Dec. 28, 1871J 



NATURE 



171 



to light. Five months afterwards the tubes were opened, and 

 the contents of that which had been exposed to hght gave the 

 reaction of glucose. 



A coRRESrONDKNT of the Madras Thius states that on the 

 night of the 21st of October a remarkable meteor was seen at 

 Trevandrum. It first became visible in the nortliern part of the 

 sky, proceeding at a rapid rate and in a straight line, at an 

 elevation of from 35° to 40°. It was visible for about four 

 seconds. 



A Brahmin astronomer at Surat has "predicted" that a 

 terrible earthquake will be felt in some parts of the Bombay 

 Presidency either in December or January next. 



Indian papers state that during the firsT six months of this 

 year as many as 183 tigers and cubs, 393 panthers and leopards, 

 203 bears, 281 wolves, and 188 hyenas, were destroyed in the 

 Central Provinces at a cost to the Government of about 9,000 

 rupees (900/.). What a chance for any enterprising Zoological 

 Museum ! 



We do not look for zoological statistics in the annals of trading 

 companies ; but there is one report that does afford material, that 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company. There we see year by year the 

 varying number of fur-bearing animals, given in a kind of 

 Registrar- General's return of deaths. This year we do not see 

 the details, but we learn there has been a great dearth of mar- 

 tens. A more serious ethnological fact is the great looses by 

 small-pox among the Indians of the Saskachewan district, being 

 no less than 3,000. Throughout the Hudson's Bay district the 

 Canadian Government is employed in regulating tlie Indians, but 

 this no less forebodes their extinction ; the more particularly as a 

 railway is advancing to the Pacific, and steamers are to be placed 

 on the Saskachewan river and Lake Manitoba. Martens that are 

 not killed and Indians that die mean reduced dividends to the 

 Hudson's Bay shareholders and traders. 



On the Chilian map is to be placed Augol, just made a city. 

 It is situated in lat. 37° 42' S., long. 72° 17' W., about three 

 miles south of the head waters of the river Verzaro, and twenty 

 eight miles from Nacimiento. It was founded Dec. 6, 1862, 

 and is a fortified place on the river Pecoiquen. 



At Santiago, in Chile, a zoological g.rrden is to be formed in 

 the Quinta Normal, or Normal Garden. 



From recent accounts in the Panama Star aitd Herald, it ap- 

 pears the Panama pearl fisheries are now carried on by negroes, 

 whose villages remind the traveller of Western Africa. The 

 value of the fishery is about 30,000/. a year, but signs of ex- 

 haustion are now showing themselves. This is greatly attribut- 

 able to the use of diving macliines. A gentleman who owns one 

 of the islands, having regulated his fisheries in the Ceylon man- 

 ner, found that after two years' repose he got a larger crop. It 

 is therefore suggested to regulate the Panama fisheries by law. 



Coal has been discovered at Neblinto in Chile. That 

 country is already largely engaged in the shipment of coal. 



Muscat is now to be divided on the maps into two states, 

 Muscat and Sohar, a once famous name. 



The diamond capital of Adamanta, at the Cape, is likely to 

 become a permanent town. Its present settled and floating 

 population is 20,000. 



The collector of Tinnevelly, in Madras, reports that he has 

 come to the conclusion, after his inspection of the Government 

 Pearl Fisheries, that the oysters migrate every year when young. 



The miners of Copiapa in Chile have undertaken an explora- 

 tion by subscription of the rich mineral resources of their Cor- 

 dillera. 



