512 Chronicles of Science. [ July, 
reduces itself to the movements of brutish prehension, What a 
difference is there in the hand ofman! From a simple prehensile organ 
it becomes a measuring instrument—from a hook it becomes a com- 
pass, and the compass presupposes the geometrician. With regard to 
the disputed question of the Negro’s place in nature, M. Gratiolet 
exclaims—“ Do these races (i. e. the Negroes and certain other 
degraded races) form a passage between man and the apes? No—a 
thousand times No! Their deformity even protests against such an 
assertion. Far from dwindling down, the human characteristics 
become more decided, and even exaggerated in their case. The lobe 
of the ear, the nostrils, the lips, which are the exclusive character of 
man, are developed even to deformity. Everything in the Negro’s 
degraded face protests against this impious assertion.” 
The Society of Arts and Sciences of Utrecht has propounded some 
questions for which it is proposed to give prizes, viz. for each a gold 
medal, value 300 Dutch florins. The following relate to the subjects 
under consideration :—1. Observations on the influence exerted by 
small variations of exterior circumstances upon the evolution of the 
embryo of one or more species of vertebrate animals. 2. Chemical 
and physiological observations on the digestion of freshwater fish. 
3. Chemical and physiological observations on the digestion of 
reptiles. 4. It has long been known that fish have the faculty of 
producing sounds; the Society requires observations on the manner 
in which the sound is produced in one or more species where the 
cause has not yet been pointed out. 5. Observations upon the 
development of one or more species of invertebrate animals, the 
history of which is not yet known, accompanied by the figures 
necessary to explain the text. The successful essays will be published 
in the memoirs of the Society, and all replies must be sent to the 
Secretary, Professor O. Van Rees, Utrecht, before the 30th November 
next. 
In a paper by Dr. W. H. Dickinson, read before the Royal 
Society, upon the Functions of the Cerebellum, he infers from 
numerous experiments upon the lower animals, that the cerebellum 
has nothing to do with cranium sensations, with the sexual propensity, 
with the action of the involuntary muscles, with the maintenance of 
animal heat, or with secretion; but the only function which his 
experiments seemed to assign to it was such as concerns voluntary 
muscles, which receive from it a regulated supply of motor influence. 
Kach lateral half affects both sides, but the one opposite to itself the 
most. The anterior limbs are chiefly under the influence of the 
cerebrum ; the posterior, of the cerebellum. Cerebellar movements are 
apt to become habitual, while cerebral are impulsive. In the human 
subject, the only faculty which constantly sufiers in consequence of 
changes in the cerebellum is the power of voluntary motion. When 
congenitally defective, there is want of action in the muscles of the 
lower extremities. The occasional occurrence of loss of visual power, 
and alterations of the sexual propensity in diseases of the cerebellum, 
are referred to the conveyance of irritation to the corpora quadrigemina 
in the one case, and to the spinal cord in the other. From all 
