 
 genious edifices, agreeable to principles of the highest geometry, 
 and destined to lodge and nourish a posterity which is not even 
 their own. Solitary bees and wasps also form very complicated 
 nests for their eggs. From the egg there springs a worm, which 
 has never seen its mother, which does not know the structure of 
 the prison in which it is inclosed ; but when once it is changed 
 into a wasp or bee it constructs a similar nestjjequally perfect, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 175 
 
 for its own egg. We cannot form a clear idea of instinct but 
 by admitting that the animals endowed with it have, in the sen- 
 sorium, continued innate sensations and images, which deter- 
 mine them to act like sensations received through the organs 
 of sense. Instinct is a kind of dream or vision that perpetually 
 haunts them and prompts them to action ; and in everything 
 that respects their instinctive notions we may regard animals as 
 a kind of somtiambulists. S. 
 
 Instinct, The Prognosticating. — Great are the advantages 
 which are possessed by that man who is blessed with the prog- 
 nosticating instinct ; for thereby he is enabled to observe the 
 signs of the times, prepare prudently for the things which are 
 looming in the future, and to be ready to perform his part dis- 
 creetly, when the man who is not similarly endowed is in all the 
 tumult of surprise and confusion. But this instinct is not con- 
 fined to man ; it has a far wider range. And the individual 
 who has not yet seen the advantages of being ready in season 
 and out of season will do well to investigate this matter. He 
 will be surprised at the state of constant preparedness in which 
 even creatures far inferior to himself are to be found. The 
 actiniae throw out their feelers and expand themselves when a 
 continuance of fine weather is to be expected, but withdraw 
 and contract themselves, even in a room, when a change is im- 
 pendiiig.^(fhe mussels, before the approach of a storm, spin 
 several new threads to secure their hold on the rocks ; and 
 leeches rise to the surface of the water before rain. Spiders 
 enlarge their webs during fine weather, but spin only short 
 threads, work seldom, or hide themselves in corners during 
 rain.r^ Many beetles, by their active flight and humming sounds, 
 give tokens of the morrow's brightness. Before rain, bees re- 
 main either in their hives or in the neighborhood of them ; and 
 ants convey deep into the hills the pupse which they expose to 
 the sun in fine weather. If the atmosphere be lowering in the 
 morning, pigeons feed rapidly, and return to their cots, and the 
 hare hides itself ; but the mole comes to the surface of the ground, 
 and the squirrel seeks its nest and shuts its entrance, | d. 
 
176 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Instinct Unsubmissive to Argument. — You may make 
 your position logically perfect, and your hearer may admit it 
 to be so ; but it does not follow that either of your minds is so 
 influenced thereby that your feeling in regard to the subject-mat- 
 ter will be changed. Take the case of our aversion to reptiles. 
 Strange, grotesque, and oftentimes most repulsive in appearance, 
 though sometimes adorned with the brightest tints, the reptiles 
 excite an instinctive repugnance in the human breast ; and 
 whether it be a lizard, a snake, or a tortoise, contact of one of 
 these beings will cause even the most habituated to recoil from 
 its cold touch. Now you may argue that many of these rep- 
 tiles are quite harmless, and some of them handsome, and that, 
 therefore, our repugnance cannot be entertained. But the fact 
 remains, that when all argument has ceased there is a universal 
 disgust and even horror cherished by men in regard to reptiles. 
 Their instinctive dislike is unconquered by reasoning. ^ il. 
 
 Instinct, Errors of With respect to instinct, it is impor- 
 tant to observe that animals not infrequently make very curious 
 mistakes. For instance, flies have the instinct of depositing 
 their ova in places where they shall have plenty of food when 
 they arrive at the maggot state, and hence they generally de- 
 posit them on flesh, particularly if it happens to be somewhat 
 tainted. Now there are certain species of flowers (as, for ex- 
 ample, the Raffiesia Arnoldi, which is a native of Sumatra, and 
 grows to an enormous size) which have a smell of carrion ; on 
 these the flies, deceived by their instinct, deposit their eggs, 1 
 which, when they become maggots, perish from want of food. J^ 
 The same thing occurs in the case of the Musca voinitoria with 
 respect to various species of Phalli and Agarici, which possess 
 much of the odor of dead flesh, leading to similar mistakes. 
 
 s. 
 
 Instinct, The Errors of the Maternal Ducks' eggs are 
 
 often put under a hen to be hatched. When seeking her food, 
 the hen sometimes leads her little flock to the edge of the water, 
 and gives them a glimpse of its dangers. But the ducklings, 
 impelled by instinct, rush into the element they are most par- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. \11 
 
 tial to. The poor mother, anxious for the fate of the young 
 giddy-pates, which she loves as her own offspring, utters cries 
 of terror. She would resolutely throw herself into the stream 
 and perhaps get drowned were she not soothed by seeing them 
 swimming about happy and active.^ In the present age when 
 domestic chivalry often runs mad, we are accustomed to hear 
 the maternal instinct represented as divinely right. Here is an 
 instance which points in a contrary direction. The hen hatches 
 eggs in mistake which do not belong to her own order ; and 
 when her ducks desire to act as ducks ought to act, she would 
 fain prevent them. Her foolish solicitude is in fact eager to 
 denaturalize them. She is a good illustration of the simpering 
 mothers who preside over the destinies of some men's children. 
 The chief energies of such women are directed to check the 
 enterprise of the little ones, to conventionalize them, and to 
 render them chicken-hearted. re. 
 
 Instinct at Fault, The Maternal — The maternal instinct 
 does not always bring forth the fruits of love, and practise the 
 deeds of self-sacrifice and tender care. In its perverted form 
 it abandons the helpless one who looks to it for protection. 
 The instances of such perversion are not rare. Father Ripa, 
 writing about this subject in China, says that in that vast em- 
 pire there is nothing unusual in the spectacle of children aban- 
 doned by their mothers. Indeed it occurs daily. When mothers 
 are poor and have large families, or observe any defect upon 
 the body of an infant, or any indication of an illness likely to 
 become troublesome or expensive, they cast away the little 
 creature without remorse, f^his cruel custom is also practised 
 by unmarried women who have children, and especially even 
 by the members of a sect called Necoo, who pretend to live in 
 spotless chastity. The poor infants are secretly thrown into a 
 river, or left near the public road, even though it is well known 
 that in most cases they will be devoured by wild beasts, me. 
 
 Instincts, Opposing. — Two instincts having different ob- 
 jects sometimes become opposed to each other, and under these 
 circumstances the stronger always prevails. This is not uncom- 
 
178 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 mon among swallows, which have been frequently observed to 
 build their nests at a late period of the season, and near the 
 time when they make their usual migrations from this country. 
 Here the young ones are hatched too late, and the instinct to 
 migrate being stronger than that which prompts them to cher- 
 ish their young, the latter are forsaken, and perish for want of 
 food. s. 
 
 Instincts in Unexpected Forms, Social Social instincts, 
 
 and even noble traits, are not confined to mankind. We find 
 them in strange places and in unexpected forms. Look at the 
 walruses, for instance ; the social instincts with them are most 
 powerful, and they fight for one another with a courage and 
 an obstinacy that their strength and formidable weapons render 
 frequently fatal to the hunters. Frequently the walruses lie in 
 great numbers along the banks of the ice, motionless, and piled 
 pell-mell one upon another. But one of ,them, during their re- 
 pose, enacts the part of sentinel. At the slightest appearance of 
 danger it precipitates itself into the waten"-; All the others imme- 
 diately attempt to follow; but in this critical moment the slow- 
 ness of their movements sometimes produces the most grotesque 
 scenes. In the confused state in which they have been lying, 
 it is with difficulty they disengage themselves from the masses 
 of heavy flesh which inclose them on every side. Some roll 
 awkwardly into the water ; others crawl painfully along the ice. 
 The weight of their body and the enormous disproportion of 
 their limbs render all movements upon the ice extremely diffi- 
 cult for them. But as soon as these ungainly animals are in 
 the water, they resume all their vigor, and, if attacked, defend 
 themselves with astonishing courage. At times they themselves 
 begin the fight ; they dart upon the fishermen's boats, seizing 
 the gunwales with their long hooklike teeth, and draw them 
 furiously toward them. At times they glide under the skiff, 
 and endeavor to capsize it. Their hardy, scaly skin resists the 
 blows of pike and spear, and it is neither without difficulty nor 
 danger that the poor fishermen escape from such formidable 
 adversaries. In these desperate combats the walruses are gen- 
 
SCJEXriFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 179 
 
 erally led by a chief, who is easily recognized by his great size 
 and impetuous ardor. If the fishermen succeed in killing him, 
 at that instant all his comrades abandon the struggle, gather 
 around him, support him, by means of their teeth, on the sur- 
 face of the water, and drag him in all haste far from the attack- 
 ing boats, and out of peril. But the most impressive and dra- 
 matic scene is when the walruses fight to secure their young. 
 Generally they attempt to deposit them on a bank of ice, in 
 order that they may fight more freely. If they have not suffi- 
 cient time to place them in safety, they take them under their 
 paws, clasp them to their breast, and throw themselves with des- 
 perate audacity against the fishermen and against their boats. 
 The young walruses exhibit a similar devotion and a similar 
 intrepidity when their parents are in peril. They have been 
 known, when placed apart in security, boldly to quit the asylum 
 chosen for them by anxious affection, and take their share in 
 the struggle in which the mother was engaged, to sustain her 
 efforts and participate in her dangers. It is not uncommon for 
 us to boast that the family solicitude and regard for each other's 
 interests which we frequently see in American homesteads are the 
 result of our civilization. No doubt civilization refines and ele- 
 vates whatever it touches, but it is certainly entitled to very 
 little credit in this matter. The care which the individuals of 
 certain species take of one another is a simple instinct of their 
 nature, for which they are no more entitled to credit than they 
 are for eating when they are hungry or sleeping when they are 
 sleepy. A parent walrus cannot be supposed to think of merit 
 when she protects her young, any more than the young walrus 
 thinks of merit when defending its parents. But how often, 
 when services are performed by human parents for their chil- 
 dren, or by children for their parents, it is considered on all 
 sides that something quite meritorious has been accomphshed! 
 Let us rather say, on such occasions, that instinct has asserted 
 her beautiful and simple swa)'. Nor would it be out of place 
 to remind those parents and children who refuse to render to 
 each other the services which Nature has imposed upon them, 
 
ISO DICTIONARY OF 
 
 that the walrus has a lesson for them. Let them in utter abase- 
 ment turn from their worldly moralities, logical quibbles, and 
 human selfishness, and gaze toward the Northern seas on those 
 heroic tragedies of the parents and children of a species stirred 
 and directed by the impulses of Nature only. my. 
 
 Insusceptible Character, The. — Amid the tribes of insects, 
 so particularly influenced by seasons, there are a few which 
 appear little affected by common events. The brown meadow- 
 butterfly [Papiliojanira], so well known to ever)' one, is never 
 missed in any year ; and in those damp and cheerless summers, 
 when even the white cabbage-butterfly is scarcely to be found, . 
 this creature may be seen in every transient gleam, drying its 
 wings and tripping from flower to flower with animation and 
 life, nearly the sole possessor of the field and its sweets.-/ It is 
 a happy emblem of the insusceptible man, who, whatever may 
 be the sorrows and agitations of the period, is never dejected or 
 depressed. Although the gloom of death and wretchedness 
 may be all around him, and many of his fellow-creatures may 
 be unable to face the pitiless circumstances of the day, he is 
 jaunty and jolly, vivacious and able to enjoy his usual dehghts 
 and avocations. Nature fortunately gave him the brown-but- 
 terfly temperament. j. 
 
 Interchange, The Principle of. — Nature is against exclu- 
 siveness. It is part of her plan that there shall be everywhere 
 mutual giving and taking. You may observe this even in the 
 tides. The tidal currents are perpetually shifting and redistrib- 
 uting the deposits along the sea-bottom ; the Gulf Stream is as 
 regularly transporting tropical products to temperate regions ; 
 and the Polar currents carry with them icebergs and ice-floes 
 laden with rocks and gravel, which are dropped on the sea-bot- 
 tom as the ice melts away in warmer latitudes. Reciprocity is 
 everywhere. ad. 
 
 Interdicted Political Convictions. — M. Fournet, in his de- 
 scription of the metalliferous gneiss near Clermont, in Auvergne, 
 states that all the minute fissures of the rock are quite saturated 
 with free carbonic-acid gas, which gas rises plentifully from the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTKATIOiVS. 161 
 
 soil there and in many parts of the surrounding country. The 
 various elements of the gneiss, with the exception of the quartz, 
 are all softened, and new combinations of the acid with lime, 
 iron, and manganese are continually in progress. Another illus- 
 tration of the power of subterranean gases is afforded by the 
 Stufas of St. Calogero, situated in the largest of the Lipari 
 Islands. Here, according to the description pubhshed by Hoff- 
 mann, horizontal strata of tuff, extending for four miles along 
 the coast, and forming cliffs more than two hundred feet high, 
 have been discolored in various places, and strangely altered by 
 the "all-penetrating vapors." Dark clays have become yellow 
 or often snow-white, or have assumed a checkered or brecciated 
 appeararice, being crossed with ferruginous red stripes. In some 
 places the fumeroles have been found by analysis to consist 
 partly of sublimations of oxide of iron ; but it also appears that 
 veins of chalcedony and opal, and others of fibrous gypsum, 
 have resulted from these volcanic exhalations. M. Virlet gives 
 an account of the corrosion of hard, flinty, and jaspideous rocks 
 near Corinth by the prolonged agency of subterranean gases, 
 and Dr. Daubeny describes the decomposition of trachytic 
 rocks in the Solfatara near Naples, by sulphureted-hydrogen 
 and muriatic-acid gases. Although in all these instances we 
 can only study the phenomena as exhibited at the surface, it is 
 clear that the gaseous fluids must have made their way through 
 the whole thickness of porous or fissured rocks which intervene 
 between the subterranean reser\'oirs of gas and the external air. 
 The extent, therefore, of the earth's crust which the vapors have 
 permeated and are now permeating may be thousands of fathoms 
 in thickness, and their heating and modifying influence may be 
 spread throughout the whole of this solid mass. We learn from 
 Professor Bischoff that the steam of a hot spring at Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, although its temperature is only from 133° to 167° F., 
 has converted the surface of some blocks of black marble into a 
 doughy mass. He conceives, therefore, that steam in the bowels 
 of the earth, having a temperature equal to or even greater than 
 the melting-point of lava, and having an elasticity of which 
 
l82 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 even Papin's digester can give but a faint idea, may convert 
 rocks into liquid matter. These wonderful facts might suggest 
 useful thoughts to the despots of the world. Despotism inter- 
 dicts the expression of political convictions, and seeks to bury 
 them imder the adamantean weight of oppressive decrees and 
 colossal cruelty. But it is an unerring moral law that the warm 
 aspirations of a virtuous people shall — like the subtle subter- 
 ranean gases — arise to freedom, and, despite all impediments, 
 dissolve in due time even the hard and hoary foundations of 
 injustice. e. 
 
 Invaders, The Callousness of Thievish — The death's- 
 head moth {Acherontia atropos) is a thievish invader. It makes 
 its way into beehives in order to steal the honey, of which it 
 is excessively fond. Like other thievish invaders, it is utterly 
 callous. It is to no purpdse that the bees dart their stings at 
 the intruder ; they only blunt them against its thick skin, and soon, 
 terrified at its presence, disperse on all sides. We are too apt 
 to applaud military invaders when they are successful in enrich- 
 ing themselves. We award them glory for their brave inclu- 
 sions into other people's territory. Possibly in many cases it 
 will be discovered that the defensive army was, like the bees, 
 unequal to a vigorous resistancejj^nd that what was called the 
 bravery of the invaders was nothing more than the exhibition 
 of that natural callousness with which, like the death's-head 
 moth, many thievish invaders are endowed. Nature has made 
 creatures which do not feel even a just sting. The death's-head 
 moth is impervious to the righteous punishment of the bee. 
 Thievish invaders are inaccessible to the stings of conscience. 
 
 I. 
 
 Invariable, Nothing. — There is no body or part of a body 
 whose existence can be termed invariable. Where\'er in the 
 material world anything seems to be unchanged, whether it is 
 in reference to its situation or its internal condition, this inac- 
 tion is only apparent, as the hour-hands of a clock appear to 
 be stationary when we take a cursory glance at them. J This is, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 183 
 
 however, but a feeble simile when we speak of changes which 
 are hardly perceptible in the course of many thousand years. 
 
 so. 
 Invisible may yet be Legible, The. — When, a generation 
 since, the remnant of English troops left after the then disasters 
 at Cabul were shut up in a fort, surrounded and vigilantly 
 watched by their enemies, they managed nevertheless to send 
 brief letters to their nearest friends. These letters to appear- 
 ance were only blank pieces of paper. But they were covered 
 with words traced with rice-water instead of ink, every word 
 becoming visible and bright blue when the paper was washed 
 over with iodine! This wonderful substance, iodine, has the 
 property of rendering starch blue or violet color ; and as rice 
 contains a considerable quantity of starch, an invisible ink pre- 
 pared from it assumes that hue when touched with iodine, 
 though previously quite colorless. th. 
 
 Irascibility, The Perils of. — Some men are so irascible 
 that they will quarrel at the slightest thing. They are like the 
 larvas of the MegacephaliZ (a group allied to the tiger-beetles), 
 which are described as being so rapacious and irritable that 
 they seize at anything that disturbs them. In this way they 
 are easily taken by inserting a straw in their burrows, which 
 they instantly seize with their mandibles and pertinaciously re- 
 tain, if In this, their easy capture, they remind us of the ready 
 way in which the irascible men already referred to are en- 
 snared by those who, knowing their propensities, are able, by 
 the necessary provocation, to obtain facile conquests over them. 
 Such are tlie perils of irascibility. mu. 
 
 Irritable Temper, Shocks of — Electric fish are those fish 
 which have the remarkabe property of giving, when touched, 
 shocks like those of the Leyden jar. Of these fish there are 
 several species, the best known of which are the torpedo, the 
 gymnotus, and the silurus. The torpedo, which is very com- 
 mon in the Mediterranean, has been carefully studied by MM. 
 Becquerel and Breschet, in France, and by M. Matteucci, in 
 
184 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Italy. The gymnotus has been investigated by Humboldt and 
 Bonpland in South America, and in England by Faraday, who 
 had the opportunity of examining live specimens. The shock 
 that they give serves both as a means of offense and of defense. 
 It is purely voluntary, and becomes gradually weakened as it 
 i's repeated and as these animals lose their vitality, for the elec- 
 trical action soon exhausts them materially. ipAmong the " odd 
 fish " of human society are the constitutionally irritable ones. 
 There are several varieties of them, but they all resemble each 
 other in that they are perpetually giving off shocks of irritable 
 temper, not only as a means of defense, but, and very especially, 
 as a means of offense. The force of the shocks gets weakened, 
 because those who have to bear them get used to the sensation. 
 Shocks of temper which are terrible at first become trivial by 
 repetition. But the irritable human being, especially if a female, 
 is unlike the electric fish in regard to the exhaustion following 
 the shocks. While the fish certainly suffers in that way, it is 
 obvious that the human specimen does not. The fish lose their, 
 vitality by giving off shocks, but irritable human beings become 
 exhilarated and happy when they can exercise their functions 
 in that direction. el. 
 
 Jealousy, The Follies of. — The stag of the red deer {Cer- 
 vus elaphus) in.the early part of September becomes exceedingly 
 jealous. If a rival happens to approach his seraglio a combat 
 a oiitrance immediately takes place. The two adversaries rush 
 impetuously one against the other ; on their feet and knees they 
 'fight ; long and obstinate are such battles ; wounds are gi\-en 
 and received, and blows are parried with consummate skill. 
 Sometimes their antlers get entangled to that extent that they 
 are unable to separate. Fastened together, the two heroes strive 
 in vain to disentangle themselves, and some of these hostile 
 couples thus closely riveted together ultimately perish of famine. 
 Such are the follies of jealousy among stags. fl- Among men they 
 are far more grotesque, as may be seen by a reference to cor- 
 oners' inquests, law reports, or often by even a glance at an 
 ordinary newspaper. m. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 185 
 
 Joint=Stock Company, A The idea of a joint-stock com- 
 pany was probably first borrowed from the fox. 'I'he ways by 
 which rogues associate themselves together to plunder honest 
 folk, the strongest keeping in the background, and the weakest 
 being put forward, very much remind one of the account given 
 by Dr. Henderson, in his " Journal of a Residence in Iceland," 
 of the manner in which the Arctic foxes, which abound in the 
 vicinity of the North Cape, hunt various species of wild-fowl.' 
 " They proceed," he says, " on their predatory expeditions in 
 company,* and previous to the commencement of their opera- 
 tions they hold a kind of mock fight upon the rocks in order 
 to determine their relative strength. When this has been fairly 
 ascertained they advance to the brink of the precipice, and tak- 
 ing each other by the tail, the weakest descends first, while the 
 strongest, forming the last in the row, suspends the whole num- 
 ber till the foremost has reached their prey.'' Then they deter- 
 mine upon a " voluntary winding up." A signal is now given, 
 on which the uppermost fox pulis with all his might, and the 
 rest assist him as well as they can with their feet against the 
 rocks. In this way they make off and proceed from rock to 
 rock, until they have provided themselves with a sufficient sup- 
 ply, like a number of cunning promoters of companies pouncing^ 
 down upon the public from the altitudes of magnificent schemes 
 and vast professions. R. 
 
 Judgment, Comparison and. — The estimation of distance 
 and of size of objects depends on numerous circumstances ; 
 these are, the visual angle, the optic angle, the comparison with 
 objects whose size is famihar to us, the diminution of the preci- 
 sion of the image by the interposition of a more or less vapor- 
 ous medium. When the size of an object is known, as the fig- 
 ure of a man, the height of a tree or of a house, the distance 
 is estimated by the aperture of the visual angle under which it 
 is seen. If its size is unknown, it is judged relatively to that of 
 objects which surround it. A colonnade, an avenue of trees, 
 the gas-lights on the sides of a road, appear to diminish in size 
 in proportion as their distance increases, because the visual 
 
1 86 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 angle increases; but the habit of seeing the columns, trees, 
 etc., in their proper height leads our judgment to rectify the 
 impression produced by vision. Similarly, although very dis- 
 tant mountains are seen under a very small angle, and occupy 
 but a small space in the field of view, our familiarity with the 
 effects of aerial perspective enables us to form a correct idea of 
 their real magnitude. The optic angle is also an essential ele- 
 ment in appreciating distance. This angle increasing or dimin- 
 ishing according as objects approach or recede, we move our 
 eyes so as to make their optic axes converge toward -the object 
 which we are looking at, and thus obtain an idea of its distance. 
 Nevertheless it is only by long custom that we can establish a 
 relation between our distance from the objects and the corre- 
 sponding motions of the eyes. It is a curious fact that persons 
 born blind, and whose sight has been restored by the operation 
 for cataract, imagine at first that all objects are at the same dis- 
 tance. EL. 
 
 Kindness Natural and Remunerative. — Kind Heaven 
 has created the universe on the principle of kindness. Accord- 
 ingly nothing which violates its law can in the end be advanta- 
 ,geous, while conformity to the law is ever attended with every 
 possible advantage. Take an illustration from the horticulturist. 
 We well know that buds are placed upon the stem of the tree 
 at regulated intervals, where they develop themselves in the form 
 of branches, and extend the tree, nourishment being carried 
 through them to every leaf and fiber. It is also one of their 
 peculiarities that, without injury to these organs, they may be 
 separated from the parent plant and placed upon another, which, 
 so to speak, says Louis Figuier, becomes its nurse. Horticul- 
 turists profit by these circumstances to produce some of their 
 finest flowers and fruits. This process, known to gardeners as 
 budding or grafting, is practised in many different ways, but in 
 all the principle is the same.-:^\ The bud, without any of the 
 wood, is carefully removed from the parent tree, and applied 
 to a corresponding cut in the nursing one, covering the wound 
 so as to keep out the air. The bud continues to grow on its 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 187 
 
 new nurse, and in course of time it forms a branch or head of 
 a tree producing the same flowers and fruit for which the parent 
 may have been celebrated. The principle is applied most suc- 
 cessfully in horticulture where some delicate species of fruit or 
 flowers is produced on a stem destitute of the vigor necessary 
 to nourish and bring it to maturity. Now this nursing of a life 
 which needs such assistance for its proper development is only 
 an emblem of what kindness is always doing in higher spheres. 
 The kindness of the individual is constantly seen nurturing and 
 promoting the growth of those of the human family whose future 
 would be a blank without such aid. Human kindness in institu- 
 tions is conspicuous for the mode in which it selects and trains 
 those little ones who need a careful hand to form them for a 
 higher life. And although of course there must be ingratitude 
 in an imperfect world, do not the individual and the institution 
 in numberless cases find that kindness has borne beautiful blos- 
 som ? How many an uninteresting old life has become rejuve- 
 nescent through the adoption of the young life ; has rejoiced in 
 its productions, and been glorified by its purity! v. 
 
 Kindness, The Transforming Power of. — There is noth- 
 ing in the nature of the wildest animals to make their future 
 gentleness and sociability either impossible or improbable. 
 Even the devourers and their prey may by kind and judicious 
 management be trained to live peaceably and harmlessly to- 
 gether. Nothing appears more effectual to produce this pleas- 
 ing amelioration than patient and persevering, kind and gentle 
 treatment. They are now wild and savage from the appointed 
 circumstances amid which they are at present ordained to live. 
 >The jackal, when taken young, acquires the same affectionate 
 disposition as the dog. The lion has been repeatedly tamed, 
 and so has the fox. Rubens had a tame lion four weeks in 
 his room to paint from. The large tiger-cat is easily tamed. 
 The otter may be taught to catch fish for its master. The 
 Egyptian ichneumon may be softened so as to be kept in a 
 house like a cat. The weasel may be trained to follow a person 
 anywhere. We see the bear repeatedly in our streets. The 
 
1 88 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 /i ^ . 
 badger may be also made docile if caught young.r The rhinoce- 
 ros and hippopotamus may be tamed in some degree. The 
 tiger, if taken young, may be domesticated. Cuvier describes 
 a young wolf that was brought up like a young dog, and dif- 
 fered in nothing from the tamest dog. Father Carli, in his his- 
 tory of Angola, mentions that he had taught monkeys to attend 
 him, to guard him while sleeping against thieves and rats, and 
 to fetch water.// The httle " Arab " of the London streets may 
 by taming become z. learned man. p. 
 
 Knowing Look, The. — The placid, half-indifferent, yet keen 
 look "which is so observable in some "knowing" men reminds 
 one of the chameleon's look. These men seem able to stare 
 all ways at one time, to see nothing, and yet to observe every- 
 thing. From the peculiar arrangement of the nerves and mus- 
 cles, each of the eyes of the chameleon can move independent 
 of the other. They can move in different directions, one up- 
 ward, the other downward, the one forward, the other back- 
 ward, and in all sorts of ways, without the head undergoing 
 any change of position. " You cannot tell," says Mr. Gosse, 
 " whether the creature is looking at you or not ; he seems to be 
 taking a general view of things ; looking at nothing particular, 
 or rather, to save time, looking at several things at once. Per- 
 haps both eyes are gazing upward at your face. A leaf quivers 
 behind his head, and in a moment one eye turns round toward 
 the object, while the other retains its upward gaze ; presently a 
 fly appears, one eye rapidly and interestedly follows all its move- 
 ments, while the other leisurely glances hither and thither, or 
 remains steady." The creature verily has the "knowing " look. 
 
 MU. 
 
 Knowledge as a Saving Power. — Hurricanes, revolving 
 storms, or " cyclones," differ from mere local and temporary 
 exaggerations of the regular atmospheric currents in this, that 
 they are in the nature of vortices or circulating movements par- 
 ticipated in by masses of air of from fifty to fi\'e hundred miles in 
 diameter, revolving the more rapidly the nearer the center, up to 
 a certain distance or radius within iv/iich tlieir is a calm. The 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. ^89 
 
 place of this center of rotation meanwhile advances steadily 
 along a definite line upon the globe, with a velocity varying 
 from two to thirty or forty miles per hour, and pursuing a track 
 which in some of the hurricane regions, as in the West Indies, 
 has a singular fixity of geographical situation and geometrical 
 form. But the character which it is of most importance to a 
 seaman to know, and the knowledge of which may often save 
 his ship from disaster, as ignorance of it has repeatedly been 
 the cause of catastrophes which might have been avoided, is 
 this, viz., that in the same hemisphere great cyclones always 
 revolve the same way (so far at least as our present information 
 extends), but that this direction is opposite in opposite hemi- 
 sphereSj^In the northern hemisphere their rotation is retro- 
 grade, i.e., contrary to the motion of the hands of a watch laid 
 face upward, or in conformity with the motion of the hand in 
 unscrewing a screw. In the southern their rotation is direct, 
 conformable to the hands of a watch or to the motion of a 
 hand screwing in a screw into a horizontal board. ^ And this 
 general fact affords the following simple rule by which to know 
 at any given moment the bearing of the center of the vortex, 
 which is the point of extreme danger, by reason of the fury of 
 the wind in its vicinity, its sudden reversal, and the terrible sea 
 which prevails there. When sure that you are within the limits 
 of a cyclone, stand erect, and look full in the wind's eye, then, 
 if in the northern hemisphere, turn yourself 90° or one quarter 
 of the circle round to your right (if in the southern, as much to 
 your left), and you will have the center of the current facing 
 you. Thus if in the northern hemisphere the wind at the ship 
 be due north (blow/ww the north), the center bears due east 
 from the ship's place. ma. 
 
 Latent Germs. — Germs of life may remain dormant for 
 incalculable periods where least expected. Certain soils, by ex- 
 posure to the sun's rays, or by aid of pecuHar manures, will 
 produce plants where no preexistent root or germ could ration- 
 ally be supposed to exist ; and peculiar and long-intervening 
 seasons will give birth to insects from causes not to be divined. 
 
igo DICTIOXAKY OF 
 
 In like manner germs of thought hidden in old phrases, old in- 
 stitutions, old books, or forgotten biographies, spring into vig- 
 orous activity, to the astonishment of mankind, when the con- 
 ditions of human affairs happen to be propitious for their devel- 
 opmentJj The germinal principle of a revolution may slumber 
 for many a century in an unsuspected proposition. j. 
 
 "Law," The "Ordinary," and the "Whole Law" 
 Distinguished. — Many mistakes and many debates arise be- 
 cause men do not distinguish the difference between that which 
 is an ordinary law and that which is the whole law. Let us 
 illustrate this by the following example : every one knows that 
 " fire burns," and if we touch what is red-hot it will most pain- 
 fully blister the skin, and that if the contact be prolonged only 
 for a few seconds, the flesh will be destroyed with inexpressible 
 torment. This is the ordinary law of Nature, and what we 
 naturally conceive to be the whole of the law of Nature re- 
 garding the action of fire and of red-hot substances. But if a 
 quantity of lead be melted, and made so hot that it seems in- 
 capable of any further increase of temperature, the hand may 
 be dipped into it without sustaining the slightest injury, with- 
 out being in the shghtest degree burned. This is well known 
 to chemists ; and men with nerve enough to make the plunge 
 have many times proved it to their startled friends and pupils. 
 
 LI. 
 
 Law, The Pitfalls of the — The insect known as the ant- 
 'lion, in its larval condition, is truly a wonderful being. A ruth- 
 less destroyer of insects, it chooses some sandy spot where the 
 soil is as far as possible free from stones, and begins to form 
 the celebrated pitfalls by which it is enabled to entrap ants and 
 other insects. Crawhng backward in a circular direction, it 
 traces a shallow trench, the circle varying from one to three 
 inches in diameter. It then makes another round, starting just 
 within the first circle, and so it proceeds, continually scooping 
 up the sand with its head and jerking it outside the limits of 
 its trench. By continuing this process, and always tracing 
 smaller and smaller circles, the grub at last completes a conical 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 19 1 
 
 pit, and then buries itself in the sand, holding the mandibles 
 widely extended. Should an insect, an ant, for example, hap- 
 pen to pass near the pitfall, it would be sure to go and look 
 into the cavity. No sooner has the ant approacheil the margin 
 of the pitfall than the treacherous soil gives way, the poor in- 
 sect goes tumbling and rolling down the yielding sides of the 
 pit, and falls into the extended jaws that are waiting for it at 
 the bottom. A smart bite kills the ant, the juices are extracted, 
 and the empty carcass is jerked out of the pit, and the ant-lion 
 settles itself in readiness for another victim.4j:This pit adum- 
 brates American law, the ant-lion the lawyer, and the victim the 
 litigant. The innocent litigant, in want of his rights, looks in- 
 quiringly at the attractive pitfalls of the law to see if there is 
 anything therein to his advantage. Very suddenly he finds 
 himself involved in most mysterious processes. With great 
 velocity he next discovers that he has lost his balance and is 
 reduced to a most helpless condition. Soon afterward, on miss- 
 ing his happy face from society, his friends make the melan- 
 choly discovery that, in accordance with the object of the legal 
 pitfalls, he has been pounced upon by the expectant lawyer, 
 sucked dry, and ejected into the abyss of bankruptcy. h. 
 
 Leadership, Capacity the Title to — Capacity, not adven- 
 titious distinction, is the title to leadership. The institution of 
 " ruling families " and privileged classes, which obtains among 
 men, is despised even by horses, who will have none but those 
 who give evidence of capacity to rule over them. The wild 
 horses in the Ukraine,/and among the Cossacks] going in troops 
 of four or five hundred, obey, apparently by compact, the com- 
 mand of one of their own number. He by signs of voice makes 
 them proceed or stop at his pleasure. When the troop is at- 
 tacked by wolves or otherwise, he gives orders for the neces- 
 sary ar;'angements for defense ; if he finds any horses out of 
 their place or lagging behind, he obliges them to take their 
 proper station. These animals, Smelhe tells us, of their own 
 natural impulse march in as good order and steadiness as our 
 trained cavalry ; they form companies, and pasture in files and 
 
192 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 brigades, without confusion or separation. The chief holds 
 office for four or five years ; when he grows weaker and less 
 active, another horse, conscious of strength and ambitious of 
 command, springs forth from the troop and attacks the old 
 chief, who probably resists, and if not vanquished keeps his 
 command, but if conquered retires with evident shame and de- 
 jection into the common herd. The conqueror is then recog- 
 nized as sovereign and obeyed..:5'^When will men learn to profit 
 by this example of the horse ? R. 
 
 Liberty, An Unconquerable Love of. — "It is remark- 
 able," says Boitard, "that the elephant is not, and never has 
 been, a domestic animal, but a captive who only obeys through 
 terror. However tame he may be, he never fails to escape into 
 the woods to resume his savage life if an opportunity occurs. 
 The need, therefore, arises that on a long march he shall have 
 his driver, or niahout, on his back to guide him, threaten him, 
 and prevent him from taking to flight. His love of liberty is 
 as great as that of the wildest animals, and in the female ele- 
 phants it even overpowers maternal love ; therefore, when suck- 
 ling their young they are never released from their chains, for 
 experience has proved that they will abandon them without 
 regret if circumstances should enable them to effect their es- 
 cape." i D. 
 
 Life, One Essential Condition of No place is incapable 
 
 of supporting vegetable life of some kind ; and although there 
 are districts where grass and trees are never seen, and perpetual 
 desolation gives the idea of their being worn out and effete, as 
 happens in the great deserts in the interior of northern Africa, 
 even there it is not so much an absolute incapacity to sustain 
 life as the want of springs of water that causes the absence of it. 
 In those sweet spots which have become a metaphor for all 
 happy and blessed breaks in the history of trouble and sorrow 
 — the " oases " of the desert — water is present, and vegetation 
 is triumphant. Such an " oasis " was Elim, where there " were 
 twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees." 
 
 LI. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 193 
 
 Life, The Ubiquity of — ^Wisely have the fungi been pro- 
 vided, in the rapidity of their growth, the simphcity of their 
 structure, the variety of their forms, and in their amazing num- 
 bers, for their appointed task in the economy of Nature. Not 
 a leaf that falls from the bough, not a blade that withers on 
 the lea, but is seized by the tiny fangs of some special fungus 
 organized to prey upon it ; not a spot of earth can we examine, 
 where vegetable life is capable of growing, but we shall find a 
 vegetable as well as an insect parasite, keeping its growth 
 in check, hastening its decay, and preserving its remains 
 from being wasted.j&"Ardently engaged in studying the laws 
 of those functions by which life is carried on, begun, or con- 
 tinued from one generation to another, the physiologist seeks 
 illustrations of his favorite pursuit in every living object that 
 presents itself to his observation. He travels nowhere without 
 meeting something worthy of his attention, for it may be truly 
 said that most parts of this world are dwelling-places of living 
 creatures, and that we can scarcely find a spot uninhabited by 
 beings endowed with life. We find life in the air, in the water, 
 in the eternal snows of the Arctic regions, and the burning sands 
 of the torrid zone. We find it near the summits of the loftiest 
 mountains and in the deepest caverns ; even mephitic pools, 
 poisonous soils, and boiling springs teem with animals and 
 plants adapted to the peculiar circumstances in which they are 
 placed, and furnished with an organization wisely contrived for 
 their existence. s. 
 
 Life, Fullness of.^Some men's natures are characterized 
 by a remarkable fullness of life. Socially, morally, intellectually, 
 spiritually, they are characterized by perennial vigor. They re- 
 mind us of that wondrous fullness of life which is so striking a 
 peculiarity of the palm-tree. Beside the blossom grows con- 
 tinually the fruit, and from the fading circle of its leaves there 
 springs with restless energy tlje fresh green. Thus it is that 
 everything about the palm assumes the expression of inexhaus- 
 tible vigor. Jf And when at last the tree lies dead beneath the 
 weight of ages, even then a thousand labyrinth filaments of 
 
194 DICTIOXARY OF 
 
 parasitical plants twine round the trunk, and clothe it deceiv- 
 ingly with an odorous and many-colored but spectral life. 
 
 ST. 
 
 Life under Right Conditions, Lastingness of. — Prop- 
 erly ripened seeds, if placed in certain conditions, are literally 
 immortal. That is to say, they are capable of retaining their 
 growing power indefinitely ; not merely for a few centuries, but 
 for thousands of years — how long, indeed, no man can say. 
 The earthly crust of our planet appears to be stocked in every 
 part with seeds that have been produced in years gone by, 
 scattered upon the surface, and subsequently covered up with 
 soil. Whenever the ground is disturbed, either by the plow or 
 by the spade of the railway excavator, or for any purpose which 
 causes its depths to be overturned, that portion which was many 
 feet below being thrown to the surface, and exposed to the air, 
 the sunbeams, and the moisture of dew^jnd rain, immediately 
 there springs up a crop of young plants/'certainly not originat- 
 ing in seeds only jusf then brought from neighboring fields, and 
 as certainly from seeds that have been lying in the soil for ages. 
 How they came to be covered up is easy to conceive when we 
 see with our own eyes what is done by wintry floods, and the 
 sweeping down of great masses of earth and soil, which accumu- 
 late often to a considerable depth, and are no doubt similarly 
 charged with seeds that, after waiting their turn, will some day 
 grow. ^For it is a clearly estabhshed fact that no seed can 
 germinate or begin to sprout unless it have the threefold influ- 
 ence in direct operation upon it of warmth, moisture, and the 
 atmosphere. Let it be shut in from the access of these and it 
 lies passive!^ giving no sign of life or growth, and incapable of 
 doing so. /' LI. 
 
 Life, Tlie Expansiveness of Strong. — The banian or 
 Indian fig-tree [Fiais Indica) surpasses in diameter the finest 
 oaks of Europe, and is of evergreen foliage. It possesses the 
 power of reproduction and multiplication. It throws off num- 
 erous branches, of which several redescend toward the earth, 
 force their way into it, take root therein, and in their turn de- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 195 
 
 velop into new trunks, whence spring other boughs that go 
 through the same process of fructification ; so that a single stem 
 spreads in time into a kind of forest, and the canopy formed 
 by the outgrowth of a sohtary tree will frequently overshadow 
 an area of seventeen hundred square yards.^ir- d. 
 
 Life, The Mirage of. — The ardent imagination of youth, 
 and the eager desire of hopeful men, often produce to the eye 
 of faith glorious and glowing' visions of a bright future, which, 
 alas ! are like a mirage. iWe) know that the mirage for the 
 most part occurs in extensive plains when the weather is calm 
 and heated by the sun. The plains of Asia and Africa have 
 become celebrated in this respect ; thus during the expedition 
 in Egypt the French army frequently experienced cruel decep- 
 tions. The ground of Egypt forms a plain perfectly horizontal ; 
 the villages are situated on small eminences. In the morning 
 and evening they appear in their proper places, and at their 
 real distances ; but when the ground is highly heated, the coun- 
 try resembles a lake, and the villages appear to be built on 
 islands, and reflected in the water. As we approach, the lake 
 disappears, and the traveler, devoured by thirst, is deceivedA)-y 
 his hope. <Sf. 
 
 Life, Independence in Higher Stages of. — Many people 
 fancy that a little fly is only little because it is young, and that 
 it will grow up in process of time to be as big as a bluebottle. 
 Now this idea is entirely wrong ; for when an insect has once 
 attained to its winged state, it grows no more. All the grow- 
 ing, and most part of the eating, is done in its previous states of 
 life;jiand indeed there are many insects, such as the silkworm 
 mo(h, which do not eat at all from the time that they assume 
 the chrysalis state to the time when they die. c. o. 
 
 Life Infinitesimal The gemls Vibrio is the type of a tribe 
 
 of animalcules commonly known as microscopic eels, remark- 
 able for their extraordinary minuteness. One species is para- 
 sitic upon wheat, and when full grown attains a quarter of an 
 inch in length ; but the young are so microscopically small that 
 thirty thousand might be contained in a single grain of wheat. 
 
196 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Life, The Tenacity of. — The vitality of the large-bodied 
 moths is quite astonishing. You may even stamp upon them 
 and yet not crush the life out of that frail casket. If you drive 
 the life out of one half of the creature, it only seems to take 
 refuge in the other, and then retains a more powerful hold. 
 So unless the entire mechanism of the insect be killed, the poor 
 creature may live for days in pa:in. _3=- c. o. 
 
 Life where Least Expected — The great Karoo^jat the 
 base of the Roggeveld and Nieuveld chain is three hundred 
 miles in length, eighty miles in breadth, and two thousand feet 
 above the sea-level. Its soil presents throughout its whole ex- 
 tent, for the greater portion of the year, not a trace of vegeta- 
 tion. During the long dry summer months the smallest birds 
 would not find wherewithal to sustain their existence in these 
 somber deserts, whose solemn silence not even the murmur of 
 an insect interrupts. Yet these regions, deprived of springs and 
 running waters, are not always sterile deserts, are not always 
 desolate plains. In the dry season, the soil, a yellow ferrugi- 
 nous clay, acquires the hardness of brick, just as if it had been 
 exposed to the fire of a furnace ; but the roots and bulbs, pro- 
 tected by a hgneous covering, resist the , devouring heat. The 
 first rains revive them ; they put forth their stems and branches ; 
 a myriad flowers reveal their sparkling colors ; and the coun- 
 try which, a day or two before, had shown to the eye a bare 
 and dreary surface, shines out in a panoply of splendor, as if a 
 magician's spell had suddenly transformed it into a terrestrial 
 paradise. But as the days lengthen, and the sun's power in- 
 creases, the bloom and the beauty vanish, and the curse of fire 
 once more descends upon the gloomy scene. d. 
 
 Life in Apparent Death. — The grains of wheat found in 
 Egyptian tombs, on being planted in the soil of France, grew 
 into waving corn. For three thousand years these grains had 
 been without Hfe, yet we cannot say they were ticad; they were 
 organic seeds, products of life, and had themselves once lived; 
 they were developed from cells into seeds, and at this point in 
 their development their vital activity was arrested, because the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTIiATIONS. 197 
 
 necessary heat, light, and soil were wanting ; but no sooner 
 were these supplied, than the arrested activity was once more 
 set free: the seed became a plant. jt The )Tiicroscopic animals 
 known as rotifers become to all appearance dead when the 
 water of the moss in which they live is evaporated, and in this 
 state of suspended animation they may remain for years, recov- 
 ering their energy on the addition of a little water ; they may 
 be dried and revived fifteen times in succession ; but they are 
 not dead in these cases, and they do not decompose^ ^Yogs' 
 and toads, especially the latter, when subjected to the action 
 of intense cold, may be perfectly /rt^z^w, all their fluids becom- 
 ing congealed, all their tissues rigid. Yet these animals are 
 not dead. Let heat be cautiously applied, and the congela- 
 tion ceases : in eight minutes life is once more in full activity./;;: 
 
 PH. 
 
 Life Preserved by Struggling — You lament that your life 
 is one constant struggle ; that, having obtained what you tried 
 hard to secure, your whole strength is now required in order to 
 retain it ; and that your necessities impose on you the further 
 obligation of additional exertions. It is so; but do not repine. 
 As a rule, the maintenance of life is everywhere conditional 
 on struggling. It is not only so with men and animals. It is 
 so even in the vegetable world. You struggle with obstacles ; 
 but the very trees have to do the same. Observe them ; take 
 heart and grow strong. M. Louis Figuier says that the man^ 
 ner in which roots succeed in overcoming obstacles has always 
 been a subject of surprise to the observer. The roots of trees 
 and shrubs, when cramped or hindered in their progress, have 
 been observed to exhibit considerable mechanical force, throw- 
 ing down walls or splitting rocks, and in other cases clinging 
 together in bunches or spreading out their fibers over a pro- 
 digious space, in order to follow the course of a rivulet with 
 its friendly moisture. Who has not seen with admiration how 
 roots will adapt themselves to the special circumstances of the 
 soil, dividing their filaments in a soil fit for them almost to in- 
 finity, elsewhere abandoning a. sterile soil to seek one farther 
 
igS DICTIONARY OF 
 
 off which is favorable to them ; and as the ground was wide or 
 less hard, wet or dry, heavy or light, sandy or stony, varying 
 their shapes accordingly ? Here are wonderful energy, and 
 illustrations of the way in which existence may be maintained 
 by constant action, f v. 
 
 Life, Action and Repose a Law of. — There are action and 
 repose even in the life of the free. The circulation of the sap 
 in the tree is in its most active state in the springtime. The 
 plant is then full of liquid, and in new plants the juices flow at 
 the slightest incision. In spring, according to the poetical ex- 
 pression consecrated by use, the vine and other plants bleed ; 
 but when the leaves a:re fully developed, they will no longer 
 bleed when wounded. When the branches develop themselves 
 and consoHdate, the movement of the sap becomes slower; 
 it is sometimes roused toward the end of summer, when, the 
 spring having been premature, the materials which the plant 
 has elaborated for the vegetation of the following year have 
 been set to work before their time. After the fall of the leaf, 
 and when the approach of winter lowers the temperature, the 
 movement of sap is stopped entirely ; the tree arrives by little 
 and little at a state of almost absolute repose : this is not death, 
 but life which awaits its reawakening. ;^In human life we have, 
 but still more plainly written, this same law. From youth to 
 manhood, and from manhood to old age, how incessant is the 
 activity during all but the few hours allotted to repose ! As 
 Ovid says, 
 
 " Alternate rest and labor long endure." 
 
 And at the end of all the activity, and the last long repose, 
 which seems but is not death, are we not, also, like the tree, 
 to have our reawakening in a day to dawri as surely and as 
 brightly as the spring ? v. 
 
 Life a Lav^' of Nature, Involuntary Destruction of 
 
 Few persons, while indulging in the luxury of early green pease, 
 are aware how many insects they unconsciously swallow and 
 destroy. When the pods are carefully examined, small dis- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 199 
 
 colored spots may be seen upon them, each one corresponding 
 to a similar spot on the opposite pea. If this spot on the pea 
 be opened, a minute whitish grub destitute of feet will be found 
 therein. It is the weevil in its larval form, which lives upon the 
 marrow of the pea, and arrives at its full size by the time that 
 the pea becomes dry. This larva or grub thefa bores a round 
 hole from the hollow of the pea quite to the hull, but leaves the 
 latter, and generally the germ of the future sprout, untouched. 
 Hence these pease will frequently sprout and grow when planted. 
 The grub is changed to a pupa within its hole in the pea in the 
 autumn, and before the spring casts its skin again, becomes a 
 beetle, and gnaws a hole through the thin hull in order to make 
 its escape into the air, which frequently does not happen before 
 the pease are planted for an early crop. After the pease have 
 flowered, and while the pods are young and tender, and. the 
 pease within them are just beginning to swell, the beetles gather 
 upon them and deposit their tiny eggs singly in the punctures 
 or wounds which they make upon the surface of the pods. 
 This is done mostly during the night or in cloudy weather. 
 The grubs as soon as they are hatched penetrate the pod and 
 bury themselves in the opposite pease, and the holes through 
 which they pass into the seeds are so fine as hardly to be per- 
 ceived and are soon closed. Sometimes every pea in a pod 
 contains a weevil grub, and in consuming our dish of pease we 
 therefore annihilate myriads of lives and extinguish the pos- 
 sibihties of myriads of others. But Nature seems to have or- 
 dained that man shall be the involuntary destroyer of life on a 
 vast scale. Whenever he treads upon the ground, or drinks a 
 glass of water, or breathes the air, he unintentionally massacres 
 millions of lives. mu. 
 
 Life, The Illusions of. — In youth, the view of our future hfe 
 expands before us, a splendid region gleaming with a thousand 
 tints of alluring magic light ; its rosy pathway enticing our will- 
 ing feet to ascend toward those lustrous hopes which tower be- 
 fore us, glowing and glistening under radiant skies, and which 
 seem to offer an infinitude of abiding ambrosial joy. But oh 
 
200 DICTIOKAliY OF 
 
 how soon that lovely view is changed ! Not through the glis- 
 tering magical illusion of fancy's rays may mortals long behold 
 it. For soon the clearer, stronger, though, alas ! the sadder 
 light of truth flashes its keen shafts adown the heights of time 
 upon all that fairy scene, revealing reality ; and amid the 
 tempest of our tears we behold all our enchanted forms, celes- 
 tial vistas, and gorgeous illusions crumbling, receding, and giv- 
 ing place to these chilling, hard, and rugged facts which 
 coarsely now project themselves to disappointment's eye. We 
 need to adumbrate a transformation-scene like this, for words 
 alone will not describe it. It is the commencement of the sum- 
 mer, and we gaze on the ocean which washes the Spitzbergen 
 coast. In this light this Arctic desert is imposing, grand, 
 majestic. The outlines of the coast and of the icebergs are of 
 the most fantastic and often of the most beautiful character — 
 old ruined keeps of Norman castles, long lines of frowning bat- 
 tlements, minarets and domes of Moorish mosques, and the 
 tapering spires, arched roofs, and flying buttresses of medieval 
 cathedrals. Lit up by the radiance of an Arctic sun, they wear 
 a most singular and weird beauty. Over the frozen ocean stand 
 monuments of fantastic design, whose radiant glittering surfaces 
 reflect in changing lights of amethyst, azure, vermilion, gold, 
 and emerald, the wondrous fires of the northern Auroras. But 
 the glory is transient. The summer sun has dawned. He 
 darts obliquely his rays upon all this scene, and then all this 
 crust splits up and becomes dislocated ; the gorgeous illusion is 
 ended, the confusion spreads ; the ocean currents carry off to 
 sea the blocks and floes of ice which roll and glide, and cross 
 and chase each other, hurtling together in an indescribable melee 
 and with a fearful tempest of sounds. The illusion alone re- 
 mains. D. 
 
 Life, The Improvident.— The„Esquimaux inhabit the im- 
 mense icy plains which extend into America even beyond the 
 Polar circle. During the winter they often fast several days 
 at a time, and remain immured in their huts like hybernating 
 animals ; but at length, driven by famine and by want of oil, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 201 
 
 they go forth upon the ice in search' of the seals which come 
 up to breathe. When they have killed one they regale them- 
 selves upon it until only the bones remain, after which they 
 endure a new period of privation. Thus they live from day to 
 day, in continual alternations of gluttony and abstinence ; all 
 idea of providing for the future is as completely out of their 
 head§/as it is out of many of those in our own land who have 
 had "greater advantages and more opportunities of knowing 
 right. D. 
 
 Light, Instinctive Love of. — A strong tendency is exhib- 
 ited by certain plants to follow the hght from an apparently 
 instinctive consciousness of its being necessary, if not to their 
 existence, at least for their well-being. This phenomenon is 
 beautifully shown by many facts, of which one will serve as an 
 example. One spring a potato was left behind in a cellar where 
 some tools had been kept during the winter, and which had 
 only a small aperture at the upper part of one of its sides. 
 The potato, which lay in the opposite corner, shot out a runner 
 which first ran twenty feet along the ground, and' crept up 
 along the wall, and so through the opening by which light was 
 admitted.V^ The Chiysanthemtim Peruvianum turns continually 
 toward the sun, and is said to cover itself with dewy clouds 
 which cool and refresh the flower during the most violent heat 
 of the day. Some men have an instinctive love of higher light. 
 In order to obtain the truth they perform prodigies of skill and 
 endurance. Some of our most noble characters have emerged 
 into positions of conspicuous usefulness by following their in- 
 stinctive love of light, which has guided them out of darkness, 
 privation, and obscurity. i. l. 
 
 Light is Regulated to our Capacity, All. — We see ob- 
 jects by reflected hght ; in other words, the object must first be 
 illuminated, and then it must reflect a certain amount of this 
 hght into our eyes. But as the entrance of too many or too 
 bright rays would dazzle vision, while too few would leave it 
 obscure and indistinct, an ever-vigilant sentinel — the iris, on 
 which the color depends — is posted across the front of the eye. 
 
202 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 to regulate by the expansion or contraction of the pupil the 
 exact number of rays that ought to be admitted. The full 
 blaze of light from the sun we could not endmerjjjOuT mental 
 eye has also been evidently designed to receive not full but 
 regulated light. Who could bear the full glare of the bright- 
 ness of the spiritual world ? We have but reflected and limited 
 light. With our present faculties and duties we must suppose 
 that the arrangement is the one most suitable to us. Let us 
 at all events recognize the existence of fact. We will neither 
 pretend that we have seen the absolute glories of the sun, nor 
 of "the Light of the world." Our perceptive organs have not 
 been constructed for either purpose. be. 
 
 Light has no Substitute, True. — Clear and brilliant light 
 often brings out> exquisite colors, as happens among the Alps 
 and also in the north frigid zone, where the humble little plants 
 called lichens and mosses are in many cases dyed of the most 
 brilliant hues, purple and gold predominating. Warmth, in like 
 manner, will stimulate vegetable growth in the most astonish- 
 ing manner, but it is growth not necessarily accompanied by 
 the secretion of valuable substances, such as give quality and 
 real importance to the plant. [Jjx-' English hothouses, for ex- ' 
 ample, there are plenty of spice-trees, those generous plants 
 that yield cinnamon and cassia, the nutmeg and the clove ; but 
 although healthy and blossoming freely, they never mature their 
 aromatic secretions. Though they have artificial heat equal to 
 that of their native islands, which burn beneath the sun of the 
 Indian Ocean, they cannot be supphed with similar and propor- 
 tionate solar l{^At. The cloudy skies shut them in from the full 
 and direct radiance of the sunshine, and wanting this, heat 
 alone will-not-avail- ^^ li. 
 
 Light a Healing Power Apart altogether from the cheer- 
 fulness and mental serenity (important auxiliaries in the eradica- 
 tion of disease ! ) which the bright rays of the sun invariably 
 engender, light has a thermic influence upon the mind and 
 body when prostrated by serious ailments, and certainly acts 
 beneficially by chemically purifying the blood of the patient, as 
 well as the atmosphere of the apartment he occupies. I. L. 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 203 
 
 Light, Children of the. — There are children of light and 
 children of darkness. The latter shun the bright, the pure 
 azure shining sky of truth with all its loving beams. Their 
 world is like the world of insects, and is the world of night. 
 Insects are all light-shunners. Even those which, like the bee, 
 labor during the daytime, prefer the shades of obscurity. The 
 children of light are like the birds. The world of birds is the 
 world of light — of song^XJSTearly all of them, says Michelet, 
 live in the sun, fill themselves with it, or are inspired by it. 
 Those of the south carry its reflected radiance on their wings ; 
 those of colder climates in their songs ; many of them fol- 
 low it from land to land. t. b. 
 
 " Lilies, Consider the." — The water-lilies never grow in 
 foul water, and always prefer that which is in steady though 
 slow movement, loving especially the little bays along the 
 edges, where they can spread their broad leaves upon the sur- 
 face undisturbed, and expand their argent cups, brimming with 
 golden stamens, to the light of the sun. Toward evening they 
 close their petals in a kind of sleep, and during the period of 
 their highest life, which is that of the preparation of the seed 
 that is to renew the plant, they not only close, but sink below 
 the surface of the stream. ^^ li. 
 
 Liquidator, The Speculative — Our winding-up courts 
 have revealed a vast multitude of persons speculating in the 
 liquidation of public companies, who are called " wreckers.'' 
 These " wreckers,'' when once settled on the corpse of a com- 
 pany, cannot be induced either by decency or pity to move 
 away. Greedy and cruel, they are like the tawny vulture ( Gyps 
 fulvus), which feeds, like the rest of its family, upon carrion. 
 When a party of these vultures has once taken possession of 
 the carcass of a large animal, they are said never to quit it as 
 long as a morsel of the flesh remains, so that they may be seen 
 in the same spot for days together. When fully fed, or rather 
 crammed with food, they are quite incapable of flight ; and if 
 suddenly disturbed in this happy condition, they are compelled 
 to disgorge the greater part of their banquet before they can 
 
204 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Little Influence Added to a Great Enterprise, The Use 
 
 of a. — A little river may be received into a large one without 
 augmenting either its width or depth. This, which at first view 
 seems a paradox, is yet very easily accounted for. The little 
 river in this case only goes toward increasing the swiftness of the 
 larger, and putting its dormant waters into motion. |' a. 
 
 Little Things, The Aggregate Capacity of. — At the first 
 glance it seems improbable that the animalcules should possess 
 any influence over the movements of the ocean — the symbol 
 to human minds of immensity — but we might as well deny the 
 action of the drops, the molecules of salt and water which 
 compose it. What matters their minuteness when numbers 
 compensate ? And the number of animalcules which work 
 and throb in the bosom of the seas is as incalculable as that 
 of the drops of water. Their fecundity is inconceivable ; the 
 waters are literally composed of them ; they are the " living 
 waters " of Scripture. They preserve the identity of the com- 
 position of the sea by absorbing the salts mostly with a basis of 
 limestone which proceed from the washings of the land. They 
 assimilate these sohd elements, and transform them into shells, 
 madrepores, corals, whose cells group together, cross, and ac- 
 cumulate upon one another until the dense strata which they 
 gradually form are prepared to serve as the foundation of 
 islands, archipelagoes, perhaps of continents. my. 
 
 Littleness, The Spirit and Security of. — A chapter in 
 the history of the whale affords a good illustration of the spirit 
 and security of httleness. As the whale is an inoffensive ani- 
 mal, it is not to be wondered that it has many enemies, willing, 
 to take advantage of its disposition and inaptitude for com- 
 bat. There is a small animal, of the shell-fish kind, called the 
 whale-louse, that sticks to its body as we see shells sticking to 
 the foul bottom of a .ship, l. This insinuates itself chiefly under 
 the fins ; and whatever efforts the great animal makes, it still 
 keeps its hold, and lives upon the fat, which it is provided with 
 instruments to arrive at. Now this transaction may be taken 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRA2UONS. 205 
 
 as a very true revelation of the usual workings of the spirit of 
 littleness. Littleness is always living on greatness. The great 
 man has always some little creature at his side, who is wheed- 
 ling for himself the favors by which he lives. Moreover, little- 
 ness is often safe because of its littleness. The great man has 
 no arts or appliances by which to detect and thwart the tactics 
 of the little knaves and tiny rascals who compass him about. 
 Again, littleness knows that its seclusion is its security, so that, 
 like the whale-louse, it gets, as it were, under the fins of great- 
 ness — to those places where it can gratify itself without being 
 detected. Like this same creature, too, littleness wherever 
 found — whether in the church, in the market, or in the home 
 — is furnished with a mechanism admirably adapted for its sus- 
 tenance, servility, baseness, and lying being among the more 
 prominent features thereof. a. 
 
 Love, The Courage of — It is said that the great bustard 
 will forsake her nest if only once driven from it by apprehen- 
 sion of danger ; but when the eggs are laid, and still more 
 when the young are produced, it is only repeated meddling 
 with them that will induce the' parents to forsake them. hi. 
 
 Love, Aspects of. — Love is a light upon the sea of life. 
 Upon the tranquil scenes of domestic and social existence its 
 graces gleam and its virtues sparkle, so that as we move along 
 we are reminded of a calm evening on the phosphorescent sea 
 — ^no gloom, no excitement, no harsh noises. Each dip of the 
 boatman's oar is accompanied by a brilliant flash, a tremulous 
 radiance plays round the sides of his little vessel, and a long 
 stream of light follows in her wake. In stormy times, too, love 
 is like that phosphorescent sea, which then exhibits a spectacle 
 of awful grandeur. Each wave appears crested with light, and, 
 as it crashes against the sides of a ship, looks like broken masses 
 of liquid fire. And when life is beset with gloom unutterable, 
 and its ways resemble a sea dark and tempestuous, the light 
 of love irradiates the surging scene with its self-sacrificing 
 beams ; its flashes of honest indignation start as the forces of 
 
2o6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 oppression plow their way, while its thousand inexplicable co- 
 ruscations glance and gleam over every troublous billow as it 
 breaks. s. 
 
 Lowly Teachers of Prudential Virtues. — The exterior 
 of a hive, says M. Victor Rendu, gives the best idea of this 
 people, essentially laborious. From sunrise to sunset all is 
 movement, diligence, bustle ; it is an incessant series of goings 
 and comings, of various operations which begin, continue, and 
 end, to be recommenced. Hundreds of bees arrive from the 
 fields, laden with materials and provisions ; others cross them 
 and go in their turn into the country. Here, cautious sentinels 
 scrutinize every fresh arrival ; there, purveyors, in a hurry to 
 be back at work again, stop at the entrance to the hive, where 
 other bees unload them of their burdens ; elsewhere it is a work- 
 ing-bee which engages in a hand-to-hand encounter with a rash 
 stranger ; farther on the surveyors of the hive clear it of every- 
 thing which might interfere with the traffic or be prejudicial to 
 health ; at another point the workers are occupied in drawing 
 out the dead body of one of their companions ; all the outlets 
 are besieged by a crowd of bees- coming in and going out ; the 
 doors hardly suffice for this hurrying, busy multitude. If all 
 appears disorder and confusion at the approaches to the hive, 
 this tumult is only so in appearance ; an admirable order pre- 
 sides over this emulation in their work, which is the distincti\-e 
 feature in bees/iyrThese insects preach to us diligence, activity, 
 vigilance, ingenuity, and order. If their sermon were hstened 
 to, and these five virtues were embodied in the lives of all 
 working-people, the material state of society would become 
 glorious. • I. 
 
 Lurking Dangers. — Many of the most deadly snakes lie 
 concealed just below the surface of the sand, ready to strike a 
 death-blow to the incautious traveler ; others Im-k and hide in 
 the branches of trees and bushes, from which they dart upon 
 the unwary. The wonderful resemblance in color they bear 
 to the places in which they are found renders them difficult to 
 be seen by the unpractised eye. However wary you may be, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 207 
 
 it is often difficult to escape with your life. These reptiles re- 
 semble the lurking dangers which encompass us on every side 
 in our progress through this world. Diseases, treacheries, false- 
 hoods, and troubles seem to be in wait for us during a large 
 portion of our journeyj^ We have hard work to elude them; 
 and if we ourselves escape, we have the melancholy misfortune 
 to see them strangling or poisoning our friends. i. o. 
 
 Luxuriance a Hindrance to Progress. — We have observed 
 people who have been confused with the luxuriance which sur- 
 rounded them. So sumptuous was the provision of every kind 
 that the taking of any step was only an exhibition of the diffi- 
 culty of action. " The embarrassment of riches " is not a figure 
 of speech, but a fact. The man who is surrounded by too 
 much luxuriance is like a traveler amid the profuse flowering 
 vegetation which characterizes some of the Asiatic steppes of 
 the temperate zone. On crossing the trackless portions of 
 these herb-covered steppes in the low carriages of the Tartars, 
 it is necessary to stand upright in order to ascertain even the 
 direction to be pursued through the copselike and closely 
 crowded plants that bend under the wheels. Some of these 
 steppes are covered with grass ; others with succulent ever- 
 green, articulated alkaline plants ; while many are radiant with 
 the effulgence of lichenlike tufts of salt, scattered irregularly 
 over the clayey soil like newly fallen snow. It is obvious that 
 the traveler's progress would be much easier across the com- 
 mons and fields of our own land, where Nature has not been 
 so prodigal in the luxuriance of her gifts. In like manner, the 
 movements in social life of persons who have neither poverty 
 nor riches are noticeably more easy and less anxious than those 
 of such individuals as are literally surrounded with luxury, who 
 on account of the very abundance of their possessions are puz- 
 zled as to the course they are to pursue for even their gratifica- 
 tion from day to day. vi. 
 
