The Canadian Record of Science, Volume 1

Front Cover
Natural History Society., 1885
 

Contents

VOLUME I
179
IL
205
V
238
VI
257

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Page 216 - When two vowels come together each one is sounded, though the result when spoken quickly is sometimes scarcely to be distinguished from a single sound, as in ai...
Page 93 - In science by a fiction as remarkable as any to be found in law, what has once been published, even though it be in the Russian language, is spoken of as known, and it is too often forgotten that the rediscovery in the library may be a more difficult and uncertain process than the first discovery in the laboratory'.
Page 95 - To save these from intellectual stagnation during several important years of their lives is something gained; but the thorough-going advocates of scientific education aim at much more. To them it appears strange, and almost monstrous, that the dead languages should hold the place they do in general education; and it can hardly be denied that their supremacy is the result of routine rather than of argument. I do not, myself, take up the extreme position. I doubt whether an exclusively scientific training...
Page 75 - ... incompatible with the devotion of much time and energy to the actual advancement of knowledge. Not that I would complain of the association sanctioned by common parlance. A sound knowledge of at least the principles of general physics is necessary to the cultivation of any department. The predominance of the sense of sight as the medium of communication with the outer world, brings with it dependence upon the science of optics; and there is hardly a branch of science in which the effects of temperature...
Page 78 - I fully concur) relates to the scientific aspect of the discovery, for to the eye of sense nothing could have been more insignificant. It is even possible that it might have eluded altogether the penetration of Faraday, had he not been provided with a special quality of very heavy glass. At the present day these effects may be produced upon a scale that would have delighted their discoverer, a rotation of the plane of polarization through 180° being perfectly feasible. With the aid of modern appliances,...
Page 85 - When the layer of oil is well formed, the pressure between the solid surfaces is really borne by the fluid, and the work lost is spent in shearing, that is, in causing one stratum of the oil to glide over another. In order to maintain its position, the fluid must possess a certain degree of viscosity, proportionate to the pressure; and even when this condition is satisfied, it would appear to be necessary that the layer should be thicker on the ingoing than on the outgoing side. We may, I believe,...
Page 83 - The foundations laid by Thomson now bear an edifice of no mean proportions, thanks to the labors of several physicists, among whom must be especially mentioned Willard Gibbs, and Helmholtz. The former has elaborated a theory of the equilibrium of heterogeneous substances, wide in its principles, and, we cannot doubt, far-reaching in its consequences. In a series of masterly papers, Helmholtz has developed the conception of free energy, with very important applications to the theory of the galvanic...
Page 95 - Much of the best original work has been done with the homeliest appliances ; and the endeavor to turn to the best account the means that may be at hand develops ingenuity and resource more than the most elaborate determinations with ready-made instruments. There is danger otherwise that the experimental education of a plodding student should be too mechanical and artificial, so that he is puzzled by small changes of apparatus much as many school-boys are puzzled by a transposition of the letters...
Page 82 - ... iron. The second law teaches us that the real value of heat, as a source of mechanical power, depends upon the temperature of the body in which it resides ; the hotter the body in relation to its surroundings, the more available the heat. In order to see the relations which obtain between the first and the second law of thermo-dynamics, it is only necessary for us to glance at the theory of the steam-engine. Not many years ago calculations were plentiful, demonstrating the inefficiency of the...
Page 80 - According to my measurements, the electro-motive force of this cell is 1'435 theoretical volts. We may also conveniently express the second absolute electrical measurement necessary to the completion of the system by taking advantage of Faraday's law, that the quantity of metal decomposed in an electrolytic cell is proportional to the whole quantity of electricity that passes. The best metal for the purpose is silver, deposited from a solution of the nitrate or of the chlorate. The results recently...

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