FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



431 



knows little of its delights, for it brings him 

 no change. It is well, in arranging for the 

 holiday, to give attention to individual tastes 

 and idiosyncrasies, so that the lover of natu- 

 ral scenery, the seeker for historical associa- 

 tions, and the lover of art may each go where 

 he will find what he will enjoy the most. 

 For the best use of a holiday some definite 

 object may be combined with the general 

 fundamental idea of rest ; but there is a pos- 

 sibility of carrying this feature too far and 

 making the excursion a season of work. 

 This leads to the next rule, not to attempt 



too much. " Take it easy," should always be 

 the motto. Long railway journeys and tedi- 

 ous excursions drawing upon the strength 

 are good things to avoid. Age, physical con- 

 dition, and previous training should always 

 be regarded; change of life and surround- 

 ings should be sought, but mischief may re- 

 sult if the change is too violent ; and what- 

 ever interferes with regularity of life and 

 sleep should be indulged in only sparingly. 

 Provided the traveler is a good sailor, few 

 forms of holiday are so entirely unobjection- 

 able as a sea voyage. 



MINOR PARAGEAPHS. 



According to Curator Duerden, of the 

 Museum of the Jamaica Institute, as cited 

 by Robert T. Hill in Science, a turn of the 

 tide has come in the life of the mongoose in 

 Jamaica. This animal was imported there 

 to rid the island of rats. Having disposed 

 of these, it turned upon the other small ani- 

 mals and nearly exterminated them. Con- 

 sequently the ticks and chigoes, in the ab- 

 sence of the lizards and snakes which had 

 eaten them, throve enormously, and became 

 nearly as veritable pests as the rats had been. 

 Within the past few years, however, the 

 mongooses have seemed to decline in num- 

 bers, and, when caught, to be suffering from 

 the attacks of ticks. Birds and snakes and 

 lizards are becoming more numerous, poul- 

 try and domestic animals suffer less from 

 depredations, numerous crocodile's eggs are 

 found, bevies of quails are occasionally seen, 

 and the rats are appearing again. 



The researches of Alfred Goldsborough 

 Mayer on the color and color-pattrns of 

 moths and butterflies have resulted in the 

 demonstration of several results believed to 

 be new to science, among which are the 

 prevalence of a surprisingly large percentage 

 of black in the great majority of the colors 

 of Lepidoptera, the composite character of 

 the colors as distinguished from simple col- 

 ors, and the derivation of the pigments of the 

 scales by various chemical processes from 

 the blood, or ha^molymph, of the pupa. 

 While the number of species of Papilio in 

 South America is nine times as great as in 

 North America, the number of colors which 

 they display is only twice as great. Hence 

 the greater number of colors displayed by 



the tropical forms may be due simply to the 

 far greater number of species, and not to 

 any direct influence of climate. The scales 

 in Lepidoptera do not strengthen the wing or 

 aid the insects in flight. The vast majority 

 of the scales are merely color-bearing organs 

 which have been developed under the influ- 

 ence of natural selection. 



According to a communication of M. 

 Albert Gauttard to the French Ethnographic 

 Society, the efforts which the Japanese have 

 been making since the revolution of 1868 to 

 adapt themselves to European civilization 

 and modes of life have resulted in surpris- 

 ing transformations of their national type. 

 Some of them are losing the eccentricity of 

 their eyes and the prominence of their cheek 

 bones ; children born recently have less 

 flattened noses than their ancestors, and a 

 skin not so yellow. On the other hand, 

 Europeans residing permanently in Japan 

 lose the rosy color of their skin and tend 

 to acquire an eccentricity in the eye. M. 

 Adhemar Leclere, French resident at Kratie, 

 said that he had observed that some of the 

 French residing in Cambodia began in a 

 short time to acquire the type and the gait 

 of the natives. 



In the use of the Iroquois wampum belts, 

 his studies of which have already been no- 

 ticed in the Monthly, the facts associated, 

 and other features in the Indian life of both 

 American continents, Mr. Horatio Hale be- 

 lieved that evidence was found that the In 

 dians enjoyed systems of government and 

 forrrjs of civilization that evinced intellec- 

 tual and moral faculties of no mean order 

 a real money, elements of a written language 



