Evening star., 1924-01-29
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
EVERYDAY MYSTERIES. Charles
Greeley Abbot. The Macmillan
COmnanx

EVERYDAY MYSTERIES. Charles
Greeley Abbot. The Macmillan
Company.
II the beliefs, attitudes and prac-
tices OF only little over 200 years
ago could for tho moment be re-
viewed, how the witch fires would
rekindle around the dlscovererB and
inventors OF innumerable things that,
then beyond the limits of imagination
even, now stand as everyday facts
OF general acceptance. What a COM
mon union of zeal, in that case, there
would be to rid the world of clearly
bedeviled agents OF sin, striving to
open up the deep secrets Of God
Himself, challenging, In effect, the
very omnipotence of divinity. An
astonishing change Of front. this,
these 200 years. Indeed, 1t is only
within the past century that the
great magician has risen to fall ac-
ceptance Of man as co-worker, there
thousand daily miracles, packing the
plain and unproblemattc hours with
marVels of performance with be-
wildering mysteries Of achievement.
On the one hand, science. the mod
ern magician, is, today, setting out
with distance and time. linking up
earth and sea and sky TO a partner,
ship Of practical service. changing
the face of nature itself. increasing
phase of art, lifting individual man
to the equivalent of D host through
the multiplication of his powers and
opportunities. On the other hand
science Is working in thousand un-
heralded ways to secure for man
VI ha%
leave, or ought to leave, a large
margin of leisure and spirit for max
ing himself into more of a man than
ardurous unrelieved toll can possibly
produce. One wonders about that
about what is really done with the
new leisure that science has placed
at the disposal of mankind. How
ever, that is quite another story.
x x4
It is with a mere handful of these
commonplaces Of science that the
book in hand engages itself, and us.
Science nowadays is democratic fell
low dispensing favors to all alike.
ANY building-aIrnost any room
gives evidence Of his good service.
One presses this or turns that, and
light or heat flows In from some
remote and only half understood
tallow dip and cherished irebrand
or little more than century ago.
Nowadays. too, one takes up a simple
contraption Of mouth -and-ear piece.
thereby talking az II face TO face
with distant friend. Or. one settles
OF music or speech made half around
the world away. One winds UP
machine for the reincarnation of
Caruso or even Williams through the
things. probably as no more than
we deserve, forgetting to wonder and
to question, neglecting to turn.
hnal!y, upon ourselves for our own
part out of the great emancipation
that science has brought to all.
y II x
1t is OF everyday acceptances, such
as these, that DR.. Abbot has made
this book. Pots and pans; bread and
cheese; old shoes; the flow Of the
spigot: the prodigious presence Of the
plumber; the doorbell family; the
truth about soap; rags and velvet
gowns; a 2-cent investme nt-these
are some Of the themes. Dry-as dust
excursions behind these casual
themes? Not at all. True adventure
instead. Selections for the children.
written down to their assumed capac-
tty in the familiar blend of maudlin
simplicity and pious appreciation of
God d-all-his-works? Not even q
bowling acquaintance here with that
sort OF stuff. These are straight
stories, so plainly told and so well
articulated with everyday concerns
as to offer both information and the
touch of drama needed to deliver
them to the full interest OF grown
folks and children alikc.
Take US the foxes, the little foxes.
that spoil the vines; for our vines
have tender grapes" So this writer
chants along with old Solomon as he
ltells the story of The Little Spoil
ers." An account, this, of the most
dramatic. certainly Of one of the most
important, OF all scientific discover
lies: 1881; farm, Pouiily le Fort
| France; chief actor, Louis Pasteur
audience; farmers, veterinarieS, doc
tors, scientists, officials, newspaper
demonstration of his theory OF germs
as the source of disease. Around
them lay the dead cattle as, week
earlier he had foretold when, in the
presence of the same audience he had
! tnoculated these animals with the
virus of anthrax. Here took it's start
the science Of bacterioloey, inaug-
urating a new era in the theory and
treatment of disease, a new element
in scientific agriculture. new es-
sential in the consideration of health
from whatever point of view. An alb
sorbing story In this teiling-simple
concrete, dramatic, opening toward a
vision of the future. There are
twenty. Of these stories. each an
mon understanding through the
medium in which this mystery
operates as part of the general
economy of existence in these won
lder.working days.
DR.. Abbot stands out here as one in
a new group of pioneers. BY virtue
of this book he takes a place with
those scientists who, in increasing
numbers, stand as a connecting link
between the simon-pure scientist and
the general public. In other words,
he is here engaged in the essential
work of making scientific knowledge
fit for daily human use, SO that the
average man may incorporate this
knowledge with the general sum of
agencies and opportunities around
taken and few scientists have all
ready set out along the road of COM
mon usefulness.
When science was young it was
naughty and exclusive, necessarily
naughty and exclusive. For its chief
business then was to breed a new
type of man--the scientist. A work
of special construction, this new man,
whose sole function it was. and is. to
discover and register absolute truth.
Naturally, as this new man grew in
the powers which science demanded,
and to whose perfection he was dedi-
Gated. he gradually lost many of his
strictly human qualities-sympath thy.
fiexibility, acceptance of the human
need, conformity, understanding. But