The Seven Follies of Science [2nd ed.]

g the fact that an occasional individual becomes so dissatisfied with his enviro

ife is but pr

." And the force of this general feeling is appealed to in the only one of the Mosaic commandments to which a promise is attache

r in this, as in most other attempts at discovery, the wish was father to the thought. That the renewal of youth in the aged was supposed to be within the ability of the magicia

rical modes of expressing themselves, is found in the works of Geber. In one of his writings, he exclaims: "Bring me the six lepers that I may cleanse them." Modern commentators explain this as being his mode of telling his readers that he would convert into gol

me of the writings of the old alchemists would seem to confirm this view. Thus, at the close of a

ife, but also for transmuting all metals into gold. Give therefore thanks to Almighty God, who, taking pity o

metal might be transferred to the human system. The celebrated Descartes is said to have supported such opinions; he told Sir Kenelm Digby that although he would not venture to promise immortality, he was ce

gly urged the use of salts of gold in the treatment of disease, and great hopes were entertained in regard

gold. In the second part of "King Henry IV," Falstaff (Act III, Scene 2, line 355), says of Shallow: "it shall go hard but

as a universal medicine and the other a transmuter of base metals into gold." And in Chur

rkes, as well d

ld, and shewed

e for

ms to be evident that Falstaff meant that he would get health and wea

the part of men occupying prominent positions in the scientific world. Both in Europe and in this country suggestions have been made of fluids which, when injected into the veins of the old and the

nts, as the reader will find, on referring to Sir William Ramsay's utterance, which is gi

ONAL "

the preceding pages, there are a few which deserve to be classed with them

tual

t or Univer

ngen

der of

OR EVER-BU

rpetually and required no attention. In number 379 of the "Spectator" there is an anecdote of some one having opened the sepulcher of the famous Rosicrucius. There he discovered a lamp burning which a statue of clock-work struck into pieces. Hence, says the writer, the disciples of this visionary claimed that he had

n due to the phosphorescence which is well known to arise during the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter. Decaying wood and dead fish are familiar objects which give out a light that is sufficient to render dimly visible th

ising from the decomposition of dead bodies, and set on fire by the flambeaux or candles of the investigators, and it is quite

d prior to the introduction of the modern lucifer match. They were also used for obtaining a light by means of the old matches, which were tipped merely with a little sulphur, and which could not be ignited by friction. Such a match, after being dipped into one of these phosphorus bottles, would readily take fire by slight friction, and some persons preferred this contrivance to

he long-lost art of making perpetual lamps. But it is well known that this substance loses its phosphorescent power after being kept in the dark for some time, and tha

se materials shine in the dark with brilliancy sufficient to enable the observer to read words and numbers traced with them, but reg

ioactive matter like radium, and that this was the secret of the lamps in question. It is far more l

ons have been suggested in regard to perpetual lamps. Prior to the development, or even the suggestion of the law of the conservation of energy, it was believed that it might be possible to find a liquid which would burn without being consumed, and a wick which would feed the liquid to the f

of electricity, which are suspected to flow through and over the earth, and utilize them for purposes of illumination, however feeble, it might be difficult to decide. But such means of perpetual electric lighting would be similar to a perpetual motion derived from a mounta

s of radium, polonium, and similar substances, and their po

T OR UNIVER

eir idea of the way in which it would aid them to attain these ends does not seem to be very clearly stated in any work that I have consulted; probably they thought that a universal solvent would wash away all impurities from common m

ssel could they provide for holding such a liquid? If its solvent powers are such that it dissolves everyt

but glass and porcelain were acted upon by this wonderfully energetic liquid and when attempts were made to isolate the fluorine, even the platinum electrodes were corroded and destroyed. Vessels of pure silver and of lead served tolerably well, but Davy suggested that the most scientific method of constructing a containing ves

