July 17, 1879] 



NATURE 



267 



contents of the flowing river. One old woman, however, 

 dispelled the Templar's idea by stating that she had felt the smell 

 of ' bramstane ' near her dwelling, and on searching the premises 

 it was found the water-barrel had got a saffron cap on, and was 

 otherwise dusted with the subtle powder. As this mystery, 

 if it is not explained, may prove serious to the nervous, super- 

 stitious, or credulous part of the community we may as well add 

 that at this season districts in the neighbourhood of fir planta- 

 tions run the risk of a thorough dusting of this powder if there 

 is the slightest breeze, as the cones of the young Scots fir are 

 thickly coated with yellow powder or pollen, which will give out 

 a blinding saffron cloud on the slightest irritation." 



The laudable desire of our newspaper correspondent to relieve 

 the anxieties of his neighbours at a time when the Presbyterian 

 world is much exercised over the question of eternal and sulphur- 

 eous punishment, can be fully appreciated only by natives. But 

 in my opinion, the correspondent, in his clear knowledge of the 

 nature of the " brimstone " deposit, exhibits a most praiseworthy 

 tendency to explain the natural in terms of the natural ; whilst 

 the incident tends to show at the same time that there are not a 

 few persons in this world to whom a course of elementary studies 

 in natural history would serve as a means of culture, not to say 

 of common protection against ludicrous mistakes such as those 

 against which Mr. Carpenter inveighs. Andrew Wilson 



Edinburgh Medical School 



Plague of Rats 



I SEE by Nature, vol. xx. p. 65, that Mr. Orville A. Derby 

 contributes some very interesting information relating to a plague 

 of rats in Brazil, and adding that the plague "is said to occur at 

 intervals of about thirty years, and to be simultaneous with the 

 drying of the Taquara, or bamboo, which everywhere abounds 

 in the Brazilian forests." It may be interesting to know that 

 a similar plague of rats visited the higher coffee districts of 

 Ceylon during the year 1875, doing great damage to young and 

 old plantations alike. 



It is remarkable th.it the invasion of rats was simultaneous 

 with the flowering and death of the Nilloo (SlrobilanlAes), which 

 forms the greater part of the underwood of Ceylon forests, and 

 is said to flower and die once every seven years. The most re- 

 markable part of the plague was that the rats did not seem to 

 devour any part of the branches they cut off, but to nip off and 

 leave them untouched upon the ground. So serious indeed was the 

 damage done, that on some coffee estates rewards were given to 

 coolies for every rat they caught, and it was not an uncommon 

 thing to hear of three or four hundred rats being destroyed, on 

 one estate only, per week. 



Between the years 1840 and 1850 there was a similar plague 

 in the Kalebokka coffee district, where the damage done was 

 immense, but I am not aware if it was so general as in the rat 

 plague of 1875. It is to be hoped that we may not again be 

 invaded in 1882, when the Nilloo is next expected to die. 



Ballangoda, Ceylon, June 16 Frederick Lewis 



Glow-worms 



Shelley sings of a " glow-worm golden in a dell of dew," 

 but last night, at 10 o'clock, while travelling on a bridle path 

 among the bleak lonely mountains of Tsmron, Dumfriesshire, 

 bearing up against a high wind with cold rain, I espied three 

 glow-worms shining among the grass and ferns. I had seen 

 them in the same locality before, but scarcely expected to have 

 noticed them in such ungenial weather when summer has with us 

 scarcely yet begun. j g 



July 8 



Headless Butterfly laying Eggs 

 About three o'clock on the i ith inst. I picked up a butterfly, 

 probably belongmg to the genus Vanissa. It was a female, the 

 head of which had recently been plucked off by a bird, and was 

 lymg near the body. Thinking it was dead, I carried it home to 

 examme the wmg scales. On clipping off a bit of wing about four 

 hours afterwards, the legs move J, and in a short time an egg was 

 laid. In about two minutes another egg was laid. Others fol- 

 lowed, till fivc-and-twenty had been expelled. Tremors of the 

 legs and wings accompanied each deposit. The laying ceased 

 and the headless mother seemed dead. Next morning, on touch- 

 ing her, the motions of the legs and wings were repeated, and in 

 a short time the laying was resumed. On close examination a 



heaving of the wings and rings of the abdomen could be observed, 

 with about the frequency of human breathing. At the end of 

 twenty-nine and a half hours from the time of finding, the laying 

 ceased ; seventy-eight eggs were laid by the butterfly with her 

 head off. A. Stephen Wilson 



North Kinmundy, Aberdeen, July 14 



THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF MAN^ 



III. 



