286 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



them^ before they were taught mere intricacies 

 of language^ so that the child should be 

 thoroughly educated in mind, body, and soul. 

 He rejoiced to find that there was a great 

 advance in the direction of spelling reform, 

 because it was now being found out that our 

 present system was productive of enormous 

 expense, difficulties, and wasted energy. 



An Eyeless Child. — A girl thirteen years 

 of age has been exhibited by Dr. Menacho, 

 at the CataluSa Academy of Medical Sciences, 

 in whom, while the eyelids, lachrymal appa- 

 ratus, and orbits appeared to be well formed, 

 there was no eye on either side, but in its 

 place a simple cavity could be seen on sepa- 

 rating the eyelids. This cavity was invested 

 by the conjunctiva, which apparently rested 

 on some firm fibrous basis, in which move- 

 ments could be detected, as if there were ru- 

 diments of the ocular muscles. In the thick- 

 ness of both inferior eyelids a kind of bursa 

 or cyst could be felt, that on the left side 

 being the larger and having a whitish coat 

 like the sclerotic, which could be seen 

 through the conjunctiva posteriorly, where 

 it was thin and transparent. This became 

 tense during crying, and the child was ob- 

 served to press it frequently with her hands, 

 and then to smile. It is supposed that a 

 subjective sensation of light was thus pro- 

 duced. 



NOTES. 



The first part of Prof. Topinard's paper 

 on " The Last Stages in the Genealogy of 

 Man," the conclusion of which is given in 

 this number of the " Monthly," was pub- 

 lished in the October number. The re- 

 mainder of the paper was omitted from the 

 November number, in which it should regu- 

 larly have appeared, on account of the press- 

 ure of matter claiming insertion. 



Prof. W. H. Flower has been chosen 

 President of the British Association for next 

 year. The meeting will be held at Newcas- 

 tle-on-Tyne, and the meeting for 1890 will 

 be held at Leeds. 



LoccsTS, which are a great nuisance there, 

 are trapped in Cyprus by means of a screen 

 of canvas having at the top a strip of 

 smooth oil-cloth up which the insects can 

 not crawl. They are thus compelled to creep 

 along the screen and fall into holes, from 

 which their exit is prevented by a somewhat 

 similar contrivance. They are then buried. 



The system has been very successful, and 

 gives hope that the locusts may ultimately 

 be exterminated. Birds are also effective in 

 destroying the pests. Canon Tristram tells 

 of an instance in which a mass of locust- 

 grubs so thick as to cover the ground was 

 entirely devoured in a very short time by a 

 certain species which followed them in large 

 flocks. 



Mr. E. B. Poulton reports to the Brit- 

 ish Association every two years his observa- 

 tions upon a family of many-toed cats, of 

 which he has individuals down to the tenth 

 generation. They originated from a cat 

 named Punch, which had six toes on each 

 foot. The peculiarity appeared with more 

 or less modification in a large number of his 

 descendants, some of which had seven toes 

 on each foot. 



According to Sir John Lubbock, about 

 4,500 species of wild bees are known, and 

 1,100 of wasps, of which 170 and 16 respect- 

 ively live in Britain. Their habits differ in 

 almost every genus, and some offer points 

 of great interest. The amophilla, having 

 built her nest, places in it as food for the 

 young a full - grown moth. This must be 

 prevented from escaping, yet must not be 

 killed ; the wasp paralyzes it by a series of 

 carefully adjusted stings, and crushes its 

 head, leaving it alive, but without the power 

 of motion. There appears to be some evi- 

 dence that the mother- wasp can control the 

 sex of the egg. Sir John mentions the death 

 of a queen-ant which had lived in one of his 

 nests since 1874, and must therefore have 

 been fourteen years old, much the oldest in- 

 sect on record. 



A NEW view of the value of the study of 

 antliropology, as popularized in such a mu- 

 seum as he would design, is given by Lieu- 

 tenant -General Pitt - Pavers, in his address 

 at the British Association. He says: "It 

 would adapt itself more especially to the 

 limited time for study at the disposal of the 

 working "Classes, for whose education . . , 

 we are all most deeply concerned. Anything 

 which tends to im])rcss the mind with the 

 slow growth and stability of human institu- 

 tions and industries, and their dependence 

 upon antiquity, must contribute to check 

 revolutionary ideas." 



Copenhagen was visited by a blizzard at 

 about the same time that our Atlantic coast 

 was suffering from the affliction. It began 

 on the 10th of March and continued to the 

 13th, piling up the snow to fabulous heights, 

 and accompanied with intense cold. The 

 city was wholly cut off from surrounding 

 districts. The straits between Sweden and 

 the Danish islands were at the same time 

 covered with a tolerably thick ice. It is a 

 curious coincidence that in 1788 the snow 

 fell so deep in Scandinavia that it had not 

 wholly disappeared in the following June. 