ING

notably crude and unreliable. This fact, taken in connection with the wild theories upon which the natural sciences of the middle

shes of plants, when treated with water, produce small forests of ferns and pines. Thus, an English chemist, named Coxe, asserts that having extracted and dissolved the essential salts of fern, and then filtered the liquor, he observed, after leaving it at rest for five or six weeks,

hristina, Queen of Sweden, who was highly delighted with it. Unfortunately he left this valuable curiosity one cold day in his window and it was entirely destroyed by the frost. Father Schott also asserts that he saw this chemical

which, as is well known, is produced by combining copper with the acid of vinegar, and having caused this water to congeal

pper acetate was generally prepared by exposing copper plates to the action of refuse grapes which had been allowed to ferment and become sour. Therefore to him

ut in motion by heat, rise in the vessel through the liquor in which they are diffused. Being then at liberty to arrange themselves at pleasure, they place themselves in that order in which they would be placed by the effect

s, there are few prettier sights than the crystallization of such salts as sal ammoniac, potassic nitrate, barium chloride, etc. The crystals are actually seen to grow and it would not require a very great stretch of the imagination to convince one that the growth is due to a living organism. Indeed, this view has actuall

er wire or, preferably, a minute quantity of the amalgam of tin and mercury, such as is used for "silvering" cheap looking glasses, is brought into contact with it. Chemical decomposition at once sets in and then the silver thus deposited forms one element of a very minute voltai

g.

eir books. I have now before me a thick, dumpy quarto in which the so-called seminal animalcules are depicted as little men and wome

solved them in water and, after subjecting the whole to a tedious process, small crabs were produced in the liquor. These w

ments of observation. It is more than likely that the creatures which Digby saw were entomostraca introduced in the form of ova which, unless a good microscope be used, are quite invisible. These would develop rapidly and might ea

tements made by those who have advocated this strange doctrine. Father Schott, in his "Physica Curiosa," gives an acc

nsideration, it deserves attention as an illustration of the ex

DER OF

make and apply the drug from a Carmelite, who had traveled in the east, and whom he met in Florence, in 1622. The descendants of Digby are still prominent in England, and O. W. Holmes, in his "One Hundred Days in Europe,

the previous article, a believer in palingenesy and made experiments with a view to substantiate that strange doctrine. Evelyn calls him an "errant quack," and he may have been given to quackery,

e brought into contact with the powder. A bandage was to be taken from

sent treatment of

zed vitriol, that is, ferric

urative to the weapon which caused the wound, instead of the wound itself. In the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," Scott give

e splinter f

arm she stanc

gash be clean

y his couch

ta'en the

t from the c

he splinter

Deloraine

turned it r

if she gall

r maidens

ld be whole

ourse of a n

e toiled, fo

end so stout

cacious. The directions were to keep the wound clean and cool, and to take care of diet, rubbing the salve on the knife or sword. If we remember the dreadful notions upon drugs which prevailed, both as to quantity and quality, we shall readily see that any way of not dressing the wound, would have been useful. If the physicians had taken the hint, had been careful of diet, etc., and had poured the little barrels of medi

or disliked. In some cases this was done by moulding an image in wax which, when formed under proper occult influences, was supposed to have the power of transferring to the victim any injuries inflicted on the image. Into such images pins and knives were thrust in the hope that the living original would suffer the same pains and

ntity

away, even as

his figure 'g

hat they had devised an image of wax, representing the king, which, by their sorcerie, by littl

er words, upon the art of magic, and therefore examples of this kind do not come within the scope of the prese

TNO

th Instructions how to make the said Powder. Rendered faithfu

o III. S

UDGET OF

NS, AND

ENSION AND THE

E AND NEW

and magazines. Even our novel-writers have used suggestions from this hypothesis as part of the mach

efined in terms of the three with which we are already familiar. And I confess at the start that I labor under the superlative difficulty of not being able to form any conception of a fourth dimension, and for this incapacity my only consolation is, that in this respect I am not alone. I have conversed upon the subject with many able mathematicians a

a. The following anecdote regarding his deficiency in this respect is given by Thiébault and indorsed by Professor De Morgan: At the invitation of the Empress, Catherine II, Diderot paid a visit to the Russian court. He was a brilliant conversationalist and being quite free with his opinions, he gave the younger members of the court circle a good deal of lively atheism. The Empress herself was very much amused, but some of her councillors suggested that it might be desirable to check these expositions of strange doctrines. As Catherine did not like to put a direct muzzle on her guest's tongue, the following plot was contrived. Diderot

l line-that is, of a line without breadth or thickness, a conception which has been grasped clearly and accurately by thousands of schoo

f the micrometer, in the seventeenth century, it was impossible to detect it at all. Hence, the conclusions of the geometrician approximate so closely to truth that we are justified in accepting them as true. The flaw is too minute to be perceived. But that there is a flaw appears to me certain. It appears certain that, whenever some

