25° 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS J P. 



and weight of bag and netting in proportion to 

 the quantity of gas inside ; the whole bag must be 

 proportionally large. 



African Pygmies.— One of the abounding follies 

 of the pedant is that of sneering at popular traditions. 

 The philosopher treats them very differently by 

 studying their origin — they must have some sort of 

 origin. They may be fallacious, but they cannot be 

 baseless, and their history is always instructive. In 

 many cases they are records of fact concerning which 

 the pedant is simply ignorant. 



This was notably the case with the traditions of 

 the fall of meteorites which were treated with such 

 lofty contempt until the beginning of the present 

 century, and may yet prove to be also the case with 

 the sea-serpent. 



Among such traditions is that of the existence of 

 a race of pygmies in Central Africa, the truth of which 

 has been finally demonstrated by Emm Pasha. The 

 Akkas that he found in the country of the Monbuttu, 

 one of whom he retained as a domestic servant, are 

 true pygmies, as proved by the detailed measurements 

 he sent to Professor Flower, and the skeletons he 

 disinterred and forwarded to the British Museum, 

 and which arrived safely in September 1887. They 

 are of full-grown people, one a man, the other a 

 woman. The height of the female is just four feet, 

 to which should be added half an inch f6r the thick- 

 ness of the skin on the soles of the feet and top of 

 the head. The male skeleton about a quarter of an 

 inch shorter. The height of the full-grown woman, 

 of which Emin states particulars, is barely three feet 

 ten inches. As Prof. Flower observes, "one very 

 interesting and almost unexpected result of a careful 

 examination of these skeletons is that they conform 

 in the relative proportions of the head, trunk, and 

 limbs, not to dwarfs, but to full-sized people of 

 other races, and they are therefore strikingly unlike 

 the stumpy, long-bodied, short-limbed, large-headed 

 pygmies so graphically represented fighting with their 

 lances against the cranes on ancient Greek vases." 



Their skulls are quite unlike the Andamanese and 

 the JtJushmen. They are obviously negroes of a 

 special type, to which Haney has given the appropriate 

 name of Negrillo. They occupy various spots across 

 the great African Continent, within a few degrees 

 north and south of the equator, extending from the 

 Atlantic Coast to near the shores of the Albert 

 Nyanza (30 deg. E. long.), and perhaps even farther 

 to the east, south of the Galla land ; there are still sur- 

 viving scattered communities of these small negroes, 

 all much resembling each other in size, appearance, 

 and habits, and dwelling mostly apart from their 

 larger neighbours, by whom they are everywhere 

 surrounded. 



The above particulars are derived from a lecture 

 delivered at the Royal Institution, by Professor 

 Flower. 



Vegetable Food. — J. Rutgers has recently made 

 a series of experiments on the relative nutritive value 

 of animal and vegetable proteids, i.e. the nitrogenous 

 constituents or "flesh-formers," as distinguished from 

 the food-material that merely supplies the animal heat. 

 The experiments were made on human beings, and 

 the conclusions are summarized as follows : — 



" Vegetable proteids containing an equal amount 

 of nitrogen can be substituted for the animal proteids, 

 which were used without the nitrogenous balance of 

 the body being disturbed. Beans and peas load the 

 intestinal tract very much, both in respect of their 

 solid constituents and of the gases formed from them ; 

 meat and rice have not this disadvantage. This and 

 other contra-indications of a similar nature would 

 render an exclusive vegetable diet undesirable. The 

 acidity of the stomach and also that of the urine is 

 much smaller when the diet is exclusively vegetable 

 than when a mixed diet is taken." 



It is now generally known that peas, beans, 

 lentils, &c, are the most nutritious of vegetables, as 

 regards flesh-forming, but it is not so generally known 

 that they are far more so than flesh meat ; beef with- 

 out bone contains an average of 17 per cent., while 

 the common dried peas as sold in the shops contain 

 24 per cent. But the nitrogenous food which they 

 contain (casein) is more difficult to digest than that in 

 flesh, unless it be specially treated as I have described 

 in " The Chemistry of Cookery." 



Besides this they contain much cellulose (woody 

 fibre), which some people can digest much more 

 readily than others can, this difference apparently 

 depending upon the supply of saliva and the other 

 secretions that contain animal diastase. My own 

 experiments on myself and observations of the experi- 

 ence of vegetarians have convinced me, that the 

 digestive organs may be educated considerably in 

 this direction ; that after a long habit of flesh-feeding 

 a sudden change to a purely vegetable diet is usually 

 attended with deficient nutrition displayed very 

 visibly at first, but followed by a gradual improve- 

 ment even though less food be afterwards taken. 

 This I believe to be due to increased supply of 

 saliva, pancreatic and intestinal juices which are 

 required for converting the vegetable fibre into 

 dextrine. The majority of vegetarians escape the 

 trouble of this transition by using milk and egLjs, 

 and I recommend all who try the experiment to do 

 this at first and proceed gradually to the pure vege- 

 table dietary. 



The diminished acidity observed by Rutger supports 

 the vegetarian contention that gout, rheumatism, and 

 the other ailments clue to excess of uric or lithic acid, 

 are cured by abstinence from animal food. I have 

 met with many examples of this, one very striking 

 case but a few days since, when an old gentleman in 

 his eighty-ninth year called upon me respecting a 

 proposed local effort in connection with the vege- 

 tarian movement. Three months ago he was 



