The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1875-01-01
Popular Fallacies.
IA. H., in Scientific Americana

onnnf "nu aus most conducive to mans
eol4IoIC ana civilization, has been great
u Ci"h any preceding half thousand
$3.50 oSIehSe is now the measure of q
laLiolI J Standing; for general scientific
khoWledge means education. which
means refinement and religion. which
means death to superstition, And in
tiliS country especially, where education
gnu Sfue tellglon are so generally diff
fu5ed, science seems to have q strong
il0la upon the respect and admiration of
all but the most ignorant and backward
minds. Z
In view, then, of this general diffusion
OIL scientific knowledge, which in this
country, thoughnoti in itself astonishing,
Is yeI great When compared with that IN
most oLher lands, it does seem remark
aDle oII1tltnes that sc many old and
IoHg-eXploded fallacies should still find
ore1ence among the majority of people,
ana even amongsthe we'll educated. If
rs fairly astounding to see what ont
~rageously absurd stories will ]circulafe
through the popular press, often pub
llsIed In the fullest good faith, and ac-
copied as true by supplemented readers.
ne scientific hoaxes perpetrated in the
OnlCed states are almost innumerable 3:
d that they continue to be published.
FepqDllshed, revamped, and, strangest
OF all, believed, and solemnly discussed
III journals that ought to know better.
does not speak well for the thoroughness
OF tins scientific knowledge, on whose
dlftqslon we so often pride ourselves.
we remember @ recent example in the
story, lately published in a California
paper Sthese floaxes generally emanate
from the fertile West,) concerning q
magnetic cave, said to have been lust
discovered, possessing such powerful
attraction thathatchets were drawn from
the hands of the explorers and flew to
the roof, remaining glued there; while
untortunates in hObnailed shoes had to
leave their foot encasements behind
them. This story, though laughed at by
0ne-halt the community, was received
With open eyes and gaping mouths by
the other halt, who could not comnre-
bend that the size of the attracted BODY
might have something to do with the
force OF attraction.
But 1T is not+merely of these ingenious
lloaxes that we wish to speak, but of a
more injurious state of ignorance among
the common people. We refer to D
lar %fallacles concerning the sciences of
everyday life, and to the general igno-
ana IN the first principles of science i'm
all its departments. Some of these fall
lacles are simply ludicrous; others are
worse. What absurd plumbers are made
IN matters OF hygienet The prosperity
of quack doctors, who have medicines,
each one OF which will cure all the ills
that man-ls heir TO, is a fOrcible example
OF the latter case. And where we see
newspapers-secular and religious-ad-
vertlslng their poisonous wares, we can
hardly tell whether to call them stupid
or wicked.
By looking into a looking-glass, in
ellned at 49, Mr.. , of Northamp-
ton. obtained last night a fine view of
JJupllters satellites,n says a certain
Springfield paper. How Prof. Smell. of
Amherst, must have chuckied to readit!
Nj. 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 satellites 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 from a lightning stroke by her
son, who dashed a pailful of cold water
upon her. 1t is supposed that the water
carried off the electricity remaining in
her body, and saved ller!" Such is the
Boston Journals lucid explanation of al
cure. The poor lady, almost
killed by the terrible stroke, was saved
by the sudden nervous shock caused by
the cold water which her son with such
presence of mind threw at her. tits not
the presence of electricity in q human
that e~ndangers. nor even the dis
OF that electlicity, since the body
can hold bHtsa small amount; it is the
passage through the body of an immense
discharge, between clouds and earth.
killsand destroys.
Old maids, and young ones too, throw
themselves upon a f~eather-bed for pro-
from Z thunder or descend to
the cellar. An iron bedstead would be
than either of these places, because
it would keep the charge away from
by receiving it through itself.
ladies are terrified when d boiler
discharges steam through a safety-yalye, I
for fear il will burst; when the roar of
escaping steam IS proof positive that it
will not burst. And to crown all. some
victims OF an insane fever.
forgetful that faction and reaction are
aduaI,5' and that gain in p0Werislossm
time, when the force is given still labor
md strive to createforce out of nothing.
md make what science has, time and
sgain, declared impossible perpetual
motion. 1
Such absurd1ties of course will never ]
cease until ignorance ceases But they {
altogether too common among those !
hat Should know better, and reveal a
great lack of logical reasoning and def
mite knowledge. S~uperficiallty is per- I
laps the great fault of our common edu-i
especially In sciences where ex-
is essential The natural and J
- -x tsaxlrl ~ ~u.E T.