Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-09-21

= HOLD that science is incompetent to make
commemorative denials, even about the
ether. and that it goes wrong when II
makes the attempt. Science should not deal
in negations; it is strong in affirmations' but
nothing based on abstraction ought it to pre-
sumo TO deny outside its own region. II oi'eh
happens that things abstracted from ana IL
nored b. one branch OF science may Dc taken
into consideration by another.
Experimental scientists should not deny inc
existence Of spirit apart from matter, TOT they
know nothing, eXpermentay, OF the ether OF
space the substance which binds all matter
throughout the universe together
am not alone in feeling the fascination OF
this portentOus entity Its Curiously elusive
and intangible character combined win us
universal and uuifyng permeance' IT'S appar.
emily infinite extent, It's definite and perfect
nroperties make the ether the most interesting
as II is Nv far the largest and most tunda-
mental Ingredient in the material cosmos
Matter II Is not, but material 1t Is, 1t be-
Longs to the material universe and Is to be
investigated by ordinary methods. But to say
..is is hy no means to deny that 1t may nave
.lenfal and spiritual functions to subserVe IN
some other order Of existence as matter mas
IN this.
pine Of continuity II may be much more for
without II there could hardly be n material
universe at all Certainly, however II Is es'
sential to continuity; It is the one all-per
medtluE SUBSTANCE WulNh bIhNo INV "''''N -
the PARTICLES of matter together. 1t Is the
uniting and binding medium without which, II
matter could exist at all, II could exist only
as chaotic and Isolated fragments, and II Is
the universal medium Of communication be-
tween worlds and particles And yet 1t Is
possible for people to deny its existence, De-
cause il is unrelated to any OF our senses, eN-
cept sight-and to that only in an indirect
and not easily recognized fashion.
Life itself introduces an inCalCulable element
{ntO many phpuOmpna The VaRarleS OF u
fire or a cyclone could all be predicted by
Laplace- Calculator given the initial positlons'
velocties and the law Of acceleration OF the
molecules: but no mathematician could calcu'
late the orbit OF a common house ny.
physicist into whose galvanometer spider
had crept would be liable 20 get phenomena
of a kind quite inexplcable, until he discovered
the supernatural, 1. e.. literally superphyslcaL
cause. ! will risk the assertion that life In.
PRODUCES something inCalCulable and purposetul
amid the laws of physics; 1t thus distinctly
supplements those laws though it leaves them
otherwise precisely as they we're ana oDeys
them all.
We see only its effect; we do not see life
itself. Conversion of inorganic into organic
is effected always by living organisms. The
conversion under those conditions certainly
occurs, and the process may be studied. Life
appears necessary to the conversion, which
clearly takes place under the guidance OF life,
though in itself it is a physical and chemical
process. Many laboratory conversions take
place under the guidance OF me, ana, nut lot
the experimental, would not have occurred.
Again, putrefaCtion. and fermentation and
publication of rivers and disease are not
purely and solely chemical processes. Chem.
ical processes they are but they are Initiated
and conducted by living organisms. just when
medicine is becoming biological, and when the
hope of making the tropical belt Of the earth
healthily habtable by energetic races is at
tracing the attention of people Of power,
philosophzing biologists should not attempt TO
give their science away to chemistry and
physics.
Scientific men are hostile to superstition,
and rightly so, for great many popular SUI
perstitions both annoying and contempt-
BILE; yet occasionally the term may be wrongly
applied to praCtises of which the theory Is UNI
known. To a superficial observer some of the
practises of biologists themselves must appear
grossly superstitious. To combat malaria Sir
Ronald Ross does not indeed erect an altar;
no, he oils pond, making Nbation to presiding
genii. What can be more ludiCrous than the
curious and evidently savage ritual insisted
on by United States officers, al that hygieniC-
ally splendid achievement the Panama
Canal-the ritual of punching a hole in every
discarded tin, with the object of keeping off
disease! What more absurd, agaiu-iu super
fetal appearance than the practise Of burn
ing poisoning a soil to make 1t extra fertile!