POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



429 



Professor de Candolle had published for 

 Switzerland, North Germany, and Belgium. 

 Brown eyes were more common among 

 women than among men. From the fact 

 that 56 per cent of the children of par- 

 ents who were bi-colored (or one of whom 

 had brown and the other blue eyes) had 

 brown eyes, it appeared that eyes of that 

 color were on the increase. The majority 

 of wives had brown eyes. The average 

 number of children of con-colored parents 

 was 4*49, and that of bi-colored parents 

 4-03 contrary to Professor de Candolle's 

 observations, which gave the larger number 

 to bi-colored parents. It also appeared that 

 52*6 per cent of the children inherited the 

 eyes of the father and 47*4 per cent those 

 of the mother; of the sons, 51*8 per cent 

 inherited the father's, and 48*2 per cent 

 those of the mother, while the figures with 

 regard to the daughters were respectively 

 53*5 and 46 - 5 per cent. These figures show 

 that in Sweden the eyes are not predomi- 

 nantly inherited from the mother alone, and 

 that the offspring of equally constituted par- 

 ents should not be weaker than they. Chil- 

 dren under ten years of age were excluded 

 from the examinations, and blue-gray and 

 gray eyes were classified as blue. 



Causes of the Extinction of Species. 



Professor A. S. Packard has published an 

 article in the "American Naturalist" on 

 some of the apparent causes of the " Geo- 

 logical Extinction of Species." He reviews 

 at length the factors of changes of climate 

 to which he ascribes the most extensive 

 phenomena of the kind. In the palaeozoic 

 ages, the climate of the whole earth was 

 nearly uniform, and species were very widely 

 diffused. Upheavals of mountain - ranges 

 and continental masses, taking place at dif- 

 ferent epochs, produced more or less marked 

 differentiations and local conditions favor- 

 able to some species and unfavorable to 

 others, with the result that some flourished 

 while others declined and faded out. The 

 glacial epoch, bringing great changes of cli- 

 mates, produced also many revolutions in 

 the relations of species. Changes in alti- 

 tudes, marked on the American Continent 

 by the elevation of the Rocky Mountain and 

 Andean districts to from five thousand to 

 ten thousand feet, the workings of which 



are still going on to a certain extent, also 

 materially affected those relations ; and 

 similar changes have occurred in the other 

 quarters of the world. "The biological 

 changes were not due to climatic and geo- 

 logical changes alone, but it should be borne 

 in mind that the great changes, slowly in- 

 duced, but not without striking final results, 

 ending in the addition or loss of vast areas 

 of land, induced extensive migrations, the 

 incursions of prepotent types which exter- 

 minated the weaker. The reaction of one 

 type of life upon another, the results of nat- 

 ural selection, were apparent all through ; 

 but these secondary factors were active 

 both during periods of quiet and periods of 

 change. . . . Local extinctions due to local 

 changes of level ; the formation of deserts, 

 saline wastes, and volcanic eruptions and 

 vast outpourings of lava, such as took place 

 in Oregon and Idaho during the Tertiary, 

 with submarine earthquakes causing the 

 death of fishes on a vast scale, these are 

 quite subordinate factors." 



Toad-Lore. Toads have much in com- 

 mon with frogs, but they are. hatched from 

 spawn that is deposited in long strings, 

 while frog-spawn is in masses, and they 

 have no teeth. They are also marked by 

 ugly warts, which give out an acrid but 

 not poisonous juice. They have tongues 

 whose motions, nearly as quick as light- 

 ning, the eye can not follow, and which 

 sweep in the insects they catch with such 

 speed that the victims " seem to melt into 

 thin air" rather than to be caught and 

 swallowed. They can climb plastered and 

 whitewashed walls or flights of steps, and 

 even into flower-pots whose outward sloping 

 sides would seem to forbid such an achieve- 

 ment. They will eat nothing that is not in 

 motion except their own skins, which, when 

 they are cast off, they roll up and swallow. 

 The muscles of their thighs and legs strik- 

 ingly resemble those of man. They can 

 not breathe when their mouth is held open. 

 The old necromancers used them freely and 

 in various ways in their magic. In some 

 parts of England the application of a toad 

 is supposed to stop bleeding, and dried 

 specimens are worn as charms against rheu- 

 matism. The members of a Devonshire 

 family had a reputation for curing " king's 