contention is thus clearly exposed by the

for their graduations, and the positions of these lines are indicated by rulings or scratches. Now, in even the finest of these rulings, as, for example, those of Nobert or Fasoldt, where the ruling or scratching, together with its accompanying space, amounts to no more than the one hundred and fifty thousan

qual to all its parts taken together," for if we divide a square or a circle into two parts by means of a line which has breadth, the two parts cannot be equal to the whole as it formerly was. As a matter of fact, M

theless, if we know anything at all, we know that such a world could not have any actual existence and when we attempt to form a

hout magnitude, lines without breadth, and surfaces without thickness-conceptions which seem to have been impossible to Buckle, a man of acknowledged ability-it m

day-dreams we find that the hypothesis of a fourth dimension has been presented by two very differ

dern theory of the existence of a fourth dimension. The first hint seems to have been a purely mathematical one and did not attract any very general attention. It was, however, seized upon by a certain branch of the transcendentalists, closely allied to the spiritualists, and was exploited by t

hings in heaven a

mt of in your

this view is thus given

le that apparently separate objects, e. g., distinct people, are really physically united; that things apparently sundered by enormous distances of space are really quite together; that a person or other object might pass in and out of a closed room without disturbance of walls, doors or windows, etc., and if this fourth dimension were

e other consciousness; and experiences which seem remote from each other in the individual are perhaps all equally near in the universal. Space itself, as we know it, may be practically annihilated in t

to arrive at definite conclusions in regard to what would be the condition of things if the univers

other surface. We may picture the inhabitants of flatland as moving either on the surface of a plane or between two parallel and adjacent planes. They could move in any direction along the plane, but they could not move perpendicularly to it, and would ha

e unable so to move; for he could appear or disappear at will; could (so far as they could tell) create matter or destroy it, and

o the world in which he lived, he might be able to extend it so as to obtain results true of that world in three dimensions which would be to him unknown and inconceivable. Similarly we cannot realize what life in four dimensions is like, though we can use a

nish. In the same way, if a body of four dimensions was passed through our space, we should be conscious of it only as a solid body (namely, the section of the body by our space) whose form and appearance gradually cha

models showing a four-dimensional body. The succ

ut they hold that, provided we could see our way clear to adopt it, it would open up wondrous possib

such conditions as are needed for our purpose. Too often, however, those who indulge

d us, which are revealed to us through our senses, that the field in which our imagination may revel is boundless. Perhaps some day the humanity of t

e to them would appear those curious appendages, called ears, which project from the sides of our heads, and how inexplicable to them would be the movements and expressions of intelligence which we show when we talk or sing? It is certain that no development of the physical or mathematical sciences could give them any idea whatever of the sensations which sound, in its various

TNO

on in England." American e

ory of Hell," by John

by E. A. Abbot

s Peak to Eleph

PPARENTLY ENLARGED B

ration of the errors to which ca

ndicating the cuts have been made quite heavy so as to show up clearly, but on the actual card they may be made quite light. Now, put the four pieces together, so as to form the rectangle shown in Fig. 20. Unless the scale, to which the drawing is made is qu

g.

g.

ings. Of course, every person of common sense knows that the card or drawing is

divided are thus enabled to gain enough to make one of the small squares. On a small scale this deviation from the straight l

IMSELF BY THE ST

fence by taking hold of his waist-band, he might hope to accomplish his object. And the query which serves as a title for this article has long been propounded as one of

o those who were not familiar with the facts in the case. Each bean contains the larva of a species of beetle and this affords a clue to the secret. But the

fort and allows the bean to spring back to its former shape, the reaction on the table moves the bean. A man placed in a perfectly rigid box could ne

ain curious boat races which are held at some English regattas and which is explained b

nly a boat is built so as to make the resistance to motion stra

l it from one point to another as rapidly as possible. The motion is given by tying one end of the rope t

he resistance to the motion through the water of the stern is much greater than that of the bow, hence, on the whol

