P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY 



715 



set away for " cultivation," at a tempera- 

 ture of 80 Fahr., those opened after about 

 ten weeks, yielded a white acicular crystal- 

 line substance having the same odor and 

 taste as that found in the original suspected 

 milk. The effects of this substance on the 

 experimenter and on dogs and cats were the 

 same. For this ptomaine, the author sug- 

 gests the name of lactotoxine. 



Myths and Theories about Earthquakes. 



Professor Milne, in a lecture before the 

 Scientific Society of Tokio, Japan, classified 

 the theories that have been enunciated re- 

 specting the cause of earthquakes as unsci- 

 entific, ^was?-scientific, and scientific. Hav- 

 ing mentioned as among the unscientific 

 theories those which ascribed the convul- 

 sions to dispensations of Providence, the 

 lecturer described some of the myths which 

 attribute them to a creature living under- 

 ground. In Japan it is an " earthquake-in- 

 sect," covered with scales and having eight 

 legs, or a great fish having a rock on his 

 head which helped to keep him quiet. In 

 Mongolia the animal was said to be a frog, 

 in India the world-bearing elephant, in Cele- 

 bes a world-supporting hog, in North Amer- 

 ica a tortoise. In Siberia there was a myth 

 connected with the great bones fo nd there, 

 that these were the remains of animals that 

 lived underground, the trampling of which 

 made the ground shake. In Kamchatka the 

 legend was connected with a god that went 

 out hunting with his dogs ; when the latter 

 stopped to scratch themselves, their move- 

 ments produced earthquakes. In Scandi- 

 navian mythology, Loki, having killed his 

 brother Baldwin, was bound to a rock, face 

 upward, so that the poison of a serpent 

 should drop on his face. Loki's wife, how- 

 ever, intercepted the poison in a vessel, and 

 it was only when she had to go away to 

 empty the dish that a few drops reached 

 him and caused him to writhe and shake the 

 earth. The g-Mcm-scientific theories endeav- 

 ored to account for earthquakes as part of 

 the ordinary operations of Nature, as that 

 they were produced by the action of wind 

 confined inside of the earth. The theory of 

 electrical discharges was advocated in 1760 

 by Dr. Stukely, and by Pereival and Priest- 

 ley, and is held in California at the present 

 day, where it is believed that the network 



of rails is a protection to the State against 

 dangerous accumulations of electricity. The 

 lecturer thought that the electric phenom- 

 ena which sometimes attended earthquakes 

 were their consequences, not their causes. 

 The chemical theories were very strong in 

 Europe up to the beginning of the present 

 century. It was only in 1760 that Dr. 

 Mitchell first threw out the theory that 

 earthquakes were connected in some way 

 with volcanoes, and attributed them to the 

 penetration of strata by steam. Professor 

 Rogers, at about the same time, in America, 

 endeavored to show that it was not steam, 

 but really lava, that ran along underneath 

 the ground, causing it to rise and fall, thus 

 producing an earthquake. 



Weathercocks. Why, asks Mr. J. A. 

 Farrer, in an essay on "Animal Lore," 

 should cocks figure on the tops of steeples ? 

 Christians connect the custom with the re- 

 proach the cock once conveyed to St. Peter. 

 But the cock used to be placed on the tops 

 of sacred trees long before it was trans- 

 ferred to church-steeples, and in North Ger- 

 many it still stands upon the May -poles. It 

 was partly a watchman and partly a weath- 

 er-prophet, and by its crowing it could dis- 

 perse evil spirits and all approaching calami- 

 ties. Its life was sacred in India and Per- 

 sia, and Cicero speaks of the ancients re- 

 garding the killing of a cock as a crime 

 equal in blackness to the suffocation of a 

 father. Our weathercocks are doubtless the 

 survivals of these old ideas, though the so- 

 lar mythologists trace all these things to the 

 use of the domestic fowls as obvious per- 

 sonifications of the sun. One can scarcely 

 conceive anything more absurd ; and it 

 would be interesting to know how on solar 

 principles would be explained the Tyrolese 

 custom of not letting a black hen live for 

 seven years, lest she should then lay an egg, 

 out of which might issue a dragon destined 

 to live a hundred years. 



School-room Lights. Dr. Willoughby, 

 of the English Society of Medical Officers of 

 Health, in a paper on " School Lighting," 

 maintains that as long as the light from the 

 left is the stronger, so that the shadow of 

 the hand does not fall on the writing, the 

 objections urged against " cross-lighting " 



