A system so inelastic, and so deadening to all initiative, could have but one result.
Rubber slowly absorbs oxygen when exposed to air and light, the absorption of oxygen being accompanied by a gradual change in the characteristic properties of rubber, and ultimately to the production of a hard, inelastic, brittle substance containing oxygen.
Owing to the circumstance that the great majority of the Mexican people own no property, carry on no industry, and are not even to be considered regular productive labourers, the revenues are small in relation to the population and are comparatively inelastic.
Water is comparatively very heavy, inelastic and incompressible; air, on the other hand, is comparatively very light, elastic and compressible.
If the wing was inelastic, every part of it would reverse at precisely the same moment, and its vibration would be characterized by pauses or dead points at the end of the down and up strokes which would be fatal to it as a flying organ.