428 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tra rib was in the lower part of the chest. 

 The gorilla had one more rib than man, but 

 he had never met with the cervical rib in the 

 gorilla in the upper part of the chest. The 

 tendency in the human chest was to move 

 upward ; the tendency in the gorilla's chest 

 was to move downward. President Archi- 

 bald Geikie said that in man the last rib was 

 a diminishing element, that nothing was more 

 striking than the excessive variations in the 

 length of it. Every organ in the body had a 

 marvelous power of persistency, but it seemed 

 as if the last rib was passing out of existence. 



Ancient Peruvian Vegetables. — Accord- 

 ing to Prof. Wittmack, the ancient Peruvians 

 did not suffer from lack of variety of vege- 

 table foods in their bill of fare. The exami- 

 nation of the ancient cemetery at Aricon has 

 brought to light a large number of plant prod- 

 ucts which were useful to them for various 

 purposes. Among cereals they had several 

 kinds of Indian corn from which they pre- 

 pared a kind of beer and a brandy. The 

 quinoa ( Chcnopodhim quinoa) vf^s also much 

 valued as a breadstuff, and is still cultivated. 

 They had two kinds of phaseolus beans 

 (Phaseolus pallar and P. vulgaris), and the 

 beans of the mezquite (Prosopis c/landulosa), 

 which were eaten as a St. John's bread, or 

 ground were much enjoyed with water. Only 

 a few seeds of lupins have been recovered, 

 but the peanut (Arachis hypogwa) has been 

 found abundantly. The bulbous foods in- 

 cluded manioc, potatoes, which were culti- 

 vated on the mountains, and the sweet po- 

 tato. Of fruits they had bananas and the 

 lucuma (Lucuma obovaid) of the present Pe- 

 ruvians ; the guava, the sapota, peaches, the 

 passion-flower, the anone, and the anana. 

 The large seeds of the Inga feuilli, called pa- 

 cay, were much liked. For greens they had 

 the tender leaves of the quinoa, cucumbers, 

 and tomatoes. Their narcotics included the 

 coca, which was chewed with pulverized 

 bones or lime, but which in the time of the 

 Incas common men were not permitted to en- 

 joy without permission of the king. Tobacco 

 was used only in snuff or as a medicine, but 

 was not smoked. One of the most important 

 drinks was chica, a kind of corn beer. Span- 

 ish pepper was in general use. Of plants 

 useful in the arts, they had white and brown 

 cotton, hemp from the agave, and fourcroya 



and ananas leaves, for fibers. The pith of 

 the agave furnished tinder. For dyestuffs, 

 they had indigo for blue, Bixa orcllania, the 

 fruit of Coidteria tinctoria, the bark of Rho- 

 pala ferruginea, for black and brown, Big- 

 nonia chica and Rubia nitida. The seeds of 

 the soap tree (Ncclandra or Mucuna inflexa) 

 were worn as beads. Weaving implements 

 and canes were made from the soft wood of 

 the Porliera hygrometrica ; and idols, spoons, 

 and other carved articles from the likewise 

 soft wood of Pavonia paniculata, while hard 

 woods were fashioned into lance-shafts, etc. 



Ethics in Engineer's Work. — Some Moral 

 Factors in the Engineer's Career, as outlined 

 by Mr. Alfred R. Wolff, of the Stevens Insti- 

 tute of Technology, include in the beginning 

 the subordination of the money consideration 

 to the improvement of opportunities for ac- 

 quiring further knowledge and the right kind 

 of experience in judgment ; an impartial es- 

 timate of one's own capabilities and the fol- 

 lowing as a specialty of that in which he can 

 best excel ; self-respect ; strenuous effort to 

 gain wide culture and foster broad interests 

 outside of his special profession ; and good 

 citizenship, with active interests in move- 

 ments which tend to humanitarian, social, and 

 political advance. Under the maxim " Be 

 honest," the author describes a kind of brib- 

 ery which is insinuating but powerful. It is 

 when a special machine or device has been 

 recommended or some contract awarded with 

 sole reference to its merits, and the proprie- 

 tor then offers a commission or gift. All ap- 

 pears harmless ; but an inducement has been 

 offered silently for taking, if not on this oc- 

 casion, then on the next, a more favorable or 

 a biased view to the donor's interest. 



Origin of Color Blindness. — After de- 

 scribing the phenomena of color blindness in 

 his address at the British Association, Prof. 

 William Rutherford said : " It must be ad- 

 mitted that the production of nerve-impulses 

 within the terminals of the retina is almost 

 as obscure as ever. It is still the old ques- 

 tion, Does light stimulate the optic terminals 

 by inducing vibration or by setting up chemi- 

 cal change ? Whichever view we adopt, it 

 seems to me necessary to suppose that all the 

 processes for the production of nerve-im- 

 pulses can take place in one and the same 



