Chapter XVII: Part 17

[42] Fibrine and albumen are identical in composition. _Caseine_, which is the coagulable portion of milk, is composed in the same manner. The chief distinction between the three substances consists in their mode of coagulation; fibrine coagulating spontaneously, albumen under the action of heat, and caseine by the action of acetic acid.

[43] To this article of the Professor’s faith decided objection must be taken, however.

[44] Those whose custom it is to regard all theorizing respecting the circumstances revealed by observation as unscientific, may read with profit an extremely speculative passage in Newton’s _Principia_ relating to the probable drying up of the earth in future ages. “As the seas,” he says, “are absolutely necessary to the constitution of our earth, that from them the sun, by its heat, may exhale a sufficient quantity of vapours, which, being gathered together into clouds, may drop down in rain, for watering of the earth, and for the production and nourishment of vegetables; or being condensed with cold on the tops of mountains (as some philosophers with reason judge), may run down in springs and rivers; so for the conservation of the seas and fluids of the planets, comets seem to be required, that, from their exhalations and vapours condensed, the wastes of the planetary fluids spent upon vegetation and putrefaction, and converted into dry earth, may be ultimately supplied and made up; for all vegetables entirely derive their growths from fluids, and afterwards, in great measure, are turned into dry earth by putrefaction; and a sort of slime is always found to settle at the bottom of putrefied fluids; and hence it is that the bulk of the solid earth is continually increased; and the fluids, if they are not supplied from without, must be in a continual decrease, and quite fail at last. I suspect, moreover, that it is chiefly from the comets that spirit comes which is indeed the smallest but the most subtle and useful part of our air, and so much required to sustain the life of all things with us.”

[45] See my “Science Byways,” pp. 244, 245.

[46] The following passage from Admiral Smyth’s Bedford Catalogue is worth noticing in this connection:—“We find that both the Chinese and the Japanese had a zodiac consisting of animals, as _zodiacs_ needs must, among which they placed a tiger, a peacock, a cat, an alligator, a duck, an ape, a hog, a rat, and what not. Animals also formed the _Via Solis_ of the Kirghis, the Mongols, the Persians, the Mantshus, and the ancient Turks; and the Spanish monks in the army of Cortes found that the Mexicans had a zodiac with strange creatures in the departments. Such a striking similitude is assuredly indicative of a common origin, since the coincidences are too exact in most instances to be the effect of chance; but where this origin is to be fixed has been the subject of interminable discussions, and learning, ignorance, sagacity, and prejudice have long been in battle array against each other. Diodorus Siculus considers it to be Babylonian, but Bishop Warburton, somewhat dogmatically tells us, ‘Brute worship gave rise to the Egyptian asterisms prior to the time of Moses.’” There is now, of course, very little reason for questioning that Egyptian astronomy was borrowed from Babylon.

Transcriber’s Notes

Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

Some ditto marks have been replaced by the actual text.

Page 83: In the illustration, “O” should be “C”.

Page 171: There is no obvious closing quotation mark to match the opening mark at “of most unusual age and thickness”.

Page 192: “Divided even between the ocean” may be a misprint for “evenly”.

Page 197: No matching closing quotation mark for the opening mark at “the small bright spot”.

Page 222: Transcriber added an opening quotation mark at “Down his back” to match the closing mark after “He was seen by every one on board.”

Page 230: No matching closing quotation mark for the opening mark at “a whale of large size”.

Page 302: Transcriber added an opening quotation mark at “About fifty years ago” to match the closing mark after “fed himself with the other.”

Page 372: No matching opening quotation mark for the closing mark after “its lower extremity.”

Page 385: No matching closing quotation mark for the opening mark at “sweeps off from”.

End of Project Gutenberg's Pleasant Ways in Science, by Richard A. Proctor