Science. THE GLORY OF THE STARLIT HEAVENS.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1642, 13 January 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

Science. THE GLORY OF THE STARLIT HEAVENS.

BY K. A. PROCTOR.

If the eye could gain gradually in lightgathering power, until it attained something like the range of the great gauging telescopes of the Herschels, how utterly would what we see now seem lost in the inconceivable glories .thus gradually unfolded. Even the revelations of the telescope, save as they appeal to the mind's eye, would be as nothing to the. splendid scene revealed, when within the spaces which now show black between the familiar stars of our constellations, thousands of brilliant orbs would be revealed. The milky luminosity of the Galaxy would be seen aglow with millions of suns, its richer portions blazing so resplcndently, that no eye could bear to gaze long upon the wondrous display. But with every increase of power, more and more myriads of stars would break into view, until at last the scene would be unbearable in its splendour. The eye would seek for darkness as for rest. The mind would ask for a scene less oppressive in the magnificence of its inner meaning ; for even as seen, wonderful though the display would be, the glorious scene would scarce express the millionth part of its real nature, as recognised by a mind conscious that each point of light was a sun like ours, each sun the centre of a scheme of worlds, such as that globe on which we "live, and move, and have our being." Who shall pretend to picture a scene so glorious ? If the electric light could be applied to illuminate fifty million lamps over the surface of the black domed vault, and those lamps were here gathered in rich clustering groups, there strewn more sparsely, after the way in which the stars are spread over the vault of heaven, something like the grandeur of a scene which we have imagined would be realized — but no human hands could ever produce such an exhibition of celestial imagery. As for maps, it is obviously impossible by any maps which could be drawn, no matter what their scale or plan, to present anything even approaching to a correct picture of the heavenly host. There is no way even of showing their numerical wealth in a single picture. It is not till we have learned to look on all that the telescope reveals, as in its turn nothing compared with the real universe, that we have rightly learned the lessons which the heayens teach, so far, at least, as it lies within bur feeble powers to study the awful teaching of the stars. The range of the puny instruments man can fashion, is no measure,' we may be well assured, of the universe as it is. The domain of telescppically visible space, compared with which the whole ran^e of the visible universe of stars seems but a point, can be in turn but as a point compared with those infinite realms of star-strewn space which lie on every side of our universe, beyond the range— millions of times further than the extremest scope — of the instruments by which man has extended the powers of visions given to nimbym by the Almighty. The finite — for after all, infinite though jlfc seems ' to us, the region of space through which' we can extend our survey is ,but finite— can never bear any proportion to the infinite save that of infinite disproportion. All that we can see is as nothing compared with that which is ; all we can know is, as , nothing ; though our knowledge "grow from more to more," seemingly without limit., In finp, we may say (as our gradually widening ,yision shows us the nothingness of what we have seen, of what, we see, of what we can ever see)', not, as Laplace said, TJic Knoipn is Little, but The Known is Nothing ; not The Unknown is immense, but The Unknown is Infinite. — Knowledge. >, ,

, TENACITY OF LIFE OF BACTERIA. . ' The demonstration of the intimate relation of bacteria to certain fevers and other diseases would seem at first, sight to greatly siinplifjr the work of the^physjcian in searching for' efficient remedies. . Putjin plain .English' the problem is : find some, .element, pr compound that is fatal ,to bacteria,, a.rid administer it in r the .way, liept c^lculawjd O to xeachlthg mis'' ohigvQUS fungi %W§. patjent's .Wood., But the problem, is easier stated than 'sp^vej^. 'ifop |o^e!r,'fqrms of life whiofi appe'a^ ,to cause the 1 ' ,|rqul^le,^able'<;o live 'find thrive m}d§r $£ ranjge o| v c,9n4itjpn^ {^"fh&L. jRQ fft^ as known, any tj reagen^6 f Jhat ,mjl Ml', ,ihem..wbu}<J r be W*(fy pjre.quicldy, fatal ib( the, patients. ' t.^.a,. , ,",,; >„.,* ' ' ( ' The? eminent^; Eng%h\ v chemist, u < Edward JRraj^land^ jego.unted^^hej'othV.'dl^f^at '.a' tiieftibg of'th^Qc^y ,6i ;A',rom.e iexper;., mentii made' in .his Qwn.labpra.tory, .showing f tne inainerence of bacteria 4 to condi^o^isith^pi jA, quantity of mutton /broth ,was anected by 4 iVfi^iq ', 'swa&in*g ll | l w%

liquid. Then various gases were put into these -globes, and, of course, in contact with this liquid teeming with bacteria. *M)xfijien was tried, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbcraic acid, andjailjihe ordmarj^ga||s, some^d| which we*e^ rojpirawlp by^animals.^nd^ jjome ; ; of whl|h *;were jfßelieval to be beneficial^o plants ; 'but the baoflria\Beemed |q H delight eqSallyM eitb:|? of th^m^Theygoii on quite as^welfari carbjhic a'wd aß^ey^did iii oxygen ; they could live for'^weekS without ''-the presence of a trace of oxygen in the liquid, with nothing but pure carbonic acid. If the experiments had gone on further, _they.,would show that thesejprganisms had an extraordinary tenacity of life. But cyanogen was now introduced into the flasks, and, although they certainly did « sicken a little under it, they recovered a little in the course of a week or so, and went on living in that gas in a fairly healthy condition. 1 ■ Sulphurous acid — the mutton broth itself being, of course, satured with this gas, and the atmosphere' of the glass globe consisting of nothing 'else but sulphurous acid— seemed to have very little effect on them at all ; their motions were not stopped, and they seemed to be as lively after the application of it as before, and the same was the case with several other reagents which were tried. ' «' It is barely possible that these vicious organisms may be reached and killed by some drug in dose whicti the human system can tolerate; but' the prospect certaihly is not bright. Prevention rather than cure seems' to be the end best worth working for.— Scientific American.