DER LIFTE

ure place in which to deposit her eggs. The carpenter bee, with only the tools which nature has given her, cuts a round hole, the full diameter of her body, through thick boards, and so makes a tunnel by which she can have a safe retreat, in which to rear her young. The tumble-bug, without derrick or machinery, rolls over large masses of dirt many times her own weight, and the sexton beetle will, in a few hours, bury beneath the gro

e, raising it up from the ground, and leaving it to perish miserably between heaven and earth. Would-be philosophers made gre

ngled a milk-snake in her threads, and actually raised it some distance from the

succeed in overcoming and lifting up by mechanical means, the mouse or the sn

er; careful experiment having shown that for equal sizes the strength of these fibers exceeds that of common iron. But notwithstanding its strength, the spider's thread alone would be useless as a mechanical power if it were not for its elasticity. The spider has no blocks or pu

through one foot when stretched. Let these bands be attached to a wooden platform on which stand a pair of horses weighing 2,100 lbs., or rather more than a ton. If now the ch

rses into 350 pieces of six pounds each, and at the rate of a little less than one every three secon

the point from which it was to be suspended with 150 threads, and if the little quadruped was once swung off his feet, he would be powerless. By pulling successively on each thread and shortening it a little, the mouse or snake might be rais

, or it may have been the hope that the decaying carcass would attract flies which would furnish food for the engineer. I can vouch for the tru

BE MADE TO MOVE BAC

hat "Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shado

at by tilting a sun-dial through the proper angle, the shadow at certain periods of the year can be made, for a short time, to move backwards on

rade or move backwards," in Ozanam's "Recreations in Science and Natural Philosophy," Riddle's edition, page 529. Professor Ball in his "Ma

MAY BE USED

compass by means of the ordinary pocket watch: "Point the hour hand to the sun, and south is exactly half way between

reations and Problems," gives more compl

of the compass. To do this it is sufficient to point the hour-hand to the sun and then the direction which bisects the angle between the hour and the figure XII will point due south. For instance, if it is four o'clock in the afternoon, it is sufficient to point the hour-hand (which is the

t be bisected is less than 180 degrees, but at other times the angle to be bisected is greater than 180 degre

of the ecliptic, and the figure XII on the dial is pointed to the south, both the hour-hand and the sun will be in that direction at noon. Both move round in the same direction, but the angular velocity of the hour-hand is twice as great as that of the sun. H

ountry where at noon the sun is due north, the ru

INUTE WRITING AN

ly Cicero thought it worth while to record that the entire Iliad of Homer had been written upon parchment in cha

which must date from a very remote epoch, and upon which fifteen figures have been engraved in a circular s

piece, and on several occasions the Lord's Prayer has been engraved on one side of a gold dollar, the diameter of which is si

chancery." D'Israeli tells us that it was "The whole Bible in an English walnut, no bigger than a hen's egg. The nut holdeth the book: there ar

aper that is chosen will be selected on account of its hard, even-grained surface, and the pen will be chosen on account of the quality of its material and its shape, and the point is always carefully dressed on a whetstone so as to have both halves of the nib equal in strength and length, and the ends smooth and delicate. When due preparation has been made, and when the eyes and nerves of the writer are in good condition, the smallness of the distinctly readable letters that may be produced is wonderful. And in this connection it is an interesting fact that in many mechanical operations, writing included, the hand is far more deli

azed cards and the metal pencils or styles used by card writers. In these cards the surface is nearly homogeneous, that is to say, free from fibers, and the point of the metal pencil may be made as sharp as a needle, but to utilize these

n determined, so far as I know, but those who have examined the specimens of selected diatoms and insect scales in which objects that are utterly invisible to the naked eye are arranged with great accuracy so as to form the most

instrument by which this is accomplished is known as a pantagraph, and it has, within a few years, become quite popular as a means of reducing or enlarging pictures of various kinds, including crayon reproductions of photographs. Its co

f writing are required, it is necessary to abandon the use of ordinary points and surfaces and to resort to the use of the diamond for a pen, and glass for a surface upon which to write. One of the earliest attempts in this direction was that of M. Froment, of Paris, who engraved on glass, within a circle, the one-thirtieth of an inch in

and various other objects, together with inscriptions in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, all clearly legible. In this device the rising sun is represented in the horizon, the diameter of the disk being about three one-thousandths of an inch. This disk has been cross-hatched by the draughtsman in the or

anything that M. Froment had accomplished. On April 25, 1855, Mr. Farrants read before the Microscopical Society of London a full account of the Peters machine, with which the inventor had written the Lord's Prayer (in the ordinary writing character, without abbreviation or contraction of any kind), in a space not exceeding the one hundred and fifty-thousandth of a square inch. Seven years later, Mr. Farrants, as President of the Microscopical Society, described further improvements in the machine of Mr. Peters

