POPULAR MISCELLANY 



429 



Craniology of the Africans. M. de Qua- 

 trefages recently explained to the Frencfh 

 Academy of Sciences the results of the re- 

 searches of M. Hamy on the craniology of 

 the African races. Far from all the negroes 

 of Africa being dolichocephalous (or long- 

 skulled), there exist on the continent diverse 

 populations, forming two distinct groups, 

 which pass in succession from the sub-bra- 

 chycephalic (moderately short-skulled) to the 

 raesocephalic (medium-skulled) and to the 

 sub-dolichocephalic, and finally to the true 

 dolichocephalic type. In other words, the 

 relation of the transverse diameter to the 

 antero-posterior diameter of the skull goes 

 on progressively diminishing. M. Hamy has 

 also studied the race of the dwarf negroes, 

 and finds that their skulls are quite as much 

 arched as those of the other human races. 

 Their stature nearly approaches that of the 

 Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, but it is 

 superior to that of the Bushmen, whose 

 height often falls to one metre (three feet 

 three inches), sometimes to ri4 metre (three 

 feet eight and a half inches). This race prob- 

 ably approaches the true beachycephalic 

 type. M. Hamy joins in a single 

 race the Noubas, the Fourahs, the 

 Gallas, the Nyam-Nyams, etc., 

 and attaches to the same group, 

 which is generally Eastern, the 

 Haoussas who live west of Lake 

 Tchad, although a population 

 craniologically distinct is situ- 

 ated between them. 



Rats and Lead Pipes. One 



of the best foreign authorities on 

 sanitary engineering, Dr.William 

 Eassie, has an interesting letter 

 in a late number of the " Sanitary Record " 

 on the destruction of lead pipes and fiash- 

 ings by rats, mice, and even timber-worms. 

 He relates several cases, either seen by him- 

 self or brought to his attention by others, in 

 which lead waste-pipes were perforated with 

 veritable rat-holes, thus admitting not only 

 sewer-gas but the rats themselves into the 

 house. Fig. 1 is reproduced from Dr. Eassie's 

 letter, and represents a piece of two-inch 

 lead pipe a quarter of an inch thick, which 

 wag once a part of the waste-pipe of a sink in 

 a house in London. This pipe terminated in 

 an old brick drain infested with rats. " The 



rats obtained ingress to the house by way 

 of this pipe, that is certain ; and on taking 

 up the floor some hundreds of these animals 

 were destroyed and many missing articles 



recovered. The marks of their teeth are 

 very plainly exhibited, as may be seen by a 

 glance at the woodcut, which does not exag- 

 gerate them in any way." Fig. 2 represents 

 a piece of lead flashing obtained by Dr. 

 Eassie from the roof of an infirmary in the 

 north of England. The woodwork below 

 had been first destroyed by wood-borers, 

 and the light, shaded marks in the cut show 



Fig. 2. 



where the acid of the destroyed wood had 

 partially eaten away the lead. The white 

 holes are actual perforations to the open 

 air. Other instances of a like character are 

 given, and all go to show that lead, where 

 so exposed, is not a safe plumbing material. 



A Mnsieal Valley. In an essay on " The 

 Singing Valley of Thronecken," Herr H. 

 Reulaux has described an enduring sound 

 like the ringing of bells, which he heard 

 while engaged in a deer-hunt in an elevated 

 wooded valley in the Rhine Province. He 

 had before heard sounds in the valley, re- 



