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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mate." Blood brotherhood is still exten- 

 sively practiced among savages, and is com- 

 mon in central Africa ; the essential part of 

 the process consists of making an incision 

 just sufficient to draw blood in the right 

 wrist of each of the participants. A little 

 of the blood is scraped off of each cut and 

 smeared on the other's cut. It seema quite 

 probable that a further study of this practice 

 may reveal a prophylactic measure of great 

 practical value. 



A New Old Sknll.— Prof. A. Nehring has 

 recently described a new human skull of low 

 type found near Santos, in Brazil, of which 

 an account is given by A. C. Haddon in Na- 

 ture. It was found in a breccia, the exact 

 age of which is uncertain, associated with 

 fish vertebrae, a few fragments of other 

 human remains, and a portion of the lower 

 jaw of a toothed whale. The forehead is 

 low and retreating, the glabella and orbital 

 ridges well developed. The frontal ridge is 

 greatly constricted behind the orbital region, 

 as in Pithecanthropus. The principal meas- 

 urements given are: Maximum length, 183 

 mm.; maximum breadth, 135 mm.; mini- 

 mum frontal, 88 mm. ; maximum frontal, 92 

 mm.; frontal sagittal arc, 118 mm.; and 

 the parietal arc, 134 mm. The face of this 

 cranium was strongly prognathous, the whole 

 dentition is strong, and all the teeth are per- 

 fectly sound. The dimensions of the pre- 

 molars and the molars come very close to 

 those of Spy No. 1 skull, any difference there 

 may be being in the direction of the dentition 

 of Spy No. 2. While the length and breadth 

 of the new skull agree fairly closely with 

 those of Pithecanthropus, the cranial height 

 is considerably greater, and consequently also 

 the cranial capacity. 



Animal Intelligpnee. — Evidence of the al- 

 most human abilities of some of the higher 

 apes is no new thing, but a new series of ob- 

 servations are called attention to in a recent 

 Spectator. The account is taken from A. E. 

 Brehm's book. From North Pole to Equator. 

 " The baboons were on flat ground, crossing 

 a valley, when the traveler's dogs, Arab 

 greyliyunds, accustomed to fight success- 

 fully with hyenas and other beasts of prey, 

 rushed toward the baboons. Only the fe- 

 males took to flight; the males, on the con- 



trary, turned to face the dogs, growled, beat 

 the groimd with their hands, opened their 

 mouths wide and showed their glittering 

 teeth, and looked at their adversaries so 

 furiously and maliciously that the hounds, 

 usually bold and battle-hardened, shrank 

 back. By the time the dogs had been en- 

 couraged to renew their attack the whole 

 herd had escaped to the rocks except a six- 

 months-old monkey. The little monkey sat 

 on a rock surrounded by the dogs, but was 

 rescued by an old baboon, who stejjped 

 down from the cliff near, advanced toward 

 the dogs, kept them in check by gestures 

 and menacing sounds, picked up the baby 

 monkey, and carried it to the cliff, where the 

 dense crowd of monkeys shouting their bat- 

 tle cry were watching his heroism. The 

 march of the baboons is not a mere expe. 

 dition of the predatory members of the com- 

 munity. The whole nation trek together and 

 make war on the cultivated ground in com- 

 mon. No wild animals have developed their 

 powers of combined attack and defense in so 

 creditable a manner as the baboons. Their 

 motives — defense, not defiance — are irre- 

 proachable, and their methods delibei'ate, 

 self-reliant, and effective, and Brehm justly 

 remarks that there is probably no other male 

 animal which runs into danger voluntarily to 

 rescue a young one of its own species." 



Individnal Communion Cnps. — A grati- 

 fying indication of the broadening influence 

 which science is so slowly, but none the 

 less surely, perhaps, exerting among the peo- 

 ple at large is contained in the following 

 paragraph clipped from a morning paper, 

 Jersey City, N. J., April 5th : " Individual 

 communion cups were used for the first time 

 in the FLi'st Presbyterian Church on Emory 

 Street, this morning. There were six hun- 

 dred communicants present, each having a 

 new cup. The cup used is glass, with a light 

 gold rim, and is not costly. They were 

 passed around on trays that held thirty-six 

 glasses each. After using, the glasses were 

 placed in the hymn-book racks and were col- 

 lected by the sexton after the service. The 

 Rev. Dr. Charles Herr, the pastor, said he 

 thought tlie individual cups had come to 

 stay." As we learn more and more of the 

 means by which disease is propagated, it 

 should be the endeavor of all to aid in the 