are said to contain 3,566,480 letters. The number of letters in the Lord's Prayer, as written, ending in the sentence, 'deliver us from evil,' is 223, whence, as 3,566,480 divided by 223, is equal to 15,922, it appears that the Bible and Testament together contain the same number of letters as the Lord's Prayer written 16,000 times; if then the p

ion of form which proves that the moving parts of the machine, while possessing the utmost delicacy of freedom, are absolutely destitute

he specimens turned out by Mr. Peters, and inquiry in London, among pe

re inch. Mr. Webb died about fifteen years ago, and I believe he has had no successor in the art. Specimens of his work are quite scarce, most of them having found their way into the cabinets of public Museums and Societies, who are unwilling to part with them. The late Dr. Woodward, Director of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D.C., procured two of them on special order for the Museum. Mr. Webb had brought out these fine writings as tests for certain qualities of the microscope, and it was to "serve as tests

e same scale as this chapter, I have made the following calculation which, I think

nks. Each page contains two columns of 58 lines each, making 116 lines to the page. This includes the headings of the chapters and the synopses of th

would, therefore, contain 95 × 2025 or 192,375 lines. This number (192,375), divided by the number of lines in the Bible (147,552), gives 1.307, which is the number of times the Bibl

that the surface of each side is .707 of a square inch. The whole Bible would, therefore, very nearly go on one side of a quarter of

uperintendent of the United States Mint at Philadelphia, the diameter of the last issued gold dollar, and also of the silver half-dime, is six-tenths of an inch. This gives .2827+ of a square

are with other magnifications the rate at which it is enlarged, and a person of even the most ordinary education can follow the calculation and unders

to grasp these ideas and our inability to form a conception of some inconceiv

croscopic art which, from the practical applications that have been ma

nd distinct. I have now before me a slip of glass, three inches long and one inch wide, in the center of which is an oval photograph which occupies less than the 1-200th of a square inch. This photograph contains the Declaration of Independence with the signatures of all the signers, surrounded by portraits of the Presidents and the seals of the original thirteen States. Under a moderate power every line is clear and distinct. In the same way copies of such famous pictures as Landseer's "Stag at Bay," although almost invisible to the naked eye, come out beautifully clear and distinct under the microscope, so that it has been suggested that one might have an extensive p

tography, of which we have any record, occur

g.

being sent out at intervals of three to seven days. In order to get news back to the city, carrier pigeons were employed, and at first the letters were simply written on very thin paper and enclosed in quills which were fastened to the middle tail-feather of the bird, as shown in the engraving, Fig. 21. It is, of course, needless to say, that the

llodion positives which might then be stripped from the glass and would be very light. This was done; the collodion pellicles measuring about ten centimeters (four inches) square and containing about three thousand average messages

there established his headquarters, and organized a regular system of communication with the capitol. The results were most satisfactory, upwards

hy, Paris was enabled to keep in touch with the outer wor

merely historical, for in the next great siege, if we ever have one, the wireless telegraph will no doubt take its place

ast will be the last, and that in the near future, two or more of the great nations of the glob

NS OF T

uts-sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell-bidding them bring in reports of all that is going on around her, and if the information which they furnish should be untrue or distorted, the most dire results might follow. She, therefore, frequently compares the tale that is told by one with the r

oints on which these information bearers are most likely to be deceived so that w

ses[9] which have been differentiated from the sense of touch and which, with the original five, make up the mystic number seven, are very untrustworthy guides under certain circumstances. Thus we all know how the sense of heat may be deceived by the old experiment of placing one hand

heard sounds which had no existence except in our own sensations? And every one is familiar w

n. When we have "felt" anything we are always confident as to its shape, number, hardness,

g.

the latter may lie between the fingers, as figured in the cut. If the pea or ball be now rolled about, the sensation is apparently that given by two peas under the fingers, and this illusion is so strong that it cannot be dispelled by calling in any of

n the two fingers are crossed, the conditions are exceptionally changed, but the instinctive interpretation remains the same, unless a frequent repetition of the experiment has

e most liable to error and illusion, as th

g.

g.

he largest, but as a matter of fact they are both the same size. This curious effect is attributed by Helmholtz to what is called irradiation. The eye may also be greatly deceived even in regard to the length of lines

g.

overed seems to be longer one way than the other. As a matter of fact the space in each case is a perfect squ

g.

