r THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS ILLUSTRATING THOUSANDS OF TOPICS BY SELECTIONS FROM STANDARD WORKS OF THE MASTERS OF SCIENCE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, WITH COMPREHENSIVE INDEXES EMBRACING THIRTY THOUSAND TOPICS AND CROSS-REFERENCES, AND MAKING ALL MATTERS CONTAINED IN THE VOLUME INSTANTLY AVAILABLE FOR ILLUSTRATIVE USE :: :: :: :: :: •• COMPILED BY JAMES C. FERNALD Associate Editor of the "Standard Dictionary"; Editor of the "Students' Standard Dictionary"; " English Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions "; Etc. FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON F38 INTRODUCTORY THE material in this book can be absolutely relied upon. In using it, the student may be sure that he is dealing with master minds, each of whom has made a specialty of the science of which he treats. The editor has kept steadily in view the duty of a compiler. He has refrained from making digests, compends, or summaries of the works reviewed. He has not under- taken to advance any opinion, theory, or creed, but simply to give the fairest possible picture of the present state of science consistent with the primary purpose of the work as a volume of illustrations. Where eminent men differ in opinion, conflicting views have been allowed expression, leaving the name and authority of each author to answer for his own statements. The record- ing of a scientific opinion is not its advocacy, and that even leaders in science may well change their views with advancing knowledge is abundantly shown in the selections given, and freely admitted by the foremost among them. In obedience to the primary and controlling purpose of scientific illustra- tion, whatever in science can throw a "side-light" upon some intellectual, moral, political, industrial, social, or religious truth has been seized wherever found. The titles and location of topics are thus not what would be found in a scientific hand-book, which would place all matter treating of glaciers under glacier, of oxygen under oxygen, of volcanoes under volcano, etc. It is not primarily for the astronomical, geological, chemical, or other scientific teachings that the selections have been made, but for some truth relating to humanity, which they illustrate. At the same time, it is believed that the selections will be found of exceeding interest for their own sake, and that they will open to many readers vistas of the wide reach of science, such as their special studies have not pre- viously brought to their view. The minister, the teacher, or the busy worker in any profession, even if he devotes his spare time to science, can scarcely hope for extensive knowledge in more than some one of its many departments. Through these pages flashes of light will come to him from all, and he will thus gain a fuller view of the grand unity toward which all are tending. Of the use of scientific illustrations in speaking or writing, it may be said that they are in harmony with the spirit of the age, which is preemi- nently scientific ; that they have not the hackneyed character of the numerous popular anecdotes or of the stock illustrations long current in classic litera- ture, and that they especially impress the thoughtful mind, as dealing with facts. However theories may change, the movements of suns and planets, the combinations of chemistry, the fossils and strata of geology, the proper- ties of heat, light, and sound, the marvels of electricity, and the infinitesimal world of the microscope are facts, ascertained and demonstrable. The mind is there upon sure ground, and the use of such facts in illustration gives a sense of certainty and reality to the thoughts they are employed to illustrate. The selections here given are not from works on so-called ' ' popular sci- ence," where the element of popularity often quite swamps the scientific, where uncertified facts are given on the testimony of anonymous witnesses, and where the suspicion is often inevitable that the occurrence happened for the sake of the illustration. This work is based upon the belief that the essentials of science are simple enough for the untrained mind, and that whatever of abstruseness it contains is in processes or in their necessary technical terms, and that there are none who can state the essentials more clearly than those who know them most thoroughly at first hand — the leading specialists in the SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS various departments. An examination of the Index of Authors will show how high is the standing of the writers from whom the quotations are made, and a study of the selections will show how simple and lucid are their expositions of scientific truth. The reader cannot fail to be impressed also with the ex- exceeding felicity of language, the beautiful descriptions of natural scenery, the sympathy with all the grandeur and beauty of Nature, and the wide out- reach of thought and aspiration with which these extracts abound. For each selection a number of topics for illustrative use are commonly suggested in the headlines, while still others are indicated in the various in- dexes ; but so multiform are the relations of scientific truth to all other truth, that the thoughtful reader will constantly perceive new uses and adaptations of the same scientific fact. This suggestiveness of these extracts, reaching beyond anything that can be specified in set phrases, will be found among the most valuable qualities of this collection. While each selection is com- plete in itself and ready