120 
During the first half of the seventeenth century there 
also appeared the earliest monographs. Thus Nicho- 
las Tulp, the anatomical lecturer in Rembrandt’s famous 
painting at the Hague, gives a description and an 
almirable engraving on copper of what he calls an 
“ orang-outang,” evidently a chimpanzee from Africa ; 
and in the same Odservationes Medice (1641) figures a 
narwhal as “Unicornis marinus.” The Lzdellus de 
Canibus Britannicis (dedicated to Gesner), of our 
countryman John Kay (Caius) was earlier than Tulp’s 
papers. It was followed by monographs on the elephant 
by Lipsius and Caspar Horn, on the stag, with an account 
of its dissection, by Agricola, of the hippopotamus, from 
a specimen sent in brine from Damietta to Rome, by 
Columna, and of fishes in general by Salviani and 
Rondelet. In 1634 was published at London Zuzsectorum 
theatrum, avowedly founded on the words of Wotton and 
Gesner, and on a compilation from both which had been 
begun by Thomas Penn, and interrupted by his death ; 
the next editor was Thomas Mouffet, but he also died 
several years before it was published. This is a noble 
monograph, with woodcuts so accurate and characteristic 
as to compare with the best productions of modern skill. 
It is also remarkable for containing a full and correct 
account of the Acarus scabiet, which was afterwards so 
long forgotten. Beside insects (in the Linnzean sense of 
the word) it describes worms of various kinds, and among 
them what is apparently a Bothriocephalus latus. This 
species is still more distinctly figured by Tulpius (Obs. 
Med. tab. vii), but by some strange error it is represented 
with two heads. Spigelius (de dumbrico lato) gravely 
discusses whether it is an animal at all. 
Meantime anatomy and physiology were making rapid 
progress. Vesalius (1514-1564), the father of modern 
anatomy, and his contemporary Eustachius, who ventured 
to oppose his own dissections to the authority of Galen, 
Fallopius, and his successor at Padua, Fabricius, and the 
still more illustrious pupil of Fabricius, William Harvey, 
form a succession of almost unequalled eminence. The 
dissections of our countryman Thomas Willis (1621-1675) 
were not confined to human subjects, and the earliest 
microscopical observations, by Malpighi, Leeuwenhoek, and 
Hooke, were also to a large extent zoological. After the 
middle of the seventeenth century the three most illus- 
trious scientific societies were founded, the Academia 
Nature Curiosorum (1652) incorporated as the “ Leopold- 
inisch-Carolinische Academie” in 1677, the Royal Society 
in 1662, and the Académie des Sciences four years later, 
In 1667 Ray was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 
and began the series of papers which mark the first steps 
of scientific zoology, and surely prepared the way for his 
greater successor Linnzeus. P. H, PYE-SMITH 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Lehrbuch der Physik, Von Dr, Paul Reis, Zweite Liefe- 
rung, Leipzig. (Quandt and Baudel, 1873.) 
THE second part of this useful handbook of physics opens 
with the explanation of Mariotte’s Law and the various 
applications of atmospheric pressure. The next division 
is devoted to the study of wave motion, which is dis- 
cussed far more fully than in the ordinary run of scien- 
tific text-books. This leads on to acoustics, and we are 
at once plunged rather abruptly into the subject of musi- 
NATURE 
cal intervals. The theory of consonance, the cause of 
the intensity of sound and its mode of propagation make 
up the novel arrangement of this chapter. Optics occu- 
pies the sixth division, and is carefully treated. Especially 
noteworthy is the chapter on the theory of the absorption 
and dispersion of light, in which there is an excellent — 
account of spectrum analysis. The part before us breaks 
off in the discussion of physiological optics, where Helm- 
holtz’s researches are in part developed. It isa pity that 
the engravings are not equal to those generally found in 
continental text-books. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents, No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. } 
Jacamar in Britain 
I SEE, in your review of Mr. Cordeaux’s ‘‘ Birds of the Hum- 
ber District,” mention of a Jacamar—I presume a Galbula— 
having been shot by a keeper named S. Fox, near Gainsborough, 
in 1849. Youand the author, Mr. Cordeaux, naturally remark 
on the ‘‘ extraordinary” puzzle of the fact. 
As one who has often seen the Jacamar in its own tropic 
forests, and watched its flight and its feeding, I must be allowel 
to suspect some mistake, unless the most “‘ startling ””—in every 
sense of the word—evidence of the authenticity of the specimen 
is given, 
Ready to believe everything, in such a world of wonders, I 
might have believed ina Jacamar being blown to south-west Corn- 
wall, Ireland, or Scotland. But in the eastern counties— 
“Qu’allait il faire dans ce galere 1a ?” 
Harrow, June 6 C. KINGSLEY 
The Use of Wires in Correcting Echo 
[The following letter has been forwarded to us by Mr, J. J. 
Murphy] :— 
Palace, Cork, May 30, 1873 
My Dear Mr. Murphy, 
Having seen in the newspapers some notices of the use of 
wires for correcting the echo by breaking the waves of sound in 
churches and public buildings, we were anxious to try the ex- 
periment in the cathedral of St. Fin Barre, Cork, the nave of 
which is of great height, between 60 and 70 feet, and narrow in 
proportion to its height. We were unable to obtain any reliable 
information as to the placing of the wires, so that what we did 
was very much in the way of experiment. I should state that 
the desks for the officiating clergy and the choir are placed at 
the intersection of the transepts, nave, and chancel, so that this 
may be regarded as the point from which the sound starts. The 
organ is placed in a gallery at the west end, and the organist 
seated in this gallery has always heard much more distinctly than 
the people sitting about two-thirds down the nave, particularly 
those close to the pillars ; but the echo seemed to render the 
sound indistinct, more especially in the transepts, the north and 
south walls of which presented a large flat surface, and appeared 
to us to be probably the source of the echo. 
At first we tried the wires strained at a considerable height, 
the level of the triforium, but they produced comparatively little 
effect ; we then strained a double course of wire at about a height 
of 12 or 15 feet round the large piers of the central tower, so as 
to encompass the choir, and other wires completely across the 
nave and side aisles, and the effect was certainly very good. 
There was a greater distinctness of sound throughout the build- 
ing. Our organist, who is a very accomplished musician, did 
not know that the wires were put up, and remarked to me one 
day after service that he did not know what it was, but that 
everything seemed to him in better tune. z 
This encouraged us to make further experiments. We then 
strained three wires completely across from the south wall of _ 
the south transept to the north wall of the north transept, so as 
to pass over the heads of the choir, but the effect was quite too 
great, it seemed to kill the sound, every sound seemed to 
stop at once, all resonance was gone, These wires we had at once — 
to take down, and I should add that, as regards the organist, 
the wires over the heads of the choir seemed to produce a much . 
greater effect than those directly between the choir and his 
[Fune 12, 1873 
FF 
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Pe a ee nee 
ee ee ee 
