Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-10-16
CURIOSITY AND SCIENCE.
Much of the Progress of Science Due to
the Desire to Unravel Mysteries.

Much of the Progress of Science Due to
the Desire to Unravel Mysteries.
Curiosity, it maJ be safely said, is
the handmade of science. And to the
men who ave found something mys-
terious in the common occurrences of
life, and whose curiosity has been
sufficiently aroused to unravel the
mystery may require an extraordinary
logical power and an ina agination with
which not all of us are blessed. But,
nevertheless, the process of reasoning
which has led to the greatest discover
les may be largely attributed to the
very human impulseo Of inquisitiveness.
No doubt many man before the
time of Columbus had remarked the
exotic fruits and branches tossed up
by the waves of the Atlantic en- the
shores of the Canary Islands. Such
fruits had never been seen in the Old
World yet the islanders had picked
them up from time immemorial with
never a thought as TO whence they
might come. But the Genoesc mari
ner had both curiosity and imagina-
ton. To him these strange gifts of
the sea became messages sent from a
land which no European ship had ever
touched. 1t may be tnat he was mis-
taken il his conception of that land,
but the fact remains, if the story can
be credited, that then the voyage OF
exploration which eliminated in the
discovery of the New World was first
planned.
Then we have Newtons apple. 1t
matters little whether or no the apple
did fall, or opportunely strike Newton
while he was sitting in his garden.
Things have fallen ever since the Uni
verse was created. And yet no nan
seems ever to have asked himself,
Why?
Robert Mayer, q ships surgeon,
cruising in the East indies, noticed
that the venous blood Of his patients
seemed redder than that Of people liv-
ilS il temperate climes. Doubtless
other physicians had also noted the
fact. Mayer pondercd over this appar-
emily insignificant difference in venous
blood, and reached the conclusion that
the cause must be the lesser degree of
oxidation required to keep up the
body temperature in the torrid zone.
And 1t was this conclusion which
finally induced him to look upon the
body as a machine driven by external
forces. The thought led to the discov-
cry of the mechanical theory CT heat
and to the first comprehensive cpprc-
citation Of the great law of the conscl,-
walton of energy. Blood-lettilg is q
tirc-honored practice which is now
fallen cut Of favor. But an inquisi-
tive and discerning physician deduced
from it conclusions SO marvellous that
he has been called ''thc Calico Of the
nineteenth century"
Chemists speak Familiarity and learn
cdly now Of the law of substitution,
by which they are enabled to explain
so many of the eccentricities OF car
bon compounds. The discoverer of
that law was a curious Frenchman
named Dumas, who was once invited
to court ball given at the Tuileries.
A strong and penetrating odor per-
vaded the royal ballroom. The guests
coughed and sneezed. Dumas also
coughed and sneezed, and wondered
why. He tells us that he finally rec
ognized the odor as that of hydrochlo-
ric acid, and found that the wax ta-
pers by which the ballroom was illu-
minated had been bleached with chic
rine. Experiments which this discov-
cry subsequently induced him to make
proved to him that for the hydrogen
in organic compounds other elements
could be substituted, atom for atom,
and that every organic compound was,
therefore, step to every other or
ganic compound. No generalization
has contributed more to the progress
of organic chemistry than this law OF
substitution.
Such anecdotes can be told ad inflni-
tum. Enough have been given to
show clearly how simple things are
often straws which have guided the
current of scientific thought to epoch
making discoveries.-Sci Ameri-
can.