234 
every disorder therein described, not even excepting the pains of 
pregnancy. Bearing this in mind, we would recommend that 
none save those well assured of their own sanity should read the 
Fournal of Mental Science. There is so much about morbid 
psychology, madness, and idiocy, that weak readers are in some 
real danger of being taken possession of by an uncomfortable 
suspicion that they may be a little touched themselves. The 
place of honour is given to an address on idiocy by Dr. J. C. 
Bucknill. This is a piece of special pleading (justified, perhaps, 
by its occasion) for the education of idiots. Now, as these 
miserable abortions must be kept in life because of the indirect 
evil effects of any system of extinguishing them, we certainly de- 
sire that they should be kept in asylums and made comfortable. 
But we cannot even grant that they are ‘‘more worthy of our 
efforts than those races of animals which men strive to bring to 
perfection.” Except in so far as Science miy be advanced by 
such work, it seems very much of a waste of time for such a 
man as Séguin to labour for four months to fix the eye of an 
idiot as the first step in the education of sight. We cannot go 
into ecstacy on hearing that idiots are actually taught to use 
knives and forks, when so many rational beings around us have 
neither knives nor forks to use, nor any use for them. By all 
means let the charitable support asylums for idiots; but at the 
same time it should not be forgotten that these poor creatures 
can never be educate i into anything useful or lovely, and that a 
point is soon reached beyond which further education is mis- 
spent labour.—A valuable paper on “ The Use of Digitalis in 
Maniacal Excitement” is coatributed by Dr. W. J. Mickle. 
Next follows, under the title of “ Consciousness and Unconscious 
Cerebration,” a rather muddled attempt, on the part of W. G. 
Davies, B.D., to upset Dr. Carpenter’s doctrine of “ unconscious 
cerebration.” From this article one might suppose that the 
views combated were pecu‘iar to Dr. Carpen‘er and his so-called 
disciplks Dr. Bastian and Miss Cobbe, whereas in truth the 
writer has against him not these only, but also the most distin- 
guished of living psychologists. [lis writing is a good deal in 
the bad old style, the language serving at times, as it seems to 
us, to obscure rather than express thought. Dr. Carpenter is 
accused of imagining a nervous anatumy to suit his theory. But 
Mr. Davies does not himself seem to be up with the latest scien- 
tific surmises. For example, in laying the groundwork of one of 
his own arguments, he says : “ The very same cells in the visual 
sense-centre cannot, at one and the same moment, see brown and 
yellow.” He does not seem to be aware that it is highly probabie 
that the cells that see one colour never do see another. There 
are over a dozen other papers, all of more or less, some of them 
of considerable interest. 
THE Afonthly Microscopical Fournal for this month commences 
with an article by Mr. J. W. Stephenson onthe optical appearances 
presented by the inner and outer layers of Coscinodiscus when ex- 
amined in bisulphide of carbon and in air, in which the impor- 
tance of considering the refractive index of the medium in which 
calcareous and silicious structures are examined, is fully dis- 
cussed. ‘his is followed by a paper on some new diatoms from 
the harbours of Peru and Bolivia, by Mr. F. Kitton, in which 
Aulacodiscus formosus and Omphalopilta versicolor are the most 
important.—Mr. F. Wenham, in a very temperate manner, re- 
buffs the unjustifiable statements of the American microscopists, 
who, not realising the high scientific position he holds in this 
country, accuse him of acting unfairly to Mr. Tolles, and in- 
sinuate that he has acted from mercenary motives. He ends by 
saying, ‘‘I trust that Colonel Woodward, having affirmed that 
‘the position taken by me is certainly true for objectives, as 
ordinarily constructed,’ will allow that this additional lens em- 
bodies a deviation from the ordinary question, which was to the 
effect that there would be no loss of angle aperture of ordinary 
objectives by the immersion of the front surface in fluids.” —Dr. 
Braithwaite continues his observations on the bog-mosses.—Dr. 
