The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-09-24
Popular Fallacies.

AAO AOA oAstAO VI tAS SNpShoSo'
Popular Fallacies.
The age of war and conflict is fast
passing away, and the industrial and
commercial age is taking its place.
Progress is the worlds watchword day;
| and it is the boast of the nineteenth
century that, since its birth, the march
of discovery and invention, in all the
sciences and arts most conducive to mans
comfort and civilization, has been greater
than any preceding half-thousand years.
Science is now the measure of a nations
standing; for general scientific knowl-
edge means education, which means re-
tinement and religion, which means
death to superstition. And in this coun-
try especially, where education and true
religion are so generally dittused, sci
cnce seems to have a stronghold upon
the respect and admiration of all but
the most ignorant and backward minds.
In view then of this general diffusion
of scientific knowledge, which, in this
country, though not in itself astonish-
ing, is yet great when compared with
that in most other lands, it does seem
remarkable oft-times that so many old
find credcncc among the ma jOrity of the
people, and even among the well educated
1t is fairly astonishing to see what out
rageously-absurd stories will circulate
through the popular press, often pub
lished in the fullest good faith, and ac-
cepted as true by simple minded readers.
The scientific hoaxes perpetrated in the
United States are almost innumerablc;
and that they continue to be published,
rcpublishcd, revampcd, and, strangest of
all, believed, and solemnly discussed in
journals that ought to know better, does
not speak we'll for the thoroughness of
this scientific knowledge, on which diff
fusion we so often pride ourselves.
We remember a recent example in the
story, lately published in II California
paper these hOaXcs generally emanate
from the fertile West concerning mag
nctic cave, said to have been just dis
covered, possessing such powerful attrac-
ton that hatchets were drawn from the
hands of the explorers and flew to the
roof, remaining glued there; while I'M
fortunates in hobnailcd shoes had to
leave their foot incasements behind
them. This story, though laughed at by
onc-half the community, was received
with open eyes and gaping mouths 10y
the other half, who could not comprc-
bend that the size of the attracted body
might have something to do with the
force of attraction.
But it is not merely of these ingenious
hoaXes that We wish to speak, but of a
far more injurious state of ignorance
among the common people. We refer
to popular fallacies concerning the sci
ences of everyday life, and to the gen
nj, In NJ
nature, and the first principles of sci
ence in all its departments. Some of
these fallacies arc simply ludicrous;
others are worse. What absurd blum
dcrs are made in matters of hygiene
The prosperity of quack doctors who
have medicines, each one of which will
cure all the ills that man is heir to, is II
forcibls example of the latter case.
"By looking into looking glass in
clined at forty-five degrees, Mr.. p, of
Northampton, obtained last night a fine
view of Jupiter's satellites" says Ger
tain Springfield paper. How Prof. Smell,
of Amherst, must have chuckled to read
it! Mr.. IS wonderful glass would
have conferred satellites upon every star
in heaven. He should have known that
plain looking-glass has no telescope
power, and that his "satcllitcs" were
only repeated reflections, between the
quicksilver and the front surface of the
glass, of the planet he was gazing at.
Mrs. - was recently saved from
death by lightning stroke by her son,
who dashed pailful of cold water upon
her. 1t is supposed that the water car
ried off the electricity remaining in her
body, and saved herr" Such is the Boston
Journals lucid explanation of simple
cure. The poor lady, almost killed by
the terrible stroke, was saved by the sud-
den nervous shock caused by the cold
water which her son with such presence
of mind threw at her. It is not the pres
ence of electricity in human body that
endangers, nor even the discharge of that
electricity, since the body can hold but
| small amount; it is the passage through
the body of an immense discharge, be-
tween clouds and earth, that kills and de-
| strOys.
Old maids, and young ones, too, throw
themselves upon feather bed for pro-
lection from thunder" or descend to
the cellar. An iron bedstead would be
safer than either of these places, because
it would keep the charge away from them
by receiving it through itself. Timid
ladies are terrified when boiler dis
charges steam through safety-valvc, for
fear it will burst; when the roar of escap-
ing steam is proof positive that it will
not burst. And to crown all, some mis-
| guided victims of an insane fever, for
getful that faction and reaction are
equal" and that "gain in power is loss
in time, when the force is given" still
labor and strive to create force out of
nothing, and make what science has,
time and again, declared impossible, a
perpetual motion.
Such absurdities, of course, will never
cease until ignorance ceases. But they
arc altogether too common among those
that should know better, and reveal a
great lack of logical reasoning and def
mite knowledge. Superficiality is per-
haps the great fault of our common cdu-
cation, especially in science, where ex-
actness is essential. The natural and
exact sciences are, we are happy to say,
taking more nearly their deserved stand
in our American educational courses
and we hope the time may come, and
come soon, when such nonsense as we
have discussed cannot possibly be found,
much less believed in, among those who
have been fairly educated.-A. H., in
Scientific american.
| Judge Blodgett, of the United States
District Court, Chicago, has sustained
the right of insurance companies to have
a clause in a policy multiplying it in case
of suicide, "sane or insane"