The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-01-27

lcoutinued from Sixth Psss-l

as the ice covered the earth: then low
organisms were born that in ages b.
came the great mammals Of the latest
strata
Perhaps the most marked character
istic OF scientific research in the nine
teenth century has been its study Of
the infinitely little Il has been an age
Of inconceivahly minute and accurate
measurements Each branch OF sci
ence has turned microscope or spectre
! scope to seek for some primal cause
the atom, the molecule. the cell. the
microbe, the number OF lines in the
spectrum. the number of vibrations
1 OF light or heat The micrometer has
played the part thar the mariners
compass did in the age Of discoveries.
| The paraTlax of astar has been meas
ured and the speed in which il moves
and the size and velocity of a nolecuIe
OF gas have been computed.
The first years of the century were
extraordinarily fruitful Youns. nv
means of the spectrum. gave the first
convincing proof of lie undulatory
theory Of light, and conceived the idea
Of luminous ether" in which the vi
orations occur. Since then heat. cleo
tricity. magetism. chemical affinity.
have all been shown to be likewise
merely forms Of vibrating motion IN
the ether, whose existence as an elias
tic, rigid incompressible. frictionless
solid, filing all space. is now generally
accepted by all physicists. Dalton's
theory of Interchangeable atoms and his
nrst table OF atomic weights provided
that basis of exactness on which mod
ern chemistry has been built. and the
properties of the atoms were rapidIy
defined; thus opening up the path for
experiment in countless combinations
Volta's pile appeared in the last wear
OF the eighteenth century. and with ii 4
Davy reduced chemical substances so 4
thoroughly that none of the elements
ne obtained have been deeomposed
since, and also produced the electric
hght- Soon after Oersted discovered
electro-magetism, which quickly gave
the ideas of the telegraph and the
motor, while Fresnel discovered the
polarization of light and the first as
terolds were detected by astronomers
Inc middle OF the century was mark
ed by great mathematical feat. the
discovery or the planet Neptune by
crouch Adams and Leverrier indepen-
IDENTIFY. The invention of photography.
ater employed Systematically in as
-ronomy. made it possible to detect
objects too faint for human /
eyes to see. while Kirchoff and Bun
sens spectrum analysis. besides the .
services they have rendered TO chem
stry and physics. enabled the chemi-
al composition of the celestial bodies
% be determined, and proved the iden-
.ity in substance of the earth with the
sun and stars. BY their aid. too, the !
distance OF the stars can be determin-
I'd, and the presence and course of in .
Visible stars has been found To the
middle OF the century belongs the ,
of the most important law
If matter since Newton's law of crawl /
alton, the law of the conservation of 6
energy, the doctrine namely, that to {
'reate or annihilate energy is as i'm ,
possible as to create or annihilate mat !
er; and that all the phenomena of the 8
universe consist in transfer
covered more than once earlier in the
century, it was arrived at independent
by several experimenters. chief t
among whom were Joule, who had {
previously demonstrated the law of {
he mechanical equivalent of heat, and
Julius Mayer, the originator of the
meteoric hypothesis"
Later have come Clerk Maxwelps
Iinetic theory of gases, the liquefac-
ion of all gases by intense cold and
he approach TO the absolute zero:
iertz's interrupted electric waves.
which have yielded wireless tele-
,raphy; Roentgen's discovery of the
athode rays, which have rendered the
Interior of Opaque objects visible, and i
he wholly periodic law in chemis- i
ry."
A curious trait in all the sciences .
las been the expectation or hope IF =.
he discovery of some nrst cause, like
he idea in chemistry that the ele- '
nents may yet be decomposed and t
ONE one element at the root of all L
re found. or in biology the search for '
he first common element of life. :
nc achievements III geographical O
explorations would alone have given
Tory to a century less wonderful.
he nautical problem that Capt. Cook
Id not live to solve, the northwest u
assage, was accomplished by Nc n
lure, and demonstrated to be imprac. [
cable as Cook supposed it to be. The
ortheast passage. too. has been made
Nordenskjold, who in the Vega cir s.
the Europe-Asian con-
nent- The search for Sir John Frank :
n led to the exploration of the frozen \
rchipelago north of America and the
lscovery of the north magnetic pole.
ince then the pole itself has been the
pal of arctic explorers; Nansen has el
aversed Greenland, Peary has found c
1T that it is an island. while Nansen T
nd Cagni have come within less than q,
'ur degrees of the pole itself. Beyond =,
lie line to which Cooks circumnayi ~
alton restricted the possible antarc.
continent several have penetrated
10 Tor the first time men have land =
and wintered on the antarctic coast
America discovery has been folloE-
so soon by settlement that the
emory has quickly. disappeared, and
ZEN the remarkable journey of Lewis
Id Clarke up the Missouri into Ors-
N is almost forgotten The same is y
ue OF Australia. whose interior des-
Is have been crossed by daring ex-
orers under terrible hardships. and
a good part OF Asia The opening
} of Africa, however. is hardly sec
ID in importance to the circumnayi-
Ition of the cape of Good Hope. Fiji
years ago barely the rim of the dark "