328 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the relationship of the parents of the unfortunates. In Rome he finds 

 out of lo cases of persons born deaf and dumb, three were offspring of 

 consanguineous marriages, one being connected with the deplorable story 

 we have just cited. 



Effect of open-air Exercise on Longevity. Mr. Sargeant, of England, 

 has recently published some remarkable facts, showing the influence of 

 out-door occujwtion and exercise in lessening the rate of mortality; and 

 thi of almost all in-door occupations, long continued, in raising the rate 

 of mortality of the classes following them. 



The greater longevity of persons living in the country appears almost 

 wh >lly due to the greater proportion of out-door occupation ; inasmuch 

 as shop-keepers and others following sedentary pursuits in the country 

 have no well-marked vital superiority over the same classes in towns ; 

 whereas farm laborers, though exposed to the effects of wet, attain a 

 greater longevity than any class of mechanics working in a confined at- 

 mosphere. Even scavengers in towns, who are exposed to very great 

 impurities, are long-lived, owing to the vital influence of the open air in 

 which they follow their occupation. 



Acclimatization of Animals. In a paper on this subject addressed 

 to the British Association, 1864, by Dr. I. E. Gray, F. R. S., the au- 

 thor remarked, that some animals seemed to have been created with 

 more or less of an instinctive desire to associate with man, and to be- 

 come useful to him, but the number of these is very limited. It would 

 appear as if all the animals which are possessed of this quality, and are 

 worth domesticating have already been domesticated, and have been 

 so from the earliest historic times. Certain French philosophers have 

 lately taken up a notion that it was desirable to pervert the true pur- 

 pose of the horse by cultivating him for food instead of work, and a 

 society of hippophagi has been instituted with this view. Of course, 

 under present circumstances, the flesh of the old and worn-out horses 

 was sold for much less than the meats of well-fed ruminants, and the 

 miserable classes in all countries were glad' to obtain animal food of 

 all kinds at a low rate, but whenever an attempt had been made to 

 fatten horses for food it had been found that the meat could not be 

 produced at so low a rate as that for which far better beef and mutton 

 could be bought. 



In attempting to introduce new domestic animals into some of our 

 colonies it would be desirable not to confine themselves to European 

 breeds but to ascertain whether some of the domestic races of Asia 

 and Africa might not bo better adapted to the climate and other con- 

 ditions of the colony, although it would not be- worth their while nor 



*/ * ^5 



consistent with good policy to attempt their introduction here. Such 

 experiments might be made in the colonies of the West Coast of 

 Ai'rica, for instance, where our horse, ass, oxen, sheep, goat, and even 

 dog had greatly degenerated ; where the horse and the ass live only 

 for a very brief period, where the flesh of the ox and the sheep' is de- 

 scribed as bad and rare, and the flesh of the goat is said to be taste- 

 less and stringy. The pig alone seems to bear the change with equan- 

 imity, and the produce of the milch pig is often sold to passengers by the 

 mail packets and the ships on the stations, as the milk of the cow, or 

 even the goat, is rarely to be obtained. 

 Improvement in the Exhibition of Osteological Collections. Beau- 



