POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



551 



The Parasites ia Tort. — Cysticercus cel- 

 tulosce, familiarly known as " measles " in 

 pork, on passing into the human economy 

 may develop into the common tapeworm. 

 Analogous entozoa are sometimes found in 

 beef, veal, mutton, and other meats, but the 

 great source of these formidable parasites 

 is pork. They can be easily detected in 

 the carcass of a pig that is infested by 

 them. " They are in the muscles," writes 

 Dr. Yacher, in a paper read before an as- 

 sociation of health officers, " between the 

 fibers, between the muscles, on the surface 

 of the muscles, and even in the walls of the 

 heart.. . . Specimens from the same beast," 

 he continues, " are nearly of the same size, 

 but specimens taken from different beasts 

 vary considerably in size. The egg-shaped 

 investing bladder is scarcely ever less than 

 an eighth of an inch in length, and it some- 

 times measures half an inch, so that it may 

 be easily seen and removed. It is semi- 

 transparent, and contains a clear fluid, and 

 what looks like a little white ball. On 

 transferring the bladder to a glass slip, a 

 touch with the point of a knife will suffice 

 to rupture it, and if you tlien press a cover 

 down upon it you have a preparation in 

 which the rostellum and circlet of hooks 

 may be distinctly seen with an ordinary 

 lens." When meat is a little dry from ex- 

 posure to air the cysts collapse, and are not 

 distinctly visible. Dr. Thudicum recom- 

 mends that such pork be submerged in 

 water which the cysts will absorb by en- 

 dosmosis. 



Proposed Damesticatlon of tbc ifrkan 

 Elephantt — While the Asiatic elephant is in 

 India domesticated and employed as a beast 

 of burden, the African elephant, living, has 

 no economic use, and is merely hunted for 

 " sport," or for its tusks, hide, and flesh. It 

 is now proposed to attempt the utilization 

 of the African elephant as an aid in the ex- 

 ploration of the " Dark Continent" and for 

 the transportation of goods from the coast 

 to the fertile plateaus of the interior. Even 

 in the Cape Colony, to say nothing of cen- 

 tral Africa, elephants are numerous, and 

 one troop has been observed within fifty 

 miles of Port Elizabeth. Sir J. Fayrer sug- 

 gests that on this troop the attempt at do- 

 mestication might first be made. Accord- 



ing to him, the African elephant is as well 

 fitted for labor as the Asiatic, and could be 

 as easily tamed and trained. That this is 

 the case is amply proved by the state of 

 docility to which the male and female Afri- 

 can elephants in the London Zoological 

 Garden have been reduced by their keeper. 

 They are just as obedient, intelligent, and 

 free from vice as their Asiatic congeners, 

 and there appears to be no room for doubt 

 that they might be utilized to just as good 

 purpose. The importation of a few of tho 

 officers who have had experience in catch- 

 ing and training elephants in India, togeth- 

 er with a few trained Indian elephants to 

 commence the woi'k, would very soon pui 

 the value of the project to the test. 



Relation of Brain-bn!k to Intelligence. 



— From observations made on numerous 

 series of human crania, Dr. Lebon, of Paris, 

 infers that intelligence is in proportion to 

 the volume of the cranium. By comparing 

 these series of crania, it is also found that 

 the superior races present a much greater 

 number of voluminous crania than the oth- 

 ers. The same phenomenon is presented 

 in proportion to the degree of civilization ; 

 the Parisian crania of the twelfth century 

 present, for example, a less volume than 

 the crania of modern Parisians ; at the 

 same time the difference lietween individ- 

 uals becomes more considerable. Dr. Le- 

 bon does not believe that stature exercises 

 any considerable influence on the volume 

 of the cranium and the weight of the brain. 

 Nevertheless, with equal height, the woman 

 has a brain less heavy than the man. The 

 author, from a study of seventeen male and 

 seventeen female brains, found between 

 them a difference of 1Y2 grammes to the 

 advantage of the former. It is worthy of 

 remark that, among the superior races, the 

 cranium of the women is generally much 

 less than among the inferior races. Tliis is 

 due. Dr. Lebon says, to the insignificant 

 part taken by woman in the work of modern 

 society. There is a constant inequality of 

 development between the two halves of the 

 brain, which is sometimes more developed 

 on the I'ight, sometimes on the left, without 

 race or state of intelligence appearing to 

 have any manifest influence on the direction 

 of this inequality of development. 



