The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-02
TRUTBS OF NATURE.
Two Of Them Discovered by a Poet
Mind and Matter One.


| Two Of Them Discovered by a Poet.
Mind and Matter One.
From the Washington Star.
Wonderful, is it not. that two of the
greatest truths of nature should have been
first discovered by a poet, who was not
sciontist at allg" said the professor TO a
Star reporter. ut was Goethe whose
genius inspired intuition FIRST lighted upon
the bottom fact OF botany, since recognized
namely, that each plant has put two parts
leaf and stem. The productive portions
pisttl, petal, stigma, calyx and corolla--are
only modified leaves Now and then, as If
the very purpose of proving this propo-
sition, green rose Is developed with leaf
like petals, and it is the Same way with
other things vegetabls--they all revert
occasionally to their primitive forms.
The other grand discovery made by
Goethe was in the philosophy of the animal
kingdom. One day, while walking through
the fields, he came upon the skeleton OF q
beast that had died. A practical anatomist,
ii he had paussd..o consider the remains,
would have discussed with himself merely
the relation of the bones, but the post
viewed the whole framework of the ami
NAL that had been, with the enlarged vis-
ion of a theorist. While doing so tho fact
daWned upon him, recognized at this later
day by science. that the skull of the Great
ure was, after all, only an enlarged verte-
brae or expanded section of the backbone.
The conclusion Immediately followed that
the brain was but a magniaed portion OF
the spinal cord.
"Thus was a new discovery In the philcs-
ophy of nature first hit upon. Science now
recognizes ID as a truth. Just as the flower
in only leaf modified for reproductive
purposes, so the brain is simply an extrem.
ity of the spinal cord exfolia ed into an
elaborate, highly convoluted organ Of
thinking.
"Do you ever think what Is meant by
what we call the convoluti 1ns OF the brain Z
| Take the brain Of a chicken-a creature
proverbially stupid-and you will fnd that
it Is nearly smooth. The brain of a man,
on the other hand. is 50 covered with worm
| like oonvolutons as to resemble 30 much
| maccaroni. Now, l will show you by u
little sketch what these convolutions sig
| nifty.
"Let me have your pencil and notebook.
| Here Is an outline, roughly stretched, of
| Manhattan Island as it was before the white
man landed upon it. You will observe that
! its entire shore line Is only extended enough
| to accommodate a few thousand ships more
along it. Now, observe what Manhattan
Island is like to-day, as / sketch In the long
| wharves projecting from it like fringe on
| all sides. At these wharves all the commerce
Of the world can be moored.
Take notice how my pencil, following
its contour as modified by mau's ingenuity,
| goes 10 and out. tracing the conyolutions Of
| the brain. What blood is 70 the brain COM
merce is 70 New Y ork, and tie more surface
afforded for circulation or shore line for
| lying against the better the thinking or the
more active and enlarged the traffic. A
rather pretty illustration, is it notl
The grasp Of the human understanding
expands every day. 1t is only few. year }
since Humboldt conceived the mighty tru h
that cosmos-the universal organization Of
thlugs-was one system, however many
univsrses it may contain. each atom in Il
depending upon and having relation 10 all
OF the others Next came Lamarck, who
showed that all animals are kin.
Then folio the great inventor Of the
spectroscope, who proved that all OF the
stars are composed Of the same sorts Of ma
terlals as those which make up the earth.
Finally came the discoveries who learned
that the invisible powers of nature, heat,
light sound, electricity, magnetism, etc !,
are al forms Of motion. All these propo j.
tions have been demonstrated. What the
most advanced scientists are striving now
TO prove is that mind and matter are one
and the same. That proposition represents
the highest intellectual effort Of the age"