68 Jsfatural-HistoHcal Collection^, 



persons, on the details of the system, are so various, and the sources of fallacy so 

 great, that we can place no reliance on conclusions as to the special uses of parts 

 of the brain from their methods of inquiry, unless confirmed from other sources—, 

 such as experiments on animals, or pathological observations on the human body — 

 neither of which sources furnishes any distinct evidence of more than the appro- 

 priation of the brain proper to acts of thought. 



" If I were to make any addition," says Dr. Alison, in approving of the above 

 notes, " it would be to the effect, that if all the phrenologists think they have 

 established were generally admitted, stiU it would not justify their pretensions to 

 the exclusive knowledge of the right object, and right method of inquiries regard- 

 ing the mind, — the difference between them and other inquirers on that subject, 

 turning only, as it appears to me, on a question of arrangement of the knowledge 

 that is acquired, — not on real difference as to the nature of that knowledge, or 

 the means of acquiring it." 



Remarkable Peculiarity in a Fall of Snow ; hy Mr. F. H. Sherriff. 

 — East Lothiaii — On Saturday the 20th inst. it commenced snowing here about 

 8 o'clock, P. M. and continued till 12, about which time there arose a very vio- 

 lent storm of wind, accompanied with a heavy shower of sleet and rain, after 

 which another faU of snow occurred. On the morning of Sunday, (21st inst.) 

 the frost was pretty keen, and there was a slight crust found on the surface of the 

 fallen snow. 



The fields presented a very uncommon appearance, being thickly studded with 

 snow-balls, varying from a foot to a foot and a half in diameter. The fields in 

 which I first observed them, had a gentle declivity from south to north ; but 

 this, I think, is inadequate to afford a satisfactory explanation of their formation, 

 as the hollow tract which they had formed in the snow, I observed to be from 

 ivest to east. The wind was from the west. 



I afterwards observed them in fields quite level. In one village in particular, 

 which had an exposure to the west, they were exceedingly numerous, being not 

 above a yard and a half separate from each other. I did not minutely examine 

 the internal structure of them, but I saw one which had been cut through the 

 middle by the wheel of a gig, and it did not appear to be composed of any thing 

 but snow, having no hard body for an internal nucleus. — Feb. 25. 1830. 



Dr. Knox''s Theory of Hermaphrodism In the first Number of this Jour-r 



nal, (p. 64,) we published the earliest notice of a new theory of hermaphrodism, 

 which has been advanced by Dr. Knox, who has been long known as an eminent 

 comparative anatomist, though his researches seem to have been better appre- 

 ciated on the continent than in this country. Since that period, the author has 

 read a series of papers, illustrative of his views, before the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, an analysis of which will be found in No. IV. of Brewster's Journal of 

 Science for the present month, from which we hasten to extract the following 

 particulars. 



It was the opinion of the ancients, and of most modern physiologists, that, in 

 man and the higher orders of animals, the male and female organs of generation 

 are fundamentally the same organs, only differently developed in the one sex 

 from what they are in the other ; thus it is the general theory of the present day, 

 that the testicles are analogous to the ovaries, the Fallopian tubes to the epididy- 

 mes, the angles or horns of the uterus to the vasa deferentia, the body of the ute- 

 rus to the vesiculje seminales, and the penis to the vagina ; and, in accordance, 

 with this idea, physiologists account for hermaphroditical appearances, by sup- 

 posing an irregular developement of the genital organs, whereby some of them in- 

 clined to the female structure, and others to the male. But several cases are 

 on record, where both classes of organs have been found existing together in the 

 same individual, as in the free martins, described by John Hunter, &c — viz. 

 both testicles and ovaries, vasa deferentia and Fallopian tubes, vesiculje semina- 

 les and uterus. These organs, then, cannot be identical. Dr. Knox contends. 



