POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



279 



American languages differ entirely from any 

 of the Mongolian group. In culture there 

 are various similarities, but not more and 

 not other than can be pointed out between 

 any two groups of early civilizations, and 

 not one of them is evidence of intercourse. 

 The physical similarities relied upon to show 

 racial affinity begin with the color of the 

 skin. But no American tribe shows the 

 peculiar hue of the Mongol. The hair, al- 

 though straight in both races, differs in 

 color. The oblique, or Chinese eye, about 

 which much has been said, is by no means 

 usual in the American race, scarcely more so 

 than among the whites, and is, moreover, of 

 less importance than has been maintained. 

 The shape of the skull is markedly different. 

 The Mongolian head is round, that of the 

 Eskimo notably long, and of other tribes 

 mixed. The nasal index of the American 

 Indian approaches that of the modern Euro- 

 pean much closer than it does the Mongo- 

 lian. There are in certain tribes some gener- 

 al physiognomical characteristics, and that is 

 all — and this is of little importance. 



Religions Notions of Gypsies. — The gyp- 

 sies' religion, says the author of " The Tran- 

 sylvanian Tziganes," in " Blackwood's Maga- 

 zine," is of the vaguest description. They 

 generally agree as to the existence of a God, 

 but it is a God whom they can fear without 

 loving. " God can not be good," they argue, 

 " else he would not make us die." The devil 

 they also believe in to a certain extent ; but 

 only as a weak, silly fellow, incapable of do- 

 ing much harm. A gypsy, questioned as to 

 whether he believed in the immortality of 

 the soul and the resurrection of the body, 

 scoffed at the idea. "How could I be so 

 foolish as to believe this ? " he asked, with 

 unconscious philosophy. " We have been 

 quite wretched enough, and wicked enough, 

 in this world already. Why should we begin 

 again in another ? " Sometimes their con- 

 fused notions of Christianity take the shape of 

 believing in a God, and in his Son, the young 

 God ; but while many are of the opinion that 

 the old God is dead, and that his Son now 

 reigns in his place, others declare that the 

 old God is not really dead, but has merely 

 abdicated in favor of the young God. Though 

 rarely believing in the immortality of the 

 soul, the Tzigane usually holds with the doc- 



trine of transmigration, and often supposes 

 the spirit of some particular gypsy to have 

 passed into a bat or a bird ; further believing 

 that, when that animal is killed, the spirit 

 passes back to another new-born gypsy. 

 The gypsies resident in villages and hamlets 

 often nominally adopt the religion of the 

 proprietor of the soil, principally, it seems, 

 in order to secure the privilege of being 

 buried at his expense. 



Effects of Cigarette-Smoking. — During 

 a discussion in the American Association, 

 Prof. W. S. Dudley described some experi- 

 ments which he had made on the injurious 

 effects of cigarette-smoking. lie showed that 

 they were principally due to the manner of 

 smoking, and not to the impurities, as is cur- 

 rently supposed. In smoking cigarettes, to 

 get the desired effect, the smoke is inhaled, 

 that is to say it is breathed into the lungs ; 

 whereas, in smoking pipes and cigars, the 

 smoke is simply drawn into the mouth and 

 then expelled. In experiments on small ani- 

 mals, in which they were caused to breathe 

 air containing cigarette-smoke, it was found 

 that, after a mouse had smoked one and a 

 fourth cigarette life was extinct. Exami- 

 nation of its blood showed that it had died 

 from the effects of the carbon monoxide 

 which was contained in the smoke, and not 

 from the nicotine and other volatile products 

 of the tobacco and paper. This carbon mon- 

 oxide is produced by the carbonic-acid gas, 

 which is first formed at the end of the lighted 

 cigarette, passing through the red-hot carbon, 

 while the air is excluded. The smoke of a 

 cigar or pipe, or a Turkish water-pipe, would 

 have the same effect if inhaled. 



Development of the Plesiosanrns.— Piof. 



H. G. Seeley exhibited in the British Asso- 

 ciation last year a remarkable fossil show- 

 ing the development of the young of the 

 plesiosaurus. Until this fossil had been dis- 

 covered and forwarded to him, he had sought 

 throughout the collections of Europe for 

 evidence on that development, but without 

 success. No more remarkable fossil had 

 ever been found, and no incident in the his- 

 tory of fossilization was more singular than 

 that which this specimen displayed. The 

 fossil was a series of mummies of minute 

 plcsiosaurs less than five inches in length. 