g.

dresses. Stout ladies of taste avoid dress goods having horizontal stripes, and l

e much longer than in Fig. 28. Careful measurement will show that they are both of precisely the s

g.

g.

all and three posts, and if asked which of the posts was the highest, most persons wou

g.

ique lines as seen in Figs. 31 and 32. In Fig. 31 the horizontal lines seem to be much closer at the

g.

s shown in Fig. 32, the horizontal lines appear t

g.

ver, far surpassed by an experiment w

TNO

John Bunyan in his famous work, "The Holie Warre." It has, however, been pointed out that the sense which enables us to recognize heat is not

the 'Sense of Heat,' and the 'Sense of Resistance' from the Sense of Touch, we may set up new signposts, but we do not open up any new 'gateways', things still rem

LY SEEN THROUGH

few persons who have ever heard of it, I republish it from "The Young Scientist," for

g.

ving, Fig. 33, the edge opposite the thumb being about in line with the right-hand side of the tube. Or the right hand may rest against the right-hand side of the tube, near the end farthest from the eye. This cuts off entirely the view of the object by the right eye, yet strange to say the object will still remain apparently

y which exists between the two eyes, from our habit of blendin

HROUGH A

ich look like a telescope cut in two in the middle. Looking through what most people take for a telescope, we are not surprised when we see clearly the people, buildings, trees, etc., beyond it, but this natural expectation is turned into the mo

g.

iously arranged as shown in the engraving. As the mirrors and the lower connecting tube are concealed, and the upright tubes supporting

keep up with the times and exploit the latest mystery. At one time it was psychic force,

properly a delusion; the

RITHMETIC

SS-BOAR

phadi, relates the foll

mathematician, however, only asked for a grain of wheat for the first square of the chess-board, two for the second, four for the third, and so on to the last, or sixty-fourth. The prince at first was almost incensed at this demand, conceiving that it was ill-suited to his liberality. By the advice of his courtiers, however,

acknowledged that he was not rich enough to be able to comply with his demand,

the sixty-fourth term of the double

2,036,85

be obtained by doubling the last term and subtracting the first from the sum. The n

4,073,709

hels necessary to discharge the promise of the Indian prince. And if we suppose that one acre of land is capable of producing in one year, thirty bushels of wheat, it would require 1,042,499,913,743 acres, which is more

one dollar, the value of the above quantity prob

AIL P

he twenty-fourth nail in his shoe, reckoning one cent for the first nail, two for the second, four for the thi

rogression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc., is 8,388,608, or $83,886.08, a sum w

of all the nails, the sum would have been double

ON OF PO

on for one hundred generations is taken from "Familiar Le

single pair, doubling at each generation (say in thirty years), and allowing for each man, woman, and child, an average space of four feet in height and one foot square, would form a vertical column, having for its base

cts in regard to the present popula

y find standing-room on one half of Long Island, in the State of New York. If this entire population were to be brought to the United States, we could easily give eve

tralia, where the restraints on increase are slight, the rabbit soon becomes not only a nuisance but a menace, and in this country the migrat

COME A MI

pigeons, who were allowed to make large profits so that their success might deceive others and lead them into the net, all these projects have led to disaster or ruin. It is a curious fact, however, that some of those who invested in such "get-rich-quickly" schemes were probably fully aware

save one cent for the first day of the month, two cents for the second, four for the third, and so on. Now if you will do this for thirty days we will guarantee you

aside the required amount each day, perhaps you can induce some prospero

ess men would gladly accept your terms. We ourselves have had such a proposition accepted over and over again; the only difficulty was that when we insisted upon security for the last instalment of our wages, our would-be employers could never come

he world (not the wealth) is estimated at somewhat less than $15,000,000,000

costs" (c'est le premier pas qui coute) but in this case i

at fifteen years of age and save ten cents per week for sixty years, depositing the money in a savings bank as often as it rea

RESENT VALUE OF THE F

ume was originally sold was one pound, but perhaps we ought to take into consideration the fact that at that time money had a value, or purchasing power, at least eight times that which it has at pres

f nearly $9,000, so that it is safe to assume that a perfect copy, in the condition in which it left the publisher's hands, would readily command $10,000, and the question

d investment and the same remark is frequently used in reference to the purchase of books in general

and twelve per cent per annum, and even within the half century just past it brought seven per cent during a large portion of the time. Now, between 1623 and 1899, there are 23 periods, of 12 years each, and at double progression the twenty-third term, beginning with unity, wou

andpoint, however, the subject pre

that he could not afford it; that it would not be wise for him to lose $400 to $500 per year for the mere sake of ownership, when f

