The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of Nature

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
A linked list of the 190 section headings has been prepared by the transcriber and placed at the end of the book.
The cover was prepared by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE STRANGEST THINGS IN THE WORLD
A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of Nature
THOMAS R. HENRY
Public Affairs Press, Washington, D. C.
Copyright, 1958, by Public Affairs Press 419 New Jersey Avenue, S. E., Washington 3, D. C. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-10881
The challenges of Nature’s paradoxes have been sharp spurs to man’s search for knowledge since the start of science.
Fortunately the number of these paradoxes is infinite, and so the quests are endless. Man never will know a wonderless world. In the phenomena of life especially we have come only to the zone of morning twilight. The bright day of understanding is ahead. As its hours pass we can expect a constant succession of new paradoxes, new spurs to further advances.
Man would be in a sad situation were it otherwise. For the bright light of noon and afternoon inevitably precedes sunset and darkness and sleep.
This book is a compendium of some of Nature’s curiosities and contradictions in the field of life and as such it well may awaken that wonder which, as somebody has said, is the beginning of knowledge.