There is nothing more reassuring in these days, when new "isms" of the
scientists are slowly sapping the foundations of cherished beliefs,
than to remember that, after all, the much vaunted dicta of Nature are
yet opposable by the sound operations of honest common sense. See for
example how one of our evening dailies, tossing the dogmas of
so-called science contemptuously aside, evolves such profoundly
original thoughts as these, to explain the lucid blue glass theory of
General Pleasonton: "The blue glass presents an obstruction to the
sun's rays which can only be penetrated by one of the seven primary
rays--the blue ray; the remaining six rays, travelling with the
velocity of 186,000 miles a second, falling upon the blue glass, are
suddenly arrested; the impact evolves upon the surface of the glass
friction, heat, electricity and magnetism; the heat expands the
molecules of the glass, and a current of electricity and magnetism
passes through it into the room; this current, falling upon animal or
vegetable life within, stimulates it to unusual vigor. Certainly the
results achieved, and abundantly certified to, are marvellous, and
sufficient to provoke further experiments and inquiry." Prior to these
splendid original discoveries of our contemporary, we ignorantly
believed that blue glass only partially sifted out the orange and
yellow rays from the spectrum, and that with this exception, it acted
merely as a screen to diminish the intensity of all the rays. We also
supposed that there was a sharp distinction to be drawn between
sunlight after passing through blue glass and the blue spectral ray:
that in one case all the colored rays were more or less present, and
that in the other but one was. But think of the utter dismay of such
pretenders as Helmholtz, Tyndall, and Henry when they learn that the
undulatory theory of light with which they have so long taxed our
credulity is overthrown--that of the seven primary rays, six bounce
off from blue glass and distribute themselves over the adjoining
neighborhood. That the glass is heated by the impact; and as the sun
persistently emits more rays, there are more impacts and more heat.
The glass gets hotter and hotter; but--mark the scientific acumen
here--just as we are wondering whether it will reach the melting
point, the pores open. It is the Turkish bath of Nature. Electricity
and magnetism, no longer shut out, rush in between the separate
molecules. Hand in hand, these great curative powers seek a proper
subject. They meet (we learn from a report, also in our contemporary,
of Pleasonton's latest triumph) a pig or a young lady whose hair has
come out--a heifer, a rooster, or a rheumatic child. Forthwith the pig
fattens, hair equal to that produced by the finest _tricopherus_
pervades the female scalp, and "unusual vigor" and general happiness
prevail. Such is the boon which Pleasonton bestows on humanity, as
elucidated by the original genius of our contemporary.
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