ZOOLOGY. 377 



four degrees to sixty-four degrees, 1 in 50,077. Yet the last figures include 

 Moscow and St. Petersburg, and represent a much more rigorous, damp, 

 uncertain, and joyless climate than the first. 



HEIGHT OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



M. Silbermann, secretary of the French section of the Association for 

 International Uniform ity of Weights and Measures, shows that the average 

 height of the male and female population of France, taken in a certain posi- 

 tion which he names the "geometric," is 1.000040 metres, or two metres if 

 (in the same position) the hands are comfortably extended over the head. 

 Two individuals laid lengthwise, with fingers touching, would thus measure 

 four metres, which he terms the base of the harmonic proportions of the 

 human race. Thus this harmonic base is four times one metre, just as the 

 meridian is four times ten million metres, and the relation of the two inte- 

 gers is as 1 to 10,000,000. From these considerations he draws proof of the 

 equality of the sexes, as they exhibit woman, not as a complement to the 

 male portion of creation, but as constituting of right half the human fam- 

 ily, "as determined by Christian philosophy and the laws of the most civil- 

 ized people," in which latter category we cannot, according to this text, at 

 present be arranged, as our law still commits the barbarism of regarding a 

 married woman as completely merged in the existence of her husband. 

 Pursuing his calculations, M. Silbermann arrives at the conclusion that the 

 average height of the human race has remained unchanged since the Chal- 

 dean epoch, four thousand years ago. 



Human Proportions. M. Bonomi of France, in a recent publication, 

 describes a curious invention of the English sculptor, Gibson, for producing 

 strictly geometrical elevations of the human figure, which accord exactly 

 with the proportions assigned to it in the " Canon of Yitruvius." This 

 canon is supposed to be founded on the celebrated proportions laid down by 

 Polycletus. They display some most curious geometrical relations between 

 the parts of the human figure. Thus the measure from the crown of the 

 head to the sole of the foot is exactly equal to the measure from the extrem- 

 ity of one hand to the extremity of the other when the arms are extended; 

 the face, from the chin to the highest point of the forehead, whence the hair 

 begins, is a tenth of the whole stature; so also the hand, from the wrist to 

 the extremity of the middle finger; the length of the foot is a sixth part of 

 the height of the entire frame. 



OX THE COLORING-MATTER OF CERTAIN FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 



At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy, Mr. Lea read extracts 

 from letters of Dr. Lewis, of Mohawk, N. Y., on the subject of the coloring- 

 matter of the nacre of the genus Um'o, and exhibited some fine specimens to 

 illustrate the subject. The following extracts will fully convey Dr. Lewis's 

 ideas on this subject, which has much interest with the naturalist: 



I hinted something about Unioncs being colored with an oxide or salt of 

 gold. My reasons for this are derived from observing some singular phe- 

 nomena in colors on submitting shells to the action of chloride of gold, and 

 then bringing them in contact with tin. Whether a stannatc of gold formed 

 and precipitated on the shells or not, I cannot say ; but the colors were very 

 much intensified. It is to be remarked that the colors of such shells as Unio 



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