POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



281 



of the cases, and usually affects both feet 

 alike, but appears rather more frequently in 

 women than in men. Pressure of the shoes 

 has been assigned as a cause of it, but it has 

 been observed in children under seven years 

 old, and even in embryos as often as in adults, 

 and in circles where tightly fitting shoes are 

 not worn. Dr. Pfitzner, who has made a 

 special study of the subject, has come to 

 the conclusion that the little toe is in process 

 of degeneration, and that without its being 

 possible to show that it is suffering an adap- 

 tation to any external mechanically operat- 

 ing influence. Corresponding to this, certain 

 processes of reduction are going on in the 

 muscular apparatus. The whole phenome- 

 non is of interest, because we are witnessing 

 its beginning, and can certainly predict its 

 outcome in the final reduction of the little 

 toe to two joints. 



The Exact Point of the Pole.— If any 



of our arctic explorers ever reach the pole, 

 they will be confronted by a very difficult 

 problem in determining the exact point. 

 Geographical determinations increase in dif- 

 ficulty on approaching the pole, on account 

 of the narrowing of the degrees of longitude, 

 and the compass, sextant (if the weather is 

 cloudy), and chronometer are of little use 

 then. A process for taking the point at the 

 pole has been described by M. E. Durand Gre- 

 ville, which depends on the properties of the 

 gyroscope. The apparatus consists of two 

 gyroscopes and a plumb-line. To determine 

 the latitude a gyroscope which has been 

 oriented by its axis to the pole of the sky 

 — or a gyroscope-compass — is employed. 

 The angle which its axis makes with the 

 vertical of the place is complementary to 

 the latitude. To determine the longitude, 

 a second gyroscope is needed, which has been 

 adjusted so as to turn in a plane parallel to 

 the meridian of the point of departure. The 

 plane of the gyroscope-compass being neces- 

 sarily parallel to the equator, if we project 

 the vertical of the place upon it, and meas- 

 ure the angle which that projection makes 

 with the line of intersection of the planes of 

 the two gyroscopes, we shall have the differ- 

 ence in longitude of the point of departure 

 and the point of arrival. A practical ar- 

 rangement for taking this measure has been 

 devised by M. Trouve. Before starting, the 



travelers set in motion the gyroscope-com- 

 pass and the gyroscope whose plane is the 

 meridian of the point of departure. When 

 the position of a point is to be determined, 

 the axes of the two gyroscopes are conveyed 

 parallel to themselves, and the vertical of 

 the point reached is taken with a plumb-line. 

 If the axis of the gyroscope-compass is paral- 

 lel to the plumb-line, the balloon is immedi- 

 ately above the pole. The result is not af- 

 fected by height above the earth's surface, 

 for the directions of the three instruments 

 continue the same at all points of the same 

 vertical. 



Canadian Names and Places. — Dr. George 

 M. Dawson observes, in his Geography of 

 Canada, that throughout the country many 

 of the original Indian names of places have 

 been adopted and perpetuated by the whites, 

 but in most cases they have suffered abbre- 

 viation or other changes in the process. In 

 general the native names are found to be of 

 a descriptive character, and to express some 

 noted feature or product of each locality. 

 Taking instances from different parts of the 

 country and in several dialects, Nictau means 

 " forks of a river " ; Shediac, " running far 

 back " ; Matapedia, " roughly flowing " ; Que- 

 bec, " a strait or an obstruction " ; Toronto, 

 " a tree in the water " ; Winnipeg, " muddy 

 water " ; Saskatchewan, " rapid current." It 

 is further noteworthy that in many cases the 

 principal villages or places of resort of the In- 

 dians have since become the sites of towns or 

 cities. This depends on the circumstance that 

 the whites first sought such places for pur- 

 poses of trade, but chiefly on the fact that the 

 Indians selected localities where natural lines 

 of travel, such as rivers, converged, or were 

 interrupted by falls or rapids, necessitating 

 portages ; also such places as sheltered havens 

 or harbors on the sea-coast or the shores of 

 the Great Lakes. 



Vegetation of New Guinea. — So great a 

 wealth of botanical material has been col- 

 lected in New Guinea that there are now as 

 many of the higher plants of that country 

 known to science as of German plants, or 

 about two thousand. Inasmuch as the com- 

 ponent parts of the forest change in extraor- 

 dinarily short distances, it may be expected 

 that at least three times as many species will 



