The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 | Page 5

OR HUNTING LEOPARDS 238 Photo: W. S. Berridge.
COMMON OTTER 239 Photo: C. Reid.
SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD 246 Photo: Elliott & Fry.
J. CLERK-MAXWELL 246 Photo: Rischgitz Collection.
SIR WILLIAM CROOKES 247 Photo: Ernest H. Mills.
PROFESSOR SIR W. H. BRAGG 247 Photo: Photo Press.
COMPARATIVE SIZES OF MOLECULES 250
INCONCEIVABLE NUMBERS AND INCONCEIVABLY SMALL PARTICLES 250
WHAT IS A MILLION? 250
THE BROWNIAN MOVEMENT 251
A SOAP BUBBLE (Coloured Illustration) 252 Reproduced from The Forces of Nature (Messrs. Macmillan).
DETECTING A SMALL QUANTITY OF MATTER 254 From Scientific Ideas of To-day.
THIS X-RAY PHOTOGRAPH IS THAT OF A HAND OF A SOLDIER WOUNDED IN THE GREAT WAR 254 Reproduced by permission of X-Rays Ltd.
AN X-RAY PHOTOGRAPH OF A GOLF BALL, REVEALING AN IMPERFECT CORE 254 Photo: National Physical Laboratory.
A WONDERFUL X-RAY PHOTOGRAPH 255 Reproduced by permission of X-Rays Ltd.
ELECTRIC DISCHARGE IN A VACUUM TUBE 258
THE RELATIVE SIZES OF ATOMS AND ELECTRONS 258
ELECTRONS STREAMING FROM THE SUN TO THE EARTH 259
PROFESSOR SIR J. J. THOMSON 262
ELECTRONS PRODUCED BY PASSAGE OF X-RAYS THROUGH AIR 262 From the Smithsonian Report, 1915.
MAGNETIC DEFLECTION OF RADIUM RAYS 263
PROFESSOR R. A. MILLIKAN'S APPARATUS FOR COUNTING ELECTRONS 263 Reproduced by permission of Scientific American.
MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE 266
THE THEORY OF ELECTRONS 267
ARRANGEMENTS OF ATOMS IN A DIAMOND 267
DISINTEGRATION OF ATOMS 270
SILK TASSEL ELECTRIFIED 270 Reproduced by permission from The Interpretation of Radium (John Murray).
SILK TASSEL DISCHARGED BY THE RAYS FROM RADIUM 270
A HUGE ELECTRIC SPARK 271
ELECTRICAL ATTRACTION BETWEEN COMMON OBJECTS 271 From Scientific Ideas of To-day.
AN ELECTRIC SPARK 274 Photo: Leadbeater.
AN ETHER DISTURBANCE AROUND AN ELECTRON CURRENT 275 From Scientific Ideas of To-day.
LIGHTNING 278 Photo: H. J. Shepstone.
LIGHT WAVES 279
THE MAGNETIC CIRCUIT OF AN ELECTRIC CURRENT 279
THE MAGNET 279
ROTATING DISC OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON FOR MIXING COLOURS (Coloured Illustration) 280
WAVE SHAPES 282
THE POWER OF A MAGNET 282
THE SPEED OF LIGHT 283 Photo: The Locomotive Publishing Co., Ltd.
ROTATING DISC OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON FOR MIXING COLOURS 283
NIAGARA FALLS 286
TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY 287 Photo: Stephen Cribb.
"BOILING" A KETTLE ON ICE 287 Photo: Underwood & Underwood.
THE CAUSE OF TIDES 290
THE AEGIR ON THE TRENT 290 Photo: G. Brocklehurst.
A BIG SPRING TIDE, THE AEGIR ON THE TRENT 291 Photo: G. Brocklehurst.

The Outline of Science

INTRODUCTION
There is abundant evidence of a widened and deepened interest in modern science. How could it be otherwise when we think of the magnitude and the eventfulness of recent advances?
But the interest of the general public would be even greater than it is if the makers of new knowledge were more willing to expound their discoveries in ways that could be "understanded of the people." No one objects very much to technicalities in a game or on board a yacht, and they are clearly necessary for terse and precise scientific description. It is certain, however, that they can be reduced to a minimum without sacrificing accuracy, when the object in view is to explain "the gist of the matter." So this OUTLINE OF SCIENCE is meant for the general reader, who lacks both time and opportunity for special study, and yet would take an intelligent interest in the progress of science which is making the world always new.
The story of the triumphs of modern science is one of which Man may well be proud. Science reads the secret of the distant star and anatomises the atom; foretells the date of the comet's return and predicts the kinds of chickens that will hatch from a dozen eggs; discovers the laws of the wind that bloweth where it listeth and reduces to order the disorder of disease. Science is always setting forth on Columbus voyages, discovering new worlds and conquering them by understanding. For Knowledge means Foresight and Foresight means Power.
The idea of Evolution has influenced all the sciences, forcing us to think of everything as with a history behind it, for we have travelled far since Darwin's day. The solar system, the earth, the mountain ranges, and the great deeps, the rocks and crystals, the plants and animals, man himself and his social institutions--all must be seen as the outcome of a long process of Becoming. There are some eighty-odd chemical elements on the earth to-day, and it is now much more than a suggestion that these are the outcome of an inorganic evolution, element giving rise to element, going back and back to some primeval stuff, from which they were all originally derived, infinitely long ago. No idea has been so powerful a tool in the fashioning of New Knowledge as this simple but profound idea of Evolution, that the present is the child of the past and the parent of the future. And with the picture of a continuity of evolution from nebula to social systems comes a promise of an increasing control--a promise that Man will become not only a more accurate student, but a more complete master of his world.
It is characteristic of modern science that