 Majestic Twaddle. — AVe are too prone to erroneous ascrip- 
 tion. Upon mere hearsay we accept certain persons and insti- 
 tutions as being wonderful, and then ever afterward persistently 
 
2o8 DICTIOA'AKY OF 
 
 ascribe to them 'qualities and virtues which they do not possess. 
 Vulgar people speak of " aristocratic " grace, of the " nobility " 
 of peers, the " majesty " of royalty, and so on and so on in dis- 
 mal, snobbish monotony. This mistaken habit is well illustrated 
 by the error which people fall into when they assign to the lion 
 qualities which he does not possess. Dr. Livingstone says : 
 " Nothing that I ever learned of the lion led me to attribute 
 to it either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it else- 
 where. It possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland 
 or St. Bernard dogs. The same feeling which has led the mod- 
 ern painter to caricature the lion has led the sentimentalist to 
 consider the lion's roar the most terrible of all earthly sounds. 
 We hear of the ' majestic roar of the king of beasts.' fit is in- 
 deed well calculated to inspire fear if you hear it in combina- 
 tion with the tremendously loud thunder of Africa on a night 
 so pitchy dark that every flash of the intensely vivid lightning 
 leaves you with the impression of stone-blindness, while the 
 rain pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you 
 without the protection of even a tree, or the chance of your 
 gun going off. But when you are in a comfortable house or 
 wagon the case is very different, and you hear_the roar of the 
 lion without any awe or alarm. iThe silly ostrich makes a noise 
 as loud, yet he never was feared by man. To talk of the 
 majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle. In general 
 the lion's voice seems to come deeper from his chest than that 
 of the ostrich; but to this day I can distinguish with certainty 
 between them only by knowing that the ostrich roars by day 
 and the lion by night." a' y. m. 
 
 Man as Revealed by Society. — As a rule man's appear- 
 ance is not pleasing when he is seen in his own isolation. His 
 brightest and best colors are revealed through the medium of 
 relationships. If in isolation, he is like a metal in its own 
 vapors. For example : every metal can be burned, and heat 
 sufficient being employed, the burning mass can be made to 
 evolve a vapor. Every metal burns with a certain invariable 
 color, and the light of these colors can be projected through a 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 209 
 
 prism. If so projected, a line across the spectral image results, 
 of certain specific size and also color ; but if the light of a burn- 
 ing mass of metal be transmitted through its own vapors, then 
 the band of color it would have yielded on the spectrum is 
 quenched as to color, and the result is not color but black. 
 Now we say that this is something hke the difference which 
 there is between man alone and man in society. Man in isola- 
 tion appears only in the melancholy colors of a recluse or an 
 anchoret. But when beheld through the family circle, the 
 club, the confederation, or the great and good organizations of 
 society, he appears to a far greater advantage, for then, instead 
 of being gloomy, his character assumes hues of beauty and 
 splendor of variety which may gladden and delight all eyes. 
 
 S. N. 
 
 Man the Enemy of Man — While on the steppe tigers 
 and crocodiles contend with horses and cattle, so on the forest 
 borders and in the wilds of Guiana the hand of man is ever 
 raised against his fellow-man. With revolting eagerness some 
 tribes drink the flowing blood of their foes, while others, seemingly 
 unharmed, yet prepared for murder, deal certain death with a 
 poisoned thumb-nail. The feebler tribes, when they tread the 
 sandy shores, carefully efface with their hands the traces of 
 their trembling steps. Thus, as Humboldt declares, does man, 
 everywhere alike, on the lowest scale of brutish debasement and 
 in the false glitter of his higher culture, perpetually create for 
 himself a life of care. And thus, too, the traveler, wandering 
 over the wide world by sea and land, and the historian who 
 searches the records of bygone ages, are everywhere met by 
 the unvarying and melancholy spectacle of man opposed to 
 man. -f vi. 
 
 Man and a Frog, The Resemblance between a. — The 
 
 frog must be classed among the comic types of the animal cre- 
 ation. That it should be so arises chiefly from his resemblance 
 to man. Who is there that has not seen men with froglike 
 countenances ? These are for the most part beardless, short- 
 necked heads, obtusely shaped faces, with bald pates, a straight 
 
2.1 o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 or partly flattened nose, prominent eyes, a wide mouth, reced- 
 ing chin, and puffed-up cheeks. If to such physiognomy be 
 joined a fair, round-bellied, abbot-like stature, no single feature 
 will be wanting to make the resemblance complete. That the 
 frog's head is always flat does not lessen the resemblance : it 
 is the eyes as well as the cheeks which are mainly instrumental 
 in producing the likeness. With unmistakable importance do 
 they present themselves : large, round, sprightly, capable of a 
 fixed, bold look, and in certain species surrounded by hds. 
 Their color varies from a deep black to a flaming yellow. In 
 the frog's head mere indications of a nose and ear are to be 
 seen, while the wide mouth is all the more conspicuous. The 
 head, which is not raised upon a freely moving neck, is joined 
 immediately to the trunk with slender, delicate articulations, 
 xjhe hind leg is lengthened to an extraordinary degree ; indeed,^ 
 besides the immense toes, no other animal can show so human- 
 looking a leg as the frog. The formation of the bones and 
 muscles is also the same as in man, the latter forming a perfect 
 calf, while the nakedness of the animal's body causes the re- 
 semblance to show more strikingly. The frog is indeed an 
 anthropomorphism. Who is there when bathing, as his com- 
 rade skilfully swims past him, has not been reminded of the 
 green-coated paddler, as he jumps from the bank, and with 
 regularly changing stroke divides the waA-es ? Owing to this 
 very resemblance, a celebrated natural philosopher of the last 
 century was betrayed ipto describing the petrified skeleton of 
 a frog of a former age as the bones of an antediluvian man ; \i 
 and on this account, too, does the fable of the metamorphosis 
 of the Lycian peasants into frogs take such hold upon our fancy 
 and strike us as so appropriate. ST. 
 
 Man, A Domestic Resemblance between Reptiles and. 
 
 — It is not uncommon to hear persons speaking of their guar- 
 dianship of their children as though it were a virtue. It may 
 or may not be so, according to circumstances. But this is quite 
 certain, that the love of offspring, and the desire to guard it, 
 are exemplified by reptiles as well as by men, It may not be 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTKAIIOXS. 211 
 
 flattering to the officious mother of a little family of children 
 to tell her that those exertions of hers, for which she expects so 
 much applause, are very analogous to the efforts which a re- 
 spectable reptile will put forth on behalf of its progeny ; but 
 such is the fact. Fol" Mr. Wood tells us that some species of 
 reptiles are very jealous about even their eggs. They keep a 
 strict watch over them ; and several of the larger serpents have 
 a curious fashion of placing the eggs in a heap, and then coil- 
 ing themselves around them in a great hollow cone, in order 
 the better to protect them from possible harm.:i If they do not 
 use a perambulator for them, it is obviously because that is un- 
 suitable, and not from want of interest. il. 
 
 Man, The " Climbing." — We have all met with the man 
 who can never do things as other men do them ; who, on the 
 ordinary levels of daily hfe, never seems capable of standing 
 or advancing. His mind is ready enough in moving in the 
 masses of complicated speculations, and twisting and turning 
 in labyrinthian schemes whose tortuous windings he cannot see 
 the end of. But directly the plain, the straightforward, the firm 
 path of every-day life is under him, he staggers as if quite out 
 of his element. So he is. Though a member of the human 
 family. Nature has created him with, a peculiarity which makes 
 him a " climbing " man, and not one of those who walk up- 
 rightly. He has his representative among the sloths. The 
 tliree-toed sloth is the only mammal which can neither walk 
 nor stand. He is desperately slow in his motions, but still 
 when he is above, in the winding branches of the trees, he does 
 climb about with some aptitude. On the plain he is helpless ; 
 and even in his climbing he is not of much service. Strange 
 that those who can climb so very high cannot walk on a plain 
 road for bread and cheese. Strange that " chmbing " men pos- 
 sess every sense but common sense, f i. 
 
 Man, Tlie Vain. — The vain man is like the peacock. But 
 his vanity is offensive, while that of the peacock is amusing. 
 Should a word of praise reach the peacock's ear or the hen 
 show herself in his neighborhood, in a moment the flowery 
 
212 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 wheel is unfolded, he stretches his ghttering neck and utters a 
 displeasing, cathke cry; while, on the other hand, he retires 
 from the sight of the indifferent observer, and in the molting 
 season, when he has no fine feathers to show, he withdraws into 
 solitude.4' His flight is a mere fluttering that raises him very 
 little above the ground ; yet he hkes to perch on a neighboring 
 roof-ladder, or some other lofty spot, in order to show himself 
 to advantage and be admired. O little Tom Grandsnob, see 
 yourself in this picture ! ST. 
 
 Man a Worse Animal than he was Intended to be — 
 Some creatures are unquestionably used as scourges ; but per- 
 haps the less we mortals say about such animated pests the 
 "better. They act up to their own organization, but never be- 
 yond ; while it is far otherwise with mankind. The serpent 
 employs its poisoned fangs to procure food or avert peril, real 
 or fancied ; the jaguar uses its terrible incisors in the destruc- 
 tion of its prey ; and the shark avails itself of its dental appa- 
 ratus to assuage its appetite. But man, says Hugh Miller, must 
 surely have become an immensely worse animal than his teeth 
 show him to have been designed for ; his teeth give no evi- 
 dence regarding his real character. Of our racks and thumb- 
 screws, our inquisitions and oubliettes, oui" noyades at Nantes and 
 our mitraillades at Lyons and Toulon, there is no prophetic in- 
 timation in our dentology. c. b. 
 
 Mankind, The Supersedure of During the primitive 
 
 epoch the mineral kingdom existed alone. The rocks, silent 
 and solitary, were all that was yet formed of the burning earth. 
 During the transition epoch, the vegetable kingdom, newly cre- 
 ated, extended itself over the whole globe, which it soon cov- 
 ered from one pole to the other with an uninterrupted mass of 
 verdure. During the secondary and tertiary epochs, the vege- 
 table and the animal kingdom di\-ided the earth between them. 
 In the quaternary epoch the human kingdom appeared. Is 
 it in the future destinies of our planet to receive yet another 
 lord ? And after the four kingdoms which now occupy it, is 
 there to be a new kingdom created, the attributes of which 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTKATIOyS. 213 
 
 will ever be a mystery to us, but which will dififer from man in 
 as great a. degree as man differs from animals and plants from 
 rocks 1 i- w. 
 
 Man's Superiority Due to Intellect. — Too much stress 
 has been laid upon the proud upright position of man, and a 
 great deal has been said and written concerning the sublime 
 aspect of his countenance and the godlike dignity of his car- 
 riage. A moment's consideration will be sufficient to show that 
 though he looks upward with ease ajid facility, he cannot, in 
 this respect, claim anj^ superiority. The/ eagle which gazes on 
 the sun with undazzled eye, and makes his pathway among the 
 clouds, yields not in dignity of appearance or power of locomo- 
 tion to man, who merely walks upon the ground. Can man 
 measure his beauty with the antelope, his speed with the horse, 
 or his strength with the elephant? It is in virtue of his intellect, 
 of his reason, and not of his bodily form, that he ranks above -fie- ou'"!'!'!-- 
 his fellows. It was in mind, ri'ot in body, that " God made 
 man in His own image." s. 
 
 Man's Deportment, A Strong — A really capable man is 
 always considerate of those about him. He does not with 
 fussy haste push people in all directions, regardless of injuries, 
 as does the weak ambitious man. He does not, like a serpent, 
 sting those who oppose him ; nor does he snarl at them like a 
 dog. He calmly moves them out of his path. In the exhibi- 
 tion of his power, and in his regard for others, his march resem- 
 bles that of a noble elephant. As the elephant is conscious of 
 its own strength, it takes every precaution so that its heavy 
 mass may not harm creatures that are weaker than itself. If 
 it passes through a crowd, it opens a passage for itself with its 
 trunk, and gently pressing forward its fore limbs, advances in 
 such a manner as to hurt no one. J^ m. 
 
 Marauder, Plan for Punishing a. — The long-eared owl 
 ( Otus vulgaris) is strictly nocturnal and at night is active in 
 search of its prey, which among other things consists of small 
 birds. These it is said to capture by snatching them from their 
 roosting-places. However this may be, the finches, warblers, 
 
214 DICTIONARY OI' 
 
 and other small birds seem to regard the owl in the light of an 
 enemy, and show the greatest animosity toward him whenever 
 they have an opportunity for such a display of their feelings.-^ 
 If he should by chance prolong his predatory excursions so as 
 to be surprised by the light of day when still at a distance from 
 his favorite haunts, and thus be compelled to take refuge in 
 some such imperfect shelter as a hedge or bush affords, the dis- 
 covery, almost certain to take place, of the unfortunate sleeper 
 in his temporary lodging is the signal for a simultaneous rising 
 among all the small birds in the neighborhood, who flock to 
 the place and raise such a commotion as rarely fails to cause 
 the owl to_ change his quarters ; and should he be at such a 
 distance from the thick woods and plantations as to render his 
 reaching them very difficult, or even impossible, while his 
 senses are dimmed by the unwonted glare, the disturbance will 
 sometimes last until the shades of evening put a stop to it by 
 dismissing the little persecutors to their roosting-places. Com- 
 munities of men who suffer from the proceedings of human 
 marauders act upon much the same principle. They catch 
 their royal rogue at a disadvantage and then avenge them- 
 selves. MU. 
 
 Marksman, A Good. — The Chmtodon rostratus, which fre- 
 quents the shores and mouths of rivers in India, feeds princi- 
 pally on flies and other small winged insects that hover over 
 the waters. When it sees a fly at a distance on anv of the 
 plants in the shallow water, it approaches very slowh*, and witli 
 the utmost caution, coming as much as possible perpendicularlv 
 imder the object. Then putting its body in an obhque direc- 
 tion, with the mouth and eyes near the surface, it remains for 
 a moment immovable. Having fixed its eyes directly on the 
 insect, it shoots at it a drop of water from its tubular snout, 
 but without showing its mouth abo\-e the surface, from whence 
 only the drop seems to rise. This is done with so much dex- 
 terity, that though at the distance of four, five, or six feet, it 
 seldom fails to bring the fl^- into the water. p. 
 
 Master Minds.— The banian, or sacred fig of India, ac- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 215 
 
 quires a prodigious size, not by the enlargement of its indi- 
 vidual trunk, but by the multiplication of its trunks in a pecu- 
 liar manner of growth. As its horizontal limbs spread on all 
 sides, shoots descend from them to the earth, in which they 
 root, and become so many secondary stems, extending their 
 own lateral branches, which in turn send down fresh rooting 
 shoots, thus ever widening the area of this wondrous forest, 
 composed of a single organic life. In the forest of humanity 
 there are master minds who compare with ordinary minds as 
 the banian compares with ordinary trees, /^^l^y occupy vast 
 space in the intellectual world, because they create and sustain, 
 upon a grand scale, other kindred, minds, who themselves take 
 new roots and expand and grow in all directions, and yet con- 
 tinue one with the great parent mind. There is no room for 
 base fungi where they flourish. Carlyle and Emerson are speci- 
 mens of this order of mind. Their influence has extended far 
 across the plains of human thought, and produced spiritual fruit 
 for the healing of the nations. RO. 
 
 Matrimonial Life, Types of. — There are some husbands 
 and wives whose conduct to each other depends entirely upon 
 surrounding circumstances. When there is plenty of money at 
 the bank, and prosperity is shining upon the homestead, their 
 affinity and love for each other is intense. But in the gloom 
 of adversity, and under somber influences, they have no mutual 
 attraction whatsoever, and their affections are kept in isolation. 
 This type of the matrimonial life may be called the chlorin- 
 hydrogen type. Chlorin and hydrogen are gases having a 
 powerful affinity for each other — that is to say, they will unite 
 when brought together in the daylight ; but if we change the 
 conditions, if we bring them together in the dark, their affinity 
 is never manifested ; and thus, while in the sunlight they rush 
 together with even explosive force, they will remain quiescent 
 in the darkness, and there for all eternity would form no com- 
 bination whatever. ph. 
 
 Matter is Indestructible. — When a candle burns in the air 
 a chemical change is going on ; and although the candle dis- 
 
2l6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 appears, the materials of which it is made up are not destroyed 
 or lost ; they simply pass into a state in which they are invisi- 
 ble to our eyes, but their presence may be ascertained by other 
 means. Thus, if we burn a candle for a few minutes in a clean 
 bottle filled with air, and afterward pour in some clear hme- 
 water, we shall notice that the liquid, which remains clear in 
 pure air, becomes at oiice milky, showing the presence of an 
 invisible gaseous body produced by the burning of the candle, 
 which possesses properties different from those of pure air. ' 
 Although an apparent loss of matter occurs when a candle 
 burns, it is easy to show by a simple experiment not only that 
 this is not the case, but that, on the contrary, an increase of 
 weight has occurred ; this increase is occasioned by the con- 
 stituent parts of the tallow or wax having united chemically 
 with an in^'isible gas (called oxygen) present in the air. By 
 the careful examination of all the known cases of chemical 
 action it has been satisfactorily proved that a loss of matter 
 never takes place, that flatter is indestructible, and that in 
 chemical actions such as that going on in the burning of the 
 candle a change of state and not an annihilation of matter 
 occurs. The truth of this first great principle in chemical sci- 
 ence has been gradually demonstrated by finding that the 
 weight of the substances acting chemically upon one another al- 
 ways remains the same after as before the chemical changes 
 have occurred. les. 
 
 Matter, The Circulation of. — Few things appear more 
 incomprehensible than the production and reabsorption of mat- 
 ter. An animal falls to the ground and dies ; myriads of crea- 
 tures are now summoned by a call, by an impulse of which we 
 have no perception, to remove it, and prepare it for a new com- 
 bination ; chemical agencies, fermentation and solution, immedi- 
 ately commence their actions, to separate the parts ; and in a 
 short time, of all this great body nothing remains but the frame- 
 work or bones, perhaps a httle hair or some wool4^-all the rest 
 is departed we know not whither. Worms and/ihsects have 
 done their parts ; the earth has received a portion ; and the rest. 
 
SCIEXriFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 1^1 
 
 converted into gases and exhalable matters, has dispersed all 
 over the region, which, received into ^•egetable circulation, is 
 again separated and changed, becomes modified anew, and 
 nourishes that which is to continue the future generations of 
 life. The petal of the rose, the pulp of the peach, the azure 
 and the gold on the wing of the insect, all the various produc- 
 tions of the animal and vegetable world, the very salts and com- 
 pounds of the soil, are but the changes some other matters have 
 undergone which have circulated through innumerable channels 
 since the first production of all things, and no particle been 
 lost. J. 
 
 Matter, The Transmigrations of. — The mountain rock, 
 exposed to the disintegrating effects of the weather, loses that 
 peculiar chemical or cohesive life which keeps it from changing 
 or decaying, and crumbles into dust, in which state it is borne 
 down by the storm on the stream to the plain. The soil thus 
 formed is taken up by the roots of plants, and eliminated into 
 the various parts of their structure. These plants die, and form 
 by their decomposing remains a rich and fertile mold. Down 
 into this stratum of decay and death the grass strikes its roots, 
 and forms the support of those animals which man rears exclu- 
 sively for food. The particles thus organized become endowed 
 with the highest vitality, and are associated with the immortal 
 spirit in the closest and most intimate relationship, so that what 
 is now bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh may have once 
 formed part of a granite rock protruding far up among the 
 clouds on some distant mountain peak. J b. 
 
 Matter, The Extreme Divisibility of. — Divisibihty is the 
 property in \'irtue of which a body may be divided into distinct 
 parts : and \-ery wonderful are its results. Numerous examples 
 may be cited of the extreme divisibility of matter. The tenth 
 part of a grain of musk will continue for years to fill a room 
 with its odoriferous particles, and at the end of that time will 
 scarcely be diminished in weight. Blood is composed of red 
 flattened globules floating in a colorless hquid called serum. 
 In man the diameter of one of these globules is less than the 
 
2i8 DJCrJONARV OF 
 
 thirty-five-hundredth part of an inch, and the drop of blood 
 which might be suspended from the point of a needle would 
 contain about a million of globules. Again, the microscope has 
 disclosed to us the existence of insects smaller even than these 
 particles of blood ; the struggle for existence reaches even to 
 these little creatures, for they devour still smaller ones. If 
 blood runs in the \tm& of these devoured ones, how infinites- 
 imal must be the magnitude of its component globules ! el. 
 
 Meddlers, A Caution to Domestic. — Some people do not 
 understand how to cooperate for public ends without interfer- 
 ing with the privacy of domestic life. The seals teach a good 
 lesson in this respect. They can work together at proper times ; 
 but they honor the sanctity of home. They live sociably, and 
 in great numbers frequent the same localities. Although in the 
 sea these animals cooperate in numerous herds, and protect and 
 valiantly defend each other, once emerged from their favorite 
 element they regard themselves on their peculiar rock as in a 
 sacred domicile, where no comrade has a right to intrude upon 
 their domestic tranquillity. If one of them approach this fam- 
 ily center, the chief — or, shall we say, the father? — prepares to 
 expel by force what he considers a foreign aggression ; and 
 there invariably takes place a terrible combat, which only ends 
 in the death of the lord of the, rock, or in the compulsory re- 
 treat of the indiscreet stranger. T. This proceeding is well worth 
 the attention of every busybody. It is full of sense, and shows 
 a discrimination between public cooperation for the comrnon 
 good, and officious interference in private life, which would do 
 credit to even human beings. my. 
 
 Meddlers, A Hint to — If a bee-master is to succeed, he 
 must be very careful not to meddle much with his bees. Bees, 
 hke most other corporate bodies, have a great horror of inter- 
 ference from outside, and always like to work their own reforms 
 without the assistance of commissions from other quarters, and 
 think that their own sovereign is quite capable of governing 
 them without seeking the help of other powers. To meddle 
 unnecessarily with them is to prevent their proper working. 
 
 B. W. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTliATIONS. 219 
 
 Memory's Mode of Appropriation. — Understanding is 
 not essential to memory ; the memory of many things not under- 
 stood may be vital within us. For the fact is that memory often 
 grips and appropriates quite mechanically. The magpie appro- 
 priates the silver spoon, carries off the gold pencil, and num- 
 bers of other articles, without knowing what they are or what 
 to do with them, and stores them carefully away. Like the 
 magpie, the memory is a cleptomaniac. It cannot restrain 
 itself from snatching at and stealing away all sorts of things. 
 Hence the importance of keeping away from thoughts and 
 scenes which it is undesirable for memory to accumulate. The 
 magpie does not turn his medley of stores to much account. 
 The memory does. It is constantly meddling with them, and 
 they are all turned to either a good or evil purpose.// And tKey 
 endure forever. • G. s. 
 
 Mental Lights. — Aldebaran was once the grandest star of 
 the firmament, and Sirius had a companion-star once the bright- 
 est in heaven, and now one of the feeblest. Because they are 
 now dim to us, are we to conclude that they are going out and 
 becoming' naught ? r The stars, says Mr. E. S. Dallas, are over- 
 head, though in the blaze of day they are unseen ; they are 
 not only overhead, but also all their influences are unchanged. 
 So there is knowledge active within us of which we see noth- 
 ing, know nothing, think nothing. Thus in the sequence of 
 thought, the mind, busied with the first link in a chain of ideas, 
 may dart to the third or the fourth, the intermediate links being 
 utterly unknown to it. But they are there, and there in force. 
 
 G. s. 
 
 Mental Fertilizers of Society, The. — Mountains act as 
 lodestones to the clouds, and draw down from them the ferti- 
 lizing rain. A mountain range often determines whether a coun- 
 try is to be a garden or a desert, and points out the place where 
 the rain-bearing winds are to yield up their treasures. Moun- 
 tains drink the waters of the rain of heaven. They are the 
 great watersheds of the earth. On their tops the river systems 
 of the world are born, and the tiny rills thence first started on 
 their way soon coalesce into streams, and then into rivers, to be 
 
2 20 DICTlbNARY OF 
 
 poured back eventually, into the sea. They are the dispensers 
 of fertility. In the world of mind there are souls which rise 
 above the common plains of human thought as those mountains 
 ascend above the levels of the land. They tower upward into 
 the heavens of genius. They commune with truth. They send 
 down its refreshing influences to the arid wastes of common- 
 place, and make the intellectual desert blossom like the rose. 
 They are the mental fertilizers of society, it. be. 
 
 Mercenary Spirit, The — The mercenary spirit among men 
 is hke the heron among the birds. Now look at the heron and 
 you will see the resemblance at once. Of all other birds he 
 commits the greatest devastation in fresh waters ; and there is 
 scarcely a fish, though never so large, that he will not strike at 
 and wound, though unable to carry it away. But the smaller 
 fry are his chief subsistence ; these, pursued by their larger fel- 
 lows of the deep, are obliged to take refuge in shallow waters, 
 where they find the heron a still more formidable enemy J? His 
 method is to wade as far as he can into the water, and there 
 patiently wait the approach of his prey, which when it comes 
 within sight, he darts upon with inevitable aim. In this man- 
 ner he is found to destroy more in a week than an otter in three 
 months. In general he is seen taking his gloomy stand by the 
 lakeside, as if meditating mischief, motionless, and gorged with 
 plunder. But though in seasons of fine weather the heron can 
 always find a plentiful supply, in cold or stormy seasons his 
 prey is no longer within reach, and the heron is obliged to sup- 
 port himself upon his long habits of patience, and even to take 
 up the weeds that grow upon the water. At those times he 
 contracts a consumptive disposition, which succeeding plenty 
 is not able to remove. Hence, notwithstanding the care with 
 which he takes his prey and the amazing quantity he devours, 
 the heron is always lean and emaciated. And though his crop 
 be usually found full, yet his flesh is scarcely sufficient to cover 
 the bones. Thus he is like the man of mercenary spirit. The 
 mercenary man is active, daring, diligent, patient, cruel, and 
 voracious, and he, also, is unhappy. He wants more than is 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 22 1 
 
 good for him, and consumes more than he can turn to useful 
 account. If he gains the whole world, he is lean and hungry 
 still. He works for flesh, obtains it, and yet is slceletonic and 
 solitary. When a number of these, in the form of Israelites, 
 craved for flesh. Heaven gave it them, but even then leanness 
 was sent into their souls. a. 
 
 Metamorphosis a Law. — A most curious and most impor- 
 tant field of microscopic inquiry has been opened up in the 
 study of the transformations which a large proportion of the 
 lower animals undergo during the early stages of their exis- 
 tence ; and notwithstanding that it has even yet been very im- 
 perfectly cultivated, the unexpected result has been already 
 attained, that the fact of " metamorphosis," previously known 
 only in the cases of insects and tadpoles, and commonly con- 
 sidered as an altogether exceptional phenomenon, is almost uni- 
 versal among the inferior tribes ; it being a rare occuiTence for 
 the offspring to come forth from the egg in a condition bearing 
 any resemblance to that which characterizes the adult, and tlie 
 latter being in general attained only after a long series of trans- 
 formations in the course of which many curious changes are 
 presented. There is no monotony in Nature. " Pass on," is 
 ever the command. mi. 
 
 Mien is Independent of Occupation. — There is a very 
 large tribe of beetles of which the British type is the common 
 dor-beetle. Its color is wondrously beautiful, and its polished 
 surface gleams as if made of burnished steel, pure and bright as 
 armor just out of the smith's hands. Yet this creature has 
 been burrowing deeply into the ground, has been meddling with 
 the most noxious substances, a'nd still retains no trace of its 
 past labors. Not a speck of mold remains upon its surface, 
 not a stain defiles its hmbs, neither does it retain the least odor 
 which would betray its occupation. It serves to remind us that 
 a mqn's mien need not be repulsi\'e, merely by reason of the 
 fact that his occupation is offensive. -VrHe has within himself a 
 power to make his individuality superior to his surroundings. 
 His demeanor and his character may both be beautiful even 
 
22 2 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 though he has to do rough work. Indeed we have known 
 quarry men, colliers, and iron- workers who in point of manners 
 and culture would compare most favorably with men in cities 
 who had never done anything but clean-looking work. Real 
 manhood always stands out in attractive forms whatever may 
 be its honest occupation. The beetle turns unpleasant sub- 
 stances into a beautiful appearance, and man creates a brilliant 
 character out of harsh elements. h. 
 
 Mind, The Supremacy of. — From a general study of four- 
 handed animals, we perceive what few advantages the brute 
 creation derive from those organs that in man are employed to 
 so many great and useful purposes. The being able to pluck 
 their food from the trees, the capacity of clinging among the 
 branches, and at most of converting one of those branches into 
 a weapon of defense, are the highest stretches of their sagacity, 
 and the only use their hands have hitherto been employed in ; 
 and yet some superficial men have asserted that the hands 
 alone are sufficient to vindicate the dominion of mankind over 
 other animals, and that much of his boasted reason is nothing 
 more than the result of his happier conformation. However, 
 were this so, an ape or a monkey would in some instances be 
 more rational than we ; their fingers are smaller, and in some 
 of them more finely formed than ours. To what a variety of 
 purposes might they not be employed if their powers were 
 properly exerted ? Those works which we, from the largeness 
 of our fingers, are obliged to go clumsily about, one of these 
 could very easily perform with the utmost exactness; and if 
 the fineness of the hand assisted reason, an ape would be one 
 of the most reasonable beings in the creation. But .these admi- 
 rably formed machines are almost useless both to mankind and 
 themselves, and contribute litde more to the happiness of ani- 
 mal life than the paws of the lowest quadruped. They are 
 supplied indeed with the organs, but they want the mind to 
 put them into action : it is that reasoning principle alone, with 
 which man has been endowed, that can adopt seemingly oppo- 
 site causes to concur in the same general design, and even 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 223 
 
 where the organs are deficient, that can supply their place by 
 the intervention of assisting instruments. Where reason pre- 
 vails, we find that it scarcely matters what the organs are that 
 give it, direction ; the being furnished with that principle still 
 goes forward, steadily and uniformly successful, breaks through 
 every obstacle, and becomes master of every enterprise. We 
 have seen a man without hands or legs convert by practice his 
 very stumps to the most convenient purposes, and with these 
 clumsy instruments perform the most astonishing feats of dex- 
 terity. We may therefore conclude that it is the mind alone 
 that gives a master to the creation ; and that if a bear or a 
 horse were endowed with the same intellects that have been 
 given to a man, the hardness of a hoof, or the awkwardness of 
 a paw, would be no obstacle to their advancement in the arts 
 of dominion or of social felicity. a. 
 
 Mind the Seat of Sensations. — So indissoluble is the con- 
 nection of sensation with some distant spot on the surface, that 
 after an arm or a leg has been amputated the patient constantly 
 feels sensation in the lost fingers and toes. In vain, says Mr. 
 G. H. Lewes, experience contradicts the sensation ; in vain he 
 sees that his fingers and toes are not there to feel ; he feels them 
 as distinctly as ever he felt them when they were parts of his 
 living body. Na)^, so urgent is this conviction at times, that 
 men have actually had the feet cut off because of the pain felt 
 there ; and the pain still continuing after the feet were removed, 
 they have had the leg removed from the knee ; this not succeed- 
 ing, they have had the hip-joint removed. Here the seat of 
 injury was not in the foot, but the sensation was referred to 
 the foot. Long after we have learned to refer all sensations 
 to the surface we have but an indistinct conception of the exact 
 spot on that surface where the impression is made ; and through- 
 out life we are totally unable to refer with any accuracy to the 
 particular portions of the viscera, back, neck, and legs, which 
 are affected, whereas the hands, feet, tongue, and face admit of 
 marvelous nicety in this respect. • ph. 
 
 Mind, The Function of. — Lakes receive water from van-. 
 
2 24 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 ous sources, and some of the rivers which enter them are tur- 
 bid and muddy. Yet the water which flows out from a lake is 
 limpid and clear as crystal. The reason of this is that the lake 
 precipitates all the sand and mud, and setties it down in deposi- 
 tions of silt. Only water which is bright and pure is sent forth.;^ 
 Now the human mind resembles the lake in that the informa- 
 tion which it receives comes to it, hke streams, from all sorts 
 of sources, pure and impure. Like the lake, it can arrest the 
 further circulation of whatever is bad and base. It can filter 
 everything which passes through it. It can insist that any 
 stream of influence which issues from it shall be pure and good, 
 and free from all that is of the earth, earthy. ad. 
 
 Mind Requires a Healthy Atmosphere, The Vigorous. 
 — A weak enervated mind may live in a sickly atmosphere of 
 cant or artificiality, which would be incompatible with the life 
 of a healthy mind. In this case, weakness and enervation, 
 paradoxical as it appears, are able to endure more than strength 
 and vigor^_W\ sparrow left in a bell-glass, to breathe over and 
 over again the same air, will live in it for upward of three 
 hours ; but at the close of the second hom", when there is con- 
 sequently still air of sufficient purity to permit this sparrow's 
 breathing it for more than an hour longer, if a fresh and vigorous 
 sparrow be introduced, such an one will, expire almost immedi- 
 ately. The air which would suffice for the respiration of the 
 one sparrow suffocates another.^ Nay more, if the sparrow be 
 taken from the glass at the close of the third hour when very 
 feeble, be restored to activity and to sufficient vigor to fly about 
 again, and then once more in its now healthy state introduced 
 into the atmosphere from which it was taken, it will perish im- 
 mediately. The poisonous action of a A-itiated air is better 
 resisted by the feeble sickly organism than by the vigorous 
 healthy organism. ph. 
 
 Mind in an Atom, A. — The mind does not demand a vast 
 theater as the scene of its operations. Its essential glory is not 
 bound up with vast mechanical mo\-ements, but is revealed by 
 the quality of acts. What is more interesting than an examina- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 225 
 
 tion, by means of a first-rate microscope, of a tiny atom that 
 inhabits almost every clear ditch — the Melicerta ? The small- 
 est point which you could make with the finest steel pen would 
 be too coarse and large to represent its natural dimensions ; yet 
 it inhabits a snug little house of its own construction, which it 
 has built up stone by stone, cementing each with perfect sym- 
 metry, and with all the skill of an accomplished mason, as it 
 proceeded. It collects the material for its mortar, and mingles 
 it ; it collects the material for its bricks, and molds them ; and 
 this with precision only equaled by the skill with which it lays 
 them when they are made. As might be supposed with such 
 duties to perform, the little animal i» furnished with an appa- 
 ratus quite unique, a set of machinery to which, if we searched 
 through the whole range of beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes, 
 and then by way of supplement examined the five hundred 
 thousand species of insects to boot, we should find no parallel. 
 The whole apparatus is exquisitely beautiful. The head of 
 the pellucid and colorless animal unfolds into a broad transpa- 
 rent disk, the edge of which is molded into four rounded seg- 
 ments, not unlike the flower of the heart's-ease, supposing the 
 fifth petal to be obsolete. The entire margin of this flowerlike 
 disk is set with fine vibratile cilia : the current produced runs 
 uniformly in one direction. Thus there is a strong and rapid 
 set of water round the edge of the disk, following all its irregu- 
 larities of outline, and carrying with it the floating particles of 
 matter, which are drawn into the stream. At every circumvo- 
 lution of this current, however, as its particles arrive in succes- 
 sion at one particular point, viz., the great depression between 
 the two uppermost petals, a portion of these escape from the 
 revolving direction, and pass off in a line along the summit of 
 the face toward the front, till they merge in a curious little cup- 
 shaped cavity seated on what we may call the chin. This tiny 
 cup is the mold in which the bricks are made one by one as 
 they are wanted for use. The hemispherical interior is ciliated, 
 and hence the contents are maintained in rapid rotation. These 
 contents are the atoms of sedimentary and similar matter which 
 
2 26 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 have been gradually accumulated in the progress of the ciliary 
 current ; and these, by the rotation within the cup becoming 
 consohdated, probably also with the aid of a viscid secretion 
 elaborated for the purpose, form a globular pellet, which as soon 
 as made is deposited, by a sudden inflection of the animal, on 
 the edge of the tube or case at the exact spot where it is wanted. 
 The entire process of making and depositing a pellet occupies 
 about t'hree minutes. We say nothing about the other systems 
 of organs contained in this living atom — the arrangements des- 
 tined to subserve the purposes of digestion, circulation, respira- 
 tion, reproduction, locomotion, sensation, etc., though these are 
 all more or less clearly distinguishable in the tissues of the ani- 
 mal, which is as translucent as glass. " For the moment," says 
 Mr. Gosse, " I ask attention only to the elaborate conformation 
 of organs which I have briefly described, for the special pur- 
 pose of building a dwelling. No description that I could draw 
 up, however, could convey any idea approaching to that which 
 would be evoked by one good sight of the little creature actu- 
 ally at work — a most charming spectacle, and one which, from 
 the commonness of the animal, and the ready performance of 
 its functions under the microscope, is very easy to be attained." 
 It is impossible to witness the constructive operations of the 
 Melkerta without being convinced that it possesses mental 
 faculties, at least if we allow these to any animals below man. 
 If when the chimpanzee weaves together the branches of a 
 tree to make himself a bed ; when the beaver, in concert with 
 his fellows, gnaws down the birch saplings, and collects clay 
 to form a dam ; when the martin brings together pellets of 
 mud, and arranges them under our eaves into a hollow recep- 
 tacle for her eggs and young — we do not hesitate to recognize 
 mind— call it instinct, or reason, or a combination of both — 
 how can we fail to see that in the operations of the invisible 
 animalcule there are the workings of an immaterial principle ? 
 There must be a power to judge of the condition of its case, 
 of the height to which it must be carried, of the time when this 
 must be done ; a will to commence and to go on, a will to leave 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 227 
 
 off (for the ciliary current is entirely under control) ; a conscious- 
 ness of the readiness of the pellet ; an accurate estimate of the 
 spot where it needs to be deposited (may I not say also, a mem- 
 ory where the previous ones had been laid, since the deposition 
 does not go on in regular succession, but now and then, yet so as 
 to keep the edge tolerably uniform in height ?), and a will to 
 determine that there it shall be put. But surely these are men- 
 tal powers — -yet mind animating an atom so small that your 
 eyes strained to the utmost can only just discern the speck in 
 the most favorable circumstances, as when you hold the glass 
 which contains it between your eye and the hght, so that the 
 ray shall illuminate the tiny form while the background is dark 
 behind it! ro. 
 
 Minute, The Mighty in the. — The circulation of the 
 ocean, its phosphorescence, and the coloration of certain seas, 
 make known but imperfectly what can be accomplished by the 
 incalculable numbers, the prodigious fecundity, and the devour- 
 ing activity of the minute animals, scarcely perceptible individu- 
 ally, and of so elementary an organization, with which it teems. 
 Yet geology demonstrates that it was they which laid the foun- 
 dation of animal life in that immense cradle, that inexhaustible 
 nursery (as Maury calls it) ; it is they which maintain a never- 
 varying identity in the composition of its waters, absorbing and 
 elaborating the mineral and organic properties with which these 
 are incessantly loaded. There are some which serve as the 
 food of stronger and superior species, the mollusks and the 
 radiates ; these in their turn nourish the fish and crustaceans, 
 which are themselves devoured, either by far larger fishes or by 
 the cetaceans and amphibians. There are others — indefatigable 
 architects — which construct the fantastic edifices that from the 
 depths of ocean mount to its very surface, and spread afar, ram- 
 ify, and terminate in coral reef and islands. Others, finally, by 
 dying, have accumulated at certain points their silicious or cal- 
 careous wrecks, and formed numerous banks and shallows, and 
 entire beds of deposit, where the geologist to-day may study 
 these first-born of creation. my. 
 
2 28 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Minute, The Vast in the. — ^^'e discourse about the little 
 and the great; but these are relative terms. A thing which we 
 may call little a philosopher may declare contains in itself the 
 basis of all life and the germ of worlds. Take, for instance, 
 such an insignificant thing as the stinging-nettle which you are 
 about to tread beneath your feet. Professor Huxley will speak 
 with you about that nettle in a manner which will invest it with 
 astonishing interest forevermore. He commences by telling 
 you that that common nettle owes its stinging property to 
 the innumerable stiff and needlelike though exquisitely delicate 
 hairs which cover its surface ; that each stinging-needle tapers 
 from a broad base to a slender summit, which, though rounded 
 at the end, is of such microscopic fineness that it readily pene- 
 trates and breaks off in the skin. The whole hair, he says, con- 
 sists of a very delicate outer case of wood, closely applied to 
 the inner surface of which is a layer of semi-fluid matter, full 
 of innumerable granules of extreme minuteness. This semi- 
 fluid is protoplasm (the physical basis of life), which thus con- 
 stitutes a kind of bag full of a limpid liquid, and roughly cor- 
 responding in form with the interior of the hair which it fills. 
 When viewed with a sufficiently high magnifying power, the 
 protoplasmic layer of the nettle-hair is seen to be in a condi- 
 tion of unceasing activity. Local contractions of the whole 
 thickness of its substance pass slowly and gradually from point 
 to point, and give rise to the appearance of progressive wa\'es, 
 just as^the bending of successive stalks of corn by a breeze pro- 
 duces the apparent billows of a corn-field. But in addition to 
 these movements, and independently of them, the granules are 
 driven in relatively rapid streams through channels in the pro- 
 toplasm which seem to have a considerable amount of persis- 
 tence. Most commonly the currents in adjacent parts of the 
 protoplasm take similar directions, and thus there is a general 
 stream up one side of the hair and down the other. But this 
 does not prevent the existence of partial currents which take dif- 
 ferent routes ; and sometimes trains of granules mav be seen 
 coursing swiftly in opposite directions, within a twenty-thou- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 229 
 
 sandth of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, opposite 
 streams come into direct collision, and after a longer or shorter 
 struggle one predominates. The spectacle afforded by the won- 
 derful energies prisoned within the compass of the microscopic 
 hair of a plant, which we commonly regard as a merely passive 
 organism, is not easily forgotten by one who has watched its 
 display, continued hour after hour, without pause or sign of 
 weakening. Currents similar to those of the hairs of the nettle 
 have been observed in a great multitude of very different plants, 
 and weighty authorities have suggested that they probably 
 occur in more or less perfection in all young vegetable cells. If 
 such be the case, the wonderful noonday silence of a tropical 
 forest is, after all, due only to the dullness of our hearing ; and 
 could our ears catch the murmur of these tiny maelstroms as 
 they whirl in the innumerable myriads of living cells which 
 constitute each tree, we should be stunned as with the roar of a 
 great city. l. s. 
 
 Mistaken Identity — The yellow gum-tree of Western 
 Australia has been compared to a tall native black man with a 
 spear, and to those who have seen it the resemblance is com- 
 plete. The author of " Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australia " 
 says that he has even seen a fellow-traveler "cooing" to one 
 of these trees to make an inquiry. For this reason the trees are 
 often called " Blackboys.'' There have been in England cases 
 of mistaken identity quite as amusing. For instance, there has 
 sometimes been observed in a court of law a man dressed up in all 
 the habiliments of a judge, and sitting as a judge would be ex- 
 pected to sit. Counsel has been heard professionally " cooing " 
 to him, yet all the time the gentleman has been only a jester, 
 or an advocate, and no more a judge than the yellow gum-tree 
 was a black boy. The great Tichborne trial was a good illus- 
 tration of this kind of thing. The position in which a tree or 
 a man is placed, and outside appearances, often conspire to 
 produce an hallucination. G. 
 
 Moral Relapse. — The pansy only develops its beauty under 
 cultivation, and when neglected soon relapses into its native 
 
230 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 condition. There are men who keep conspicuously moral so 
 long as they are constantly cultivated by their minister, but 
 who relapse into their former httleness if his care is withdrawn. 
 Such men, like the pansies, give a deal of trouble. But if you 
 want to exhibit either them or the flower, you have no option 
 but to give them constant cultivation.-rl Whether the result, in 
 either case, is worth the trouble is another matter. b. f. 
 
 Moral Sentinels The Trigonocephalus, or lance-headed 
 
 viper, is a most poisonous reptile, common in the West Indian 
 Islands. To warn the natives in the Antilles of his presence, 
 Nature has supplied us with numerous watchful sentinels in the 
 small birds, whose not unreasonable hate against this serpent is 
 a remarkable proof of their intelligence. No sooner does the 
 bird, which they have wished to name the nightingale, see from 
 his aerial station the scales of the reptile gliding into the herb- 
 age, or glittering among the large leaves, than he can no longer 
 control himself. He flies to and fro ; he leaps from branch to 
 branch, summoning with a lamentable cry all the feathered tribe 
 from the neighboring trees.J^From far and near the cry widens 
 and is repeated ; from all directions flock nightingales and 
 thrushes, grosbeaks and humming-birds, and hovering above 
 the assassin furiously denounce it, and indicate its lurking-place 
 to man. Irritated by such a concert of maledictions, the ser- 
 pent elevates its crest, but lo ! they are far beyond its reach ! 
 And the cries, the murmurs, the insults are redoubled. It seeks 
 ■to conceal itself, but these cries persistently accompany it. 
 Wherever it drags its slimy, shining bulk, they follow, they 
 harass, and they denounce it. Either night comes on, or it 
 succeeds in completely hiding itself from their watchful gaze, 
 before they reluctantly leave it to its own devices. Great the 
 consternation if their enemy escape them. But what joy, what 
 triumphal sounds, if man appears upon the scene, and slays it ! 
 These birds resemble those moral sentinels in society, the 
 preachers, the teachers, and the philanthropists, who endeavor 
 by their activities and their voices to warn mankind against the 
 insidious movements of " that old serpent the devil." How en- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 231 
 
 ergetically do these good men perform their noble work ; how 
 wary and indefatigable are they in their labors ; and how exul- 
 tant are they if they can save men from being made victims ! 
 
 D. 
 
 Moral Ascendancy, The Advent of. — Contemplate our 
 planet as it must have been when inhabited by the monstrous 
 birds, and reptiles, and quadrupeds which preceded the advent 
 of man. Those were times when animated forms attained dimen- 
 sions which are now wholly exceptionable. That may be de- 
 scribed as the age when physical and physiological forces were 
 dominant, as the force of moral agency dominates over the pres- 
 ent, and is destined, as appearances tend to prove, to dominate 
 more fully hereafter. Can we not recognize an antagonism be- 
 tween the development of brute force and of the quality of mind ? 
 Would it not 'even seem that Nature could not at one and the 
 same time develop mental and corporeal giants ? The physio- 
 logical reign has only declined in order to prepare the advent of 
 moral ascendancy. Giant bodies seem departing from the earth, 
 and giant spirits commencing to rule. Humanity is progressive : 
 is not this progression made manifest by zoological revelations ? 
 The first bone-traces of human beings range back to an epoch 
 posterior to the monstrous quadrupeds entombed in the dilu- 
 vium. Hereafter giants pi'obably will only be seen in the moral 
 world, grosser corporeal giant forms having become extinct. 
 
 S. N. 
 
 Moral Truths, The Inextinguishableness of Nothing 
 
 can be more singular than the manner in which plants spring 
 up on certain occasions. Thus after the great fire of London 
 in 1666, a large portion of the devastated city was in a short 
 time covered with a luxuriant crop of the Sisymbrium Irio, in 
 such profusion that it was calculated that the whole of the rest 
 of Europe did not contain so many specimens of this plant. 
 Again, wherever a salt-spring breaks out at a distance from the 
 sea, its vicinity immediately abounds with salt-plants, although 
 none grew there before. >AVlien lakes are drained, a new vege- 
 tation springs up. Thus when some of those of the Danish 
 
232 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 island of Seeland were drained, Vilny observed Carex cype- 
 roides springing up, although that species is naturally not a 
 native of Denmark, but of the north of Germany. M'Kenzie, 
 in his North American tour, speaking of the country bordering 
 on the Slave Lake, says : " It is covered with large trees of 
 spruce-pine and white birch ; when these are destroyed poplars 
 succeed, though none were before to be seen." Evelyn notices 
 a fact very similar to this, which is observed in England, 
 in Nova Scotia, and in the United States, that where fires 
 have destroyed the original wood the new saplings which 
 spring up are generally different species of trees. All these phe- 
 nomena indicate the inextinguishableness of vegetable vitality ; 
 and on this point they may be employed to typify the inextin- 
 guishableness of moral truths in our world. No fires of insur- 
 rection, no deluges of persecution, no changes in the forms of 
 human society by kings, or priests, or mobs, have ever had the 
 effect of obhterating moral ideas. They are inextinguishable, 
 and spring up unaccountably in perennial beauty despite all 
 social conflagrations and convulsions. s. 
 
 Morality Affected by Weather We are played upon by 
 
 external influences. Vice may be developed by the breezes. 
 Atmospheric changes may affect even the human mind. For 
 example : the police of Buenos Ayres are well acquainted with 
 the fact that quarreling and bloodshed are much more frequent 
 when the wind blows from the north. 1^ Sir W^oodbine Parish 
 informs us, in his narrative of a visit to that place, that a sort 
 of moral derangement prevails while that wind continues. This 
 wind produces headache and disorder of faculty to a great ex- 
 tent, and, of course, leads to increase of crime with all classes 
 of persons who are accu.stomed readily to yield to their bodily 
 impulses. No' doubt the cause as regards Buenos Ayres arises 
 from some malaria engendered in the marshes over which the 
 wind passes. That the cause is chemical is proved by its effects 
 on meat, which soon becomes putrid when exposed to it. The 
 milk also is quickly spoiled, and the bread baked during its con- 
 tinuance is always bad. U. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 233 
 
 Morality, The Relation of Food to. — The eating by man 
 of bad food, or of good food which is badly assimilated, will 
 account for much of the misery and many of the crimes of the 
 world. Some of the barbarous theology of mankind may be 
 traced to indigestion. The want of food has often supplied 
 the motive for wars and riots. That fasting, even when under 
 the supposed authority of religion, kindles the murderous pas- 
 sions in those who are not habituated to self-control and the 
 devotedness of holy motives, is largely exemplified by the in- 
 formation of those who have traveled in superstitious countries. 
 Thus the author of " Eothen,'' who is evidently well informed, 
 states that the fasts of the Greek Church produce an ill effect 
 upon the character of the people, for they are carried to such 
 an extent as to bring on febrile irritation with depression of 
 spirits, and a fierce desire for the perpetration of dark crimes. 
 Hence the number of murders is greater during Lent than at 
 any other time of the year. u. 
 
 Multum in Parvo. — When we look on the tiny harvest- 
 mouse, two of which scarcely weigh a quarter of a dollar, and 
 which brings up its large little family of eight hopeful mouselings 
 in a nest no bigger than a cricket-ball, or the still tinier Etruscan 
 shrew, it greatly enhances our interest to know that every essen- 
 tial organ is there which is in the giant rorqual of a hundred 
 feet. The humming-bird is constructed exactly on the same 
 model as to essentials as the condor ; the little sphasrodactyle, 
 which we might put in a quill-barrel and carry home in the 
 waistcoat-pocket, as the mighty crocodile ; the mackerel-midge, 
 which never surpasses an inch and a quarter in length, as the 
 huge basking shark of six and thirty feet. ro. 
 
 Murderous though Beautiful.^ — Beautiful, innocent-look- 
 ing creatures are sometimes deadly in their influence. The 
 Liuilia hominivorax is rather more than the third of an inch 
 in length; the, head is large, downy, and of a golden yellow. 
 The thorax is dark blue and very brilhant, with gay reflections 
 of purple. The wings are transparent, yet prettily tinged ; their 
 margins as well as the feet are black. This innocent-looking 
 
234 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 insect is very beautiful, yet it is an assassin. M. Coquerel has 
 informed us that it sometimes occasions the death of those 
 wretched convicts who have been transported to the distant 
 penitentiary of Cayenne. When this fly gets into the mouth 
 or nostrils it lays its eggs there, and when they are changed into 
 larvae, the death of the victim generally follows. The larvae 
 are lodged in the interior of the nasal orifices and the frontal 
 sinuses, and their mouths are armed with two very sharp man- 
 dibles. They have been known to reach the ball of the eye, 
 and to gangrene the eyelids. They enter the mouth, corrode 
 and devour the gums and the entrance of the throat, so as to 
 transform those parts into a mass of putrid flesh, a heap of 
 corruption. What an emblem are these of the pleasures which, 
 in an unsuspicious form, are apt to fasten themselves upon man 
 ■ — beautiful in appearance, yet ruinous in result ! i. 
 
 Muscular System, Influence of Modulated Sound upon 
 the. — Travelers inform us that the Arabs are in the habit of 
 teaching goats to stand with their feet close together on the 
 top of several little blocks of wood. The manner in which 
 they accomplish this feat beautifully illustrates the influence of 
 modulated sound on the muscular system, as it appears that, 
 however long the goats may have been used to this exhibition, 
 they succeed only during the playing of a tune. If there be 
 any alteration in the movement or time the goat begins instantly 
 to totter, and the moment the music closes the goat falls. A 
 similar effect is felt by dancers on the tight-rope.] This resem- 
 bles what is felt by vain statesmen when the miisic of flattery 
 ceases. u. 
 
 Music a Natural Inspiration. — The song of the birds must 
 be the expression of some sentiment ; they surely sing as much 
 for their own pleasure as to charm those who listen to them. 
 When they fill the woods with their melodious accents, they 
 direct their looks on all sides, as if proud of their talents, and 
 desirous of gathering the tribute of admiration to which they 
 feel themselves entitled. Their song varies with the season ; 
 but it is in the early spring their efiEorts are the most successful 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 235 
 
 and we are njost disposed to admire the beauty and harmony of 
 their voicesJ^Can anything be more delicious than the warbling 
 of the linnet, the piping of the goldfinch, slowly swelling from 
 die leafy bower, or the melodious cadence of the nightingale as 
 it breaks the silence of the woodland during the serene nights 
 of leafy June ? re. 
 
 Musical Taste, Caprices of. — Moufet relates that in cer- 
 tain regions of Africa the crickets [Gryllus) are objects of com- 
 merce. They are brought up in little cages, as we do canary- 
 birds, and sold to the inhabitants, who like to hear their amo- 
 rous chant. This song lulls them to sleep. It would be quite 
 irritating to the ears of persons trained to more melodious 
 sounds. But there is no absolute standard of music in the 
 world. That which some persons consider melody others 
 would deem discord. > There are caprices of musical taste 
 which enable people to enjoy the chirping of crickets and the 
 piano and song of the conventional boarding-school young lady. 
 
 I. 
 
 Mutual Cooperation. — The animal inhabitant of the Finna 
 marina is a blind slug surrounded with numerous enemies, and 
 particularly obnoxious to the Sepia., or cuttlefish, who watches 
 the motion of the pinna, and no sooner does the latter open his 
 bivalve shell, which occasionally exceeds two feet in length, than 
 he rushes upon him like a lion. It will naturally be asked how 
 such a blind, defenseless creature can either procure food or 
 protect himself from the attack of his implacable enemies. A 
 kind of crab-fish, naked like the hermit, and very quick-sighted, 
 is. the constant companion of the Pinna marina. They live and 
 lodge together in the shell which belongs to the latter. When 
 the pinna has occasion to eat, he opens his valves, and sends 
 out his faithful purveyor to procure food. If any foe ap- 
 proaches, the watchful crab returns with the utmost speed and 
 anxiety to his blind protector, who, being thus warned of dan- 
 ger, shuts his valves, and escapes the rage of the enemy ; when, 
 on the contrary, the crab loads himself with booty, he makes a 
 gentle noise at the opening of the shell, which is closed during 
 
236 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 his absence, and when admitted the two friends feast together 
 on the fruits of hisriftdusfey:, ph. 
 
 Mutual Attraction, The Principle of The self-lumi- 
 nous stars which so thickly stud the heavens are probably but 
 the centers of numberless other systems, for it is placed beyond 
 dispute that there is no one mass of matter positively isolated, 
 but that all are alike influenced by extraneous bodies, subject 
 to the same unerring law. This law pervades the universe, and 
 is the principle of mutual attraction, by which these floating 
 worlds, acting and reacting on each other, are buoyed up for- 
 ever in the aerial ocean of space. mar. 
 
 Mystery, The Veil of. — The veil of mystery hides from 
 our gaze, not only our own future, but our very origin. It 
 envelops the whole problem of life. If we trace animal and 
 physical nature to their beginnings, we come to the borders of 
 a kingdom shrouded in mystery. We meet in the Protista 
 forms of organic life whose characteristics are so indefinite as 
 to make it impossible for us to decide whether the}r are vegeta- 
 bles or animals ; they are organisms without organs. If we 
 try to lift the veil of mystery from protoplasm, we can discover 
 nothing more than that it is a naked contractile mass of seem- 
 ingly homogeneous jelly, the substratum for all the life-move- 
 ments of the lowest living things. No one can detect any rigid 
 line which separates what we call life from that which we sup- 
 pose to have no hfe. The veil of mystery prevents our finding 
 any absolute barrier between the living and the not hving. We 
 know nothing of an absolute commencement of life. The veil 
 of mystery hides all the primordial collocations. However 
 much we may wish it, we cannot be present at the genesis of 
 life ; the veil is still there. The gradual transition from the 
 not hving to the living is ever hidden from our view by its 
 mysterious folds. b. l. 
 
 Name Adheres, Though Undeserved, a Bad. — Give a 
 man a bad name, and no one credits him with the many good 
 things he does. Give an animal a bad name, and people omit 
 to notice whether it be appropriate and just. The ass is al- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 237 
 
 ways esteemed as the stupidest of animals, yet if one be shut 
 up in the same inclosure with half a dozen horses of the finest 
 blood, and theyparrty^ escape, it is infallibly the poor donkey that 
 has led the way. It is he alone that penetrates the secret of 
 the bolt and latch'J5%nd he may be often seen snuffing over a 
 piece of work to which all other animals are incompetent, p. 
 
 Nastiness its own Defense. — The skunk, being slow of 
 motion, can be easily overtaken and captured ; but neither man 
 nor dogs care to go near it. It is comparatively safe from 
 them by reason of the filthy and noisome stench which it has 
 the power to discharge at pleasure, a stench which is supposed 
 to be one of the most powerful in Nature, and so durable that 
 it will remain for days.;^ It is so horrible as in some cases to 
 produce actual illness. And the creatiure has the power to eject 
 the irritant fluid which contains it to a distance upward of five 
 feet. We have seen men and women in society who have de- 
 served punishment for their offenses, but who have nevertheless 
 remained safe because, like the skunk, they were too nasty to 
 attack. The ordinary rules for the pvu'suit and chastisement 
 of wrong-doers did not apply to their case. Had they been 
 cleaner natures they might have been castigated according to 
 their deserts. Constituted as they were, even the dogs of the 
 law refused to follow their loathsome track, and all pure men 
 stood aloof from the work. Of such beings we may say that 
 they have been exceptionally safe because they were exception- 
 ally pestiferous. ' mu. 
 
 Nasty, The Conquests of the. — The burrowing owl, which 
 flies by day, derives its name from the place where it makes its 
 nest in the pampas of South America, or the prairies of North 
 America. It does not dig buiTows for itself, but simply takes 
 possession of those belonging to other animals after having 
 driven them away by its disgusting odor. This is its mode of 
 conquering a territory .t' There are some men who seem to push 
 their way in life by the power which they possess of making 
 themselves objectionable. They do not enjoy sufficient genius 
 to command influential positions, yet they acquire them ; and 
 
238 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 their compeers make Avay for them. It is because of their in- 
 sufferable offensiveness. The persons around them cannot work 
 with them or near them ; they resign, and the burrowing-owl 
 man obtains the place he wants/ He is keen enough to know 
 the situation which he does want, and he makes for it. He 
 does not need to do any struggling or fighting. There is that 
 in him which drives others away and leaves him master, re. 
 
 Natural Selection. — Natural selection, or the survival of 
 the fittest, does not necessarily include progressive develop- 
 ment ; it only takes advantage of such variations as arise and 
 are beneficial to each creature under its complex relations of 
 hfe.4.' And it may be asked. What advantage, so far as we can 
 see, would it be to an infusorian animalcule, to an intestinal 
 worm, or even to an eartliworm, to be highly organized ? If 
 it were no advantage, these forms would be left by natural selec- 
 tion unimproved or but little improved, and might remain for 
 indefinite ages in their present little-advanced condition, o. 
 
 Nature's Plans, The Completeness of. — Philosophy 
 teaches us when the little snowdrop, which in garden walks is 
 seen raising its beautiful head to remind us that spring is at 
 hand, was created, that the whole mass of the earth, from pole 
 to pole, and from circumference to center, must have been taken 
 into account and weighed in order that the proper degree of 
 strength might be given to the fibers of even this little plant. 
 > Botanists tell us that the constitution of this plant is such as to 
 require that, at a certain stage of its growth, the stalk should 
 bend and the flower should bow its head, that an operation 
 may take place which is necessary in order that the herb should 
 produce seed after its kind ; and that after this, its vegetable j 
 health requires that it should lift its head again and stand erect.V 
 Now if the mass' of the earth had been greater or less, the force 
 of gravity would have been different ; in tliat case the strength 
 of fiber in the snowdrop, as it is, would have been too much 
 or too little ; the plant could not bow or raise its head at the 
 right time, fecundation could not take place, and its family 
 would have become extinct with the first individual that was 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 239 
 
 planted, because its "seed" would not have been "in itself," 
 and therefore it could not reproduce itself. t. 
 
 Nature Affords Assistance, The Plan on which. — There 
 are two ways in which Nature affords aid : one is by directly 
 doing the particular thing required ; the other is by giving a crea- 
 ture the power to perform it himself. And as a rule Nature 
 refuses to do for a creature that which she has endowed him with 
 power to do for himself. ^Jln^ the Arctic regions, where the cold 
 of winter is intense, Nature has furnished most animals with an 
 efficient protection against its influence. She has given its 
 warm coat of fur to the bear, and has provided the whale and 
 walrus with a stratum of blubber, whose non-conducting pow- 
 ers enable the animals to retain their vital warmth in a medium 
 which would seem to be inconsistent with life. All animals, 
 except man, in fact, are provided with more or less covering to 
 enable them to resist coldffi,nd accordingly we find that where 
 they are naturally the inhabitants of countries exposed to con- 
 siderable varieties of temperature, they appear to suffer very 
 little inconvenience during the winter. Not so man ; utlpro- 
 vided with any natural covering to shelter him from the chill- 
 ing influence of a wintr)? atmosphere, ^ra must have become to 
 a certain extent a hybernating animal, had not his reason and 
 his industry supplied him with clothing and fire to protect him 
 from cold, ij Nature for this purpose was content with bestow- 
 ing on him the compensating faculty of reason, leaving the rest 
 to his own ingenuity and diligence. s. 
 
 Nature's Marvelous Prevision. — When a coral reef, says 
 Chamisso, is of such a height as to be almost wholly uncovered 
 at low water, the zoophytes discontinue their toils. Below the 
 line which they have traced you then discover a continuous 
 stony mass, composed of shells, mollusks, and Echinidce, with 
 their bristling spikes and fragments of coral connected by a 
 calcareous sand proceeding from the pulverization of the shells. 
 It often happens that the heat of the sun penetrates this cal- 
 careous mass when it is dry, and causes it to spht open in many 
 places ; the waves then possess sufficient force to divide it into 
 
240 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 blocks of coral about six feet long by three or four and a half 
 feet broad, and to hurl them upon the reef; this operation ter- 
 minates in the elevation of such a crest that the high tides only 
 wash over it at certain ^ periods of the year. The calcareous 
 sand does not experience any further change, and offers to the 
 seeds brought thither by the waves a soil wherein vegetation 
 flourishes with sufficient rapidity to speedily overshadow its 
 dazzling white surface. Whole trunks of trees, transported by 
 the rivers from other' countries and other islands, find there at 
 length, after a protracted voyage, a resting-place. Some small 
 animals, such as insects or lizards, are conveyed among them, 
 and usually become the first inhabitants of these reefs. Even 
 before the trees are thick and leafy enough to form a wood, the 
 sea-birds build their nests among them ; stray terrestrial birds 
 seek refuge in the copses ; and finally, long after the polyps 
 have accomplished their work, man appears and erects his hut 
 on the fertile soil. my. 
 
 Nature is a Book. — Nature is a book, and a most profound 
 and splendid book. Those who will read it will be completely 
 fascinated and wisely taught. To one who looks abroad to 
 contemplate the agents of Nature as he sees them at work upon 
 our planet, no expression uttered nor act performed by them is 
 without meaning. By such a one the wind and rain, the vapor 
 and the cloud, the tide, the current, the saltness and depth, and 
 warmth and color of the sea, the shade of the sky, the tempera- 
 ture of the air, the tint and shape of the clouds, the height of 
 the tree on the shore, the size of its leaves, the brilliancy of its 
 flowers — each and all may be regarded as the exponent of cer- 
 tain physical combinations, and therefore as the expression in 
 which Nature chooses to announce her own doings, or, if we 
 please, as the language in which she writes down or chooses to 
 make known her own laws. To understand that language and 
 to interpret aright those laws is at once delightful and profitable. 
 No fact gathered in such a field as this can, therefore, come 
 amiss to those who tread the walks of inductive philosophy, for 
 in the handbook of Nature every such fact is a syllable ; and 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 241 
 
 it is by patiently collecting fact after fact, and by joining sylla- 
 ble after syllable, that we may finally seek to read aright from 
 the great volume which the mariner at sea and the philosopher 
 on the mountain see spread out before tliem. t. 
 
