258 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Nov., 1904. 



should, at anv r.ilr, not be made without due considera- 

 tion ; and wc ni.-iv more prudently hold our judgment 

 in suspense as to whether glol)es so circumstanced — 

 and they abound — sliould be regarded as effete, or as 

 abortive suns. 



Speculations on the exhaustion of stellar vitality 

 have, however, lately become inextricably involved 

 with the complex problem of elemental evolution. A 

 dim inkling has been acquired of the working in the 

 universe of obscure forces, availing, we can just see, 

 to falsify manv forecasts. The theory, at least, of 

 the dissipation of energy needs important qualifica- 

 tions. Nor was it propounded by Lord Kelvin with 

 dogmatic certainty. He carefully noted the possibility 

 that in " the great storehouses of creation " reserves 

 of energy might be provided by which the losses in- 

 curred through radiation could be, wholly or in part, 

 made good.* The anticipated possibility is, perhaps, 

 realised in the phenomena of radio-activity. But if 

 we enquire how, we are met at the threshold by diffi- 

 culties connected with the origin of helium. Helium 

 appears to result from the disintegration of radium, its 

 generation being accompanied bv the setting free of 

 enormous quantities of energy. Its copious presence, 

 then, argues long-continued and lavish expenditure of 

 heat and light. Yet it is as a constituent of highly 

 primitive orbs that it is chiefly conspicuous. Gaseous 

 nebulse, too, include immeasurable supplies of it, while 

 it is incompatible with whatever we seem to know 

 about them to suppose that radium at any time entered 

 into their composition. In truth, however, the genesis 

 of the elements has not yet been made the subject of 

 coherent speculation. Current ideas regarding it im- 

 ply a double course of change, by aggregation first, 

 and subsequently by disintegration. .'\nd this should 

 give us a two-fold series of elements. On one side, 

 there should be fixed sur\iyals of the advancing pro- 

 cess, on the other, products of decomposition, continu- 

 ously evolved, and even now accumulating. If the 

 claim of helium to take rank among these last should 

 be finally established, our conceptions of the nature 

 and history of nebulce might have to undergo a strange 

 in\ersion ; but the outcome of the researches in pro- 

 gress is still uncertain, and may be far off. 



It is, however, quite clear that the electronic theory 

 of matter supplies no genuine explanation of the source 

 of energy in the universe. What is given out when 

 the atoms go to pieces must have been stored up when 

 they were put together. Whence was it derived? 

 This is_ the fund.imental question which underlies 

 every discussion concerning the maintenance of the 

 life of suns. It is unanswered, and probably un- 

 answerable. 



•Thomson and Tail, Natural Philosophy, Appendix E, p. aq, 

 edition 1S90. 



Physiology.— Mr. E. H. .Starling is to be congratulated on the 

 little •' Primer of Physiology" (John Murray). It is an attempt 

 to convey with as few technic.1l terms as possible the leading 

 ideas which make up present-day physiology. That is rather 

 a formidable task in a book of some thirty thousand words; 

 but Mr. Starling not only does succeed in conveying a very 

 clear idea of the way in which the normal processes of life are 

 carried on, but does it without the sacrifice of any essential 

 fact, and with— as for example in the chapter on serums — the 

 illumination of the latest theory. 



Racre Living Animads 

 in. London, 



By P. L. .Sci.ATER, Dr.Sc, F.R.S. 



III. — Grevy's Zebra. 



The herd of Grevy's zebra in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens in if,o3, consisting of a male and four 

 females, was, in my opinion, one of the finest groups 

 of the class of mammals ever shown by the Society. 

 Unfortunately, both the males have lately died, 

 but an aduit and three younger females still re- 

 main, and exhibit the form and markings of_ this 

 beautiful animal — the most remarkable of all the living 

 members of the Equine Family. 



.^s to the perfect distinctness of Grevy's zebra from 

 all the various forms known as Burchell's zebra and 

 its other congeners there can be no longer any ques- 

 tion. The larger size, broader ears, white belly, and 

 entirely different style of banding render this splendid 

 anima! recognisable at first sight, as will be seen by 

 Mr. Goodchild's drawing, which has been taken from 

 the adult female of this species placed by her late 

 Majesty Queen Victoria under the care of the Society 

 in 1S99, and still living in the Regent's Park. 



Although probably well known to that most ob- 

 servant naturalist, Emin Pasha, who appears to have 

 met with this animal in Latako in the Equatorial Pro- 

 vince of the Sudan, the first specimen of Grevy's zebra 

 to arrive in Europe was a living example, sent as a 

 j' resent by the Emperor Mcnelek in 1882 to M. 

 Grevy, then President of the French Republic, and de- 

 posited in the Jardin des Plantes.* This was long 

 before the " Fashoda incident," when France, in the 

 eves of the Abyssinians, was more potent than 

 lingland. On hearing of the arrival of this novelty I 

 hurried over to Paris to inspect it, and was rather dis- 

 appointed to find the zebra already dead and an in- 

 habitant of the Mammal-Gallery of the Museum 

 d'Hisiflire Naturelle. I saw at once, however, when I 

 came to examine the specimen, that it was widely 

 different from all other known zebras, although I had 

 some little difficulty in persuading my friends at the 

 Zoological Society that such was really the case. 



in iSgot I was .able to give the Zoological Society 

 further evidence of the distinctness of Equiis grtvyi 

 from the other zebras, and to show that its distribu- 

 tion extends from the southern frontiers of Abyssinia 

 into Somaliland. .\ flat skin, obtained for me in 

 Western Somalilrmd by Herr Menges, through the kind 

 intervention of Herr Carl Hagenbeck, was found to 

 belong unquestionably to Eqtiiis grevyi, which, in fact, 

 appears to be the only zebra met with in that country. 

 In his excellent work on Somaliland I Capt. Swayne 

 gives us the following particulars concerning his ex- 

 periences with this animal : — 



"Grevy's zebra, although first described by the 

 French, had been shot in Somaliland by Col. Paget and 

 myself on our expedition of 1893. I found it at Durhi, 



♦ See Proc. Zool. Soc, 1882, p. 721. The specific name Eqinis 

 grevvi was based on this specimen by tlie late .-Vlphonse Milne- 

 Edwards (La Natiiie, No. 474). 



+ See P.Z.S., 1S90, p. 443. 



; "Seventeen Trips Through Somaliland Py Capt. H. G, C. 

 Swayne, RE. ; I.-mdon, 1892, 



