The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-17
ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE.
Modern Science and Invention Ante
dated by Hundreds Of Years


From the Chicago Nears-
Il may be well for Us Of the nineteenth
century occasionally to reflect that we are
not the originators and inventors of every
good thing, and that wisdom will not die
with us. We are accustomed 70 pride our
selves, and with reas n, upon the marvellous
strides that have been made within the last
few decades IN scle &C ana IN us appHca
ton TO the useful arts. II should be remem-
bered tuat much of the discovery watch we
take to ourselves was known in some form
or another IN the m ring hours OF history.
Wendell Phillips mas written an essay upon
THE Lost Arts" the reading OF when
would start.e many people But, exclusive
OF the knowledge which has passed away
such as Of the manufacture Of liquid glass,
OF steel such as Damascus made-It is utter
estng TO note how the facts Of what we are
pleased to call modern science were known
hundreds Of years ago.
Twenty centuries before Watt, Hero, a
| mechanician of Alexandria, wrote book
called "Pneumatica, in which he described
| a number of machines whose motive power
was ste4 T.. In tie same treatise he de-
scribed another machine which he called
| ''aeolipile.n almo,t indentical with our
turbine wheel. Paddle wheels, like those of
our steamers, but propelled b. hand in
war galleys, were among the Egyptians
| from the earliest times. In 1913 bianc0 de
Gavay, a Spaniard, built ship of 200 tons
| burden, which he propelled by steam in the
harbor of Barcelona, al tie rate of three
miles an hour. Fulton, when he launched
the Clermont, did not do much better.
In the twelfth century there lived in
Etruria priests who were thought to be in
communication with the spirits of heaven.
They gained this credit by being able to
draw thunderbOlts from the clouds; prob
ably Franklin never heard of them. His
torians Of credit detail how, on the highest
bastion of the castle of Durino, on the shore
of the Adriatic, there els an iron rod rising
some feet into the air. A guard was sta
toned near by, who, from time to time,
brought the point of his iron spear close to
the rod. If a spark passed, the sentinel
gave the alarm, and the fishermen near by
hastily gathered in their nets and prepared
for coming storm.
Centuries and centuries before DR.. Jen-
ner, the learned physicians of India and
the east understood the merits of vaccina
ton and practiced it. Dhanwantari, the
Esculapius Of the east, explains the method
they employed in his sacred book, "Sayeya
Grapthano" Drs. jackson, Morton and
Wells dispute as to which of them is en-
titled TO the credit of having discovered
aaBsthetlcs. In the "Odysse Homer de-
scribes accurately the effects of an anaS-
thetic under q name from which we get our
word "nepenthe," the original word signi-
flying without suffering" The French
academy possesses a venerable Chinese
work which describes preparation of hemp
called "ma yo," used 1900 years ago to
deaden pain.
Nor was the science of optics unknown to
the ancient world. Alexander kept a copy
of the Had inclosed in the she'll of a nut /;
this could not have been written without a
microscope. Mr.. Layard found in ruined
temple at Nineveh what was confessed by
Sir David Brewster to be decidedly and
designedly a magnifying glass" The EN-
peror Shan, who reigned in Asia 1925 B. c.,
it is somewhere recorded observed the
heavens through sliding tube" One
smiles at picture of the Emperor Nero at
theater with an opera glass, but what
else was the gem through which he was
won't to gaze at the gladIators from his seat
in the amphitheaier!
The ancient Gauls employedk.reapingm ma
chimes in their fields; Theophrastus (B. G..
1872 gives description of a proposed sower.
The tombs Of Egypt furnished the lock to
which Hobbs gave his name, and which for
long time was accounted the most secure.
Aristomachus of Soil, hundreds of years
before Huber, gave fifty-eight years of his
life to the study of bees.
The sacred fires of the Magi, which have
burned perpetually since the time of
Zoroaster, what are they but jets of natural
gass In one of the lower provinces of
China, for time immemorial, the people
have used it conveyed in bamboo tubes.
One Of the most ancient of Chinese writers
speaks of boxes which gave out the sound
of voices of those long since dead, though
we must not on this account too hastily
accuse Mr.. Edison of having stolen the idea
of the photograph.
We are accustomed to date an era in the
worlds history from the invention of print
ing and OF the mariners compass and the
discovery of America The absurdity of
any Invention" of printing is we'll set forth
10 some verses, almost forgotten now on the
invention of the Three Legged Stool" 1t
is hard to imagine time when the princi-
pal OF printing was not understood. The
| stamping of coins, for instance, has been
| practiced by all nations from the earliest
times. Disraeli says the Romans were more
ever acquainted with movable types.
Writings dating from long before the So
| called invention of the campass speak of il
| as o thing long known. The inspired Book
| of Mormon, indeed. and what could be
higher authority -provides the contem-
| poraries of Noah with compasses having all
the improvements of the modern pinnacle.
| The arguments on either side as to the dis
| every of America by Columbus are vel
known. 1t is a little difficult to account for
the finding off the eastern coast a skeleton
| in armor declared to be an exact counter.
part of those worn at the seige of Troy.
| Some of our fondly che ished scientific
| theories, claimed as the result Of advanced
culture and scientific methods of induction
are simply revivals of the speculations OF
ancient wisdom. Such is the Darwin
| hypothesis. The same system was set forth
about 100 A. D. by Abubekrihu, an author
| and philosopher of Arabia. And in 1871
Pecocke of Oxford university published az
account of this author and review Of hi!
| theory.
The doctrines of the correlation and con
servation of energy are enthusiastically de
| nominated "the grand twin conceptions OF
modern science" They are but the resur
rected beliefs of 1000 years ago. justin
Martyr reports the peripatstic philosophers
to have said: "All things recur according
to the unchanging laws of endless progress
sion" Lockyer himself could not have put
it better. Here we we have Huxley anC
Tyndall antedated by 1000 years.
Defining jag"