The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, June 1885, No. 9Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Philosophy
The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, June 1885, No. 9
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
To compress this study into a small space I have omitted a number of
important facts. I pass to the conclusions (_a_) I have reached. (1)
The relative pronoun (_b_) being essentially an inflectional device, is
opposed by the tendencies (_c_) prevailing in English syntax—tendencies
to flat construction. If the reader will look at (_a_), (_b_) and
(_c_) in the preceding sentences, he will see specimens of the flat
construction. (2) _That_ is dead as a relative pronoun. Its use is a
mere carelessness. (3) In some of the so-called idioms for the relative
_that_, the word is not a relative at all, and the “idiom” itself is a
case of flat construction. In “All _that we_ know,” the relative usually
following the demonstrative _that_ has been omitted. (4) The so-called
compound relative _what_ is not a relative at all; in _our_ modern use it
is another flat construction to reduce the employment of _which_ and its
antecedent demonstrative. (5) I infer that the flat constructions ought
to be classified and studied in schools. The effect of such teaching and
study will be seen in a more vigorous English, and it will not be long
before we shall begin to say, “THE RELATIVE PRONOUN MUST GO.”
HOME STUDIES IN CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
BY PROF. J. T. EDWARDS, D.D.
Director of the Chautauqua School of Experimental Science.
CHEMISTRY OF ORGANISMS.
An organism is a structure endowed with life, and acting by means of
organs. Organic beings are of two kinds, vegetable and animal. Ordinarily
there is little difficulty in discriminating between them, but there
is a border line along which the two great kingdoms meet, which is as
shadowy and uncertain as that uniting, in distant view, the ocean and the
sky. It is usual to say that animals move their parts, and that plants
do not. The former have locomotion, the latter are stationary. Animals
have nerves and receive their food in cavities; plants do not. But the
most important distinction of all is that the vegetable world draws its
support from the mineral world, while the animal lives upon the vegetable.
[Illustration: SHOWING THE FAT GLOBULES IN MILK.]
Both animals and plants begin their existence with a single cell. Growth
consists in the enlargement and multiplication of cells. Here the
physiologist terminates his investigations, and the chemist begins.
His first step, however, results in the destruction of the organism. Of
him it is emphatically true, “He murders to dissect.” The moment that
chemistry seeks to determine the elementary character of an organic
substance, that substance ceases to have an organic form. In a sense,
therefore, there is no such thing as _organic_ chemistry. It is a
convenient term, however, for the study of the chemistry of substances
formed by life.
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