irling in their insensate dance. The reason is obvious--the green
leaves under the influence of light were able to seize the carbon from
the CO2, and the O thus set free put the bacteria in motion. The
bacterial dance is therefore evidence of the act of assimilation carried
on by the Elodea leaf.

Yet another method is worth mention, viz., that of Boussingault. The
plant is placed in an inverted glass vessel resting in a dish of water,
and is filled with hydrogen mixed with a percentage of CO2. Inside the
vessel a fragment of phosphorus is suspended, and as a small amount of
oxygen is sure to be mixed with the hydrogen the phosphorus will be
oxygenated and white fumes will fill the vessel. The observer must wait
until these clouds have subsided, which may need a couple of hours. This
must take place in the dark, and as soon as the atmosphere is clear, the
whole preparation is placed in bright light, when obvious clouds will
again appear--a proof that oxygen has been set free by the assimilation
of the green plants. With this example I must bring my short series of
experiments to a close, with the hope that my readers may not deny that
they are picturesque.

XIV
DOGS AND DOG LOVERS

"The more I see of men, the more I like dogs."--ARCHBISHOP WHATELY.
{219}

Why is it that some people do not like dogs? There are those who dislike
other people's dogs just as they dislike strange children. This is a
point of view which is comprehensible though unattractive. Still, in
comparison with those who do not like dogs at all this class seem
positively amiable. I knew a lady with the most perfect understanding of
the qualities of human beings, whether bad or good, yet she had no
sympathy with dogs. She would be kind to them, as an external duty to
all living things, but a dog had absolutely no place in her heart. What
made this blindness seem all the more incomprehensible was the fact that
she could love a bullfinch; she could not therefore plead that she loved
humanity so much that she had no love left for beings of another sort.
After all, it may be that not to care for dogs is no more a blemish than
a lack of musical ear, which is not a sign of general dullness of
artistic perception since it is found in some poets. We must accordingly
allow that not to love dogs is not a sign of a black heart or a debased
nature. A dog lover will grant this to be an unavoidable intellectual
conclusion, but in th