Tke Mongoloid People of Asia 



'T'O the north and east of the line already spoken of, 

 -*■ running northwards from the head of the Bay of 

 Bengal to the north of the Caspian Sea, the bulk of the 

 people of the Continent of Asia belong to the Mongolian, 

 or better, Mongoloid type. 



The physical characters of these people, best seen in 

 the so-called Tartars who inhabit the country to the 

 north of the great wall of China, are as follows : the 

 complexion is pale brown, usually with a yellowish tinge ; 

 hence they are spoken of as the "yellow races," in 

 contradistinction to the (so-called) white and black races. 

 Their hair is black, perfectly straight, and coarse. In 

 microscopic section it is seen to be of large size, and 

 more inclining to cylindrical than in other races, but it 

 varies much. Except on the scalp, where the hair is 

 often long, the capillary development is very scanty. On 

 the face it is often limited to two slender pencils on the 

 upper lip ; and the beard, when developed, is acquired 

 comparatively late in life. The face is broad and flat ; 

 the space between the eyes is wide ; the nose small, 

 straight, and compressed ; the eyes dark and small ; the 

 aperture between the lids narrow and somewhat oblique, 

 being raised at the outer corner ; the upper lid drooping, 

 the inner corner partly covered by a vertical crescentic 

 fold of skin ; the cheeks very prominent ; the mouth and 

 lips of moderate size, the lower lip often hanging; the 

 chin small and sharp. 



The osteological characters of the typical Mongolian 

 are more marked in the face than in the cranium, for the 

 latter may vary between the extremes of brachycephaly 

 and dolichocephaly, though the former prevails. The 

 face is large, being both high and broad ; the forehead 

 flat, the glabella and superorbital ridges slightly deve- 

 loped ; the orbits round, with thin sharp margins, the 

 sub-glabellar nasal depression very slight ; the nasal 

 bones narrow and flat ; the whole framework of the nose 

 inclining to the leptorhine form ; the jaws of medium 

 prominence ; the arch of the mouth broad and round ; 

 the malar bones both broad and deep. Perhaps the most 

 distinctive feature of the Mongoloid face, which gives it 

 the characteristic appearance, is the forward position of 

 the outer margin of the orbit, as compared with the 

 median line of the face. In order to estimate this 

 character with exactness. Prof Flower measures the 

 angle formed between two horizontal lines meeting at the 

 most depressed point of the nasal bones in the middle 

 line (the apex of the angle) and resting on the middle of 

 the outer margins of the orbit. This nasi-malar angle 

 gives valuable average results. For instance, the average 

 of 130 European skulls is 131 deg., of the twenty Maravars 

 mentioned in the last abstract, exactly the same ; of 20 

 African negroes 134 deg., and of 20 Australians 135 deg. 

 In all of the true Mongolian races, the average exceeds 

 140 deg. Thus, in 4 Samoyedes it is 144 deg. ; in 16 

 Chinese, 142 deg. ; in 7 Japanese, 141 deg. ; in 4 

 Burmese, 144 deg. ; in 26 Eskimo, 144 deg. 



The Mongoloid races of Asia are conveniently divided 

 into two groups, the northern and the southern. The for- 

 mer, called Mongolo-Altaic races, are united by languages 

 having considerable affinities. They nearly all lead a 

 nomadic life, depending for their living on hunting, fish- 



' Abstract of Prof. Flower's Huntcrian Lectures, delivered at the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, c-jmmeneing on Wednesday, March 5. Continued from 

 p. 346. 



