232 



KNOWLEDGE 



[December 1, 1892. 



described by him in a paper read before the Eoyal Society 

 in 1891. In length it is nearly eight feet. The bones are all 

 massive and strong, its legs are short, and when walking 

 the creature probably had a somewhat sprawling gait, like 

 a crocodile or lizard. The head is much like that of a 

 salamander, or even a frog. It is difficult to say what the 

 animal was most like, but it probably was amphibious. 

 Altogether it is a strange and now wholly extinct type, 

 with a resemblance to a salamander, and yet in some 

 ways aping a modern mammal. The name Pdiio.saunis 

 Bai7ii has been given to this remarkable reptile, and it was 

 found in the Karoo formation (probably of triassic age), 

 near Tamboer Fontein. , , , 



More than twenty years ago Mr. Alfred Eussell Wallace 

 told the Zoological Society of a so-called " horned toad," 

 which was said to squirt blood fi'om its eyes. The infor- 

 mation was derived from a correspondent in California, 

 and probably, at the time, many who heard the news were 

 disinclined to believe in it. But lately the matter has 

 been confirmed beyond all doubt. Mr. 0. P. Hay records, 

 in the " Proceedings of the United States Museum," that 

 two boys from Texas showed him some lizards belonging 

 to the genus Phnjnosoma (popularly known as " horned 

 toads," and distinguished by a remarkable frill round the 

 neck). These, the boys dfeclared, would sometimes, when 

 teased, squirt blood out of their eyes. At the time he 

 was incredulous, but lately he has proved that the boys 

 were right. A living specimen of this lizard, sent from 

 California, was in the museum near his desk. About 

 August 1st it was shedding its outer skin, and as the 

 process seemed a somewhat difficult one on account of the 

 dryness of the skin, he proceeded to give the animal a 

 wetting. For this purpose he took it up and tossed it into 

 a basin of water. To his great surprise, there suddenly 

 appeared on one side of the basin a number of spots of 

 red fluid resembling blood. By means of a microscope 

 this fluid was proved to be blood, and on another occasion 

 Mr. Hay was able to observe that the blood came directly 

 out of the right eye. Truly, there is no end to the possi- 

 bilities of Nature. ,, , 



The late Poet Laureate was one of the few poets who 

 introduced into his works the results of modern science, 

 and clothed them in poetic form. He thus not only 

 showed his sympathy with the age, but set a good example 

 to others by indicating that the love of Nature should go 

 with a desire to understand her workings, and the laws by 

 which all things are governed. Science, rightly considered, 

 is full of romance, and many a scientidc truth might, if 

 expressed poetically, be found quite as fascinating as some 

 old-fashioned romances and fairy tales. The famihar 

 saying, •' Truth is stranger than fiction," is often on our 

 lips, but few seem to act upon this truth by endeavouring 

 to bring out the poetic aspects of science. Geology teaches 

 us that the former history of our earth is, as it were, a 

 great drama. To the geologist the world is a stage on 

 which the various scenes in this great earth-drama have 

 been enacted. The players were the pre-Adamite animals 

 whose remains we discover embedded in the rocks beneath 

 our feet ; while old-world forms of vegetation gave 

 beauty and completeness to the scenery. Then there is 

 the romance of Astronomy, which appeals very forcibly to 

 some people. But every science has its romance, from 

 Chemistry, with its ever-dancing molecules, to Biology 

 with its wonder-working protoplasm — the basis of all life. 



Lovers of Tennyson will easily recall certain passages in 

 his writings in which scientific discoveries (and sometimes 

 theories) are introduced like precious stones set in the gold 

 of verse. The following examples occur to us, but doubt- 



less our lovers of Tennyson will recall many others. In 

 " Locksley Hall," a lovely description of the Pleiades is 

 followed by two lines referring to the untold ieons revealed 

 by Geology :— 



'' Here about the beach I wandered, nursing a youth sublime 

 With tile fairy tales of science, and the long results of time." 



Geological truths are again referred to in " In 

 Memoriam." The following lines refer to former geo- 

 graphical revolutions ; — 



" Tliere rolls the deep where grew the tree. 

 O earth, what changes hast thou seen ! 

 There, where the long street roars, hath been 

 The stillness of the central sea." 

 There is no doubt at all that land and water have in 

 many parts of the earth over and over again changed 

 places, and large tracts once under the sea have been 

 raised up into dry land ; as, for example, the chalk 

 round London. This formation must have been slowly 

 formed in a fairly deep sea, say of 2000 to 2500 fathoms. 

 But the latest researches indicate that probably the very 

 deepest parts of oceans have never been dry lands, so that 

 the expression " the central sea " is not quite in harmony 

 with modern teaching. But with this slight qualification 

 the geology here introduced is quite correct. 



No exception, however, can be taken to the next verse, 

 in which the great work of "denudation" is beautifully 

 expressed. Geologists know that great mountain ranges 

 have, in the course of ages, been worn down by " rain and 

 rivers " until nothing but a mere wreck of their former 

 grandeur is left. Tennyson thus expressed this important 

 truth : — 



"The hills are shadows, and they tlow 



From form to form, and nothing stands ; 

 They melt lilic mists, the solid lands, 

 Like clouds they shape themselves and go." 

 In " The Princess " are to be found several allusions to 

 Geology, Astronomy, Electricity, &c. 



RECENT TRADE AND THE NATION'S 

 DRINKING HABITS. 



By Alex. B. MacDowall, M.A. 



WE have long been used to hear a great deal 

 about depression of trade and bad times. Some 

 seem to think depression is the chronic state 

 of trade, yet while it may be said, in general, 

 that trade has been depressed for many years 

 past, one may note certain well-marked fluctuations in the 

 last twenty years ; trade becoming more brisk for a few 

 years, then less brisk again. Let us try to form a clear 

 idea of those waves by means of curves. 



The method of curves is now well known, and we need 

 not stop to explain it. While the curves here given are all 

 comparable together, the comparison must not be pushed 

 too far ; for while they have all the same time scale (the 

 horizontal one), they have each a difl'erent vertical scale 

 (indicated by letters ", h, c, kc). Thus one may superpose 

 (so to speak) several diagrams, economizing space. In 

 these curves attention is especially asked, to the waves, 

 and the times of then- high and low points. 



How shall we measure trade ? Our exports afford a very 

 fair measm-e. We take, then, the values of exports of 

 British and Irish produce per head of population (and in 

 shillings) since 1800, and thus obtain the ctu-ve marked k. 

 This rises rapidly, with a small crest in 18G6, to a very 

 high crest in 1872 ; then goes down to 1879 ; up again to 

 1882 ; down to 1880 ; up to 1890 ; and last year it again 

 goes down. We are now on the descending slope. The 

 time of that high maximum will be remembered by many, 

 when oiu' commerce rose (as Mr. Gladstone put it) by leaps 



