The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-11-26
POPULAR FtlLACIES
wAH-H HOLD THEIR GROUND y DE-
FlANCE or EDUCATICy

sn,,~> Ett'Acd la - Hv5s-sa stomach.
Particular, set Forth >ohcrl, ana in
Apparent Good Vaith-Ncw-raper Not
..i'o=rthr- EiameIc,-.
Eu2lauIs laureate yItt-. many ) ears ago.
that knowledge grows bat vision fingers
1t j., however, open TO doubt whether knowl-
edge j. Not quite as much given - lingering
Is wisdom. The popular beliefs which still
hold their ground in defiance 81 educational
process are often nothing i- han amazing,
and OF this the daily papers from time to
time afford proof For instance, an esteemed
contemporary the other day published as q
special, q story about man suffering from
living snakes ia his stomach. Tho narrative
was ciTyumstautial and specific The man
was supposed TO have swallowed the eggs Of
these s1rakas three years AGO. They were
Latchel in lis stomach. They lived there,
two Of tacm for two years and the third for
three years, and they gave the poor man
great deal ri pain and trouble. All the par
tieular5 were set forth as slbcTly and ap-
parcutiv in rs good faith as though we were
all still in the middle a-es, and as though the
science Of physiology had not emerged from
a crude and Iufautiic state.
No doubt thousands OF people read that
story W.-Gnu. questioning its truth, and 1t IS
equally certain that the majority of them
lgol, upon =u.h a narrative rs il no way max
ing an uuiue demand upon their Crelulity.
That q imam should swallow a young snake or
n snakes egg and that it should develop and
live in his stomach i, of course, the kind OF
yarn which nobody could accept who had
tho smallest knowledge Of physiology, because
such knowledge would cow iuce them that
The alleged fact was an impossibility; that
the snake, eggs IL swallowed would not be
matched. but ,asested; that Young reptile,
if it should or could find Its way into a human
stomach, wauj iEccut.ucUtly die there, and
that I'll stories Of live snakes LarIorcd in
peoples Iu~.les are UrrcSF0rily inventions Of
the cru!g-t description. But though every
s.h0olloy ought u know this, it Is only too
evident that a great many people do not
know st. AMI that these continue to put faith
i'm fie,in.s. the fundamental aIsurdity Of
which mi .it comment them II the simple
abort -iu.-. Il the story oc the snakes already
referred o. ID is rruyciy stated that one of
the elected oIh!j9us was a garter snake. The
story would have been just as true if m ana
yeufa had boon selected to figure in it.
Tia. newspapers that print ridiculous lies Of
ta5 Kind are not altogether hlamclcss, for
though they 90 not directly iuiarsc the state
wcuts they give currency - them, and no
doubt thor" are many coufiiuS folks who
still Iy.Ie.- things because they find them in
the paper=. Bat considering the immense
revenues spent on popular education IN this
country II Is uat unreasonable 10 expect, at
the clos. ct The Nineteenth century, an cman-
cip1tinu from AZ least the more crude popular
fuI.aels~ which Ignorance formerly f0stered
af.I whom such gretg-IUe cases Of CVedUlity
ais the Mercer county, O., story OF tho man
being converted into 81 red hot statue occur,
and tHn dizs, miuatilu and growth of the
stories show how wide is the area of Egyptian
d1ri.u0- i..h favors the evolution Of such