October 9, 1890] 



NATURE 



575 



movements which are not produced. He recommends strych- 

 nine, veratrine, ergot of rye, and drinks charged with carbonic 

 acid. 



Mr. S. V. Proudfit has presented to the U.S. National 

 Museum a collection of stone implements from the district of 

 Columbia. In an account of the collection, published in the 

 Proceedings of the Museum, Mr. Proudfit pays a tribute to the 

 handicraft of the aboriginal tribes of the region in which the 

 collection has been formed. The material wilh which they 

 wrought was, he says, the most obdurate and refrac.ory of all 

 substances found available to any considerable degree among 

 the American Indians. Quartz, quartzite, and argillite for the 

 greater part were used from necessity, no better material being 

 within reach. The first two are very hard, and, in the hand of 

 the workman, full of unpleasant surprises. The argillite, though 

 softer, is not susceptible of receiving or retaining any high degree 

 of finish. Notwithstanding these obstacles, the material was 

 treated " with such patience, care, and skill, that the work of 

 this region, not only in matters of utility, but in points of finish, 

 compares favourably wilh that of any other." 



A PAMPHLET by Dr. Edward Sang, on the exhibition of 

 curves produced by the vibration of straight wires, which was 

 read before the Scottish Society of Arts last November, has 

 been sent to us. The means adopted for obtaining these curves 

 was to make one end of a wire fast in a vice, while the other 

 end was free to move ; the motion of the wire being m ade 

 visible by fixing to the free end a small polished knob capable 

 of reflecting light from some given source. These phenomena 

 were clearly found to be connected with the unroundness of 

 the wires, and the object of the paper was to inquire what would 

 be the result with a given irregularity. The ratios of vibrations 

 having been varied, different results were obtained, and it was 

 noted that when the ratio was expressed by two odd numbers, the 

 closed curve connected two opposite corners and passed through 

 the centre, but that when one of the numbers was even, the closed 

 curve connected two adjacent corners and did not pass through 

 the point of rest. Illustrations of some of these curves are 

 given, showing their delicacyand symmetry similar to those curves 

 formed by the resultant motion of two pendulums of different 

 periods oscillating at right angles to one another. With bent 

 wires particularly, as the author states, " the poetry of motion, 

 the gracefulness of curvature, attract the student of the fine 

 arts, who may find examples ranging from the severe classic and 

 tragic to the extravagant burlesque styles." 



In the last issue of the Bulletin of the Moscow Naturalist, 

 Madame Marie Pavloff concludes her excellent studies on the 

 palaeontology of the Ungulata. She examines the fossil relics 

 of the Hipparion in Russia (//. mediterraneiim and H. gracile 

 which she considers as the same species, and the probably new 

 species of H. minus), as well as the relics of the Pleistocene horses 

 found in Russia, and gives a genealogy of the Equidea; since 

 the Mio- Pliocene period. At the beginning of the Middle 

 Pliocene, horses akin to Eq. hippidiicm, whichrat that time were 

 living in America only, emigrated from West America to Asia, 

 and during the Middle Pliocene epoch they developed in the 

 Siwalik mountains into forms now described under the name of 

 Equus sivalensis. Part of the latter migrated from Asia to 

 Africa, at that time connected with Italy, and thus reached 

 Europe. In the Upper Pliocene deposits of Africa and Europe 

 we have the Eq. stenonis, which is very near to the foregoing. 

 Having thus reached Europe from Asia during the Upper Pliocene, 

 they left their fossil relics in the Eq. stenonis in Italy, Austria, 

 Germany, France, Great Britain, and Russia, and slowly evolved 

 the Pleistocene species of Equus caballus. However, one part 

 only of the Equus sivalensis having left Asia, the remainder 

 developed at the same time into the Equus nomadicus in Asia ; 

 NO. 1093, ^'OL. 42] 



while in America a parallel evolution gave rise to the Eq. 

 (xcellus and Eq. major and to Equus caballus fossilis in Africa. 

 As to the present horses of Russia, they all originated from the 

 same Pleistocene species which already at that time offered great 

 varieties in Europe. The variety of the Russian races depends 

 upon thp continued mixture of forms which developed in Russia 

 with those which were imported from Asia on the one side, and 

 from Western Europe on the other side. 



Sir William Gregory, a former Governor of Ceylon, has 

 lately been revisiting that island, and has communicated to a 

 local journal a series of notes and observations. In one of these 

 he refers to the well-known Colombo Museum, as to which he 

 says it is hoped that a very liberal extension will be con- 

 ceded by the Legislative Council without delay. Important 

 objects of natural history have been procured and cannot yet 

 be exhibited, books of value to the general reader and to in- 

 quirers have accumulated without the means of arrangement, and 

 the space for large archzeological objects which should be care- 

 fully and liberally displayed is altogether defective. There is one 

 department, continues Sir William, hitherto much neglected, to 

 which special care should hereafter be devoted, viz. that of 

 geology. A geologist of high attainments ought to be engaged 

 for a fixed period of a few years, during which a general 

 geological survey should be made and a perfect collection be 

 formed of the rocks, clays, and gems which are a specialty of 

 Ceylon. These, if properly exhibited and properly protected 

 from theft, would be one of the most valuable and interesting 

 portions of the Museum to a large number of visitors. 



Tb.^ North China Herald of Shanghai, in a recent curious and 

 interesting article on modern science in China, says that the 

 views now held by intelligent Chinese on the origin of science 

 are that the knowledge possessed by their ancestors leaked out 

 to the men of Western nations, who improved on the information 

 they received, and gradually developed modern sciences and in- 

 ventions. This idea was started by Mei Wu-ngan in the reign of 

 Kanghi, and has been maintained ever since with singular per- 

 sistence, and the cultivated class have consoled themselves with 

 this thought during the past two centuries. Those who are 

 really in favour of introducing foreign improvements say : — " We 

 wish to make use of the knowledge of Western men because we 

 know that what they have attained in science and invention has 

 been through the help that our sages gave them. We have a 

 good right to it. What Europe has done she has done through 

 the help we gave. If we did not exactly give science to Europe, 

 we gave it the fruitful germ which produced it. They have the 

 science of optics, but in our ' Motsz' we find that reflection from 

 mirrors was known in the days of Mencius. The men of the 

 West hold that the earth is round. This was believed also by 

 our poet Chii Yuen, who in his ode on astronomy announces this 

 doctrine ; and this was not many years after Mencius. This 

 being so, we ought not to be ashamed of the study of Western 

 science. We are the rivals of the Western kingdoms, and it is 

 good policy to use their spears in order to pierce their shields. 

 We ought to train our youthi in Western science so that we may 

 know how best to meet them in the struggle to resist their en- 

 croachments." Mei W^u-ngan and others read the books trans- 

 lated by the Jesuits, including Euclid and the teaching of 

 astronomy, and they were delighted with the new views. The 

 Jesuits, however, were in high favour at Court, and while they 

 basked in sunshine the native mathematicians shivered in the 

 shade. This was not agreeable, and the native astronomers 

 went home each day from Court dissatisfied. One of them, 

 Yang, ventured to foretell an eclipse. Adam Schaal, a Jesuit, 

 in Pekin, foretold the same eclipse, and his hours, minutes, and 

 seconds agreed with the fact. This was a crucial case. All 

 Pekin was wailing with interest to know the result. The pro- 



