694 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



should not be heard outside of the nursery. 

 It may be added that the " rice-grains " in 

 the collection presented to Mr. Buckland 

 are identified by Mr. Owen as marine shells 

 of the genus Cyprcea, the end or apex of 

 each being carefully filed or ground ofT to 

 represent the effect of having been fed on 

 by the pearls. 



SuFYival of Serions Brain Injury in a 

 Pigeon. — A remarkable case of recovery of 

 all the faculties in a pigeon from which 

 four fifths of the upper portion of the cere- 

 brum had been removed, is recorded by Dr. 

 J. H. McQuillen, in the " Proceedings " of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia. The author, who is Professor of 

 Physiology in the Philadelphia Dental Col- 

 lege, on February 4th of last year, exposed 

 the cerebrum of a pigeon, and cut out four 

 fifths of the upper portion in slices : this he 

 did in illustrating to his class the fact that 

 the sensorium thus exposed could be cut 

 pinched, or burned, without any sign of 

 pain on the part of the animal. The usual 

 phenomena followed, viz., profound stupor, 

 the bird standing motionless on the table, 

 with eyes closed, head sunk between the 

 shoulders, and feathers rufiled. At the close 

 of the demonstration, this pigeon was given 

 to Professor Emily White, M. D., of the 

 "Women's Medical College, with the request 

 that an effort should be made to keep the 

 bird alive, and ascertain whether the mu- 

 tilated organ would regain its functions. In 

 March a note was received from Professor 

 "White, in which she stated that the pigeon 

 had apparently recovered all its faculties. 

 " He is," it was added, " perhaps less ex- 

 citable than normal, and seems perfectly 

 tame, but bright." Dr. McQuillen at once 

 sent for the bird, and observed with sur- 

 prise the complete recovery of the voluntary 

 movements of walking and flying, the power 

 of feeding itself and drinking as usual, and 

 the general manifestations of intelligence. 

 The bird continued in full possession of its 

 faculties for six months, and then was put 

 to death and an examination made. On re- 

 moving the scalp a fibrous structure, analo- 

 gous to pericranium, was found, occupying 

 the place from which the bone had been re- 

 moved in making the vivisection. Cutting 

 Ibis away, a small amount of fluid escaped. 



and the cranial cavity thus exposed was 

 found occupied by a white substance re- 

 sembling the cerebral structure that had 

 been removed six months before. Placing 

 a section of the upper portion of this, which 

 had been stained with hematoxyline, under 

 the microscope, a number of bipolar cells 

 characteristic of the gray structure were 

 observed. 



Pigments of the Hair.— By treating with 

 dilute sulphuric acid different kinds of hu- 

 man hair, Mr. H. C. Sorby obtains three 

 distinct pigments, a red, a yellow, and a 

 black. The red pigment is probably con- 

 vertible by oxidation into the yellow. Very 

 red hair is characterized by the presence 

 of the red constituent unmodified by any 

 other coloring substance ; golden hair has 

 less of the red and more of the yellow pig- 

 ment ; in sandy-brown hair the black and 

 red constituents are associated with a large 

 proportion of the yellow ; in dark-brown 

 hair the black pigment is present in larger 

 quantity, while in black hair this dark sub- 

 stance predominates over the rest. Singu- 

 larly enough, Mr. Sorby found in the hair 

 of a negro about the same proportion of 

 the red pigment as in the very red hair of 

 a European. If in this case the develop- 

 ment of the black pigment had been checked 

 by any cause, he would have presented the 

 curious spectacle of a red-headed negro. 



Wallace's Theory of Zoological Deriva- 

 tion. — To illustrate Wallace's theory of the 

 derivation of all animals from the north, a 

 writer in " Nature " designed a map of the 

 world on a polar projection, the northern 

 hemisphere being projected somewhat be- 

 yond the southern tropic. This map clearly 

 shows how the land-surface of the globe is 

 built around the pole, and exhibits the ex- 

 tremities of America, Africa, and Australia, 

 extending into the great ocean. If, now, the 

 subdivisional regions (zoologically) of each 

 of these three great projections, and of the 

 whole, be marked in colors, a succession of 

 zoological strata (so to speak) appears. By 

 carrying an ideal section from the supposed 

 center of creation in the north through 

 either of these three great extremities, and 

 thence to the nearer and afterward the more 

 remote of their dependencies, we pass in 



