POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



857 



Bwercd. But the author was held up to 

 ridicule, ia a leading article in " Nature " of 

 January 25, 1883, as the victim of " a thirst 

 for scientific renown," who knew nothing 

 of the subject concerning which he had 

 given the result of his studies, but had 

 succeeded in imposing himself upon a re- 

 spectable scientific body, and upon a scien- 

 tific journal. Mr. Whitehouso has taken 

 his time to answer this attack, and has 

 replied to it with vigor and to the point 

 in a late number of the " Manhattan." 

 Setting by the side of one another photo- 

 graphs of the Island of Staflfa and Fingal's 

 Cave, and the representations of them given 

 in the current works on geology, he shows 

 that a wonderful ignorance of what they 

 are like exists in the scientific mind, and is 

 transmitted to students. German works ex- 

 hibit a structure supposed to have been ex- 

 posed for millions of years to waves capable 

 of hollowing out two hundred and twenty- 

 eight feet of basalt, and open at both ends, 

 which Fingal's Cave is not, compared with 

 which "a wall of bricks without mortar 

 would be solidity itself." Hitchcock's " Geol- 

 ogy " long gave a view that did not show 

 any part of Staffa, but the adjoining Island 

 of Boo-sha-la. Dr. A. Geikie, Director of the 

 Geological Survey of Scotland, gave, in his 

 "Primer" in 1881, "a tolerable engraving 

 of part of the island" ; but, in 1882, he of- 

 fered to more advanced students, in his 

 "Text-Book of Geology," "a problem in 

 physics and drawing which has hitherto 

 passed uncriticised," " the bad copy of a 

 picture for which its author apologized in 

 1819," "which picture was no more Staffa 

 than a view inside the railings at the head of 

 Wall Street would be Trinity Church." If 

 our young American has been too hasty in 

 his theories, upon which we do not under- 

 take to decide, it certainly behooves his crit- 

 ics, and especially those who are on the spot 

 and wear official titles, to attempt some ap- 

 proach to accuracy in fact. 



Why some Bodies feel colder than oth- 

 ers, — It is a familiar fact that, when we 

 touch with the fingers different substances 

 of the same temperature, some will feel 

 colder than others. The differences of the 

 feeling are commonly ascribed to differences 

 in the heat-conducting powers of the several 



bodies. A correspondent of " La Nature " 

 suggests that, besides this, the specific heat 

 of the bodies and the degree of polish of 

 their surfaces should be taken into account. 

 The effect of specific heat may be observed 

 by pouring alcohol upon water and plung- 

 ing the finger in so that a part of it shall be 

 in the water and a part in the alcohol. The 

 part in the water will feel much colder than 

 that in the alcohol. So brandy may be 

 taken, with safety, at a degree of cold at 

 which water would infallibly irritate the 

 skin. The effect of the degree of polish 

 may be tried with a piece of marble or glass 

 one side of which is smooth and another 

 rough, with a file one side of which has 

 been ground down, or with glazed and un- 

 glazed paper. In every case the smooth 

 side or substance, at ordinary temperatures, 

 will appear colder than the rough one. The 

 fact may be accounted for by remembering 

 that the smooth body presents vastly more 

 points of contact with the fingers, and con- 

 sequently more conductors for the heat than 

 the rough one. In like manner a liquid al- 

 ways seems colder than the vessel contain- 

 ing it, because it is in closer contact with 

 the skin. 



Ire there Birds with Teeth ? — The 



" Transactions " of the Natural History Soci- 

 ety of Lcipsic contains a paper by Dr. Paul 

 Fraisse, on teeth and tooth-papillaj in birds. 

 It is generally admitted that there is a se- 

 ries of birds having real teeth in their bills. 

 Among these are the fossil archa;opteryx of 

 Solenhofen, and the odontornithes, discov- 

 ered by Professor Marsh in the North Ameri- 

 can cretaceous. The jaws of the latter birds 

 were furnished with teeth, and also with 

 cavities containing supplementary teeth, like 

 those of crocodiles. The curious relations 

 which these birds exhibit with reptiles, as a 

 kind of transitional stage between the two 

 orders, suggest the question whether any 

 living birds have teeth. On this point. 

 Dr. Fraisse remarks that Geoffroy Saint-Hi- 

 laire in 1821 discovered in two embrjoe 

 of the parrot {Palaomis torquatus) papilla 

 which he regarded as tooth-sacs and as ho- 

 mologous with the rudimentary teeth of oth- 

 er animals. In one of the jaws there even 

 seemed to be duplicate rudiments, as among 

 the mammalia. Cuvier accepted Uub an- 



