sition is that, even if a fourth
dimension exists, there is some law of all the matter with which we are
acquainted which prevents any of it from entering that dimension, so
that, in our natural condition, it must forever remain unknown to us.
Another possibility in space of four dimensions would be that of
turning a hollow sphere, an india-rubber ball, for example, inside out
by simple bending without tearing it. To show the motion in our space
to which this is analogous, let us take a thin, round sheet of
india-rubber, and cut out all the central part, leaving only a narrow
ring round the border. Suppose the outer edge of this ring fastened
down on a table, while we take hold of the inner edge and stretch it
upward and outward over the outer edge until we flatten the whole ring
on the table, upside down, with the inner edge now the outer one. This
motion would be as inconceivable in "flat-land" as turning the ball
inside out is to us.
XI
THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
The claims of scientific research on the public were never more
forcibly urged than in Professor Ray Lankester's recent Romanes Lecture
before the University of Oxford. Man is here eloquently pictured as
Nature's rebel, who, under conditions where his great superior commands
"Thou shalt die," replies "I will live." In pursuance of this
determination, civilized man has proceeded so far in his interference
with the regular course of Nature that he must either go on and acquire
firmer control of the conditions, or perish miserably by the vengeance
certain to be inflicted on the half-hearted meddler in great affairs.
This rebel by every step forward renders himself liable to greater and
greater penalties, and so cannot afford to pause or fail in one single
step. One of Nature's most powerful agencies in thwarting his
determination to live is found in disease-producing parasites. "Where
there is one man of first-rate intelligence now employed in gaining
knowledge of this agency, there should be a thousand. It should be as
much the purpose of civilized nations to protect their citizens in this
respect as it is to provide defence against human aggression."
It was no part of the function of the lecturer to devise a plan for
carrying on the great war he proposes to wage. The object of the
present article is to contribute some suggestions in this direction;
with especial reference to conditions in our own country; and no better
text can
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