 Nature, Purity of Vesture a Principle in — Purity of ves- 
 ture seems to be a principal precept of Nature, and observable 
 throughout creation. Fishes, from the nature of the element in 
 which they reside, can contract but little impurity. Birds are 
 unceasingly attentive to neatness and lustration of their plu- 
 mage. All the slug race, though covered with slimy matter cal- 
 culated to collect extraneous things, and reptiles, are perfectly 
 free from soil. The fur and hair of beasts in a state of liberty 
 and health are never filthy or sullied with dirt. Some birds 
 roll themselves in dust and occasionally cover themselves with 
 mire ; beasts have the same habit ; but this is not from any lik- 
 ing or inclination for such things, but to free themselves from 
 annoyances, or to prevent the bites of insects. The Meloe and 
 some of the Scarabai, upon first emerging from their winter's 
 retreat, are commonly found with earth clinging to them ; but 
 the removal of this is one of the first operations of the creature ; 
 and all the beetle race, the chief occupation of which is crawl- 
 ing about the soil and such dirty employs, are, notwithstanding, 
 remarkable for the glossiness of their covering and freedom from 
 defilements of any kind. j. 
 
 Nature, The Music of. — Birds associate themselves with 
 all sounds and voices, add their own poesy, their wild and sim- 
 ple rhythms. By analogy, by contrast, they augment and com- 
 plete the grand effects of Nature. To the hoarse beating of 
 the waves the sea-bird opposes his shrill strident notes ; with 
 the monotonous murmurings of the agitated trees the turtle- 
 dove and a hundred birds blend a soft sad cadence ; to the 
 awakening of the fields, the gaiety of the country, the lark 
 responds with his song, and bears aloft to heaven the joys of 
 earth. Thus then everywhere, above the vast instrumental 
 concert of Nature, above her deep sighs, above the sonorous 
 waves which escape from the divine organ, a vocal music springs 
 
242 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 and detaches itself — that of the bird almost always in vivid 
 notes, which strike sharply on this solemn base with the ardent 
 strokes of a bow. t. b. 
 
 Nature's Secrets, Man's Power to Elicit. — By the aid of 
 
 Brooke's invention the entire orography of the Atlantic has 
 been mapped out with sufficient exactness. This most simple 
 instrument has already rendered unappreciable service? to 
 science. The bed of the ocean has been explored to a depth 
 of fourteen thousand and fifteen thousand feet ; and specimens, 
 perfectly intact, have been collected of the wreck of shells and 
 zoophytes with which it is carpeted. my. 
 
 Nature's Method of Developing New Races. — A breeder, 
 says Lyell, finds that a new race of cattle, with short horns or 
 without horns, may be formed in the course of several genera- 
 tions by choosing varieties having the most stunted horns as 
 his stock from which to breedipso Nature, by altering in the 
 course of ages the conditions of life, the geographical features 
 of a country, the climate, the associated plants and animals, and 
 consequently the food and enemies of a species and its mode 
 of life, may l)e said by this means to select certain ^-arieties 
 best adapted for this new state of things. Such new races 
 may often supplant the original type from which they may 
 have diverged, although that type may have been perpetuated 
 without modification for countless anterior ages in the same 
 region, so long as it was in harmony with the surrounding con- 
 ditions then prevailing. s. l. 
 
 Nature, The Laboratory of Organic— It is in plants that 
 the true laboratory of organic Nature resides : carbon, hydrogen, 
 ammonium, and water are the elements they work upon ; and 
 woody fiber, starch, gums, and sugars on the one hand, fibrin, 
 albumin, caseum, and gluten on the other, are the products that 
 present themselves as fundamental in either organic kingdom 
 of Nature — products, howe\-er, which are formed in plants, and 
 in plants only, and merely transferred by digestion to tlie bodies 
 of animals. The vegetable world is the great originator and 
 source of that pabulum which is necessary for the existence of 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 243 
 
 animals. Animals use the materials which are elaborated for 
 them. They alter tliem by degrees ; they destroy or decom- 
 pound them ; they bring them back toward the state of car- 
 bonic acid, water, azote, and ammonia, a state which admits of 
 their ready restoration to the air. b. l. 
 
 Nature is Upheld by Antagonisms. — The great primary 
 object which Nature intended to serve by the universal diffu- 
 sion of the grass seems to be the protection of the soil. Were 
 the soil freely exposed to heaven without any organic covering 
 it would speedily pass away from the rocks on whose surface 
 it is deposited. The floods would lay bare one district and 
 encumber another with accumulated heaps ; the sun would dry 
 it up and deprive it of all its noiuishing constituents ; the winds 
 would scatter it far and near, and fill the whole atmosphere with 
 its blinding, choking clouds.^^ It is impossible to imagine all 
 the disastrous effects that would be produced over the whole 
 earth were the disintegration of the elements not counteracted 
 by the conservative force of vital growth, and the destructive 
 powers of Nature not kept in check by the apparently insignifi- 
 cant but actually irresistible emerald scepter of the grass. The 
 earth would soon be deprived of its vegetation and inhabitants, 
 and become one vast desert catacomb, a gigantic lifeless cinder, 
 revolving without aim or object round the sun. b. 
 
 Nature's Police, Some of. — So numerous are the " green- 
 oak moths " that their progeny would shortly devastate a forest 
 were they not subject to the attacks of another insect. This 
 insect is a little fly, of a shape something resembling that of a 
 large gnat, and which has, as far as we know, no English name. 
 Its scientific title is Empis. There are several species of this 
 useful fly, one attaining some size ; but the one that claims our 
 notice just at present is the little empis, scientifically Empis tes- 
 sellata. He is a terrible fellow, this empis, quiet and insignifi- 
 cant in aspect, with a sober brown coat, thin and genteel legs, 
 and just a modest little tuft on the top of his head. But sad 
 is it for the gay and very green insect that flies within reach of 
 this very estimable individual ! The great hornet that comes 
 
244 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 rushing by is not half so dangerous for all his sharp teeth and 
 his terrible sting. The stag-beetle may frighten our green 
 young friend out of his senses by his truculent aspect and 
 gigantic stature. But better a thousand stag-beetles than one 
 little empis. For when once the thin and genteel legs have 
 come on the track of the litde moth, it is all over with 
 him. Claw after claw is hooked on him, gradually and surely 
 the clasp tightens, and when once he is hopelessly captured, 
 out comes a horrid long bill and drains him dry. c. o. 
 
 Nemesis, The Dastard's. — The pike is reputed to be afraid 
 of the perch, its strong prickly spines deterring him from attack- 
 ing so well armed a prey. And in proof of this assertion it is 
 said that if an angler has been unsuccessfully attempting to 
 catch a pike, he can mostly succeed by taking a rather small 
 perch, cutting off its prickly fins, and using it as bait. The pike, 
 seeing that the perch is defenseless, will not lose so excellent 
 an opportunity, : he accordingly darts at the bait and is straight- 
 way hooked. L Here is a parallel to a transaction constantly 
 seen in commercial circles. A dastard, when he sees it defense- 
 less, will often attack a creature of which, at any other time, 
 he lias been afraid. But this truculence sometimes leads him 
 to his own ruin. For Nemesis angles for him with the victim 
 which he desires, and then captures him in the moment when 
 he is about to gratify himself by appropriating it. Intriguers, 
 wreckers, adventurers, and money-lenders, beware ! The waters 
 of human life have snares even for your rapacity. f. 
 
 Nervousness Initiates Bad Policy. — The great enemy of 
 the earthworm is the mole. The pewit bird knows this, and 
 in order to make the worms fancy a mole is near, it taps the 
 ground with one leg. No sooner do the worms perceive a 
 vibration or shaking motion in the earth than they make the 
 best of their way to the surface, and thus constantly fall into 
 greater and more certain peril, as die pewit feeds on those he 
 catches. How many nervous persons, through yielding to un- 
 necessary terrors, in like manner frighten themselves away from 
 situations of comparative safety into the very presence of need- 
 less dangers ! j hi. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRAriONS. 245 
 
 Nonchalance Assumed as a Stratagem. — The dark and 
 somber litde bee termed Mellinus an<e?isis is rather a slow flier, 
 whereas the flies which it chooses for its prey are all swift of 
 wing, so that it cannot take them by open assault, but is obliged 
 to trust to craft. In order, therefore, to obtain its victims, the 
 Mellinus watches some spot where flies most love to congre- 
 gate, and walks to and fro as if it were quite unconcerned. It 
 continues to move about in this manner until it comes close to 
 a fly, when it springs upon the luckless insect, trounces it in its 
 claws, and carries it off like a falcon with a partridge. iNon- 
 chalance is always a very successful stratagem when a piece of 
 cunning business is to be performed. A prejudiced judge who 
 desires to snatch a verdict ; an unscrupulous stock-broker who 
 is eager to sell some worthless scrip ; a horse-dealer who means 
 to dispose of a " screw " ; a pickpocket in a crowd — all under- 
 stand as well as the Mellinits arvensis the unspeakable value of 
 nonchalance as a means to the accomplishment of their designs. 
 
 H. 
 
 Nothing New under the Sun. — When tracts of forest land 
 are cleared of the timber, as often happens in North America, 
 and occasionally in Great Britain, the following season there 
 springs up in abundance, where the trees stood previously, some 
 pretty herbaceous plant that was quite unknown there while the 
 trees existed, and which had been patiently " biding its time." :^ 
 The explanation of such curious appearances is perfectly sim- 
 ple. The herbaceous plant, whatever it may be, had occupied 
 the ground when there were no trees there, forming some kind 
 of herbage or meadow, and letting fall its annual progeny of 
 seeds. In course of time trees have sprung up, their own seeds 
 conveyed thither either by human agency or by one or other 
 of the wonderful contrivances of Nature which insure propaga- 
 tion whether man give his aid or not. These trees have offered 
 too dense a shade for the herbaceous plant, which retires, as it 
 were, into private -life ; but when they in their turn afe cut 
 down, the original plants return, covering the surface with the 
 old imperishable carpet. The earthly crust of our planet appears 
 
246 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 to be Stocked in every part with seeds that have been produced 
 in years gone by, scattered upon the surface, and subsequently 
 covered up with soil. Whenever the ground is disturbed, either 
 by the plow or by the spade of the railway excavator, or for 
 any purpose which causes its depths to be overturned, that 
 position which was many feet below being thrown to the sur- 
 face and exposed to the air, the sunbeams, and the moisture 
 of dew and rain, immediately there springs up a crop of young 
 plants, certainly not originating in seeds only just then brought 
 from neighboring fields, and as certainly from seeds that ha^'e 
 been lying in the soil for ages. How they came to be covered 
 up is easy to conceive when we see with our own eyes what is 
 done by wintry floods, and the sweeping down of great masses 
 of earth and soil, which accumulate often to a considerable 
 depth, and are no doubt similarly charged with seeds that, after 
 waiting their turn, will some day grow. For it is an established 
 fact that no seed can germinate or begin to sprout unless it have 
 the threefold influence in direct operation upon it of warmth, 
 moisture, and the atmosphere. Let it be shut in from the ac- 
 cess of these and it lies passive, giving no sign of life or growth, 
 and incapable of doing so. In like manner human ideas remain 
 dormant in the mind of the world until there are brought to 
 bear upon them the ordained influences which will cause them 
 to start into life. When those influences come into operation 
 the ideas soon take shape and grow into vigorous forces. 
 "There is no new thing," says Solomon, "under the sun." 
 Perhaps he had an inspired glimpse of the scientific fact that 
 our world was equipped with everything when it was first 
 launched into immensity, and that, though its changes have 
 been marvelous and incessant, they have been changes of form 
 only. " No new thing " has been added. The old forces have 
 been ever unfolding and developing. Nature is like Proteus. 
 Proteus possessed the power of changing into various shapes, 
 nevertheless he remained always Proteus. Li. 
 
 Objectionable Beings may Perform Excellent Services. 
 
 — Of all creatures, the two most at enmity are the repulsive- 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 247 
 
 looking vulture of Brazil and the crocodile. The female of 
 this temble amphibious creature lays its eggs, to the number of 
 one or two hundred, in the sand at the side of the river, where 
 they are hatched by the heat of the climate. For this piupose 
 she takes every precaution to hide from all the other animals 
 the place where she deposits her burden ; in the meantime a 
 number of vultures or gallinazos, as the Spaniards call them, sit 
 silent and unseen in the branches of some neighboring forest, 
 and view the crocodile's operations with the pleasing expecta- 
 tion of succeeding plunder. They patiently wait till the croco- 
 dile has laid the whole number of her eggs, till she has covered 
 them carefully under the sand, and until she is retired from 
 them to a convenient distance. Then, all together, encourag- 
 ing each other with cries, they pour down upon the nest, hook 
 up the sand in a moment, lay bare the eggs, and devour the 
 whole brood without remorse, and thus, while gratifying them- 
 selves, spare the district from the infliction of whole tribes of 
 crocodiles. Nasty though the vulture is in its aspect and habits, 
 we here see it performing most valuable services to the coun- 
 tTyrp^M.a.ny centuries ago, when his land was overrun by some 
 sort of injurious birds, the King of Meath issued the order: 
 "Nidus eontm iibique destruendus." No policy could be better. 
 > Of evil things everywhere, the eggs should be destroyed. Some- 
 times it is necessary to employ objectionable beings to do the 
 business. We must, therefore, tolerate such, for the sake of the 
 work which they accomplish. It is preferable to endure even 
 an upstart magistrate and a vulturelike policeman than it is to 
 have nests of crime left to incubate in the midst of our popula- 
 tion. :f- A. 
 
 Offensiveness the Aliment of Some. — There are men 
 whose livelihood is obtained by performing acts which, even 
 were they necessary, are simply offensive to think of. Their 
 subsistence is derived often from sources which are morally 
 offensive. The cheating lawyer, the swindling accountant, the 
 dishonest beggar, are of this tribe. Their food is obtained by 
 means, and is made up of things, which clean creatures could 
 
248 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 not touch ; and they do not scruple to rob even those who are 
 of their own horrible nature. They are in one respect worse 
 than the caracara of South America, for in gratifying its great 
 appetite for snakes it does not injure mankind ; but they resem- 
 ble it in the versatility of their depraved tastes, for it does not 
 confine itself to this diet, but feeds indifferently upon carrion, 
 insects, and Mollusca, and also, like many vultures, attacks quite 
 new-born lambs. According to some writers, the caracaras, like 
 mean men, are not above taking their prey at second hand ; 
 they are said to watch for one of the vultures returning from 
 his repast of carrion, when they fly out upon him and pursue 
 him until he finds it necessary to disgorge his food, upon which 
 the conspirators immediately descend, like a number of schemers 
 and rogues, whose disgusting taste for oflensiveness and capa- 
 city to enjoy all sorts of prey have stimulated them to the suc- 
 cessful plunder of some one who is less wary than themselves. 
 
 IL. 
 
 Officious Services, The Routine of. — The honey-guides 
 (indicators) are little birds inhabiting the interior of Africa. 
 They feed on insects, and especially dehght in the pupae of 
 bees. They employ very curious manoeuvers in order to pro- 
 cure them, which denote perfect intelligence. When one of 
 these birds discovers a hive, it endeavors to attract the atten- 
 tion of the first person it meets by frequently repeated cries. 
 When observed, it proceeds to fly till it reaches the place where 
 the hive is, sometimes a great distance, and it takes care to 
 point it out by every means in its power, for which service the 
 Hottentots esteem the indicators so highly that they scruple to 
 kill them. While the honey is being taken, the bird remains 
 in the neighborhood, observing all that passes, and when that 
 work is accomplished, it approaches to reap the fruit of its 
 trouble, the pupae of the bees. The bees flutter about trying 
 to sting it, but its skin is impervious to their efforts. Often, 
 however, the despoiled bees attack its eyes, and sometimes suc- 
 ceed in bhnding it ; the unfortunate bird, incapable of guiding 
 itself, then perishes 1 in sight of the place which witnessed its 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILIUSTRAriONS. 249 
 
 triumph. Here is an epitome of the officious services of inter- 
 meddlers. Whether among birds and bees, or among men and 
 women, the routine of this class of oflficiousness is always the 
 same. The intermeddler comes forward without any apparent 
 selfishness, and shows us how to secure a real benefit for our- 
 selves. We accept his guidance, and feel greatly indebted to 
 him for his kindness. Presently we find out that he only had his 
 own personal ends in view all the time, and that, though we may 
 have been benefited, he was never in the least concerned about 
 that matter. Then, we have the unpleasantness of beholding him 
 getting into a scrape in connection with the same transaction. 
 Officious intermeddlers are generally not very thin-skinned, 
 so that we are able sometimes to see them get out of their 
 scrape without real injury ; but sometimes they get terribly hurt 
 and, it may be, ruined. In that case, unlike the honey-guides, 
 they put all blame for their calamity upon our shoulders, and, 
 without referring to their own selfishness, or to the fact that 
 they make us their cat's-paw, protest that their ruin has come 
 upon them by reason of their good nature in doing us a good 
 turn. A man who has self-respect, and who is sensitive to the 
 sufferings of others, had better always avoid officious intermed- 
 dlers. If the honey of life cannot be obtained without their 
 aid, it is best to leave it alone. RE. 
 
 Opportunists, The Not only some men, but also some 
 
 of the lower creatures, are endowed by Nature with a wonder- 
 ful faculty for triumphing over unpropitious circumstances and 
 seizing favorable opportunities. For example, the Gordiacea, 
 or hairworms, live as parasites in the bodies of various species 
 of insects. When mature, they quit the bodies of the insects at 
 whose expense they have been nourished, and seek some piece 
 of water or moist situation, where they deposit their ova in long 
 chains. If by any chance, on breaking out of their insect 
 home, they find that dry weather has produced a state of things 
 incompatible with their notion of comfort, they quietly allow 
 themselves to be dried up, when they become perfectly hard 
 and brittle ; but, strange to say, the moment a shower of rain 
 
2 50 DICTIONARY OP 
 
 comes to refresh the earth with its moisture, the dormant hair- 
 worms immediately recover their activity, avail of the^ new op- 
 portunity, and start off in search of a suitable placd.in which 
 the great object of their visit to solid earth may be effected. 
 
 N. D. 
 
 Opportunity, The Power of. — The opportunity often makes 
 the man. No personal praise is due to some men for having 
 vigorous and well-developed minds, and in other cases no per- 
 sonal blame is due to those who are feeble and inapt. The 
 question is. What is the opportunity which the individual has 
 had ? "Now there are many minds which have been dwarfed 
 and stunted by circumstances, though possessing in themselves 
 spkndid powers which only needed proper opportunity to de- 
 velop. So also there are minds which have expanded to sur- 
 prising proportions in consequence almost entirely of the oppor-, 
 tune influences by which they have been surrounded. The op- 
 portunity is to the man what the climate is to the vegetable. 
 For example : in the forests of Brazil vegetation remains in a 
 state of continual activity because excited by the ceaseless action 
 of the two agents, humidity and heat. Hence certain vegeta- 
 ble forms, which' assume in our land very humble proportions, 
 present I themselves with a floral pomp unknown in temperate 
 climesS^some Boraginacea become shrubs ; many Euphorbia 
 assume the proportions of majestic trees, offering an agreeable 
 shelter under their thick umbrageous foliage. And while we 
 are thus noticing this powerful effect of opportunity, in forma- 
 tion and development, the observation naturally occurs that, 
 as regards mankind, we are obviously unable to form any ade- 
 quate conception of man's potentialities from what we see of 
 him in his present condition ; for it may well be that under a 
 new state of circumstances, in another world, he may be able to 
 exhibit powers and \drtues which fail to flourish here, but which 
 amid congenial influences will become grand and glorious. 
 
 v. 
 
 Opportunity, The Selection of — When it is wished to in- 
 troduce into a hive of bees a stranger queen bee, after having 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 251 
 
 removed the original queen bee, every precaution must be used 
 before putting her into the common home. It is only after some 
 time that the bees become aware of the disappearance of their 
 queen ; but they then manifest great emotion. They run hither 
 and thither as though mad, leaving off their work, and making 
 a peculiar buzzing sound.^ If you return to them their original 
 sovereign, they recognize her, and calm is immediately restored. 
 But the substitution of a new queen for the original sovereign 
 does not produce the same effect in every case. If you intro- 
 duce the new queen half a day only after the removal of the 
 old queen, she is very badly received, and is at once surrounded, 
 the workers trying to suffocate \\ffijpX^trL>txdXbj she sinks under 
 this bad treatment. But if you allow a longer interval to elapse 
 before you introduce the substitute, the bees, rendered intrac- 
 table by the delay, are better disposed toward her. If you allow 
 an interregnum of twenty-four hours, the stranger queen is al- 
 ways received with the honor due to her rank, a general buzz- 
 ing announcing the event to the whole population of the hive. 
 They assign to their adopted queen a train of picked atten- 
 dants, and draw up in line on her passing by ; they caress her 
 with the tips of their antennae ; they offer her honey.* A little 
 joyful fluttering of the escort announces that every one in the 
 little republic is satisfied. The labors out of doors and indoors 
 then begin anew with more activity than ever. It is with bees 
 as with mankind : " There is a season when to take occasion 
 by the hand." For want of recognizing this fact many a good 
 enterprise in human government has been utterly wrecked. The 
 premature appearance of a hero among men has often resulted 
 in his annihilation. Reformers should learn that there is an 
 appropriate moment for the introduction of any change, i. 
 
 Opposite Qualities Often Found in the Same Substance. 
 
 — In contemplating Nature we shall often find the same sub- 
 stances possessed of contrary qualities, and producing opposite 
 effects. Air which liquefies one substance dries up another. 
 Fire, which is seen to burn up the desert, is often found in 
 other places to assist the luxuriance' of vegetation ; and water, 
 
252 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 which next to fire is the most fluid substance upon earth, never- 
 theless gives all other bodies their firmness and durability. 
 
 MY. 
 
 Opposites, The Combination of. — Men of opposite tastes 
 and repugnant sympathies are not unfrequently found in close 
 association and even in actual combination. This apparent 
 anomaly is generally explained by the existence of some object 
 which exerts a powerful moral influence over all within its reach. 
 This object acts upon them somewhat as the porous platinum 
 acts on gases. We know the porous platinum absorbs them, 
 and condenses them so powerfully together into its pores that 
 the atoms of two different gases often approach each other suffi- 
 ciently near to combine together chemically. Hydrogen and 
 oxygen are in this instance compelled to unite, and it can force 
 many other gases, which will not directly combine with each 
 other, to enter into combination. So a noble object draws into 
 the bonds of the closest association individuals who, but for its 
 influence, would remain forever in isolation or perhaps in oppo- 
 sition to each other. Welcome, then, to the combining forces 
 of society ! pr. 
 
 Opposites, The Resemblance of. — The crocodile's egg will 
 be about two inches and five lines in its greatest diameter, and 
 in its least diameter one inch and eleven lines ; o\-al and whi- 
 tish. It is cretaceous in substance, and like the "eggs of birds. 
 Yet with this resemblance, what a horrid contrast there is ! 
 The egg gets hatched without any attention of the parent ; and in 
 due time, instead of a beautiful singing-bird, it produces an 
 infant crocodile about six inches in length, which ^-ery rapidly 
 becomes a monster fourteen feet long. Its teeth are formida- 
 ble, and the scales on the back are proof against even a bullet 
 from a gun. It is amphibious, and watches even in the night 
 for its prey. Such is the outcome of an egg resembling that 
 of the world's loveliest songstersr) 1 Here we have a lesson upon 
 the resemblance of opposites. Do not be guided only by the 
 shell of things. Consider all the surrounding circumstances. 
 If your egg has not been found in a place associated with ideas 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 253 
 
 of goodness and beauty, but in a suspicious locality, beware 
 lest it belongs to a moral crocodile. Two human faces may 
 look to the uninitiated very much alike, but as the developing 
 period advances, the one character will become harmonious 
 and spiritual, and the other hard, rapacious, and crocodile-like. 
 
 RE. 
 
 Opposites, The Transformability of Since the noblest 
 
 attribute of water is its blandness, who would be prepared to 
 find that, chemically speaking, it is remarkable for its fiery com- 
 position ? When its two constituents are burned in the oxy- 
 hydrogen blowpipe, they produce a flame of extraordinary 
 ferocity. Such is the violence with which they combine that 
 it is necessary to keep them from mingling, except in small 
 quantities, unless they are just at the point of ignition. Dr. 
 Clarke placed a brick screen between himself and the danger- 
 ous gases when he first experimented on their power, but was 
 nearly killed by an explosion. Perhaps, when the world and 
 all the works that are therein shall be burned up, the ocean 
 may really be the magazine from which fuel may be drawn to 
 support the great conflagration. But let this be as it may in 
 God's good counsel, is it not a startling thought that water, the 
 uncompromising adversary of fire, should be compounded of 
 two elements whose conjunction is accompanied by a passion- 
 ate burst of flame and a terrible eruption of caloric ? po. 
 
 Organ by Disuse of Function, Loss of. — One of the most 
 interesting discoveries of modern science is that of a subterra- 
 nean fauna, all the members of which are bhnd. The transi- 
 tion from the illuminated tenants of this upper world to those 
 darkened subjects of Pluto is indeed facilitated by certain in- 
 termediate conditions. Such is the guacharo, or fruit-eating 
 nightjar, found by Humboldt inhabiting, in immense hosts, a 
 deep sepulchral cavern in South America, shut out far from the 
 remotest ray of hght, coming forth under the cover of night, 
 and invested with superstitious terrors by the natives. Such, 
 too, is the Aspalax or mole of Eastern Europe, which habitually 
 lives underground ; and such is the proteus, a strange sort of 
 
254 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 salamander found in the lakes of immense caverns in Illyria. 
 They are believed to come from some great central inaccessible 
 reservoir, where no ray of light has ever penetrated, and whence 
 occasional floods may have forced the individuals that have 
 been discovered. Investigations in various parts of the world 
 have revealed the curious circumstance of a somewhat extensive 
 series of animals inhabiting vast and gloomy caves and deep 
 wells, and perfectly deprived even of the vestiges of eyes. 
 Enormous caves in North America, some of which are ten 
 miles in length, and other vast and ramified grottoes in Central 
 Europe, have yielded the chief of these ; but even in Great 
 Britain there are at least four species of minute shrimps, three of 
 which are absolutely blind, and the fourth (though it has a yel- 
 low speck in the place of an eye) probably so. All these have 
 been obtained from pumps and wells in the southern counties 
 of England, at a depth of thirty or forty feet from the surface 
 of the earth. The Mammoth Cave in Kentucky consists of ' 
 innumerable subterranean galleries in the limestone formation, 
 some of which are of great extent. The temperature is 
 constantly throughout the year 59° Fahrenheit. A darkness, 
 unrelieved by the least glimmer of light, prevails. Animals 
 of various races inhabit these caves, all completely blind : for 
 though some have rudimentary eyes, they appear useless for 
 purposes of vision.jf Among these are two kinds of bats, two 
 rats (one found at a distance of seven miles from the entrance), 
 moles, fishes, spiders, beetles, Ci'ustacea, and several kinds of 
 Infusoria. Mr. Charles Darwin has alluded to these singular 
 facts in confirmation of his theory of the origin of species by 
 means of natural selection, or the preservation of favored races 
 in the struggle for life. He takes the view that in the subter- 
 ranean animals the organs of sight have become (more or less 
 completely) absorbed, in successive generations, by disuse of 
 the function. In some of the crabs the footstalk remains, 
 though the eye is gone ; the stand for the telescope is there, 
 though the telescope with its glasses has been lost. As it is 
 difficult to imagine that eyes, though useless, could be in any 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 255 
 
 way injurious to animals living in darkness, we attribute their 
 loss wholly to disuse. On Mr. Gosse's view, we must suppose 
 that American animals, having ordinary powers of vision, slowly 
 migrated by successive generations from the outer world into 
 the deeper and deeper recesses of the Kentucky caves, as did 
 European animals into the caves of Europe. We have some 
 evidence of this gradation of habit ; for as Schiodte remarks, 
 animals not far remote from ordinary forms prepare the tran- 
 sition from light to darkness. By the time that an animal has 
 reached, after numberless generations, the deepest recesses, dis- 
 use will on this view have more or less perfectly obliterated its 
 eyes. ro. 
 
 Overcrowding, Nature's Provision against The natu- 
 ral safeguard against overcrowding is emigration. We see this 
 beautifully illustrated in the case of the starfish. The larva of 
 the starfish is an active, free-swimming animal, having a long 
 body with six slender arms on each side, from one end of which 
 the young starfish is (so to speak) budded off ; and when this 
 has attained a certain stage of development, the long twelve- 
 armed body separates from it and dies away, its chief function 
 having apparently been to carry the young starfish to a dis- 
 tance from its fellows, and thus to prevent overcrowding by the" 
 accumulation of individuals in particular spots, which would 
 be liable to occur if they never had any more active powers of 
 locomotion than they possess in their adult state. mi. 
 
 Pain to Pleasure, The Relation of. — Sensation is modified 
 both by the condition of the body and by the state of the mind 
 with regard to it. Thus we find that in the peculiar condition 
 of mind and body attending mesmeric sleep (according to the 
 testimony of honest witnesses, who are to be believed),' persons 
 may have their limbs removed without pain, and the exposed 
 extremities of the divided nerves being roughly handled causes 
 only a sensation of titillation, under which the patient laughs 
 like a tickled child. Pain, indeed, is but the excess of an im- 
 pression which, in a milder form, is pleasure ; and the same 
 degree of impression is either one or the other, according to 
 
256 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the State of attention at the time, or according to the associa- 
 tion of the mind. (Ivi many respects pain is really an acquired " 
 feeling, hke fear, and it arises from the mind being taught to 
 associate certain sensations with the idea of danger. Thus 
 when the Esquimaux first had razors given to them, they used to 
 gash their tongues for the pleasure of the new sensation of 
 being cut with so keen an instrument ; but after they learned 
 there was danger in such wounds, they never cut themselves 
 without an expression of pain. '^ u. 
 
 Pain Terminates in its Contrary, Excessive. — It ap- 
 pears that bodily pain, when excessive, generally terminates in 
 pleasure of a nature and kind just the reverse of that which 
 causes the nervous exhaustion. Thus we are informed that 
 Theodosius, a youthful confessor, was put to such exquisite tor- 
 ture for singing a psalm that he hardly escaped with his life ; 
 but being asked how he could endure such extreme torment, 
 he said, " At first I felt some pain, but afterward there stood 
 by me a beautiful young man who wiped away my sweat, and 
 so refreshed me with cold water that I was delighted, and 
 grieved only at being let down from the engine." These effects 
 of nervous exhaustion may be illustrated by reference to those 
 experiments on the efl[ects of light upon the retina, first men- 
 tioned by Darwin in his "Zoonomia." It is remarkable that 
 the contrary color is produced when, the sight is fatigued; thus 
 if we look with a fixed stare at a bright green figure until a lit- 
 tle wearied, and then look on a white surface, we shall see a 
 red figure. If, however, we continue to look at the red until 
 the nerve is thoroughly exhausted, we shall see green. The 
 direct sunshine quickly exhausts the optic nerve-power, and by 
 looking' on it we become for a time quite blind. It is probable 
 that every part of the nervous system is subject to the same 
 law or mode of action, and the brain under mental excitement, 
 as well as physical, is apt to take a contrary condition, by which 
 ideas are suggested to the mind the very reverse of those which 
 exhausted the attention. u. 
 
 Panic, The Peril of. — The bison is found only in the great 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 257 
 
 prairies of the American continent. When he is hunted he will 
 frequently turn upon his adversary, and in speed he can outstrip 
 the swiftest horse. jT He finds a formidable enemy in the white 
 wolf. Hunting in packs of one or two hundred, the latter fling 
 themselves upon two or three solitary bisons, and surrounding 
 them, woiTy the huge brutes to death. The bisons, when they 
 catch sight of wolves, manifest the greatest alarm, form into 
 battle array, and are only prevented by excess of terror from tak- 
 ing to flight. This panic-stricken feeling the Indian often turns 
 to his advantage. He clothes himself in the skin of a white 
 wolf, and, with bow and arrows in his hands, boldly faces a herd, 
 crawHng toward them on his hands and knees ; the affrighted 
 bisons press closely together to receive the supposed foe, who, 
 on arriving at a convenient proximity, suddenly springs to his 
 feet, and utters an unearthly yell. They fall into a frenzy of 
 terror, which enables him to select several victims, -il d. 
 
 Paradoxes. — Many persons are accustomed to apply "para- 
 dox " as if it were a term of reproach, an implied absurdity or 
 falsity. But, as Whately has shown, all that is properly imphed 
 by the term is that the burden of proof lies with him who main- 
 tains the paradox, since men are not to be expected to abandon 
 the prevailing belief until somereason is shown. And Dr. Thomas 
 Brown expressly cautions those engaged in philosophical inves- 
 tigations not to be easily terrified by the appearance of a para- 
 dox, inasmuch as it may traly be regarded as a necessary con- 
 sequence that every accurate and original analysis must afford 
 a result which will appear paradoxical. If we say sorrow is joy, 
 death is life, weakness is might, loss is profit, we utter paradoxes 
 which may appear startling. But in preparing our minds to be 
 unprejudiced before we enter into a consideration of their truth, 
 we may as well observe that Nature herself is full of paradoxes. 
 The water which drowns us as a fluent stream can be walked 
 upon as ice. The bullet which, when fired from a musket, 
 carries death, will be harmless if ground to dust before being 
 fired. The crystallized part of the oil of roses, so grateful in 
 its fragrance — a solid at ordinary temperatures, though readily 
 
258 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 volatile — is a compound substance containing exactly the same 
 elements, and in exactly the same proportions, as the gas with 
 which we light our streets. The tea which we daily drink with 
 benefit and pleasure produces palpitations, nervous tremblings, 
 and even paralysis if taken in excess ; yet the peculiar organic 
 agent called theine, to which tea owes its qualities, may be 
 taken byjtself (as theine, not as tea) without any appreciable 
 effect. (Th^ water which will allay our burning thirst augments^ 
 it when congealed into snow ; so that Captain Ross declares that 
 the natives of the Arctic regions prefer enduring the utmost 
 extremity of thirst rather than attempt to remove it by eating 
 snow. Yet if the snow be melted, it becomes drinkable water ; 
 and it is melted in the mouth ! Nevertheless, although if 
 melted before entering in the mouth it assuages thirst like other 
 water, when melted in the mouth it has the opposite effect.!; 
 To render this paradox more striking, we have only to remem- 
 ber that ice, which melts more slowly in the mouth, is very effi- 
 cient in allaying thirst. l. p. 
 
 Parallax Movement, The. — Parallax movement is that ap- 
 parent shifting of bodies which arises from changing our own 
 position. We cannot stir a step without producing examples 
 of it. If we pace up and down the street opposite to any object 
 on the other side, as a door or a lamp-post, the angular direc- 
 tion or parallax of the object changes at e\-ery moment. If we 
 sail down a river, and fix our eyes on some church spire at a 
 distance from its bank, we find that the direction in which we 
 see it is always altering. At first the spire appears in advance 
 of us, then to our side, and lasdy it lies behind. If, instead of 
 limiting our attention to one object, we look at several that can 
 be easily obser\'ed together, we find that as we move they move, 
 or rather seem to move, and the angles formed by their lines of 
 direction are changed relatively to each other and to us. In 
 these instances of this parallax shifting it must have been re- 
 marked that the effect of a change of our position in altering 
 the direction of objects is greater when they are near than 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 259 
 
 when they are distant. A few paces will sensibly alter the 
 angular position or direction of the door or lamp-post, or the 
 opposite side of the street. But ' if we look at a church some 
 miles off, or at ships anchorea in the offing, we find that we re- 
 quire to move much more than a few paces — in other words, 
 the length of the bases needs to be considerably increased — 
 before we can make any sensible change in the angle or direc- 
 tion in which we see them. If when surveyed from a short 
 base-line objects appear to have changed much, we may infer 
 that they are near ; but if the base requires to be long in order 
 to produce an effect, we may equally infer that they are distant.^ 
 
 BE. 
 
 Parasites, Social. — The family of parasites is large, and in- 
 cludes representatives both small and great. Some of the least 
 powerful of animals live as parasites in or upon -the bodies of 
 others, and hardly any are entirely exempt. Such as are too 
 weak to seize and slaughter their peculiar prey seek it in a 
 dead state ; and hardly has an animal perished before the car- 
 rion-feeders begin their attacks. According to Audubon, the 
 turkey-buzzard gloats harmlessly over recumbent and sleeping 
 animals in a healthy state, but watches patiently by such as are 
 wounded, perishing in a morass, are ill and dying, until life is 
 extinctiLand will not leave them. p. 
 
 Parasites, The Uncertain Pleasures of Parasites who 
 
 expect any consideration at the hands of their patron are fre- 
 quently deluded. The patron treats them in the spirit in which 
 the fox treats fleas. When the fox is troubled with fleas, he will 
 go into the water, at first to a small depth, the water rising veiy 
 little above the bottom of his belly ; the flieas, to avoid the water, 
 will creep up toward the top of his back. Gradually he will go 
 deeper and deeper, till the fleas actually gather upon his back, 
 when he will sink his hinder parts, gently and by degrees, below 
 the surface of the water, till the fleas are driven forward, and 
 he will at length. merge every part of his body, in the same 
 quiet way, beneath the water, except his nose, on which the 
 
26o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 fleas will congregate as on an island. At last he will suddenly 
 sink his nose also and withdraw, leaving the parasites to be 
 drowned. R. 
 
 Parasites' Offerings, Tiie. — Parasitic plants send their 
 roots into the substance of another plant, and derive their food 
 from its juices ; but though, like some of the human kind, they 
 live upon their neighbor's bounty, it must be admitted that they 
 sometimes reward their benefactor by adorning it with their 
 beautiful flowers. The Rafflesia Arnoldi, for example, whose 
 flower is three feet across, and whose ciip will contain several ^ 
 pints of fluid, grows attached to the stem of a climbing -eisttts 
 in Sumatra. (The mistletoe also, whose silvery berries adorn 
 the oak. Whether these offerings of the parasite bear any rea- 
 sonable proportion to the amoUnt of damage done by it must 
 be a question- open to doubt, i' Certaiii^ it is that the offerings 
 of the social parasite to his benefactor, consisting as they do 
 of subservience, flattery, and petty traits, are no real benefit to 
 anybody ; while, on the other hand, the injury which the para- 
 site does to honesty and manliness is most unmistakable.). On 
 the whole, we are inclined to think that all the productions of 
 parasites, whether vegetable or human, are not suflicient to 
 make us value the producers very highly. v. 
 
 Parliamentary Tactics. — It is stated that the shocks pro- 
 duced by fishes possessed of electrical organs are sometimes suffi- 
 ciently intense to kill the animal at once. Hence it is a com- 
 mon practice with the conductors of convoys in South America, 
 to collect a number of wild horses and drive them across the 
 rivers in order to exhaust tlie ,,^fnTot?^ of their electricity be- 
 fore the convoy passes.trParliamentary leaders in St. Stephen's ' 
 understand the wisdom of^adopting an analogous policy. They 
 are aware that the slippery eels of the Government Opposition 
 possess considerable power during their early sessional attacks. 
 They therefore so arrange their measures as to induce the Op- 
 positionites to discharge their most fatal shafts upon those 
 whose ruin will not be of much consequence. Then, when the 
 Opposition electricity is exhausted, and toward the end of the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 261 
 
 session, the parliamentary leaders carry forward without any 
 dangerous resistance all that they deem of most importanccyt 
 
 8. 
 
 Paroxysmal Methods. — Nature has her paroxysms. Sir 
 Roderick Murchison affirms that by no possible extension of 
 gradual and insensible causes could huge masses of tertiary 
 rocks have been so thrown over as to pass under the older 
 rocks of the Alps, out of which they were formed. That opera- 
 tion, he says, must have been paroxysmal, and no slow process 
 could have accomplished it. The crust and outline of the earth 
 are, in short, full of evidences that many of the ruptures and 
 overthrows of the strata, as well as great denudations, could 
 not even in millions of years have been produced by agencies 
 like those of our times. si. 
 
 Partizan Colors. — The political color ife determined by the 
 political light in which the elector has been reared. The man 
 who has had to grub in ignorance must wear a hue very differ- 
 ent from that of his opponent who has lived in the bright light 
 of educated thought. The narrow cells of ecclesiastical bigotry 
 prevent their occupant from acquiring the ruddy color of the 
 unimprisoned truth-seeker. But it is not only among voters at 
 election times that we observe the effect of light in settling the 
 question of color among active workers. We know that certain 
 animals whose natural hue is white, if bred and brought up in 
 darkness, become completely altered in texture and color. 
 The cockroach in its norinal state is intensely black. If this 
 insect be taken at an early stage of its existence, and carefully 
 reared in darkness, instead of assuming an inky hue when it 
 arrives at full growth, it becomes nearly white. The larvae of 
 most insects that burrow in the cavities of the earth, of plants, 
 or of animals, are white from the same cause. When confined 
 under glasses that admit the light, they exchange their white- 
 ness for a brownish hue. The influence of solar light and of 
 moral light explains many mysteries among men and maggots. 
 
 I. L. 
 
 Party Idiosyncrasies, The Neutralization of. — In the 
 
262 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 early life of political parties their colors and peculiarities are 
 most conspicuous. In the early life of rehgious sects their par- 
 ticular and denoting specialties are sharp and clear. As time 
 advances the colors begin to blend with other colors ; the pecu- 
 liarities shrivel as the principles expand ; the specialties are soft- 
 ened down into less harsh outlines. The vital power in both 
 cases becomes stronger and stronger with time, though its acci- 
 dents, badges, and accompaniments are less and less observable. 
 We see this same fading away of individual distinction in the 
 presence of healthy growth if we look at Nature. It is worth 
 notice that several varieties of the hawthorn, as well as of the 
 lime and juniper, are very distinct in their foliage and habit 
 when young, but in the course of thirty or forty years become 
 extremely like each other, thus reminding us of the well-known 
 fact that the deodar, the cedar of Lebanon, and that of the 
 Atlas are distinguished with the greatest ease while young, but 
 with difficulty when old. va. 
 
 Party Secession. — By a rather curious structure of the mus- 
 cles and bones of the spine, the blindworm is able to stiffen 
 itself to such a degree that on a slight pressure or trifling blow, 
 or even by the voluntary contraction of the body, the tail is 
 snapped away from the body, and on account of its propor- 
 tionate length looks just as if the creature had been broken in 
 half. The object of this curious property seems to be to insure 
 the safety of the animal. The severed tail retains, or rather 
 acquires, an extraordinary amount of irritability, and for sev- 
 eral minutes after its amputation leaps and twists about with 
 such violence that the attention of the foe is drawn to its singu- 
 lar vagaries, and the blindworm itself creeps quietly away to 
 some place of shelter.-^ Even after the movements have ceased, 
 they may again be excited by touching the tail with a stick, or 
 even with the finger, when it will jump about with a vigor ap- 
 parently undiminished. On frequently repeating the process, 
 however, the movements become perceptibly less active, and 
 after a while the only sign of movement will be a slight convulsive 
 shiver. It sometimes happens in the life of a political party 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 263 
 
 that there comes to it a moment of great danger. The enemy 
 presses hard upon the organization. " The tail of the party " 
 seems to , be selected for special attack, because it is supposed 
 to have given special provocation. Thereupon the " central 
 body " manages to dissociate itself from " the tail. " " The tail " 
 naturally shows signs of the greatest irritability. The public are 
 pleased that the " central body " has become discredited, and 
 since " the tail of the party '' continues to exhibit signs of great 
 vivacity, they assume that the vital force of the association has 
 been seriously affected. In due time they find that " the de- 
 tached tail " has never had an independent life, but has per- 
 formed merely mechanical movements under the influence of 
 unnatural irritability. They further have to observe that even 
 these soon cease because the section is dead, and that the po- 
 litical party itself lives on as well and vigorously as ever. i. l. 
 
 Passion, The Absurdity of. — There is a passion which is 
 the result of adequate causes, and there is a blind, brutelike 
 passion. We see men under the influence of the latter, furious 
 without a cause, and with great waste of power scattering in- 
 juries around upon perfectly inoffensive objects. These men 
 are like the black rhinoceroses which C. J. Andersson says 
 are subject to sudden paroxysms of unprovoked fury, rushing 
 and charging with inconceivable fierceness animals, stones, and 
 bushes — in short, every object that comes in their way. v^Gor- ^ 
 don Gumming describes them as often plowing up the ground 
 for several yards with their horns, and assaulting large bushes 
 in the most violent manner. On these bushes they work 
 for hours with their horns, at the same time snorting and 
 blowing loudly, nor do they leave them in general until they 
 have broken them to piecesJi> Passionate men are invited to 
 look at these animals and set them up as their models or their 
 monitors, whichever they, in their judgment, may deem more 
 wise. M. 
 
 Passion, Tlie Batteries of .^ — Regular ill temper is altogether 
 a different thing from passion. The one corrodes incessantly 
 like an acid or metal ; the other discharges desperate shocks, 
 
 &^ 
 
264 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 like the electric shocks of the gymnotus, and spends itself. Do 
 not get in the way of passionate men till their batteries are dis- 
 charged. The exhaustion of these batteries is only a matter 
 of time and opportunity. And you may watch the process 
 calmly, and be instructed by Humboldt's description of the 
 way in which the gymnotes use their batteries, and see if you 
 discover therein any resemblance to and lesson for passionate 
 persons. He tells us that the gymnotes abound in the vicinity 
 of Calabozo in South America, and the Indians, well aware of 
 the danger of encountering them when their powers are in vigor, 
 collect from twenty to thirty horses, drive them into the pools, 
 and when the gymnotes have exhausted their electric batteries 
 on the poor horses, they can be taken without i^sk. Time and 
 repose are needed before the batteries' are ready to act again. 
 The first assault of the gymnotes, says Humboldt, was chiefly 
 to be dreaded. In fact after a time the eels resembled dis- 
 charged batteries. Their muscular motion continued active, 
 but they had lost the power of giving energetic shocks. When 
 the combat had endured for a quarter of an hour, the horses 
 seemed to be less in fear. They were no longer seen to fall 
 backward, and the gymnotes, swimming with their bodies half 
 out of the water, were now flying from the horses and making 
 for the shore. The Indians then began to use their harpoons, 
 and by means of long cords attached to them drew the fish out 
 of the water. When the batteries of his passion have been dis- 
 charged, many a passionate man has also afforded a similarly 
 easy conquest to those who have just watched and waited. 
 
 MU. 
 
 Passionate Character, The The panther rarely attacks 
 
 man without being provoked ; but it is irritated at the merest 
 trifle, and its anger is manifested by the lightning rapidity of 
 its onset, which invariably results in the speedy death of the 
 imprudent being who has aroused his, fury. Avoid passionate 
 people, for they are like the panther. ] They may appear harm- 
 less, but they are easily provoked, and when rage has taken 
 possession of them they are reckless of your destruction. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 265 
 
 Patriotism, Genuine. — We may see genuine patriotism in 
 the beehive. While some bees go off to the fields to perform 
 the labor allotted to them there, let us see what the others are 
 doing in the hive. Some are clustering about the top ; and now 
 they fix themselves to the roof by the fore legs, while the hin- 
 der legs hang down. Upon these other bees suspend them- 
 selves, and leave their legs similarly to the disposal of the new- 
 comer, and thus a ladder is rapidly formed, reaching at last to 
 the bottom of the hive.ij: To facilitate operations, and perhaps 
 strengthen as well as elaborate their scaffolding, they also hang 
 themselves in festoons, each end attached to the roof ; and be- 
 fore the actual commencement of labors, there is a series of 
 such festoons formed, so that the bee workmen may ascend 
 and descend in every direction. The entire weight of this Kv- 
 ing staircase is borne by the individual bees at the top, and 
 cheerfully borne too. Sydserff (reprinted in Cotton) says they 
 will suffer their legs to be disjointed before they will let go their 
 hold. Such is the patriotism of the hive ; and such is the sort 
 of patriotism which merits emulation. It is a better sort than 
 that which consists in fighting others. It is more useful. These 
 patriots, if hurt, get their injuries in an endeavor to be of ser- 
 vice to their community, and in a work which they know to be 
 necessary. This is more nobly patriotic than getting wounds 
 in endeavors to injure your fellows in a war. b. w. 
 
 People who are Pampered. — Probably in no class of 
 society do you find such crass stupidity, dense ignorance, and 
 ludicrous imbecility as among people who pamper themselves 
 — gluttons who feed their whims, ailments, and appetites until 
 their mawkishness, obesity, and selfishness are revolting to the 
 eye of common sense, and their senile prattle is offensive to all 
 but idiot ears. It is almost too complimentary to compare 
 these self-indulgent people to the goose ; but the resemblance 
 between a natural man, and man after years of pampering, and 
 the goose before and after domestication, is very startling. The 
 wild goose is a pattern of sagacity : it must be content with the 
 grasses, snails, fish, grains, berries, etc., which it finds in the 
 
266 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 open fields — in short, with whatsoever niggard winter has left 
 behind, and to travel from stream to stream in quick flight, 
 through darkness and frost. The domestic goose, on the con- 
 trary, hving solely on potatoes and nourishing corn food, and 
 transformed into a quiet household and pasturage animal, and 
 having no work to do, has become the archetype of stupidity. 
 With these animals all depends on their activity ; in slothful 
 gluttony they lose their natural demeanor and energy ; the flash- 
 ing ardor of liberty and nature is extinguished in imbecility. 
 The goose has become a slave to its appetite, but all that is 
 tragical in such a situation is here turned into comedy. The 
 goose is a cavalry soldier on foot, a swimmer upon land. Not 
 for one single moment does that heavy bod)r, snatched from 
 its native element, find its original equilibrium ; all center of 
 gravity is lost. On broad oarlike feet she trails along her 
 clumsy body, grown fat in captivity, at every step rocking on 
 one side or half tumbling forward ; the neck alone is stretched' 
 out stiffly, and the eyes stare stupidly right before them. If you 
 drive her, she never knows whither to go ; now turning hesitat- 
 ingly to the right, and now to the left, always at a loss, always 
 cackling. If you drive her more quickly, the noise becomes a 
 confused shrill scream ; the bewildered animal spreads out its 
 wings, beats them violently together, without, however, rising 
 an inch above the ground, for long disuse has weakened the 
 strength of its pinions. ST. 
 
 People, Making Use of. — There are expert persons who 
 are always making use of us. They constantly delude us into 
 the notion that we are doing something which will benefit 
 ourselves ; and at the moment we imagine we are to enjoy 
 some of the best results of our work, they obtain and appropri- 
 ate them. They never cease to offer us some benefit for the 
 large proportion of our time which they consume, and a long 
 habit of obedience to their superior authority constrains us to 
 continue at the work, though we well knovv the inducement is 
 a selfish sham, and our labor is the tax an extortioner is exact- 
 ing. In the hands of these plausible fellows, we resemble a cer- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 267 
 
 tain bird which isKiised in an interesting mode of fishing much 
 practised in China. <kThe clever fishermen employ a black bird 
 called the loo-soo, which is as large as a duck and has a neck 
 as long as a goose. A fisherman takes them in his boat, and 
 when he sets them at liberty they swim upon the water, and at 
 the sight of a fish they dive and secure it in their beaks. A 
 ring is put upon their necks, which will allow them to swallow 
 the smaller fish but not the larger. When the fisherman per- 
 ceives that their throats are filled with fish, he thrusts into the 
 water a long pole, upon which these birds have been trained to 
 climb and return into the boat ; he then squeezes their throats 
 to make them disgorge their prey, and every time this is done 
 he obtains about two handfuls of fishlf The greater the number 
 of these birds a fisherman possesses the richer is he considered 
 to be, for like the persons whom others selfishly use for their 
 purposes, they cost but very little to keep. me. 
 
 Periodicity, The Law of — Certain plants appear, in an 
 inexplicable manner, to be influenced by the law of periodicity 
 as well as by light. Dr. Balfour, when referring to this sub- 
 ject, observes that a plant accustomed to flower in daylight at 
 a certain time will continue to expand its flowers at the wonted 
 time even when kept in a dark room. De CandoUe made a 
 series of experiments on the flowering of plants kept in dark- 
 ness, and in a cellar lighted by lamps. He found that the law 
 of periodicity continued to operate for a considerable time, and 
 that in artificial light some flowers opened, while others, such 
 as species of convolvulus, still followed the clock hours in their 
 opening and closing. i. l. 
 
 Perpetual Change a Law of Nature. — In material Nature 
 there is no such thing as rest. It is a fact of which the very 
 first principles of geology assure us, that the solids of the globe 
 cannot for a moment be exposed even to water or to the atmo- 
 sphere without becoming liable to change. They instantly 
 begin to wear down. The adamantine rock is no accurate sym- 
 bol of rest, for it is subject to the law of change. ve. 
 
 Pertinacity Rewarded — The fox, being extremely fond of 
 
268 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 honey, often attacks nests of wild bees. When the bees rush 
 out and sting him he rolls on the ground and crushes them, 
 and returns to the charge so often that he forces them at length 
 to abandon the hive, from which he extracts both the honey and 
 the wax. R. 
 
 Physical Agents would be Catastrophic, Alteration of. 
 — The physical agents which do not vary are the same in all 
 climates. Their influence, which is so permanent, seems also 
 to be so necessary that were any one of them to be altered, 
 the whole living machinery of the earth would stop, from the 
 animalcule to the whale, and from the byssus to the oak. If 
 water were to become solid at one hundred degrees instead of 
 at thirty-two degrees, no living being as now constituted could 
 exist.lt If gravity were diminished on the earth, a thousand in- 
 conveniences would be felt by all, and though we do not see 
 any reason why life should cease at once, as in the former in- 
 stance, still the amount of inconvenience would be enormous 
 and intolerable. Thus if it were suddenly reduced to the force 
 which it exerts on some of the ultrazodiacal planets, as Ceres 
 and Pallas, a man, says Herschel, could spring with ease sixty 
 feet high, and sustain no greater shock on coming to the earth 
 than he does now from leaping a yard. Giants might exist, 
 and that enormous animal the whale, which now requires the 
 buoyant power of water to counteract its weight, might then be 
 a denizen of the land. s. 
 
 Pilgrim Natures — In the arid deserts of Central South 
 America there is a strange plant, the Sdaginella convoluta, a 
 species of club-moss, endowed with very remarkable hygrometric 
 properties. In the dry season, when every particle of moisture 
 is extracted from the soil, it is detached from its growing place, 
 rolled up into a ball, and carried away by the violent equinoc- 
 tial gales which prevail at the time in these regions, often to 
 very great distances. It remains coiled up ii;i this form for a 
 considerable time ; but if carried to a marsh, or the margin of 
 a stream, or any other moist place, it begins slowly to unfold, 
 and spread itself out flatly on the soil, assumes its former vigor 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 269 
 
 and freshness, takes root, develops its fructification, and casts 
 abroad its seed upon the air. When this new situation is dried 
 up, it resumes its old unsettled habits, and takes advantage of 
 the wind to emigrate to a more favorable locality.^It is like 
 an adventurous pilgrim whose very constitution seems to make 
 him long for perpetual changes, and whose temperament is 
 adapted admirably for a roving life. b. 
 
 Pioneers, Unexpected. — You write down as absurd, and 
 despise as quixotic, many men whose movements you cannot 
 follow, and whose cause you do not understand. But, remem- 
 ber, many such men have been the pioneers of the race. They 
 have pursued their own course steadily and honestly. The 
 glories of the discoveries to which their pathway would lead 
 the coming generations were too splendid for even their eye of 
 faith to behold, but subsequent ages have gazed on them with 
 rapture and gratitude.'^ And such men are not the onty exam- 
 ples of humble pioneers who have performed services for human- 
 ity. Geography is under obligations to yet more lowly friends, 
 for it is a remarkable fact that the North American bison or 
 buffalo once exerted an important influence on geographical dis- 
 coveries in pathless mountain districts. These animals advanced 
 in herds of many thousands in search of a milder climate dur- 
 ing winter in the countries south of the Arkansas River. Their 
 size and cumbrous forms rendered it diflicult for ihem to cross 
 high mountains on these migratory courses, and a well-trodden 
 buffalo-path was therefore followed wherever it was met with, as 
 it invariably indicated the most convenient passage across the 
 mountains. Thus, as Humboldt assures us, buffalo-paths have 
 indicated the best tracks for passing over the Cumberland 
 Mountains in the southwestern parts of Virginia and Ken- 
 tucky, and over the Rocky Mountains between the source of 
 the Yellowstone and Platte Rivers, and between the southern 
 branch of the Columbia and the Californian Rio Colorado. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Pleasure, Where to Find. — The fact is undeniable that the 
 portions of rock which have as yet proved to be the richest in 
 
270 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 gold are those which are at or nearest the surface. Experi- 
 ence, too, dearly bought in numberless instances, has taught the 
 miner throughout long ages that as he follows the veinstones 
 downward by deep shafts into the body of the rock, the gold 
 diminishes in volume, so that in many cases the cost of extrac- 
 tion has been greater than the value of the metal,3pThe Ural 
 Mountains will illustrate this fact. The Indians who lived in 
 tracts adjacent to the Slaty Mountains of Chili, Peru, and Mex- 
 ico followed the simple process of picking the shining material 
 from the gravel, sand, and shingle derived from the chain ; so 
 that when the Spaniards, the best miners of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, first colonized South America, thejr naturally inferred that, 
 if ignorant natives could thus gather sufficient quantities of gold 
 to roof the palaces of their sovereigns, they, as skilful Europeans, 
 might extract incredible quantities from the bowels of moun- 
 tains the mere detritus or surfaces of which had contributed 
 such a vast amount of gold. But as surely as deep mines fre- 
 quently enriched the Spanish speculators who sought for copper 
 and silver, so surely gold-mining in the solid rock proved abor- 
 tive, owing to the slender downward dissemination of gold in a 
 hard and intractable matrix. Experience in every country 
 proves that the field of gold decreases with the depth where 
 mining in the solid rock has been attempted. Here is a lesson 
 to people in search of pleasure. Look out for your pleasure in 
 the duties which lie nearest to your hand. On the surface of 
 your everyday life there are more enjoyments to be obtained 
 than you are disposed to believe. You do not look for them, 
 therefore you do not see them. You erroneously imagine that 
 by burrowing after fortune year after year you will e\rentually 
 discover happiness. Nothing of the kind. The deeper you 
 sink in your mercenary pursuit, the less will be your reward so 
 far as real pleasure goes. The purest joys are not hidden away 
 from hght. si. 
 
 Pleasure is Seldom Unalloyed. — We look with great ex- 
 pectancy for the arrival of some pleasure which we imagine will 
 afford us the most complete satisfaction, and no sooner does it 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 271 
 
 arrive than we find in its train a whole host of petty annoyanc 
 and unwelcome accompaniments. It is not only so in social 
 life, but also in the material world. Mr. Matthew Lewis, M.P.," 
 in his interesting " Journal " of a residence-among-the negroes^ 
 in the '\A'est Indies, relates how eagerly in Jamaica, after three 
 months of drought, the inhabitants long for rain ; and when the 
 blessing at last descends, it is accompanied by terrific thunder 
 and lightning, and has the effect of bringing out all sorts of in- 
 sects and reptiles in crowds ; the ground being covered with 
 lizards, the air filled with mosquitoes ; the rooms of the houses 
 with centipedes and legions of mosquitoes.j" And it will, on in- 
 quiry, be found that the enjoyment of nearly every anticipated 
 pleasure is in like manner more or less alloyed by reason of the 
 unpleasant things which seem inevitably to attend it. jo. 
 
 Pleasure, Varieties and Contrarieties in the Idea of 
 
 Every creature is made for happiness, and receives happiness 
 according to its capacity ; and it is very wrong to suppose that 
 because we should be miserable if we led the life of a vulture, 
 or sloth, or a bat, therefore these creatures are miserable.^ In 
 truth, the vulture is attracted to and feels its greatest gratifica- 
 tion in those substances which would drive us away with averted 
 eyes and stopped nostrils. The sloth is, on the authority of 
 Waterton, quite a jovial beast, and anything but slothful when 
 in its proper place ; and as for the bat, it sings for very joy. 
 True, the song is not very melodious, neither is that of the 
 swift or the peacock, nor perhaps that of the cochin-china fowl, 
 but it is nevertheless a song from the abtmdance of the heart. 
 
 c. 
 
 Pliability, Perils from. — The dunes form the extreme line 
 of the Brittany coast for nearly two hundred miles, from the 
 Adour to the Garonne. They are hills of white sand, as fine 
 and soft as if it had been sifted through an hour-glass. Their 
 outline, therefore, changes every hour. When the wind blows 
 from the land, millions of tons of sand are hourly driven into 
 the sea, to be washed up/again on the beach and blown inland 
 by the first Biscay gale.'jl A water hurricane from the west will 
 
272 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 fill up with sand square miles of shallow lake, driving the dis- 
 placed waters into the interior, dispersing them in shining pools 
 among the "murmurous pines," flooding and frequently destroy- 
 ing the scattered hamlets of the people, and inundating their 
 ■fields of rye and millet. d. 
 
 Poison as a Protection. — One of the greatest trees of 
 Southern Asia, and possibly one of the greatest in the world, 
 is the teak or Indian oakri^ecfona grandis), which covers vast [. 
 areas in Hindustan, and flourishes also in Pegu, Ava, Siam,^ 
 Java, and the Burman Empire/^This most useful tree is hand- 
 some and stately, often attaining a stature of one hundred and 
 thirty to one hundred and fifty feet, with a trunk of proportionate 
 diameter, upright, well shaped, and surmounted by wide-spread 
 branches. The poisonous properties of its wood preserve it 
 from the attacks, of vermin, but render it dangerous to work, 
 for men who are but lightly wounded by its splinters die [after 
 a very brief interval. <d. 
 
 Poison of One is the Food of Another, The It is a won- 
 derful fact that the food which may suit one person may hap- 
 pen to be actually injurious to another, and the medicine which 
 will administer relief to one person will be positively an aggra- 
 vation of the same disease in another person. Among birds, 
 we find that reptiles which are to other existences poisonous 
 are used for food. /f The king- vulture {Sarcorhamphics papa) is 
 an inhabitant of a great part of South America. It is most 
 abundant within the tropics, but extends its range beyond these 
 lines, being found commonly not only in Guiana, Brazil, and 
 Peru, but also in Paraguay and Mexico, and occasionally ^•isit- 
 ing Florida in search of food. It feeds upon reptiles and car- 
 rion. Its visits to Florida are said to be generally made after 
 the herbage has been burned upon the prairies, where it feeds 
 greedily upon the half-roasted snakes and other reptiles which 
 have been unable to escape from the flames. mu. 
 
 Poisonous Influences. — Poisonous influences are often in- 
 visible. Hydrogen gas is the most subtile and permeating of 
 aeriform bodies ; and it appears, by the analysis of Morcati and 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 273 
 
 Others, that it favors the diffusion of morbid poisons, as a men- 
 struum and vehicle holding in solution both animal and vege- 
 table matters, which, being brought into contact with the blood, 
 at once alter the chemical relations of that vital fluid, and pro- 
 duce a kind of persisting ferment in it. This gas facilitates de- 
 cay, and its presence prevents the oxygen from duly acting on 
 the blood, the carbon of which it causes very quickly to be 
 combined with oxygen, so as to form carbonic acid, perhaps 
 even in the blood-vessels. There are moral poisons in the 
 world equally subtile and deadly in their influence. Insincerity, 
 lust, falsehood, selfishness, and irreverence are among the social 
 poisons which abound. The air is rife with them. If either of 
 these poisons enters into the natiu'e of a man, his moral character 
 soon gives evidence of decay. Under the influence of any one 
 of them the passions readily combine to alter the whole of his 
 spiritual organization, and virtue becomes poisoned at the 
 center. u. 
 
 Poisonous Lurking in the Pleasurable, The Bees some- 
 times collect their honey from poisonous plants, and instances 
 are recorded of persons having died from partaking of this honey, j^ 
 Kirby and Spence quote some proofs of this, such as that given 
 by Dr. Barton, the eminent physician, who records that in 1790 
 many persons died in Philadelphia from eating honey. Inquiries 
 were instituted, and it was found that the honey was derived 
 by the bees chiefly from the flowers of the Kalmia latifolia. 
 Xenophon, in his " Anabasis," mentions that some of his sol- 
 diers were singularly affected by honey which they took in Asia 
 Minor. Some of them seemed as if intoxicated, others were 
 much excited, and others lay on the ground as if about to die. 
 The poisonous lurks in the pleasurable, not only in matter but 
 in morals also. How often when enjoying apparently harmless 
 pleasures, men unexpectedly become the victims of moral evil ! 
 Wickedness seldom comes to us in its essential bitterness. If 
 it did, we should shun it. It generally insinuates itself in some 
 form of attractive sweetness, and frequently by means of un- 
 conscious agents as innocent as the bees, mu. 
 
2 74 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Polished People. — Scarcely any gem reveals its true beau- 
 ties in a natural state. The diamond in the rough is most un- 
 attractive, and would be thrown away by a casual observer as 
 a worthless pebble; its perfections are hidden under a hard 
 crust, which can only be removed by its own powder. The 
 deep velvet hue of the sapphire, the glowing brilliant red of 
 the ruby, the soft clear green of the emerald, and the dehcate 
 strata of the onyx, alike only display themselves in their true 
 character after the lapidary has used his skill in cutting them 
 into facets and polishing them ; and on the perfection of this ^ 
 operation depends in a great measure the beauty of the gem.i- 
 As it is with these, so it is also with human gems. A human 
 " diamond in the rough " is a most unattractive lout. If he is 
 to be ever valued as his inherent quahties deserve, he must be 
 poUshed by culture and good society. Few people have " the 
 seeing eye" to recognize human "jewels" so long as they re- 
 main in a coarse condition ; but when they have become smooth 
 in their manners and polished in their language, their value is 
 applauded by everybody. There are, of course, plenty of pol- 
 ished stones which are not gems, and plenty of poHte people 
 who are of no moral worth. But that does not diminish the 
 necessity that gems should be polished, and that geniuses should 
 be refined. di. 
 
