tet 
Aug. 31, 1871] 
NATURE 
359 

mala ; and several in Yucatan, of which Uxmaland Chichen Itza 
are the most famous. It was very remarkable that all these ruins, 
evidently the work of one particular and highly-civilised race of 
Indians, should only be found in a very limited area. None exist 
in South America, and none in that part of the continent com- 
monly distinguished as North America—they all lie within the 
tropics, between the 14th and 22nd parallels of north latitude, 
and were chiefly adjacent to the Mexican and Honduras Gulls, 
or in the plains on the west of the Cordilleras of Central 
America. On the eastern or Pacific slopes and plateaux, within 
the same parallels, are also remains of ancient fortifications and 
sacrificial altars, but these are of a less elaborate type, and are 
allied to the Aztecan structures of Mexico. The paper went on 
.to give an interesting account of a journey undertaken by the 
writer across the continent, in the syiing of last year, from the 
Pacific, through Guatemala to the Atlantic, to enable him to 
examine in detail the mixed populations and conditions of the 
lands between the Cordilleras and the Pacific, the central pla- 
teaux, with their aboriginal Indian races and ruins, the region— 
almost entirely unknown—inhabited by those unbaptised Indians 
called the Candones, near which lie the ruins of Ocosingo and 
Paleque, and finally concluding the journey by traversing Yu- 
catan, visiting the strange ruins with which the country abounds, 
and emerging on the northern coast of the peninsula at Sisal. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
THE Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. Conducted by 
G. M. Humphry, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy in the 
University of Cambridge ; and William Turner, M.D., Professor 
of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh. No. VIII. May, 
1871 (Macmillan and Co.).—This number is quite up to the 
standard of its predecessors, but the papers it contains are so 
numerous that we can do little more than indicate the subjects of 
most of them. Mr. Perrin heads the list with a couple of papers 
on muscular variations observed in the dissecting room of King’s 
College, London, during two winter sessions ; and Mr. Wag- 
staffe, demonstrator at St. Thomas’s, Mr. Bradley, of the 
Manchester Medical School, and Mr. Cameron contribute 
similar papers, and thus illustrate one great use of the journal, 
for without it such observations would probably go unrecorded. 
—Mr. W. A. Hollis gives an account of the so-called salivary 
glands of the cockroach, and seems to show satisfactorily that 
they are really part of the tracheal system of the insect, and not 
glandular at all.—Dr. Wickham Legge contributes some obser- 
vations on the physiological action of hydrochlorate of cotar- 
namic acid, a derivative of narcotine obtained by the late Dr. 
Matthiessen ; the most interesting points about the new poison 
are the length of time (often several days) which elapses before 
its effects show themselves if it be administered by the mouth, 
and the great diminution of blood pressure and the paralysis of 
the cardiac branches of the vagus which it produces.—Mr. 
Garrod, of St. John’s College, gives an account of a very simple 
cardio-sphygmograph which appears likely to prove useful, and 
also a description of the telson of Schyllus arctus, in which he 
endeavours to show that it is not a mere azygos appendage as it 
is usually supposed, but is a true body segment, possessing append- 
ages of its own.—Dr. Wilson Paton has a paper on the influence 
of certain drugs, of diet, and of mental work, on the urine ; one 
of his most important results being that neither the infusion, 
alcoholic extract of alkaloids of broom tops, have any effect in 
increasing the quantity of any of the constituents of the urine, at 
least in health, although they are so commonly regarded and 
prescribed as diuretics. —Prof. Cleland gives an account of a case 
occurring in his practice which showed that the trapezius plays 
an important part in keeping the bones of the shoulder joint in 
contact ; he also describes a case of epispadias.—Prot. Ruther- 
ford describes a modification of Stirling’s section machine, which 
is especially fitted for getting microscopic sections of frozen tis- 
sues, and also gives some experiments on the excitability of the 
trunk of a spinal nerve which go to negative Pflliger’s “ava- 
lanche” theory.—Dr. Kennedy contributes an account of a young 
Aino cranium ; and Prof. Turner concludes the original articles 
of the number with papers on the ‘‘Two-headed ribs of whales 
and man” and on the ‘Transverse processes” of the seventh 
cervical vertebra in Balzenoptera Sibbaldii. The review of the 
recently published works bearing on the natural selection theory 
is peculiarly full and interesting, and the reports on the progress 
of anatomy and physiology during the preceding three months, 


which conclude the number, are drawn up with their usual com- 
pleteness. 
