POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



761 



we eat, and it is not too much to suppose 

 that a proper knowledge of the culinary 

 art would, if tolerably wide-spread, do not 

 a little to diminish crime and drunkenness. 

 Now that ladies are to be admitted with- 

 out let or hinderance to all the degrees of 

 the University of London, we hope the Sen- 

 ate will see fit to add " cooking " to the 

 list of subjects for the B. Sc. Science in 

 the kitchen has long been a desideratum, 

 and cooking has not hitherto been regarded 

 really as a branch of chemistry, and, as 

 such, an ennobling occupation. The Eng- 

 lish of all classes have everything to learn 

 on this subject, and even the very best of 

 our cooks seem to go right rather by intui- 

 tive talent than by any exact knowledge 

 which they may possess. In the cookery- 

 book of the future, however, we may hope 

 to see milligrammes, cubic centimetres, and 

 degrees of Celsius, replace the less exact 

 measurements to which cooks have been 

 accustomed, and then, perhaps, success in 

 cooking will become a certainty. London 

 Lancet. 



Distribution of Color in Animals. It is 



not in the least unusual to observe in do- 

 mesticated mammals asymmetrical distri- 

 bution of color, while in feral animals the 

 distribution is always symmetrical. A num- 

 ber of facts illustrating this are cited by 

 Mr. J. A. Ryder in the "Proceedings" of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia. He instances the case of a raccoon 

 in the collection of the Philadelphia Zo- 

 ological Society, in which the variation from 

 the typical coloration of the species was 

 great. Here the color areas were disposed 

 symmetrically in the same manner as in the 

 ordinary specimens. The difference was 

 only in the shade, this specimen being of a 

 rich, brownish yellow, except the tail-rings 

 and the lateral bands on the face, which 

 were of a considerably deeper hue. The 

 nose, feet, and eyes, in the ordinary speci- 

 mens, are black, while in this specimen all 

 the dermal structures were of a much 

 lighter tint. Again, in a specimen of Lepus 

 silvaticiis, in the Academy's collection, the 

 fur is cream-colored, and very long and 

 soft, but perfectly symmetrical and uniform 

 in color. In rats, nearly white, the color 

 areas were also found to be very nearly the 



same on both sides. The same is to be 

 said of specimens of Virginia deer. In 

 many domestic animals there is a decided 

 tendency to preserve the symmetry of the 

 ancestral type, but domestication seems to 

 be at the bottom of the variability and 

 asymmetry of color of animals brought 

 under its influence. In conclusion, the 

 author summed up the facts as follows : 1. 

 Bilateral symmetry of coloration is inter- 

 fered with in some way by domestication ; 

 2. Where variation of color takes place in 

 feral animals, they are invariably, so far as 

 observed, symmetrically colored ; 3. It is 

 possible that the degree of asymmetry is an 

 indication of the length of time that domes- 

 tication has been operative. 



Travels in Formosa.. In the island of 

 Formosa the inhabitants of all the level 

 country are Chinese. Wages on the island 

 are 20 per cent, higher than in Amoy. 

 Opium makes up two-thirds of the value 

 of all their foreign imports. Opium-smok- 

 ing prevails to an extraordinary extent ; but 

 a traveler in the island, Mr. James Morrison, 

 affirms that there is not much excess of in- 

 dulgence in that habit. The coolies that 

 carried his palanquin always smoked opium 

 at night, and continued smoking after he 

 had gone to bed ; yet they were always 

 ready to start before six o'clock in the 

 morning, and seemed fresh. A coolie will 

 carry twenty miles a day for ten consecu- 

 tive days. Smoking in this way costs from 

 ten to fifteen cents a day. The daily wage 

 of a chair-coolie is seventy-five cents. The 

 chair is the usual vehicle for travel in For- 

 mosa. Ponies may be used for riding short 

 distances, but the numerous rivers, too 

 deep to ford, and too rapid to swim, render 

 them useless for long journeys. The For- 

 mosan chair is very light, but hardly roomy 

 enough for the average man of European 

 race. It is forty inches long, forty-eight 

 inches high in the centre, and forty inches 

 at the sides, twenty-one inches wide inside 

 with a seat about ten inches high. The 

 method of carrying, says Mr. Morrison, is 

 simply diabolical. Four men carry, two 

 being placed at the ends of the poles, and 

 two close to the chair, one in front and 

 one behind, the two latter supporting the 

 chair by means of cross-pieces or yokes pass- 



