G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 237 



organized upon the base of the former Ethnological Society 

 of that city. In the change the scope of the society has been 

 greatly enlarged, and many of the difficulties attendant upon 

 the maintenance of the old organization have been obviated. 

 Several papers of more or less interest are .to be found in this 

 first number, and there is little doubt that the new society 

 will occupy a prominent j)lace in advancing knowledge in 

 the world. 



PREFERENTIAL USE OF THE RIGHT HAND AMONG SAVAGES. 



As is well known to his correspondents, Mr. Darwin has 

 been engaged for some time past in endeavoring to ascertain 

 whether the movements of the muscles used to express emo- 

 tions among civilized nations are employed under similar 

 circumstances by the different savage tribes, as also to what 

 extent such movements are shared by the brutes, such as 

 monkeys, dogs, etc. The question, too, whether the use of 

 the right hand in preference to the left is common to all na- 

 tions has also occupied Mr. Darwin's attention. Inquiries 

 of travelers among; the North American Indians have resulted 

 in showing that the right hand is used by them generally just 

 as among civilized people, and, indeed, that left-handed per- 

 sons are looked upon as possessed of some evil spirit, and are 

 as much contemned as if they were deformed. Letter of Gen. 

 K 8. Parker. 



DEFECTIVE BRAIN AND DEFORMED FEATURES. 



Attention has lately been called to an article by Professor 

 Laycock, written as long ago as 1862, in which he notices the 

 coexistence of weakness or defective organization of the brain 

 with certain peculiarities of formation of the face, and espe- 

 cially of the parts answering to the ribs of the cranial verte- 

 bra}. Congenital defect of the brain and tendency to tissue 

 degeneration are very prominently associated with a defec- 

 tive and receding chin, and the structure of the ear presents 

 a similar harmony. In the perfect ear the cartilage is com- 

 pressed within an ellipse or ellipsoid proportionate to the 

 head, and to this is attached a geometrically formed helix 

 and a pendent ellipsoid lobule. In proportion as these are 

 defective, or as the ear is monstrous, triangular, square, or 

 of irregular form, is indicated a tendency to cerebral degen- 



