380 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



[Mauch 3. 1882. 



i»f i|uiiiinc< to a cinip of blood wnii fotinci at once to (loiitroy 

 III" or);uniHinH. In nil llii> ciuminntionii ((roat care was 

 lakon In |irocliido tlio ontruncii of any ottraiitriuii objoctg 

 into tho limp i>f ljloo<l piamlnoil. In (n^niTal tlu- paroiiitic 

 bodioN >V(<rf found in I ho l)lo(il only at iTrtain timc« : a little 

 htiforo, ami at tho momont of, tho acroflnion of tho fovor. In 

 Momo vpry ohBtinato raw^H tho or^aniflnifl woro alwayii prcflont in 

 llio bluod. Thi'v rapidly diHapponrcd uudrrthc- influcnco of a c|uinino 

 M-vatniont. Il iH conjorlurod that in Iho apyroxial intervals tho 

 mxaninniH pruhalily Hojourn in inti<rnal orKunH, en|)ociaIly tho Kplcon 

 nud tho li»or. Aftor doath from malarial iliHoaHC, pif^mont pranuloB 

 aro foniid in (freat numhoPR in tho blood, and oBpccially in thosmall 

 Tu«aolg of till- xpleonand livor; and thoy may be, in the most Bovcro 

 osHOR, so al>un<lant that not only tho Hphvn and livpr, but tho 

 marrow of bono, and ovon tho )froy Hubstance of the brain, aro 

 ilarkonod by thoir prcgouco. TboBo pi^mcut (granules, which 

 may obstrnct tho rapillarr vossoIb, appear to be derived from tho 

 iwraflitio olomentu, which porish after death, and become then 

 luirecognisable. — Lancft. 



THE "SOUND" OF FISHES. 



THK letter of your ostoompd contributor, Mr. W. Mattiou 

 Williams, on the subject of fish " sounds," affords a re- 

 markable illustration of tho truth of the old saying that a cobbler 

 should stick to his last. Kor, so long as he confines himself to 

 physics, his contributions are moat valuable and interesting (espe- 

 cially tho one in the issue for Feb. 10), but passing into the domain 

 of the binlrigist, he mu.st, I fear, be regarded as an intruder. The 

 alleged mistake on tho part of Dr. Andrew Wilson and the writers 

 of anatomical works, is, I submit, no mistake at all, for that struc- 

 ture which fishermen and the public in general style the "sound" 

 of a codfish is, indood, the swim-bladder. Of course, my mere ipite 

 dixit is of no more value than that of llr. Williams, but in this 

 ease, as iu a controversy between Professor Huxley and Mr. Water- 

 houso respecting tho Scotch hares, the animal intervenes. I happen 

 to have been to-day engaged in the dissection of a codfish, and can 

 thus speak from actual observation to the following facts : — Firstly, 

 tho dorsal aorta is so completely hidden by the swim-bladder as to 

 bo inaccessible to any but persons acoistomed to the use of the 

 scalpel. Secondly, that it is of such insignificant size as to be 

 ntterly worthless as an article of diet. The fish upon wliich I 

 operated weighed about 8 or 9 lb., and the dorsal aorta was a 

 delicate, thin-walled tube about one-twelfth of an inch in diameter. 

 Thirdly, that it was not " attached by its edges to each side of the 

 under part of the spino of tho fish," but that the swim-bladder, 

 which i« a "stout mombranoua bag," was so attached. The sug- 

 gestion as to the etymon of the word "sound" appears, so far as 

 I am able to judge, a very probable one. Old Fossil. 



THE PYRAMID OF MEYDOOM. 



MISS AMELIA B. EDWARDS quotes, in the Academy, the 

 following letter, received by her from the Hon. J. Villiers 

 Stuart, author of "Nile Gleanings"; — "The other day I visited 

 Meydoom. The pyramid has now been cleared down to the level of 

 the desert, to which it descends in a series of great steps of beauti- 

 fully-fitted masonry of fine white limestone. The joints are so closo 

 that it is ofteH dilEoult to trace them. It is, in fact, more like 

 cabinet-maker's work than mason's work. It must have been 

 oovored up from tho remotest times, as it looks quite now towards 

 the base. You would say it was but just finished. It comes next 

 in size to the Pyramids of Ghizeh. "The central chaml>or is tent- 

 shaped — that is to say, the walls incline inward toward the roof, 

 so aa to reduce tho span, and better enable it (the roof) to bear the 

 enormous superincumbent weight. There were found in this 

 rtiamber some jiiocos of timljor, which seem to have been used 

 to remove some heavy weight, perhaps the sarcophagus. It is, 

 however, possible that, as iu tlie cas<! of the Pj-ramids of Ghizeh, 

 thoro may be another chamber in which tho sarcophagus still 

 exists. 



