Jan. 15, 1885/ 



NA TURE 



241 



closely allied senses, this rolling causes pleasurable sensa- 

 tions from association with the glorious feasts enjoyed on 

 battle-fields and on putrid carcases of animals," and from 

 this the author hints that possibly, and even probably, 

 when grouse or venison come to our tables in a state of 

 actual decomposition, this represents a taste acquired 

 years ago by the conditions of a primitive life, and is not 

 to be distinguished from a habit which brings upon our 

 domestic dogs the severest reprobation and prompt chas- 

 tisement. It seems a subject, however unsavoury, well 

 worthy of being investigated, and doubtless many facts 

 bearing on it in reference to uncivilised people are yet to 

 be narrated. Once we call to mind a small knot of semi- 

 civilised Africans captured in a slave dhow off Mosam- 

 bique that we interrupted at a midnight feast ; they were 

 partly eating and partly smelling a mass of half-putrid fish, 

 which seemed, to say the least, to make them uproarious. 

 They had been under civilisation of a sort since their infant 

 days, but seemed full of hereditary instincts. Mr. Nicols's 

 work is full of his own careful observations, and forms a 

 most pleasant addition to our knowledge of the habits and 

 mental faculties of the Carnivora. 



Entwickelung der Ortschaften im Thiiringer-Mald. Von 

 Dr. F. Regel. Petermann's Mitteilungen, Erganzungs- 

 heft No. 76. (Gotha : Perthes, 1885.)' 

 This is a very complete account of the origin and deve- 

 lopment of the towns and villages in the region known as 

 " the Thuringian Forest," with a special chapter on the 

 geology, topography, and climatology of the district, and 

 a valuable map. The " Thuringian Forest " extends from 

 Eisenach, on the north-west, to Schleusingen, on the 

 south-east, and covers an area of about 1200 kilometres, 

 with a population of 143,986. The mountains of this 

 region are mainly composed of granite, gneiss, palaeozoic 

 strata, and porphyry. About a third of the district is still 

 covered with wood. Formerly there was a great variety of 

 trees, comprising the pine, oak, beech, birch, elder, maple, 

 aspen, and willow ; but now the forests consist almost en- 

 tirely of pines, with a few beech woods between Friederich- 

 roda and the mediaeval walled town of Schmalkalden. 

 The average temperature is somewhat lower than that of 

 the whole of Germany. In the higher villages neither 

 wheat nor the finer kinds of fruit will thrive, and there is 

 frost during from ten to eleven months in the year. The 

 climate, however, is very healthy, and the beauty of the 

 scenery and purity of the mountain streams attract many 

 visitors during the summer months. The highest, and 

 one of the most popular, of these summer resorts is 

 Oberhof, a village at the top of the pas? over the 

 Schiitzenberg, of which the earliest record is in the year 

 1267. Only oats and potatoes can be grown here (2541 

 feet above the sea-level), and even the house-sparrow 

 cannot be acclimatised. Eisenach, the capital of the 

 district, is chiefly known on account of the confinement 

 of Luther in the neighbouring castle of Wartburg, 

 which was erected to guard the Thuringian frontier on 

 the west in the years 1067 to 1070. This fortress was 

 close to the junction of two important roads from Erfurt 

 and Muhlhausen,and,as usual in such cases, a town rapidly 

 grew up at the foot of the hill on which the fortress was 

 built. Eisenach now has 13,000 inhabitants, with 

 three churches and several factories. Other towns and 

 villages not so favourably situated owed their development 

 to the neighbourhood of mines, healing waters, &c. Ruhla, 

 a flourishing town of 4500 inhabitants, was celebrated in 

 the first half of the sixteenth century for its steel manufac- 

 tures, but foreign competition and heavy taxes nearly 

 ruined the place, and in 1748 the population had consider- 

 ably diminished. The enterprising spirit of the inhabitants, 

 however, was soon drawn into a new channel by the dis- 

 covery of mineral waters and the introduction of the 

 manufacture of carved amber and pipe-bowls of imita- 

 tion meerschaum, an industry which has attained con- 



siderable proportions. A somewhat similar history is 

 that of the manufacturing town of Ilmenau, which is 

 first mentioned in the chronicles of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury. It flourished as an important centre of the copper- 

 mining district of the Ilm up to the year 1739, when the 

 mines were flooded by an inundation. In 1752 the town 

 was burnt to the ground, and, though partly rebuilt, it 

 shared in the general distress caused by the seven years' 

 war, and did not revive until the beginning of the present 

 century, when the manufacture of glass, porcelain, and 

 toys was introduced. In 1838 the establishment of a 

 hydropathic institution afforded a further stimulus to the 

 trade of Ilmenau, and the population has increased from 

 1972 in 1809 to 4593 in 1880. On these and other places 

 of less note in the Thuringian Forest Dr. Regel's work 

 affords abundant information, though it is somewhat over- 

 charged with notes and references which serve rather to 

 display the extent of the author's reading than to illustrate 

 his text. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



( The Editor does not hold himselj responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications . 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel facts, ] 



River Thames — Abnormal High Tides 

 Reverting to my letter of December 19, 18S3, inserted in 

 Nature for January io, 1884, I append an abstract of salient ex- 

 ceptional tides of last year similar to that accompanying my former 

 letter, from which it will be seen that the maximum elevation of 

 tide is eleven inches less than in 1883, and the excess over 

 the computed rise is also less by seventeen inches than in 1883 

 — in each year resultant on north-north-west gales. Both year's 

 results may be said to be analogous, and each showing how 

 sensitive is the .high- water level and how easily it is affected and 

 raised by a change from south and west to northerly winds. 



J. B. Redman 

 6, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, S.W., January 5 



Our Future Clocks and Watches 



It is lo be hoped that the absurd dial of which you give a 



drawing will not come into general use. Why not adopt the 



convenient shape which for more than a century has been in use 



- Northerly Influence. 

 4 Wind blowing right up the estuary. 

 th this tide. <> N.N.W. day before. 



7 Maximum tide of year ; W.N.W. gale day before. 

 s Gale and remarkable fall of barometer = 29 10'. 



1 Wind Influence 



3 Still felt. 



5 Sewage up to Westminster 



