The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-20

across, or, at any rate, not far from,
the pole itself, and viii emerge into
open water somewhere along the east
coast of Greenland The expedition will
thus bring a sum of information about
the polar region which win be of price
less benefit to many branches of sci
ence"
The man who can thus Law out for
himself such a course of scientific re
search must surely be interesting in his
personality. The truth of this is well
attested to by Mr.. Richard Heard
whose friend he is. Mr.. Heard tells
many stories which are characteristic
of the great explorer.
NEARLY BECAME A PROFESSOR.
1T is not generally known says Mr..
Heard, that Nansen once came near
reIinqushing his north pole project
through the agency Of a college in In
through Indiana one day, Nansen said:
This is the place where I nearly be
came a college professor. 1 asked him
what he meant. He said:
8 They offered me the prOfessorship
of zoology in the university here and I
came very near accepting it 1 was then
contemplating my first trip to Green
land, and it was q question with me as
TO whether 1 should go to America
3
take my expedition to Greenland. 1t
required a great deal of elaboration,
but finally [ made up my mind and de-
clined the professorship.
NANSEN'S BRILLIANT BOYHOOD.
THE inside facts of Nansens early
life are not publicly known, but he was
as brilliant boy as he is a man. We
started out the other day for a quiet
trip to Niagara to see the falls, and
while in a trolley car, Nansen was talk
ing Of mathematics.
" When I was boy he said, I
solved some problems which had never
before been solved. They thought they
were going to make mathematician Of
me-
Z said that was news to me and
asked what were the problems. Then
he hemmed and hawed, for he didn' t
remember the English word for eX-
pressing his meaning; but finally 1
asked him if he could tell me in Ger
man. 'Kegelschnitt' he Said-that is,
comic sections. 1t seems that Nansen,
as a boy, succeeded in solving several
problems in comic sections by means of
geometry, and some of his solutions
are still used in the colleges of Nor
way. In his leisure moments he had
2
youth he also studied to be an artist
and carried his studies pretty far. He
did a good deal of Sketching and paint
ing. This early practice is showing to
good advantage in the charts which he
exhibits at lectures, and has led to the
production of pictures of Arctic scene
and color such as have never been
equalled.
After these early studies he went
{ in ~
entific pursuits. While at a banquet
given hansen some time ago Profess
sor Carl Lumholtz told me that before
he had known Nansen as an explorer
he had been studying book on the
nerve system of animals. In this book
the author printed a new theory of
the nervous system different from any
previously held Since that time lead
ing anatomiSts have proved that this
theory was correct. The man who
wrote that book was Nansen.
"A few days after the banquet got
/ hold of hansen in the railroad car and
! asked him for an explanation of his
/ discovery. He said:
That was when I WIS curator OF
! the Museum of Anatomy in Bergen. ]
made a special study of the animal
brain and examined thousands OF
( brains microscopicaiiy. That was the
happiest time Of my life, and l should
+ ike to go back to it now. Well, dis
4 covered that the seat of the soul in
animals, contrary to the human brain
I was not in the nerve center, where il
had been supposed TO be, but at an
other point OF the brain lie then
went into technical detail, which. how
4 ever, would hardly be understood by
1 the layman. Then he said I printed
that theory, although it was absolutely