 Political Notions, The Alternity of There are lagoons 
 
 at the mouths of many rivers, as the Nile and Mississippi, which 
 are divided off by bars of sand , from the sea, and which are 
 filled with salt and fresh water by turns.ft They often communi- 
 cate exclusi^-ely with the river for months, years, or even cen- 
 turies ; and then a breach being made in the bar of sand, they 
 are for long periods filled with salt water. The Lym-Fiord in 
 Jutland offers an excellent illustration of analogous changes ; 
 for in the course of the last thousand years the western extrem- 
 ity of this long frith, which is one hundred and twenty miles in 
 length, including its windings, has been four times fresh and 
 four times salt, a bar of sand between it and the ocean having 
 been as often formed and removed. The last eruption of salt 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 275 
 
 water happened in 1824, when the North Sea entered, killing 
 all the fresh-water shells, fish, and plants ; and from that time to 
 the present, the seaweed, Fucus vesiculosus, together with oysters 
 and other marine MoUiisca, have succeeded the Cyclas, Lymnea, 
 Paludina, and Chares. These phenomena find a correspondence 
 in the political world of England, where the tides of opinion 
 alternate between the fresh water of Liberalism and the salt sea 
 of Toryism. The operation of these respective forces, and 
 their dissimilar products, can be traced not only in the Statute- 
 Book, but all through modern history. The shores of the English 
 ecclesiastical world bear vast evidence of the operation of the 
 alternate currents of freedom and of bigotry. The Henry Eighth, 
 the Elizabeth, the Mary, the James, and the Cromwell periods 
 especially are rich in their illustration of the achievements of 
 torrents of alternate opinion. e. 
 
 Popular Thought, Currents of When we observe the 
 
 action of public opinion in this country, and the way in which 
 various sections of the community become subject to sudden 
 and sometimes inexplicable opinions, which afterward in modi- 
 fied forms are then, perhaps, adopted or opposed by other sec- 
 tions ; and contemplate the singular cross-workings and courses 
 of popular thought and sentiment, we are reminded of the move- 
 ments and constitution of currents of air. And in both cases 
 we find that reflection enables us to account for a great deal of 
 phenomena which at first appeared inexplicable. The lower 
 stratum of intelligence, like the lower clouds, always moves 
 slowly, and for the same reason. Any person looking from a 
 mountain, on a cloudy storm raging in a valley below, may 
 observe that the lower part of the storm moves with less velocity 
 than the upper part, producing an irregular rolling or tumbling 
 motion of the clouds, that evidently arises from the resistance 
 which that part of the wind encounters that presses on the sur- 
 face of the earth. The frictions and obstructions on each par- 
 ticular part of the surface impede the progress of the lowest 
 part of the air, and that other portion which immediately fol- 
 lows climbs over the lowest stratum of air, but in so doing it is 
 
276 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 itself impeded by the obstacle it has to encounter in the lower 
 and retarded air. A third portion of air then climbs over the 
 second, and in so doing is itself retarded, and in this way 
 successive strata of air follow and climb over the other strata 
 that present obstacles to their progress, and thus form overlap- 
 ping and rising currents, moving with increasing velocities as 
 they proceed at a greater distance from the obstructions on the 
 surface of the earth. on. 
 
 Popular Ideas, Growth and Persistency of. — ^The way in 
 which popular ideas have been introduced into English society, 
 have taken root and persistently flourish, reminds us of the ac- 
 count Mr. M. G. Lewis, M.P., gives of the introduction of vas- 
 sals grass into Jamaica. It appears that many years ago a new 
 species of grass in a small quantity was introduced into the 
 island for the purpose of feeding pigs. Its seeds soon became 
 scattered about by the birds, and it then took possession of tlie 
 cane-pieces, whence to eradicate it was often, and is, an utter 
 impossibility, the roots being as strong as ginger and insinuating 
 themselves (like Liberal ideas) underground to a great extent. 
 In a very short time it overran several parishes, obtained a 
 footing in the island, and increased the cost of cultivation of 
 the cane by at least one third. Where the moral and intellec- 
 tual soil of a country is favorable to the growth of particular 
 ideas, and these are distributed by persistent men, it is marvel- 
 ous to observe with what rapidity they spread, and with what 
 tenacity they cling to life, despite all the efforts made to eradi- 
 cate them by the people who hate them as being worse than 
 vassals grass. jo. 
 
 Posthumous Influence. — Some stars are so distant that 
 their beams may have occupied thousands of years in journey- 
 ing to the earth, and yet these bodies, if suddenly annihilated, 
 would still continue to shine upon us for thousands of years to 
 come. So, too, there are great men whose existence has long 
 since terminated, but the influence of whose spirit still irradiates 
 our world., Milton, Shakespeare, and Christ, though gone from 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 211 
 
 our sphere, still shine upon it as spiritual stars of the first mag- 
 nitude. PO. 
 
 Posthumous Space The space occupied on the surface 
 
 of our planet by the different families of animals and their re- 
 mains is in\-ersely as the size of the individual. The smaller 
 the animal the greater, as a general rule, is the space occupied 
 by his remains. Take the elephant and his remains, or a micro- 
 scopic animal and his, and compare them. The .contrast as to 
 space occupied is as striking as that of the coral reef or island 
 with the dimensions of the whale. The graveyard that would 
 hold the corallines is much larger than the graveyard that would 
 hold the elephants. And what about the posthumous space 
 occupied by the conventionally great men and the convention- 
 ally small men ? Why, the big elephantine personages of courts 
 and levees, the colossal grandees who are able to sustain with- 
 out being crushed a gorgeous world of honors and decorations, 
 when they die occupy scarcely any space on our book-shelves : 
 all their " remains " are in a very small compass. Whereas the 
 men who were conventionally considered quite small creatures 
 are not so easily disposed of. Their remains in poetry, litera- 
 ture, and art are the abiding things ; and, long after they them- 
 selves have departed, that which they ha-\-e left occupies im- 
 portant space in the public mind. Look on your book-shelves. 
 What is the space filled by princes and courtiers, who in life 
 were gigantic personages : and what that occupied by those 
 workers whom the world called insignificant ? t. 
 
 Power without an Explanation, A — In most chalky 
 rocks, such as those of which the white cliffs of old England 
 are composed, many portions run well out to sea. If these 
 are examined at low water they will be found to be perforated 
 with numerous holes, running to some depth, and varying con- 
 siderably in dimensions. These holes are made by the Pholas 
 daciylus, one of the most remarkable animals in creaturedom. 
 Hard rocks and timbers are constantly found perforated by this 
 curious shell, but how this operation is performed no one knows. 
 
278 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 It is the more wonderful because the shell is by no means hard, 
 and cannot act as a file. Indeed in some species the external 
 shell is almost smooth. And, moreover, if the shell were used 
 as the boring-tool, the hole would be nearly circular, instead of 
 being accommodated to the shape of the shell,, as is seen to be 
 the case. However they get into the stone, there they may be 
 everywhere found, and it does not seem to be of much impor- 
 tance whether their habitation be limestone, sandstone, chalk, or 
 oak. Even the Plymouth breakwater in England, solid stone 
 as it is, was very soon attacked by these creatures. c. o. 
 
 Power, The Avarice of You would not think a man who 
 
 had held high office in the state for long years would descend 
 to mean and paltry tricks to obtain still more power. But he 
 will. You would not believe that a vast capitalist would go 
 out of his way to grab at the farthing which the rough hand of 
 toil is endeavoring to hold. But he does. Power is avaricious 
 alike in birds and men. The more the man has the more he 
 wants. These men who thus display the avarice of power are 
 the white-headed eagles of society. During spring and summer 
 the white-headed eagle follows a course to procure sustenance 
 which you would judge -very little suited to a bird so well able 
 to supply itself without interfering with other plunderers. No" 
 sooner does the fish-hawk make its appearance along the Atlan- 
 tic shore, or ascend the numerous and large ri\-ers, than the 
 eagle follows it, and robs it of the hard-earned fruits of its 
 labor. Perched on some tall summit in view of the ocean, or 
 of some watercourse, he watches every motion of the osprey 
 while on the wing. When the latter rises from the water with 
 a fish in its grasp, forth rushes the eagle in pursuit. He mounts 
 above the fish-hawk, and threatens it by actions well under- 
 stood, when the latter, fearing, perhaps, that its life is in dan- 
 ger, drops its prey. In an instant the eagle, accurately estimat- 
 ing the rapid descent of the fish, closes its wings, follows it with 
 the swiftness of thought, and the next moment grasps it.t* The 
 white-headed eagles of society pursue their course with equal 
 disgrace to themselves ; and their method is not more exalted. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 2-;g 
 
 They take advantage of their strength, and the great elevation 
 to which fortune has raised them, for the greedy purpose of dis- 
 covering the movements of those who are below them, the better 
 to rob the more humble of even the little they possess. p. 
 
 Precedence. — The Pondicherry \-ulture is an Indian species 
 greatly resembling the Bengal vulture in its habits, although it 
 belongs to a different genus. Now although this Pondicherry 
 vulture and the Bengal A-ulture are nearly of the same size, the 
 former appears to hsiye the power of inspiring some kind of 
 awe or dread in his brother scavenger, for whenever he de- 
 scends upon a carcass on which a crowd of Bengal vultures are 
 feeding, they immediately make way for,/him, and even retire 
 from their banquet until he is satisfied.^This proceeding has 
 obtained for the Pondicherry vultures the unearned title of king- 
 vultures, both from , Europeans and natives. There are Pondi- 
 cherry vultures in society — men and women whose title to be 
 considered superior to those around them is an exceedingly 
 obscure one. But they have somehow or other got themselves 
 established as the kings and queens of social circles, and their 
 coilipeers retire before their presence with a dread and respect 
 worthy of the Bengal vulture itself. Sometimes the table of 
 precedence, which is the Bible of the fashionable world, may 
 be settled upon intelhgible principle ; but it will often be found 
 to bear witness to anomalies of deference quite as extraordinary 
 as the peculiar courtesy and awe exhibited by these vultures 
 one toward the other. mu. 
 
 Prejudices, The Tenacity of — Prejudices form a large 
 family in the continent of ideas. Their tenacity of life is mar- 
 velous. They resemble the sea-worm, the white water-worm, 
 and those little worms with feelers which are found at the bot- 
 tom of dirty ditches. In all these the nobler organs are of such 
 little use that if taken away the animal does not seem to feel 
 the want of them ; it lives in all its parts, and in every part, 
 and by a strange paradox in Nature, the most useless and con- 
 temptible hfe is of all others the most difficult to destroy, a. 
 
 Preparatory Intellectual Processes — It frequently hap- 
 
2 8o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 pens that the very insects which we most admire, which are 
 decorated with the most briUiant colors, and which soar on the 
 most ethereal wings, have passed the greater portion of their 
 lives as burrowers beneath the surface of the earth. rThe well- 
 known May-fly or ephemera — so delicate in its gauzy wings, so 
 marvelous in its muscular power, which enables the new-bom 
 being to disport itself in the air for a period which, in com- 
 parison with our own lives, is equal to at least forty years, and 
 .passing the greater portion of its terrestrial existence as an in- 
 habitant of the air — has spent a life of some three years or 
 more hidden from human gaze. Let this fact remind young 
 people who are impatiently anxious to soar high in the world's 
 notice, that there are preparatory processes necessary for aerial 
 spirits. The orator sustains the flight of his eloquence all the 
 better, and the figures of his rhetoric are all the brighter, be- 
 cause he spends the first portion of his life burrowing in the 
 useful obscurity of a library. Away from all distractions, in 
 the seclusion of reading and meditation, he acquires the intel- 
 lectual powers which enable him to rise to his proper sphere. 
 
 H. 
 
 Preparedness, Constant. — Some of the dragon-flies have 
 wings always expanded even when the creatures are resting, so 
 that they can on being disturbed take flight in an instant, there 
 being no necessity for them to unfold their wings. These insects 
 can fly in all directions without turning backward or forward, 
 and to the right or left, so that to those inexperienced in their 
 habits they are very difficult of capture^; Semper paratiis is 
 a good motto. mu. 
 
 Pretensions, Disappointing. — When a man causes a fuss 
 and make-believe about doing something which we well know 
 he cannot do, he reminds us of the ostrich in its pretensions to 
 fly. That great bird when he starts spreads his big wings and 
 expands his splendid plumage, as though, at least, he were about 
 to soar to the clouds. But no : however swift his movements, 
 his immense pinions never raise him above the grouncl|)to even 
 the height of a mud-lark. How many poets, authors, states- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLL'STKA'lIOXS. 281 
 
 ineH, set out on their several performances with a manner which 
 seemed to say that they were certain to show at last what a flight 
 genius could take ; and in the result only taught the world that 
 their course was simpl}- of the usual prosaic kind, and that their 
 big pretensions were impotent to raise them at all out of the 
 every-day dust of life ! n. e. 
 
 Prodigal Endowment. — We are, sometimes amazed at the 
 prodigal way in which Nature has lavished her gifts upon mean 
 things. Some contemptible royalties enjoy a profusion of en- 
 dowments which positively staggers the senses. Burns seems 
 to have reached a white heat of indignation when he described 
 all the advantages bestowed upon the " coof " who was " ca'd 
 a lord," who " struts, and stares, and a' that.'' It is wise, how- 
 ever, to realize as a fact that Nature does in some cases appear 
 extravagant in her endowments. But, on the other hand, it 
 should be remembered that she only is so in the case of organ- 
 izations of a low type. As a compensation for the meanness 
 of their intelligence, she gives them other things. For example: 
 there is a marine worm, the Eunice sangidnea, which is some- 
 times to be found on our coast, and attains the length of about 
 two and a half feet. This creature, says Dr. Hartwig, consists 
 of about three hundred rings. A brain and' three hundred 
 ganglia, from which about three thousand nervous branches 
 proceed, regulate the movements, sensations, and vegetative 
 functions of a eunice ; two hundred and eighty stomachs digest 
 its food ; five hundred and fifty branchiae refresh its blood ; six 
 hundred hearts distribute this \ital fluid throughout the whole 
 body ; and thirty thousand muscles obey the will of the worm, 
 and execute its snakelike movements. Why, this seems to sug- 
 gest a superfluity of force equal to that found in attendance 
 upon royalty ! SE. 
 
 Profitable Panic=Mongering. — Wolves prey upon the 
 moose or red deer, but are unable to catch them by speed of 
 foot. In consequence, a number of wolves will combine to- 
 gether to encompass a herd of deer on large plains bounded by 
 steep cliffs. While the deer are grazing, the wolves will form 
 
282 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 a crescent round them, and creep stealthily forward so as to 
 alarm them as little as possible at first ; but when they see that 
 they have fairly hemmed them in, and cut off their retreat, they 
 begin to move more quickly, and at last rushing on with loud 
 yells they terrify the deer, and urge them to flee toward the 
 precipice, as if they knew that when the herd is once put to its 
 speed, some of them must be driven over the cliffs, the hinder- 
 most forcing on those in front. When several have thus been 
 precipitated, the wolves go down at their leisure and feast upon 
 their mangled bodies. ;> R- 
 
 Progress Sometimes only Seeming, not Real. — The 
 currents of the sea are found to run in all directions, east, west, 
 north, south, being formed by various causes — the prominence 
 of the shores, the narrowness of the straits, the variations of tlie 
 wind, and the inequalities at the bottom. These currents are 
 of the most material consequence to the mariner, without a 
 knowledge of which he could never succeed. It often happens 
 that when a ship gets unknowingly into one of these, everything 
 seems to go forward with success, the mariners suppose them- 
 selves every hour approaching their wished-for port, the wind 
 fills their sails, and the ship's prow seems to divide the water, 
 but at last by miserable experience they find that, instead of 
 going forward, they have been all the time receding.^^ The busi- 
 ness of currents therefore makes a considerable article in navi- 
 gation, and the direction of their stream and their rapidity has 
 been carefully set down. a. 
 
 Protection ol Parents by their Offspring, The. — The 
 birds can teach ungrateful children their duty toward aged 
 parerits^^It is an old tradition with regard to storks, says Mr. 
 Morris in his " British Birds,'' that they take care of and nourish 
 their parents when they are too old to take care of themselves,' 
 from whence the Greek word " pelargicos,'' signifying the duty 
 of children to take care of their parents ; and " pelargicoi no- 
 moi," signifying the laws relating to that duty — both derived 
 from the Greek word for a stork: "pelargos," from " pelas," 
 black, and " argos," white, alluding to the prevailing colors of 
 the stork. hi. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 283 
 
 Protective Influences. — Protective influences may be appa- 
 rently insignificant, yet in reality mighty. There is a grassy- 
 looking weed that grows among the sand near the sea-shore. 
 It is so coarse in substance that even hardy cattle turn from it 
 with disdain. Yet this sea-reed, Arwido arenaria, as it is called, 
 performs such useful service to man that its presence in this par- 
 ticular situation cannot be deemed less than providential. Many 
 low-lying coast lands require to be defended not only from the 
 sea, but also from the sand cast ashore by the waves. This 
 loose sand gradually accumulates, is driven hither and thither 
 by e\'ery gale of wind, and has a tendency to encroach upon 
 the fertile fields and convert them into desert wastes. The 
 threatened danger is averted by this humble weed, and the 
 shghtest consideration of its habits demonstrates that it was 
 specially created for the purpose. AVhile most plants instinc- 
 tively seek out the richest soils, this one prefers the driest sands. 
 The gritty storms so often raging around, which would destroy 
 the tender organization of other plants, beat harmlessly against 
 the flinty coverings of this hardy weed. In striking its roots 
 into the sand, it binds the loose particles together ; and as its 
 sapless-looking tufts rise above the surface, they arrest the stony 
 current as it drifts along, and consolidate it into little mounds. 
 In process of time these are piled up into the well-known hill- 
 ocks by the growth and decay of countless generations of tufts. 
 Such sandhills are common in various parts of Britain where 
 the coast is low ; but they are seen on a more extensive scale 
 in the rugged " dunes " which stretch in almost unbroken suc- 
 cession along the shores of Holland. Not only do they inter- 
 cept the devastating progress of the sand, but they likewise form 
 the stoutest bulwark against the encroachments of the sea. 
 
 BE. 
 
 Protectiveness that Imperils. — The parents of that socia- 
 ble bird the tumstone exhibit great attachment to their young, 
 but, as is the case with another species, their too great fondness 
 is sometimes the ruin of their offspring, their cries of distress at 
 the approach of an intruder directing attention to them. hi. 
 
 Prudence a Natural Instinct. — Even some of the lower 
 
284 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 creation possess an instinct which prompts them to provide for 
 their safety when it is threatened by an impending calamity. 
 When that reptile-looking fish, the lepidosiren of the Gambia, 
 perceives that the waters are falHng on the approach of the dry 
 season, and that food is becoming scarce, it buries itself in the 
 mud, and there awaits in a dormant state the return of the rains. 
 
 BE. 
 
 Pugnacity, Inherent. — There is no credit due to our citi- 
 zens who delight in fighting. Their propensity' only shows that 
 they have not worked out of them those attributes of the lower 
 animals which Tennyson enjoins them to expel from their 
 bosoms. , It should be the glory of manhood to rise above the 
 animals.^Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly in some low-natured 
 __men an inherent pugnacity. They resemble game-fowls. Game- 
 fowls are notorious for their pugnacity ; and the young cocks 
 crow, clap their little wings, and obstinately fight with each other 
 even while under their mother's care. Mr. Darwin relates cases 
 of whole broods, scarcely feathered, stone-blind from fighting ; 
 the rival couples moping in corners, and renewing their bat- 
 tles on obtaining the first ray of light. '^Let us honor them as 
 heroes ! va. 
 
 Pugnacity, The Folly of. — Plus sot quhm grillon (a greater 
 fool than a cricket) is a saying which has arisen from the de- 
 struction into which the field-cricket ( Gryllus cainpestris) allows 
 itself to be drawn through its pugnacity. The cricket lives 
 alone in its hole. Country children take these insects by pre- 
 senting a straw to them in the hole. The pugnacious cricket 
 seizes it directly with its mandibles, and lets itself be drawn 
 out of the hole and so taken. || How often in negotiations, in 
 debate, and in society does the pugnacious man, by a similar 
 abandonment of his prudence, allow himself to be victimized by 
 those who keep their temper, and laugh at him for losing his ! 
 
 I. 
 
 Pugnacity, Political. — To make two male crickets fight, 
 the Chinese place them in an earthen bowl about six or eight 
 inches in diameter. The owner of each tickles his' cricket with 
 
SCIEXriFIC ILLUSTliATIONS. 285 
 
 a feather, which makes them both run round the bowl different 
 ways, frequently meeting and jostling one another as they pass. 
 After several meetings in this way, they at length become exas- 
 perated, and fight withigreat fury, until they literally tear each 
 other limb from limb.-^frThe managers of political parties enjoy 
 the spectacle of their faction-mongers fighting with a similar 
 passion. They irritate them into action, often about matters 
 that are not worth a feather's weight, and then watch with zest 
 the pugnacity which ruins reputations and destroys honor, p. 
 
 Pugnacity of Small Natures. — Small men are generally 
 the most pugnacious, and the same circumstance is noted of 
 small animals. Even the little weasel, although sufficiently dis- 
 creet when discretion will serve its purpose, is ever ready to lay 
 down that part of valor, and take up the other. c. 
 
 Puny, The Might of the — Puny things have sometimes a 
 more mighty power than large ones. The chalk cliffs of south- 
 ern England, which form a stupendous barrier to the wild fury 
 of the German and Atlantic Oceans ; the limestone rocks, of 
 which immense tracts of country are almost entirely composed, 
 were not formed by the gigantic remains of megatheriums, mas- 
 todons, and other extinct monsters which lived and died amid 
 the wildest convulsions of a nascent world, but by the shields 
 and shells of inconceivable myriads of organisms, to each indi- 
 vidual of which the stage-plate of the microscope would be as 
 large a field for its gambols as a whole country Tvould be to 
 one man. It is not by the hurricane or the furious storm that 
 our fairest orchards and most luxuriant fields are laid waste and 
 converted into wildernesses of skeleton leaves and blackened 
 withered stalks, but by the ravages of the tiniest insects and 
 the minutest and most contemptible fungi. fo. 
 
 Puny Creatures, The Destructive Power of. — We some- 
 times underestimate the power of those whom we consider 
 contemptible opponents. Now, as a matter of fact, the pun);- 
 things of Nature are the greatest destroyers. And in society it 
 is the scandal-monger, the hypocritical religionist, the splenetic 
 obscurity, the man of little cranium and insignificant name and 
 
2 86 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 nature, who ruin reputations and wreck social organizations. 
 These apparently contemptible individuals in their capacity for 
 mischief are like certain beetles. The various species of Hylo- 
 bius are, where they abound, very injurious in forests of the pine 
 tribe, as they often quite destroy the young trees. The larch, 
 now so extensively planted for its useful timber, is at times much 
 destroyed by the Hylobius abietis. This beetle seems to prefer 
 in Germany the Pinus sylvatica and Pinus abies, though it at- 
 tacks all the firs indiscriminately. It gnaws the young shoots, 
 thus causing them to wither. The extremities of a tree thus 
 attacked (the most vigorous and healthy trees are invariably 
 selected by the beetle) several years in succession, sickness and 
 death inevitably ensue, in dry seasons especially. The mischief 
 this beetle occasions in woods where it abounds is almost in- 
 credible. One would have thought a beetle's influence on a 
 forest would have been only trifling. And we think contemp- 
 tible men have only trifling power. But the man and the beetle 
 can be desperately mischievous. mu. 
 
 Puny Things, The Posthumous Uses of. — The fossils of 
 the tertiaries are in some respects more interesting than those 
 of any other series of strata. It is not in the humbler classes 
 of animals that this interest chiefly lies ; and yet even in this 
 department the tertiaries present us with a wonder quite unex- 
 ampled. We refer to beds of greater or less thickness, com- 
 posed exclusively of the solid remains of animalcules — creatures 
 individually so small that only a microscope could enable 
 human eyes to see them. Such a rock (called tripoli) is found 
 at Bilin in Bohemia, and at Planitz, near Zwickau in Saxony. It 
 has been used as a powder in some of the arts for ages, without 
 any suspicion of its being thus composed. But within the last 
 few years M. Ehrenberg, a scientific Prussian, has fully ascer- 
 tained that it consists simply and wholly of the sihcious co^•er- 
 ings of certain minute creatures, some of which belonged to 
 species still to be found in stagnant waters. To common per- 
 ception, the powder of which the rock may be said to consist 
 resembles flour ; and in Norway, where it is accordingly called 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 287 
 
 berg-mehl (that is, mountain-meal), it is actually used in times 
 of famine as food, for which it is not entirely unsuitable, seeing 
 that there is always a percentage of animal matter left in it in 
 addition to the sihcious shields. So extremely small are the 
 creatures of which these rocks form the sepulcher that, accord- 
 ing to M. Ehrenberg's calculation, ten millions of millions of 
 individuals might be required to fill the space of a cubic inch. 
 
 CH. 
 
 Purpose a Destroyer of Pain. — When the mind is intently 
 set on using the muscle, it scarcely perceives anything but what 
 it wishes. Infuriated madmen in their violence will inflict 
 deadly injuries on themselves without feeling ; and the soldier 
 in the warmth of the fray, when comes " the tug of war," is 
 unconscious of his wounds ; and the brutal pugilist in the ring 
 bears bruising like an ass. u. 
 
 Quarrel=Mongers. — The dayal {Copsichus saularis) in India 
 is constantly caged, both for the sake of its song and for an- 
 other quality — its pugnacity. Fighting the tame birds, accord- 
 ing to Mr. Hodgson, is a favorite amusement of the rich ; and 
 he adds that no game-cocks can contend with more energy and 
 perseverance than these little birds. The same author states 
 that the professional bird-keepers take advantage of this pug- 
 nacious disposition in their pets to make them instrumental in 
 the capture of their wild brethren. During the spring, it appears, 
 the male birds are continually challenging each other, and as 
 soon as one has uttered his note of defiance it is answered 
 by another, and these altercations usually end in a batde. The 
 bird-keeper accordingly carries a tame male on his hand to the 
 nearest garden or grove, when the bird at his bidding utters his 
 challenge, and if this is answered by a wild bird, the tame one 
 is immediately slipped, and a desperate combat commences, in 
 the course of which the man easily secures the wild bird, the 
 tame one actually assisting in the act by holding his opponent 
 with his bill and claws. It-is worthy of notice that these birds, 
 like many human beings, possess this horrible pugnacity notwith- 
 standing the fact that they are wonderfully musical. Musical 
 
288 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 noises evidently have nothing whatever to do with the existence 
 or non-existence of harmony in the character. A woman's voice 
 may, hke a bird's, be beautifully melodious, yet her disposition 
 may be monstrously harsh and unpleasant. It is also to be 
 observed, in connection with the dayal, that like all pugnacious 
 creatures it easily becomes a mere tool in the hands of quarrel- 
 mongers. Whenever birds, the lower animals, or human beings 
 are of a pugnacious character, there are always found at hand 
 quarrel-mongers who will facilitate and foment their silly battles, 
 and turn the results to their own benefit. There are quarrel- 
 mongers of every order, but they all proceed upon the same 
 principle — get pugnacious beings to fight and then benefit your- 
 self by their folly. Even the great stock-brokers, army contrac- 
 tors, and political adventurers, who urge angry nations on to 
 war, are quarrel-mongers who, like the bird-keepers, act pre- 
 cisely on this principle. 
 
 Quarreling, Profitless. — The great owl often has battles 
 with the tawny eagle. The fight is sometimes so severe that it 
 terminates in the death of both combatants. Occasionally the 
 warriors are found with their claws so deep in one another's 
 flesh that they cannot withdraw them, and they both die on 
 the scene of action. At other times the great owl having con- 
 quered, he has been found with his talons so entangled in his 
 adversary that they have fallen to the ground together, and the 
 conqueror, unable to disengage himself, has himself been made 
 a captive. '^ re. 
 
 Quarrels, Imperfect Acquaintance Accounts for The 
 
 cat is less an enemy of the dog than is generally believed. When 
 unacquainted with one another, they have little sympathy in 
 common ; but when associated for a length of time they become 
 good friends. Then they lick each other, sleep on each other, 
 and understand making mutual concessions, which enable them 
 to li^'e in peace — in short, the most perfect harmony frequently 
 reigns between them. Every one who keeps cats and dogs 
 can testify to the correctness of this assertion. Our quarreling 
 neighbors who live "a cat-and-dog life" should note this inter- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 289 
 
 esting fact. Since they dispute with each other hke these ani- 
 mals do in the imperfect stage of their acquaintance, so may 
 they, like them, become good friends by learning more of each 
 other^ M. 
 
 Quarrelsome Character, The The Mantis oratoria is a 
 
 singular insect. Nothing equals the ferocity of these Orthop- 
 tera. If two of them- are shut up together, they engage in a 
 desperate combat ; they deal each other blows with their front 
 legs, and do not leave off fencing till the stronger of the two 
 has succeeded in eating off the other's head. From their very 
 birth the larvae attack each othM. The male, being smaller than 
 the female, is often ;it^ victim, r Kirby tells us that in China the 
 children procure them as in France they do cockchafers, and 
 shut them up in bamboo cages to enjoy the exciting spectacle 
 of their combats. There exist men and women whose disposi- 
 tion for quarreling resembles that of the Mantis oratoria. They 
 are born with the instinct for quarreling. It asserts itself in the 
 earliest stages of childhood, and grows stronger and stronger 
 with years. It is enough for any two of them to be together 
 to be sure of a disagreement. They never require a subject 
 for quarreling about ; they indulge in quarreling because it is 
 their nasty nature. j. 
 
 Quarrelsomeness, The Blunders of — Quarrelsome peo- 
 ple remind the observer of the sea-crabs. Sea-crabs are natu- 
 rally quarrelsome, and have serious contests together by means 
 of their formidable claws, with which they lay hold of their ad- 
 versary's legs, and wherever they seize^ it is not easy to make 
 them forego their hold, jr The animal seized has therefore no 
 alternative but to leave part of the leg behind in token of vic- 
 tory. Such are the blunders of quarrelsomeness that a crab, 
 when irritated, and made to seize one of its own small claws 
 with a large one, does not distinguish that it is itself the ag- 
 gressor, but exerts all its strength, and cracks the shell of its 
 own small claw, thereby injuring itself, as quarrelsome people 
 always do. Feeling itself wounded, it casts off the piece in the 
 usual place, but continues to retain the hold with the great claw 
 
290 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 for a long time afterward ; the very picture of quarrelsomeness 
 making itself and its own injuries a matter for ridicule. The 
 quarrelsome man loses power ; he needlessly injures himself like 
 the crab ; he strikes out to attack others, and in his eagerness to 
 do so he simply wounds himself, and his senses being obscured 
 by his passion, he then hugs the grievance he has himself made, 
 and thereby becomes the object of derision. p. 
 
 Quarrelsomeness, The Penalties of. — If you will always 
 be ready to go off like a loaded gun even by an accident, 
 depend on it you will get into difficulty. Your testy, quarrel- 
 some people not only injure themselves and others, but when 
 in danger their deliverance is often rendered totally impossible 
 because of their inveterate habit of contention, and they are 
 plunged from injury into absolute ruin. As soon as they meet 
 they begin a quarrel. They are placed in a position of common 
 danger, but even in discussing it they quarrel. They actually 
 are overtaken by the danger and still they quarrel, being more 
 eager about injiu-ing each other than about any other considera- 
 tion. The proceedings in Nature somewhat resembling theirs 
 are those which we notice among the ruffs. In the beginning 
 of spring when the ruffs arrive among Enghsh marshes, they are 
 observed to engage with desperate fury among each other ; it 
 is then that the fowlers, seeing them intent on mutual destruc- 
 tion, spread their nets over them and take them in great num- 
 bers. 1' Yet even in captivity their animosity still continues; the 
 people that fat them up for sale are obliged to shut them up in 
 ■ close dark rooms, for if they let ever so little light in among 
 them, the tm-bulent prisoners instantly fall to fighting with each 
 other, and never cease till each has killed his antagonist, espe- 
 cially, says Willoughby, if anybody stands by. a. 
 
 Questions, Nature's Method of Answering Man's.— A 
 force cannot be seen or grasped ; we notice it only in the effects 
 which it produces. If we would know whether a piece of steel 
 possesses magnetic power, we apply a needle, and try whether 
 this is attracted by it or not ; we then conclude from its be- 
 havior as to the absence or presence of magnetism. | Precisely 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 291 
 
 the same course, that of experiment, must be taken in order to 
 become acquainted with the chemical forces, the affinities of 
 bodies for each other. Every experiment is a question put to 
 a body, the answer to which we receive through a phenomenon, 
 that is, tlirough a change which we observe, sometimes by the 
 sight or the smell, sometimes by the other senses^ PR. 
 
 Quiescence, Objections to. — Had the sea been made with- 
 out motion, and resembling a pool of stagnant water, the noble 
 races of animated Nature would shortly be at an end. Noth- 
 ing then would be left alive but swarms of ill-formed creatures, 
 with scarcely more than vegetable life, and subsisting -bj^putre— 
 faction. Were this extensive bed of waters entirely quiescent, 
 millions of the smaller reptile kinds would there find a proper 
 retreat to breed and multiply in ; they would find there no agi- 
 tation, no concussion in the parts of the fluid to crush their 
 feeble frames, or to force them from the places where they were 
 bred : there they would multiply in security and ease, enjoy a 
 short life, and putrefying, thus again give nourishment to num- 
 berless others as little worthy of existence as themselves. But 
 the motion of this great element effectually destroys the num- 
 ber of these viler creatures ; its currents and its tides produce 
 continual agitations, the shock of which they are not able to 
 endure ; the parts of the fluid rubbing against each other destroy 
 all viscidities ; and the ocean, says Oliver Goldsmith, if we may 
 so express it, acquires health by exercise. a. 
 
 Quiet, The Wisdom of Being The great majority of 
 
 carnivorous animals, particularly such as are of an active and 
 powerful nature, reject dead substances ; and while the vulture, 
 whose beak and claws are comparatively weak, selects such, 
 the mighty and bold eagle will hardly stoop to carrion in its 
 fiercest hunger ; and, indeed, so marked is the preference, and 
 so decided the selection, for active living prey, that in many 
 cases rit'is perfectly safe while motionless, and is only seized 
 when it betrays its vitality by a change of position. ^ Thus the 
 frog sits intently watching an insect as long as it is quiet, and 
 only seizes it when it moves. The green tree-frog is thus pre- 
 
2g2 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 served in confinement during the winter, when no little insects 
 are to be procured, by gently moving little pieces of meat or 
 -, dead flies in front of it. ( Thyfalcon will only stoop for living 
 birds, and if they be thrust into its cage, he will not touch them 
 as long as they remain motionless. Very constantly, too, among 
 men we see that the more self-assertive and rapacious of the 
 race leave weaker ones alone until those weaker ones attempt to 
 defend themselves or exhibit fussiness. The exhibition of their 
 activity is the settling of their fate. Their safe policy was quiet- 
 ness. Abandoning that, they abandoned all their chances.wi/ jM^ 
 
 p. 
 
 Quite at Home The stork reveals a connection between 
 
 his mode of being and action and that of men. Carelessly and 
 confidingly he walks about the court and garden of the farmer ; 
 in seaport towns, he even stalks on amid all the bustle of the 
 streets, and expects every one whom he meets to make room 
 for him ; he wanders from market to market, from fountain to 
 fountain, examines boldly here a basket and there a dish — in 
 short, he feels himself at home. Despite all familiarity, he 
 knows how to make himself respected ; and he maintains not 
 only his perfect freedom, but even a sort of superiority, i' ST. 
 
 Rage of Fools, The. — The orang-utan in general, when he 
 feels himself sorely stricken by his pursuers, hurriedly climbs 
 to the summit of the loftiest tree within his reach, and if he 
 finds himself still pursued he passes on to another. Meanwhile 
 he utters the most dolorous cries, and vents his impotent rage 
 upon the tree which serves him for a refuge. One after another 
 he breaks the greatest branches ; but they immediately escape 
 from his grasp, and fall to the ground. Thus he does by this 
 expedient of his fury only expose himself the more fully to the 
 projectiles directed at him. The stripped tree is no longer 
 available as a shelter. The Malay hunters, therefore, take no 
 heed of all this fracas, but patiently wait until the orang has 
 thoroughly exposed himself, to aim their arrows or rifle-balls 
 with the greater certainty. Now the orang-utan has vast 
 muscular strength, powerful tenacious hands, and strong canine 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 293 
 
 teeth, and when he chooses to defend himself, he can easily 
 tear any antagonist to pieces, and yet this is how he deports 
 himself. One might suppose he had taken a lesson from human 
 fools on the subject of impotent rage. How many men there 
 are who when in a passion never resort to a reasonable defense 
 of their own interests, but indulge their own fury, and so expose 
 themselves entirely to the mercy of cunning enemies ! d. 
 
 Rapacious Character, The. — The mole, says fitienne 
 Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, does not experience a sense of hunger 
 like other animals ; with it this want is of the most powerful 
 description, it is an exhaustion which is felt as a kind of frenzy. 
 ' Take two moles of the same sex, place them before each other 
 in a room, and in a very short time the stronger will have de- 
 voured the weaker. i^Such is ever the rapacious character, 
 whether found among men or the lower animals. It is always 
 ravening after something, and it will even devour that which it 
 ought to spare rather than endure any check to its voracity. 
 Among men of commerce it is not at all unusual to see the 
 stronger of two speculators appropriate to himself the whole of 
 the weaker man's pecuniary estate. This man does not resem- 
 ble the mole in his greediness alone, but also in his vision. His 
 moral eyesight is very small, and made for burrowing among 
 things " of the earth, earthy." m. 
 
 Rapacious Misfortune-Seekers. — The shark's swiftness 
 of motion is such that he can outstrip the swiftest vessel, and 
 his strength so great that no unarmed man can cope with him 
 successfully. With one snap of his powerful jaws, a shark of 
 average size will cut a man in two. Frequently in the West 
 Indian seas the 'iiegFq crew of a boat will cease rowing, and 
 with a significant air indicate to the voyager the hideous form 
 of a shark following in the rear, and apparently waiting for 
 some false movement or sudden accident, which, by capsizing 
 the frail skiff, may provide his ravenous maw with food.:;// Fre- 
 quently, too, on tempestuous nights, when the wind and the sea 
 seem to howl a funeral dirge, the shark appears in the midst of 
 the heaving billows ; the seamen recognize his presence by the 
 
294 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 phosphorescence — the " elfish light " that glints from his shin- 
 ing scales — and know that he lusts after a victim. In tropical 
 waters he follows the ships with indefatigable patience, ready 
 to swallow the unfortunate who may fall overboard. Like 
 some cruel men, he anticipates the suffering and misfortune of 
 others, in order that he may turn them to a personal advan- 
 tage. MY. 
 
 Rapacious Instincts, The Physiognomy of. — Rapacious 
 instincts show themselves in the physical configuration. Look 
 at a crowd of men. It is not the man with the calm expansive 
 forehead and the genial eye who is the soldier. It is that man 
 of brutal brow, keen cold glance, and whose features are like 
 a hawk.p- What a contrast his nil admirari fierceness offers to 
 the bright intelhgent movements of .many in the crowd on whom 
 he turns his military scowl ! The physiognomy of rapacious in- 
 stincts is equally well marked in birds. Michelet bids us to 
 observe that birds of prey, with their small brains, offer a strik- 
 ing contrast to the numerous amiable and plainly intelligent 
 species which we find among the smaller birds. The head of 
 the former is only a beak ; that of the latter has a f ace.jj/- What 
 comparison can be made between these brute giants and the 
 intelligent, all-human bird, the robin-redbreast ! t. b. 
 
 Reasoning Power in Animals, The. — Man has been 
 justly said to be supreme over the other creatures as the tool- 
 making and tool-using animal. We observe, however, some 
 efforts at the use of tools, though but imperfect, in the ele- 
 phant, who carries a leafy branch in his trunk to shade himself 
 from the sun ; in the ape, who puts a stone into an open oyster 
 to prevent it from closing, or hfts a stone to break nuts/'or beats 
 the elephant's trunk or his fellow-apes with a stick, 'or takes 
 the cat's paw, if the story be true, to extract chestnuts from the 
 fire ; in the fox, who spreads cods' heads as a bait to catch gulls, 
 or immerses himself in the water, and holds a bough over his 
 head to deceive the hunters ; in the racoon, who captures deer 
 with pieces of moss ; in the bear, who, as told in the account of 
 Cook's third voyage, rolls down pieces of rock to crush stags; 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 295 
 
 in the rat when he leads his blind brother with a stick ; in the 
 bee, which uses propohs to cover a slug that has died in the 
 hive ; in the spider, which attaches a piece of wood to its web 
 to steady it ; and in the nymphae of water-moths, which select 
 straws in which they may float, putting in a bit of wood if it be 
 too heavy, or a bit of gravel if it be too light. Indeed it has been 
 said that there is nothing that man effects with all his tools, and 
 all his skill in the use of them, of which some indication may 
 not be seen in the brute or the insect. Thus the beaver and 
 the bee give examples of constructiont"tne spider of weaving^ 
 and the little nautilus of sailing. " Who taught the raven in a 
 drought " (asks Bacon in his "Advancement of Learning ") "to 
 throw pebbles into a hollow tree where she espieth water, that 
 the water might rise so as she might come to it ? " ( It^s a fact " 
 that the raven when she sees water that she cannot reach seems 
 to consider and find out means for bringing it within her reach. 
 She finds herself necessitated to raise it to a certain limit, and 
 she does so by putting pebbles into it. And her mode of pro- 
 ceeding appears to us as much the result of reason (though of 
 a lower degree of exercise of it) as man's invention of the 
 pump, f R. 
 
 Reciprocity a Law of Nature. — When all the arguments 
 of free-traders and of protectionists are ended, the scientific man 
 is delighted to be able to invite the student to hear what Nature 
 has to say on the question of reciprocity. One lesson is enough 
 to pour on it a flood of light sufficient to settle all further debate. 
 It is that of the plants and animals in relation to tlie atmosphere. 
 Let us investigate the matter attentively. Plants possess two 
 modes of respiration : one diurnal, in which the leaves absorb 
 the carbonic acid of the air, decompose this gas, and extract 
 the oxygen while the carbon remains in their tissues ; the other 
 noctiu'nal, and the reverse, in which the plant absorbs the oxy- 
 gen and extracts the carbonic acid ; that is to say, they breathe 
 in the same manner as animals do. The carbon which is used 
 by plants during the day is indispensable to the perfect devel- 
 opment of their organs and the consolidation of their tissues. 
 
296 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 By respiration plants live and grow. Plants purify the air in- 
 jured by the respiration of men and animals. If animals trans- 
 form the oxygen of the air into carbonic acid, plants take this 
 carbonic acid back again by their diurnal respiration. They 
 fix the carbon in the depth of their tissues and return oxygen 
 to the air in reparation. Such is the admirable equilibrium 
 which the Creator has established between animals and plants, 
 such the beneficial communication which assures to the air its 
 constant soundness, and maintains it in that state of purity 
 which is indispensable to support the hfe of the living creatures 
 which cover the globe. v. 
 
 Religious Belief, Innate. — It is probable that no human 
 race is destitute of some belief, more or less explicit or obscure, 
 in the existence of supernatural powers, good and evil, and like- 
 wise of a future and invisible state ; but there are nations who 
 scarcely recognize in the Invisible Being anything like will or 
 power to punish the guilty or reward the good, and who do not 
 suppose the future state to be a scene of retribution. This is 
 the account which missionaries and other persons have given 
 of the Polynesian superstitions. The adoration of rude nations 
 is generally directed toward visible objects. From this remark 
 we must except most of the American nations, who are said to 
 believe in the existence of a spiritual ruler of the universe. By 
 one class of rude nations the heavenly bodies are worshiped, 
 and the Polynesians connect this superstition with a mythology 
 which is poetical and not devoid of ingenuity. Others, like 
 the African nations, worship /^AV//<fj- or visible objects, in which 
 they suppose some magical or- supernatural power to be con- 
 cealed capable of exercising an influence on their destiny, and 
 of insuring success in any undertaking — a superstition of which 
 traces are to be discovered among the vulgar in many countries. 
 
 MA. 
 
 Remote Influences, The Cumulative Value of Small 
 and. — It is a startling fact that if the earth were dependent 
 upon the sun alone for heat, it would not keep existence in 
 animal and vegetable life upon its surface. It results from the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTKAriOKS. 297 
 
 researches of Pouillet that the stars furnish heat enough in the 
 course of the year to melt a crust of ice seventy feet thick — 
 almost as much as is supplied by the sun. ]PThis may appear 
 strange when we consider how immeasurably small must be 
 the amount of heat received from any of these distant bodies. 
 But the surprise vanishes when we remember that the whole 
 firmament is so thickly sown with stars that in some places 
 thousands are crowded together within a space no greater than 
 that occupied by the full moon. We learn from this fact that we 
 are greatly indebted in the physical world to the cumulative oper- 
 ation of small and remote influences. The same truth holds good 
 in the intellectual world. We may, according to our estimate, 
 consider any great mind either before or after Shakespeare as our 
 intellectual sun, and may attribute to his influence the glory of 
 our literature. But upon a closer inspection we shall find that 
 we are deeply indebted to thousands of remote and modest 
 mental stars whose united influence has done a work for us far 
 greater than has been adequately recognized. They have shone 
 over jails and gibbets, over persecuted altars and desecrated 
 houses, and have borne names never known to fame ; but be- 
 cause they were stars, their influence has made itself felt, and 
 our intellectual world owes to them as much gratitude as it does 
 to its intellectual sun. c. m. 
 
 Reprisals, The Principle of. — When we consider the al- 
 most invincible power which the crustaceans derive from their 
 armor, their muscular vigor, their ferocity, and their numbers, 
 we ask. How is it that they have not depopulated the shores 
 where they meet none but victims, no enemies capable of con- 
 tending with them upon equal terms ? For formidable as they 
 are to all the tribes of mollusks and zoophytes, what have they 
 to fear — except in a few countries certain littoral or amphibious 
 mammals which, for the most part, only attack them as a last 
 resort, preferring prey more easily devoured, and assisting them 
 in their work of extermination rather than fighting them? 
 Their tyranny then seems at first sight absolute and without 
 counterbalance. Such, however, is not the case. The crusta- 
 
298 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 ceans undergo at certain epochs a fatal crisis, which, delivering 
 them up defenseless to external shocks and the blows of their 
 enemies, places an easy vengeance within the reach of the op- 
 pressed. These epochs are their sloughing times, when, willy- 
 nilly, with great difficulty, and at the cost of the most painful 
 and sometimes the deadliest efforts, they are forced to shed 
 their armor of proof, to expose their living flesh barely covered 
 with a thin soft pellicle, and to bury themselves piteously under 
 the sand until the calcareous secretion shall be reformed and 
 solidified anew. This is their season of fear and flight. Their 
 hiding-places are easily discoverable, and once unearthed the 
 disarmed brigands are lost beyond redemption. Myriads per- 
 ish in this manner, devoured by other animals, crushed among 
 the stones, or dashed in pieces against the rocks by the move- 
 ment of the waves. Thus Nature enforces her law of reprisal. 
 The power of all tyrants and oppressors has its fixed limits. 
 The quarrelsome crustacean and the despotic king are alike 
 subject to the hour of retaliation. my. 
 
 Republican Principle, The Success of the. — Bees are 
 among the best workers in the world, and their community is 
 a most intelligent community. They illustrate the successful 
 working of the republican principle. Bees constitute republics, 
 not monarchies. The queen bee is simply the mother bee. 
 All the population is the issue of a common mother, and each 
 bee of the female sex can become a queen — that is to say, a 
 mother bee — if it receives an appropriate nourishment. The 
 mother bee is nothing more than president of the republic-jii 
 The vice-presidents are all those female bees which at any 
 given moment may be called by choice — that is, by popular 
 election — to fulfil the functions of the sovereign, when death or 
 accident has put an end to her existence. i. 
 
 Reputation without Reality. — In Java, and some other 
 of the great Indian islands, there exists a black panther, which 
 has gained, it is difficult to say how, the reputation of extraor- 
 dinary ferocity and daring. He owes his fame solely to the 
 imagination of the natives, and differs from his congeners in 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 2gg 
 
 no single respect but the blackish color of his skin. A skilful 
 naturalist, who was for some years a resident in Java, relates 
 that while botanizing in the fields and jungles early in the day, 
 he frequently roused the black panthers in theii" lairs. At first 
 he was somewhat starded by the apparition of an animal of 
 such terrible renown, but seeing him turn tail very quickly on 
 his approach, he soon grew reassured, and troubled himself no 
 more at these rencounters than if he had met a cat or a dog.:? 
 There are plenty of " black panther " reputations in society. 
 In literature, the arts, politics, and philanthropy, it is easy to find 
 fine specimens of men enjoying a great reputation, which they 
 owe solely to the credulity or ignorance of those of their fellow- 
 men who have not the seeing eye to distinguish between the 
 real and the spurious, or the intellectual capacity to test a vul- 
 gar renown by actual facts. d. 
 
 Reputation, Fictitious. — According to popular notions the 
 blindworm is a terribly poisonous creature, and by many per- 
 sons is thought to be even more venomous than the viper, 
 whereas it is perfectly harmless, having neither the will nor the 
 abiUty to bite, 'its temper being as quiet as its movements, and 
 its teeth as innocuous as its jaws are weak. Mr. J. G. Wood 
 says that the origin of this opinion may be found in the habit 
 of constantly thrusting out its broad, black, flat tongue with its 
 slightly forked tip ; for the popular mind considers the tongue 
 to be the sting, imagining it to be both the source of the venom 
 and the weapon by which it is injected into the body, and so 
 logically classes all creatures with forked tongues under the 
 common denomination of poisonous animals. il. 
 
 Reputation, An Undeserved. — Many reputations are un- 
 deserved altogether. Let us not in this connection trouble now 
 about statesmen, poets, or authors, but take from natural history 
 a familiar illustration, that of the eagle. The great strength of 
 the eagle enables it to prey upon creatures whose size would 
 prevent them from being attacked, or at all events being car- 
 ried off, by any of the smaller Falconidce. The eagle is in fact the 
 great tyrant of the wild regions which he inhabits, but as we 
 
300 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 must bear in mind that nothing that he can meet with there has 
 any power of defending itself from his terrible swoop, we must 
 not allow ourselves, as our forefathers dui, to magnify him into 
 a type of magnanimity and courage.^^This view is induced 
 by the magnificent aspect of the bird, and the abundant evi- 
 dences of terrible energy furnished by his every movement. 
 
 / But in true courage he is not superior to most of the smaller 
 hawks, and certainly inferior to the peregrine and many other 
 falcons, which will even venture to attack and drive away this 
 so-called monarch of the waste when he approaches too near 
 their nests. 'YSq) that really when we remember what a fame 
 
 ^the eagle has always had for magnanimity and for courage, it 
 is obvious, in view of the facts, that he, hke many other birds 
 and men, has obtained a reputation which is undeserved, /il. 
 
 Resemblances may Mislead. — We know that theroar of 
 the Kon is considered the most terrible of cries, which inspires 
 all the animals, and even man, with unconquerable dread. But 
 a curious fact, remarked by Livingstone, is the singular resem- 
 blance of the lion's roar to the cry of the ostrich. The great 
 African traveler says that he carefully inquired the opinion of 
 Europeans who had heard both. He had asked them if they 
 could discover the least difference between the roar of the one 
 and the cry of the other. They all informed him that they 
 could not perceive any, at whatever distance the animal might 
 be placed. The voice of the lion, generally, is deeper than the 
 ostrich's ; but Livingstone was only able to distinguish it with 
 certainty because it is heard during the day and the ostrich's 
 during the night. d. 
 
 Rest, The Instinct of. — All creation seems to possess the 
 instinct of rest. 'We well know how eagerly the human heart 
 sighs for rest. But it is not so well known that even plants 
 sleep. Their strange sleep, says Figuier, vaguely recalls to us 
 the sleep of animals. In its sleep the leaf seems by its disposi- 
 tion to approach the age of infancy. It folds itself up, nearly 
 as it lay folded in the bud before it opened, when it slept the 
 lethargic sleep of winter, sheltered under the robust and hardy 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 301 
 
 scales, or shut up in its warm down. We may say that the 
 plant seeks every night to resume the position which it occu- 
 pied in its early days, just as the animal rolls itself up, lying as 
 if it lay in its mother's bosom. All the world seems to express 
 the sentiment contained in the words uttered by one of old, who 
 desired the wings of a dove in order to seek and obtain rest. 
 
 V. 
 
 Retaliation, A Limited. — Camels have a great share of 
 intelligence, and the Arabs assert that they are so extremely 
 sensible of injustice and ill treatment that, when tliis is carried 
 too far, the infiicter will not find it easy to escape their venge- 
 ance, and that they will retain the remembrance of an injury 
 till an opportunity offers for gratifying their revenge^Eager, 
 however, to express their resentment, they no longer retain any 
 rancor when once they are satisfied ; and it is even sufficient 
 for them to believe they have satisfied their vengeance. Ac- 
 cordingly, when an Arab has excited the rage of a camel, he 
 throws down his garments in some place near which the animal 
 is to pass, and disposes them in such a manner that they appear 
 to cover a man sleeping under them. The animal recognizes 
 the clothes, seizes them in his teeth, shakes them with violence, 
 and tramples on them in a rage. When his anger is appeased 
 he leaves them, and then the owner of /the garments may make 
 his appearance, and without any fea^^may load and guide him 
 as he pleases. /■ p. 
 
 Revengeful, The Penalty of Being. — Small birds have 
 an intense natural antipathy of nocturnal birds of prey. If 
 one of these birds happens to be seen out of its lurking-place 
 during the day, they assail it vigorously, resent its intrusion, 
 and avenge the oppression exercised over them during the night 
 by combined attacks. This antipathy has been taken advan- 
 tage of for the purpose of catching birds ever since the days of 
 Aristotle. The catcher imitates, for instance, the voice of an 
 owl about an hour before sunset, when the birds will flock to- 
 gether and perch on the trees or bushes in the suspected neigh- 
 borhood. The twigs, etc., having been previously covered with 
 
30 2 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 bird-lime, the birds pay their Hberty and perhaps Hfe as the 
 penalty of their desire to avenge themselves on the owl. re. 
 
 Revivification. — Among the plants of the desert is the rose 
 of Jericho [Anasiatka Hierochiintina), an annual which contracts 
 itself into a ball, and, blown about by the breeze, seems a dead 
 and withered mass of twigs. But plunge it into water and it 
 expands, regains the bloom of lifeifflifording a remarkable exam- 
 ple of what is called "revivification.'' The fable respecting it 
 is that the first time it ever bloomed was on the eve of the 
 Nativity, and that its flower remained open until Easter, d. 
 
 Revolutionary Forces, Tlie Indeterminateness of. — 
 Volcanoes will remain for centuries in a state of repose, and 
 then, with little or no warning, become fearfully active. Vesu- 
 vius, restless in the early world, was so long quiescent that it 
 was considered extinct, when about sixty years after the Chris- 
 tian era it suddenly renewed its eruptions. Ten years afterward 
 came that tremendous convulsion which brought upon Pompeii 
 and Herculaneum, the Italian cities of the plain, the awful doom A 
 of Sodom and Gomorrah. The revolutionary forces of the 
 world somewhat resemble the volcanic. They are indetermi- 
 nate. They slumber sometimes for generations ; and by despots 
 their quiescence is mistaken for extinction. But, like the sub- 
 terranean fire, the principle of justice is never extinguished. It 
 may smolder for a period in darkness, but it is ever aglow in 
 the central heart of humanity ; and at the very moment when 
 t^'rants and their myrmidons are congratulating themselves upon 
 the impregnabihty of the institutions of despotism, it may sud- 
 denly startle them from their audacious dream by the eruption 
 of a revolution which will engulf them in a fiery retribution. 
 
 MAR. 
 
 Revolutions, Tlie Advantages of. — Insect life in tropical 
 America swarms as luxuriously as the vegetation ; and there are 
 many insects, which, however useful in their own place, are apt 
 to get into houses, and there multiply to such an extent that 
 they become a real plague, and nearly drive the inhabitants out 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 303 
 
 of their own houses. There are insects that bite, insects that 
 suck, insects that scratch, insects that sting, and many that are 
 remarkable for giving out a most horrible odor. There are 
 great centipedes, and always plenty of scorpions, while lizards, 
 snakes, and other reptiles are so common as almost to escape 
 attention. For a time these usurpers reign supreme. But when 
 the foraging ants make their appearance, the case is altered, for 
 there is nothing that withstands their assault. icThe inhabitants 
 throw open every box and drawer in the house, so as to allow 
 the ants access into every crevice, and then retire from the 
 premises. (The presence of these insects may be always known 
 by the numbers of pittas or ant-thrushes, which feed much upon 
 them, and which are sure to accompany a column of foraging 
 ants on the march.) Presently the column of the vanguard 
 approaches ; a few scouts precede the general body, and seem 
 to inspect the premises, and ascertain whether they are worth 
 a search. The long column then pours in, and is soon dis- 
 persed over the house. The ants penetrate into the corners, 
 peer into each crevice, and speedily haul out any unfortunate 
 creature that is lurking therein. Great cockroaches are dragged 
 unwillingly away, being pulled in front by four or five ants, and 
 pushed from behind by as many more. Rats and mice speedily 
 succumb to the onslaught of their m3T:iad foes, and the snakes 
 and lizards fare no better. In a wonderfully short time the 
 foraging ants have completed their work, the scene of turmoil 
 gradually ceases, the scattered parties again form into line, and 
 the procession moves out of the house, carrying its spoils in 
 triumph. When the inhabitants return to the house they find 
 every intruder gone. The foraging ants are by no means plea- 
 sant creatures, but in this case they do very useful work. It is 
 analogous to that which, when political rascalities have become 
 unbearable, has to be done for mankind by revolutionaries. 
 Revolutionaries are not the most select people on earth any 
 more than foraging ants are the most pleasant insects ; but 
 when Nature decides upon a thorough extermination of any- 
 
304 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 thing, she selects, not the daintiest, but the most capable in- 
 struments for the case in hand. She takes care to have the 
 work thoroughly well done. h. 
 
 Rich, The Cost of Getting The condor of the Andes 
 
 possesses the habits and voracity of other vultures, has the 
 loftiest flight of all the winged race, enormous strength, and 
 great audacity. He frequently pounces upon living animals, 
 but his non-retractile talons, blunted by their attrition on the 
 rocks, do not permit him to carry off his prey ; he contents 
 himself with fixing it against the ground with one of his claws, 
 while he rends it to pieces with his powerful beak. Gorged 
 with food, he,, becomes incapable of flight, and you may then 
 capture him.TJ^And does not this resemble the career of rnany 
 a vulgar wealthy man? His brilliant daring and rapid upward 
 rising into the light have excited admiration and stimulated 
 high hopes. Soon, however, you discover that he ascended so 
 high only because it made more certain his intended grasp of 
 the low earthly object on which his greed was set. Behold, 
 the climax of the brilliant career after all is the coarse, vulgar, 
 greedy snob, abandoning himself to gluttony and abominable 
 self-gratification, deprived by his own lust alone of every power 
 which enabled him once to rise. , d. 
 
 Right Themselves, The Tendency of Things to. — Nature 
 has endowed things with a tendency to right themselves. Let 
 us take an example from what happens in the case of the at- 
 mosphere. By respiration, flame, putrefaction, air is rendered 
 unfit for the support of animal life. By the constant operation 
 of these corrupting principles the whole atmosphere, if there 
 were no restoring causes, would come at length to be deprived 
 of its necessary degree of purity. Some of these causes seem 
 to have been discovered and their efficacy ascertained by ex- 
 periment. And so far as. the discovery has proceeded, it opens 
 to us a beautiful and a wonderful economy. Vegetation proves 
 , to be one of them. (A)sprig of mint corked up with a small 
 portion of foul air, placed in the light, renders it again capable 
 of supporting life or flame. Here, therefore, is a constant cir- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 305 
 
 culation of benefits maintained between the two great provinces 
 of organized Nature. The plant purifies what the animal has 
 poisoned ; in return, the contaminated air is more than ordinarily 
 nutritious to the plan t^ Agitation with water proves to be an- 
 other of these restoratives. The foulest air shaken in a bottle 
 with water, for a sufficient length of time, recovers a great de- 
 gree of its purity. Here then, again, allowing for the scale 
 upon which Nature works, we see the salutary effects of storms 
 and tempests. The yeasty waves, which confound the heavens 
 and the sea, are doing the very same thing which was done in 
 the bottle. Nothing can be of greater importance to the living 
 creation than the salubrity of their atmosphere. The agitations 
 of the elements tend powerfully to restore to the air that purity 
 which so many causes are constantly impairing. n. t. 
 
 Rule without an Exception, No. — It seems the rule among 
 all creatures to desire above all things to preserve their bodies 
 intact and unhurt. Yet there is an exception to this rule. The 
 brittle starfishes have a habit of breaking themselves to pieces 
 whenever they are alarmed. It appears almost strange that 
 such a creature should experience a feeling of alarm, or indeed 
 any mental emotion whatever. Yet the brittle starfishes are 
 peculiarly timid, and have some instinctive way of detecting 
 danger. One would think that however the danger might be 
 dreaded, it could do no worse than beat the starfish to pieces, 
 and yet the creature adopts this singular mode of escaping from 
 its enemies. f. 
 
 Seeming Evil Real Good. — Much in life which appears 
 good is really evil. But it is also true that much which appears 
 real evil is substantial good. Take as an illustration the snow. 
 The shivering and discomforted population are complaining of 
 its presence as a wretched evil. But let us inquire a little into 
 the matter. What is its mission ? What the plumage does for 
 the bird, wool for the animal, and clothing for the man, snow 
 does in winter for the soil. The farmer and gardener look with 
 dismay at a hard and continued frost which is not preceded by 
 a fall of snowj The snow is nearly a non-conductor, and, when 
 
3o6 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 sufficiently deep, may be considered as absolutely so. The sur- 
 face may therefore fall to a temperature greatly below thirty- 
 two degrees ; but the bottom, in contact with the vegetation of 
 the soil, does not share in this fall of temperature, remaining at 
 thirty-two degrees, a temperature at that season not incompati- 
 ble with the vegetable organization. Thus the roots and young 
 shoots are protected from a destructive cold. So that the snow 
 is no evil, however much it may, under certain circumstances, 
 have the appearance of being an evil. In like manner adver- 
 sity, with all its train of chilling influences, is often a real bless- 
 ing. And many a storm which has had a most threatening 
 aspect has proved a blessing because of the pure and healthy 
 influences which have accompanied it. Observation and in- 
 quiry will readily afford numberless instances equally striking, 
 in which seeming evil has proved itself to be real good. ha. 
 
 .Seeming Qenerosity.^There is a thing which passes for 
 generosity which, when analyzed, is found to be nothing but 
 selfish policy. Sometimes a flint-hearted magistrate makes a 
 great show of a generous consideration for the condition of the 
 prisoner, and pompously discharges him on that ground, as he 
 says ; whereas it will often be found that the charge against 
 the man was one of which the law could take no cognizance, 
 or else which the magistrate felt himself unable to grapple with. 
 He gets great credit for his clemency. ' His manoeuver, however, 
 reminds those who see through it of the spider's tricks. We well 
 know that the moment an ill-starred fly or other insect comes 
 in contact with the net of the spider, it is sprung upon with the 
 rapidity of lightning, and if the captured insect be of small size 
 the spider conveys it at once to the place of slaughter, and hav- 
 ing at its leisure sucked all its juice, throws out the carcass. If 
 the insect be somewhat larger and struggles to escape, the 
 spider envelops its prey in a mesh of thread passed round its 
 body in various directions, and its wings and legs thus effectu- 
 ally secured, it is conveyed to the den and devoured.! But-^ 
 when a bee or large fly, too powerful to be mastered by the 
 spider, happens to get entangled in its toils, then the wary ani- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 307 
 
 mal, conscious of its incapacity to contend against such fearful 
 odds, makes no attempt either to seize or embarrass the victim. 
 On the contrary, it assists the entangled captive in its efforts 
 to free itself, and often goes so far as to break off that part of 
 the web from which it may be suspended. This act has upon 
 it the color of seeming generosity, but in reality it is nothing 
 more than the performance of selfish cunning.?rThe tyrant, feel- 
 ing himself incapable of doing an injury, determines to have no 
 molestation. To obtain this end he performs an act of manu- 
 mission. In this policy he is not only like the magistrate, but 
 he is also very like the man who gets great credit for generosity in 
 giving, but who gives not out of the fullness of a warm heart, 
 but because he desires to avoid the inconveniences to himself, 
 which he knows will attend any other policy than that of seem- 
 ing generosity. The applicant is to him just a great awkward 
 intrusion into the web of circumstance ; if he does not attend 
 to it there will be some embarrassment. In his position it is 
 prudent to attend to it. Therefore he does. This is his gen- 
 erosity. Nothing more. p. 
 