ETICAL

m a method of discovering the number which any one may think of to a solution of the "famous" question: "How old i

an egg more; at the second, the half of what remained and half an egg more; at the third the half of the remainder and half an egg

alf of an odd number we take the exact half and half an egg more. If she had 295 eggs before she came to the first guard, she w

es rather than fall into the hands of their enemies. Failing to dissuade them from this horrid purpose, Josephus used his authority as their chief to insist that they put each other to death in an orderly manner. They were therefore arranged round a circl

ES AND H

famous sayings which have been attributed to him, one being "Eureka"-"I have found it," uttered when he discovered the method now universally in use for finding the specific gravit

nam to calculate the length of time which it would take him to move the earth only one inch, supposing his machine constructed and ma

meter of the earth be 7,930 miles, the whole globe will be found to contain 261,107,411,765 cubic miles, which make 1,423,499,120,882,544,640,000 cubic yards, or 38,43

that the force continually applied to it is equal to 30 pounds, then with the velocity of 10,000 feet per hour, to raise the earth one inch the moving power must pass over the space of 384,344,762,638,287,052,800,000 inches; and if this space be divided by 10,000 feet or 120,000 inches, we shall have for a quotient 3,202,873,021,985,725,440, which will be the number of hours required for this motion. But as a year contains 8,766 hours, a century will contain 876,600; and if we divide the

oved it, during his whole life, from infancy to old age, is so small that even if multiplied two hundr

ing peoples as is that of Archimedes to the world at large. It is that which Bul

rule of men e

ightier than

of Bulwer Lytton, might be symbolized in an allegorical drawing which would forcibly express the ideas which they

for the same purpose but resting on glory, or in other words, having no substantial fulcrum, breaks in the att

is only when resting on the printing press that it is provided with that fulcrum which enables it to raise th

t we have a well-grounded hope that through the influence of the p

N

in perpetu

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rpetual m

dial o

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of Apo

l, finely engr

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ter to circumference of circle,

ustrati

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cle, 13 Ratio of circum

and his f

of the an

lems, 163 Chess-b

probl

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t folio Shak

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and his f

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. W. R., 39,

r conveying

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t rate of 22 to

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Sir Fred

look thr

geometrical

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io accept

ratio acc

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approxim

cle, to find, when d

requires no

College

of De

watch use

, Sir Wi

plicatio

microscope, 108 Mistak

crophotog

fascinati

n of Indep

's col

Michael Scott, 6 Ign

cy of modern attempts

f Paradox

n of angl

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of Dide

of Ah

anecdot

ingenesy, 109 Sir Kenelm a

, 56,

e, not due to perpet

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of li

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r, 1

n perpetual

the philosoph

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est. Royal M

enlarged by

Shakespeare,

n of me

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ropriate

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arpenter

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perpetual

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microgr

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Landgra

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fascinatio

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o accepted

gold

y mot

nd paling

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ver-burn

ressional, in

ectric earth-

geometr

deceptive, 154 Leng

id a

er, on conserva

ion of squaring

arithmetic of

hin

or perpetua

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s-how they go

tion of, 92 F

See Tran

s, Pe

te writing, 136 Home

Angelo's

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probl

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lumin

genes

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er than th

ual la

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requires no

und by w

und by t

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oung,

s acti

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Wilki

dean sc

screw, by

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perpetual

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on the

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ir Willia

circumference carri

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ruciu

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l, and his sl

d of the great Wizard, 6

g railway

s of, 148 Taste

nd col

ing,

ch,

spot, 152 Leng

on of l

en through

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sibility o

g backward

first folio, 168 Ph

craft

ratio carried

Abrah

se of, dec

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ted by sp

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smell-illu

Will be the great source

e Archimedes to m

se of, dec

the metals, 79

Trismeg

not alle

meta

ed after p

of che

the Golden

unknown I

ty of eff

liam Ra

scovery on our cu

e," New

ion of

nd bal

and r

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len, Ru

ch, D

by walking, 39 Use

crograp

futation of

s, Bis

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Dr. Tho

ing and typographical errors ha