MISCELLANY. 



521 



ing them. To this class belongs the Aner. 

 gates atratuhts, a species which have no 

 workers, but which, both males and females 

 alike, live in company with the workers of 

 the Tetramorium ccespitum, and are tended 

 by these latter, though the terms on which 

 the association is formed are not known. 

 The Strongylognathus testaceus also lives by 

 the charity of the Tetramorium. But the 

 author has discovered a species of Strongy- 

 lognathus having true slaves. 



Then there are mixed communities, 

 where two species which usually live sepa- 

 rately, lead a life in common ; but this is a 

 thing of very rare occurrence, and but 

 little investigated. M. Forel has found 

 ants' nests inhabited by the Formica trua- 

 cicola and the F. fusca, by the Tapinoma 

 erraticum, and the Bothryomyrmex, etc. On 

 the other hand, he has also met with com- 

 munities of the F. sanguinea, without slaves. 



Inherited Traces of Surgical Opera- 

 tions. In his fifth lecture on " Eggs," pub- 

 lished by the Tribune of April 26th, Prof. 

 Agassiz has the following on the transmis- 

 sion of individual peculiarities produced by 

 surgical operations : " But, while the office 

 of inheritance is to preserve typical feat- 

 ures, its power to transmit individual pecu- 

 liarities is also wonderful. My friend Dr. 

 Brown-Sequard, who has made more ex- 

 periments among animals than any man 

 living, continuing them upon successive 

 generations, and ascertaining what dis- 

 eases may be transmitted, has stated facts 

 to me which almost defy belief. These 

 facts are unpublished. I will give a few of 

 them. He has found that the disease of 

 epilepsy can be induced in guinea-pigs by 

 certain operations, and that this disease, 

 being so introduced into the system, may 

 be transmitted from generation to genera- 

 tion, and thus become hereditary. Where 

 such operations have produced malforma- 

 tions of the skin, as is often the case, these 

 also have been transmitted ; or, where the 

 paws have been affected by such operations, 

 the peculiarity has been also transmitted. 

 Malformation produced by these experi- 

 ments as a disease during the life of a 

 parent has been passed down to the off- 

 spring, and even habits arising from dis- 

 ease have been inherited in the same way. 



In one such case the peculiarity existed in 

 the female ; in another it was produced in 

 the male. In the latter instance the male 

 transmitted its own diseased condition to 

 another generation through a healthy fe- 

 male. More than this, the female through 

 whom these diseased descendants had been 

 produced eventually became herself diseased 

 in the same manner as the male. These 

 facts have a fearful significance. With 

 reference to the process, the subtle influ- 

 ence by which such results are produced, 

 we must be silent for the present, since we 

 cannot explain or understand it. All that 

 we know is, that a material combination 

 takes place which enables us to say that 

 these individual peculiarities are sifted 

 through the egg of the female and the 

 spermatic particles of the male, and may 

 reappear in their progeny." 



Clay-eaters. The Agmara Indians, in- 

 habiting the shores of lake Titicaca, and the 

 lofty plateau of the Andes, find the struggle 

 for existence hard, at an altitude of more 

 than 11,000 feet above the sea-level. Their 

 principal articles of food are quinoa, a coarse 

 grain resembling rice, and potatoes, of 

 which tuber their country is the original 

 home. The difficulty of boiling food at so 

 great an altitude necessitates the previous 

 maceration of all articles intended to be so 

 cooked. The potato is, therefore, prepared 

 for storing and use by exposing it to the 

 frost ; then it is placed in water, and 

 stamped into a paste ; all the soluble mat- 

 ter is washed out, and the starchy and fari- 

 naceous substance alone remains. This is 

 called clmno, and it is made into a nu- 

 tritious though insipid soup. The Agma- 

 ras use clay as an article of food, mixing it 

 with quinoa. The clay they use is of a 

 whitish color, and rather gritty. Careful 

 analysis shows that it contains no organic 

 matter, and therefore it must be used mere- 

 ly for the purpose of producing a satisfac- 

 tory though delusive distention of the stom- 

 ach. 



The Faculty of Direction. It will be 

 remembered that, in the course of the dis- 

 cussion as to hereditary antipathy, a side 

 question was introduced by Mr. Wallace, 

 namely, the faculty possessed by certain 



