NOTES. 



143 



the race, or mediocre. The average regres- 

 sion of the offspring to a constant fraction 

 of their mid-parental deviations, which was 

 first observed on the diameters of seeds, 

 and then confirmed by observations on hu- 

 man stature, is now shown to be a perfectly 

 reasonable law, which might have been de- 

 ductively foreseen. This law tells heavily 

 against the full hereditary transmission of 

 any rare and valuable gift, as only a few of 

 many children would resemble their mid- 

 parentage. The more exceptional the gift, 

 the more exceptional will be the good for- 

 tune of the parent who has a son who 

 equals, and still more if he has a son who 

 overpasses him. This law is even-handed ; 

 it levies the same heavy possession-tax on 

 the transmission of badness as well as of 

 goodness. If it discourages the extrava- 

 gant expectations of gifted parents that 

 their children will inherit all their powers, 

 it no less discountenances extravagant fears 

 that they will inherit all their weaknesses 

 and diseases. The number of individuals 

 in a population who differ little from me- 

 diocrity is so preponderant that it is more 

 frequently the case that an exceptional man 

 is the somewhat exceptional son of rather 

 mediocre parents than the average son of 

 very exceptional parents. 



Vision of the Honey-Bee. — According to 

 the Rev. J. L. Zabriskie's observations, the 

 honey-bee sees as through the woods. The 

 ocelli are situated on the top of the head, 

 arranged as in an equilateral triangle, so 

 that one is directed to the front, one to the 

 right, and one to the left. " Long, branch- 

 ing hairs on the crown of the head stand 

 thick, like a miniature forest, so that an 

 ocellus is scarcely discernible except from 

 a particular point of view " ; and then the 

 observer remarks an opening through the 

 hairs — a cleared pathway, as it were, in 

 such a forest — and notes that the ocellus, 

 looking like a glittering globe half im- 

 mersed in the substance of the head, lies at 

 the inner end of the path. The opening 

 connected with the front ocellus expands 

 forward from it like a funnel with an angle 

 of about fifteen degrees. The side ocelli 

 have paths more narrow, but opening more 

 vertically ; so that the two together com- 

 mand a field which, though hedged in an- 



teriorly and posteriorly, embraces, in a 

 plane transverse, of course, to the axis of 

 the insect s body, an arc of nearly one hun- 

 dred and eighty degrees. 



NOTES. 



Dr. C. Keller, of Ziirich, claims that spi- 

 ders perform an important part in the pres- 

 ervation of forests by defending the trees 

 against the depredations of aphides and in- 

 sects. He has examined a great many spi- 

 ders, both in their viscera and by feeding 

 them in captivity, and has found them to be 

 voracious destroyers of these pests ; and he 

 believes that the spiders in a particular for- 

 est do more effective work of this kind than 

 all the insect-eating birds that inhabit it. 

 lie has verified his views by observations 

 on coniferous trees, a few broad-leaved trees, 

 and apple-trees. An important feature of 

 the spiders' operations is that they prefer 

 dark spots, and therefore work most in the 

 places which vermin most infest, but which 

 are likely to be passed by other destroying 

 agents. 



The New England Meteorolog-cal Soci- 

 ety has been making a special study of 

 thunderstorms. A series of circulars was 

 prepared and sent out, explaining the details 

 of the work. Several classes of observa- 

 tions were contemplated. On the 9th of 

 June more than two hundred and fifty ob- 

 servers had offered their services. 



A Women's Anthropological Society v a" 

 organized in Washington, June 8th, v.ith 

 5Irs. Colonel James Stevenson as President, 

 Mrs. Romeyn Hitchcock Recording Secretary, 

 and Miss S. A. Scull Corresponding Secre- 

 tary. Miss Cleveland was requested to name 

 the society, and did so. 



The " Bulletin " of the French Geo- 

 graphical Society gives some curious details 

 about the system of numeration of the In- 

 dians of Guiana. It is based upon the five 

 fingers of the hand. The Indians have 

 names for only four numbers, correspond- 

 ing with the four fingers ; then, when they 

 come to five, they sav, not five fingers, but 

 "a hand." Six is "a hand and first fin- 

 ger" ; seven, " a hand and second finger " ; 

 ten, " two hands " ; fifteen, " three hands " ; 

 twenty, not " four hands," but a man. From 

 this they proceed by the system of twenties. 

 Forty is "two men"; forty-six, " two men, 

 a hand, and second finger." 



The humming of telegraph and tele- 

 phone wires, so often heard, is generally 

 considered to be caused by the wind. Mr. 

 R. W. McBrido, of Waterloo, Indiana, who 

 specially studied the matter for several 

 years on his private wire, which had a 