 Self=Adapting Power, Man's. — Man possesses a grand 
 capacity for adapting himself to the requirements of circum- 
 stances. Much as he needs fresh air and light, he is able to 
 spend his existence in the operations of mining, where the air 
 is always impure, and light never comes. Important as exer- 
 cise is to him, he nevertheless can accustom himself to avoca- 
 tions which are ejjtjrely sedentary and deprive him of all mus- , 
 cular activity.:^ He ^needs his legs for walking, but if they are 
 amputated we soon find him providing himself with some other 
 means of locomotion. He requires his hands for painting and 
 writing ; but when he has not hands, we find him painting and 
 writing by means of his toes. His teeth are indispensable for 
 mastication ; but when he loses them, he invents a contri- 
 vance of his own in their place. Now, elastic as this power of 
 adaptation to circumstances is in man., it is scarcely less mar- 
 velous in some of the lower creatures^ Take, for example, the 
 water-spider {Argyroneta aquaticd). Her instinct instructs her 
 
3o8 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 to fabricate a kind of diving-bell in the bosom of the water. 
 She usually selects still waters for this purpose. Her house is 
 an oval cocoon, filled with air, and lined with silk, from which 
 threads issue in every direction, and are fastened to the sur- 
 rounding plants. Mr. Thompson says that in this cocoon, which 
 is open below, she watches for her prey, and even appears to 
 pass the winter, when she closes the opening. It is most com- 
 monly, yet not always, under water, but its inhabitant has filled 
 it for her respiration, which enables her to live in it. She con- 
 veys the air to it in the following manner : she usually swims 
 on her back to the surface, then she tmns over and jerks a 
 bubble of air under her abdomen, and appears like a globe of 
 quicksilver. With this she enters her cocoon, and displacing 
 an equal mass of water, ascends again for a second lading, till 
 she has sufficiently filled her house with it, so as to e.xpel all 
 the water. How these little animals can envelop their abdomen 
 with an air-bubble and retain it till they enter their cells, is still 
 one of Nature's mysteries. It is a wonderful provision which 
 enables an animal that breathes the atmospheric air to fill her 
 house with it under water, and by some secret art to clothe her 
 body with air as with a garment, which she can put off when it 
 answers her purpose. This is a kind of attraction and repulsion 
 that mocks all inquiries ; and man's inventions of the diving- 
 bell and the air-balloon, to enable him to investigate sea and 
 sky, and his many other successful achievements over the diffi- 
 culties of circumstance, are scarcely more astonishing. p. 
 
 Self=Deception. — Sometimes we persistently deceive our- 
 selves. We insist upon pursuing a policy for our benefit which 
 all but ourselves clearly see to be absurd and useless. We cling 
 to a pet project and nurse a worthless conceit long after the 
 folly of both is recognized by everybody else. But we are not 
 altogether to be blamed. For instinct itself is sometimes at 
 fault, and its powers are uselessly applied. A hen wijl sit with 
 the greatest tenacity on rounded pieces of chalk ; and the 
 Hamster rat breaks the wings of dead birds as well as of hving 
 ones before it devours them. Insects also occasionally err on 
 
SCIENriF/C ILLUSTRATIONS. 309 
 
 the same principle, as when the blow-fly lays its eggs on the 
 flower of the Stapelia, deceived by its carrionlike odor. A 
 spider, deprived of its egg-bag, will cherish with the same fond- 
 ness a little pellet of cotton thrown to it. p. 
 
 Self=Dependence a Condition of Power. — M. Guerin- 
 Meneville has called the silkworm " the dog of insects," for it 
 has been domesticated from the most ancient times. But in 
 losing its self-dependence it has been deprived of great part of 
 its strength. The moth of the silkworm can no longer keep its 
 position in the air, or on the leaves of the mulberry, when they 
 are agitated by the wind. It can no longer protect itself under 
 the leaves from the burning heat of the sun and from its enemies. 
 The female, always motionless, seems to be ignorant of the fact 
 that she has wings. The male no longer flies ; he flutters round 
 his companion without quitting the ground. It ought, how- 
 ever, in the wild state to be possessed of a sufficiently power- 
 ful flight. Mr. C. Martins found that after three generations 
 reared in the open air, the males recovered their lost power. 
 There can be no doubt that it is a principle in Nature that 
 self-dependence is a condition of strength. When men become 
 dependent upon luxuries and assistance, they lose their physical 
 force. When they cease to use their brains they lose their men- 
 tal wings.^ I. 
 
 Self=Protection, Prudence in. — Every man should do 
 something to protect himself against the stress and strain of 
 emergencies. Some men seem to have no .prudence whatever. 
 Others have some idea of self-protection, but do not protect 
 what is most valuable. They guard their money, fame, or pride, 
 instead of their brains, virtue, and character. Now, when ani- 
 mals are providing for coming danger, they endeavor to pro- 
 tect not their tails, or fur, or nails, or immaterial parts. When 
 they are not able to conceal themselves entirely from the dan- 
 ger, they protect their most sensitive and vulnerable portions ; 
 thus the hedgehog, in defending itself with its spines from the 
 attack of another animal, curves itself downward in such a way 
 as to defend its head. And some animals, when struck, roll 
 
310 DIC'J70XAKY OF 
 
 themselves together and press their heads on their breasts, at 
 the same time trying to protect them by covering them with the 
 fore legs. p. 
 
 Self=Sacrifice. — Not uncommonly we read in biographies 
 and elsewhere eloquent panegyrics on the- bravery of warriors 
 and others on occasions when they have risked their lives for 
 their fellows. It may raise our conceptions of the lower crea- 
 tion to remember that some other existences manifest a self- 
 sacrificing devotion equal if not superior to our own. Look 
 at the manatees. The manatees {Manatus) collect together in 
 large troops. Their character is mild, affectionate, and socia- 
 ble. The male, which is extremely attached to his female, does 
 not desert her in the hour of danger, but defends her till his 
 death J^ The young ones have no less tenderness for their mother. 
 'THeTisliermen know how to profit by the ties which unite all 
 the members of the family. They try, above all, to capture 
 first the females, because the males and the young ones follow 
 them, to defend them, or to share their fate. On the shallow 
 weedy shores round islands at the mouths of rivers, which these 
 innocent and mild animals frequent to feed on the seaweed, are 
 the places to look for the manatees. The hunter waits for the 
 moment when they come to the surface to breathe, or else he 
 surprises them in their sleep, floating with their muzzles above 
 the surface ofc the water in the current. When close he throws 
 his harpoon.]' The wounded animal loses its blood ; this blood 
 brings up the other manatees to the assistance of the victim. 
 At this fatal moment, some of them try to wrench out the 
 murderous weapon, the others to bite through the cord which 
 the wounded one is dragging along with it, thus affording the 
 fishermen an opportunity to massacre the whole troop. The 
 unselfish devotion of these animals leads them on to their de- 
 struction. I ' M. 
 
 Selfish Kindness — Though selfish kindness is a paradox, 
 its existence is a reality. There are people who are really kind 
 toward us and others, but are so from no creditable motive. 
 Father Ripa, in the account of his sojourn near the mouth of 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLVSriiATIOXS. 311 
 
 the Ganges, tells us of a set of religionists who are ^-ery kind 
 to all sorts of animals and insects, which they neither kill nor 
 eat, but, on the contrary, tend them with great care. Indeed 
 to such a pitch do they carry their kindness, that they have 
 hospitals for hce and fleas, and pay liberally by the hour those 
 who will allow the insects to feed on their blood. They are 
 also most kind to sheep and cows. And why all this? Not 
 because they possess disinterested kindness, but because they 
 believe in the transmigration of souls, and that after death they 
 will pass into the body of some animal more or less offensive 
 according to the good or evil actions of their past life. And 
 further, because they believe after death that a great river must 
 be passed which can only be done by holding on fast to the 
 tail of the sheep or the cow. So that in this, as in a number 
 of other instances to be met with in civilized society, there is 
 really a complete absence of real unselfishness in the act, which, 
 however, may be kind enough in its way. Here we have the 
 expectation of some future advantage as the actual basis of the 
 act. Numbers of deeds which pass for genuine kindness are 
 the result of a complex mixture of motives, among which pure 
 charity is not found. Where is the kindness which lends, 
 which does, and which gives, expecting nothing as reward in 
 return either in this world or the other? me. 
 
 Senses, A Conflict between the. — It is not wise to rely 
 absolutely upon the decision of one of the senses alone, for it 
 may be in conflict with that of another of the senses whose 
 judgment may happen to be better. Take an instance. In 
 the Island of Borneo there is a forest-tree as large as an English 
 elm, which produces a highly esteemed fruit called the durian. 
 Though this fruit has a smell like that of putrid flesh, so that a 
 single specimen is enough to infect a whole house, its flavor is 
 so delicious that those who venture to taste it soon become 
 confirmed durian-eaters. Here the sense of smell would reject 
 that which the taste approves, and which is a very useful fruit. 
 
 c. M. 
 
 Sensibility, Blunted. — The leaves and branches of a sen- 
 
312 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 sttive plant shrink from the teuch ; but on being too frequently- 
 approached, this delicacy departs. Even so a sensitive nature 
 may lose its beautiful characteristic by unsuitable contact with 
 the world. u. 
 
 Sensual Pleasures. — The dog's-bane {Apocynum androsce- 
 mifolium), a native of North America, is most cruelly destructive 
 of animal life, and generally conducive to the death of every fly 
 that settles upon it. Allured by the honey on the nectary of 
 the expanded blossom, the instant the trunk is protruded to feed 
 on it, the filaments close, and catching the fly by the extremity 
 of its proboscis, detain the poor prisoner writhing in protracted 
 struggles till released by death, a death apparently occasioned 
 by exhaustion alone; the filaments then relax, and the body 
 falls to the groundjf Here is an emblem of sensual pleasures: 
 their attractiveness to the senses, and the punishment of him 
 who is allured by thern. jo. 
 
 Sensuality, The Valley of — In Java is a valley which is 
 called the Valley of Poison. It is an object of veritable terror 
 to the natives. In this renowned valley the soil is said to be cov- 
 ered with skeletons and carcasses of tigers, of goats, and of stags, 
 of birds, and even with human bones ; for asphyxia or suffoca- 
 ' tion, it seems, sti'ikes all living things which venture into this 
 desolate place. ^It illustrates the valley of sensuality, the most 
 horrible creation of social life. Few men who enter into its 
 depths sur\'i',e long ; for it is strewn with dead reputations and 
 the mangled remains of creatures who were once happy. \\-. 
 
 Severe Afflictions Require Strong Remedies. — A crowd 
 of facts might be related to show that the more severe a symp- 
 tom such as pain, the stronger must be the dose of the remedyf=- 
 which is to call back the vital power to its wonted channels. 
 Thus a delicate woman will take with impunity one hundred 
 and fifty drops of laudanum to relie\e severe pain, whereas if 
 she were well such a dose would so attract the vital power to 
 the part it lodged in as to make her ill, if even it did not prove 
 fatal. The principle that severe affliction requires a strong 
 remedy is true in politics as well as in therapeutics. We some- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLCSTRATIOXS. . 3 13 
 
 times hear legislation objected to on the ground that it is "ex- 
 ceptional." This is obviously a very silly objection to urge 
 where the symptoms calling for the legislation are severe. 
 Severe national suffering demands strong palliative remedies. 
 l"he point to consider is simply whether the " exceptional " 
 legislation is, like the laudanum in the case of pain, adapted 
 to meet its end. Of course such " exceptional " legislation as 
 would provide a cart-load of toothpicks to ameliorate a famine 
 is altogether outside that definition. s. l. 
 
 Sham Humility. — There is an insect which may be easily 
 mistaken for dust, or the particles of wool and silk which one 
 sees in the corners of badly swept rooms. It walks slowly in 
 the dust and with measured tread. Having taken one step for- 
 ward it stops awhile and then takes another, leaving at each 
 movement the opposite leg in repose. If you take off the cloak 
 of dust in which it disguises itself, you will see an entirely differ- 
 ent animal. It is nothing but the pupa of Reduvius personatus, 
 a species of bug. And it assumes this disguise to enable it to 
 approach little animals, such as bedbugs, flies, and spiders, in 
 order to make them its prey.^When fully developed it takes 
 wings, flies by night, inflicts the most painful of wounds even 
 on men — wounds which cause such a numbness in the member 
 wounded as to lead to the belief that -venom is secreted in the 
 creature's long beak. Does not the spirit of this little wretch 
 seem to belong to The Brotherhood of Sham Humility? Who 
 has not noticed one of the human members of this guild crawl- 
 ing stealthily along in social dust and ashes, a " Uriah Heep," 
 assuming a humble attitude in order to prey upon very small 
 \ ictims? Who has not observed the same humble brother when 
 he has become fully developed, and able to fly high ? Does 
 not he, like this bug, delight to soar through darkness toward 
 his superiors, and cannot he too inflict a nasty, poisonous sting? 
 
 I. 
 
 Shrewd Men The shrewd man reminds us of the red- 
 headed woodpecker. From the statements of Wilson, this bird 
 would appear to be a great epicure in the matter of fruit, so 
 
314 DICriOiXAKY Of 
 
 constantly selecting the best, sweetest, and ripest apples for his 
 own consumption that his presence upon an apple-tree may al- 
 ways be taken as a proof that its fruit is the best in the orchard. 
 ■ When alarmed, says Wilson, he seizes^ *-eapitai one by sticking 
 his open bill deep into it, and bears it off to the woods, ^\'llen 
 we find the shrewd man dealing in a particular stock, or specu- 
 lating in a particular fund, we well know by his very presence 
 and connection with them, that the stock and the fund are the 
 best of their kind anywhere to be found. And if any panic or 
 alarm does force him into other directions, depend upon it that 
 he, like the red-headed woodpecker, will be certain to carry off ' 
 something substantially good for any trouble he has taken. 
 They are interesting, these quick, shrewd men, who always 
 know the best market and the best way of getting on in life ; 
 these commercial woodpeckers also i know where to find and 
 how to fly off with the golden applesjpf the world. n. h. 
 
 Silent Work may be Stupendous The mechanical 
 
 power exerted in silence by the air and the sun in lifting water 
 from the earth, in transporting it from one place to another, 
 and in letting it down again, is inconceivably great. The utili- 
 tarian who compares the water-power that the Falls of Niagara 
 would afford if applied to machinery is astonished at the num- 
 ber of figures which are required to express its equivalent in 
 horse-power. Yet what is the horse-power of the Niagara, fall- 
 ing a few steps, in comparison with the horse-power that is re- 
 quired to lift up all the water that is discharged into the sea, 
 not only by this river, but by all- the other rivers in the world, 
 as high as the clouds ?-^ The calculation has been made by 
 engineers, and according to it the force for making and lifting 
 vapor from each area of one acre that is included on the sur- 
 face of the earth is equal to the power of thirty horses ; and 
 for the whole area of the earth it is eight hundred times greater 
 than all the water-power in Nature. If we turn for a moment 
 from considering the stupendous work performed in silence by 
 mechanical forces, and investigate that which is accomplished, 
 without noise, by moral and intellectual power, we shall find 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 315 
 
 Still more striking phenomena. The mere influence of ideas 
 has permeated whole nations, crossed seas, and revolutionized 
 the institutions of mankind. A single book may contain a 
 silent force of thought which will move the hearts and rouse 
 the armies of a continent. t. 
 
 Silent Aggressive Forces, Tlie Achievements of. — The 
 chemical action of the atmosphere (composed of oxygen, nitro- 
 gen, and carbonic acid) is observable less or more on all exposed 
 surfaces. Its gases, partly by their own nature and partly by 
 the moisture diffused through them, exert a wasting or weather- 
 ing influence on all rocks — softening, loosening, and crumbling 
 them down, to be more readily borne away by currents of winds 
 and water. Carbonic acid acts specially on all rocks contain- 
 ing lime ; oxygen rusts or oxidizes those impregnated with iron ; 
 moisture insinuates itself everywhere, and thus in a few years 
 the hardest rock exhibits a weathered or wasted surface. Parti- 
 cle after particle is loosened ; film after film falls away ; a new 
 surface is exposed to new waste, and in course of ages the bold- 
 est mountain mass yields to this silent and almost imperceptible 
 agency. In such instances as the above the atmosphere acts 
 directly as a chemical agent ; where it impregnates rain and 
 other water with its gases, and these operate within the crust 
 as springs, it acts indirectly, though not less efficiently. Such 
 are some of the many achievements of aggressive forces that 
 are silent in their action. ad. 
 
 Simulated Unity, The Snare of. — One of the basest tricks 
 played alike by men and brutes is that of simulated unity. 
 The trickster leads his victims to suppose that he is one of 
 themselves. An Arctic fox, on discovering a flock of sea-gulls 
 sitting about the shore, approaches them backward, with his 
 tail so raised as to resemble one of themselves, and as it is 
 commonly white, and he advances with slow steps, they seldom 
 discover the intrigue until he has reached them, when he is sure 
 to seize one of them for his prey. ifThere are rogues called in- 
 formers, who have joined political associations by practising a 
 sort of fox's trick of simulated unity with the assembly, and 
 
3l6 DICTIONARY OJ-' 
 
 who thereby have been enabled to cause the destruction of their 
 victims. There are self-seekers who have ingratiated themselves 
 into the society of good people by simulating a resemblance to 
 them, and then have ruined their innocent dupes. Churches 
 and chapels are often visited by hypocritical foxes, who imitate 
 the ways of the unsuspecting gulls of the congregation, and simu- 
 late a unity with them, simply for the purpose of ruining them. 
 Beware of the fox everywhere ! r. 
 
 Sin's Insidious Attack — What a suggestive analogy there 
 is in the contrast between a human being grappling with sin, into 
 which he has unexpectedly drifted, and the struggling swimmer 
 in contact, in our seas, with that formidable creature, the Cyanea 
 capillata. It is a delightful day, and all seems safe to the 
 swimmer. But, with its broad tawny festooned and scalloped 
 disk, often a full foot or even more across, the Cyanea capillata 
 flaps its way through the yielding waters, and drags after it a 
 long train of ribbonlike arms and seemingly interminable tails, 
 marking its course when the body is far away from us. Once 
 tangled in its trailing ' hair," the unfortunate man who has un- 
 intentionally ventured across the graceful monster's path too 
 soon writhes in prickly torture. Every struggle but binds the 
 poisonous threads more firmly round his body, and then there 
 is no escape ; for when the winder of the fatal net finds his 
 course impeded by the terrified human being wresthng in its 
 coils, he, seeking no combat with the mightier biped, casts 
 loose his envenomed arms and swims away. The amputated 
 weapons, severed from their parent body, vent vengeance on 
 him who has caused their destruction, and sting as fiercely as 
 if their original proprietor itself gave the word of attack. 
 
 N. H. 
 
 Sins, The Growth and Action of Besetting. — A secret 
 sin works insidiously, but with wondrous, quiet power. Its 
 hidden ravages are awful, and the outward re^-elation of their 
 result and existence may be contemporaneous. Until that reve- 
 lation was made, probably no one ever suspected the presence 
 in the man of anything but a few venial faults which were as 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 317 
 
 mere excrescences on a robust character — though these growths 
 were something rude. Oftentimes a large fungus will start from 
 a tree, and in some mysterious manner will sap the life-power 
 of the spot on which it grows. They were hke that fungus. 
 When the fungus falls in the autumn, it leaves scarcely a trace 
 of its presence, the tree being apparently as healthy as before 
 the advent of the parasite. But the whole character of the. 
 wood has been changed by the strange power of the fungus, 
 being soft and corklike to the touch. Perhaps the parasite 
 may fall in the autumn, and the tree may show no symptoms 
 of decay ; but at the first tempest it may have to encounter, the 
 trunk snaps off at the spot where the fungus has been, and the 
 extent of the injury is at once disclosed. As long as any por- 
 tion of that tree retains life, it will continue to throw out these 
 destructive fungi; and even when a mere stump. is left in the 
 groimd, the fungi will push themselves out in profusion, h. 
 
 Slanderer, The Wounds of the The scorpion extends in 
 
 Europe to the north coasts of the Medfterranean, but is more 
 abundant in Africa, both North and South, where its bite has 
 the singular peculiarity that, although excessively painful on the 
 first occasion of its infliction, and even dangerous to life, the 
 constitution becomes hardened to it, the suffering is less on 
 every subsequent occasion, and at length comes to be little 
 regarded. The slanderer is found in every part of the. globe. 
 The wounds which he inflicts upon sensiti\'e natures have been 
 fatal in many instances. But in cases where the victim has 
 been strong enough to endure several of his attacks, it is found 
 thkt, like the scorpion's bites, they produce no effect ; and the 
 slanderer and his venom are e\-en heWnn-derisTDn. i. l. 
 
 Slanderous Character, The — The medusae are so named 
 in consequence of the long fibers which are trailed after them, 
 and which writhe and twist about in the water like the serpent 
 tresses of the mythical Medusa. Some of the tropical species 
 of medusas aire so poisonous that if their floating tresses coil 
 round a human being they affect him as if he had been stung 
 from head to foot by a swarm of wasps. £ In the colder seas 
 
31 8 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 of the British shores these formidable beings cannot hve ; but 
 even on those coasts a pecuharly venomous species exists. 
 Its scientific name is Cyanea capillata, and it is popularly called 
 the's^ri^'eMF^taHger-^, The poison-threads of this species are 
 apparently interminable, and people are stung by them when 
 at a distance of many yards from the owner. Moreover, the 
 threads sting as freely when separated from the medusa as 
 when attached to it ; so that a single specimen may inflict an 
 enormous amount of pain if it should happen to float among a 
 company of bathers. The effect of the poison varies according 
 to the individual. Some persons care little for it, and suffer 
 scarcely any pain, except a sharp sort of pricking sensation 
 which is unpleasant at the time, but leaves no sort of after- 
 effects. Others, who are afflicted with a sensitive skin, not only 
 suffer severe a.nd prolonged pain, but their health is seriously 
 affected, and months afterward the effects are felt, and the 
 symptoms will recur. - This stinger symbolizes the slanderer. 
 She trails herself through human society in all latitudes ; and 
 wherever she is found she causes pain by her poison. Even 
 when far away her victims suffer through her influence. Those 
 who are not particularly sensitive cannot escape the discomfort 
 of her stings ; while those who are so often suffer acutely from 
 them. F. 
 
 Small Beings, The Capacity for Mischief Possessed 
 by. — The feeble aphis, with limbs indescribably slender, is so 
 fragile that it may be overturned by a puff of breath. But 
 smallness of bulk is no criterion of inferiority of power ; an 
 apple-tree, several feet, perhaps, in its circumference, spreading 
 its branches over a rood of land, sickens and dies from the punc- 
 ture of the Aphis laiiafa, a creature so small as to be impercepti- 
 ble on its limbs. Among men we often see a grand and noble 
 character brought to a premature grave owing to the capacity 
 which some of the most contemptible of the human species pos- 
 .sess to blast reputations and break hearts. \ j. 
 
 Small Things, The Day of. — When the day of small 
 things is being smiled at, the question may be advantageously 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 319 
 
 asked, Whether the small things are the germs of the great, or 
 are preparing the way for them? In an immense number of 
 instances in the political, the moral, and the material world, it 
 will be found that the " little " things have been marvelously 
 potential ; vigorous in themselves, though in their day appear- 
 ing weak ; tremendous in their results, though originally indi- 
 cating no future force. The thallogens are, many of them, of 
 minute microscopic dimensions. Nevertheless they fulfil an 
 important part in the economy of Nature. They constituted 
 the first origin, and -were even the source of all vegetation. 
 Disaggregating rocks, they produced the vegetable earth which 
 became the means of their own destruction.. The enriched soil 
 nourished plants of more complex organization, and these in- 
 ferior beings were replaced by degrees by vegetable species of 
 more perfect structure. All soil primitively sterile, all land re- 
 cently emerged from the bosom of the waters, served first as the 
 asylum of crustaceous and foliaceous lichens ; at a later period 
 lichens and ferns made their appearance there ; finally a superior 
 vegetation, namely, the phanerogams, or cotyledons, present 
 themselves. Thus the higher orders of vegetables have only 
 appeared, and will only continue to make their appearance, 
 upon the debris of vegetation of a lower order. v. 
 
 Small Natures, Paltry Battles of. — The common stickle- 
 back, or tittlebat, as it is sometimes called, is a most irritable 
 and pugnacious creature. Sometimes a rival male comes by 
 with all his swords drawn ready for battle, and his colors of 
 red and green flying. Then there is a fight that would require 
 the pen of Homer to describe. These valiant warriors dart at 
 each other, they bite, they manosuver, they strike with their 
 spines, and sometimes a well-aimed cut will rip up the body of 
 the adversary and send him to the bottom dead. When one 
 of the combatants prefers ignominious flight to a glorious death, 
 he is pursued by the victor with relentless fury, and may think 
 himself fortunate if he escapes. Then comes a curious result. 
 The conqueror assumes brighter colors and a more insolent de- 
 meanor, his green is tinged with gold, his scarlet is of a triple 
 
320 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 dye, and he charges more furiously than ever at intruders or 
 those whom he is pleased to consider as such. But the van- 
 quished warrior is disgraced ; he retires humbly to some obscure 
 retreat, he loses his red-and-green-and-gold uniform, and be- 
 comes a plain civilian in drab. c. 
 
 Sneakism. — Unfortunately there is a good deal of sneakism 
 to be found in society ; but as it is not polite to give any exam- 
 ple painted from life, we may have a very coherent notion of 
 the spirit of the offense if we notice that embodiment of it 
 which is to be seen in the lion-worm. The lion-worm is a 
 curious and voracious little creature, having a tapering form, 
 the head being more pointed than the tail. Like the ant-lion, 
 that formidable insect, it makes a species of cavity in the loose 
 earth, and there waits in ambuscade for its prey. A portion of 
 its body lies concealed under the sand ; the rest stretches across 
 the bottom of the den, and appears so stiff and motionless that 
 at first sight it might be taken for a bit of straw, half an inch in 
 length. If, however, any insect in search of food should hap- 
 pen to walk into the cave of the lion-worm, the Httle morsel of 
 stubble in an instant becomes all animation, falls like a serpent 
 on its prey, and, winding its body in coils around its victim, 
 compresses it to death, and sucks out the juices by means of a 
 couple of hooks fixed to its head. ^-No one can observe these 
 actions without coming to the conclusion that sneakism in men 
 or worms is just the same thing, with merely a change of method 
 and appliances suitable to the place and occasion. p. 
 
 Social Character, Traits of. — Considerable variety exists 
 in the mental characters not only of men but of different mol- 
 lusks. One mollusk, apparently like the anchoret, loves to 
 dwell alone, another prefers society, a third associates only with 
 his clan. He cannot endure the neighborhood of creatures 
 formed like himself, with similar necessities and inclinations, if 
 they differ in even a few immaterial points. p. h. 
 
 Social Skunks.— The skunks [Mrp/iltis) inhabit North and 
 South America, and are remarkable for the horrid stench which 
 they diffuse around them when provoked. The effluvium no 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 321 
 
 living creature can endure even at a considerable distance. 
 Even clothing is rendered unwearable. Among mankind may- 
 be found social skunks — individuals who, whenever the least 
 annoyed, make the moral atmosphere so utterly offensive that 
 even robust honesty (however desirous of vindicating itself) is 
 compelled to withdraw. So detestable is the effect which these 
 fellows produce that a moral fumigation of all that has been 
 hear them does not absolutely remove all traces of their rascal- 
 dom ; and years after, coming into contact with them, a refer- 
 ence to even trivial circumstances which have been tainted by 
 their association will produce nausea. m. 
 
 Social Life, Inequalities in. — The inequalities of society 
 are startling. The social strata are irregular, full of faults and 
 breaks. We cannot account for the singular social position of 
 some men any more than, when we are examining rocks, we 
 can account for the juxtaposition of worthless stone and valu- 
 able ore.jJTWe find that ores of the useful metals have been 
 sometimes thrown down in a fissure at one time and not at 
 another ; the deposit of one ore sometimes repeated, at others 
 not. Thus there may Jiave been a coating of a zinc ore at one 
 time, of copper ore at another, and a covering of tin ore upon 
 these, sometimes separated by other mineral substances, at 
 others in deposits one above the other. Again we find in the 
 successive dislocations which are sometimes seen to have 
 effected the lines of fissures, that while the lines of least resis- 
 tance to the appUed force have been chiefly through the contents 
 of the original fissure, occasionally a new fissure has been made 
 through portions of the adjoining rock, so that the minerals 
 which may have been subsequently deposited in the new crack 
 or fissure will be partly in the old line and partly amid the 
 newly broken and adjacent rocks. The rocks very fairly rep- 
 resent social life. Revolutions and reactions — the conflicting 
 operations of the court and the populace, the priests and the 
 people, each sometimes gaining and each sometimes losing the 
 ascendancy — have jostled men into curious positions. Men 
 utterly different in their nature are in closest contact ; and 
 
32 2 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 those whom you would often look for at the top are at the bot- 
 tom, the man of tin being where you hoped to discover him of 
 gold, and all being strangely mixed up with the world's dross 
 and rubbish. The processes by which all this came to pass are 
 no doubt ascertainable ; but, as in the case of the rocks, exceed- 
 ingly difficult just at present. So we must accept .the fact, and 
 await in confidence the explaining day. ma. 
 
 Social Elevation Perilous to Some — It is not every man 
 who can live on the elevated places of society. The social 
 mountains are incompatible with the organizations intended to 
 thrive down in the plains 6f commonplace life. The magis- 
 terial mountain, the political mountain, the rehgious mountain, 
 furnish many examples of the curious phenomena which have 
 been developed in certain of the vulgar tribes which have en- 
 deavored to flourish on their inviting heights. We have all our 
 own places in creation, and are only safe when we are keeping 
 them. It is so with men, it is so with animals. Some animals 
 which flourish well and happily in the plain become ailing or 
 die on the mountain. For example : Von Tschudi makes the 
 singular remark that bn the Cordilleras,- at elevations of more 
 than twelve thousand feet, delicate breeds of dogs and the 
 European domestic cat are exposed to a particular kind of 
 mortal disease. Humboldt records that innumerable attempts 
 have been made to keep cats as domestic animals in the town 
 of Cerro de Pasco, lying at an elevation of fourteen thousand 
 one hundred feet above the sea's level; but such endeavors 
 have invariably been frustrated, as both cats and dogs ha^e 
 died in convulsions at the end of a few days.^ The cats, after 
 being attacked by convulsive fits, attempt to climb the walls, 
 but soon fall to the ground exhausted and motionless. Lord 
 Bacon says of litde men in high places, that they resemble small 
 busts on tall pedestals, and are the more ridiculous on account 
 of their elevation. So they are. But they are also, like these 
 cats and dogs on the mountain heights, quite out of their 
 sphere ; and the attempt to elevate them, however well intended 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 323 
 
 is often a fatal blunder. Keep the cats and dogs of society 
 where they can live. vi. 
 
 Social Gullibility. — There is in society a guUible class — a 
 people who will snatch at any absurdity and swallow any non- 
 sense. \\i only a proposal or an institution assume a phase re- 
 sembling a thing which they approve, they mistake the resem- 
 blance for the thing, and are ready to act upon their mistake 
 even at the cost of the greatest inconvenienceTj There are many 
 animals in the world like them. The trout and salmon rise at 
 any artificial fly, and the pike snaps greedily at the glittering 
 metallic bait. The deer, deceived by a pair of horns held 
 above a bush which the Indian hunter carries before him, al- 
 lows him to approach within shot of the arrows. The edible 
 frog, which rejects dead food, seizes a dead inouse if it be 
 moved gently to give it the appearance of lifej^and the little 
 green tree-frog, so abundant in Germany, may be fed with dead 
 flies throughout the winter by a similar deception. Birds are 
 scared away from, fruit-trees and fresh-sown land by figures 
 representing a human form, and are again decoyed by pipes 
 imitating their own peculiar cries. And in this manner many 
 animals mistake the representation of an object for the object 
 itself, the drawing for the original. But they are not like men 
 in the frequency with which they make the mistake. p. 
 
 Social Isolation, The Perils of. — The sun is necessary to 
 health. Important changes take place in the constitution of the 
 blood in consequence of the cutaneous vessels on the surface 
 of the body not being freely exposed to its oxygenating and 
 life-generating influence. It is a well-established fact that, as 
 the effect of isolation from the stimulus of light, the fibrin, al- 
 bumin, and red blood-cells become diminished in quantity, and 
 the serum or watery portion of the vital fluid augmented in vol- 
 ume, thus inducing a disease known to physicians and patholo- 
 gists by the name of leucemia, an affection in which white in- 
 stead of red blood-cells are developed. This exclusion from 
 the sun produces the sickly, flabby, pale, anemic condition of 
 
324 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the face, or exsanguined, ghostlike forms so often seen among 
 those not freely exposed to air and light. The absence of these 
 essential elements of health deteriorates by materially altering 
 the physical composition of the blood, thus seriously prostrat- 
 ing the vital strength, enfeebling the ner\-ous energy, and ulti- 
 mately inducing organic changes-in the structure of the heart, , 
 brain, and muscular tissue. iNowjthat which the sun is to the 
 body, friendship is to the souT^ Wherever you find a nature 
 withdrawn from the genial influences of friendship you will 
 observe traces of abnormal weakness and melancholy. In the 
 shadow of solitude man loses the ruddy glow of joyousness, 
 and a gloomy misanthropy and sometimes mental decrepitude 
 are apt to derange all his affections. True friendship is the 
 sun of the soul. It stimulates, strengthens, and gladdens our 
 whole being, u i. l. : vir. 
 
 Social Life, The Undercurrents of. — The experiments in 
 deep-sea soundings have thrown much light upon the subject of 
 undercurrents. There is reason to believe that they exist in all 
 or almost all parts of the deep sea, for never in any instance yet 
 has the deep-sea line ceased to run out even after the plummet 
 has reached the bottom. If the line be held fast in the boat, it 
 invariably parts, showing, when two or three miles of it are 
 out, that the undercurrents are sweeping against the bight of 
 it with what seamen call a swigging force that no sounding- 
 twine has yet proved strong enough to withstand. To under- 
 stand the sea, you must go below its surface, just as in social 
 life, if you would understand the world, you must look below 
 its conventionalities, its court ceremonies, and its respectable 
 acts of parliament. You must take into account its undercur- 
 rents.| The "sounding-line" of any one of a hundred bio- 
 graphical histories will enable you to discover that the throne, 
 the parliament, the church, and all imperial institutions are 
 vastly influenced by a variety of undercurrents. Logic, cour- 
 tesy, and religion are on the surface, but underneath them all 
 there are bad undercurrents which sweep along with a " swig- 
 ging force." T. 
 
SCIKynFIC ILLUSTKAriOKS. 325 
 
 Solitude, The Music of. — The nightingale is celebrated all 
 over the world for its song, which without doubt is superior to 
 that of all other birds. Naturally shy, it retires into the fresh- 
 est and most sheltered and secluded places, rarely exposing 
 itself to observation. Brushwood and thickets, witch-elms and 
 evergreen trees, growing on the banks of some retired water- 
 course, are its favorite dwellings. In its seclusion it sings not 
 only during the day but also in the night ; but let any discor- 
 dant noise approach its retreat and it stops instantly. It seems 
 to love solitudet&bove all things. The soul of the poet resem- 
 bles the nightingale in this ; for it is in the retirement of lonely 
 hills and valleys, away from all the clatter of the world, that the 
 poet becomes, as Landor says, " the serene creator of immortal 
 things," of which he discourses in delightful spiritual melody. 
 The soul's purest music is only heard in solitude, "far from the 
 madding crowd." re. 
 
 Sorrow Mitigating Anger. — Dry air is a bad conductor, 
 and favors undue electrical accumulations ; but moist air is a 
 good conductor, and drains the electricity harmlessly from the, 
 atmosphere. Each drop of rain as it falls becomes freighted 
 with some of the superabundant electricity, and carries it off in 
 . safety to the earth,;j:+ The falling torrent, moreover, soaks house, 
 tower, and tree and shrub; and thus adds to the facihty with 
 which they conduct the fluid harmlessly from the air. Anger 
 resembles the lightning, and sorrow the rain. So long as anger 
 rages in its own burning atmosphere it may be dangerous, but 
 when pathos blends with the storm and sorrow rains her tears, 
 anger becomes controllable, and may harmlessly discharge itself 
 in reminiscences or contrition. be. 
 
 Soul Ascension — The frigate-bird [Frigata) spreads its 
 wings to the extent of three yards, and its power of flight is, 
 therefore, very great. When a hurricane arises it mounts up far 
 above the storm, and remains in these empyrean regions until 
 the tempest is overpassed. In consequence of their immense 
 expansion of the wing they can sustain themselves in the air for 
 days together without taking or requiring rest. The human soul, 
 
326 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 like the frigate-bird, possesses a power to rise above its storms. 
 Upon the pinions of faith it can ascend above the tempests of 
 time, and calm itself in the prospects of immortality. No storms 
 can beat it down, for it possesses a spirituality which, as Dr. 
 Crowley says, enables it to rise higher and higher with every 
 fresh wave of its wing. re. 
 
 Soul Blossoming. — Moments of profound faith, says Rev. 
 F. W. Robertson, do not come once for all ; they vary with the 
 degree and habit of obedience. There is a plant which blos- 
 soms once in a hundred years. Like it, the soul blossoms only 
 now and then in a space of years ; but these moments are the 
 glory and the heavenly glimpses of our purest humanity. 
 
 Sound, Allured by Mere. — The Cicada plebeia, or Tetti- 
 gonia fraxini, is an insect very common in Provence, of gray- 
 yellow below, black above ; the head and thorax are marked or 
 striped with black. M. Solier says that its song, very loud and 
 very piercing, seems to consist, of one single note, repeated with 
 rapidity, which insensibly grows weaker after a certain time, and 
 terminates in a kind of whistle, which can be partly imitated by 
 pronouncing the two consonants s, t, and which resembles the 
 noise of the air coming out of a little opening in a compressed 
 bladder. The cicadas in general are very timid, and fly away 
 at the least noise. However, when a cicada is singing, one can 
 approach it, whistling the while in a quavering manner, and imi- 
 tating as nearly as possible its cry, but in such a manner as to 
 predominate over it. The insect then descends a small space 
 down the tree, as if to approach the whistler ; then it stops. 
 But if one presents a stick to it, continuing to whistle, the cicada 
 setries on it and begins again to descend backward. From 
 time to time it stops as if to listen. At last attracted and, as it 
 were, fascinated by the harmony of the whisde, it comes to the 
 observer himself. Here, then, is another of the many instances 
 in which a creature may be befooled by a mere sound. We 
 have observed at church congresses, at revival-meetings, tea- 
 meetings, electioneering gatherings, and at sundry times in divers 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 327 
 
 places, that human beings can be cajoled by the same thing. 
 A man with an ecclesiastical wand or an electioneering wand, 
 if he will learn his tune properly, can always bring down the 
 human Cicada plebeia, and get him in his own power. i. 
 
 Spiritual Torpor. — We may accept it as an axiom in phys- 
 iology, that the activity of respiration is inseparably connected 
 with vital activity ; not simply muscular activity, as some writers 
 maintain, but all processes whatever involving chemical change 
 within the body. The most striking confirmation of this axiom 
 is perhaps to be seen in the phenomena of hybernation or win- 
 ter sleep. No sooner are the vital functions reduced to this 
 extremely feeble condition, in which we may almost say life is 
 suspended, than these hybernating animals are so incapable of 
 ordinary respiration that they may be placed in an atmosphere 
 of pure carbonic acid, and remain there unhurt for four hours, 
 whereas if they were placed in such an atmosphere when their 
 breathing was going on they would instantly perish;^In the 
 mental world there is a spiritual hybernation. The intelligence 
 falls into a profound slumber. When it does so the mind is in- 
 dependent of all its ordinary requirements, and can exist in an 
 atmosphere which is devoid of even a trace of common sense. 
 In this state a man may be placed under the influences of even 
 a revolting popular theology, and may manage to exist for a 
 time, and, if spiritual death overtake him, he is unconscious 
 both of his own position and of its approach. He is in a state 
 of suspended mental animation which is terminated without a 
 pang. PH. 
 
 Splenetic Force. — The splenetic man does not exert an 
 influence at all commensurate with his activity or his desires. 
 He often would be injurious if he could, but the fact is that 
 society is not affected by all his attacks in an equal degree. 
 Their power is in an inverse ratio to their number. It has been 
 found by observation that the effect of the subsequent wounds 
 which he gives, like those which the snake gives, is greatly de- 
 creased. In the case of the snake they are diminished either 
 by the diminution of the quantity of venom, or by some deteri- 
 
328 DICTJOXARY OF 
 
 oration of its strength, so that if a venomous snake be made 
 repeatedly to inflict wounds, without allowing sufficiently iong 
 intervals for it to recover its powers, each successive bite be- 
 comes less and less effective. In the case of the splenetic man, 
 however, there is no diminution either in the quantity of the 
 venom or its quahty. The decrease in the noxious effects pro- 
 duced by his subsequent wounds is due to 'another source. It 
 is owing to society's method of treatment. Society now finds 
 that it is best not to dress such wounds, or allow them to be 
 plastered over by friends, but to bathe them at once in oblivion. 
 
 p. 
 
 Spurious Philanthropist, The The teredo (ship-worm) 
 
 passes through several changes of form, and in its earlier stages 
 is wholly unrecognizable by any one except a practised natural- 
 ist. It is very minute and nearly spherical, and covered with 
 cilia or hairlike projections, by means of which it swims rap- 
 idly through the water. In thirty-six hours it assumes a new 
 form, and speedily changes it for another, after which it returns 
 again to its original form, so that in a very few hours the little 
 creature is first spherical, then oval, then triangular, and then 
 spherical again. In this stage of existence it possesses a foot 
 which enables it to crawl after the manner of snails, and also 
 has organs of hearing and sight. It does not enjoy its locomo- 
 tive powers for any long time, but fixes itself to some suitable 
 object, passes through its last change, becomes a veritable ship- 
 worm, and begins its hfelong task of boring. >1 This creature 
 reminds one of the spurious philanthropist, who passes through 
 a strange variety of changes before he settles down to his voca- 
 tion. He is tradesman, bankrupt, canvasser, collector, account- 
 ant, agent, and lecturer, and then, having merely crawled tlirough 
 the first part of his hfe, finally he passes into his last phase of 
 existence, that of spurious philanthropist. In this stage of being 
 he begins and ends the great work of his life, boring poor 
 humanity in all directions in order to support himself, c. s. 
 
 Starvation, The Obligation of Permitting At the end 
 
 of the season, after successive bands of the worker-wasps ha\e 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 329 
 
 passed through the cells, and the single generation of the males 
 and females has come to maturity, the nest shows symptoms of 
 dissolution. Toward the remaining grubs the wasps change 
 their behavior. Instead of feeding, tending, and defending 
 them, they pull these helpless white things out of their cradles, 
 carry them far out of the nest, and abandon them. It seems 
 a cruelty, but it is a cruel mercy, substituting a quick death by 
 exposure, or perchance being eaten by birds, for a slow and 
 lingering death by starvation within the nest. P'or the instinct 
 of the workers tells them that their labor is over, their course 
 run, and in a short time they will all die, so that the helpless 
 nurselings ih the cells would find no food and must perish by 
 starvationJpThis wonderful fact is pregnant with suggestions 
 worthy the best consideration of magistrates, coroners, and all 
 officials who are charged with any punitive duties in relation to 
 men and women in a state of starvation. Those of them who 
 adopt the Christian faith in its integrity are entitled to say that, 
 human life being sacred, men must not under starvation behave 
 like the wasps. But those officials who do not believe in the 
 sanctity of human life, but consider it to be of the same value as 
 that of the brute or insect, may pause and consider a little be- 
 fore they punish men and women for committing acts like those 
 of the wasp, and which are prompted by the same instinct. 
 Moreover, all magistrates, whatever their creed, should remem- 
 ber that there are ignorant unsophisticated men in the world 
 whose actions are prompted only by natural instinct, and who 
 have never been instructed by conventional opinion. If such 
 men are brought before a court of justice, they are entitled to 
 be considered with something of the leniency which we feel 
 toward the wasp. If in theological ignorance they followed 
 their only guide, their instinct, that fact' should be weighed 
 when punishment is being meted out to them. It requires 
 more than natural instinct to prompt man to comprehend the 
 moral duty of watching the starvation of his offspring when 
 there is at hand a short cut to its extinction. h. 
 
 Statesmanlike Insensibility. — It is very remarkable that 
 
3^o DICTIONARY OF 
 
 some fishes can subsist, apparently in health, in water suffi- 
 ciently heated to boil them if dead. Broussonnet found, by ex- 
 periments, that several species of fresh-water fishes lived many 
 days in water so hot that the human hand could not be held 
 in it for a single minute. Saussure found living eels in the hot 
 springs of Aix, in Savoy, in which the temperature is pretty 
 regularly 113° Fahrenheit. But still more extraordinary are 
 the facts recorded by Humboldt and Bonpland, who saw living 
 fishes, apparently in health and vigor, thrown up from the crater 
 of a volcano in South America, with water and hot vapor that 
 raised the thermometer to 210° Fahrenheit, a heat less by only 
 two degrees than that of boiling water J«^'he equanimity with 
 which these slippery creatures bear " getting into hot water " 
 reminds us of the statesman's insensibility to the heated turmoil 
 of public indignation. We have seen many glib specimens, 
 hurled forth from their places by explosions of righteous opinion, 
 float about quite comfortably in currents of popular fury which 
 we should have thought would annihilate them. They disre- 
 garded the irony of circumstances, and preserved their slippery 
 egotism under all conditions. ' RO. 
 
 Sterility, Tlie Dreariness of. — The districts of the pampas 
 stretch northward to the spurs of the Andes, and consist of a 
 sandy soil, free from salt, but wholly unproductive. These soli- 
 tudes, however, are plowed by running streams, none of which 
 communicate with the sea. They descend from the Andes, 
 traverse the pampas from east to west, and empty themselves 
 into the saline lakes. Somewhat farther to the north, and 
 nearer the equator, lies an almost unknown region of salt — a 
 region of indescribable gloom, where neither tree, nor bush, 
 nor blade of emerald grass delights the eye. Eighteen months 
 frequently elapse in this land of desolation, worthy of being one 
 of the circles in Dante's " Inferno," without the cheering sound 
 of a shower of rain ; and when at length it arrives, it splits the 
 rocks of salt, and melts them into wide pools of brackish mud. 
 As soon as the sun has absorbed the excessive humidity of the 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 331 
 
 soil, myriads of soft crystals glitter on the surface, and convert 
 the desert into one immense mirror. d. 
 
 Stings, The Philosophy of our. — The prick made by so 
 fine a point as that of the sting of the gnat {Culex pipiens) ought 
 not to cause any pain. " The point of the finest needle," says 
 Reaumur, " compared to the sting of the gnat, is the same as 
 the point of a sword compared to that of the needle." How 
 is it, then, that so much suffering is caused by a sting? It is 
 because the prick has been imbued with that which, while it 
 appears like a mere drop of very clear water, is an intensely 
 irritating liquid. It is the insertion of this which inflames us. 
 We notice some resemblance between this process and that 
 which is going on when our moral nature is wounded by an 
 acquaintance. It is not his little word which grieves our soul. 
 It is the essence of malignity which, by its means, he distils into 
 us. A look, a sneer, a tone, a gesture, are in themselves quiet, 
 unappreciable factors in rousing a riot among the emotions, but 
 the venom which they subtly convey is capable of causing 
 suicide or inducing madness. i. 
 
 Subjection, Easy. — The ass, hke the horse, was originally 
 imported into America by the Spaniards, and afterward by other 
 nations. In its natural state this animal is swift, fierce, and 
 formidable. When attacked they defend themselves with their 
 heels and mouth with such activity that without slackening 
 their pace they often maim their pursuers. But the most re- 
 markable property in these creatures is, that after carrying their 
 first load their celerity leaves them, their dangerous ferocity is 
 past, and they soon contract the stupid look and dullness pecu- 
 liar to the asinine species. There are men who, in their con- 
 stitution and history, resemble this animal.fl-A man of this cal- 
 iber in his married life and public career, or under the pressure 
 of any troubles, always begins and ends in one never-varying 
 way. He is first showy, pretentious, vociferous, and affects a 
 vast amount of resisting force ; but as his manhood is only a 
 resemblance to a thoroughbred man, he is soon quelled. A 
 
222 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 wife, a priest, or a tyrant places the load well on his back, and 
 all his courage departs forever, and in dull submission he will 
 continue to pace in perfect obedience to the bridle of authority. 
 
 A. 
 
 Subterfuges the Resort of the Overpowered — Weak- 
 ness often resorts to dissimulation for artifices of defense. But 
 unless overmatched, strong men and strong animals do not de- 
 fend themselves by tricks. The stag, being utterly unequal to 
 cope with his powerful enemies, illustrates the tendency of the 
 weak to resort to subterfuges for defense. His intelligence is 
 shown chiefly in the arts by which he endeavors to escape when 
 pursued. In order to deceive the hounds, he will return twice 
 or thrice upon his former steps. He seems aware that he is 
 followed by the scent, and will try, as he flees, to excite hinds 
 or younger stags to come after him, and draw off the dogs from 
 his track. If he succeed in this attempt, he will often spring 
 away in a side-course, and sometimes lie down on his belly, as 
 well to rest as to conceal himself. It is not till he has exhausted 
 all his artifices that he goes into the water to cut off the scent. 
 
 R. 
 
 Success a Constitutional Trait. — The fork-tailed date- 
 shell {Lithodomus caudigera) is able to bore into the hardest 
 stones and stoutest shells, which are found pierced by hundreds 
 of these curious beings. They seem to have one prevailing in- 
 stinct, namely, to bore their way through everything. Onward, 
 ever onward, seems to be the law of their existence, and most 
 thoroughly do they carry it out. There is not any particular 
 credit due to them, for they merely obey a blind instinct^ and 
 their success in their borings is a constitutional trait. There 
 are men born with the same instinct which the occupant of this 
 shell possesses. As a result, they are as successful as those born 
 without it are unsuccessful. They need not brag about their 
 achievements. The whole explanation of them will be found 
 in the fact that Nature arranges matters by law and not by 
 luck. Their .success is simply owing to their constitutional 
 trait. It has no more eccentricity, says Emerson, than tlie 
 gingham or muslin we weave in our mills. n. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 333 
 
 Sudden Death and Immediate Burial an Old Law of 
 
 Nature It has been remarked, and truly, that many of the 
 
 fish and saurians, found fossil in the lias, must have met with 
 sudden death and immediate burial, and that the destructive 
 operation, whatever may have been its nature, was often re- 
 peated. Sometimes, says Dr. Buckland, scarcely a single bone 
 or scale has been removed from the place it occupied during 
 life, which could not have happened had the uncovered bodies 
 of these saurians been left, even for a few hours, exposed to 
 putrefaction and to the attacks of fishes and other smaller ani- 
 mals at the bottom of the sea. Not only are the skeletons of 
 the ichthyosaurs entire, but sometimes the contents of their 
 stomachs still remain between their ribs, so that we can dis- 
 cover the particular species of fish on which they lived/and the 
 form of their excrements. -jf^ e. 
 
 Sunbeam, Physical Forces in the. — The strength of evi- 
 dence appears to be in favor of considering light, heat, and 
 actinism as three distinct principles or powers active in regu- 
 lating the great phenomena of Nature. In the sunbeam these 
 powers are balanced against each other, and thus are deter- 
 mined those differences of climate which are not influenced 
 by the physical conformation of the earth's surface. It has 
 been proved by well-conducted observations that with varia- 
 tions of latitude there are variations in the relations of these 
 three principles. In the temperate regions of the earth the 
 actinic power is active ; as we advance to the tropics, where 
 heat increases, and 
 
 " The sun shines forever, unchangeably bright, " 
 
 the chemical power is weak. The photographic picture which 
 could be • taken in New York in a second or two could not be 
 obtained within the tropics in less than a quarter of an hour. 
 It often happens, indeed, that prolonged exposure under a blaz- 
 ing sun is insufficient to produce any chemical change. Every- 
 thing appears to favor the view that the distribution of plants 
 and animals on the surface of the earth is regulated by the bal- 
 ance of physical forces in the sunbeam. In the seasons we 
 
334 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 detect the same influences at work. Actinism or chemical 
 power is greatest in the spring ; as the bright hght of summer 
 advances, the power of the solar rays to produce any chemical 
 change is diminished ; and as we advance to autumn, the pecu- 
 liar heat-rays come more evidently into action. i. l. 
 
 Superstition the Protector of Monstrosities. — The Natal 
 rock-snake {Natalensis) is described by Sir Andrew Smith as 
 being gigantic in size, he having seen a skin measmng twenty- 
 five feet, although part of the tail was absent. It feeds, he 
 says, on small quadrupeds, and for some days after swallowing 
 one it remains in a torpid state, when it may be easily destroyed. 
 Of this opportunity, however, the South Africans never avail 
 themselves ; they have a horror of the reptile, but believe that 
 it has an influence over their destinies, and affirm that no one 
 has ever been known to kill one and prosper. Thus does super- 
 stition ever deal tenderly with all monstrosities. ^Whether she 
 has to deal with a snake, a creed, a tyrant, a throne, or a fable, 
 she always exhibits the same silly horrors of freeing herself from 
 them. It is her firm belief that monstrosities have power, with 
 heaven, to aflFect human destiny for good and evil. re. 
 
 Suppletory Elements. — For an extended idea of the value 
 of suppletory elements we may look at Nature's metalliferous 
 laboratory. We observe that when strength is wanted we have 
 the giant iron at our beck and call. An obdurate, unwieldy 
 servant in his rougher shapes, we tame him through fire, and 
 make his dull force yield to our skilful weakness. Powerful in 
 our knowledge, we summon this metal to sustain our houses 
 and bridge our rivers, and we bend and roll, and twist and 
 fashion it as we please for a thousand useful purposes. Do we 
 want a medium to help on commerce by superseding clumsy 
 barter? There is gold. Is heaviness required? It is to be 
 found in platinum. Or lightness? There is aluminium. Or 
 softness? There is lead. Or brittleness ? There is antimony. 
 Or fluidity? There is mercury. While for a combination of 
 many qualities useful in domestic life there are copper and tin. 
 One metal appears to have been created to supplement the de- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 335 
 
 ficiencies of another. Thus iron, strong though it be, yields to 
 the gnawing attacks of air and moisture. But by sheathing it 
 in a film of zinc or tin — metals which, though comparatively 
 weak, are yet less sensitive to air and moisture — iron gains the 
 priceless quality of endurance. By the skilful union of various 
 other metals in different proportions, the chemist knows how 
 they may be adapted to almost every purpose. In the various 
 departments of human activity we may also observe the vast 
 advantages of supplemental forces. The dreams of the poet 
 are balanced by the acts of the statesman. The creations of 
 the painter are strengthened by the sermons of the preacher. 
 The fire of the orator is tempered by the wisdom of the philos- 
 opher. The enthusiasm of the mob is controlled by the serenity 
 of law. These forces are all intrinsically good ; and that good 
 is fortified by reason of the fact that, being suppletory, they all 
 strengthen each other. be. 
 
 Susceptible Character, The. — The witch-elm manifests the 
 approach of winter earlier than any other tree. It becomes 
 ruined and denuded by a touch of the frosty air, and contrib- 
 utes no splendor, no beauty to autumnal scenery, as its leaves 
 curl up, become brown, and flutter from their sprays, as early, 
 when growing in exposed situations, as the middle of Septem- 
 ber. This character of itself marks a difference from the com- 
 mon elm, which preserves its verdure, except from accidental 
 causes, long after this period, and with a fine, mellow, yellow 
 hue contributing a full share with other trees to the character 
 and splendor of autumn.jj. The witch-elm is an emblem of the 
 susceptible, tender human character. The soul of such a man 
 is highly sensitive to all external impressions. The first frosty 
 touch of a great sorrow shakes his life to its center. Men of a 
 more robust type are chastened by sad events ; and, mellowed 
 by checkered experiences, live on to the tranquil maturity of 
 their existence. But he, unfortunately, cannot face the rough 
 blasts of adversity, and perishes at once under their cruel, chill- 
 ing influence. P]ven the cold breath of slander sometimes bears 
 for him a sentence of death. j. 
 
336 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Suspense Inimical to Work We can bear the worst 
 
 better than we can bear the apprehension of the worst. A 
 state of suspense is inimical to the performance of work. Bees 
 seem Hke us in this respect. When they are foraging in the 
 country, the appearance of a single cloud before the sun causes 
 them to return home precipitately. They apprehend rain, which 
 they much dislike. However, if the sky is uniformly dark and 
 cloudy, and if there are not any sudden alternations of dark- 
 ness and light, they are not easily alarmed, and when gentle 
 rain actually does come, it hardly drives them away from their 
 hunting-ground. The reality turns out to be less hostile to their 
 work than the suspense preceding it. i. 
 
 Suspicion Sometimes the Child of Self-Knowledge. — 
 The habit of laying traps for other animals by the monkey tribe 
 makes them very cautious of being entrapped themselves. No 
 snare, how nicely bated soever, will take the monkey of the 
 West India Islands. The monkey, being full of tricks and 
 cheating himself, supposes every other creature to be so like- 
 wise. Very fraudulent men are always the persons who are 
 most suspicious of others. The greatest rascals are the great- 
 est suspecters. Like the monkey, they are on the lookout for 
 " traps " ; and like him, they often think they see one when 
 there is nothing of the kind. , a. 
 
 Sweet Disposition, The. — Most persons are considerably 
 affected by the circumstances which surround them, and their 
 disposition is either soured or sweetened by their influence. 
 But there are some, few who are born with a sweet disposition, 
 which seems an indestructible essence. It is not developed by 
 good fortune, or destroyed by adversit)^ They are like the 
 violet, which as a hteral fact all the culture of the world has 
 never been able to improve, and which is as lovely and sweet- 
 scented in the wild bank and in the wood as in the most splen- 
 did borders of palace gardens. b. f. 
 
 Sycophant's Ascendancy, The. — The stem of the ivy is 
 furnished with roothke suckers which insinuate their spurs into 
 the bark of trees or on the surface of a wall. Who has not 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 337 
 
 seen with regret some noble ash-tree covered with ivy, in whose 
 embrace it rapidly yields up its life ? Surely the root is draining 
 the tree of its sap and transferring it to its own veins.-)^Thus 
 does a sycophant gradually extend his influence over a patron 
 until the manliness of that patron succumbs to his ascendancy; 
 The hero is ruined, and the flatterer flourishes in his place. 
 Beware of the insinuating aptitudes of the parasite ! Let him, 
 like ivy on a wall, keep his proper situation. Protect a noble 
 nature from his advances. v. 
 
 Sympathy. — Sympathy for each other in suffering is not 
 confined to mankind. There is one trait, says Mr. Jesse, in the 
 character of reefe which is, I believe, pecuHar to that sort of 
 birds, and which does them no Httle credit. It is the distress 
 which they exhibit when one of them has been killed or wounded 
 by a gun while they have been feeding in a field or flying over 
 it. Instead of being scared away by the report of the gun, leav- 
 ing their wounded or dead companion to his fate, they show the 
 greatest anxiety or sympathy for him, uttering cries of distress, 
 and plainly proving that they wish to render him assistance by 
 hovering over him, or sometimes making a dart from the air 
 close up to him, apparently to try and find out the reason why 
 he did not follow them : 
 
 " ^Vhile circling round and round, 
 They call their lifeless comrade from the ground." 
 
 /_' ■? 
 
 If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the f€»oks 
 appear to animate him to make fresh exertions by incessant 
 cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to 
 follow them. R. 
 
 Sympathy, The Law of. — Sympathy, as Edmund Burke 
 has well said, may be considered as a- sort of substitution, by 
 which we are put into the place of another man, and affected 
 in many respects as he is affected. And by the operation of 
 the law of sympathy, Coleridge declares that all powerful souls 
 have kindred with each other. But no words of description can 
 convey so good an idea of this mystic power, and of its work- 
 
33^ DICTIONARY OF 
 
 ings, as we may obtain by looking at its emblem, the Mimosa 
 sensitiva — the sensitive plant. As a friend feels for a friend, 
 so each of its leaves seems to feel for the others. Who that 
 knows, who that has seen it, has not also remarked the strange 
 sensibility of its leaves? The slightest touch suffices to make 
 its folioles close upon, their supports, the petiolar twigs upon the 
 common petiole, and the common petiole upon the stem. If 
 we wound the extreme end of one foliole, the others immedi- 
 ately approach in succession, like friends who come to share in 
 suffering or death. The irritation is not local, but communi- 
 cates from circle to circle in the various elements of a leaf, and 
 propagates itself from one leaf to another, like sympathy in an 
 association of true friends. The more vigorous the sensitive 
 plant is in its habit, the more susceptible is it ; for sympathy 
 everywhere (unlike sentimentality) is always most powerful in 
 the noblest organizations. v. 
 
 Sympathy, The Human Soul Seeks the Face for. — The 
 human soul seeks the face for sympathy, as if constituted for 
 that sociality only through that medium — the living telegraph 
 of all that is felt within. So strong is this disposition to look 
 into the features for fellowship, that even a blind man, when ex- 
 cited by the voice of a friend, seems to see the accompanying 
 expression of his face. Those who have had opportunity of 
 observing the attitude of an intelligent blind person, while in 
 lively conversation with him, can testify to the force with which 
 his features respond to every word. He seems to watch you 
 with his sightless face, and to look through the whole of it into 
 your eyes. Holman, the blind traveler, says : " When any one 
 is conversing with me, I conceive myself to see the expression 
 of countenance as the words are pronounced, almost as if I 
 actually saw it, and in ordinary cases receive a similar kind of 
 satisfaction." u 
 
 Tact is Superior to Force.— ^^^hen the hawk is soaring 
 above the court, scarce discernible to human eye, the pigeons 
 have already perceived him ; and if no hiding-place is to be 
 found, the whole flock arise and career upward in close circles. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 339 
 
 Faster and still faster the entangled maze goes round, in order 
 to confuse the marauder. He swoops down and misses his prey, 
 for look and blow have grown uncertain. He makes another, 
 and a third attempt, but in vain ; there is nothing left him but 
 to retreat discomfited. Their tact thus saves the pigeons from 
 being the prey of this stronger bird. How often have men of 
 tact saved themselves by tact alone from powerful foes!/ ST. 
 
 Temper, The Equable. — Do not be elated by prosperity ; 
 do not be chilled by adversity. Let not external circumstances 
 regulate your demeanor ; but let them be governed by your 
 strong will acting under a sense of what is right. Your temper 
 will then be equable, as it should be. Just look at the plants. 
 One of their mo.st mysterious properties is that of regulating 
 their temperature. The twigs of the tree are not frozen through 
 in winter, neither does their temperature mount up in summer 
 in proportion to the external heat. Their vitality protects them 
 equally from both extremes ; and when you are yielding too 
 much to mere external influences, just think of this. ^ be. 
 
 Temperament, The Equable. — Some men are blessed 
 with that temper which is equal and uniform at all times. The 
 violence of wrath never heats them, and the disappointments 
 and vexations of life fail to chill the even geniality of their dis- 
 position. The thermometer of their temper rises and falls only 
 within the most limited range, and therefore you can always 
 calculate upon the presence of all the products of calmness, and 
 the absence of the vices which are incidental to characters which 
 are less benign. As with men, so with climates. Some coun- 
 tries are fortunate in the enjoyment of a climate exempt from 
 remarkable vicissitudes of temperature ; there are no sudden 
 transitions from heat to cold, nor does the summer differ much 
 from the winter. Here it is natural to expect that animal and 
 vegetable life will flourish, and that diseases connected with 
 atmospheric changes will be few in number and mild in char- 
 acter. Of this New Holland, which enjoys a very uniform 
 temperature, furnishes an apt illustration. Vegetables and 
 shrubs are here evergreen, and the groves and forests are clad 
 
34° DICTIONARY OF 
 
 in a perpetual verdure. There is no shedding of leaves in 
 winter, and Nature presents the whole year round all the 
 luxuriance of summer. Similarly in the faces of some men of 
 equable temperament she, under all circumstances, presents 
 evermore the same placid smile. s. 
 
 Temperament, The Restless There are individuals and 
 
 plants which are in a state of unceasing restlessness. The indi- 
 vidual is best known by the name of fidget. He or she (for a 
 woman is quite as often a fidget as a man is) exists in a per- 
 petual fuss, and the work of life is a meaningless series of un- 
 interrupted movements, whose end and object no human being 
 can see. The activity is not strong and progressive, but con- 
 sists in nervous fuss for the sake of fuss. The fidget never 
 accompHshes anything as the result of all this restless motion. 
 Yet this does not deter the creature from v/orking out its fussy 
 destiny. Alteration of the habit is utterly impossible. The 
 fidget is a fidget by nature ; as the Desmodium gyrans is a 
 jerker by nature. Those who are acquainted with this very re- 
 markable Bengal plant will have noticed that the lateral or very 
 small folioles are almost always in motion, executing little jerks 
 somewhat analogous to the movements of the seconds of a 
 watch. One of the folioles rises and the other descends at the 
 same time, and with a corresponding pace. When the first be- 
 gins to descend the other begins to rise. The large or terminal 
 foholes move also, inclining now to the right, now to the left, 
 but by a continuous and very slow movement as compared with 
 that of the lateral folioles. This singular mechanism endures 
 throughout the hfe of the plant. It jerks itself day and night, 
 through drought and humidity. The warmer and more humid 
 the day, the more lively are its movements, as are also those of 
 the dyspeptic fidget. The movements of both occur spontane- 
 ously and without any apparent cause. In India the plant has 
 been known to make sixty jerks in the minute. The number 
 of worries the human fidget can perform in a given time has 
 never yet been accurately computed, the patience of man being 
 quite unequal to the task of accurate computation. But gen- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 34 1 
 
 eral experience puts the approximate number very high indeed ; 
 particularly in the case of the female fidget, who, when settled 
 even in the most comfortable circumstances, has been known, 
 in one single day, to display her peculiarities to such an extent 
 that the beholder, in utter dizziness and bewilderment, has been 
 compelled to leave the spot. Happy is the man who is able to 
 do so without having any necessity ever to return to it! v. 
 
