104 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
[July, 1891. 
and Territory, and one each from the army, navy, and ma- 
rine hospital service, who shall constitute a committee, 
which is hereby instructed to effect a permanent organiza- 
tion of the proposed Inter-Continental American Medical 
Congress, and to determine the time and place at which the 
same sliall be held. 
The resolutions were seconded by Dr. William 
H. Pancoast and others, aud unanimously adopted. 
The committee will meet next October, when the 
time and place of meeting of the Congress will be 
decided, and permanent officers elected. 
»♦* ■ 
THE MAKCHOTS OF THE CAPE OF GOOD 
HOPE. 
Among the most curious and remarkable of the 
sea fowl tribe are the manchots, or jackass pen- 
guins, found at theCape of Good Hope and the 
neighboring islands. The animals are of a most 
strange and aberrant type, and are hardly worthy 
the pame of birds. Their wings are entirely use- 
less for purposes of flight, and have, apparently, 
been modified into an organ more nearly resem- 
bling the flipper of a seal. The feet are large and 
clumsy, and, like the bear, the manchot is a 
plantigrade, standing upon the full length of the 
foot ; but, even with this advantage, his move- 
ments on land are so clumsy tliat he is ol)liged to 
use the cluster of strong feathers forming the tip 
of the tail as an additional means of support when 
standing upright. In the water, however, the 
manchot is perfectly at home, and the limbs 
which are of so little use to it on land enable it 
to move with the greatest swiftness and ease. 
The color of these birds is a pure white on the 
under part of the body, and a black or grayish 
blue above. Bands of a yellowish color have 
sometimes been observed on the breast and the 
sides of the neck, and tufts of bright yellow 
feathers about the eye. A peculiarity of the 
plumage of the adult male birds is the dark band 
surrounding the lower part of the body, as shown 
in the illustration. The average length of the 
birds is about two feet. 
The eggs are laid on rocky islands and on cliffs 
bordering the sea. The nest is roughly con- 
structed of stones aud shells, the principal object 
being, apparently, to raise the eggs from the 
ground and keep them dry during the process of 
incubation. Usually a single egg only is found in 
the nest, of a pure wliite color, and globular in 
form, like tliat of a duck. After five weeks" incu- 
bation the young manchots make their appear- 
ance, and are fed from the beaks of their parents 
with partially digested food regurgitated from 
the stomach. After the responsibility lor their 
young ceases, the old birds commence to moult, 
and during this process they remain in a sort of 
stupor until the new feathers are grown and it is 
safe for them to take to the water once more. 
Several of these birds are kept in the Jardin 
d'Acclimatation at Paris, and have successfully 
raised their young and withstood the rigors of the 
past exceptionally cold winter. It is worthy of 
notice that when removed to the northern hemis- 
phere the manchot tends instinctively to delay 
the nesting season about six months, to corre- 
spond with the dift'ereuce in the seasons between 
the two hemispheres. A similar tendency has 
been observed in other exotic species. 
Intermediate types of animals like the bird 
above described are the strongest witnesses to 
the truth of the theory of development. Like the 
whale, which is a true mammal and not a fish at 
all, and which was probably derived from some 
terrestrial form of life, so in the manchot we can 
almost say we have a true "missing link," and 
an actual example of a bird in process of trans- 
formation into a marine animal. Numerous simi- 
lar intermediate forms, both existing and fossil, 
are known to naturalists ; and the more the innu- 
merable forms of life are studied, the more 
strongly the conviction is forced upon us that the 
structure and functions of living forms are not 
fixed, but constantly, although slowly, changing ; 
or, in other words, the picture which Nature pre- 
sents to our view in the world of life is not a 
mosaic, but an ever varying kaleidoscopic design. 
The accompanying illustration is reproduced 
from La Nature. 
THE END OF THE WORLD. 
