POPULAR MISCELLANY 



125 



The Late Eruption of Manna Loa. The 

 Rev. Titus Coan gives, in the American Jour- 

 nal of Science, a vivid description of the 

 latest eruption of Mokua-weo-weo, the ter- 

 minal crater of Mauna Loa, Hawaii. The 

 eruption commenced between nine and ten 

 in the evening of February 14, 1877, with 

 great splendor. The summit of the moun- 

 tain appeared as though melted, and the 

 heavens seemed on fire. Vast masses of 

 illumined steam, like columns of flaming 

 gas, were shot upward to a height of 14,000 

 to 17,000 feet, and then spread out into a 

 great fiery cloud. This continued through 

 the night. In the morning the mountain 

 was hidden by thick clouds, and the only 

 symptoms of volcanic action were an occa- 

 sional thud and a smoky atmosphere. Mo- 

 kua-weo-weo had entered into a state of in- 

 activity, but soon " a remarkable bubbling 

 was seen in the sea about three miles south 

 of Kealakekua, and a mile from the shore. 

 Approaching the boiling pot, it was found 

 emitting steam, and throwing up pumice 

 and light scoria. This boiling," continues 

 Mr. Coan, whose communication is dated 

 Hilo, March 17th, " was active when we 

 last heard. It is in deep water. On the 

 island new fissures have been opened in the 

 pahoihoi, which extend up to the higher 

 lands, indicating the course of a subterra- 

 nean lava-stream, that terminated in a sub- 

 marine eruption a new feature in our mod- 

 ern volcanic phenomena. About the time 

 of this eruption beneath the sea, a tidal or 

 earthquake wave of considerable force was 

 observed along the coast of Kona." 



Extraordinary Development of the Sense 

 of Smell. Dr. Maudsley, in his "Physiology 

 of Mind," noticed elsewhere, speaking of 

 the loss of one sense being followed by a 

 notable increase in the functions of those 

 which remain, in consequence of the great- 

 er attention given to them, cites the follow- 

 ing instances as related by Dr. Howe in the 

 " Forty-third Report of the Massachusetts 

 Asylum for the Blind : " Julia Brace, a deaf 

 and blind mute, a pupil of the American 

 Asylum, had a fine physical organization 

 ami highly-nervous temperament. In her 

 blindness and stillness her main occupation 

 was the exercise of her remaining senses 

 of smell, touch, and taste, so that through 



them she might get knowledge of all that 

 was going on around her. Smell, however, 

 seemed to be the sense on which she most 

 relied. She smelled at everything which 

 she could bring within range of the sense ; 

 and she came to perceive- odors utterly in- 

 sensible to other pe-^ms. When she met 

 a person whom she had met before she in- 

 stantly recognized nun by the smell of his 

 hand or glove. If it were a stranger she 

 smelled his hand, and the impression was 

 so strong that she could recognize him long 

 after by again smelling his hand, or even 

 his glove, if just taken off. She knew all 

 her acquaintances by the odor of their 

 hands. She was employed in sorting the 

 clothes of the pupils after they came from 

 the wash, and could distinguish those of 

 each friend. If half a dozen strangers 

 should throw each one his glove into a 

 hat, and they were shaken up, she would 

 take one glove, smell it, then smell the 

 hand of each person, and unerringly assign 

 each glove to its owner. If among the vis- 

 itors there were a brother and sister, she 

 could pick out the gloves by a similarity of 

 smell, but could not distinguish the one 

 from the other. This case furnishes a 

 strong argument in support of the conject- 

 ure that a dog removed to a distant place 

 finds its way home by following backward 

 a train of smells which he has experienced. 



Mr. Boyd Davfkins on Mnsenm Reform. 



Writing, in Nature, of the need of muse- 

 um reform, Mr. Boyd Dawkins recognizes 

 the existence of a " collecting instinct " a 

 desire to accumulate whatever strikes the 

 fancy and this instinct he declares to be 

 almost universal among mankind, wiiatever 

 their stage of intellectual development. The 

 collections which result from this instinct 

 bear the stamp of the individual who makes 

 them. They are "museum units" which, 

 like molecules, have a tendency to coalesce 

 into bodies of greater or less size, and thus 

 constitute museums. The organization of 

 the latter is of high or low type, according 

 as the units keep or lose the stamp of the 

 individual, and have been moulded into one 

 living whole, or are dissociated. They are 

 highly organized and valuable if the parts 

 are duly subordinated to each other and 

 brought into a living relationship; they are 



