303 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Belpleea 

 eredity 



fectly willing to be saved from starvation 

 in this manner. WEISMANN Heredity, vol. 

 ii, ch. 9, p. 26. (01. P., 1897.) 



1476. HEMISPHERES OF BRAIN CON- 

 TROL OPPOSITE SIDE OF BODY Elec- 

 trical currents of small intensity applied to 

 the surface of the said convolutions [of the 

 brain] in dogs, monkeys, and other animals 

 produce well-defined movements in face, 

 fore-limb, hind-limb, tail, or trunk, accord- 

 ing as one point or another of the surface is 

 irritated. These movements affect almost 

 invariably the side opposite to the brain 

 irritations: If the left hemisphere be ex- 

 cited the movement is of the right leg, side 

 of face, etc. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 

 2, p. 31. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



1477. HERCULANEUM BURIED IN 

 LAVA Nearer than Pompeii to the Volcano 

 Cast of Buried Mask Ancient Buildings 

 Enclosed in Rock. It was remarked that no 

 lava has flowed over the site of Pompeii 

 since that city was built, but with Hercu- 

 laneum the case is different. Altho the sub- 

 stance which fills the interior of the houses 

 and the vaults must have been introduced 

 in a state of mud, like that found in similar 

 situations in Pompeii, yet the superincum- 

 bent mass differs wholly in composition and 

 thickness. Herculaneum was situated sev- 

 eral miles nearer to the volcano, and has, 

 therefore, been always more exposed to be 

 covered, not only by showers of ashes, but 

 by alluviums and streams of lava. Accord- 

 ingly, masses of both have accumulated on 

 each other above the city to a depth of no- 

 where less than 70, and in many places of 

 112 feet. 



The tuff which envelops the buildings con- 

 sists of comminuted volcanic ashes, mixed 

 with pumice. A mask embedded in this 

 matrix has left a cast, the sharpness of 

 which was compared by Hamilton to those 

 in plaster of Paris; nor was the mask in 

 the least degree scorched, as if it had been 

 embedded in heated matter. This tuff is 

 porous; and, when first excavated, is soft 

 and easily worked, but acquires a consider- 

 able degree of induration on exposure to the 

 air. LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. ii, ch. 

 24, p. 389. (A., 1854.) 



1478. HERCULANEUM, RELICS IN 



Remarkable Preservation of Ancient Objects 

 Perishable Goods Remaining of Owners 

 Who Vanished Centuries Ago. The wooden 

 beams in the houses at Herculaneum are 

 black on the exterior, but, when cleft open, 

 they appear to be almost in the state of 

 ordinary wood, and the progress made by 

 the whole mass towards the state of lignite 

 is scarcely appreciable. Some animal and 

 vegetable substances of more perishable 

 kinds have, of course, suffered much change 

 and decay, yet the state of preservation of 

 these is truly remarkable. Fishing-nets are 

 very abundant in both cities, often quite 

 entire; and their number at Pompeii is the 

 more interesting from the sea being now, as 



we stated, a mile distant. Linen has been 

 found at Herculaneum, with the texture well 

 defined; and in a fruiterer's shop in that 

 city were discovered vessels full of almonds, 

 chestnuts, walnuts, and fruit of the " caru- 

 biere," all distinctly recognizable from their 

 shape. A loaf, also, still retaining its form, 

 was found in a baker's shop, with his name 

 stamped upon it. On the counter of an 

 apothecary was a box of pills converted into 

 a fine earthy substance, and by the side of it 

 a small cylindrical roll evidently prepared 

 to be cut into pills. By the side of these 

 was a jar containing medicinal herbs. In 

 1827, moist olives were found in a square 

 glass case, and " caviare," or roe of a fish, 

 in a state of wonderful preservation. An 

 examination of these curious condiments has 

 been published by Covelli, of Naples, and 

 they are preserved hermetically sealed in 

 the museum there. LYELL Principles of Ge- 

 ology, bk. ii, ch. 24, p. 392. (A., 1854.) 



1479. HEREDITY, ALCOHOLIC Statis- 

 tics of Idiocy and Insanity. There is one 

 class of cases, moreover, in which a particu- 

 lar abnormal form of nutrition that is dis- 

 tinctly acquired by the individual exerts a 

 most injurious influence upon the offspring 

 that, namely, which is the result of such 

 habitual alcoholic excess as modifies the 

 nutrition of the nervous system. 



We have a far larger experience of the 

 results of habitual alcoholic excess than we 

 have in regard to any other " nervine stimu- 

 lant " ; and all such experience is decidedly 

 in favor of the hereditary transmission of 

 that acquired perversion of the normal nu- 

 trition which it has engendered in the indi- 

 vidual. That this manifests itself some- 

 times in congenital idiocy, sometimes in a 

 predisposition to insanity, which requires 

 but a very slight exciting cause to develop 

 it, and sometimes in a strong craving for 

 alcoholic drinks, which the unhappy subject 

 of it strives in vain to resist, is the concur- 

 rent testimony of all who have directed 

 their attention to the inquiry. Thus Dr. 

 Howe, in his report on the statistics of 

 idiocy in Massachusetts, states that the 

 habits of the parents of 300 idiots having 

 been learned, 145, or nearly one-half, were 

 found to be habitual drunkards. In one in- 

 stance, in which both parents were drunk- 

 ards, seven idiotic children were born to 

 them. Dr. Down, whose experience of idiocy 

 is greater than that of any other man in 

 this country, has assured the writer that he 

 does not consider Dr. Howe's statement as 

 at all exaggerated. Dr. W. A. F. Browne, 

 the first Medical Lunacy Commissioner for 

 Scotland, thus wrote when himself in charge 

 of a large asylum : " The drunkard not only 

 injures and enfeebles his own nervous sys- ' 

 tern, but entails mental disease upon his 

 family. His daughters are nervous and hys- 

 terical; his sons are weak, wayward, ec- 

 centric, and sink under the pressure of ex- 

 citement of some unforeseen exigency, or the 

 ordinary calls of duty." Dr. Howe remarks 



