February 14, iJ^95j 



NA JURE 



instruction in forestry, it is rightly pointed out that a course in 

 forestry which is merely an adjuntt to a military education 

 must fail to produce the highest efficiency as foresters in the 

 officers who lake it. " Adequate training in so large a subject," 

 is remarked by one of the cone-pondents, " can be reached 

 only by long and undivided attention." And further, as Pro'. 

 Cleveland Abbe say?, " the aits of waifare are a special appli- 

 cation of the arts of peace, and it is a perversion of the military 

 school to make it a rival of ihe civilian schools of tngineering, 

 chemistry, forestry, &e." The general opinion appears to be 

 that for ttie preservation and management of forest rest rv.it ions, 

 a permanent body of foresters is required, but it should be 

 composed of practical woodmen who have devoted some years 

 to the study of foresiry. If "e may express an opinion upon 

 the maiter, to us this seems the only vitw which can have any 

 support from scientific men. To make forts ry a subsidiary 

 branch of a military education, wou'd be to estatlish scant pro- 

 vision for the science. If merely the protection of forest 

 reservation be aimed at, Prof. .Sargeni's plan probably offers 

 the ea-iest way i/f obtaining it ; but if the forests are to be 

 devel ped, a foret school, where foresters can be scientifically 

 trained, becomes e-seniial. 



Another contrihuiion to the Ctiiliiry is the sad story of the 

 death of Emin Pasha, told by Mr. R. Dorsey Mohun, the 

 United Stales agent in the Congo Free State. In A|>ril of last 

 year, Mr. Mohun arrested and took the confessions of the two 

 Arab slaves, named Ismailia and Mamba, who had killed Emin. 

 The following is a brief statement of the melancholy facts : — In 

 the Unyoro couniry, to the west of the Victoria River, Emin 

 came upon an Arab camp, under ihe command of Said ben 

 Abedi. He expressed his iniention of making his way to 

 Kibonge, about eighty miles souih of Stanley Falls, and it was 

 arranged that his force, numbrring about 150 people, and Said's, 

 should travel togriher. On October 5, 1892, Emin and Said 

 arrived at the small village of Kinena, which lies 150 miles to 

 the north-east of Kibonge. Said thtn went on to inform the 

 Kibonge chief that the white man was coming, Ismailia and 

 Mamlia going wiih him. About tweniy da)S laler, Mamba 

 returned wiih a letter to Emin, saying that safe conduct to 

 Kibonge should be given ; but the Kibonge chief sent another 

 letter to the Kinena chief by Ismailia, containing instiuctions to 

 kill Emin. The Pasha was induced to send his men into the 

 plantations on a pretext, and while they were away he was 

 murdered, and his head sent to Kibonge. This appears to have 

 occurred on ihe morning of October 28, 1892. Emin's head was 

 sent by Kibonge to Munie-Mohara at Nyangwe, the reason 

 being, Mr. Motiun thinks, that Kibonge wished toshow that he 

 could kill a wtiiie man as well as Miiiiie-Mohara, who had ordered 

 the destruction of l^iodister's expedition fivi- months previously. 

 "Not the .-lightest suspicion," says Mr. Mohun, "attaches to 

 Said ben Abedi of having had any connection with E-nin 

 Pasha's death, which is regarded by the .Arabs wiih whom I 

 have taRed as a siupid error on the part of Kibonge, «ho com- 

 mitted the crime sim^jly to place himself on the same level as 

 Munie-Mohara, who had killed Ilodister. I do not believe, 

 either, that Tippoo Tib had any hand in the crime, which must 

 have been as great a surprise to him and to his son, Sefu, 

 and his nephew, Kachid, who was ihe Governor of Sianley 

 F.ills, as it was 10 us." An article on " New Weapons of ihe 

 United Stales Army," also in the Century, and the eighteen 

 pictures and diagrams which illustrate it, will interest many of 

 our readers. 



Dr. Charles L. Dana writes on "Giants and Giantism," in 



tf'iur. Two years ago a man nearly seven feet in height, 



, J assessing very large feet, hands ami head, came under his notice, 



and was found to be a victim ol the peculiar disease known as 



acromeg.ily. Ttie man died from the effects of his disease, 



and a portion of the brain — the pituitary body — was then 



found to tie enlarged to many times its original size. This gave 



support to the idea that en'argcment . f ihe pituitary body 



is the cause of ;he giganiic giowih of the extremities in 



acromegaly, and that giants ^.cnerally are not sini ly frraks, 



but victims of a nervous disorder. The skeleton of the famous 



Iiish giant was studied some time .igo by Prof. Cunningham, 



1 and found to be characteristic "f a case of aciomegaly, and an 



1 examination of photographs 1 f nearly all the living giants now 



j on exhibiiion leads Dr. Dana to believe thai about one hall ol 



them are acromegalics. Accoiding lo Dr. Dan^, "exii.iordinary 



size is a disease, a neurosis of nuiriion, rather than a chance 



(disturbance ol developmcDt. . . . It is possible by certain kinds 



NO. 1320, VOL. 5 I "I 



of gland-feeding, to increase ilie sta'ureof dwarfed persons very 

 rapidly. There is, for example, a gland called ihe 'ihyroil 

 body' lying in the neck, the juice of which, when fed to certain 

 kinds of dwarfs (coclins) causes iheni rapidly to grow. Ex- 

 periments in feeding anim.ils and n en with the pituitary body 

 are now in progress." 