 Temperament, The Variable. — Physiologists classify tem- 
 peraments in a way which does not perhaps fully recognize 
 the variable temperament. But the fact is that there is such a 
 temperament, and its peculiar characteristic is just this, that it 
 has the power of changing from time to time into the moods 
 of all the other temperaments, from the lethargic to the san- 
 guine. That broad, oval-shaped beetle, the Cassida orichalcea, 
 so named by Fabricius on account of the brilliant brassy or 
 golden luster which, notwithstanding its black body, it assumes, 
 is found during most of the summer months on the leaves of 
 the bittersweet {^Solanum Dulcaviara), on various kinds of con- 
 volvulus, and the sweet-potato vine. It has the power of chang- 
 ing its hues, at one time appearing only of a dull yellow color, 
 and at other times shining with the splendor of polished brass 
 or gold, tinged sometimes, also, with the variable tints of pearl. 
 And it seems not an inapt illustration of the moods of the vari- 
 able temperament. in. 
 
 Temptation, Inaccessibility to. — When the lotus-leaf is 
 placed under water, it reflects light hke a mirror, so that the 
 image of any object, if presented to it at a proper angle, is seen 
 by the spectator as distinctly as if the surface were one of pol- 
 ished metal. When water is thrown on the surface of a floating 
 leaf, it flows oiT like a pool of quicksilver, reflecting light from 
 the whole of its lower surface. This holds good on all occa^ 
 sions. On examining carefully the cause of this natural phe- 
 nomenon, it is found that the lotus-leaf is covered by short micro- 
 scopic papillae, which entangle the air, and establish a kind of 
 air-plate over the entire surface of the leaf, with which in real- 
 ity the water never comes in contactjt This peculiarity is famil- 
 
342 DICriOKARY OF 
 
 iar to the natives of Australia, who have founded on it a kind 
 of proverb, which may be thus translated : " 'J'he good and vir- 
 tuous man is not enslaved by passion nor polluted by vice ; for 
 though he may be immersed in the waters of temptation, yet, 
 like the lotus-leaf, he will rise uninjured by them." He is sur- 
 rounded by an atmosphere of purity which prevents temptation 
 from affecting him, and he reflects Ught all around him. ga. 
 
 Terrestrial Adaptations, The System of. — That the sea 
 has a system of circulation for its waters we are ready, with all 
 the confidence of knowledge, to assert. We rest this assertion 
 upon our faith in the physical adaptations with which the sea 
 is invested. Take, for example, the coral islands, reefs, beds, 
 and atolls with which the Pacific Ocean is studded and gar- 
 nished. They were built up of materials which a certain kind 
 of insect quarried from the sea-water. The currents of the ^ea 
 ministered to this little insect — they were its /^(^^-carriers ; when 
 fresh supplies of solid matter were wanted for the coral rock 
 upon which the foundations of the Polynesian Islands were 
 laid, they brought them ; the obedient currents stood ready with 
 fresh supplies in unfailing streams of sea-water, from which the 
 solid ingredients had not been secreted. Now unless the cur- 
 rents of the sea had been employed to carry off from this in- 
 sect the waters that had been emptied by it of their lime, and 
 to bring it to others charged with more, it is evident the little 
 creature would have perished for want of food long before its 
 task was half completed. But for currents, it would have been 
 impaled in a nook of the very drop of water in which it was 
 spawned ; for it would have soon secreted the Hme contained in 
 this drop of water, and then, without the ministering aid of cur- 
 rents to bring it more, it would ha\'e perished for the want of food 
 for itself and materials for its edifice ; and thus but for the be- 
 nign currents which took this exhausted water away, there, we 
 perceive, this emptied drop would have remained, not only as 
 the grave of the little architect, but as a monument in attesta- 
 tion of the shocking monstrosity that there had been a failure 
 in the sublime system of terrestrial adaptations — that the sea 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOiXS. 343 
 
 had not been adapted by its Creator to the well-being of all its 
 inhabitants. Now we do know that its adaptations are suited 
 to all the wants of every one of its inhabitants — to the wants 
 of the coral insect as well as to those of the whale. Hence 
 we say we know that the sea has its system of circulation, for 
 it transports materials for the coral rock from one part of the 
 world to another ; its currents receive them from the rivers and 
 hand them over to the little mason for the structure of the most 
 stupendous works of solid masonry that man has ever seen — 
 the coral islands of the sea. t. 
 
 Terror, The Fascination of Over some natures terror 
 
 exercises an inexplicable fascination. Under its influence they 
 are betrayed into the very jaws of danger. They remind us of 
 the tree-serpents and the birds. The boomslang {Bucephalus 
 capensis), a species of tree-serpent, is generally found upon 
 trees, to which it resorts for the purpose of catching birds, 
 upon which it delights to feed. The presence of a specimen 
 in a tree is generally soon discovered by the birds in the neigh- 
 borhood, who collect around it, and ily to and fro, uttering the 
 most piercing cries, until some one, more terror-stricken than 
 the rest, actually scans its lips, and almost without resistance 
 becomes a meal for its enemy. During such a proceeding the 
 snake is generally observed with its head raised about ten or 
 twelve inches above the branch round which its body and tail 
 are entwined, with its mouth open, and its neck inflated, as 
 if anxiously endeavoring to increase the terror which it would 
 almost appear it was aware would sooner or later bring within 
 its grasp some one of the feathered group. mu. 
 
 Test, A Fallacious — Man frequently satisfies himself that 
 he has come to an accurate conclusion merely because on the 
 application of what he considers an infallible test he discovers 
 a particular anticipated result. Often enough the test is utterly 
 fallacious. Take an example. The tanghin, or tanguin, is the 
 only plant of its genus, and is confined to Madagascar. Its 
 poisonous seed is esteemed by the natives an infallible criterion 
 of guilt or innocence. After being pounded, a small piece is 
 
344 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 swallowed by the supposed criminal. If he be cursed with a 
 strong stomach, which retains the poison, he speedily dies, and 
 is held guilty; if his feeble digestion rejects it, he .necessarily 
 escapes, and his innocence is considered proven.^Now it is 
 obvious to any educated mind that innocence and guilt are in 
 no way disclosed by this process. Yet inasmuch as it has been 
 accepted as a test, its results are unquestioned. And there are 
 numberless instances in which English society consents to be 
 governed by the results of tests, simply because those t^sts are 
 generally accepted. Again and again it becomes important to 
 inquire whether, supposing your test does disclose a given re- 
 sult, that test is really as infallible as you deem it to be. Many 
 will be found to be only " tanghin " tests, and as such utterly 
 fallacious. d. 
 
 Thieves, A Low Order of In the time of Desfontaines, 
 
 baboons were so common in the forests of the Atlas in Africa 
 that in the environs of Stora the trees were frequently covered 
 with them. They feed, says that author, on pineapples, sweet 
 nuts, Indian figs, melons, watermelons, and the vegetables 
 which they pilfer from the gardens of the Arabs, whate\'er care 
 the latter may exercise to keep these ill-doing animals at a dis- 
 tance. A\'hile engaged in their thieving operations, two or three 
 mount to the top of their tallest trees and loftiest rocks to keep 
 watch, and when they perceive any person approaching, or 
 hear any noise, they gi\-e a cry of alarm, whereupon the whole 
 troop immediately take flight, carrying with them all they have 
 been able to seize. ' d. 
 
 Thieves Seldom Prosper Long. — It has often been re- 
 marked that property acquired by fraud and cheating seldom 
 permanendy benefits the possessor. This seems to be the rule, 
 also, among the feathered tribe. Occasionally the sparrows, 
 which take advantage of every cavity about our houses for 
 their own purposes, finding the nest of a martin ready for use, 
 take possession of it without ceremony ; in this case the rightful 
 owners endeaAor, generally with success, to oust the intruder 
 from their domicile. Sometimes, however, the sparrow in pos- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIOXS. 345 
 
 session obslinately refuses to quit his usurped abode, and then 
 the martins have been seen to adopt a \-ery curious mode of 
 revenging themselves. AVhen the owners of the nest find that 
 all their endeavors are insufficient to turn out the robber, they 
 collect their friends and neighbors in great numbers, and watch 
 the moment Avhen the sparrow is engaged in the business of 
 incubation ; then the whole body, each bearing a mass of 
 soft earth in its bill, rushes at once to the nest, and in a few 
 moments the aperture at the top is closed by a solid mass of 
 mud, which no efforts on the part of the unhappy prisoner can 
 possibly break through. So determined are they, indeed, to 
 effect their object thoroughly, that in a case recorded by the 
 Vicomte de Tarragon, the mass of clay stuffed into the aperture 
 was nearly of the form and size of a small hen's egg, the two 
 ends projecting into and out of the nest. The sparrow was 
 found dead upon her eggs. mu. 
 
 Thoughts, The Vitality of Many kinds of seeds are 
 
 gifted with powers not merely of retaining life under the ordi- 
 nary circumstances of Nature, but of resisting the most terrible 
 attacks. When wine has been made from raisins, and the ref- 
 use has been scattered over the fields as manure, it has been 
 observed that the grape-seeds have vegetated and produced 
 young vines, and this notwithstanding the boiling and fermenta- 
 tion they have had to endure. ^flThe seeds of elderberries' have 
 been obser\-ed to grow after similar trials. Many experiments 
 have been made to ascertain exactly what amount of unnatural 
 heat seeds can bear without being destroyed. It considerably 
 exceeds that which plants can bear ; and the same is the case 
 with extreme cold. Thoughts resemble seeds in many respects 
 — in their unobtrusiveness, their modes of dissemination, their 
 growth into \-ast things, and also, and very notably, in their 
 vital power, whereby they withstand all the frosts of time and 
 all the fires of persecution. li. 
 
 Thoughts Improve with the Thinker's Age. — As the 
 orange-tree increases in age, so the fruit improves in quality, the 
 j-ounger trees bearing fruit with a thicker rind and abundance of 
 
346 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 seeds. As the tree becomes older the skin becomes thinner, the 
 fruit much more juicy, and the seeds diminish in number. Some 
 of the old neglected trees bear fruit of the thinnest skin and 
 most luscious flavor. Some of the trees at the Azores bear at 
 a very great age ; some in one garden were one hundred years 
 old, still bearing plentifully a highly prized, thin-skinned orange, 
 full of juice and free from pips.jFThs thinness of the rind of a 
 St. Michael's orange and its freedom from pips depend upon 
 the age of the tree. Here, then, we clearly see a genuine illus- 
 tration of improvement with age. It typifies the mind of the 
 thinker. In the early fruit of the thinker's mind we have many 
 specimens of thoughts which, though of the right sort, are, per- 
 haps, not perfectly mellow and refreshing. But as the years 
 run on, a man's thoughts become more and more perfect, and 
 compare most favorably with those which are produced by 
 younger minds. Landor entitled one of his books "The Last 
 Fruit of an Old Tree." It was the ripe production of a splen- 
 did mind at its best. ga. 
 
 Timidity the Concomitant of Weakness The weakest 
 
 and meanest persons are invariably the most timid. They have 
 just sufficient wit to know that their wit is not to be relied on. 
 And it is singular how much this timidity in men depends 
 upon the mental and moral atmosphere in which they have been 
 reared. Those whose natures have de\' eloped in the genial 
 smile of warm friendship, and in frank and open associations, 
 are usually stronger, and possessed of more self-reliance, than 
 men who have been trained amid surroundings where those ele- 
 ments have been wanting. Their mental strength and courage, 
 like the physical strength and courage of the true lizards {Zacer- 
 tidce)^ seems to depend a good deal on temperature. In the 
 glowing regions of the tropics these lizards grov/ into large 
 proportions, and are bold and brave, because they are con- 
 scious of their strength. But in more northern countries they 
 are timid, because they are weak and of small size. Should a 
 slight noise strike upon its ear, or an unaccustomed object sud- 
 denly come in view, the little lizard, previously, perhaps, lying 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 347 
 
 basking in the rays of the sun, may be seen to raise itself im- 
 mediately upon its feet, to draw back its head, and in that atti- 
 tude carefully watch everything around it. A leaf may have 
 suddenly fallen to the ground ; it starts, watches the object for 
 a time to see whether it will move again, then carefully advanc- 
 ing nearer and nearer examines it well, and satisfying itself of 
 its nature, returns to its position and lays itself down again to 
 enjoy the warmth it loves so much. Should the danger be real, 
 however, it flies like lightning. And because in all these move- 
 ments it is so conscious of its feebleness, it is like the feeble- 
 minded man, who is constantly suspicious of impending danger ; 
 and its timidity is its protection from the calamities it fears to 
 face. , MU. 
 
 Tolerance, An Incitement to — That birds do mischief 
 among ripe corn there can be no doubt, but the harm they 
 cause in autumn is amply compensated by the good they do 
 in spring, from the havoc they make among the insect tribes. 
 The quantity of grubs and caterpillars annually destroyed by 
 rooks and various small birds must be immense. Some which 
 feed on the wing, as swallows, £tc., devour millions of mosqui- 
 toes and other winged insects. oWEven the titmouse and bullfinch 
 have been proved to attack only those buds which contain a 
 noxious insect. These facts should incite us to tolerance. Un- 
 doubtedly it is provoking to see a bird, or an evangelist, or a 
 stump orator, doing mischief. The notion of some people is to 
 exterminate them at once in Jlagra7ite delicto. But this is rash 
 folly. A fair investigation of the entire proceedings of the 
 offenders for a whole year will reveal that their good offices 
 exceed their occasional mischievousness. ga. 
 
 Tolerated Offensiveness The Bengal vultures {Gyps 
 
 Bengalensis) feed upon carrion, and gorge themselves into a 
 state of inactivity whenever an occasion presents itself. The 
 recognition of the good services which they render to the pub- 
 lic health in consuming putrid matter protects them from dis- 
 turbance, so that, like licensed scavengers, they are allowed to 
 go about their dirty business without molestation. Though 
 
348 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 cowardly, they lose all shyness, because they know they will 
 not be hurt by man. Offensive as their habits are, he toler- 
 ates them as he does other nuisances, because by doing so he 
 escapes a worse penaltyrji<A. vulture is objectionable ; carrion 
 is more so. A despotism is bad ; anarchy worse. There are 
 plenty of other examples of tolerated offensiveness ; but the 
 reason for their existence is always the same, and is founded 
 upon utility. MU. 
 
 Tortuousness the Habit of the Weak. — With its large 
 and light wings, the butterfly can fly for a long time. But it 
 never flies in a straight line. The line it takes is composed of 
 an infinity of zigzags, going up and down, and from right to 
 left. Thus it is saved from the bird which pursues it, whose 
 flight is far more rapid ; for the butterfly is always higher or 
 lower than the place to which the bird flies, expecting to catch 
 it. Its tortuousness is not only its defense, but its habit/! So 
 it usually is with weak natures. There are weak-minded peo- 
 ple who never go straight. The butterfly goes zigzag even 
 although no enemy is near ; and these human flutterers persist 
 in crooked paths even when there is nothing to fear from going 
 straight. By the habit of their weak natures they habitually 
 shuffle and equivocate. You may as reasonably expect a but- 
 terfly to fly in a line like a crow, as expect this sort of people 
 to abandon their tortuous courses. i. 
 
 Tranquillity, A Deceptive — We love tranquillity ; but there 
 are forms of it which are most deceptive. There are men and 
 women whose appearance of calm is as illusive as is that of the 
 viperine serpents. These latter reptiles ha\-e a dull, heavy dis- 
 position, and a slow mode of progression, which suggests a 
 nature too sluggish to do any harm to any one. But like some 
 human beings, though they are too tranquil to search for prey, 
 they know well enough where to lie in wait for it. Placing 
 themselves in the situations where their victims are sure to pass, 
 they enjoy their laziness until there is a reason for discarding 
 their appearance of tranquillity and using for their own benefit 
 the extraordinary activity which they can command. Then, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 349 
 
 when the unsuspicious prey approaches, they raise erect their 
 head, which was neghgently, as it were, elevated while in a 
 state of repose ; they open their mouth so wide that the two 
 jaws form an obtuse angle ; they erect their fangs, the body 
 uncoils like a loosened spring ; and the serpent, aiding the sud- 
 den assault by resting upon its tail, darts at a single bound upon 
 its victim, to inflict the fatal wound. The act is the work of 
 an instant ; the head, by the sudden and violent contraction of 
 its flexor muscles, executes with the rapidity of lightning a 
 movement by which it plunges its fangs deep into the flesh of 
 its prey.r Such are movements which resemble those of " that 
 old serpent the devil." mu. 
 
 Transformation, A Moral. — There are marvelous trans- 
 formations in the material as also in the moral world. Look 
 in the material world. The full-fed maggot, that has rioted in 
 filth till its tender skin seems ready to burst with repletion, when 
 the appointed time arrives leaves the offensive matters it was 
 ordained to assist in removing, and gets into some convenient 
 hole or crevice ; then its body contracts or shortens, and be- 
 comes egg-shaped, while the skin hardens and turns brown and 
 dry, so that, under this form, the creature appears more like a 
 seed than a living animal; after some time passed in this inac- 
 tive and equivocal form, during which wonderful changes have 
 taken place within the seedlike shell, one end of the shell is 
 burst off, and from the inside comes forth a buzzing fly, that 
 drops its former filthy habits with its cast-off dress, and now, 
 with a more refined taste, seeks only to lap the solid viands of 
 our tables, or sip the liquid contents of our cups. Look again 
 into the^moral world. There you see a transformation as won- 
 derful. The selfish debauchee, whose horrid taste has grubbed 
 in every sort of immoral filth, and become habituated to the 
 harsh, the cruel, and the dishonorable, has been brought into 
 contact with the necessary spiritual conditions for a change, and, 
 behold, from one stage to another he passes until at last his 
 tastes are entirely altered, his existence is changed, and even 
 he is able to soar in the light and purity of the world. Else- 
 
35° DICTIONARY OF 
 
 where, behold, the miser is transformed to the philanthropist, 
 the coward into a hero. We watch the fly's aerial circlings in 
 the sunbeam, and remember with wonder its degraded origin. 
 The preacher looks over his congregation, and as he sees those 
 who have become noble and virtuous, he is able to take heart 
 for new work ; for as he remembers in their presence the de- 
 based and wicked who are yet to be transformed, he says: 
 " And such were some of you ; but you are regenerated by the 
 higher Power,'' and those others may be changed likewise. 
 
 IN. 
 
 Transformations, A Series of Marvelous. — The genus 
 CEstrus, the gadflies, are formidable insects which attack the 
 horse, the sheep, and the ox. The CEstrus equi is found in 
 France, in Italy, and also in the East, especially in Persia. 
 During the months of July and August it frequents pastures and 
 deposits its eggs chiefly on the shoulders and knees of horses. 
 In order to do this, the female suspends herself in the air for 
 some seconds over the place she has chosen, falls upon it, and 
 sticks her eggs to the horse's hair by means of a glutinous liquid 
 with which they are provided, and which soon dries. This is 
 repeated at very short inter^'als. It often happens that from 
 four to five hundred eggs are thus deposited upon the same 
 horse. Guided by a marvelous instinct the female oestrus 
 generally places her eggs on those parts of the horse's body 
 which can be most easily touched with the tongue, that is, at the 
 inner part of the knees, on the shoulders, and rarely on the 
 outer part of the mane. When licking itself, the horse carries 
 them, and the larvae which soon emerge from the eggs, into his 
 stomach with his food. It passes through various stages in the 
 horse, and on leaving the body of the horse in its last stage, 
 falls to the ground, after which, in due time, it takes wing and 
 flies off. .- I. 
 
 Transformative Forces. — Every butterfly begins life as a 
 grub developed from an egg ; then it becomes a " chrysalis " ; 
 only in its third and last stage is it a winged creature. Not 
 that the grub is metamorphosed ; it contains within its soft little 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 351 
 
 body the whole of the future butterfly, and when the chrysalid 
 condition is assumed, the butterfly often shows as plainly in it 
 as a flower while wrapped in its calyx. In other words, the 
 transition from the grub to the butterfly is not a " transmogrifi- 
 cation,'' but a simple casting away of outer vestments, and a 
 growth of the immature creature within to full and royal ripe- 
 ness. What a marvelous thing it is that an insignificant dot of 
 an egg should contain wrapped up within itself all this transfor- 
 mative force ! Does man possess such a power? A possible 
 " yes " suggests an explanation of many grand problems affect- 
 ing futurity. li. 
 
 Transient, The. — What an emblem of all transient things 
 is the beautiful ephemera ! To acquire its elegant form that 
 lovely winged insect has been obliged to undergo several won- 
 derful transmutations ; but its glory, like man's pomp, is very 
 short-lived, for the very hour of its perfection is the hour of its 
 death, and it seems scarcely introduced to pleasure when it is 
 obliged to part with life. a. 
 
 Transmutation, The Law of. — Nothing remains fixed. 
 Throughout Nature all substances are perpetually changing 
 their forms, and passing into each other. It is so with even 
 the hardest substances. We find that even anchors, cannons, 
 and other cast-iron implements, which have been bruried for a 
 few hundred years off our coast, have decomposed in part 
 or entirely, turning the sand or gravel which inclosed them 
 into a conglomerate, cemented together by oxide of IrowrrpNe. 
 know not what possibilities of transmutation are included in the 
 nature of a human being ; but we have ascertained with cer- 
 tainty that there is inherent in even some of the lower creatures 
 a transformative principle, the operation of which is perfectly 
 extraordinary and fraught with suggestiveness. Take the fol- 
 lowing example : On a hot July day a lover of Nature discov- 
 ered numbers of animalculse in a vessel of rain-water which 
 was exposed to the action of the air. In order to learn more 
 of their habits, one of them, which scarcely measured an eighth 
 of an inch in length, was captured, and placed in a hyacinth 
 
352 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 glass, wherein a seedling oak was growing. Upon regaining its 
 liberty the little thing immediately swam to the bottom of the 
 glass and hid itself in the filmy sediment which had settled 
 there. After a moment or two it was quite at home, darting 
 hither and thither in search of food too microscopic for human 
 eye to discover. It needed no tending. It fed, gamboled, and 
 rested in safety. In a few days it had grown to twice its length. 
 There was also a strange enlargement toward the upper part of 
 its threadlike form. Its tail was furnished with a fan-shaped 
 fin, while two other fins, more delicate than gossamer, devel- 
 oped themselves upon its head. Its motions became more and 
 more rapid, and, surprising to relate, its gravity lessened as its 
 dimensions increased. When an almost invisible thread it had 
 to swim to reach the surface of the water ; but now that it 
 measured a quarter of an inch in length, and had grown 
 strangely large about its upper parts, it rose involuntarily to 
 the surface. The old predilection, however, for the darker 
 regions in the sediment at the bottom of the glass was still a 
 ruling principle, and its continual struggle was to dive down to 
 those filmy haunts. As long as it moved its little fins it suc- 
 ceeded, but the moment it rested it began to rise toward the 
 surface. Each hour strengthened this new principle, and often 
 would it lodge beneath some fiber of the oak's threadlike root 
 in order to stay its upward course, until at last all power of re- 
 sistance was overcome, and it floated motionless upon the sur- 
 face of the water. A card cut to fit the glass served at once 
 as a protection, to the seedhng oak and as a cover to its com- 
 panion. Upon the next investigation the empty skin of the 
 animalcule was seen floating on the water. Where was its in- 
 mate? Nothing could have destroyed it, and no exit from the 
 glass was possible. A further search was made, when lo ! upon 
 the side of the glass, as high above its former element as it 
 could go, was seen a beautiful and full-sized insect, perfectly 
 developed in all parts, and ready, upon the opening of its prison- 
 door, to fly away on its wings of gossamer and dance in the 
 glorious sunbeam. It did appear wonderful that this exquisite 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 353 
 
 form, so foreign to the inhabitants of the water, should have 
 emerged from the animalcule ; but though so transfigured, and 
 so dissimilar in all its modes of life, it was the same creature 
 that once had shunned the light, and had fondly clung to the 
 fibers of the little oak amid the darkness of its narrow prison. 
 
 G. N. 
 
 Treatment and its Effects, Bad. — We often remark that 
 such and such bad effects are the results of bad treatment. If 
 we want a striking illustration of what bad treatment can do, let 
 us notice the natural history of the ass. The ass is far from 
 being by nature so stupid as is generally supposed. Most of 
 the donkeys that we see in America are no fair specimen of 
 the animal. Many of them, from bad feeding and treatment, 
 are not well grown ; ill usage has rendered them obstinate and 
 reckless ; and when once the temper of an ass is spoiled, there 
 is no possibihty of making the creature tractable. It will bear 
 numberless blows without mending its pace or exerting itself 
 at all the more. But in its best condition, when well fed and 
 well managed, it is capable of being trained and being attached 
 to man with as much facility as the horse. Buffon even says 
 that the ass is more susceptible of strong attachment than the 
 horse, and under a good and kind master may be made to ex- 
 hibit very great sagacity. In Arabia and Persia the ass is of a 
 \-erv different character from that in which he appears among 
 us ; and in Spain he is so highly bred, and brought up to such 
 a degree of beauty and vigor, as to be for many purposes equal 
 to the horse. In these countries asses are smooth and sleek ; 
 they carry their heads erect, and have finely formed legs, and 
 walk or gallop with extreme grace and agility. r. 
 
 Tribunal, The. — When in the height of summer the meadows 
 are parched, and ponds and morasses are dried up, the stork 
 resorts to the interior of the woods, with their glades, brooks, 
 and marshes ; and when also here, in the beginning of autumn, 
 the inferior animals retire into their holes and winter abodes, 
 he prepares for his migration to the south, and vast numbers 
 collect together and cruise about in the air. At such times it 
 
354 
 
 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 happens that the storks hold a tribunal. It is a " right with 
 might," like old military German custom, if not even according 
 to the Lycurgus code. On a retired mead the long-shanked 
 personages come together from all quarters ; they fly round and 
 round in large circles, making a loud clappering, for the matter 
 in hand is a grave one. There are fifty or a hundred. At first 
 they move hither and thither, groups are formed, much passion- 
 ate clappering is going on, and all betokens the approach of a 
 stormy debate. At length the parties close up and form a large 
 imposing ring, in the center of which, resigned to his fate, 
 stands the victim. Single voices, shrill and loud, make them- 
 selves heard ; it is the advocate for the prosecution, who brings 
 forward the impeachment, and those charged with the defense, 
 who fight the battle of the accused, whose sole crime consists 
 in his weakness, and who, unable to bear the fatigues of the 
 journey, it is now proposed to kill for his own and the people's 
 good. The assembly frequently interrupts by its impetuosity 
 the pathos of the speakers. At this moment another rises ; he 
 seems to make a declaration, and then the unfortunate wretch, 
 pierced by the weapons of the assembly, succumbs to an early 
 death. The rights of supremacy have been maintained, the 
 multitude disperses, and there is nothing more to prevent the 
 departure of the caravan. For ancient attestations of this fact 
 see Pliny, ^Han, Melanchthon, Aldrovandi, Gesner, and others. 
 In the northern part of Scotland, says Dr. Edmonson, and in 
 =7 the Faroe Islands, extraordinary meetings of crows are occa- 
 sionally known to occur. They collect in great numbers, as if 
 they had all been summoned for the occasion ; a few of the flock 
 sit with drooping heads, and others seem as grave as judges, 
 while others, again, are exceedingly active and noisy. In the 
 course of about one hour they disperse, and it is not uncom- 
 mon, after they have flown away, to find one or two left dead 
 upon the spot. These meetings will sometimes continue for a 
 day or two before the object, whatever it may be, is completed. 
 Crows continue to arrive from all quarters during the session. 
 As soon as they have all arrived, a very general noise ensues ; 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 355 
 
 and shortly after the whole fall upon one or two individuals 
 and put them to death. When the execution has been per- 
 formed they quietly disperse. ^^ R. 
 
 Triumphs, Profitless Men frequently purchase their tri- 
 umphs at the cost of health or life. History is replete with in- 
 stances of men who died in the hour of victory. The insect 
 world also affords illustrations of profitless triumphs. Some- 
 times there are regular duels between bees. They descend to 
 the ground to fight, for in the air they would not be able to get 
 purchase enough to be sure of striking each other. They then 
 engage in a hand-to-hand fight, as the gladiators used formerly 
 to do in the circus. They are continually making stabs with 
 their stings, but almost always the point slips over the scales 
 with which they are covered. The combat is sometimes pro- 
 longed dm"ing an hour before one of them has found the weak 
 point in ihe other's natural cuirass, and has buried its terrible 
 weapon in the flesh. The victor often leaves his sting in the 
 wound which it has made, and then dies, in its moment of tri- 
 umph, through the loss of this organ. ^ i. 
 
 Troubles made Beautiful Most of the shells of the oyster 
 
 are pearly in the interior ; and as the true pearls are merely 
 morbid growths, they may all produce pearls of various quali- 
 ties. The formation of pearls is caused by the introduction of 
 irritating substances such as grains of sand between the mantle 
 and the shell. The irritation causes the animal to cover the 
 obnoxious object with layers of pearl, which generally attach 
 the foreign body to the interior of the shell. The Chinese pro- 
 duce pearls artificially by placing substances in the position just 
 ■ described ; and we have seen some shells to the interior of 
 which small metal images were attached in this manner by the 
 pearly secretion. When we look at a pearl we look at an an- 
 noyance which has been ennobled. The oyster by itself is of 
 merely nominal value. But the result of the oyster's own treat- 
 ment of its irritations in this world — the pearl — is something 
 " of great price. 'yp Apart from its pecuniary worth this gem has 
 a moral .significarice. It suggests that troubles may be made 
 
356 DICTIONARY OF. 
 
 beautiful, and reminds us that among mankind some martyrs 
 are more remembered by the glory with which they invested 
 their sorrows than by any other portion of their lives. Biog- 
 raphy has its moral pearls, which are treasured long after the 
 creators of them have perished, just as material pearls are valued 
 long years after the oysters have been discarded. n. d. 
 
 ^ True Tests are Unfailing Discoverers. — Every substance 
 is discoverable by some " test," which usually neutralizes it, or 
 rather, by uniting with it, forms a new compound. The whole 
 fabric of chemistry rests upon this wonderful principle as one 
 of its corner-stones. Thus if the least fragment of copper be 
 dissolved in acid, and the fluid be then diluted with water until 
 no trace of color remains, so potent, nevertheless, is the affinity 
 of the well-known fluid called " ammonia " for the copper, that 
 a single drop of the latter fluid will immediately reveal the pres- 
 ence of the metal by uniting with it and forming a new sub- 
 stance of the loveliest violet color. ?r Similarly, if a morsel of 
 lead be dissolved in acid, and the acid be then diluted with 
 water, a single drop of a solution of iodide of potassium will 
 turn the whole to a brilliant crocus-yellow. The presence of 
 iron, after the same manner, is discovered by the least drop of 
 tincture of galls, which blackens it upon contact ; that of silver 
 by a little solution of common salt, which causes flakes of imi- 
 tative snow to make their appearance ; that of mercury, again, 
 with iodide of potassium, which turns the fluid containing it to 
 a beautiful red..,/ n. 
 
 Trustfulness Employed as aMeans of Ensnaring Few 
 
 of the attempts to catch men in traps, and subordinate them to 
 other persons' uses, would be successful, were it not that, as a 
 prehminary, there is awakened a confidence and trustfulness 
 which disarms suspicion. This is, in most cases, an absolute 
 necessity as a first step. Make a man believe that you intend 
 him no harm, and then when you — joint-stock-company pro- 
 moter, attorney, stock-broker, or whoever you may be — have, 
 by virtue of that belief, got him well in your power, you can 
 handle him with every ad\-antage, and he is an easy prey.J( Ob- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 357 
 
 serve how mullets are caught in the Mediterranean, and you 
 will see this principle working most beautifully. The fisherman 
 feeds them with pounded macaroni or other farinaceous pastes ; 
 and when they have been attracted to a convenient locahty, 
 and acquired confidence by several days' undisturbed feeding, 
 a very small hook, enveloped with paste and attached to an 
 exceedingly fine line, is dropped noiselessly. When the bait is 
 swallowed dexterity is required to withdraw the hooked fish 
 without disturbing the others^t Their confidence having been 
 obtained, they will not easily suspect unless some great blunder is 
 made. Like shareholders in a fraudulent company managed 
 by clever knaves, they will only remember what they have had, 
 and, in their trustfulness, imagine no evil of those who are look- 
 ing on, and who have given only that they may get. mu. 
 
 Truth, Moral. — Moral truth is, in its universality, Uke the 
 pine-tree. Societies have claimed it as being especially their 
 own, as some naturalists have claimed the pine-tree as a fea- 
 ture of northern chmes. But both are wrong. As to the pine, 
 it is represented in all zones, from the cedars of Lebanon to 
 the juniper-tree and fir-bushes of the Scandinavian mountain- 
 tops. To use Oken's significant expression, they form " the 
 mountains' roof." They stretch upward from the wide plains 
 and steppes of sand, leaving the foliage-covered trees below 
 them. Where, says Dr. Masius, the granite builds its towers 
 to the clouds, and the waters leap thundering from the rocky 
 hollows, there this array of lances is planted, and the black 
 banners wave. They climb to the highest summits, and when 
 all other vegetation is extinct, the dwarf pine {Pinus pumilid), 
 laid level with the ground, still creeps on. The blast rages 
 amid its hair and shaggy beard of moss, and makes rough work 
 with its grotesquely outward-stretched arms, close pressed to 
 the earth ; but the gnome does but twine its branches in a yet 
 closer embrace, and fasten with iron strength on the stones of 
 the moor, in which it has planted deep a hundred roots which 
 nothing can tear out. Thus it is with moral truth. It is not 
 merely indigenous. It is universal. There are particular trees. 
 
358 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 as there are certain forms of speculative and political truth, 
 which can survive only in a limited region ; the one being fitted 
 only for a peculiar atmosphere as the other is adapted only to 
 circumscribed types of mind. But moral truth flourishes among 
 all the mental productions of man, as the pine among the vege- 
 tation of the world. You see it in every zone. It must thrive, 
 because it is suited and intended for the world. ST. 
 
 Truth, The Extension of. — We are not instructed all sim- 
 ultaneously by Nature, or by any direct manifestation from on 
 high. Each one of us has to receive for himself from some 
 one else what that other knows, and then has to transmit that 
 knowledge to some other again. We have no direct communi- 
 cation with absolute truth. It is transmitted to us through in- 
 numerable media. So with sound. Sound is not propagated 
 in vacuo. The vibrations of elastic bodies can only produce 
 the sensation of sound in us by the intervention of a medium 
 interposed between the ear and the sonorous body, and vibrat- 
 ing with it. This medium is usually the air, but all gases, va- 
 pors, liquids, and solids also transmit sound ; just as everything 
 — objective and subjective — may convey truth. el. 
 
 Truth, Dissemination of — Truth is like seed in its inher- 
 ent vitality, and in the many methods by which it is dissemi- 
 nated^_JJow are seeds diffused? Wind, running water, blocks 
 of ice drifting in the Polar seas, the action of animals and men 
 — that is, by cultivation — ships, merchandise, and voyages ; 
 such, says Figuier, are the causes, more or less powerful, which 
 affect the conveyance of seeds from one place to another. If 
 we consider how many seeds are light, hairy, and provided with 
 a sort of wings in their downy tufts, we can understand that 
 the wind may be the most general and ordinary means for dis- 
 seminating vegetable germs over a country, r Rivers also carry 
 away the seeds of plants to great distances. If their course 
 runs from east to west, or west to east, the seeds thus trans- 
 ported would much extend the limits of the species. And 
 -^avigators of the Polar seas often meet with icebergs loaded 
 with an enormous mass of debris mi.xed with earth and seeds. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 359 
 
 Seeds vegetate on this debris, and if the iceberg runs aground 
 on some distant coast, where it melts, the seeds are deposited ; 
 thej^ soon produce plants, which are then spread over the coun- 
 tryJby various other influences. But marvelous as are the 
 ways by which seeds get dispersed and preserved, surely the 
 varied methods by which truth is disseminated from zone to 
 zone, and tribe to tribe, are still more wondrous. They baffle 
 all description. The germs never die under any hostile influ- 
 ence ; nor does age impair their vitality. No sect or organiza- 
 tion is specially employed as the vehicle for their dissemination. 
 The song, the book, the life of the noble, the death of the ty- 
 rant, the kind word, the heroic struggle — these, and a thousand 
 other noble agencies, seen and unseen, are among the mystic 
 forces by which the truth is scattered all the wide world over, 
 taking root wherever it touches. v. 
 
 Truth Bewildering to Some, New. — Men who have Uved 
 in traditional knowledge do not thank you for a new truth. 
 It dazes and confounds their dim vision, which is unsuited to 
 its reception. Their bewilderment at the light is similar to that 
 of the cricket. As the cricket lives chiefly in the dark, so its 
 eyes seem formed for the gloominess of its abode ; and you 
 have only to light a candle unexpectedly, and it becomes so 
 dazzled that it cannot find its way back to its retreat. a. 
 
 Tumultuous may Occasion tlie Sublime, The. — Not only 
 in individual experience and in national history is it true that 
 tumultuous events may give rise to a subhme sequel, but in the 
 material world the same sort of result may be seen. Most of 
 the subhme and the beautiful in the scenery of a country de- 
 pends upon some powerful disturbing agency, by which the 
 earth's crust has been disturbed, broken, and overturned. 
 Mountainous countries exhibit this action most strikingly. 
 Beautiful as vegetable Nature is, how tame is a landscape where 
 only a dead level is covered with it, and no swelling hills, or 
 jutting rocks, or murmuring waters relieve the monotonous 
 scene! And how does the interest increase with the wild- 
 ness and ruggedness of the surface, and reach its maximum 
 
360 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 only where the disturbance and dislocation have been most 
 violent! R. G. 
 
 Unaccountable Blundering. — The jackdaw in many things 
 is a wonderfully clever bird, displaying such an amount of in- 
 genuity in its actions that its rational capacities are evidently 
 very great. But like most birds, however clever it may be, and 
 however admirably it may adapt itself to circumstances, it is 
 sure to break down suddenly in an unexpected manner, and to 
 fail in the easiest part of its task. A jackdaw goes afield in 
 search of sticks, and will spend some time in selecting a branch 
 that will serve its purpose. W'hen it has found a suitable one 
 it flies away to the spot it has chosen for its nest. When tak- 
 ing up the branch the jackdaw mostly carries it by the middle, 
 because it can easily be balanced when so held, forgetting that 
 a branch held crosswise will not enter a small aperture, and ac- 
 cordingly finding itself checked when endeavoring to gain ad- 
 mission to its domicile. It flutters about in great dismay, try- 
 ing with all its powers to force the branch into the hole, but it 
 never thinks of the simple expedient of taking the branch by 
 the end and pushing it lengthwise through the entrance, and 
 after wearying itself out in vain attempts, drops the branch and 
 goes off for another. frConsidering the cleverness of the bird, 
 this is a piece of unaccountable blundering. Yet, strange to 
 say, it is just that sort of blundering which, even in the human 
 family, one so often finds in association with cleverness. \Mio 
 has not known a really able university man, skilled in every 
 department of learning, break down in an important affair in 
 consequence of the commission of a trivial blunder which it 
 would have seemed impossible for him to commit. Biography 
 is strewn with the troubles which clever men in all departments 
 have had to endure as the penalty of their being fated to com- 
 mit some one queer blunder which every one would have sup- 
 posed them too sensible to even imagine. In every direction 
 one may see a human jackdaw quite bafHed by a trifle. h. 
 
 Undeserved Credit.— Much stress has been laid on the self- 
 sacrifice exhibited by the rabbit when she prepares her cradle 
 
SCIENTIFIC IILUSTRATIOA'S. 361 
 
 for her young with fur taken from her own breast ; but it is be- 
 heved that there is no self-sacrifice in the matter. If handfuls 
 of hair were pulled out from the human head, exceeding pain 
 would be suffered. But the case of the rabbit has no real 
 analogy with such a proceeding, for the fur of the animal is at 
 that time so loosely attached to the skin that it falls off as easily 
 as the hairs of a cat in summer, and its evulsion produces no 
 such disastrous effects as would follow the forcible plucking 
 out of the human hair. ^The eider-duck presents similar fea- ' 
 tures, the parent birds stripping themselves of their down in or- 
 der to form a warm bed for their young. The act is purely an 
 instinctive one, involving no more self-sacrifice than is occa- 
 sioned by any other instinctive act, and does not at all entitle 
 the creature to credit for self-denying conduct.^iJBut it is not 
 only among rabbits and ducks that we are likely to make mis- 
 takes of this sort. We frequently ascribe acts of self-sacrifice 
 to subscription-list members of the human family, who are in 
 no way entitled to the credit we give them. A vulgar, vain, 
 rich man, who desires reputation as a patriot and philanthro- 
 pist, finds it as natural and easy to give away wealth as it is to 
 a rabbit to give away fur, or a duck feathers. He does not 
 miss what he gives even so much as they do ; and if he wants 
 successfully to " nurse " a constituency, it is quite as necessary 
 for him to line the cradle of his political organization with 
 gold as it is for a rabbit or a duck to prepare the place where 
 their future hopes lie with fur or feathers. h. 
 
 Undeserved Stigma, An. — Sometimes politicians, com- 
 munities, or famihes acquire a reputation which clings to them 
 from year to year without the slightest justification. An opinion 
 once fairly started often runs unquestioned through the world, 
 and often an undeserved stigma enjoys a long life. We may 
 illustrate this by the case of the wasps. Everybody praises the 
 bees ; nobody has a good word for the wasps. Yet the wasps 
 at home are an excellent body. In spite of their warlike in- 
 stincts you generally find, in the interior of the nests, the most 
 perfectly good understanding existing. It is only on rare occa- 
 
362 DICTIOXAKY OF 
 
 sions that this domestic peace is disturbed by the quarrels of 
 male with male or worker with worker ; but these combats are 
 not deadly.fl^ Never, moreover, has one nest of wasps been 
 Known to declare war against another for the purpose of rob- 
 bing it. The government of wasps, says M. Victor Rendu, 
 explains very well the gentleness of their public conduct. 
 Among them there are no despots; no one either reigns or 
 governs, each one lives at liberty in a free city, on the sole 
 condition of never being a burden to the state. They all act 
 in concert, without privileges or monopolies, under the influ- 
 ence of a common law — the great law of the public good, from 
 which no one is exempted. Why should these creatures have 
 a bad name? ^ i. 
 
 Undesigned Services. — In performing properly our duties 
 in the world, we may often be the means of effecting good of 
 a character and to an extent altogether beyond either oiu: cal- 
 culation or design. Like the humblebees, we may accomplish 
 unpremeditated ser\'ice, and be, like them, quite ignorant of the 
 fact. Mr. Darwin believes, from observations made over a 
 series 'of years, that humblebees are indispensable to the ferti- 
 lization of the heart's-ease ( Viola tricolor), as they are the only set 
 of bees which visit that flower. He has tried experiments which 
 convince him that the visits of bees are almost indispensable 
 to the fertilization of our clovers. He has observed that hum- 
 blebees alone visit the common red clover, as other bees cannot 
 reach the nectar. And he has very little doubt that, if the 
 whole genus of humblebees became extinct or very rare in 
 America, the heart's-ease |and red clover would become \-ery 
 rare, or wholly disappear.j>^So that these bees, in going about 
 their own business, perform imintentionally a most useful ser- 
 vice to mankind. It is impossible to assess the hmits of the in- 
 fluence of any act, even the act of a bee. The creature which 
 is true to its instincts may render to creation marvelous ser- 
 vices unawares. mu. 
 
 Undesirable Protectors. — When the policeman whom we 
 have called interferes with civil liberty which has not been for- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. Z^^Z 
 
 feited, or the lawyer, in conducting our defense in an action 
 of debt, runs up a bill vastly in excess of the claim, it is obvious 
 we have placed ourselves in the hands of very undesirable pro- 
 tectors. We are more injured than protected. Yet as a fact 
 we are constantly setting a thief to catch a thief, and being 
 ruined by our excessive shrewdness. So the inhabitants of 
 St. Thomas in the East, in Jamaica, finding themselves greatly 
 inconvenienced by the number of ants in the district, deter- 
 mined to bring to the rescue one kind of ant which they dis- 
 covered could exterminate them. They accordingly introduced 
 the " rifle-ants." They did their work well : ate up all the other 
 ants ; but then they commenced to eat up everything else which 
 came in their way ; and as there was no way by which they 
 themselves could be exterminated, they continued the practice. 
 And in their practice they teach us this lesson — that we can- 
 not be too cautious as to what persons we summon to our aid. 
 For though there are many who may do their work well, they 
 may also be too much for us afterward, i/^ jo. 
 
 Undeveloped Capacities. — Have you not sometimes come 
 into contact with a strong mind, and felt regret that beauty 
 and grace of disposition were not added to that mental 
 strength? You have felt that they were by nature intended to 
 be found in association, and though charmed with what there 
 was, you sighed for what ought to have been. ( TKfere are many 
 men whose natiures ripen into perfect strength, but without ever 
 developing the charms and graces which you know must be 
 indigenous. They are like those plants which Humboldt tells 
 us grow with the greatest vigor in certain locahties without ever 
 flowering, though of the flowering kind. And the accidents of 
 circumstance and place account for these facts in the man and 
 plant alike, f- vi. 
 
 Undividable Blessing, An. — It is scarcely a metaphor to 
 speak of the living ocean ; life is so intimately blended with its 
 substance, is so inherent in its chemical composition. The 
 analyses recorded in books do not furnish a very exact idea of 
 this composition ; they represent the sea-water as a mineral 
 
 ^ 
 
364 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 water, containing chloride of sodium (sea-salt), sulphate of mag- 
 nesia, chloride of magnesium, carbonic acid, carbonate of lime 
 and of magnesia, sulphate of hme, besides some traces of po- 
 tassa, iodine, bromine, and oxide of iron. These analyses take 
 no account of the mucus, the gelatinous matter belonging or 
 having belonged to the innumerable beings which the sea-water 
 nourishes, and which, in effect, convert the water into an or- 
 ganic medium. Take some river-water at its well-head, filter 
 it, and pour it into a vessel ; you can preserve it for a long 
 time wholesome and drinkable, and only after a considerable 
 interval does it stagnate. But sea-water, as soon as it is sepa- 
 rated from the great body of the ocean, and inclosed in a bottle 
 or a cask, dies — grows corrupt and noisome. It can neither 
 be transported to any place nor preserved. And yet it is not 
 its salts, assuredly, which corrupt it ; no, it is the mucus ; it is 
 the myriads of invisible animalcules which immediately perish 
 and putrefy. Thus the sea is a strengthening tonic and salu- 
 tary only for the bathers who plunge into its waves. my. 
 
 Unexpected Utility — We may find useful qualities where 
 we could hardly have expected their existence. Few persons 
 would consider mud to be a cleansing agent. Yet in spite of 
 its adhesiveness, its color, and its odor, it has the ad\'antage 
 of being so. It acts as a kind of marine soap, and does really 
 cleanse the hands thoroughly, a property which is -s-ery useful 
 when one is out for a cruise and the supply of fresh water on 
 board runs short, rfi No doubt there are hundreds of other sub- 
 stances as unpromising in appearance as mud, which have un- 
 expected uses to which they could be put if we could only find 
 them out. C. s. 
 
 Unimportant Acts may Acquire Illimitable Signifi- 
 cance — In the new red sandstone of the valley of the Con- 
 necticut River, the red flags of thin-bedded sandstone are often 
 ripple-marked, and exhibit on their under-sides casts of cracks 
 formed in the underlying red and green shales. These last 
 must have shrunk by drying before the sand was spread over 
 them.* On some shales of the finest texture impressions of rain- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 365 
 
 drops may be seen, and casts of .them in the incumbent argilla- 
 ceous sandstones. Having observed similar markings pro- 
 duced by showers, of which the precise date was known, on the 
 recent red mud of the Bay of Fundy, and casts in relief of the 
 same on layers of dried mud thrown down by subsequent tides. 
 Sir Charles Lyell has no doubt in regard to the origin of some 
 of the ancient Connecticut impressions. He has also seen on 
 the mud-flats of the Bay of Fundy the footmarks of birds 
 {Tringa mimcta) which daily run along the borders of that estu- 
 ary at low water. Similar layers of red mud, now hardened 
 and compressed into shale, are laid open on the banks of the 
 Connecticut, and retain faithfully the impressions and casts of 
 the feet of numerous birds and reptiles which walked over them 
 at the time when they were deposited, probably in the triassic 
 period. According to Professor Hitchcock, the footprints of 
 no less than thirty-two species of bipeds, and twelve of quadru- 
 peds, have been already detected in these rocks. Thirty of 
 these are believed to be those of birds, four of lizards, two of 
 chelonians, and six of batrachians. The tracks have been found 
 in more than twenty places, scattered throughout an extent of 
 nearly eighty miles from north to south, and they are repeated 
 through a succession of beds attaining at some points a thick- 
 ness of more than a thousand feet, which may have been thou- 
 sands of years in forming. If we were to-day to observe one 
 shower of raindrops, or the footstep of an ordinary bird or rep- 
 tile, we should no doubt consider the matter as very unimpor- 
 tant. Yet what significance may attach to- these trifles! The 
 rnark of a bird's claw may interpret a page in the grand theo- 
 logical history of the world to some future explorer. These 
 marks look transient. They may be indelibly imprinted in the 
 stony records of the earth. In the moral universe, too, it is 
 also certain that many things are registered in permanent char- 
 acters which superficial observers may now consider to be triv- 
 ial. History perpetuates many acts which were supposed to 
 be transient and unimportant, and in later ages the philosopher 
 explains them. Who can place a bound to the influence of any 
 
366 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 act, even the movement of a bird's claw in the mud ? The 
 voices which speak to us in the universe are many, and they 
 address us through many symbols. A reptile's accidental foot- 
 print, made many thousands of years ago, becomes to-day a 
 sort of telephone whereby a remote age tells us part of its 
 strange story. e. 
 
 Union, Similarity is no Guarantee of — Why is it that 
 the polar and equatorial waters should appear now to divide 
 and now to be divided? The Gulf Stream has revealed to us,^ 
 a fact in which the answer is involved. We learn from that 
 stream that cold and warm sea-waters are in a measure like oil 
 and vinegar ; that is, there is among the particles of sea-water 
 at a high temperature, and among the particles of sea-water at 
 a low temperature, a peculiar molecular arrangement that is 
 antagonistic to the free mixing up of cold and hot together. 
 At any rate, that salt waters of different temperatures do not 
 readily intermingle at sea is obvious. J; In fact, it often happens 
 throughout this world that similarity is no guarantee of union. 
 In matters of human opinion the currents often run side by 
 side, and seem in all respects similar to each other ; yet they 
 will not unite. This is very noticeable in the various Christian 
 denominations, whose professions are often so similar as to 
 make the difference between them difficult of detection ; yet 
 they will not unite. There is a religious gulf stream, and hence 
 similarity without union. ♦ t. 
 
 Unity of Essence in Variety of Form. — Literally, allot- 
 ropism or allotropicity, when translated into plain English, is 
 a very startling thing indeed, meaning, says Dr. Scroffern, little 
 else than expression of the fact, or rather belief, that some one 
 thing may be some other thing, and yet remain the same thing. 
 7 Here is an illustration : everybody knows that the diamond to 
 look at is \ery different from a lump of charcoal to look at, and 
 both different from a piece of black-lead. This is physically evi- 
 dent ; yet chemistry, apply it as we may, only proves that the 
 diamond, charcoal, and black-lead are one and all carbon. If 
 a diamond be actually burned in o.xygen gas, carbonic acid re- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 367 
 
 suits ; the very same gas we obtain by the combustion of char- 
 coal in a stove. More evidence. By exposing diamonds to 
 heat in a certain way they can be changed to coke. Here, then, 
 we have an agent, an element, that element carbon, assuming 
 three forms. Chemically the element carbon is the same ; phys- 
 ically it is not the samejT We see the same truth exemplified 
 in every-day life. The same moral principle may assume a 
 variety of forms. Self-sacrifice, for example, may take the form 
 of a humble act done by one obscure peasant for a neighbor, 
 or may shine in a king's deed of chivalry which is the admira- 
 tion of the world. In the former shape the principle is not rec- 
 ognized as being so valuable ; as also the coke is not so precious 
 as the kohinoor. But in coke and kohinoor, as we have seen, 
 the essence is the same ; so in both the act and deed just re- 
 ferred to, the principle of self-sacrifice would be the same, and 
 the difference in the form only. s. n. 
 
 Universal Brotherhood, A Hint of It is the fact that 
 
 " languages are many, when people are savage and rude, or 
 semi-barbarous.'' In proportion as men become civilized and 
 communities more extensive, they become few in number, the 
 smaller and ruder dialects being gradually absorbed or violently 
 exterminated by the prevalence of the more polite, improved, 
 and consequently the most useful forms. May it not be in- 
 ferred that there will ultimately reign among all people one 
 common language? In that event, the possibilities of misun- 
 derstandings between men would be immensely reduced, and 
 a universal brotherhood would be a realized dream. s. 
 
 Universe a Progressive System, The It is now gen- 
 erally admitted by all the greatest philosophers of modern times, 
 that this earth at its origin was an immense mass of vapors and 
 incandescent gases, forming what astronomers call a " nebula," 
 or " nebulous matter." And its hi.story to the present day is 
 a history of constant progress from a lower to a higher state. 
 Illustrations of some of the marvelous methods by which Na- 
 ture evolves improvements out of apparently chaotic -conditions 
 are within our knowledge, and afford some clue to the kind of 
 
368 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 upward and onward movement which has been going on through- 
 out the world ever since the dawn of time. Let us take as an 
 instructive example the present position of the reptile race, and 
 its apparent use in the plan of Nature. The chief residence of 
 the reptile race is to be found in hot cHmates, and in low, 
 swampy ground, where the morasses are ever filling with decay- 
 ing vegetable matter, and exhale a soft, thick miasma, as deadly 
 to the white man as the fumes of arsenic, and injurious even to 
 the dark-skinned native, who can breathe unharmed a fetid at- 
 mosphere that would smite down his white master as quickly 
 and surely as if he were struck with a bullet, and who only at- 
 tains his fullest development under these conditions. In these 
 dread regions, their seething putridity, concealed by all the 
 luxuriant vegetation of tropical climes, like a royal mantle flung 
 over a festering corpse, the reptile race abound, the poisoned 
 air being to these creatures the very breath of life, and the sur- 
 rounding decay the sustaining power of their existence. In- 
 deed, the object of their lives seems to be, by individual trans- 
 mutations of poisons into living flesh, to destroy by slow but 
 certain degrees the mass of decaying vegetation, and so to pre- 
 pare an abiding-place for beings of a higher order than them- 
 selves. On placing ourselves even in imagination amid such 
 scenes, we seem to be transported back into the former ages of 
 our earth, when man could find no resting-place for his foot, 
 and no atmosphere which he could breathe and live ; when the 
 greater part of the soil was little more than soft mud, the air 
 thick, dank, heavy, and overcharged with decomposition, and 
 the multitude of strange reptiles that bored their slimy way 
 through the deep ooze, crawled lazily upon the slowly hardening 
 banks, or urged their devious course through the turbid waters, 
 were the physically ruling though morally subservient powers 
 of the world. Little is wanting to complete the illusion, except 
 to give to every object an increase of dimensions, for the vege- 
 tation of those days was rank and luxuriant to a degree that is 
 now well indicated, though on a smaller scale, by the foliage of 
 the tropics, and the huge forms of the ancient and now extinct 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 369 
 
 reptile race are closely reproduced by the more familiar inhab- 
 itants of the swamp before us. As the expanse of putrefaction 
 was greater in those epochs, so the miasma destroyers were larger. 
 Frogs and- toads as big as calves, reptilian quadrupeds as large 
 as elephants, and reptilian bats expanding leathery wings as 
 wide as those of the pelican, were fit inhabitants of the atmo- 
 sphere which'they breathed, and in which their mission was con- 
 summated. Now that the marshy districts are smaller and less 
 poisonous, the reptile race that inhabits them is of smaller di- 
 mensions. The earth has now been so far purified by succes-' 
 sive generations and regenerations of life and death, added to 
 human ingenuity and industry, that its harmful districts occupy 
 but a comparatively small portion of its surface, the greater 
 part of the world being suitable for human habitations, the 
 black man settling as a pioneer, a hewer of wood, and drawer 
 of water where the white man cannot yet abide. If we turn 
 om: attention from the physical structure of the universe and its 
 changes, and consider the history of mankind in the aggregate, 
 we shall see at every point of our investigation the operation of 
 the progressive law. Consider the physical history of the race. 
 During the earliest periods man was a savage, and man's life 
 was little distinguished from the brute. His whole existence 
 was an incessant struggle against the elements of Nature and 
 the ftuy of wild beasts. At first his only food must have been 
 fruits and roots ; for he occupied the world a long while before 
 he was competent to invent any weapon wherewith to destroy 
 animals. His pillow was a stone, and his roof a tree or a cav- 
 ern. From the day when he first made a flint implement, 
 and the time when he discovered how to kindle fire, to the year 
 when Birmingham and Sheffield manufactories and forges rose, 
 and railways and telegraphs were universalized, there is one 
 long record whose every page is marked by the gradual oi>era- 
 tion of the law of progress. Consider the course of legislation. 
 The might of the strong was at first the only law. Before even 
 the semblance of just laws rose into a system, countless ages, 
 laden with injustice, passed away. Consider the history of re- 
 
37° mCTIONARY OF 
 
 ligion. Generation after generation lived in the practice of 
 gross superstitions before Jesus Christ came to propound our 
 present religion, and it has taken upward of eighteen hundred 
 years for that system to establish itself even theoretically among 
 certainly a small proportion of mankind. IL. 
 
 Unobtrusive Life, The Energy of. — Considered with ref- 
 erence to mass, the vegetable far exceeds the animal world on 
 the face of the globe. The animal kingdom wants mass, and 
 the motions of individuals withdraw them frequently from 
 our sight, and we do not think of the energy which we do not 
 see. Now the vegetable world works upon our imagination 
 by the mere force of quantity. In the animal kingdom it is 
 precisely that hfe that we are wont to designate as the smallest 
 in point of room, which by its subdivision and rapid increase 
 presents in reality the most remarkable relations in respect of 
 mass. The smallest of the Infusoria^ the Monadidcz, onty attain 
 a diameter of one three-thousandths of a line, yet do these sili- 
 cious-shelled organisms, in moist countries, compose, by their 
 accumulation, subterraneous strata several fathoms in thickness. 
 In the same way there are tremendous forces at work in so- 
 ciety, which the majority of mankind pass unheeded, because 
 they are so occupied with gazing at the mere mass of accom- 
 phshed facts which lies on the surface of observation. Under- 
 neath all this display and quantity of accomplished things there 
 are innumerable individual influences in a state of energy and 
 multiplication ; and at the very basis of national hfe, yet unobtru- 
 sively, they so work as to affect the strata of society, altering 
 the position of primeval landmarks, shaking old foundations, 
 and changing the position of ancient institutions. k. 
 
 Unrestrained Appetite Snares its Possessor Tlie man 
 
 who will not restrain his strongest appetite will find that it will 
 lead him into a ruinous snare. Observe the eagle. When 
 gorged with food, the eagle dislikes the exertion of flying, and 
 generally runs forward a few paces before taking to flight. 
 The Scotch shepherds have discovered this propensity, and 
 have invented a very ingenious trap, which is made so as to 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 371 
 
 take advantage of this habit. A circular inclosure is built of 
 stone, about four feet in height, without any roof, and with a 
 small door on one of its sides. A dead sheep is then thrown 
 into the center of the inclosure, and a noose adjusted round 
 the door. The eagle soon discerns the sheep, and after making 
 a few circles in the air, alights upon the dead animal and feeds 
 to his heart's content. After eating until he can eat no more, 
 he thinks of moving, but as he does not choose to take the 
 trouble of flying perpendicularly in so narrow a space, he pre- 
 fers to walk out through the door, and is straightway strangled 
 by the ready noose. il. 
 
 Unscrupulous Money=Qetter, The The unscrupulous 
 
 money-getter is not necessarily an able man. On the contrary, 
 he often appears dull and stupid. But he is rapacious, cruel, 
 and cunning, and he owes his success to these qualities. Not- 
 withstanding the applause with which society greets his perform- 
 ances, they have much the same inspiration as those of the glut- 
 ton. The glutton is thought but a dull animal, but his mode 
 of catching deer shows much the same portion of intelligence 
 as that which is exhibited by the money-getter, or by the Arctic 
 fox when he arranges cods' heads as baits to catch crows. The 
 glutton climbs into a tree in the neighborhood of a herd, carrying 
 up with him a quantity of a kind of moss of which the deer 
 are fond, and when he sees any one of the herd approaching, 
 he lets a portion of the moss fall. If the deer stops to eat, the 
 glutton instantly descends on its back, and torments it by tear- 
 ing out its eyes and other violence to such a degree that, either 
 to get rid of its enemy, or to put an end to its sufferings, it 
 beats its head against the trees till it falls down dead ; for when 
 the glutton has once fixed himself by his claws and teeth, it is 
 impossible to dislodge him. After killing the deer he divides 
 the flesh into convenient portions, and conceals them in the 
 earth for future provision. In this he shows himself to be as 
 prudential as the money-getter, who at the end of a nefarious 
 financial success places his profits in various securities and the 
 balance in his bank for future use. r. 
 
372 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Unscrupulous Depredators. — The white-headed eagle 
 {Haliaetits kucocephalus) of the United States is an emblem 
 of those unscrupulous politicians, lawyers, brokers, and ad- 
 venturers who live by robbing other men of the legitimate 
 results of their labors. In obtaining for food a supply of fresh 
 fish, this eagle exhibits all their rapacity and cunning. He 
 does his fishing by proxy. Perching on the bough of a tree, 
 or on some other elevated position on the coast, he watches 
 the manoeuvers of one of his near relations, the smaller and less 
 powerful osprey or fish-hawk (Pandion haliaetus). As soon as 
 he sees the osprey dash down into the waetrs and emerge 
 again with his prey struggling in his talons, the white-headed 
 eagle quits his post of observation and darts off in pursuit of 
 the successful fisher. The latter, encumbered with his prey, is 
 quite unable to contend in flight with his pursuer, who endea- 
 vors to rise above him ; and the manoeuvers of the birds in this 
 struggle for the upper hand are exceedingly energetic and crafty. 
 The conclusion of the affair is, however, nearly always the same. 
 The eagle, being quite unencumbered, generally overcomes the 
 osprey ; the latter lets his prey drop with a scream of disgust ; 
 and the piratical pursuer then descends with astonishing rapid- 
 ity, and usually manages to secure the booty before it reaches 
 the water. mu. 
 
 Unseen Powers, Great Resources in. — The Kalihari has 
 its sirocco during the excessive drought which precedes the 
 rainy season ; a burning wind traverses this desert from north 
 to south, and during its three or four days' duration it withers 
 and dries up everything in its path. It is so loaded with elec- 
 tricity that a bundle of ostrich feathers, which remained exposed 
 to it for a few seconds, was itself charged, as if it had been in 
 contact with a powerful electrical machine, and produced a 
 lively disturbance, accompanied by cracking noises, when taken 
 in the hand. As often as this wind prevails, the electricity of the 
 atmosphere is so abundant that every movement of the natives 
 causes sparks to be given off their karosses, or cloaks made of 
 the skin of beasts. d. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 373 
 
 Unsuspected Church Enemies. — The ravages committed 
 without our immediate observation by the ship-worm ( Teredo 
 navalis) are almost incredible. Wood of every description is 
 devoured by it. When the teredos have taken entire posses- 
 sion of a piece of timber, they destroy it so completely that if the 
 shelly lining were removed from the wood, and each weighed 
 separately, the mineral substance would equal the vegetable 
 in weight. The ship-worm has been the cause of numerous 
 wrecks, for it silently and unsuspectedly reduces the plankings 
 and timbers to such a state of fragility that when struck by the 
 side of a vessel, or even by an ordinary boat, large fragments 
 will be broken off. A pier has been known to be so stealthily 
 sapped by these submarine miners that its unsound state, which 
 might have endangered a hundred lives, was only discovered 
 by an accident. The insidious, effective, and dangerous way 
 in which this Teredo navalis performs its work reminds us of 
 the proceedings of such persons, in congregational and other 
 churches, as are very much addicted to the habit of calling 
 themselves "poor worms." These "poor worms" are always 
 the beings who destroy the structures which good and noble 
 men have made. They fasten themselves upon a gospel ship 
 and burrow about it for their own benefit in all directions. 
 Very often their presence is not even suspected, for they do not 
 alter the external appearance of things. But as soon as any 
 ecclesiastical tempest blows, or the ship touches any sunken 
 local rocks, the extent of the operations of the "poor worms" 
 is awfully apparent, for there is a shipwreck as the result of 
 them. Many a Christian minister has been horrified by the 
 discovery, just before a storm, that even his vestry contains 
 " poor worms," who weigh at a church meeting as much as all 
 the wise men — a fact which he had never for a moment been 
 led to suspect. h. 
 
