ZOOLOGY. 391 



fond of poetry; they arc polygamous. 3. A mixed race of Turks and 

 women of the different races of the country, which has begun to disappear 

 since the dominion of the French. 4. In the interior of Africa there is a 

 race like the Germanic, with light hair and blue eyes, which he believes to 

 be descendants of the ancient Gauls or Carthaginians; they are polygamous, 

 and present the curious phenomenon that the women are soA-ereign in the 

 family and in the state, though the daughter of the queen cannot inherit the 

 throne; they make long pilgrimages on very swift camels for the purpose 

 of carrying off negro slaves they are called Tuariks. 5. A mixed white 

 and black race, the Fellatah, embracing many millions ; a powerful people, 

 of very social disposition. 6. Xegroes, from Congo, Timbuctoo, etc.; the 

 best are from the neighborhood of Labe Tsad; they are idolaters, making 

 sacrifices to their gods of sheep, cocks, and other animals, and drawing 

 from them various auguries. They are subject to a kind of periodic insan- 

 ity, like some of the Xcw Orleans negroes, in which they call on the spirits 

 of their ancestors, and often fall insensible. The characters of these differ- 

 ent races are not perfectly distinct; especially of some of those communities 

 which gather about a well or oasis in the desert, a few hundreds together, 

 which they often wall around, and form into small villages. The Kabyles 

 have well-shaped heads; the Arabs have low, retreating foreheads. In 

 answer to the question whether there exists in Africa any race of human 

 beings with tails, Dr. B. replied that in the neighborhood of the Mountains 

 of the Moon, there is said to be a large tribe of ferocious cannibals, having 

 an elongated coccyx, projecting like a tail, from three to ten inches ; when 

 seen by other tribes, they are killed as if they were wild beasts. He had 

 never seen any specimens, though it is generally believed that such a race 

 exists. 



SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



Mr. George Henry Lewes, in an article contributed to "Once a Week," thus 

 sums up the recent investigations and present state of our knowledge on the 

 subject of "spontaneous generation." 



It was as easy for the ancients to conceive that animals could be produced 

 from putrefying matters, as it is difficult for the instructed physiologist of 

 our day to conceive any generation whatever except that by direct parent- 

 age. Aristotle found no difficulty in believing that worms and insects were 

 generated by dead bodies, and that mice could become impregnated by lick- 

 ing salt. The successors of Ai'istotle were even less skeptical than he. They 

 were constantly observing animals and plants suddenly springing into exist- 

 ence where no animals or plants had been before. Every dead dog, or de- 

 caving tree, Avas quickly beset with numerous forms of life; how could it be 

 doubted that the putrefaction, which Avas observed as an invariable accom- 

 paniment, Avas the neccssray cause of these sudden appearances of life? 



To the mind imperfectly acquainted Avith the results of modem science, 

 spontaneous generation is as easy of belief as it Avas to Aristotle. Do AVC 

 not constantly see vegetable mould covering our cheese, our jam, our ink, 

 our bread? Do AVC not, even in air-tight vessels, see plants and microscopic 

 animals deA-clop where no plants and animals could be seen before, and 

 where, as AVC think, it Avas impossible that their seeds should have pene- 

 trated? And when we hear that Mr. Crosse produced an insect by means of 

 electricity, startled as we may be, do AVC really find any better argument 

 than our prejudice for disbelieving such a statement? Where do parasitic 