"The Method of Oganic Evolution" is expounded by Dr. 

 A. R. Wallace in the Fortnightly, the article being really 

 a criiical and adverse review of Mr. Bateson's views on 

 disconiinunus variation, as set forth in "Materials for the 

 Study of Variation." A second article en discontinuity In 

 evolution, dealing with the theories advanced by Mr. Galton, 

 will appear in a future number. 



A posthumous essav, by Dr. G. J. Romanes entitled 

 " Longevity and Death, ' appears in the current number of The 

 Monist, to which it was sent by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan. 

 In it an unpublished essay, written in 1875, is quoted, in which 

 occur the following passages : — 



"Those sfecies whose ancestral types have frequency been 

 required to vary would have gained much during the history of 

 their descent, by having their constituent individuals shoit- 

 lived; for in this way a comparatively great number of 

 opportunities would have been afTorded for the requisite 

 variation to arise : in other wcrds, a comparatively great 

 number of variations would have occurred in a given time. 

 Hence it seems natural to infer that it is in the power of 

 Natural Selection to atTect \\if: curtailment o{ indivieiual life, 

 wherever such curtailment would be of advantage to the 

 species, that is to say, vi\\ex^\ti Jlfxibility o( t)pe is required. 

 Of course, length of life is not the only factor which 

 determines flexibility of type. There are at least three other 

 such factors: (i) the period at which puberty sets in, (2) the 

 num'ier of times the individual breeds during its life-time, anel 

 (3) the number of young which it bears at each timeof breedirg. 

 Nevertheless, it is true that the length of life is a highly important 

 factor, because, if the individual is shoit-lived, it becomes a 

 necessary condition to the continuance of the species that parturi- 

 tion should be frequent. Or, more generally, there must be more 

 or less of a direct proportion between the potential longevity of 

 eveiy species and the frequency of parturitions characteristic of 

 that species — if not also of the number of offspring in each. 

 Now, as Mr. Lankester has pointed out, there is, as a matter 

 of fact, a highly remarkable correlation between potential lon- 

 gevity in the individual and frequency of parturition, as well as 

 of numbers constituting the liiter which are distinctive of the 

 species. This correlation he attributes to generative expendi- 

 ture acting directly to the curtailment of life ; but in holding 

 this view, I suspect that he is mistaking cause for effect. I do 

 not think it is generative expenditure which causes curtailment 

 of life, but that it is curtailment of life by Natural Selection 

 which causes the high generative expenditure within the 

 lessened period. It is as though all the conditions needed to 

 secure tlexibility of type were adaptively associated in these 

 species which have survived in a comparatively fluctuating 

 environment. Moreover, it is worth observing that all the 

 organisms to which Mr. Lankester ascribes a practically un- 

 limited potentiality of life, are organisms which, as far as we 

 can judge, must always have been exposed to uniform con- 

 diiions of life." 



In addition to this. The Monist contains an article by Dr. E. 

 Montgomery,who attempts "first to gain a scientifically justified 

 and logically consistent physical basis, upon which a natural- 

 istic conception of vitality can be reared ; and thenj to show to 

 what special physical conditions vital activities and vital organi- 

 sations owe their existence." We also notice a metaphysical 

 paper on "The Natural Storage of Energy," by Mr. Lester 

 F. Ward. 



Pascal is the subject of a paper, by the late Mr Waller I'ater, 

 in the Contemporary, but his scientific researches are not dealt 

 with. Towarils the end of the notice, there is a note on the 

 influence of imagination on his work. It is: "Hidden under 

 the apparent exactness of his favourite studies, imagination, 

 even in thorn, played a large pait. Physics, mathematics, were 

 with him largely matters of intuition, anticipation, precoc ous 

 discovery, short cuts, superb guessing. It was the inventive 

 elemert in his woik and his way of putting things that surpiised 

 those best able to judge. He might have discovered the mathe- 

 matical sciences for himself, it is alleged, had his father, as he 

 once had a mind to do, withheld liim fiom instruition in them." 

 .\ bright and sensible paper on " Nervous Diseases and Modern 