 Unwariness, The Penalty of. — Flamingoes are very shy 
 and timid birds, and shun all attempts of man to approach 
 them ; the vicinity of animals, however, they disregard. Any 
 one who is acquainted with this fact can take advantage of it 
 
374 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 so as to effect the slaughter of these beautiful animals by dress- 
 ing himself up in the skin of a horse or an ox. Thus disguised, 
 the sportsman may get close to them and shoot them down at 
 his ease. So long as their enemy is invisible they still remain 
 immovable, the noise of the gun only stupefying them, so that 
 they refuse to leave, although their companions are dropping 
 down dead around them.r^ They are taken in by appearances, 
 and so long as the man is disguised they accept him as the 
 creature which he pretends to be, even though his actions clearly 
 indicate that he is something else. Shy, beautiful, and harm- 
 less, the unfortunate bird meets destruction simply for want of 
 wariness. Many a lovely human being with the hke qualities 
 has met her doom for want of that same trait. re. 
 
 Use is Second Nature. — In speaking of the cause of " the 
 indescribable, deep, and quite peculiar impression which the 
 first earthquake which we experience makes upon us," Hum- 
 boldt says : " The impression here is not, I believe, the conse- 
 quence of any recollection of destructive catastrophes presented 
 to our imagination by narratives of historical events ; what 
 seizes upon us so wonderfully is the disabuse of that innate 
 faith in the fixity of the solid and surest foundations of the 
 earth. From early childhood we are habituated to the con- 
 trast between the mobile element water and the immobility of 
 the soil on which we stand. All the evidences of our senses 
 have confirmed this belief. But when suddenly the ground 
 begins to rock beneath us, the feeling of an unknown, myste- 
 rious power in Nature coming into action and shaking the solid 
 globe arises in the mind. The illusion of the whole of oui' ear- 
 lier life is annihilated in an instant. We are undeceived as to 
 the repose of Nature ; we feel ourselves transported to the realm, 
 and made subject to the empire, of destructi\'e unknown powers. 
 Every sound — the slightest rustle in the air — sets attention on 
 the stretch. We no longer trust the earth upon which we stand. 
 The unusual in the phenomenon throws the same anxious unrest 
 and alarm over the lower animals. Swine and dogs are partic- 
 ularly affected by it ; and the very crocodiles of the Orinoco, 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 375 
 
 Otherwise as dumb as our little lizards, leave the shaken bed of 
 the stream and run bellowing into the woods. To men the earth- 
 quake presents itself as an all-pervading, unlimited something. 
 We can remove from an active crater ; from the stream of lava 
 which is pouring down our dwelling we can escape ; with the 
 earthquake we feel that whithersoever we fly we are still over 
 the hearth of destruction. Such a mental condition, though 
 evoked in our very innermost nature, is not, however, of long 
 duration. When a series of slighter shocks occur in a district 
 one after another, every trace of alarm soon vanishes among 
 the inhabitants. On the rainless coasts of Peru nothing is 
 known of hail, nor of explosions of lightning and rolling thun- 
 der in the bosom of the atmosphere. The subterraneous noise 
 that accompanies the earthquake there comes in lieu of the 
 thunder of the clouds. Use and wont for a series of years, 
 and the very prevalent opinion that dangerous earthquakes are 
 only to be apprehended two or three times in the course of a 
 century, led the inhabitants of Lima scarcely to think more of 
 a slight shock of earthquake than is thought of a hailstorm in 
 the temperate zone. k. 
 
 Useful the Most Plentiful, The Most. — Such things as 
 diamonds, which are not essential to man, are not plentiful in 
 the earth ; but water, air, and light are everywhere. Among 
 the metals certainly the most useful is the most abundant. The 
 author of " Siluria " says, that in reviewing the facts respecting 
 the origin and age of the various imetals most useful to man, 
 he is led to believe that iron is the oldest as well as by far the 
 most diffused in Nature. In fact, it .occurs plentifully in the 
 most ancient of all known aqueous deposits, the Laurentian 
 rocks, and has continued to be abundant throughout all the 
 strata up to the formation of the bog-ore of the present day. 
 
 SI. 
 
 Uses of Unadmired Things, The Hidden. — If we do not 
 
 at once see the use of a thing which is unbeautiful, we are apt 
 to disdain it altogether. Utility or beauty we demand as a 
 characteristic of everything. But let it be constantly remem- 
 
376 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 bered that our limited vision and knowledge often prevent our 
 discerning the uses which exist in things. Do not be deceived 
 by the mere appearance. The sandy deserts which one might 
 have been inclined to consider as mere encumbrances on the 
 earth are of high importance in creating winds. They send off 
 vast streams of hot air into the higher regions of the atmo- 
 sphere, and hence the cooler air oflE the coasts is sucked away 
 in an opposite direction. The deserts, indeed, may be regarded 
 as vast suction-pumps providentially placed at certain stations 
 on the earth, to create useful winds and help the transport of 
 moisture to lands that are in want of it. But for the Thibetan 
 deserts there would have been no southwest monsoon ; and 
 without the monsoon the fertile plains of Hindostan would have 
 been a waste of sand. be. 
 
 Using One to Catch Another. — The story of the monkey 
 which used the paw of the cat to draw the roasting chestnuts 
 from the fire has enabled the word " cat's-paw " to maintain a 
 place in our dictionaries. For we need some equivalent to 
 designate a proceeding which we often see in life closely re- 
 sembling the monkey's trick. The same thing may be also 
 illustrated in another way. Commerson relates that in the 
 Mozambique a species of remora is employed to catch turtles. 
 A ring with a long cord attached to it is fixed on the tail of 
 the fish, which is carried out to sea in a bucketful of salt water. 
 As soon as a turtle is perceived asleep on the surface, the fish- 
 ermen paddle toward it very gently, until they come sufficiently 
 near, when they throw out the remora, which makes for the 
 dormant turtle with .speed, and fastens on it so strongly that 
 both can be drawn to the boat and secured. Happy is the 
 man who has never seen a friend used by a designing knave in 
 his fishing for power and money in very much this kind of 
 way ! MU. 
 
 Valency, Political — The power of one atom to attract to 
 itself and to combine with a definite number of other atoms, 
 and no more, is called its valency ; and according to the num- 
 ber which is the limit of its power, it is called bivalent or tri- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 311 
 
 valent, or tetravalent. In like manner, the power, in the par- 
 liamentary world, of one man to attract other political units to 
 himself, and to cause them to combine with him for various 
 purposes, depends upon his political valency. Without this 
 valency society would have to depend upon some other cohe- 
 sive forces. The strongest political man is he who has most 
 political valency ; and he is an agitator, a caucus-monger, or a 
 prime minister according to the strength of his endowment. 
 The power of some units of society, as of some atoms, to at- 
 tract others to them in firm combination is remarkable in the 
 highest degree, and inexplicable. du. 
 
 Value, Intrinsic and Extrinsic. — Gold would, by general 
 consent, be considered the most valuable metal. But then we 
 must distinguish between substantial utility and adventitious 
 value ; and between intrinsic and extrinsic value, lest the word 
 mislead us. For example, whatever may be the utility of gold 
 and its market value, as a matter of fact iron is by far the 
 more substantially and intrinsically valuable metal. It is the 
 very ladder on which the arts and trades have mounted to their 
 present height. It is the only metal which is not injurious to 
 the health, the only metal which forms a never-failing constitu- 
 ent of the body, especially the blood. Now gold is found on 
 the very surface of the earth, and it is only necessary to free it 
 from earthy admixtures to obtain it in a pure metallic state. 
 It seems presented to men by Nature as a gift. But iron, like 
 knowledge, and everything in the world which possesses real in- 
 trinsic value, must be struggled for by the most laborious toil, 
 by exertion both of the bodily and mental powers. The hard 
 pursuit of an intrinsically valuable thing is often a blessing, 
 while the easy obtainment of adventitious value is too often 
 unattended by much benefit to the receiver. The inhabitants 
 of countries who are arduously occupied in mining and work- 
 ing the iron have the blessings attendant on labor — health, con- 
 tentment, prosperity, and intellectual culture — in a far greater 
 degree than those of countries where gold abounds and indus- 
 try is neglected. So the word " value " has, it is obvious, a very 
 
378 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 large meaning ; and we often require to discern between very 
 different things before we simply prefix it to another word, lest 
 we convey an erroneous impression. In our loose use of words 
 we call many things valuable which are altogether valueless, and 
 which, if a crucial moral test, instead of a conventional one, 
 were applied, would be pronounced injurious. PR. 
 
 Venal Politicians The hydra — a genus of polyp — ^pos- 
 sesses some points of resemblance to the venal politician. The 
 digestion of the hydra is so peculiar that not only can it absorb 
 creatures of a far higher organization than itself, but it may 
 actually be turned inside out without any derangement of its 
 functions. The old inner surface in that case acts the part of 
 a skin, while that which was the outer skin adapts itself without 
 difficulty to the performance of the work of digestion. The 
 venal politician possesses the power to destroy higher reputa- 
 tions than his own, and to turn them to his own advantage. 
 He, too, can shift his principles inside out. The Republican 
 surface takes the place of the Democratic surface when he so 
 pleases ; and he enjoys the capacity for appropriating political 
 concerns to his own advantage, whatever specious surface he 
 may exhibit for the time being to the outside world. n. h. 
 
 Venomous Disposition, Tlie.— There are plants which may 
 be said to distil venom of their own accord. The manchineel- 
 tree, for example (by no means uncommon in the West India 
 Islands), affords a milky fluid, which blisters the skin as if it 
 were burned with a hot iron ; and indeed so dangerous has the 
 vegetable been accounted, that if a traveler should sleep under 
 its shade it was once popularly believed he would ne\'er wake 
 again. The venomous disposition of these plants has its repre- 
 sentative in the human family. There are persons to be met 
 with who are so spiteful as to cause pain the moment you come 
 into contact with them. Their lips distil malice, and it seems 
 the object of their life to inflict malignant wounds. If you 
 trust them, your happiness will sleep the sleep of death, po. 
 
 Verbiage — The fecundity of the queen bee is amazing ; yet 
 it is surpassed by that of the termite ant. She contains about 
 
SCIEXTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 379 
 
 three inches by half an inch of eggs, and lays them at the rate 
 of sixty a minute. Just as these small creatures are prolific of 
 eggs, so are small minds prolific of words. Eagles' eggs are 
 scarce. So are thinkers' words. Termite eggs and fools' verbi- 
 age are plentiful enough. b. w. 
 
 Vice, The Modus Operandi of. — The honey-moth and the 
 honeycomb-moth attack bees, and more cunningly than the 
 sphinx-moth, as well as more successfully. They are so small 
 that they can get into the hive sometimes, notwithstanding the 
 vigilance of the guards, and deposit their eggs in the combs. 
 These little moths, called galeria moths, are small and of a 
 light-brown color, and can run with great rapidity. When they 
 are at rest, or when running, their wide wings are folded over 
 the body into a very small space indeed, and offer no impedi- 
 ment to the movements of their feet. It is, indeed, necessary 
 that some provision of this nature should be made, for when 
 one of them has succeeded in slipping past the sentinels, there 
 is a grand commption in the hive, each bee chasing the galeria 
 moth and endeavoring to secure it with its teeth, when its fate 
 would be instant death at the jaws of the infuriated multitude. 
 But generally the active little creature, having once obtained 
 an entrance, fulfils the object for which it came there ; for after 
 running and doubling and twisting about among the combs, it 
 evades its enemies and secretes itself in some crevice, where it 
 deposits its eggs in safety. The object of its Hfe is now accom- 
 plished, and it cares little what becomes of itself afterward. As 
 for the hive, the mischief is done, for the eggs are sure to be 
 hatched, and successive colonies of these destructive little crea- 
 tures are soon found, some of whom rush out of the door to 
 carry destruction into other hives, while others, finding them- 
 selves in the midst of plenty, lay their eggs in the same hive 
 where they themselves were bom. After all this labor and per- 
 severance what a strange place this seems for a mother to 
 choose, and what a chevaux de /rise, as it were, of stings all 
 about her pretty ones! It matters not, however, to them, as 
 she well knows. The larva, once successfully hatched, rapidly 
 
380 rilCTlOKARY OP 
 
 covers itself with silk, which the bees cannot destroy nor pene- 
 trate with their stings for the destruction of the noxious intruder. 
 Gradually this silken covering becomes a tube or covered way, 
 stretching in any direction that the larva pleases right through 
 the combs. When this enemy becomes numerous it is all over 
 with the hive ; the bees have no choice but to desert the place 
 altogether and construct a new habitation. The movements of 
 these galeria moths suggest an analogy to the insidious opera- 
 tions of vice in the moral world. Like these moths, vice is 
 shrewd of selecting a home, audacious in its method of enter- 
 ing it, and active in its plans for eluding pursuit. It has a hor- 
 rible power of self-propagation, and by a sad irony of fate it 
 constantly happens that the very people who hate it most in- 
 tensely are often the unwilling victims who have to support it 
 and its progeny. Nor does the resemblance end here, for as 
 the larvae of the galeria moth sometimes bring absolute ruin 
 upon the industrious hive which their progenitors shamefully 
 invaded, so do the children of vice bring down to undeserved 
 destruction the happy fabric in which they have scandalously 
 reared themselves at the expense of unconsenting sufferers. 
 In its relation to society, vice, like this moth, is a shameless 
 invader, an unscrupulous inhabitant, and a ruthless destroyer. 
 
 B. w. 
 Vice, The Fecundity of. — The fer-de-lance of the West 
 Indies, a much-dreaded serpent, is, when adult, about five or 
 six feet long. The number of young produced by this deadly 
 species of reptile at one birth is immense, being seldom less 
 than fifty. At the moment of birth these young ones are com- 
 pletely formed, very nimble, and ready to bitelf irritated. In its 
 poisonousness, and in its fecundity, this serpent resembles human 
 vice. One immoral idea will bring forth a horrible progeny of 
 others, all of which, from the moment of their birth, are ready 
 to do injury. mu. 
 
 Vice Giving Warning of its Approacli. — There are evils 
 which give warning of their coming. Drunkenness does not 
 seize upon a man suddenly. It gives warnings often and many. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 381 
 
 Avarice, and a number of other vices, can be detected long be- 
 fore we are within their reach. There are infallible indications 
 by which we may be warned. The approach of vice is like the 
 approach of the rattlesnake. ^Tfhis^orrible reptile, one of the 
 most venomous of serpents, warns man involuntarily against its 
 formidable presence. At the end of its tail there is placed a 
 rattle, which consists of a string of hollow, dry, and semi-trans- 
 parent bones, which constantly clatter against each other as the 
 reptile moves, with a hoarse, dull, echoing sound. The bony 
 rings increase in number with the reptile's age, and it gains an 
 additional one, it is said, at each casting of the skin. The 
 warning which it is thus compelled to give of its approach enables 
 those who hear to escape an awful death.^ Happy are those 
 men whose ears are open to the warnings which social mon- 
 sters, far more horrid than even the rattlesnake, in like manner 
 invariably give of their presence and movements, and, profiting 
 thereby, manage to escape ! d. 
 
 Vice, An Allegory of Virtue Triumphing over. — St. 
 George triumphing over the dragon is not prettier in concep- 
 tion than the secretary-bird vanquishing the snake is in fact. 
 The latter iiigid^nt makes a good allegory of virtue triumphing 
 over vice. The' reptile, when attacked by the secretary-bird, 
 suddenly stops and rears itself up, swelling its neck, and show- 
 ing anger by shrill hissing. At this instant, says Le Vaillant, 
 the bird of prey, spreading one of his wings, holds it in front 
 of him, and covers both his legs as well as the lower part of his 
 body with it as if with a buckler. The reptile makes a spring 
 at his enemy ; . the bird makes a bound, and spurning the ser- 
 pent with his wing, retreats again, jumping about in every direc- 
 tion in a mode which, to a spectator, appears highly grotesque. 
 He soon returns to the combat, ever presenting to the venom- 
 ous teeth of his adversary nothing but the end of his well-pro- 
 tected wing, and while the other is fruitlessly expending its poi- 
 son by biting the callous feathers, the bird is inflicting vigorous 
 blows with his other wing. At last the reptile, stunned and 
 wavering, rolls at full length in the dust ; the bird then cleverly 
 
382 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 catches hold of it and throws it several times up into the air, 
 until the victim, becoming exhausted and po\^fe^less, the bird 
 crushes its skull with his sharp-pointed bill. /r^he serpent is 
 then swallowed whole by its conqueror, unless it is too big, in 
 which case it is first torn in pieces. RE. 
 
 Vicious Ideas, Tlie Insidious Victory of. — How surprised 
 sometimes is the naturalist, who, after carefully preserving a 
 chrysalis, and awaiting day by day the appearance of the beau- 
 tiful butterfly, of which it is the coarse and mysterious envelope, 
 sees a crowd of flies emerge in place of it ! This is through 
 the work of the Echinomyia, a genus of insects which derive 
 their nourishment from flowers. They deposit their eggs on 
 caterpillars, and the young larvse on hatching penetrate their 
 bodies and feed on their viscera. How surprised sometimes is 
 the kind father of a family, who, after carefully watching the 
 growth of a child, and anticipating the development of a noble 
 character, sees to his dismay an exhibition of all the gross and 
 common vices instead of it ! This is the work of various bad 
 associates, such as servants, tutors, or others who, while deriv- 
 ing their livelihood from tending children, have deposited in 
 their minds — perhaps unintentionally, but nevertheless effectu- 
 ally — vicious ideas which have only waited the opportunity for 
 a horrible unfolding. The victory of these -vicious ideas is so 
 insidious that forethought is disarmed. The embryo is placed 
 where even ingenuity might search in vain. When those ideas 
 develop they are as certain to destroy a beautiful character as the 
 Echinomyia are to destroy the most lovely butterfly. i. 
 
 Vicissitudes of Human Life, The. — The Asiatic steppes 
 alternately assume the most discordant aspects. Periodical 
 transformations are especially remarkable in the steppes of the 
 Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian Sea. In winter 
 the heavy rains inundate them, and transform them into im- 
 practicable m,arshes ; spring clothes them with a thick carpet 
 of grasses and other herbaceous plants, so that they reveal to 
 the eye leagues upon leagues of delightful sward cropped by 
 numerous flocks. In summer they undergo a third metamor- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 383 
 
 phosis, and are converted into parched and sun-scathed deserts 
 like those of Nubia or Arabia. In our own life we experience 
 vicissitudes analogous to these. We have, as Shakespeare says, 
 " the winter of our discontent ; " then we may have a sort of spring- 
 time experience when hope promises days of plenty crowned 
 with future joys. It may also be that, -when the time comes 
 which we expected to prove a kind of summer in our existence, 
 we find our anticipations parched into desert-like disappoint- 
 ment by the fierce light of Reality. Like the steppes, we are 
 subject to strange vicissitudes. d. 
 
 Vigilance, Tlie Necessity for. — Perhaps at the very mo- 
 ment when we deem ourselves most secure, we are most in dan- 
 ger. A sleeping passion, or a foe in ambush, may be ready to 
 break out upon us and work our ruin. The birds do not see 
 the fox at hand when he is going to play his most dangerous 
 trick, for then he lies, extended as if dead, and eyes the birds 
 on the hedges and trees, and, if they come within his reach, 
 pounces upon them and kills them. " Let him who thinketh 
 he standeth take heed." r. 
 
 Violent in the Serene, Tlie. — The sea, as a rule, is tran- 
 quil. Yet what awful power it possesses when it is aroused to 
 fury ! Blocks of stone weighing over thirteen tons have been 
 known to be hurled by it a distance of more than thirty feet, 
 and blocks of three tons to more than one hundred yards. 
 Jetties and bridges are dashed about like toys. The entire har- 
 bor of Fecamp was destroyed by its rage, and the mass of earth 
 torn from the north side of Cape la H^ve was estimated at 
 more than three hundred thousand square yards. Yet these 
 are only among the trifling achievements of the sea when it 
 passes from its peaceful to its furious mood. Violence often 
 slumbers under an appearance of serenity. A crowd of joyous 
 hohday-makers to-day may become to-morrow a foaming mob 
 of insiuxectionists ! I. o. 
 
 Violent Elements, The Safe Conduction of. — The elec- 
 tric fluid will not leave its center to enter a bad conductor if it 
 can find a good one. On this simple principle depends the 
 
384 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 Utility of the lightning-rod. In its flight toward the earth the 
 lightning avoids a bad conductor, and selects a good one if it 
 is to be had ; hence it will spare the house or the tower so long 
 as there is sufficient iron rod attached through which it may de- 
 scend to the earth. In this way the electric discharge, which 
 would have shattered the bad-conducting tower, glides easily 
 and safely past it into the ground. In dealing with any vio- 
 lent elements the same principle should guide us ; we should 
 arrange not to oppose them, for that is useless, but to conduct 
 them away harmlessly. The spirit of a starving mob would 
 often strike down valuable institutions, but it may be diverted 
 into the paths of hopeful industry, in which it will expend all 
 its fire. The appetites of a people may threaten to run riot in 
 the temples of drunkenness and debauchery ; but if they are 
 conducted into the pure atmosphere of wholesome amusement 
 and recreation, they will spend themselves as harmlessly as the 
 lightning spends itself on the greensward when the genial 
 showers conduct it thither. " The quality of mercy," which 
 " droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven," is the best con- 
 ductor of all violent social elements. be. 
 
 Virtue may Exist where least Expected, A. — In the 
 most unlikely places we may discover an unexpected virtue. 
 On the low rocks, on the summits of all the loftiest Highland 
 hills, there is a curious leafy lichen [Pannelia fahlunensis) found 
 abundantly, scorched by the sun apparently into a black cinder. 
 Of all lichens, this species, judging from its outward color and 
 appearance, would seem to be the least capable of yielding 
 coloring matter ; and yet, when treated in the ordinary way, it 
 yields a brilliant pink, cherry, or claret color, which in France 
 has been applied to so many useful purposes that the lichen in 
 consequence has obtained the common name of " Herpette des 
 Tenturiers." • FO. 
 
 Virulence of a Venomous Nature, The. — The natives of 
 South Africa designate the striking echidna, a singularly for- 
 midable viper, the picakolou. These reptiles possess so abun- 
 dant and deadly a venom that when one of them is attacked by 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 385 
 
 a band of dogs, the first dog bitten dies immediately ; the sec- 
 ond, five minutes afterward ; the third, at the end of an hour ; 
 and the fourth, after a more or less lengthened agony. A 
 great number of beasts is annually destroyed by the picako- 
 lous ; the fangs of one killed at Kolobeng distilled poison 
 for several hours after its head had been severed from its body. 
 
 D. 
 
 Vitality, Dormant. — The eggs of birds and seeds of plants 
 do not possess all the characters of a living being, and yet they 
 live. Once place them in conditions favorable for the develop- 
 ment of their existence, and they become transformed into ani- 
 mals or plants. Such bodies are regarded as collections of or- 
 'ganic matter possessing dormant vital properties, which, under 
 certain circumstances, waken up and become active. There 
 are in our libraries, and in human minds, ideas in a condition 
 which bears an analogy to this state. They are full of vitality, 
 but dormant. But there are conditions under which they will 
 develop into a tremendous existence. ou. 
 
 Voices, Silent. — We may say of the stars, that though there 
 is neither speech nor language, their voices are heard ; " their 
 sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends 
 of the earth." Though placed at inconceivable distances from 
 ovu' earth, stars are yet near enough to contribute to the happi- 
 ness and safety of mankind. During the sun's absence they 
 bestow an illumination which, though feeble, is highly useful. 
 When the moon has forsaken the long polar night, they cast a 
 dim twilight over the snow. In the deserts of the East, stars 
 have served to guide the traveler since those ancient days when 
 astronomy began to be cultivated on the plains of Chaldea. 
 The pilots of antiquity learned to steer by the stars before the 
 lodestone was discovered ; and in these days of science, sun, 
 moon, and stars may be said to cover the firmament with lamps 
 and sign-posts. Familiarity with the fact has long dulled within 
 us the feeling of surprise ; still it is a wonderful thing to think 
 that in the most lonely spots of the trackless ocean the position 
 of a ship can be told with accuracy by questioning the aspects 
 
386 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 of the heavenly bodies. Silently, too, they tell us of distances, 
 magnitudes, and velocities, which transcend our power to con- 
 ceive. With mute argument stars prove to us that in those far- 
 off regions gravitation — the power that brings the apple to the 
 ground — still reigns supreme, and with winning whispers of 
 probability they persuade us that, like our own bountiful sun, 
 they also bathe attendant worlds in floods of brightest hght, 
 deck them in colors of beauty, and shower countless blessings 
 on myriads of beings. be. 
 
 Voluptuous, The Destiny of the. — Destiny deals with 
 voluptuaries as the Dioncea muscipula of South America deals 
 with the flies. The leaves of this plant, which are spread out _ 
 on the soil near the roots, are composed of two parts — the one 
 elongated, which may be considered as a sort of petiole, the 
 other larger and broader, and nearly circular, formed like two 
 trap-nets, which are united at the base by a nervure, fashioned 
 like a hinge, and furnished round the edge with rough haiiy 
 cells. In the upper surface these plates are furnished with cer- 
 tain small glands, whence exudes a viscous liquid which at- 
 tracts the insects. If a fly lights on this singular apparatus, the 
 trap raises itself quickly by means of its long hinge. They 
 approach and it closes, rapidly crossing its long cilia, and the 
 insect is a prisoner. The efforts of the fly to escape increase 
 the irritability of the plant, whose fangs only open when the 
 movements of the animal have ceased with its life. In every 
 age there are voluptuous people who are attracted by that 
 which promises mere pleasure to the senses, and they pursue it, 
 reckless of all danger. They hght upon it as these flies do on 
 this singular plant, despite the warnings of experience. But 
 the tree of destiny is inexorable, and it kills them as a conse- 
 quence of their actions. To move is useless ; escape is hope- 
 less, v. 
 
 Voracity, Competitive — The voracity for riches, which is 
 one distinguishing trait of nineteenth-century civilization, is well 
 illustrated by the Hydne, a genus of polyp. These Hydrcc are, 
 exceedingly voracious, and feed only on li\'ing animals. Some- 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 387 
 
 times two polyps will seize upon the same worm, when a dis- 
 pute, of course, ensues, which occasionally ends in a very singu- 
 lar manner. If the weaker of the two does not feel incHned to 
 let slip a booty for which he has, perhaps, been waiting with 
 extended tentacles for several days, it sometimes happens that 
 each polyp swallows the end which has fallen to his share, 
 until at length the worm, being all gone, the mouths of the pair 
 come into actual contact. They now find themselves in a posi- 
 tion of considerable difficulty, which is sometimes terminated 
 by the breaking of the worm ; but if this does not take place, 
 the larger or stronger of the two seizes upon his antagonist, and 
 swallows him worm and all. Who has not seen an analogous 
 proceeding in commercial circles, where fortune-hunters, liqui- 
 dators, joint-stock-company promoters, and their class, are al- 
 ways endeavoring, as they describe it, to " best " one another 
 in reference to spoil for which they contend ? It is observable, 
 too, that the competitor who, for the time, may be successful 
 in amalgamating the whole of his neighbor's riches, does not 
 always succeed in extinguishing his neighbor. The man disap- 
 pears from the commercial circle for a time, but he reappears 
 " after many days " to wage another war for wealth. Marvel- 
 ous to relate, the swallowed polyp also survives the results of 
 competitive voracity, and after a time he emerges uninjured 
 from his living tomb. The worm, however, like the unsuccess- 
 ful man's riches, is gone ! The successful polyp has appropri- 
 ated the mere worm, but cannot the rival. Our greedy enemies 
 may extinguish us for a time and appropriate our wealth, but 
 our manhood will survive. n. d. 
 
 Vulgarity, The Type of. — Of all the Babel confusion of 
 bird-tongues, there are few more displeasing than the sparrow's. 
 All the boorish vulgarity of his nature is expressed in that tone. 
 It is true, to the sparrow himself it sounds like music. He 
 never tires of repeating again and again his shrill chirrup, al- 
 though no one cries da capo; and to the despair of all lovers 
 of harmony, makes himself heard loudest just when one of his 
 rape, endued with the gift of song, is about to rejoice the lis- 
 
388 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 tener. But so it is ; the only trae nobility, that of genius, is 
 what the plebeian always hates most. Sparrow, and nothing 
 but sparrow, such is the leveling system of these sansculottes. 
 
 ST. 
 
 War, The Proprieties of. — The mischief which the Euro- 
 pean termites silently accomplish is wonderful. Some records 
 kept in a box at La Rochelle, which was invaded by these ter- 
 rible destroyers, were almost totally destroyed, and that with- 
 out the shghtest external trace of any damage. The termites 
 had reached the boxes in which these documents were preserved 
 by mining the wainscoting ; they had then leisurely devoured 
 the administration records, carefully respecting the upper sheets 
 and the margin of each leaf, so that a box which was only a 
 mass of rubbish seemed to contain a pile of papers in perfect 
 order. This fastidious decorum of theirs, in leaving the out- 
 ward appearance of things in good order, resembles that of Eng- 
 lish soldiers after one of their wars of foreign aggression. They 
 invade a locality by some side pretense, commit the most awful 
 destruction in all directions, and yet leave their treaties, com- 
 pacts, and even protocols, which co\'er all these transactions, 
 in the most perfect order. The form of these things remains 
 intact, while the substance of them has been rendered mere 
 rubbish. Yet such a procedure looks delicate, and prettily con- 
 siderate, and forms part of the proprieties of the conventional 
 Christian warrior — a despot exceedingly particular about the 
 semblance of things. h. 
 
 War Orators. — We ha^'e a class of speakers in this country 
 who are silent on all great social and cosmopolitan topics, but 
 make themselves heard and felt the moment any matter of war- 
 like fascination comes to the surface. All other questions float 
 down the stream of public opinion without causing them even 
 to indicate their existence. But let a question involving blood 
 appear, and with marvelous celerity all these pugihstic men 
 come from the obscurity of barracks and service clubs, and from 
 no one knows where, often fuming about no one knows what. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 389 
 
 They remind one of those animals noted for their blood-thirsti- 
 ness in the warm regions of Africa — the caribitos [Serrasalmo). 
 Their haunts are at the bottom of rivers, but a few drops of 
 blood suffice to bring them by thousands to the surface ; and 
 Humboldt himself mentions that in some part of the Apure, 
 where the water was perfectly clear and no fish were visible, 
 he could in a few minutes bring together a cloud of caribitos 
 by casting in some bits of flesh. With equal ease we can col- 
 lect all our war orators if we only give them one sanguinary 
 pretext. mu. 
 
 Warriors the Followers of Insects. — When the " work- 
 ers " of the genus Eciton (a species of foraging-ants) are abroad 
 upon a foraging expedition, they spread out their columns, climb- 
 ing over every leaf, plant, shrub, and tree, putting the whole 
 animal as well as insect world into commotion and alarm. All 
 apterous insects, particularly Blattidce and spiders, are preyed 
 upon. At other times a community of ecitons engage in a regu- 
 lar attack upon a nest of some peaceful and industrious species 
 of Formica. The ecitons crowd into the nests of the ants, each 
 seizing upon a helpless victim, and carry or drag it out of the 
 nest ; if the ant prove too heavy for a single eciton to carry, it 
 is ruthlessly torn into pieces, two or more assisting in the opera- 
 tion. The march is then commenced back to the nest of the 
 eciton, the living ants and the mangled remains of others being 
 probably carried there for the purpose of feeding the young 
 brood of the marauders. In studying these creatures, and 
 their methods and depredations, the conclusion seems forced 
 upon us that they must have been invaluable as examples to 
 warriors, and to those scientific gentlemen of bloodthirsty tastes 
 who carefully elaborate statistical treatises on methods of attack, 
 in which, with the greatest nicety, there are given calculations, 
 showing how the greatest plunder can be taken from the enemy 
 with the least injury to the invader and with the most ruinous 
 results to the enemy. And really the question is not easily dis- 
 posed of if we ask. Whether men show more genius than in- 
 
390 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 sects in their warfare ? In what do the foraging expeditions of 
 armies differ from those of these ants, except in magnitude of 
 suffering ? mu. 
 
 Wasteful Epicure, The — The food of the otter consists 
 entirely of fishes. It furnishes itself with a supply much greater 
 than it can consume, infecting the edges of the lake with quan- 
 tities of dead fish, of which, with the characteristic epicurism 
 of the family, it eats only a mouthful or two of the best parts. 
 But in winter, when the lakes are frozen over, and the rivers 
 pour with a rapid torrent, the otter is often greatly distressed 
 for provisions, and is then obliged to live upon grass, weeds, 
 and even the bark of trees. ,rYet even from starvation it never 
 learns the lessons of thrift llor forethought. It is like those 
 wasteful servants and heedless spongers who are ever ready to 
 be extravagant and reckless when they have any opportunity, 
 even though a future of penury and distress is sure to follow 
 their imprudent conduct. They are greedy epicures, who pan- 
 der to their own excesses, indifferent to all economy or pru- 
 dence. Carpe diem is their only motto. a. 
 
 Way, Where there is a Will there is a. — The materials 
 which the bird uses to build its nest are generally of the rudest 
 kind. The instruments are very imperfect. The bird has 
 neither the squirrel's hand nor the beaver's tooth. Having only 
 his bill and his foot (which by no means serves the purpose of 
 a hand), it seems that the nest should be to him an insoluble 
 problem. The tool really used is the bird's own body — his 
 breast — with which he presses and kneads the materials until 
 he has rendered them completely pliable, has thoroughly mixed 
 them, and subdued tliem to the general work.ti-Within, too, the 
 implement which determines the circular form of the nest is no 
 other than the bird's own body. By constantly turning about 
 and ramming the walls on every side, he succeeds ■ in shaping 
 the circle. Thus, then, his house is his very person, his form, 
 and his immediate effort, perhaps his suffering. The result is 
 only obtained by a constantly repeated pressure of his breast. 
 There is not one of these blades of grass but which, to take and 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 391 
 
 retain the form of a curve, has been a thousand and a thousand 
 times pressed against his bosom, his heart, certainly with much 
 disturbance of the respiration, perhaps with much palpitation. 
 " Where there is a will there is a way." Only bad workmen, 
 who have no strong desire to accomplish their task, ever desert 
 it for the want of tools. t. b. 
 
 Weak, The Courage of the. — Although the gazelles are 
 generally considered extremely timid animals, which, moreover, 
 their weakness would fully justify, they display on emergency a 
 surprising courage. When they cannot escape from danger 
 through agility, they bravely confront the enemy which attacks 
 them. Menaced by a panther or a leopard, they form them- 
 selves into a circle, which, bristling everywhere with keen- 
 pointed horns, compels the antagonist to retreat. d. 
 
 Weak Natures, The Low Means of Defense of. — The 
 
 second English snake is the common harmless ringed snake, 
 which does not bite, because it has no teeth to speak of, and 
 does not poison people, because it has no venom at all. Its 
 only mode of defense is by pouring forth a most unpleasant, 
 pungent odor, which adheres to the hands or clothes so pertina- 
 ciously that many washings are required before it is expelled. - 
 Yet it is sparing enough even of this solitary weapon, and may 
 after a while be handled without any inconvenience. c. o. 
 
 Woman, The Self-Satisfied. — The dear lady full of max- 
 ims, little prim notions, wise saws, proverbs, and nursery lore, 
 with her consequential, self-satisfied mien — how often we have 
 seen her ! We have heard her called in derision " the dear old 
 hen." And really, derision apart, there is some resemblance 
 between this queen and that feathered one. The hen reared 
 in the confined, strict notions of her class, never forgets for a 
 moment the limits nor the duties of her station. Her sober 
 mind abhors all innovation and extravagance. She will have 
 nothing to do with those doubtful virtues which we proudly call 
 elegance, refinement, high breeding, or which we at once sum 
 up in the term "polite education." The fantastical rockings, 
 
392 DICriOXARY OF 
 
 the buoyant soaring in mid-air, the art of song and nest-build- 
 ing, which the world admires in other birds, are to her as nought. 
 As her ancestors were before her will she remain ; and like her 
 dress, so in thought and deed is she plain and citizen-like. 
 " Stay at home and get an honest livelihood ! " is what she ex- 
 claims to her sons and daughters, amid whom she walks with a 
 high sense of her importance. She tells them of her own peace- 
 ful existence, of her young and her old days ; and flinging a pre- 
 cept to one and a caress to another, she nods her well-frizzled 
 top-knot with discreet gravity. ST. 
 
 > Workers, Great Power in Little. — The strength of inver- 
 tebrate animals is, relatively speaking, immense. Many persons 
 have observed how out of proportion the jump of a flea is to 
 its size. A flea is not more than an eighth of an inch in length, 
 and it jumps a yard ; in proportion, a lion ought to jump two 
 thirds of a mile. Pliny shows in his " Natm-al History " that the 
 weights carried by ants appear exceedingly great when they 
 are compared with the size of the ifidefatigable4abofer-|^ The 
 strength of these-isseets- is still more striking when one con- 
 siders the edifices they are able to construct. Man is proud of 
 his works ; but what are they, after all, in comparison with those 
 of the ant, taking the relative heights into consideration? The 
 termite or white ant constructs habitations many yards in height, 
 which are so firmly and soKdly built that the buffaloes are able 
 to mount them and use them as observatories ; they are made 
 of particles of wood joined together by a gummy substance, 
 and are able to resist even the force of a hurricane.f' The 
 largest pyramid in Egypt is only one hundred and forty-six 
 yards high — that is, about ninety times the average height of 
 man ; whereas the nests of the termites are a thousand times the 
 height of the insect which constructs them. Their habitations 
 are thus twelve times higher than the largest specimen of archi- 
 tecture raised by human hands. We men are, tlierefore, far 
 beneath these little insects so far as strength and the spirit of 
 working go. Let us contemplate their work and renew our 
 labors. \\ i. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTKATIONS. 393 
 
 World, The Changes of the. — " The fashion of the world 
 passeth away." On every hand we see the law of mutation at 
 work. Governments, systems of thought, our own bodies, our 
 cities, and even the seaboard of our coasts, bear testimony to 
 the fact that there is no such thing in this world as permanence 
 of form. To the mind that longs to ground itself upon some- 
 thing that is immutable, it seems not only paradoxical, but even 
 an appalling fact, that the only certain law in the physical world 
 is the law of change. Yet so it is, and so it appears to have 
 ever been. Geological facts concerning our world convince us 
 that it began its career as an incandescent mass of molten mat- 
 ter ; that it passed through a period of refrigeration ; that, as a 
 consequence of that process, and of the attendant and necessary 
 chemical combinations and changes, a solid crust was slowly 
 evolved; that the elaboration of oceans and continents in the 
 forms in which we now behold them has been the work of 
 periods of time so vast that it is impossible for the most power- 
 ful imagination to describe or even to conceive of them ; and 
 that yet, notwithstanding all these stupendous phases, there are 
 at the present moment alterations still everywhere going on 
 which in their intrinsic importance are, and in their future con- 
 sequences will be, as momentous as the phenomena by which 
 they have been preceded. Not only does the surface of our 
 globe undergo entire and perpetual changes, but, as a necessary 
 consequence, all the forms of vegetable and animal life are 
 merely transient phenomena. With one exception, all the old 
 tenants of this place have left it, and all their near kindred have 
 gone too. In digging in and exploring the rocks and shores 
 around Tyme-Regis in Dorsetshire, England, we get some 
 glimpses of what they were like, and of the life they must have led 
 when, in the morning of the world, they hungered and thirsted, 
 and roamed about to maintain their existence, as poor human 
 beings anxiously do to-day. There was the ichthyosaurus, a huge 
 marine lizard. This carnivorous reptile often measured from 
 twenty to thirty feet long. It had a head like a crocodile, the 
 vertebrae of a fish, and for its locomotion the paddles of a 
 
394 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 whale. There was the plesiosaurus. This creatui-e somewhat 
 resembled the ichthyosaurus. It had a lizard's head, though it 
 was smaller, and its neck, which was like a snake's, was very 
 long ; for propelling power it had a strong tail, and its four pad- 
 dles were even larger than those of the ichthyosaurus. There 
 was the pterodactyle. This curiously constructed creature, 
 probably the first of the winged creation, very much resembled 
 an enormous bat, and possessed a bird's head, neck, and tail. 
 It had five fingers provided with wings, and could fly like a 
 bat. With its wings it could either fly or swim, with its feet it 
 could walk, with its claws it could climb, and thus with hands, 
 wings, or feet it pursued its way. Then with these creatures 
 there were the iguanodon, the nautilus, the ammonite, marvel- 
 ous moUusks, gigantic cuttle-fishes, and many more. With the 
 exception of the nautilus, which appears to be a persistent type, 
 these forms of existence have vanished from the world. In 
 examining the strata of other parts of the globe, whether for 
 vegetable or animal fossils, a like result will be reached. We 
 shall evermore be confronted with the fact that there is noth- 
 ing stationary in Nature ; everything is in a state of perpetual 
 change. We can trace some few processes, we can discover 
 some few causes and effects, but what is to be the grand cli- 
 max of the ever-changing drama is a problem beyond the reach 
 of saint or sage. The universe is obviously the manifestation 
 of a mighty will in constant action. If the past history of our 
 world may be taken as a basis for an argument respecting the 
 future intentions of that will, we may well believe that all pres- 
 ent phenomena, including the human race, will pass away as 
 completely as the sauroids of the lias. Man's egotism has 
 prompted him to believe that the human being is the great end 
 and object of creation, but geology suggests that, like other 
 denizens of this globe, the human race is only here in order to 
 prepare the way for nobler successors. There is no excuse for 
 the assumption that, in the construction of such a creature as 
 man, the Marvelous Creative Will exhausted all its powers of 
 invention, and came to the end of its resources. ge. 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 395 
 
 World the Expression of one Thought, The. — To one 
 
 who has never studied the mechanism of a watch, its main- 
 spring or the balance-wheel is a mere piece of metal. He may 
 have looked at the face of the watch, and while he admires the 
 motion of its hands, and the time it keeps or the tune it plays, 
 he may have wondered in idle amazement as to the character 
 of the machinery which is concealed within. Take it to pieces 
 and show him each part separately : he will recognize neither 
 design nor adaptation nor relation between them ; but put them 
 together, set them to work, point out the offices of each spring, 
 wheel, and cog, explain their movements, and then show him 
 the result ; now he perceives that it is all one design ; that, not- 
 withstanding the number of parts, their diverse forms and vari- 
 ous offices, and the agents concerned, the whole piece is of one 
 thought, the expression of one idea. He now perceives that 
 when the mainspring was fashioned and tempered, its relation 
 to all the other parts must have been considered ; that the cogs 
 on this wheel are cut and regulated — adapted — to the ratchets 
 on that, etc., and his conclusion will be that such a piece of 
 mechanism could not have been produced by chance ; the 
 adaptation of the parts is such as to show it to be according 
 to design, and obedient to the will of one intelhgence. So, too, 
 when one looks out upon the face of this beautiful world, he 
 may admire the lovely scene ; but his admiration can never 
 grow into adoration unless he will take the trouble to look be- 
 hind and study, in some of its details at least, the exquisite sys- 
 tem of machinery by which such beautiful results are accom- 
 plished. To him who does this, the sea, with its physical geog- 
 raphy, becomes as the mainspring of a watch ; its waters, and 
 its currents, and its salts, and its inhabitants, with their adapta- 
 tions, as balance-wheels, cogs and pinions, and jewels. Thus 
 he perceives that they too are according to design, that they 
 are the expression of one thought, a unity with harmonies which 
 One Intelligence, and One Intelhgence alone, could utter, t. 
 
 Worldly Wisdom, An Enigma Concerning. — Birds pos- 
 sess worldly wisdom. Not only does the swallow in Europe 
 
396 DICTIONARY OP 
 
 know that the insect which fails him there awaits him else- 
 where, and goes in quest of it, traveling upon the meridian, 
 but in the same latitude, and under the same climates, the lorist 
 of the United States understands that the cherry is ripe in 
 France, and departs without hesitation to gather his harvest of 
 fruit. In the midst of the ocean, the weary bird which reposes 
 for a night on the vessel's mast, beguiled afar from his route 
 by this moving asylum, recovers it, nevertheless, without diffi- 
 culty. So complete is his sympathy with the globe, so exactly 
 does he know the true realm of light, that on the foUow'ing 
 morning he commits himself to the breeze without hesitation. 
 He chooses without other path than the vessel's track the exact 
 course which will lead him whither he wishes to go. There, 
 not as upon land, exists no landmark, no guide ; the currents 
 of the atmosphere alone, in sympathy with those of water — per- 
 haps, also, some invisible magnetic currents — pilot this hardy 
 voyager. But it is not only in respect of their shrewd journey- 
 ings that birds indicate their possession of worldly wisdom ; 
 they also manifest it in all matters relating to their residences. 
 A close observation reveals the fact that the nests of birds differ 
 according to climate and the weather. At New York the bal- 
 timore makes a closely iitted nest to shelter him from the cold. 
 At New Orleans his nest is left with a free passage for the air 
 to diminish the heat. The Canadian partridges, which in win- 
 ter cover themselves with a kind of small pent-roof at Com- 
 pifegne, under a milder sky do away with this protection, be- 
 cause they judge it to be useless. The same discernment prevails 
 in relation to the seasons. The American spring in the open- 
 ing years of the present century, occiu-ring very late, the wood- 
 pecker (of Wilson) wisely made his nest two weeks later. We 
 might multiply instances to show the wisdom which they display, 
 but it would be quite unnecessary, because the foregoing facts 
 are sufficient to illustrate it. In reflecting upon the whole ques- 
 tion, one is surprised at the disparity which there is between in- 
 nate worldly wisdom in birds and men. The bird knows where 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 397 
 
 to go, and wliat to do, in order to make its existence pleasant. 
 Man does not seem to manage nearly so well, and his efforts 
 are constantly attended with defeat and misery. If, after pro- 
 tracted experience, he does succeed in obtaining the material 
 comforts which the bird gets without any purchased experience, 
 he is congratulated on being a clever man. It would seem 
 that,- in those exceptional cases where men have acquired worldly 
 advantage very easily, they have been endowed by Nature with 
 worldly wisdom in the way in which the birds have been en- 
 dowed with it. There is no rnore credit due to them than there 
 is to the birds. Both equally are indebted to Nature for guid- 
 ing them to prosperous journeys and suitable habitations. But 
 why have all the birds been so well endowed with the gift of 
 worldly wisdom, and why have so few men ? There is an 
 enigma. The answer may be that the development of men's 
 faculties is the object intended to be attained by the arrange- 
 ment. Who can say ? t. b. : st. 
 
 World's Gradation, The. — Interpret the various systems 
 of geology in any way whatever, it still is clear that they all do 
 present a long series of mineral mutations, and of vital grada- 
 tion and progress. Not progress from imperfection to perfec- 
 tion, but from humbler to more highly organized orders, as if 
 the great design of Nature had been to ascend from the sim- 
 pler conception of materialism to the higher aims of mechanical 
 combination ; from mechanism to the subtler elimination of 
 mind ; and from mentalism to the still nobler attribute of moral- 
 ism, as developed alone in the intellect and soul of man. From 
 the lowly seaweeds of the silurian strata and marsh-plants of 
 the old red sandstone, we rise (speaking in general terms) to 
 the prolific club-mosses, reeds, ferns, and gigantic endogens of 
 the coal-measures ; from these to the palms, cycads, and pines 
 of the oolite ; and from these again to the exogens or true tim- 
 ber-trees of the tertiary and current eras. So also in the ani- 
 mal kingdom : the graptohtes and trilobites of the silurian seas 
 are succeeded by the higher Crustacea and bone-clad fishes of 
 
398 DICTIONARY OF 
 
 the old red sandstone ; these by the sauroid fishes of the coal- 
 measures ; the sauroid fishes b)r the gigantic saurians and rep- 
 tiles of the oolite ; the reptiles of the oolite by the huge mam- 
 malia of the tertiary epoch ; and these in time give place to 
 existing species, with man as the qrowning form of created exis- 
 tence — man, whose mental and social history is one of constant 
 progress. This idea of gradation imphes not only an onward 
 change among the rock materials of the earth, but also, as 
 plants and animals are influenced in their forms and distribu- 
 tions by external causes — new phases and arrangements of vital- 
 ity — the creation of new species, and the dropping out of others 
 from the great scheme of animated Nature. " Through the 
 shadow of the globe we sweep into this younger day." ad. 
 
 Wounded, Attacking the. — Caprice, habit, or inclination 
 permits some men to attack even the depressed, dejected, and 
 wounded in spirit. What more abominable spectacle is there 
 than that of a man attacking his less fortunate fellow ? Such 
 a person is like the chimachima {Milvago chimachima), a species 
 of Fakonidce which attacks beasts of burden upon which it per- 
 ceives wounds or sores ; these it tears with its bill until the un- 
 fortunate victim is forced to roll himself upon the ground to 
 get rid of his tormentor. AVe judge this to be cruel ; but the 
 other sight is still worse. MU. 
 
 Wrong Place, Effects of the Best Thing in the The 
 
 best thing, if put into the wrong place, may often have most 
 dangerous effects. We all know the deadly results of a ser- 
 pent's sting. But Oliver Goldsmith, in a very interesting way, 
 suggests that the injury resulting from the serpent's wound is 
 not merely owing to the poison, but also to the mode and 
 place. And he puts it that even milk, which is the most mild 
 and nourishing of all fluids, and the most friendly to the human 
 constitution, would, if injected into a vein, quickly become fatal, 
 and act with even more certain destruction then the venom of 
 the viper. If this be so, we cannot well contemplate this pes- 
 tilent action of the milk without being impressed with the fact 
 
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 399 
 
 that we ought not to be satisfied merely with the possession of 
 a good thing. If we desire to derive good results, we must 
 also be careful that it is properly used ; and further, in order 
 to prevent positively pernicious effects, we must not even allow 
 it to be applied otherwise than in the right method. We do 
 not always attend to this. For instance, religion in any coun- 
 try is its greatest blessing ; but when " the sincere milk of the 
 Word " is not taken by the population in a proper and natural 
 manner, but is projected into the national system by state force, 
 the body politic resents such an intrusion, and the very thing 
 which would have been a boon under other circumstances then 
 becomes a source of acute irritation to many of the members, 
 and of actual injury to all. a. 
 
 Young Life, Artlessness of — When the young of the 
 ostrich are hatched, they are familiar, and follow the first per- 
 son they meet. At first they are extremely harmless and sim- 
 ple ; but as they grow older they become more cunning and 
 distrustful, and run so swiftly that a greyhound can scarcely 
 overtake them. a. 
 
 Young Life, Tlie Need for The need the world has of 
 
 young life is very obvious. The nation of the future rests upon 
 the cradles of to-day. The young life in any institution is that 
 which repairs its defects, enlarges its usefulness, and stimulates 
 its charities. The young life in any family is the influence 
 which suns the path of age, invigorates exertion, and quickens 
 the growth of the virtues. Where would the valor and vigor 
 of the country be if deprived of the support of young life ? 
 Disraeli says that almost everything that is great has been done 
 by youth ; and the history of heroes is the history of youth. 
 In the vegetable world the mission and influence of the young 
 life is not less plain than powerful. According to Louis Figuier, 
 the bud must be considered as a fundamental element in the 
 plant, which, without it, would soon perish. It is the bud which 
 year by year repairs the losses, supplies the flowers, the leaves, 
 the branches which have disappeared. Through its means the 
 
40O DIGTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 plant increases in growth. Through it its existence is pro- 
 longed. The bud is the true renovator of the vegetable world. 
 Therefore these buds are everywhere — on the roots, the leaves, 
 and sometimes even on the flowers; for Nature never loses 
 sight of the phenomena essential to organic life, namely, the 
 production of new beings. 
 
INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 [^For Index of Natural Objects, Technical Terms, Places, Things, Creatures, 
 etc., see page 410.] 
 
 Abjectness caused by dependency, s 
 Aborigines, extermination of, 5 
 Absolute rest and motion, 6 
 Accidents, Nature's governance of, 6 
 Adaptation a law of Nature, 7 
 Adapting one's self, incapability of, 8 
 Admiration, love of, 9 
 Adolescence should be tolerated, 131 
 Adoration, premeditating the destruc- 
 tion of its object, 9 
 Adventurers, our professional, 10 
 Adversity, the uniting power of, 11 
 Aggressive glory, 11 
 Aggressors, an example for human, 11 
 Aggressors, fortune is fickle to, 12 
 Analogues, 13 
 Ancestry, reliance on, 13 
 Anger, the uses of, 14 
 Anger manages everything badly, 14 
 Animated nature, common bond of, 15 
 Annihilated, nothing is, 15 
 Annoyance a law of life, 16 
 Annoyances, mortal effects of, 16 
 Annoyances, our allotted, 17 
 Annoyances made beautiful, 355 
 Antidote, a needed, supplied by Na- 
 ture, 18 
 Appearance at variance with char- 
 acter, 18 
 Appearance with it bad character, a 
 
 fine, 19 
 Appearances fallacious tests, 19 
 Appreciation intensified by occasional 
 
 deprivation, 20 
 Assimilation, 21 
 Associated labor, triumph of, 21 
 Astonishment, 21 
 Athletic glory, 22 
 
 Atom, the world mirrored in an, 23 
 Attraction reciprocal, 23 
 Attractive may be perilous, the, 24 
 
 Audacity and ingratitude as natural 
 characteristics, 24 
 
 Audacity a means of success, 25 
 
 Authors, posthumous mischief of im- 
 moral, 26 
 
 Autocrats, the jealousy of, 26 
 
 Avarice, a retribution on, 27 
 
 Avidity, the utilization of, 27 
 
 Beautiful, production of the, 28 
 Beauty in combination with utility, 56 
 Beauty, subtleness and fragility of, 28 
 Beauty, unostentatious, 29 
 Being, how to test the worth of any, 29 
 Benignant soul, the, 30 
 Bigots, ignorant, 157 
 Biter bitten, the, 31 
 Blessings are relative, 32 
 Blessings in unexpected places, 31 
 Blessings neutralized, 33 
 Blessings, the diffusion of, 33 
 Blundering, unaccountable, 360 
 Blusterer's demeanor and collapse, the, 
 
 34 
 Braggadocio, the destiny of the, 34 
 Bright tints in unexpected places, 35 
 Brightness in combination with im- 
 purity, 35 
 Brilliant, but nasty, 36 
 Bully, characteristics of a, 36 
 Bumbledom, the philosophy of, 37 
 Business aptitude, 38 
 
 Calmness under attack, 38 
 Cantankerous character, the, 39 
 Capacity determined by sphere, 39 
 Capricious disposition, the, 40 
 Carcass-seekers, 40 
 Cast down, but not destroyed, 41 
 Casuist's defense, a, 41 
 Cemetery, the greatest, 42 
 
 401 
 
402 
 
 INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 Change, the instinctive love of, 42 
 Change the si-M qua non of life, ^ 
 Change without radical alteration, su- 
 perficial, 43 
 Character, tests of, 44 
 Character defacement, 45 
 Character and circumstance, 45 
 Character consohdated by lime, 46 
 Character, a test for, 47 
 Character and reputation, the distinc- 
 tion between, 47 
 Cheering trifles, 48 
 Children, guardianship of, 210 
 Christianity perverted, 139 
 Church enemies, unsuspected, 373 
 Circumstances, accommodation to, 49 
 Ciicumstances, independent of, 49 
 Circumstances, influence of, 89 
 Circumstances, power of utilizmg, 50 
 Circumstantial evidence, a hint re- 
 specting, 52 
 Circumstantial men, 49 
 Civilization a river, 52 
 Climate and character, 53 
 Climate on intellect and morals, the 
 
 effects of, 54 
 Colony wisely, how to inaugurate a., 
 
 54 
 Colored by our associations, 55 
 Colossal works unconsciously achieved, 
 
 56 
 Combination of utility and beauty, a, 
 
 56 
 Combination is strength, 57 
 Combination and recombination : prin- 
 ciples of Nature, 58 
 Combination, results of right, 59 
 Commerce the great uniter, 59 
 Commotion, the advantages of a, 59 
 Compensating faculty, a, 239 
 Compensation in modes of power, 61 
 Compensation, the law of, 60 
 Compressibility, the limits of, 61 
 Congregational Union, a, 62 
 Conscience, the, 62 
 Conscious strength despises tricks, 63 
 Constitution, conduct shaped by, 61 
 Consumption without proportion, 63 
 Contemptible life is difficult to de- 
 stroy, 279 
 Contrariety in character, 64 
 Contrast, things appreciated by, 64 
 Conventional opinion, 65 
 Convulsive action, evils attendant on, 
 
 66 
 Counterfeiting, the power of, 66 
 Cowardice, the tactics of, 67 
 Cowards, the insolence of, 67 
 Crafty rogue, the, 68 
 Crafty, the tricks of the, 67 
 Credit wrongly ascribed, 68 
 
 Crises and the crisis, the, 69 
 Cultivation, the effects of, 69 
 Curiosity seized as a snare, 70 
 
 Danger, the philosophic way of meet- 
 ing, 71 
 
 Danger, the unphilosophic way of 
 meeting, 71 
 
 Danger is slight when evil is offensive, 
 72 
 
 Danger and finding death, escaping, 73 
 
 Dead to the living, the ministry of the, 
 
 73 
 Death better than starvation, 74 
 Death, anticipating another's, 74 
 Death and resurrection, our daily, 75 
 Death, an example and an emblem of, 
 
 76 
 Deceit, lucrative, 76 
 Deceivers, ingratitude of, TJ 
 Deep thought, the language of, 77 
 Defenseless, a natural defense for the, 
 
 77 
 Degree makes all the difference, 78 
 Delude, self and circumslance conspire 
 
 to, 78 
 Delusive daintiness, 79 
 Demagogues, uses of, 142 
 Democratic principle, the, 80 
 Depravity, the specious appearance of 
 
 moral, 81 
 Desolation, 82 
 Desolation, a type of, 82 
 Despicable conquerors, 84 
 Despicable, the, the destructive, 83 
 Despotism, a weak point in, 85 
 Destroyer without sense of shame, a, 
 
 85 
 Destroyer's art and force, a, 86 
 Destroyers, destruction of, 86 
 Destroyers, detection of, 87 
 Destruction and renovation : principles 
 
 of Nature, 87 
 Destruction, elements that wait for, 88 
 Development dependent on proper 
 
 conditions, proper, 89 
 Directness of course, 90 
 Disappointment, excusable, 90 
 Disappointment, the influence of, go 
 Discontented character, the, 91 
 Discretion the better part of valor, 91 
 Disseminators, unconscious. 92 
 Dissimilar causes may produce like 
 
 effects, 92 
 Dissimilar effects of the same cause, 93 
 Distance, delusive effects of, 93 
 Distance, the illusions of, 94 
 Distinctiveness, 94 
 
 Diversity concealed by resemblance, 96 
 Diversity of form but unity of benefit, 
 
 94 
 
INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 403 
 
 Doldrums of life, the, 96 
 Drawbacks, every condition has its, 
 
 97 
 Dreams, boyhood's, 98 
 Drones, Nature's sentence upon, 99 
 Dull natures splendid pain-bearers, 99 
 
 Earth, the transitional nature of, 100 
 Economy that is loathsome, loi 
 Education, virtues and limits of, 101 
 Effort is not lost, the smallest, 102 
 Eloquence, a condition of, 103 
 Emigration, 127 
 Enemies, power of small, 103 
 Enemies, power and method of small, 
 
 104 
 Enemies, our own peculiar, 105 
 Enemy, no one is too contemptible to 
 
 have an, 105 
 Enemy, the unexpected, 106 
 Enjoyment, the perils of, 106 
 Enthusiasm, the deobstruent power of, 
 
 107 
 Epicure, the wasteful, 390 
 Error, instinct and operations of, 107 
 Error, the annihilation of, 108 
 Error, the recuperative power of, 108 
 Errors, the reappearance of old, 109 
 Eternal cycle, the, log 
 Eventide favorable to meditation, 109. 
 Evil, the good of, no 
 Evil, destroyers of, no 
 Evil, the power to reject, 112 
 Evil, the limitation of, 112 
 Evil in unexpected places, 112 
 Evil detected though in new modes of 
 
 existence, 113 
 Evil, the breaking forth of hidden, 
 
 114 
 Evil thing, terrific force of an, 114 
 Exaction, the unwisdom of, 114 
 Existence by instalments, 114 
 Existence, the dissimilar effects of an 
 
 easy and anxious, 102 
 Expansion, room for, 115 
 Explosive acquaintances, 80 
 Exteriority secondary to utility, 115 
 External change without radical altera- 
 tion, 116 
 Extremes, the love for, 117 
 Eye not infallible, the, 117 
 Eyes, creatures without, 118 
 
 Fallen, the tempting instinct of the, 
 
 118 
 Falling, obstacles to, 119 
 Family, unlike the, 119 
 Fascination a weapon of destruction, 
 
 120 
 Fear, the stupefying effects of, 120 
 Feeble, the might of the, 121 
 
 Feminine masculinity, 122 
 
 Fictitious prestige, 122 
 
 Finical disposition, the, 123 
 
 Fits and starts, 124 
 
 Flagging energies, refreshing influ- 
 ences for, 124 
 
 Food of one may be the poison of an- 
 other, 157 
 
 Fools as a species, 125 
 
 " Footprints on the sands of time," 125 
 
 Forces, the mightiness of silent, 126 
 
 Foreknowledge and prophecy, 127 
 
 Foresight, 127 
 
 Forethought, 128 
 
 Forewarned is forearmed, 128 
 
 Form, unimportance of, to substance, 
 
 9S 
 Formalists, the, 128 
 Fortune-fishing, running risks in, 130 
 Friends, even the vile have, 130 
 Friendship, emblems of true, 131 
 Frothy period, the, 131 
 Fuss, great effects without, 132 
 
 Genius, the irresistible current of, 132 
 Genius, the perpetuating power of, 
 
 133 
 Gluttons and geese, 134 
 Gluttony, the fate of, 134 
 God, human opinions concerning, 134 
 God, the pretense of knowing the 
 
 whole truth of, 144 
 Good feeding, the political value of, 
 
 136 
 Good found where least expected, 137 
 Graveyards, relative sizes of, 279 
 Great, the loneliness of the, 137 
 Great Britain, healthfulness of, 137 
 Great is composed of the small, every- 
 thing, 138 
 Greatest good occasioning the greatest 
 
 evil, the, 139 
 Greediness insatiable, 141 
 Greedy disposition, the, 141 
 Gregariousness, 91 
 
 Gross natures in useful employment, 
 141 
 
 Habit, age altering, 143 
 Habit, the force of, 142 
 Half-truths and hemiopia, 143 
 Hand-to-mouth people, 127 
 Hangers-on, 144 
 Happiness is relative, 145 
 "Happy, through the hateful to the, 147 
 Harmless yet armed, 145 
 Harmony where least expected, 146 
 Heads worth little, some, 147 
 Health, the sun a source of, 147 
 Healthy atmosphere, thevigorous mind 
 requires a, 224 
 
404 
 
 INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 Heavenly bodies, the ministration of 
 tlie, 148 
 
 Hereditary peculiarities, the transmis- 
 sion of, 142, 148 
 
 Hereditary results, 148 
 
 Hidden enemies, 149 
 
 Hideous implies the dangerous, the, 
 149 
 
 Higher life requires the higher ali- 
 ment, the, 150 
 
 Hissing, 151 
 
 Home associations, power of early, 
 
 151 
 
 Home instinct; the, 151 
 
 Home-leaving, 152 
 
 Horrible very arbitrarily chosen, em- 
 blems of the, 152 
 
 Hospitahty, a test for, 153 
 
 Human race, physical history of the, 
 
 369 
 Human society, an archetype of, 154 
 Human sympathy, 154 
 Humility, the fecund force of, 155 
 Hypocrite, the, 156 
 
 Ideas resemble seeds, 246 
 Identical yet different, 366 
 Idiosyncrasy defies coercion, 157 
 Ignorant bigots, 157 
 Illusions, 78 
 Images, accidental, 157 
 Imitation as a deceiver's art, 159 
 Imitation, ludicrous effects of, 159 
 Imitation, the habit of, 158 
 Impermanence of life's forms, the, 160 
 Impertinence, the model of, 161 
 Impostor, the, 161 
 Impressions, distinct and faint, 161 
 Impudence balked by stupidity, 161 
 Incongruous advantages, 162 
 Incongruous combinations, 163 
 Incongruous situations, 163 
 Inconsiderable creatures, strength of, 
 
 164 
 Indigestion and theology, 233 
 Industry over adversity, the triumph of. 
 
 Inexplicable beauty, 165 
 Inexplicable services, 165 
 Infernal, earth's hints of the, 166 
 Influence lost in form but not in force, 
 
 167 
 Ingratitude, 77 
 Ingratitude with audacity, 24 
 Inherited acquirements, 143 
 Injured but not destroyed, 167 
 Injured, persecution of the, 168 
 Injured, the recuperative powers of 
 
 the, 168 
 Injurers, unconscious, 169 
 Innovation without destruction, 170 
 
 Inquisitiveness punished, 171 
 Insensibility mistaken for safety, 171 
 Insensibility, statesmanlike, 329 
 Insignificant, the mightiness of the, 172 
 Instinct, 173 
 