NUMERIC RELATIONS OE THE VERTEBRATE 



SYSTEM* 

 ""PIIERE are five (not four only) complete neural rib arches to 

 to the cranium of all vertebrate animals, to wit : (i) The 

 condylar or sensitive belt with the condyle plates for side ribs, and 

 the lower arch of the transversely bipartite occiput for its vault 

 piece ; (2) the peti'osal or acoustic, containing the auditory nerves 

 in its side beams (easily detected by removing the ear drum of 

 Felines, &c.), and overarched by the interior belt of the occipital 

 squama ; (3) the parietal belt originally containing the truegusta- 

 tive of fixed tastes (sour, sweet, salt and bitter, the glosso-pha- 

 ryngeal), in an incision ; from which it is, how-ever, soon crowded 

 out by the internal carotid artery and the overlapping "acoustic 

 rib blade." The next (4) is the optic orfrontal, visibly succeeded, 

 in fishes, by (5) the ethmoidal or olfactory vertebra. The rest of 

 the cranium is formed by its " extremities " or prehensile appen- 

 dages. 



The same numeric law which pervades the entire vegetable 

 kingdom reoccurs in the human fabric in a very marked manner. 



The number of " radiating elements " in a coil or whorl, or of 

 whorls in a cycle, or in cycles generally speaking, as in pine cones 

 and flower buds, &c. , are the following : — 



I, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, &c., progressing by the 

 summation of the last two numbers. 



The bands or parallel coils of flowers or scales in pine cones, 

 sunllower discs, &c., embody these numbers successively, as they 

 grow steeper and steeper, alternately on the right and left. The 

 vertical bands, or columns, give the number of parts of the cycles 

 Involved. 



The explanation heretofore given by me is this, that one element 

 generates the other. 



The elements are radial ; they are bilateral rays, wi:h a rift, so 

 to speak, on the opposite side. It is there where, in a like manner 

 as the seed-leaves of flowering plants produce prolific " ovules," 

 new radial organs are developed from the preceding ones — 

 laterally at alternate heights and towards the wider spaces. 



This process, referred to the radial organs of plants in an early 

 stage, wdl yield : — 



1. The numbers of parts in question, successively. 



2. The peculiar law of interpolations or of " divergence," viz. : 

 by a number of interstices represented by the second preceding 

 one of each cyclar number. 



3. It will conclude the cycles, if it be supposed that the activity 

 of each junior member depends on that of its progenital one ; as 

 in all cases of simple branch developments. 



These numbers occur in like manner in the human frame, as 

 follows : 



Inclusive of the terminal (ossified or gristly) coccygeal element, 

 we have exactly thirty-four spinal vertebra;. 



Classifying nerves by their work, or "function," we find — 

 3 pairs of cervical nerves (neck). 

 5 pairs of brachial nerves (arms). 

 8 pairs of pedal nerves, composed of 3 crural (lumbar) and 5 



ischiadic (sacral) ones. 

 13 pairs of nerves to the rump. 

 5 specific ones of the cranium. 



34 in all ; whereas the number of the spinal vertebrx', which 

 inclose the spinal cord is exactly 21. 



There are five pairs of " extremities," organised after a common 

 plan: (l) the lower, (2) the upper, (3) the temporal (bearing 

 the lower jaw for a "member"), (4) the palate-facial, with the 

 upper jaw for its "member," (5) the opercular or hyo-tympanic 

 one, forming the gill-lid in fishes or the tympanic ossicles in 

 man ; and the digital extremity of which is gradually converted 

 into the (band-like) crimped (external and internal) cartilages of 

 the ear. 



The five pair of hcemal arches of the cranium,/.^', theglll arches 

 of fishes, are gradually transformed into the gristles of the gullet, 

 &c. 



The main variation consists in the varying, but "cyclar" 

 number of "rays," fingers, &c. ; the varying cyclar number of 

 their joints (I, 2, 5,8, 13 respectively in a dolphin, with five 

 carpels instead of eight, as in a man) and the varying cyclar 

 number of " loose " ossicles, such as carj>als, tarsals, tcetli, &c . 

 The number of spinal vertebrae is also variable, but not that of 

 the cranial ones. 



* .abstract of a Paper rsad at the Indianopolis Meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, by Dr. T. C. Hilgard. Reprinted 

 frora\the Ajntriean Naturalist, 