Royston-Piggott considers the high-power definition of minute 
organic particles, in which he divides his subject into five parts, 
including the nature of the least circle of confusion, the nature 
of mixed shadows, and the nature of perfect definition. —The 
preparation of the brain and spinal cord for microscopic exami- 
nation, forms the subject of a paper by Mr. H. S. Atkinson, in 
which he explains in detail the methods employed by Pro- 
fessor Rutherford, and the means of staining sections adopted by 
himself, 
Letermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen, No. V1.— An account 
of Dr, Nachtigal’s travels in Northern Africa, which appears in 
NATURE | 
| matisation were more fully deve’oped, could be produced 
| Fuly 17, 1873 
this number, we have already noticed in the advanced sheets 
One of the longest and most valuable papers is by Dr. C, E. 
Meinicke on Dr. Bernstein’s explorations in the Northern 
Moluccas, accompanied bya map. An important article is the 
second part of an account by Freiherr F. von Richthofen, of — 
some of the results of his journey from Pekin southwestwards 
through China, embracing valuable details on the geology, topo- 
graphy, and natural history of thé little known interior of that 
country. Another important article is on the Aurora Borealis, by 
M. E. Pechuel-Loesche, who for the purpose of ascertaining the 
teal nature of the phenomenon, brings together the results of the 
observations of those who have cirefully obs-rved it in the Polar — 
regions. This is to be followed by another paper in the same 
direction.—-Dr. H. Wagner contributes an article on the Deve- 
lopment of the German Railway System, accompanied by a 
well-constructed map. 
A VERY interesting number of the Bulletin Mensuel de la 
| Societé d’Acclimatation de Paris has been published for May. 
One of the principal papers is a long article by the Abbé Des- 
godins, missionary at Yer-ka-lo, on the zoology of Thibet. 
The varied temperatures of its different levels are such that 
the country coatains a great varicty of animals, the fauna of 
both tropical and cold climates being found there. A descrip- 
tion is given by M. Robert of his pat nt artificial incubators for 
hatching eggs, which seem to be more perfect in all their details 
than any of tho<e appliances we have seen. As a proof of 
the usefulness of such a Society, the secretary calls attention 
to the increased price of certain animal and vegetable pro- 
ducts of foreign countries, which, if the principle of accli- 
much cheaper in France. Experiments on sericulture have 
shown that silk of varied colour can be produced by feed- 
ing the silkworm on different leaves. Worms fed on vine 
leaves produce a silk of a magnificent red colour. Lettuce 
has been found to produce an emerald-green coloured silk. 
During April, 51 animals ani 886 birds were received at the Gar- 
dens of the Society, while 51 anima's, and 1,333 birds were distri- 
bute!. Among interesting items of intelligence we may mention 
that the ostriches have begun to lay, and it is hoped that kangaroos 
may be s» freely bred in France as to justify their being turned 
loose in suitable parts of the country. Three Trumpeter Swans = 
were received from America. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES ‘ 
Lonpon 
Royal Society, June 19.—‘‘On a tendency observed in Sun- 
spots to change alternately from the one Solar Hemisphere to 
the other.” Ly Warren De La Rue, D.C.L., F.R.S., Baliour 
Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S., and Benjamin Loewy, F.R.A.S. 
1. Hitherto in our reductions we have summed up the spotted 
areas of the various groups occurring on the sun’s surface on any 
day, and have regarded their sum_as a tepresentation of the spot- 
activity forthat day. It has occurred to us to see what result 
we should obtain by taking instead for each day the excess of the 
spotted area in the one solar hemisphere above that in the 
other. 
2. On adopting this method, it soon became evident that dur- 
ing periods of great disturbance there is a tendency in spots to 
change alternately from the north or positive to the south or nega- 
tive hemisphere, and vice versd, the period of such charge being 
about 25 days. When, on the other hand, the solar disturbance — 
is inconsiderable, the spots do not present any such systematic 
oscillation, , 
3. We have graphically represented on a diagram the results 
derived from this method during three of the most considerable 
periods of so!ar disturbance. z 
In this diagram the observed values of hemispherical excess 
are marked with an asterisk, and a curve is drawn So as to 
equalise their smaller irregularities. The northera hemisphere 
is reckoned positive, and the southern negative. The unit of 
area is, as before, the one millionth of the sun’s visible hemi- 
sphere, 
4. The first of these three periods extends from the beginning 
of August to the end of December, 1859. We derive from our 
diagram the followiag Table, exhibiting the maximum amounts 
of hemispherical excess, with their respective dates :— ; 
