NOTES. 



H3 



In the Anthropological Section of the 

 American Association, Mr. William 11. Sea- 

 man read a paper on the Essentials of Edu- 

 cation, with a new classification of knowl- 

 edge, in which he set forth the changes or 

 modifications in present systems of educa- 

 tion required to adapt them to modem ideas. 

 Mr. Walter Hough described the custom 

 of cava-drinking among the Papuans and 

 Polynesians ; Major Powell exhibited his 

 linguistic map of North America ; Mr. 

 Thomas Wilson described the jade imple- 

 ments from Mexico and Central America, 

 and a collection of ancient gold ornaments 

 from the United States of Colombia; Mr. 

 J. Owen Dorsey discussed the onomatopous 

 types and phonetic types of the Siouan lan- 

 guages ; Mr. J. H. Perkins described a col- 

 lection of stone pipes from Vermont; and 

 Mr. M. M. Snell enforced the Importance of 

 the Science of Comparative Religion. 



A CONNECTION between tariffs and the 

 distribution of life in the districts which they 

 effect has not hitherto been supposed, but, 

 according to the late D. H. Graham, of lona, 

 it was free trade brought the rooks to that 

 island. Thus : " Since the ports were opened 

 to the importation of foreign cattle, the rear- 

 ing of black cattle has been abandoned in 

 those parts of the Highlands ; consequently 

 sheep have taken their place, and in lona, 

 where two years ago you could hardly find a 

 sheep, now you will sec scores of them ; 

 and whereas two years ago not a rook came 

 to the island, now the hill-pastures are black 

 with them." 



A cuRiocs trial has recently taken place 

 in London, in which an American named 

 Pinter was prosecuted for an attempt at 

 cheating by pretending to manufacture gold. 

 The accused man set up in defense that he 

 really possessed a secret by which he could 

 increase the bulk of a mass of gold. It was 

 alleged by the prosecution that he once did 

 increase a piece of gold by placing a black 

 powder in a crucible, and it was asserted that 

 the powder must have contained gold. The 

 accused asked the magistrate if he had ever 

 known gold to float. Some of the powder 

 being tested on water floated. This result 

 was afterward said to have been produced 

 by mixing lampblack with the powder and 

 making it too greasy to sink quickly. The 

 accused pretends to more power than the 

 old alchemists, for they only assumed to 

 turn other substances into gold, while he 

 pretends to make it outright. 



Dr. Carl Peters relates in his book on 

 Africa that he came to a place where the 

 natives on one bank of a broad river com- 

 municate with those on the opposite side 

 by speaking with voices hardly raised, " and 

 yet each side can perfectly hear what the 

 other says." Dr. Peters says that Bishop 

 Ilannington was killed, not because he was 

 a Christian, but because he insisted on ap- 



proaching Uganda from the east. The Wa- 

 ganda have an old prophecy according to 

 which an expedition from the east is to 

 " eat up " the land and make an end of the 

 dynasty of the Wakintu. Accordingly the 

 approach from the east has been strictly for- 

 bidden. 



The Philadelphia Zoological Gardens 

 were visited during the year ending in April 

 last by 211,884 persons, or S.^IO fewer than 

 visited them in the previous year ; giving an 

 average of 581 daily admissions. The su- 

 perintendent's report embodies the important 

 remark that the attention of all institutions 

 devoted to zoological pursuits is being di- 

 rected more strongly each year to the rapid 

 destruction of many of the more valuable 

 and important animals of our native fauna, 

 and to the need for immediate adoption of 

 every means that can be employed to save 

 them from complete extinction. In further- 

 ance of this object increase in the capacity 

 of zoological gardens is important, in order 

 that room and facilities may be provided for 

 their increase and growth, secure against 

 improper crossing and inbreeding. 



Besides the active enemies which are 

 continually seeking to destroy earth-worms, 

 these animals have a habit of seeking de- 

 struction on their own account. On any 

 wet morning the shallow puddles in the 

 roadways and elsewhere are often occupied 

 by the dead bodies of earth-worms, or by 

 individuals at their last gasp. Have these 

 worms voluntarily sought a watery grave ? 

 or do they represent, as Darwin thought, 

 merely the sickly and dying individuals that 

 have been washed out of their burrows by 

 the rain ? Darwin's explanation is probably 

 true, but it is also credible that the heating 

 of the puddles by the sun's rays has some- 

 thing to do with the great mortality of the 

 annelids. Cold fresh water seems to be 

 practically harmless, though salt water is 

 rapidly fatal to earth-worms. 



An illustrated account of the drawings of 

 aboriginal origin that are found in caves in 

 different parts of the United States, prepared 

 for Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia for 1889, 

 has been sent us in a separate pamphlet by 

 the author, Mr. T. H. Lewis. The designs 

 include figures conventionalized from the 

 forms of man, the hand, fishes, serpents, an 

 elk, a face, birds, and combined figures. It 

 is suggested by the editor of the Annual 

 Cyclopedia that one of them may be intended 

 to represent a family or tribal ensign. 



In a paper read before the Medical Soci- 

 ety of Virginia, Dr. W. W. Parker, of Piich- 

 mond, favors burial rather than cremation 

 on grounds of convenience and economy ; 

 natural sentiment, whereby we cling to every 

 vestige of the body in which dwt4t the soul 

 of the dear one; the .=entiment of affection, 

 which wants to know the exact spot where 

 the body lies ; and religious motives. 