for immediate use, without reference to any other work, it will be found also of value as a guide to the sources from which other material of interest and value may be obtained ; for these extracts, tho most carefully made, are yet but specimens of the riches to be found in the various works from which they are taken. The student will almost certainly find himself impelled to seek a fuller knowledge of some at least of the subjects presented in the volumes themselves of which these extracts form a, part. In the choice of authors to be quoted, the editor has been guided, not merely by his own opinion, but by the valued advice of eminent scholars, as Marcus Benjamin, A.M., Ph.D, F.C.S., Editor U. S. Nat. Museum, Wash- ington, D. C. ; Arthur Elmore Bostwick, Ph.D., New York Public Library, New York City; Professor Charles 'Sunnier Dolley, M.D., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Professor Albert Smith Bickmore, Ph.D., American Museum of Natural His- tory, New York; Louis Pope Gratacap, Ph.B., American Museum of Natural History, New York; Professor Frank Hall Knowlton, Ph.D., U. S. Nat. Museum, Washington; Professor George Perkins Merrill, Ph.D.,U. S. Nat. Museum, Washington, D. C. ; Professor Theophil Mitchell Prudden, M.D., LL.D., Columbia University; Prof essor Frederick Starr, Ph.D., University of Chicago; Isaac Kauffman Funk, D.D., LL.D., Editor in Chief of Funk & Wagnalls STANDARD DICTIONARY, New York ; Professor Edward Richard Shaw, Ph.D., New York University; Henry Newlin Stokes, Ph.D., U. S. Geol. Survey, Pepartment of the Interior, Washington, D. C. ; Professor Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, D.S., Harvard University — whose aid it is a pleasure here gratefully to acknowledge. In the translation of extracts from foreign authors, Mrs. J. H. W. Stuck- enberg, of Cambridge, Mass. , has rendered admirable service. A special debt of gratitude is due to authors who have granted the use of their copyrightvolumes or have furnished important monographs for quotation in this work, among whom should be particularly mentioned : the late John Fiske, LL.B. ; Samuel Pierpont Langley, D.Sc., LL.D.; Professor William James, M.D., Ph. et. Litt.D., LL.D.; Professor Hugo Munsterberg, M.D., Ph.D.; Park Benjamin, Ph. D. ; Otis Tuf ton Mason, Ph.D.; Israel C. Russell, M.S., LL.D.; Theodore Gill, M.D., Ph.D.; William James Beal, M.S., Ph.D.; William Keith Brooks, Ph.D., LL.D.; Clarence Moores Weed, Sc.D. ; Henry Newlin Stokes, Ph.D. ; Harvey W. Wiley, Ph.D., LL.D. ; Hon. William Torrey Harris, Ph.D., LL.D., United States Commissioner of Educa- tion; andLeland Ossian Howard, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Entomology, of the United States Department of Agriculture, who sent advance proofs of his valuable article on Smyrna Fig Culture in the United States. The editor would also present his grateful acknowledgments to the pub- lishers whose volumes of scientific facts and researches he has been privileged INTRODUCTORY to use, and whose courtesy and kindness it will always be a pleasure to re- member: to D. Appleton & Co., of New York, whose International Library of Science and Modern Science Series have been of especial service and are to be commended as placing a great amount and variety of admirably selected material within the reach of the American or English reader in his own language ; to the American Book Co. , the Clarendon Press, the Columbia University Press, Wm. O. Allison, A. L. Burt, Dodd, Mead & Co., Doubleday, Page & Co., Fords, Howard & Hulbert, Harper & Broth- ers, Henry Holt & Co., the Humboldt Publishing Co., Longmans, Green & Co., James Pott & Co., G. P. Putnam's Sons, Charles Scribner's Sons, Sheldon & Co., John Wiley & Sons, and Wm. Wood & Co., of New York; to Ginn & Co., Houghton, Mifflin & Co , and Little, Brown & Co., of Boston; to the American Baptist Publication Society, the Henry Altemus Co., and J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia; to the Schulte Publishing Co., of Chicago; to A. & C. Black, Bell & Sons, Chapman & Hall, J. M. Dent & Co., Harper & Brothers, Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. , Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. , of London. Individual favors and cour- tesies more than can be here enumerated, but all of which are gratefully re- membered, have aided in the preparation of the work. JAMES C. FERNALD. viii SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS a— Alpha, designating a special star of group; thus, a (alpha) Centauri is the most brilliant star of the constellation Centaurus or Cen- taur. Other Greek letters are at times similarly uused. A.— D. Appleton & Co. A. & S. — A. C. Armstrong & Son. A.B.Co. — American Book Co. A. B.P.S.— American Baptist Publi- cation Society. A. D. L. V.— Anleitung zur deut- schen Landes und Volksforschung, Alfred Kirchof , editor. Bell.— Bell & Sons. Bl.— A. & C. Black. Burt. — A. L. Burt. C. & H — Chapman & Hall. Cl. P. — Clarendon Press. C. U. P. — Columbia University Press. D. & McC. — Doubleday & McClure Co. ; Doubleday , Page & Company. D. M. & Co.— Dodd. Mead & Co. D. Z. S. F. — Deutsche-Zeit und Streit-fragen. F. H. & H.— Fords, Howard & Hulbert. F. & W.— Funk & Wagnalls Co. G. & Co. — Ginn & Co. G. & L. — Gould & Lincoln. G. P. P.— G. P. Putnam's Sons. H.— Harper & Bros. H. Al. — Henry Altemus. H. H. & Co.— Henry Holt & Co. H. M. & Co.— Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Hum. — H u m b o 1 d t Publishing Co. J. P.— James Pott & Co. J. W.— John Wiley & Sons. K. P. & Co.— Kegan Paul