Wk are taught by astronomy and geology, that 
this earth upon which we live has not always 
been in the same condition in which it now ap- 
pears to us. It has had a beginning, and has gone 
through a series of changes from a mass of incan- 
descent gas, through liquid and solid forms, sub- 
jected to varying climates and occupied by ever 
varying forms of life, until in our own day we 
find it so well adapted to our existence, that, for- 
getting the comparitively minute space of time 
in which we, or even the human race, have lived 
upon it, we are likely to think that the present 
conditions are fixed and that the earth will con- 
tinue to go through its daily and yearly rotations, 
with alternations of summer and winter, day and 
night, while generations of man and the present 
races of animals continue to succeed each other 
for an indefinite or infinite number of years. 
Nothing could be further from the fact than 
this belief. The earth is passing through a regu- 
lar cycle of changes, the forms of vegetable and 
animal life existing upon it are constantly vary- 
ing, and there can be lio doubt but that in the 
course of time, ages hence though it may be, the 
earth will become unfit for human habitation, if, 
indeed, before that time the form of life known 
as man, has not been developed into an entirely 
dift'erent organism, or " improved off of the face of 
the earth." 
We cannot say positively what will be the final 
fate of the earth. The present condition of the 
moon gives us a hint, and shows us a bare, cold 
mass of rock without water, air, life, or vegeta- 
tion. It may be that sometime all the air and 
water on the earth will be absorbed into its sub- 
stance as into a great sponge, when it would rap- 
idly acquire the lunar characteiistics. If the ne- 
bular theory is correct, aud the moon was thrown 
off from the earth, it must at one time have 
possessed air and water, both of which have now 
vanished. 
The tides are another source of disturbance to 
the continuance of present conditions. The great 
tidal waves of water sweeping around the earth 
each day and rushing against the shores, act as a 
brake and tend to retard its motion, making each 
day a trifle longer than tlie preceding one. The 
variation is imperceptible— almost infinitesimal — 
but it exists nevertheless, and in course of time, 
if not compensated for in other directions, will 
end in giving us a day of a year in length with 
six months of darkness and six months of light. 
Burning heat alternating with freezing cold. 
Will the earth ever fall into the sun? That is 
a question which no one can answer. From ob- 
servations upon certain comets the existence of a 
retarding element in space has been suspected, 
and if any such element exists it is only a ques- 
tion of time — and a very long time — when such a 
catastrophe must occur. But as long as astrono- 
mical observations have been made, no cliange in 
the length of the year has been noticed, and the 
question still remains undecided. 
A great increase in the sun's heat would result 
in the destruction of all forms of life, and such 
an increase is among the possibilities. Small and 
inconspicuous stars have been observed to blaze 
up suddenly to the greatest degree of brightness, 
and spectroscopic analysis has shown such stars 
to be enveloped in incandescent gases thrown out 
from their interior. Similar explosions on a 
small scale are constantly occurring in our own 
sun, and while it is very improbable that any 
marked increase of heat from such a cause will 
ever be felt upon the earth, the possibility re- 
mains. 
The most certain catastrophe, however, and one 
which is likely to be nearest in point of time, 
is the final extinction of the light and heat 
of the sun. While we do not know the exact 
cause of all the radiant energy wliich the sun is 
constantly sending to us, it is certain that there 
must be an end to it sometime, and tliat we are 
supplied from a reservoir containing only a fixed 
amount, which must certainly be exhausted. Wlien 
that time comes all life will cease to exist, and the 
sun and planets will move through space, dark, 
cold, and dead masses of barren rocks untenanted 
by even the lowest forms of life. With our present 
knowledge, this must be the inevitable fate of the 
universe, albeit the number of years required 
for its consummation is so great that the human 
mind cannot conceive of its magnitude. Beyond 
that point we can see no farther, but our wisdom 
is extremely limited, and there may be natural 
laws at present unknown to us by which the 
scattered energy may be once more gathered up 
into centers of radiation, the earth renew its 
youth, aud the cycle of organic and inorganic 
changes begin once more. Long before th.at time 
we may all hope for a condition of existence in 
which we can view the m3'steries of natuie with 
a clearer vision, and look back upon the problems 
which now appear so perplexing and unsolvalde, 
as in our waking hours we look back upon the 
troubled visions and fancies of a restless sleep. 
An electric welding machine for making chain 
cables is among the latest applications of electric 
welding. It has been found possible to weld two 
links at the same time. 