Symon’s Meteorological Magazine has now reached its fifth 
yearly volume, and it maintains its character of being a useful 
monthly medium for the interchange of meteorological jottings, 
which are not of sufficient importance to form papers for scien- 
tific societies. It contains, in addition to reviews and abstracts 
or reprints of papers published elsewhere, some valuable notices 
of special investigations carried on by private observers, such as 
a discussion on solar radiation temperatures, conducted by the 
Rey. F, W. Stow and Mr. Nunes. The tornado of October 19, 
and, of course, the aurora of October 24 and 25, find a place in 
its pages. The standing portion of the magazine, however, 
consists of monthly rainfall returns and notes on weather from 
about fifty stations, and thus forms a sort of supplement to the 
pon) volume, ‘‘ British Rainfall,” brought out by the same 
author. 
Sournal of the Chemical Society.—The last number of this 
journal contains the ‘‘ abstracts of chemical papers” which have 
been already noticed in our columns, and two papers read before 
the Society, the first being ‘‘The Action of Heat on Silver Nitrite,” 
by Dr. Divers. The author finds that when silver nitrite is sub- 
mitted tothe action of heat it is decomposed, the products of the 
action consisting principally of silver nitrite, metallic silver, and 
oxide of nitrogen, but that the relative proportions of these vary 
according to the conditions of the experiment. When the nitrite 
is heated in an open dish, the result may be represented by the 
equation 3 NO,Ag = N,O; + Ag, + NO,Ag, but if it isheated 
in a vessel nearly closed, so that the gaseous products may be 
kept in contact with the undecomposed nitrite, the loss of weight 
is less, and the amount of nitrite formed is greater, the hot silver 
nitrite apparently reducing’the higher oxides of nitrogen to nitric 
oxide. When the nitrite is freely exposed to a moist atmosphere, 
and heated, it tends to yield only metallic silver and nitrogen 
peroxide. Mr. Gill, in ‘‘ Laboratory Notes on the Examination 
of Glucose containing Sugars,” after remarking on the effect 
produced by the use of an excess of lead subacetate in decolouring 
sugar solutions for optical examination, the action of inverted 
sugar on polarised light being greatly altered by the presence of 
this reagent, proposes the use of a strong solution of sulphur 
dioxide as a satisfactory method for removing the lead. 
IN the Journal of Botany for August the most interesting 
article is a ‘* Flora of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens,” by 
the Hon. J. L. Warren. This apparently unpromising field for 
botanising yielded to a careful search no fewer than 190 species 
of indigenous flowering plants, some half-dozen of them by no 
means common plants, and the list might probably be consider- 
ably extended. A hundred years hence this list will be of con- 
siderable interest to the botanist of the future. The other 
original articles in this number are of a more technical character. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
BRIstot, 
Observing Astronomical Society.—Observations to July 
31.—Solar Phenomena.—Mr. T. W. Backhouse, of Sunderland, 
observed a large spot in the sun’s south hemisphere from the 
12th to the 22nd of July. He obtained the following measures 
of its dimensions :— 
Penumbra. Umbra: 
Date. Length. Length. Breadth. 
Miles. Miles. Miles. 
July 12 9.12 a.m. — 20,000 about 10,000 
July 15 9.15 a.m. 36,000 17,000 -- 
July 18 7.45a.m. 37,000 22,500 14,500 
July 20 7.55a.m. 41,000 27,500 18,000 
July 22 9.15 a.m. — 22,500 7,500 
‘«Tt was comparatively small on July 9. The umbra was one of 
the largest I have ever seen.” 
Comets I. and Z., 1871.—Mr. John Birmingham, of Tuam, 
reports that he ‘‘had several observations of Comet I., from 
April 22 to May 8, but under very unfavourable circumstances, 
caused by the state of the atmosphere and strong twilight and 
moonlight. Still notwithstanding its faintness a nucleus was 
easily detected, and the comet seemed in general to present a 
granulated appearance. On April 22 it was not visible in the 
finder, but bore magnifying up to 126 very well. There was a 
slight elongation in the normal direction of a tail, By the best 