 Instinct and somnambulism, 174 
 Instinct, the prognosticating, 175 
 Instinct unsubmissive to argument, 176 
 Instinct, the errors of the maternal, 176 
 Instinct at fault, the maternal, 177 
 Instinct, errors of, 176 
 Instincts, opposing, 177 
 Instincts in unexpected forms, social, 
 
 178 
 Insusceptible character, the, 180 
 Intellect, man's superiority due to, 213 
 Interchange, the principle of, 180 
 Interdicted political convictions, 180 
 Invaders, the callousness of thievish, 
 
 182 
 Invariable, nothing, 182 
 Invisible may yet be legible, the, 183 
 Irascibility, the perils of, 183 
 Irritable temper, shocks of, 183 
 
 jEALOusy, the follies of, 184 
 
 Job, accuracy of his reference to gold 
 
 and silver, 135 
 Joint-stock company, a, 185 
 Judgment, comparison and, 185 
 
 Kindness natural and remunerative, 
 
 186 
 Kindness, the transforming power of, 
 
 187 
 Knowing look, the, 188 
 Knowledge as a saving power, 188 
 
 Latent germs, 189 
 
 Law, pitfalls of the, 190 
 
 "Law," the "ordinary," and the 
 " whole law ' distinguished, 190 
 
 Lawyers, 27 
 
 Leadership, capacity the title to, 191 
 
 Liberty, an unconquerable love of. 192 
 
 Life, action and repose a law of, 198 
 
 Life, expansiveness of strong, 194 
 
 Life, fullness of, 193 
 
 Life in apparent death, ig6 
 
 Life, independence in the higher stages 
 of, 19s 
 
 Life infinitesimal, 195 
 
 Life a law of nature, involuntary de- 
 struction of, 198 
 
 Life under right conditions, lastingness 
 of, 194 
 
 Life preserved by struggling, 197 
 
 Life, one essential condition of, 192 
 
 Life, the illusions of, 199 
 
 Life, the improvident, 200 
 
 Life, the mirage of, 195 
 
lA^DEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 405 
 
 Life, the tenacity of, 196 
 
 Life, the ubiquity of, 193 
 
 Life where least expected, 196 
 
 Life's forms, the impermanence of, 160 
 
 Light a heahhg power, 202 
 
 Light is regulated to our capacity, all, 
 
 201 
 Light, children of the, 203 
 Light, influence of, 89 
 Light, instinctive love of, 201 
 Light has no substitute, true, 202 
 "Lilies, consider the," 203 
 Limitation, law of, for animals and 
 
 man, 8 
 Liquidator, the speculative, 203 
 Little influence added to a great enter- 
 prise, use of a, 204 
 Little things, the aggregate capacity 
 
 of, 204 
 Littleness, the spirit and security of, 
 
 204 
 Love, the courage of, 205 
 Love, aspects of, 205 
 Lowly teachers of prudential virtues, 
 
 206 
 Lurking dangers, 206 
 Luxuriance a hindrance to progress, 
 
 207 
 
 Majestic twaddle, 207 
 
 Making use of people, 266 
 
 Man as revealed by society, 208 
 
 Man, a domestic resemblance between 
 reptiles and, 210 
 
 Man a worse animal than he was in- 
 tended to be, 212 
 
 Man may be superseded by a nobler 
 creature, 394 
 
 Man and a frog, the resemblance be- 
 tween a, 209 
 
 Man, the "climbing," 211 
 
 Man the enemy of man, 209 
 
 Man, the vain, 211 
 
 Mankind, the supersedure of, 212 
 
 Man's deportment, a strong, 213 
 
 Man's love of ornament, 9 
 
 Marauder, plan for punishing a, 213 
 
 Marksman, a good, 214 
 
 Master minds, 214 
 
 Maternal instinct, the errors of the, 
 176 
 
 Maternal instinct, the, at fault, 177 
 
 Matrimonial life, types of, 215 
 
 Matter is indestructible, 215 
 
 Matter, the circulation of, 216 
 
 Matter, the transmigrations of, 217 
 
 Matter, the extreme divisibility of, 217 
 
 Meddlers, a caution to domestic, 218 
 
 Meddlers, a hint to, 218 
 
 Memory's mode of appropriation, 219 
 
 Mental lights, 219 
 
 Mental fertilizers of society, the, 219 
 
 Mercenary spirit, the, 220 
 
 Metamorphosis a law, 221 
 
 Mien is independent of occupation, 221 
 
 Mighty, the, in the minute, 227 
 
 Military brag, 84 
 
 Mind in an atom, a, 224 
 
 Mind, influence of, on the body, 2B7 
 
 Mind, the function of, 223 
 
 Mind the seat of sensations, 223 
 
 Mind, the supremacy of, 222 
 
 Minute, the mighty in the, 227 
 
 Minute, the vast in the, 228 
 
 Mischief done in ignorance, 169 
 
 Mistaken identity, 229 
 
 Modulated sound, influence of, upon 
 the muscular system, 234 
 
 Moral ascendancy, the advent of, 231 
 
 Moral relapse, 229 
 
 Moral sentinels, 230 
 
 Moral truth, 357 
 
 Moral truths, inextinguishableness of, 
 231 
 
 MoraUty affected by weather, 232 
 
 Morality, the relation of food to, 233 
 
 Mortality in European states, rate of, 
 137 
 
 Multum in parvo, 233 
 
 Murderous though beautiful, 233 
 
 Muscular system, influence of modu- 
 lated sound upon the, 234 
 
 Music a natural inspiration, 234 
 
 Musical principles, human body con- 
 structed on, 153 
 
 Musical taste, caprices of, 235 
 
 Mutual advantage a bond of union, 130 
 
 Mutual cooperation, 235 
 
 Mutual attraction, the principle of, 236 
 
 Mystery, the veil of, 236 
 
 Name adheres, though undeserved, a 
 
 .bad, 236 
 Hastiness its own- defense, 237 
 Nasty, the conquests of the, 237 
 Natural selection, 238 
 Nature is a book, 240 
 Nature is held up by antagonisms, 243 
 Nature, the laboratory of organic, 242 
 Nature, purity of vesture a principle 
 
 in, 241 
 Nature, the music of, 241 
 Nature affords assistance, the plan on 
 
 which, 239 
 Nature's marvelous prevision, 239 
 Nature's method of developing new 
 
 races, 242 
 Nature's plans, the completeness of, 
 
 238 
 Nature's police, some of, 243 
 Nature's secrets, man's power to elicit, 
 
 242 
 
4o6 
 
 INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 Nemesis, the dastard's, 244 
 Nervousness initiates bad policy, 244 
 Neutral line, the, 117 
 Nonchalance assumed as a stratagem, 
 
 245 
 Nothing new under the sun, 245 
 
 Objectionable beings may perform 
 
 excellent services, 246 
 Obscure workers, 155 
 Offensiveness the aliment of some, 247 
 Officious services, tlio routine of, 248 
 Opportunists, the, 249 
 Opportunity, the power of, 250 
 Opportunity, the selection of, 250 
 Opposite qualities often found in the 
 
 same substance, 251 
 Opposites, the combination of, 252 
 Opposites, the resemblance of, 252 
 Opposites, the transformability of, 253 
 Oratory, 103 
 
 Organ bydisuse of function, loss of, 253 
 Overcrowding, Nature's provision 
 
 against, 255 
 
 Pain terminates in its contrary, excess- 
 ive, 256 
 Pain to pleasure, the relation of, 253 
 Pampered, people who are, 265 
 Panic, the peril of, 256 
 Paradoxes, 257 
 Parallax movement, the, 258 
 Parasites, social, 259 
 Parasites, the uncertain pleasures of, 
 
 259 
 Parasites' offerings, 260 
 Parents and their children, 179 
 Parents, the protection of, by their 
 
 offspring, 282 
 Parliamentary tactics, 260 
 Paroxysmal methods, 261 
 Partizan colors, 261 
 Party idiosyncrasies, the neutralization 
 
 of, 261 
 Party secession, 262 
 Passion, the absurdity of, 263 
 Passion, the batteries of, 263 
 Passionate character, the, 264 
 Patriotism, genuine, 265 
 Periodicity, the law of, 267 
 Perpetual change a law of Nature, 267 
 Pertinacity rewarded, 267 
 Philanthropist, the spurious, 328 
 Physical agents would be catastrophic, 
 
 alteration of, 268 
 Physical cultivation, injurious effects 
 
 of excessive, 22 
 Pilgrim natures, 268 
 Pioneers, unexpected, 269 
 Pleasurable, the poisonous lurking in 
 
 the, 273 
 
 Pleasure is seldom unalloyed, 270 
 Pleasure, varieties and contrarieties in 
 
 the idea of, 271 
 Pleasure, where to find, 269 
 I^liabiiity, perils from, 271 
 Poison as a protection, 272 
 Poison of one is the food of another, 
 
 the, 272 
 Poisonous influences, 272, 276 
 Poisonous lurking in the pleasurable, 
 
 the, 273 
 Polisiied people, 274 
 Political notions, the alternity of, 274 
 "Poor worms," 373 
 Popular ideas, growth and persistency 
 
 of, 276 
 Popular thought, currents of, 275 
 Posthumous influence, 276 
 Posthumous injuries, the propagation 
 
 of, 170 
 Posthumous space, 277 
 Power without an explanation, a, 277 
 Power, the avarice of, 278 
 Precedence, 279 
 Prejudices, the tenacity of, 279 
 Preparatory intellectual processes, 279 
 Preparedness, constant. 280 
 Pretensions, disappointing, 280 
 Priests and fictitious credit, 69 
 Prodigal endowment, 281 
 Profitable panic-mongering, 281 
 Progress sometimes only seeming, not 
 
 real, 282 
 Protective influences, 283 
 Protectiveness that imperils, 283 
 Protectors, undesirable, 362 
 Prudence, 309 
 
 Prudence a natural instinct, 283 
 Pugnacity, inherent, 284 
 Pugnacity of small natures, 285 
 Pugnacity, political, 284 
 Pugnacity, the folly of, 284 
 Puny creatures, the destructive power 
 
 of, 28s 
 Puny, the might of the, 285 
 Puny things, the posthumous uses of, 
 
 286 
 Purpose a destroyer of pain, 287 
 
 Quarrel-mongers, 287 
 Quarreling, profitless, 288 
 Quarrels, imperfect acquaintance ac- 
 counts for, 288 
 Quarrelsome character, the, 289 
 Quarrelsomeness, the blunders of, 289 
 Quarrelsomeness, the penalties of, 290 
 Questions, Nature's method of answer- 
 ing man's, 290 
 Quiescence, objections to, 291 
 Quiet, the wisdom of being, 291 
 I Quite at home, 292 
 
INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 407 
 
 Races, new development of, 242 
 Rage of fools, the, 292 
 Rapacious character, the, 293 
 Rapacious instincts, the physiognomy 
 
 of, 294 
 Rapacious misfortune-seekers, 293 
 Real good, seeming evil, 305 
 Reasoning power in animals, the, 294 
 Reciprocity, 180 
 
 Reciprocity a law of Nature, 295 
 Religious belief, innate, 296 
 Remote influences, the cumulative 
 
 value of small and, 296 
 Reprisals, the principle of, 297 
 Republican principle, the success of 
 
 the, 298 
 Reputation, an undeserved, 299 
 Reputation, fictitious, 299 
 Reputation without reality, 298 
 Resemblances may mislead, 300 
 Rest and motion, 6 
 Rest, the instinct of, 300 
 Retaliation, a limited, 301 
 Revengeful, the penalty of being, 301 
 Revivification, 302 
 Revolutionary forces, indetermina te- 
 
 ness of, 302 
 Revolutions, the advantages of, 302 
 Rich, the cost of getting, 304 
 Right themselves, the tendency of 
 
 things to, 304 
 Robbery, living by, 98 
 Rule without an exception, no, 305 
 
 Scavengers appointed by Nature, 
 
 no 
 Seasons appreciated by contrast, 20 
 Seeming evil real good, 305 
 Seeming generosity, 306 
 Self-adapting power, man's, 307 
 Self-deception, 308 
 Self-dependence a condition of power, 
 
 309 
 
 Self-protection, prudence m, 309 
 
 Self-sacrifice, 310 
 
 Selfish kindness, 310 
 
 Senses, a conflict between the, 311 
 
 Sensibility blunted, 311 
 
 Sensual pleasures, 312 
 
 Sensuality, the valley of, 312 
 
 Severe afflictions require strong reme- 
 dies, 312 
 
 Sham humility, 313 
 
 Shrewd men, 313 
 
 Silent aggressive forces, the achieve- 
 ments of, 315 
 
 Silent forces, the mightiness of, 126 
 
 Silent work may be stupendous, 314 
 
 Similarity is no guarantee of union, "^(^^ 
 
 Simulated unity, the snare of, 315 
 
 Sin's insidious attack, 316 
 
 Sins, the growth and action of beset- 
 ting, 316 
 Slanderer, the wounds of the, 317 
 Slanderous character, the, 317 
 Small beings, the capacity for mis- 
 chief possessed by, 318 
 Small natures, paltry battles of, 319 
 Small things, the day of, 318 
 Snare of simulated unity, the, 315 
 Sneakism, 320 
 
 Social character, traits of, 320 
 Social elevation perilous to some, 322 
 Social gullibility, 323 
 Social isolation, the perils of, 323 
 Social life, inequalities in, 321 
 Social life, the undercurrents of, 324 
 Social skunks, 320 
 Sohtude, the music of, 325 
 Sorrow mitigating anger, 325 
 Soul ascension, 325 
 Soul blossoming, 326 
 Sound, allured by mere, 326 
 Spiritual torpor, 327 
 Splenetic force, 327 
 Standard of life-value, the, 29 
 Starvation, 74 
 
 Starvation, the obligation of permit- 
 ting, 328 
 Sterility, the dreariness of, 330 
 Stings, the philosophy of our, 331 
 Stomach, influence of the, 136 
 Subjection, easy, 331 
 Subterfuges the resort of the over- 
 powered, 332 
 Success a constitutional trait, 332 
 Sudden death and immediate burial an 
 
 old law of Nature, 333 
 Sunbeam, physical forces in the, 333 
 Superstition the protector of monstros- 
 ities, 334 
 Suppletory elements, 334 
 Susceptible character, the, 335 
 Suspense inimical to work, 336 
 Suspicion sometimes the child of self- 
 knowledge, 336 
 Suspiciousness of despots, 85 
 Sweet disposition, the, 336 
 Sycophant's ascendancy, the, 336 
 Sympathy, 154, 337 
 Sympathy, the human soul seeks the 
 
 face for, 338 
 Sympathy, the law of, 337 
 
 Tact is superior to force, 338 
 Taming of animals, 187 
 Temper, the equable, 339 
 Temperament, the equable, 339 
 Temperament, the restless, 340 
 Temperament, the variable, 341 
 Temperature, accommodation of ani- 
 mals to different varieties of, 8 
 
4o8 
 
 INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 Temptation, inaccessibility to, 341 
 Terrestrial adaptations, the system of, 
 
 342 
 Terror, the fascination of, 343 
 Test, a fallacious, 343 
 Thieves, a low order of, 344 
 Thieves seldom prosper long, 344 
 Things, the tendency of, to right them- 
 selves, 304 
 Thoughts improve with the thinker's 
 
 age, 345 
 Thoughts, the vitality of, 34S 
 Timidity the concomitant of weakness, 
 
 346 . . 
 
 Tolerance, an incitement to, 347 
 Tolerated offensiveness, 347 
 Tortuousness the habit of the weak, 
 
 348 
 Tranquillity, a deceptive, 348 
 Transformation, a moral, 349 
 Transformations, a series of marvel- 
 ous, 350 
 Transformative forces, 350 
 Transient, the, 351 
 Transmigration of souls, 310 
 Transmutation, 51, loi 
 Transmutation, the law of, 351 
 Treatment and its effects, bad, 353 
 Tribunal, the, 353 
 Tricks despised by strength, 63 
 Tricks inherited, 142 
 Tricks of the crafty, 67 
 Triumphs, profitless, 355 
 Troubles made beautiful, 355 
 True tests are unfailing discoverers, 
 
 356 
 Trustfulness employed as a means of 
 
 ensnaring, 356 
 Truth, dissemination of, 358 
 Truth, the extension of,"358 
 Truth, moral, 357 
 
 Truth beVvildering to some, new, 359 
 Tumultuous may occasion the suli)lime, 
 
 the, 359 
 Tyrants, great, sometimes succumb to 
 
 small heroes, 139 
 
 Unaccountable blundering, 360 
 
 Unadmired things, the hidden uses of, 
 375 
 
 Understanding not essential to mem- 
 ory, 219 
 
 Undeserved credit, 360 
 
 Undeserved stigma, an, 361 
 
 Undesigned services, 362 
 
 Undesirable protectors, 362 
 
 Undeveloped capacities, 363 
 
 Undividable blessing, an, 363 
 
 Unexpected utility, 364 
 
 Unimportant acts may acquire illimit- 
 able significance, 364 
 
 Union, similarity is no guarantee of, 
 
 366 
 Unity of essence in variety of form, 
 
 366 
 Unity, simulated, 315 
 Universal brotherhood, a hint of, 367 
 Universe a progressive system, the, 
 
 367. 393. 397 
 Unobtrusive life, the energy of, 370 
 Unrestrained appetite snares its pos- 
 sessor, 370 
 Unscrupulous depredators, 372 
 Unscrupulous money-getter, the, 371 
 Unseen powers, great resources in, 
 
 372 
 Unsuspected church enemies, 373 
 Unwariness, the penalty of, 373 
 Use is second nature, 374 
 Useful the most plentiful, the most, 
 
 37S 
 Uses of unadmired things, the hidden, 
 
 375 
 Using one to catch another, 371, 370 
 
 Vain man, the, 211 
 
 Valency, political, 376 
 
 Value, intrinsic and extrinsic, 377 
 
 Vanishing species, 160, 393 
 
 Venal pohticians, 378 
 
 Venomous disposition, the, 378 
 
 Venomous nature, the virulence of a, 
 
 384 
 Verbiage, 378 
 Vice allied to ugliness, 149 
 Vice, an allegory of virtue triumphing 
 
 over, 381 
 Vice giving warning of its approach, 
 
 380 
 Vice, the fecundity of, 380 
 Vice, the modus operandi of, 379 
 Vices, inherited tendency to, 148 
 Vicious ideas, the insidious victory of, 
 
 382 
 Vicissitudes of human life, the, 382 
 Vigilance, the necessity for, 383 
 Violent elements, the safe conduction 
 
 of, 383 
 Violent in the serene, the, 383 
 Virtue may exist where least expected, 
 
 a, 384 
 Vitality, dormant, 385 
 Voices, silent, 383 
 Voluptuous, the destiny of the, 386 
 Voracity, competitive, 386 
 Vulgarity, the type of, 387 
 Vulture natures, 75 
 
 War, the proprieties of, 388 
 War orators, 388 
 
 Warriors the followers of insects, 389 
 Wasteful epicure, the, 390 
 
INDEX OF GENERAL TOPICS. 
 
 409 
 
 Way, where there is a will there is a, 
 
 39° 
 Weak natures, the low means of de- 
 fense of, 391 
 Weak, the courage of the, 391 
 \\'eakness resorts to dissimulation, 332 
 Weather prognosticated by animals, 
 
 17s 
 Woman, the self-satisfied, 391 
 Workers, great power in little, 392 
 Workmen, bad, complain of their tools, 
 
 391 
 
 World,- the changes of the, 393 
 World the expression of one thought, 
 
 the, 395 
 Worldly wisdom, an enigma concern- 
 ing. 395 
 World's gradation, the, 397 
 Wounded, attacking the, 398 
 Wrong place, effects of the best thing 
 in the, 398 
 
 Young life, artlessness of, 399 
 Young life, the need for, 399 
 
INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, TECHNICAL TERMS, 
 PLACES, THINGS, CREATURES, ETC. 
 
 [For Index of General Topics, see page 401.'] 
 
 Accidental colors, 157 
 
 Achlya prolifera, 92 
 
 Acronycta ligustri, caterpillar of the, 
 
 49 
 
 Actiniae, the, 175 
 
 Adventitious buds, 167 
 
 Africa, animals of, 53 
 
 Air, the currents of, 275 
 
 Air, the, when most wholesome, 80 
 
 Albatross, 54 
 
 Albinos of Darien, the, 61 
 
 Alligator and her eggs, 170 
 
 AUotropism, 366 
 
 Amazon, the, and contiguous forests, 
 112 
 
 Amblyopsis spelseus, 32 
 
 Ammonites, 172 
 
 Animalculas in rain-water, 351 
 
 Animalcules, 204 
 
 Animals in relation to the cycle of life, 
 109 
 
 Ant, aptitude of, 38 
 
 Ant-lion, 68, 190 
 
 Ants and moisture, 124 
 
 Ants, ardor of, 165 
 
 Ants killed by curiosity, 69 
 
 Apes, the, destitute of^ foresight, 127 
 
 Aphis, destructiveness of the, 318 
 
 Aphrodite or sea-mouse, 29 
 
 Aphrophora, the, 131 
 
 Arctic fox and the gulls, 315 
 
 Arctic foxes, 185 
 
 Arundo arenaria, the, 283 
 
 Asiatic steppes, the, 207, 382 
 
 Ass equal to horse, 353 
 
 Ass, the easy subjection of the, 331 
 
 Ass. the, not stupid, 236, 353 
 
 Atmosphere, plants and animals in re- 
 lation to the, 29s, 304 
 
 Atmosphere, the, as a chemical agent, 
 31S 
 
 Atoms, valency of, 376 
 Azalea pontica, 113 
 
 Baboons, mode of thieving operations 
 of the, 344 
 
 Balanus balanoides (acorn-shells), 143 
 
 Banian-tree, 194 
 
 Banian-tree, peculiar growth of, 214 
 
 Bats, 152 
 
 Bear, the, 294 
 
 Bee, ingenious edifices of, 174 
 
 Bee, jealousy of the queen, 26 
 
 Bee kingdom, 154. 265 
 
 Bee massacres the drone, 99 
 
 Bee, necessity for the sting of, 14 
 
 Bee only fights to satisfy hunger, 11 
 
 Bee, small amount of honey made by 
 one, 21 
 
 Bee, the Australian, 6 
 
 Bees at the hive, 206 
 
 Bees constitute republics, not mon- 
 archies, 298 
 
 Bees' disHke of interference, 218 
 
 Bees, duels between, 355 
 
 Beetle, the, and the forest, 286 
 
 Bengal vultures, the, 347 
 
 Berg-mehl, 287 
 
 Bird and robbed nest, 90 
 
 Birds and emigration, 127 
 
 Birds and their constancy, 151 
 
 Birds balked by caterpillars, jy 
 
 Birds, migrations of, 395 
 i Birds of prey, physiognomy of, 294 
 I Birds useful destroyers, 347 
 I Bison, the, 256 
 
 Bison, the North American, as a pio- 
 neer, 269 
 
 Biting tortoise, 166 
 
 Black ants, 164 
 
 Black panther, the, 298 
 
 Black rain, 90 
 
 410 
 
INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, ETC. 
 
 411 
 
 Black rhinoceroses, 263 
 
 Blind animals, 253 
 
 Blind insects and fishes, 32 
 
 Blindworm, peculiarity of tail of the, 
 
 262 
 Blindworm, popular error respecting, 
 
 299 
 Blood, the, 42, 202, 217 
 Blood, the, and the sun, 323 
 Boa-constrictor, the, 86, 114 
 Boomslang, the, 343 
 Boring wood-beetle, 169 
 Brazilian vegetation, 249 
 Brooke's deep-sea sounding apparatus, 
 
 121, 241 
 Brown meadow-butterfly, the, 180 
 Bud, importance of the,. 399 
 Budding, 186 
 Buffalo and cow, 96 
 Bullfinch, the, 347 
 Bunt, 81 
 
 Burrowing owl, the, 237 
 Butterfly, zigzags of the, 348 
 
 Camels, 301 
 
 Capuchin saki, 123 
 
 Caracara, the, of South America, 247 
 
 Caracaras, the, 74 
 
 Carbonate of lime, a test for, 47 
 
 Caribitos, the, 389 
 
 Cassida orichalcea, the, 341 
 
 Cat and dog as friends, 288 
 
 Caterpillars extraordinary eaters, 63 
 
 Caterpillar's life, 69 
 
 Caterpillars, the leaf-rolling, 77 
 
 Cats, 67 
 
 Cats and dogs incapable of living at 
 
 great altitudes, 322 
 Cave of Kentucky, 32, 253 
 Caverns of lUyria, 253 
 Cedar of Lebanon, 261 
 Cephalopoda, 41 
 . Chsetodon rostratus, 214 
 Chalk cliffs, 285 
 Chameleon, the, 188 
 Chemical tests, 356 
 Cheops and the Sphinx, 172 
 Chimachima, 398 
 Chimpanzees regarded as a nation by 
 
 negroes, 122 
 Chlorin gas, affinity for hydrogen, 215 
 Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, 201 
 Cicada plebeia, the, 326 
 Cleft-grafting, 170 
 Cloud, influence of a, on bees, 336 
 Clove-trees, 27 
 Coal-tar, colors from, 28 
 Cockroach, the, 261 
 Colihris, 50 
 
 Condor of the Andes, the, 304 
 Contrary colors, 261 
 
 Coral islands, 342 
 
 Coral reef, formation of the, 56, 240 
 
 Corallina officinalis, 155 
 
 Coralline mistakable for an animal, 19 
 
 Cordilleras, the, 322 
 
 Cormorant, 27 
 
 Cow, the, easily astonished, 21 
 
 Crested anolis, 171 
 
 Cricket, pugnacity of the, 284 
 
 Cricket, the, and the Hght, 359 
 
 Crickets, the African, 235 
 
 Crimson topaz (bird), 165 
 
 Cristatella mucedo, 37 * 
 
 Crocodile and its friend, 130 
 
 Crocodile and the vulture of Brazil, 
 
 246 
 Crocodile, the, 112, 114, 149 
 Crocodile's egg and bird's egg, 252 
 Crows, no 
 
 Crows, judicial meetings of the, 353 
 Crustaceans, the, 297 
 Crystals of gypsum, 163 
 Cuckoo, audacious ingratitude of the, 
 
 24 
 Cyanea capillata, 316, 318 
 Cyclones, law of, 188 
 Cydippe pileus, 28 
 
 Dayal, the, 287 
 
 Dead Sea, the, 76 
 
 Dead substances usually rejected by 
 
 carnivorous animals, 291 
 Death's-head moth, the, 182 
 Desert, horrors of the, 84 
 Deserts as suction-pumps, 375 
 Desmodium gyrans, the, 340 
 Desolate Sea, the, 82 
 Diamond, charcoal, and black-lead, 
 
 unity of, 366 
 Diamond, the, 274 
 Diatomaceas, 121 
 Dionaea muscipula, the, 386 
 Dodo, the, 160 
 Dog, the, astonished at external 
 
 change, 21 
 Dog's-bane, the, 312 
 Dor-beetle, 34, 221 
 Dormant seeds, 114 
 Dragon-flies, the, 280 
 Dripping well of Knaresborough, the, 
 
 133 
 Driver-ant, 11 
 
 Drought, after the, in Jamaica, 270 
 Dunes, the, 271, 283 
 Durian fruit, the, 311 
 
 Eagle, the, 299 
 
 Eagle, the, trapped, 370 
 
 Earth, crust of the, 15, 87, loo, 180, 194, 
 
 24S, 261, 359, 393 
 Earth, the, origin of, 367 
 
412 
 
 INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, ETC. 
 
 Earthquake, getting used to the, 374 
 ilarthworm, nervousness of the, 71 
 Earthworm, vitahty of, 107 
 Echinomyia and the chrysalis, 382 
 Echo, 151 
 
 Eciton, workers of the, 389 
 Eggs, individual peculiarity of, 94 
 Eider-duck and her young, 360 
 Electric fish, 183, 260, 263 
 Electrical accumulations, 329 
 Electricity, excess of, 372 
 Elephant, considerateness of, 213 
 Elephant, love of liberty of the, 192 
 Elephant, tame, used to catch the wild, 
 
 iiB 
 Empis tessellata, 243 
 Ephemera, the, 351 
 Esquimaux, the, 200 
 Etiolation of plants, 89 
 Eunice sanguinea, 281 
 European termites, 388 
 Extijict animals, 364, 367, 393 
 
 Face, the, of the blind, 337 
 
 Falcon, 120 
 
 Fer-de-lance, fecundity of the, 380 
 
 Fireflies, 48 
 
 Fish, the gold, an unconscious plant- 
 disseminator, 92 
 
 Fish-hawk, 278 
 
 Fishes, ruling impulse of the, 141 
 
 Fishing- frog, the enormous appetite of 
 the, 76 
 
 Fiume Salso, the, 108 
 
 Flamingoes, unwariness of the, 373 
 
 Flatheads, Indian tribes called, 129 
 
 Flea, the, 392 
 
 Flies and their ova, 176 
 
 Flowering plants which do not flower, 
 363 
 
 Foraging-ants, 302, 389 
 
 Foraminiferse, 121, 172 
 
 Fork-tailed date-shell, 332 
 
 Fossils of the tertiaries, the, 286 
 
 Fox and the gulls, the, 294 
 
 Fox, the, and the fleas, 259 
 
 Fox, the, and the honey, 267 
 
 Fox, the, in ambush for birds, 383 
 
 Fox, the, simulates death, 66 
 
 Frigate-bird, the, 97 
 
 Frigate-bird, the, and the storm, 325 
 
 Frog, the, 209 
 
 Frogs, deceit practised on, 323 
 
 Fungus, influence of, on tree, 316 
 
 Gadfly, 17 
 Galeria moths, 379 
 Game-fowls, pugnacity of, 284 
 Gas a spoiler of the air, 72 
 Gazelles, timidity yet bravery of, 391 
 Giants, 231 
 
 Glass-snake, mode of escape of the, 67 
 
 Glaucous birthwort, the, 106 
 
 Glutton catching deer, 371 
 
 Goat-suckers, 152 
 
 Goats, performing, 234 
 
 Gold, 13s, 270, 377 
 
 Golubacser fly, 16 
 
 Goose, the, 125, 265 
 
 Gordiacea, the, 248 
 
 Gorilla, prowess of the, 22 
 
 Grass, object of universal diffusion of 
 
 the, 243 
 Gravitation, 385 
 
 Gray heron, defensive tactics of, 38 
 Grayhounds and atmospheric pressure, 
 
 39 
 Great bustard, the, 205 
 Great-leaved horseshoe bat, 157 
 Great owl, the, and tawny eagle, 288 
 Great water-beetle, the, 162 
 Green-oak moths, 243 
 Grotto of the Madalena, 118 
 Grouse, American, 34 
 Grub, effect of injury to a, 45 
 Grub, transformations of the, 349, 350 
 Gudarigby caverns, 157 
 Guenon, the, 40 
 Gulf Stream, the, 154, 366 
 Gymnotus, the, 183, 260, 263 
 
 Hamster rat, pugnacity of, 39 
 
 Hands, the, 222 
 
 Harvest-mouse, 233 
 
 Hawk, the, defeated by pigeons, 338 
 
 Hawks, the, 299 
 
 Hawk's-bill turtle, flesh and eggs of, 
 
 137 
 
 Hawk's-bill turtle, tortoise-shell of, 41 
 
 Heart's-ease and the bees, 362 
 
 Heat, effects of, on amphibious ani- 
 mals, 92 
 
 Heat, evolution of, 78 
 
 Heat, sensation of, is relative, 153 
 
 Hedgehog, 145 
 
 Hedgehog and his defense, 71, 309 
 
 Hen and ducklings, 176 
 
 Hen, characteristics of the domestic, 
 
 391 
 Herbivores and carnivores contrasted, 
 
 102 
 Hermit-crabs, the, 91 
 Heron, the, 220 
 Hogs impervious to rattlesnakes' fangs, 
 
 120 
 Honey, 273 
 
 Honey may be poisonous, 113, 273 
 rioney-guides, the, 2a8 
 Honey-moth and the Dees, 379 
 Horse and the CEstrus, 350 
 Hot spring at Aix-la-Chapelle, 180 
 House-martin, intelligence of, 57 
 
INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, ETC. 
 
 413 
 
 Human body, disintegration and reno- 
 vation of tile, 75 
 
 Hurablebees, services of the, 362 
 
 Humming-birds, 50 
 
 Hybernation, 92, 327 
 
 Hydra, thie, 378 
 
 Hydras, voracity of the, 386 
 
 Hydrogen gas, 272 
 
 Hylobius, destructive power of the, 
 28s 
 
 Ibises, iio 
 
 Icebergs as transporters of seeds, 358 
 Icebergs, method of movement of, 132 
 Ichneumon-fly, the, and the caterpil- 
 lars, 86, 105 
 Ichneumon tribe, the, 107 
 Ichthyosaurs, the, 332 
 Ichthyosaurus, 393 
 Infasorise or world-makers, 172 
 Insect, relative muscular strength of 
 
 the, 61 
 Insect-venerators of the Ganges, 310 
 Insects, cessation of eating of, r95 
 Insects, some, hve longer decapitated, 
 
 147 
 Insects, their powers of destruction, 83 
 Invertebrate animals, strength of, 392 
 Iodine, 183 
 Iris, the, 201 
 Iron and gold, 377 
 Iron, general diffusion of, 37s 
 Ivy, the, 336 
 
 Jackal, the, 161, 187 
 Jackdaw, 38 
 
 Jackdaw, the, and the sticks, 360 
 Juniper, foliage of the, 261 
 
 Karoo, 196 
 
 King-rat, composite nature of the, 62 
 
 King-vulture, 141, 272 
 
 Kite, thef, 106 
 
 Lake-water, 223 
 
 Lance-headed viper and the birds, 
 
 230 
 Lance-headed viper, deaths caused by 
 
 the, 114 
 Lance-headed viper, retreat of, 128 
 Languages, when many, 367 
 Laplanders, torpor of the, S4 
 Lapwings, 71 
 
 Larch-, the, and its destroyers, 285 
 Laudanum, 312 
 Leaves, purposes of dead, 73 
 Leguminosas, 46 
 Lemmings, the, 90 
 Leopard, the, 128 
 Lepidosiren of the Gambia, 283 
 Lichen esculentus, 31 
 
 Light, influence of, on plants, 49 
 
 Lightniflg-rod, the, 383 
 
 Limestone rocks, 285 
 
 Lion, how to detect the intentions of, 
 
 14 
 Lion, the, self-distrustfulness of, 85 
 Lion, the roar of, 207, 300 
 Lion-worm, the, 320 
 Lizards and temperature, 346 
 Llama, the, refuses a too heavy burden , 
 
 114 
 Long-eared owl, the, 213 
 Loo-soo, the, 267 
 Lotus-leaf, the, 341 
 Lucilia hominivorax, the, 233 
 Luminous shark, the, 36 
 Lym-Fiord in Jutland, the, 274 
 Lyme-Regis, fossils of, 393 
 
 Madrepores, 204 
 
 Magnet, the, 155 
 
 Magnetic needle, the, 62 
 
 Magnetism, 290 
 
 Magpie, the, 219 
 
 Man, organic strength of, 59 
 
 Man, primeval, 367 
 
 Manatees, the, 310' 
 
 Manchineel, blistering fluid of, 378 
 
 Manchineel, perilous effects of the, 24 
 
 Manna, the, of the Bible, 31 
 
 Mantis oratoria, 289 
 
 Mantis, the, 156 
 
 Marl, the, of Lake Superior, 46 
 
 May-fly, the, 280 
 
 Medusse, beauty and subtle venom of 
 
 the, 18 
 MedusEe, stings of the, 317 
 Melicerta, the, 225 
 Mellinus arvensis, the, 245 
 Melted lead, 190 
 Mesmeric sleep, 255 
 Metalliferous gneiss, 180 
 Metalliferous laboratory of Nature, 334 
 Metals, colors of burning, 208 
 Metals, expansion of, 115 
 Microscope revealing myriads in an 
 
 atom, 23 
 Microscopic eels, 195 
 Milk, when fatal in effects, 398 
 Mirage, the, 78, 117, 19s 
 Mole, rapacity of the, 293 
 MoUusks, different traits of the, 320 
 Monadidas, subterraneous strata made 
 
 by the, 370 
 Monkey tribe, habit of laying traps of 
 
 the, 336 
 Monkeys, 40, 159 
 Moon, the, r48 
 
 Moss, universal diffusion of, 30 
 Moths, the vitality of some, 196 
 Mountains as lodestones to clouds, 219 
 
414 
 
 INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, ETC. 
 
 Mountains formed by living atoms, 121 
 Mud as a marine soap, 364 
 Mullets, 356 
 
 Natal rock-snake, the, 334 
 Nautili, 172 
 Nautilus, the, 393 
 Necoo, the, 177 
 
 Nervous fibers, law relating to, 142 
 Nests of birds, construction of the, 390 
 Nightingale, the, 325 
 Nile bird, 130 
 Nile, the, 52 
 
 Noctua algas, the caterpillar of the, 49 
 Nocturnal birds, 149, 301 
 Nummulites, 172 
 
 Nut-hatch an accidental beech-plant- 
 er, 7 
 
 Oak stands alone, 137 
 
 Oaks accidentally planted, 6 
 
 Oases, 192 
 
 Ocean, equilibrium of the, 138 
 
 Ocean, internal operations of the, 102 
 
 Ocean, mechanism of, 146, 227 
 
 Ocean, spasmodic throes of, 124 
 
 Ocean, system of circulation of, 342 
 
 Ocean, the living, 363 
 
 Ocean, transparency of depths of, 77 
 
 Ocean undercurrents, 324 
 
 CEstrus equi, 350 
 
 CEstrus ovis, 17 
 
 Opossum, the. 161 
 
 Optic angle, 185 
 
 Optic nerve, 109, 256 
 
 Orang-utan, the, 292 
 
 Orange-tree improves with age, 345 
 
 Organic life, cycle of, log 
 
 Orinoco, the, and contiguous swamps 
 
 and forests, 112, 114 
 Ostrich, the, 171, 280 
 Ostrich, the young, 399 
 Ostrich, voice of the, 300 
 Otter, the, 390 
 Oxide of carbon, 42 
 Oxide of iron, 351 
 Oxygen, 103 
 Oxygen and nitrogen, 58 
 "Oyster-catcher" birds, 171 
 
 Palm-tkee, the, 193 
 Pansy, the, 229 
 
 Panther, the, easily irritated, 264 
 Parasitic plants, 260 
 Parmelia fahlunensis, the, 384 
 Particles never lost, 215 
 Partridge, the, 120 
 
 Peach-tree, the, may produce necta- 
 rines, 119 
 Peacock, 213 
 Peacock, characteristics of, 19 
 
 Pearls and their cause, 355 
 
 Pease, extraordinary insect life in, 198 
 
 Peccaries, 120 
 
 Pelonaea corrugata, 145 
 
 Penguins, the deliberations of the, 54 
 
 Perpetual verdure, 339 
 
 Petrifactions, 133 
 
 Phasmina resemble walking-leaves, 19 
 
 Pholas dactylus, 277 
 
 Pholas, the, 47, 55 
 
 Phosphorescent sea, the, 205 
 
 Phosphorus, 35 
 
 Photographic pictures, 333 
 
 Picakolou, the, 384 
 
 Pig, the, and the rattlesnakes, 141 
 
 Pike, the, and the perch, 244 
 
 Pilot-fish, 131 
 
 Pine-tree, universality of the, 357 
 
 Pinna marina, the, 23s 
 
 Pinna pectinata, the, 31 
 
 Pistol-plant, the, 80 
 
 Plant, a, with trap, 3S6 
 
 Plants, effect of culture on, 69 
 
 Plants regulate their own temperattire, 
 
 399 
 
 Plants, remams of,' 217 
 
 Plants the laboratory of organic Na- 
 ture, 242 
 
 Plants, the sleep of, 300 
 
 Plesiosaurus, the, 394 
 
 Poison of snakes swallowable, 112 
 
 Polar regions, summer of the, 64 
 
 Polecat game-fowls, 122 
 
 Polynesian Islands, foundations of, 342 
 
 Pondicherry eagle. 130 
 
 Pondicherry vulture, 279 
 
 Porous platinum, action of, on gases, 
 252 
 
 Potato, 13, 201 
 
 Prairie-dogs, 67 
 
 Prairies, 88 
 
 Precious stones, 274 
 
 Procession caterpillars, the, 158 
 
 Protei, 118 
 
 Protista, the, 236 
 
 Protoplasm, 228 
 
 Pterodactyle, the, 394 
 
 Puff-adder, 159 
 
 Purple martin, courage of the, 139 
 
 Python, greediness of the, 134 
 
 Quail, instinctive love of change of, 
 
 42 
 Queen bee, 250 
 Quinquinas plants, medical virtues of, 
 
 iS 
 
 Rabbit, the, and her cradle, 360 
 Raindrops, influence of, 138 
 Raptores, the, and their eggs, 112 
 Raptores, the, and their enemies, 139 
 
INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, ETC. 
 
 415 
 
 Rattlesnake secretes poison posthu- 
 mously, 26 
 Rattlesnake, tail of the, 380 
 Rattlesnake, the, 120 
 Raven, the, 292 
 Red ants, 164 
 Red deer, the, 184, 281 
 Red-headed woodpecker, 313 
 Reduvius personatus, 313 
 Remora, the, 144 
 Remora, the, and the turtles, 376 
 Reptile race, use of the, 367 
 Reptiles, 176, 272 
 Retina, the, 157 
 Rice-water used as ink, 183 
 Rifle-ants, the, 362 
 Ringed snake, the, 391 
 River, effect of a little, 204 
 River Plata, 167 
 Rivers, law respecting the courses of, 
 
 65 
 Rocks, the, and their story, 364, 393 
 Rooks, sympathy of, 337 
 Rooks, the, 151 
 Roots, struggles of, 197 
 Roots, varying shapes of, 45, 49 
 Rose, composition of the, 59 
 Rose of Jericho, the, 302 
 Rotifer, the, 114, 196 
 Ruffs, the, 290 
 Runn of Cutch, 100 
 
 Salt, a field of snow-white, 163 
 Samoiedes, the, worship the bear, 9 
 Saurians, the, 333, 393, 397 
 Sauroid animals, footprints of, 125 
 Scolytus, ruin of trees by the, 104 
 Scorpion, the, 317 
 Sea, currents of the, 282 
 Sea, destructive power of the, 383 
 Sea, springs of fresh water rising in 
 
 the, 33 
 Sea-crabs, quarrelsomeness of, 289 
 Sea-eagles punished by seals, 12 
 Sea-mouse, 165 
 Sea-water unpreservable, 363 
 Sea-waters of different temperature 
 
 will not commingle, 366 
 Seals and the tempest, 93 
 Seals, intelligence of, 12 
 Seals, the domestic arrangements of, 
 
 218 
 Secretary-bird, the, and the snake, 331 
 Secretary-bird, the, and the snakes, no 
 Seeds, extraordinary vitality of, 34s 
 Seeds, methods by which, are dissemi- 
 nated, 358 
 Seeds, ubiquity of, 194 
 Seeds, universality of, 245 
 Selaginella convoluta, the, 268 
 Self-luminous stars, 236 
 
 Sensitive plant, the, 311, 337 
 
 Sepia, the, 235 
 
 Serpents safe when gorged, 136 
 
 Serum, 217 
 
 Shark, the, 131, 149, 293 
 
 Sheep, s, 158 
 
 Shell-collectors, a hint to, 52 
 
 Ship-worm, ravages of the, 373 
 
 Ship-worm, the, 328 
 
 Silkworm moth, the, 309 
 
 Silurian seas', the, 397 
 
 Silurus, the, 183 
 
 Silver, 135 
 
 Silver-thaw, the, 98 
 
 Sirocco, the, 372 
 
 Sisymbrium Irio, 231 
 
 Skuas, hatred of, for eagles, 10 
 
 Skull, artificial alteration of shape of, 
 
 128 
 Skunk, the, 237, 320 
 Skye sandstone, 46 
 
 Slave Lake, vegetation around the, 231 
 Sloths, the, 163 
 
 Snake, manner of changing skin of, 116 
 Snake-bites, 327 
 
 Snakes, lurking-places of, 139, 206 
 Snakes, venomous and non-venomous, 
 
 good friends in confinement, 11 
 Snow, 153 
 
 Snow cannot quench thirst, 257 
 Snow, the uses of, 305 
 Snowdrop, the, 238 
 Solar rays, 134 
 
 Solids, philosophy of floating, 47 
 Sound, propagation of, 358 
 Sparrow, the, 387 
 
 Sparrows robbing martin's nest, 344 
 Sparrows, the, 161 
 Spice-trees, 202 
 Spider, tricks of the, 306 
 Spiders and fine weather, 175 
 Spitzbergen coast, summer on the, 199 
 Squirrel an unconscious oak-planter, 6 
 Stag, the, and his pursuers, 332 
 Starfish, 168, 255 
 Starfishes break themselves when 
 
 alarmed, 305 
 Stars, 148, 276, 385 
 Stars, ceaseless motion of, 94 
 Stars, heat of the, 296 
 Stars, the, as guides, 385 
 Staubbach waterfall, 119 
 Stem in vegetables and trees, variable 
 
 character of, 7 
 Stickleback, the, 319 
 Stinging-nettle, 228 
 Storks, no, 292 
 
 Storks, the, and their parents, 282 
 Storks, tribunal of the, 353 
 Strasburg goose, 134 
 Strata, singular juxtaposition of, 321 
 
4i6 
 
 INDEX OF NATURAL OBJECTS, ETC. 
 
 Subterranean fauna, 253 
 
 Subterranean rivers, 109 
 
 Sugar-cane, 94 
 
 Sugar-producing plants, 94 
 
 Sun, the, 147 
 
 SunlDeam, 333 
 
 Swallow, the, 115, 177 
 
 Swallow, the, a psychological riddle, 64 
 
 Swallows, migrations of, 151 
 
 Swans, confidence of the, 63 
 
 Tanghin, poisonous seed of the, 343 
 
 Tawny vulture, 204 
 
 Tea, 257 
 
 Teak, the, or Indian oak, 272 
 
 Teredo, the, 328 
 
 Termite ant, fecundity of, 378 
 
 Termites, 152 
 
 Thallogens, the, 318 
 
 Three-toed sloth, the, 211 
 
 Tidal currents, 180 
 
 Tiger, audacity of, 25 
 
 Tiger-beetles, 183 
 
 Toad, the, eats its old skin, loi 
 
 Torpedo, the, 183 
 
 Tortoise can live without brain, 99 
 
 Tree, outline of any, is represented by 
 
 its leaf, 13 
 Tree, the life of the, 198 
 Tree-serpents and birds, 343 
 Trees, the enemies of, 103 
 Tripoli sand, 172, 286 
 Tropical insect life, 302 
 Tropical rivulet, 139 
 Tropics, the, 50 
 Tsetse-fly, the, 105 
 Turkey-buzzard, the, 259 
 Turkey-cock, swagger of the, 36 
 Turnstone, the, 283 
 Turtle, 173 
 Turtle, eggs of, 137 
 Turtle-catching, 376 
 
 m 
 
 Valley of Poison, the, 312 
 Vapor dissolving sihca, 107 
 Vegetable world, silent forces of, 126 
 Vegetable world, the, in relation to the 
 
 animal, 370 
 Vegetables in relation to the cycle of 
 
 life, 109 
 
 Vegetation, source of, 318 
 
 Vibrio, the, 114 
 
 Vinegar River, the, 107 
 
 Violet, the, unimprovable by culture, 
 
 336 
 Viperine serpents, the, 348 
 Vitiated air, 150 
 Volcanic exhalations, 180 
 Volcanoes, 302 
 Volucellae, the, 77 
 Vulture, the sociable, 40 
 
 WAdy Nassoub, 147 
 
 Walruses, the, 178 
 
 Wasp, the, as a destroyer of its ofif- 
 
 spring, 74 
 Wasps an excellent body, 361 
 Wasps' nest, 174 
 Wasps', the, reason for killing their 
 
 offspring, 328 
 Watch, the mechanism of a, 395 
 Water, attribute and constituents of, 
 
 253 
 Water-lilies, 203 
 
 Water-power of Nature, the, 314 
 Water-snake, the, 114 
 Water-spider, 307 
 Weasel, the, 285 
 
 Whale, the, and its enemies, 104, 204 
 Wheat found in Egyptian tombs, 196 
 White ants, 165 
 White cabbage-butterfly, 180 
 White snake, 165 
 White water- worm, 279 
 White-headed eagle fishing by proxy, 
 
 371 
 White-headed eagle, the, 278 
 Wild-fowl, 159 
 Wild horse, the, 91 
 Wild horses in the Ukraine, 191 
 Wind-drift, the, 132 
 Wind, effects of, 59 
 Witch-elm, 335 
 Wolves, the, 281 
 Woodpecker, the, 395 
 
 Yellow gum-tree of Western Aus- 
 tralia, 229 
 
 ZiMB, the, of Abyssinia, 84 
 
LIST OF WORKS 
 
 REFERRED TO IN THE VOLUME, AND EXPLANATION OF 
 THE ABBREVIATIONS USED TO INDICATE THEM. 
 
 A. 
 A. Animated Nature. By Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 AD. Advanced Text-book of Geology. By David Page, LL.D. 
 AG. Agassiz's Siluria. 
 
 A. P. Animals and Plants under Domestication. By Charles Darvifin, 
 
 F.R.S. 
 
 B. 
 
 B. Bible Teachings in Nature. 
 
 BE. Benedicite. By Chaplin Child, M.D. 
 
 B. F. Beauty of Flowers in Field and Wood. By John Theodore Barker. 
 
 B. L. Beginnings of Life. By H. Charlton Bastian, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 B. T. Bruce's Travels. 
 
 B. W. Bees. By Rev. J. G. Wood. 
 
 C. 
 
 C. Common Objects of the Sea-shore. By J. G. Wood, M.A. 
 C. B. Cruise of the Betsy. By Hugh Miller. 
 
 CH. Chambers's Miscellany. 
 
 C. O. Common Objects of the Country. 
 
 C. S. Common Shells of the Sea-shore. 
 
 CU. Curiosities of Natural History, 3d series. By Frank Buckland. 
 
 D. 
 
 D. Desert World. By Arthur Mangin. 
 
 De Q. De Quincey's Sketches (Paper on Wordsworth's Poetry). 
 
 DI. Diamonds and Precious Stones. 
 
 DU. Unity of Nature. By the Duke of Argyll. 
 
 DX. Dixon's Ornamental and Domestic Poultry. 
 
 E. 
 
 E. Elements of Geology. By Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. 
 E. C. Elementary Chemistry. By Henry E. Roscoe. 
 
 EL. Elementary Treatise on Physics. By Professor Ganot. 
 
 EX. Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. By Charles 
 
 Darwin, F.R.S. 
 
 417 
 
4i8 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 F. 
 
 F. Fresh and Salt Water Aquarium. 
 
 FO. Foot-notes from tlie Page of Nature. By Rev. Hugh Macmillan. 
 
 G. 
 
 G. Gatherings of a Naturalist. 
 
 G. E. Geology of Lyme-Regis. By G. Casley. 
 
 G.\. Gatherings of a Naturalist in Austraha. By George Bennett, 
 
 M.D. 
 G. S. Gay Science. By E. S. Dallas. 
 
 H. 
 
 H. Homes without Hands. By Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A. 
 
 HA. Handbook of Natural Philosophy. By Dr. Lardner. 
 HI. History of British Birds. By Rev. F. O. Morris. 
 
 H. R. Historical Review, 1859. Pro. Soc, 164. 
 
 I. 
 
 IL. Illustrated Natural History. By Rev. J. G. Wood. 
 
 I. L. Influence of Light. 
 
 IN. Insects Injurious to Vegetation. By William Thaddeus Harris, 
 
 M.D. 
 I. Insect World. 
 
 I. O. Intellectual Observer, vol. ii., vol. iii. 
 
 J- 
 J. Journal of a Naturalist. 
 
 JE. Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History. 
 
 JO. Journal of a Residence among the Negroes in the West Indies. 
 
 By Matthew Gregory Lewis, M.P. 
 JOU. Journal of a Residence in Iceland. By Dr. Henderson. 
 
 K. 
 
 K. Kosmos : a General Survey of the Physical Phenomena of the Uni- 
 
 verse. By Alexander von Humboldt. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. Lectures on Food. By Dr. Letheby. 
 
 LA. Land and the Book. By Dr. Thomson. 
 
 LES. Lessons in Chemistry. Henry E. Roscoe, F.R.S. 
 
 LI. Little Things of Nature. By Leo Hartley Grindon. 
 
 LO. Locke on the Understanding. 
 
 L. P. Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind. By Dr. Thomas 
 
 Brown. 
 L. S. Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews. By Professor Huxley, 
 
 F.R.S. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 419 
 
 M. 
 M. Mammalia. By Louis Figuier. 
 
 MA. Manual of Scientific Inquiry. Edited by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, 
 
 Bart. 
 MAR. Marvels of Science. By S. W. FuUom. 
 ME. Memoirs of Father Ripa during Thirteen Years' Residence at the 
 
 Court of Pekin. 
 MI. Microscope and its Revelations. By Dr. William B. Carpenter. 
 
 MU. Museum of Natural History. 
 MY. Mysteries of the Ocean. 
 
 N. 
 N. News for Young and Old. 
 
 NA. Natural History, The Illustrated. By Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., 
 
 F.L.S. 
 NAT. Nature, No. 47. Charles Kingsley. 
 N. D. Natural History of the Animal Kingdom. Dallas. 
 N. E. National Encyclopedia. 
 
 N. H. Natural History of the Animal Kingdom. By Professor Forbes. 
 N. R. Natural History Review. 
 N. T. Natural Theology. By Paley. 
 N. V. Naturalist's Voyage. 
 
 0. 
 
 O. Origin of Species. By Charles Darwin. 
 
 ON. On the Atmospheric Changes which Produce Rain and Wind. 
 
 By Thomas Hopkins, M.B. 
 OU. Outlines of Physiology. By John Hughes Bennett, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 P. 
 
 P. Passions of Animals. By Edward P. Thompson. 
 
 PA. Pallas's Travels. 
 
 PH. Physiology of Common Life. By George Henry Lewes. 
 
 P. H. Popular History of the Mollusca. By Mary Roberts. 
 
 PO. Possibilities of Creation. 
 
 PR. Principles of Chemistry. By Dr. Julius Adolphus Stockhardt. 
 
 PROF. Professor Owen on the Gorilla. Proc. Zool. Soc, 1859. 
 
 Q- 
 
 Q. Quarterly Review Article on Higher and Lower Animals, October, 
 
 1869. 
 
 R. 
 
 R. Reasoning Power in Animals. By Rev. John Selby Watson, 
 
 M.A. 
 RE. Reptiles and Birds. By Louis Figuier. 
 
420 LIST OF AUTIIOKITIES. 
 
 R. G. Religion of Geology. By Dr. Edward Hitchcock. 
 
 RO. Romance of Natural History. By Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S. 
 
 S. 
 
 S. Studies in Physiology and Medicine. By Robert James Graves, 
 
 F.R.S. 
 
 SA. Salmonia. By Sir H. Davy. 
 
 SE. Sea and its Living Wonders. By Dr. Hartwig. 
 
 SI. Siluria : A History of the Oldest Rocks in the British Isles and 
 
 other Countries. By Sir Roderick Impey Murchisou, Bart. 
 
 S. L. Stream of Life on our Globe : its Archives, Traditions, and Laws 
 as Revealed by Modern Discoveries in Geology and Pale- 
 ontology. By J. L. Milton, M.R.C.S. 
 
 SM. Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History. 
 
 S. N. Stray Notes of Science and Folk-lore. By J. Scroflern, M.B. 
 
 SO. Soul in Nature. By Hans Christian Oersted. 
 
 SP. Spence's Travels in Circassia. 
 
 ST. Studies from Nature. By Dr. Herman Masius. Translated by 
 
 Charles Boner. 
 
 T. 
 
 T. The Physical Geography of the Sea. By M. F. Maury, LL.D., 
 
 Lieut. U. S. Navy. 
 
 TA. Table Talk, vol. ii. By William Hazlitt. 
 
 T. B. The Bird. 
 
 TH. The Little Things of Nature. 
 
 T. M. The Mornington Lecture. By Rev. T. T. Lynch. 
 
 TR. Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. By M. Wallace. 
 
 TRA. Trans. Royal Society, Edinburgh. 
 
 U. 
 U. Use of the Body in Relation to the Mind. By George Moore, 
 
 M.D. 
 
 V. 
 
 V. Vegetable World. By Louis Figuier. 
 
 VA. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. By Charles 
 
 Darwin. 
 VE. Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. 
 
 VI. Views of Nature. By Alexander von Humboldt. 
 VIR. Virchow's Cellular Pathology. 
 
 V. T. Von Tschudi's (Dr.) Travels in Peru. 
 
 W. 
 
 W. World before the Deluge. By Louis Figuier. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Z. Zoologist. 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL AS AN INSTITUTION, What Shall We Do 
 With The— By George Lansing Taylor, D.D. Fourth 
 edition. Square 16nio, cloth, 30 cents. Paper. 20 
 cents. 
 
 THE CENTRAL METHODIST says: "This is the clearest 
 and most vigorous protestation of the whole Sunday- School 
 question in a nutshell we have seen. It is a vcork that ought 
 to be in the hands of all preachers, since its- practical treatment 
 of the difficulties of our present system, and the proper remedy 
 to be applied make it valuable to them." 
 
 PREACHER'S MAGAZINE, THE.-Edited hy Revs. Mark Guy 
 Pearse and Arthur E. Gregory. Published Monthly, 
 $1.50 per year. Single copy, 15 cents. No free 
 samples. Bound volumes, net $2.50. Cloth covers, 
 for binding net, 35 cents. 
 
 REV. C. H. SPURGEON says: "This unpretentious 
 magazine is as good as the very best of its homiletical com- 
 peers. It goes straight to the point, making no big pretences 
 of learning and eloquence, it goes in for practical suggestions, 
 which will be really useful to men who are laboring to win 
 souls. Although we are by this tiine able to run alone, and 
 make sermons without the aid of homiletics, yet we like such 
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 Each number is a capital return for the money." '' 
 
 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE.-By Rev. John Reid. i2mo. 
 cloth, 318 pp. S1.50. 
 
 The author has just gone far enough in the subject not to 
 be tiresome, believing that compact thought is the want of the 
 hour. 
 
 THE NEW YORK CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE says: "It isabook 
 that has come to stay because there are elements of power in it." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN AT WORK says: " It is a book which will 
 not only add to the intelligence of the Christian, but invigorate 
 and strengthen him in the performance of aU Christian duties. ' ' 
 
/DICES OF THE SOUL ANSWEREO IN GOO. -By Rev. John 
 Reid. 12mo. cloth, 374 pp. $1.25. 
 
 THE NEW YORK OBSERVER siiys : "That the soul of man 
 can find its hopes realized, its wants satisfied, its fears quieted, 
 and its measures filled in God, and in God alone, is the leading 
 thought of this calm and powerful book. The thought is 
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 suggestiTe." 
 
 CHRIST AND HIS RELIGION.- By Rev. John Held. 12ino. 
 cloth, 331 pp. $1.25. 
 
 CHRISTIAN UNION says: "Keen and clear conceptions of 
 truth mark this volume. The author is a man of thought, and 
 his calm and well-balanced views give a charm to his writing. 
 The book is like a fruitful field or a well-kept garden, full of 
 noble plants and beautiful flowers. Nor is it simply ornate ; 
 there is the strength of truth in every page. The reader is 
 carried along by the steady current of thought, and finishes the 
 volume with a sense ot having made a delightful journey." 
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF SDRROW.-By Rev. John Reid. 12nio. 
 cloth, 373 pp. $1.25. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER, says: "The author 
 gives gold fresh coined in the mint of his own mind. He con- 
 siders his subject under all its aspects, first showing the sources 
 of sorrow, then the varieties of form it assumes and its benefits 
 and consolations. The beauty and symplicity of its style, and 
 the vein of touching sympathy that runs through its pages 
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 readers. Its exquisite typographical neatness is as refreshing 
 to the eye as its contents are to the heart." 
 
 ROMANCE OF PROVIDENCE, A , Being a History of the Church 
 of the Strangers, of Newr Yorl(, of which Charles. F. 
 Deems, D.D., LL.D., is pastor. Edited by Joseph S. 
 Taylor. l2mo. cloth. Illustrated. 256 pp. $1.25 net. 
 
riATURE aND THE BIBLE ; A Course of Lectures on the Morse 
 Foundation of the Union Theological Seminary.— By 
 J. W. Dawson, LL. D. 12nio. cloth, 258 pp. Illustrated. 
 $1.75. 
 
 THE INTERIOR says: "Professor Dawson discusses his 
 topic from the various standpoints of a student of nature, not 
 from the single standpoint -nhich has mostly heen occupied by 
 theologians. The book is not a partisan publication. It will 
 be found by those opposed to be perfectly candid and fair, ad- 
 mitting difficulties in their full force, and not seeking to evade, 
 misinterpret, or exaggerate any fact or argument." 
 
 CONCESSIONS OF "LIBERALISTS" TO ORTHODOXY.-By 
 Daniel Dorchester, D. D. l2mo. cloth, 344 pp. Si.SO. 
 
 The book is vrorthy all commendation for the extensive 
 research shown by the author and the presentation of the three 
 cardinal topics : The Diety of Christ, the Atonement, and End- 
 less Punishment 
 
 THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE says ; "A book that 
 should be in every minister".5 library. The doctor's style is 
 singularly pure aud candid, aud the diction and dignity, 
 scholarship and research is manifest in every page.'' 
 
 GOSPEL OF COMMON SENSE, THE, As contained in the Can- 
 nonical Epistle of James— By Charles F. Deems, D. 0., 
 IL. D. 12mo. cloth, 320 pp. $1.50. 
 
 JOSEPH COOK says : "Dr. Deems eminent common sense 
 never appeared more profitable than in his fresh, incisive and 
 most timely discussion of St. James' Epistle as the Gospel of 
 Common Sense. The book is at once popular and scholarly, 
 broad and deep, radical and conservative." 
 
 THEODORE L CUYi_ER, D. D., says: "The style of the 
 book is racy and most readable. It ought to be read at every 
 fireside in the land. May the Holy Spirit attend and bless the 
 sirculation of this capital volume." 
 
GHRISTIANITy AND SCIENCE; h Series of Lectures. -By 
 Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., of Harvard College. \lm. 
 cloth, 369 pp. $1.75. 
 
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 plants himself fairly on the very postulates of scientific men, 
 and proceeds to show how all that they claim for true science is 
 fulfilled in the religion of Jesus. ' ' 
 
 LOST CHAPTERS RECOVERED FROM THE EARLY HISTORY OF 
 AMERICAN METHODISM. -By J. B. Wakeley, D.D., with 
 a Memoir of the Author, by Rev. William E. Ketcham. 
 Illustrated with steel and wood engravings. 8vo. cloth, 
 640 pp. $.200. 
 
 ZION'S HERALD says: "The volume will take its place 
 among the best records of Methodist History." 
 
 SUNSHINE FOR DARK HOURS. -By Charles F. Deems, D. D., 
 LL. D. 12mo. paper, 25 cents, net. 30 cents by mail. 
 Presentation edition, half calf, uncut edges, net $1.00. 
 
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 valids ; it is equally appropriate for well people, to whom dark 
 hours are sure to come. Tlie suii.shine in this book is concen- 
 trated from many different son^-ces by the strong lens of Dr. 
 Deems' personality." 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION ; A Series of 
 Lectures.— By Henry Galderwood, LLD., of Edinburgh 
 University. 12mo. cloth, 323 pp. $175. 
 
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ADVERSARY, THE ; His Person, Power and Purpose— A Study 
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 ALEPH, THE CHALDEAN; or, The Messiah, as Seen from 
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 DECISION OF CHARACTER AND OTHER ESSAYS.-ln a series 
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STUDY IN PEDAGOGY, i-By Bishon John H. Vincent, D, D., 
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 PROBATION AND PUNISHMENT; or. The Future State of the 
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 CHRISTIANITY AND POSITIVISM. -By James McGosh, D. D., 
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MENTAL SGIENGE.-A Text-Book for Schools and Colleges. 
 By Edward John Hamilton, D.D., ProfKsor of Intellectual 
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 MINTO, and Other Poems.— By Oliver Crane, D.D., author of 
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 ELIJAH ; THE MAN OF GOO.-By Mark Guy Pearse. 12mo. 
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 CREDENTIALS OF SGIENGE.-The Warrant of Faith. By 
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 The motive of the work is indicated by its title, and is a 
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UNDESIGNED GOINGIDENGES IN THE WRITINGS OF BOTH' 
 THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. An Argument for 
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 PHILOSOPHY AND GHRISTIANITY.-A Series of Lectures. By 
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 It is pithy, pointed and practical, and its pages are in- 
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 WEIGHTS AND WINGS.-By Gharies F. Deems, D.O., LL.D. 
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 Cloth, gilt edges, $2.75. Half Russia, gilt, $3.75. 
 
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 to whether his Church membership is a help or a hindrance to 
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 book is to improve the relations of communicants to their 
 pastors. ' ' 
 
 SANCTIFIED SPIGE; Or, Pungent Seasonings from the 
 Pulpit, by Rev. Madison G. Peters.— 12mo, cloth, 216 
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 A strong, sensible and stirring work, and for point, 
 pith and illustration, will be welcomed by the public as well 
 as pastors and teachers.