When I last saw I'rof. Maspero ho seemed to doubt whether 

 this was really .Seneforoo's pyramid ; but within five minutes' walk 

 irf the pyramid I discovered an inscription which conclusively 

 proves that it is indood tho pyramid of that Pharaoh. The inscrip- 

 tion occurs on the right hand top corner of the tomb of Nofro- 

 Moat. It reads SKM-FEaoo Uknte— i.e., the ' rosting-place,' 

 ' abiding-place,' or ' cemetery ' of Senoferoo. There is no contort, 

 »nd never has boon any. Tho atone is quite uninjured, and the 

 purpose of the inscription is to designate tho locality in which tho 

 toub is situated. It might ba translated ' monument,' or ' pj-ramid 



of Sonefcroo,' the name of which would attach itself to tho adjoin- 

 ing csmctory. The hieroglyphic s|>clling of Monlc (being tho sign 

 Men without tho Bupp](?mentary n) is very archaic. Tho inscrip- 

 tion was probably cut during Sonofonxi's lifetime. Tho reason why 

 I faU'.'d to observe this imfiortant and intercflting inscription on 

 previous visits is that it is very high up ; bat tho tomb of Nofre- 

 Moat is now nearly filled with rubbish, which enabled mo to 

 mount closo ap to tho hieroglyphs, and to examine them 

 thoroughly. I sow tho oval before, ond figured it in ' Nile Glean- 

 ings ' (p. 33), but not having an opera-glass with me, I over- 

 looked the context. I have written to Prof. Maspero to tell him 

 about it." 



" Tho inscription," proceeds Miss Edwards, " copied in hiero- 

 glyphs by Mr. Villiers Stuart, consists of Seneferoo's name in a 

 royal oval, nndcr which, placed vertically, occur the ideographic 

 sign. Men. a battlemented wall, and tho phonetic sign (.an inverted 

 basket. But in order to complete the word oh given by Birch, 

 Brugsch, and Pierret, not merely the supplementary n (a zigzag) is 

 wanting, but also tho dctenninativo hieroglyph, a funereal couch, or 

 bior. I regret to hove to add that, at the time of writing the 

 foregoing letter, Mr. Villiers Stuart informs me that ho was 

 suffering severely from a fall down a shaft 20 ft. in depth. He has, 

 however, escaped without serious injury." 



E 



A PRETTY GEOMETRICAL PROBLEM. 



{Pay e 220, Jan. 13.) 



XCEPT tho propounder of the question, none of our readers have 

 .li correctly solved cither this problem, or Mogul's (" Given any 

 rectangle, divide it by the fewest possible straight cuts, so that the 

 parts can bo jmt together to form a square "). J. Home and ATC 

 have given solutions of Student's problem, which at a first view 

 seemed correct and neat. But they were not in reality sound. 

 Student's solution is as follows : — 



A 



a 4 



Pig. 1. 



Pig- 



Taking AM = AE, join DM, and take AG -DM. Produce DE to 

 H and in EH take EL = GB. Draw KL parallel to BH. Number 

 tho parts as shown in Fig. 1, and fit them together as shown in 

 Fig. 2. It is easily shown that they fit into a perfect square. 



The problem cannot be solved with fewer cuts, but there are 

 several other ways in which it can be solved with as few cuts, and an 

 infinite number of ways in which it can be solved with five cuts. 



Mogul's problem is so excellent that, supposing readers may have 

 overlooked it, we leave it for another fortnight aa an exercise. 



Editob. 



INTELLIGENCE IN ANI>L\LS. 



MANY years ago, when a boy, I was at a country market with 

 two friends, who each had a gig, and it wos arranged that 

 they would both drive home in one gig, while I drove the other. 

 After journeying some four miles, I had got a considerable distance 

 in advance, and arrived at the gate of a private avenue, towards 

 which the horse turned, and then stopped, refusing to move another 

 foot, although I tugged at the reins, whipped him, and even got 

 out and tried to lead him on to the high road again, for I was 

 quite familiar with his usual route, and had driven him on previous 

 occisions, but move he would not. \Mien my friends came up I 

 was told that the horse had been accustomed of late to go through 

 this avenue, it being a short cut. 



In the year 1867 I got several monkeys at Auger Point (Java), 

 and among them were t^vo males, which wo named Smilor and Tad- 

 polo, the former so colled because when anyone went near him ho 

 showed his teeth in such a way that he appeared to be smiling, 

 the latter because he had an unusually large head, while his body 

 was small and woakly. Whenever tht*»e monkeys were fed, Smiler 

 always managed to dispose of his food before Tadpole had com- 

 menced upon his reserve pouches in his cheeks. Smilor would 

 then seize Tadpola, got him on his back, strike him under the jaw 



