Annual of Scientific Discovery: Or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art for ...

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1871
 

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Page 256 - ... simplicity, endowed, like existing Fungi, with the power of determining the formation of new protoplasm from such matters as ammonium carbonates, oxalates and tartrates, alkaline and earthy phosphates, and water, without the aid of light. That is the expectation to which analogical reasoning leads me ; but I beg you once more to recollect that I have no right to call my opinion anything but an act of philosophical faith.
Page 127 - On partially liquefying carbonic acid by pressure alone, and gradually raising at the same time the temperature to 88° Fahr., the surface of demarcation between the liquid and gas became fainter, lost its curvature, and at last disappeared. The space was then occupied by a homogeneous fluid, which exhibited, when the pressure was suddenly diminished or the temperature slightly lowered, a peculiar appearance of moving or flickering striae throughout its entire mass.
Page 255 - Belief, in the scientific sense of the word, is a serious matter, and needs strong foundations. To say, therefore, in the admitted absence of evidence, that I have any belief as to the mode in which the existing forms of life have originated, would be using words in. a wrong sense. But expectation is permissible where belief is not ; and if it were given me to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time to the still more remote period when the earth was passing through physical and chemical...
Page 254 - It is demonstrable that a fluid eminently fit for the development of the lowest forms of life, but which contains neither germs, nor any protein compound, gives rise to living things in great abundance if it is exposed to ordinary air; while no such development takes place, if the air with which it is in contact is mechanically freed from the solid particles which ordinarily float in it, and which may be made visible by appropriate means.
Page 262 - And thus mankind will have one more admonition that ' the people perish for lack of knowledge;' and that the alleviation of the miseries and the promotion of the welfare of men must be sought, by those who will not lose their pains, in that diligent, patient, loving study of all the multitudinous aspects of nature, the results of which constitute exact knowledge or science.
Page 175 - USA, read a paper on this subject, of which the following is an abstract : — " Cast iron — the raw material from which the malleable metal is made — may be formulated approximately as follows : — Silicon (Si), 5 to 3 per cent. Phosphorus (P), 05 to 2 per cent. Manganese (Mn) , 0 to 20 per cent. Sulphur (S), 25 to 2 per cent. Carbon (C), 2 to 5 per cent. Iron (Fe), 90 to 9G.5 per cent.

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