150 



NA TV RE 



[August io, 1893 



. but that it revolves around in the earth, accomplishing each 

 revolution in about two months more than the period that the 

 earth requires for the performance of each revolution around the 

 sun. 



"What use has a serpent for its tongue ? " is a question 

 asked by Ruskin of 'scientific people,' "since it neither 

 works it to talk with nor hiss with, nor, as. far as I know, to 

 lick with, and, least of all, to sting with, and yet, to the 

 people who do not know the creatures, this little vibrating 

 forked thread, flicked out of its mouth and back again as 

 quick as lightning, is the most striking part of the beast." 

 Mr. W. H. Hudson furnishes an answer to the question. 

 He remarks : " So far from being silent on the subject, as 

 Ruskin imagined, the ' scientific people ' have found out 

 or invented a variety of uses for the serpent's tongue. By 

 turns it has been spoken of as an insect-catching organ, 

 a decoy, a tactile organ, and, in some mysterious way, an 

 organ of intelligence. And, after all, it is none of these 

 things, and the way is still open for fresh speculation." 

 Mr. Hudson puts forward the idea that the snake uses its 

 tongue to concentrate the attention of an intended victim 

 upon its head while its body is being trailed forward to 

 effect the capture. We quote from his article : — 



In most cases the movement probably would be detected 

 but for the tongue, which attracts the eye by its eccentric 

 motions, its sudden successive appearances and disappearances ; 

 watching the tongue, the long, sinuous body slowly gliding over 

 the intervening space would not be observed; only the statuesque 

 raised head and neck would be visible, and these would appear 

 not to move. The snake's action in such a case would resemble 

 the photographer's trick to make a restive child sit still, while 

 its picture is being taken, hy directing its attention to some 

 curious object, or by causing a pocket-handkerchief to flutter 

 above the camera. 



Snakes have been observed to steal upon their victims in this 

 quiet, subtle manner ; the victim, bird or lizard, has been 

 observed to continue motionless in a watchful attitude, as if 

 ready to dart away, but still attentively regarding the gradually- 

 approaching head and flickering tongue ; and, in the end, by a 

 sudden, quick-darting motion on the part of the snake, the 

 capture has been effected. . . . 



Itisnothere maintained that the tongue is everything, nor that 

 it is the principal agent in fascination, but only that it is anecessary 

 part of the creature, and of the creature's strangeness, which is 

 able to produce so great and wonderful an effect. The long, 

 limbless body, lithely and mysteriously gliding on the surface ; 

 the glittering scales and curious mottlings, bright or lurid ; the 

 statuesque, arrowy head, sharp-cut and immovable ; the round 

 lidless eyes, fixed and brilliant ; and the long, bifurcated tongue, 

 shining black or crimson, with its fantastic flickering play before 

 the close-shut, lipless mouth — that is the serpent, and probably 

 no single detail in the fateful creature's appearance could 

 be omitted and the effect of its presence on other animals be 

 the same. 



In an article on " The Limits of Animal Intelligence," 

 Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan gives an interesting account of 

 some experiments and observations he has recently made 

 on young chicks, with a view of determining the difference 

 between intelligence and instinct. He expresses the dis- 

 tinction between the two as follows : — ■ 



Intelligence is the faculty by which, through experience and 

 association, activities are adapted to, or, more strictly, moulded 

 by, new ciccumstances ; while reason is the faculty which has 

 its inception in the true grasping of relationships as such. In- 

 telligence is ever on the watch for fortunate variations of 

 activity and happy hits of motor response ; it feels that they 

 are suitable, though it knows not how and why, and controls 

 future activities in their direction. It proceeds by trial and 

 error, and selects the successes from among the failures. 

 Reason explains the suitability ; it shows wherein lies the suc- 

 cess or the error, and adapts conduct through a clear perception 

 of the relationships involved. Individual experience, associ- 

 ation, and imitation are the main factors of intelligence ; 

 explanation and intentional adaptation are the goal of reason. 



Incidentally I have expressed my opinion that, in the activities 

 of the higher animals, marvellously intelligent as they olten 



NO. I 24 I, VOL. 48] 



are, there is no evidence of that true perception of relationships 

 which is essential to reason. But this is merely an opinion, and 

 nos a settled conviction. I shall not be the least ashamed of 

 myself if I change this view before the close of the present 

 year. And the distinction between intelligence and reason will 

 remain precisely the same if animals are proved to be rational 

 beings the day after to-morrow. For the distinction holds good 

 between human intelligence and human reason, just as much as 

 between animal intelligence and the possible reason of animals. 

 It is no line of division which separates animals from men ; 

 but a distinction between faculties, one of which, at least (and 

 perhaps both, though this I doubt), is common to animals and 

 men. 



The New Review contains an article by Prof. Ludwig 

 Biichner on " The Brain of Women." It is well known 

 that the average size of the female brain is considerably 

 less than that of the male. Further, up to the present 

 nothing has been found to justify the assumption that there 

 is anything in the inner formation of the brain to make 

 good its deficiency in size as compared to the male. This 

 Prof. Biichner holds to be due to differences of develop- 

 ment. 



If we consider that for thousands of years woman, by reason 

 of her subordinate social position, has received a different 

 education from her male partner, and that her training has led 

 her in quite another direction to his ; that her horizon has been 

 a more limited one, and moreover that every encouragement 

 has been given to the play of her emotions at the expense of the 

 activity of her intellect ; and finally that this state of affairs has 

 lasted from generation to generation, through mother to 

 daughter, then, I say, that from a physiological standpoint there 

 should be no cause for surprise that as a result woman should 

 differ from man, that her brain should be inferior to his, or at 

 any rate should have developed on different lines, or, as we 

 have been saying, that the fore part of her brain should be found 

 to be proportionately less and the hind part proportionately- 

 greater than that of man. 



Mr. Thomas J. Mays writes in the Century on " Breath_ 

 ing Movements as a Cure." The evidence he offers in 

 dicates that " proper development and expansion of :he 

 lungs by means of well-regulated breathing must be re- 

 garded as of the greatest value in the prevention and ia 

 the treatment of pulmonary consumption." 



" Fin de Sifecle Medicine" is the title of an article by 

 Dr. A. Simons Eccles in the National Review. Alter 

 animadverting upon " the deficiency of muscular activity 

 as a fruitful source of maladies resulting from the want 

 of combustion and elimination of material used up or 

 vitiated by the disproportionate action of other organs 

 and tissues," Dr. Eccles describes the investigations 

 that have recently been carried out in France and Russia 

 as to the action of certain organic liquids in curing or 

 modifying disease. Writing on " Electricity and Life " 

 in the Humanitarian, Mr. H. Newman Lawrence cones 

 to the following conclusions : — 



(i) All the thousand and one changes which take place itt 

 the structure of the living body, be they due to the never-ceasing 

 and involuntary process of metabolism, or to the exercise of 

 function, or to the effort of will, partake of the nature of chemical 

 change. 



(2) All chemical changes are accompanied by electrical mani- 

 festations. 



(3) Without chemical change and interchange, life does not 

 appear to exist. 



(4) Therefore, life is always accompanied by the generatioDr 

 of electricity. 



Electrical energy, however, is not the immediate source oi 

 the vitality of the body. 



Mr. C. T. Buckland contributes an excellent anecdotal 

 article on " Leopards " to Longman's Magazine. Hitherto 

 the beast has occupied only a comparatively small space 

 in the popular literature of natural history, and this fact 

 makes Mr. Buckland's experiences doubly interestmg. 

 Under the title " Birds of a Feather," Mr. F. A. Fulcher 

 describes in the Sunday Magazine the flocking and 



