NATURE 



\7an. 28, 1875 



Dr. Beale, as is well known, still holds to the opinion that the 

 nerve-force is electricity, and that the nerves have not only the 

 power of conducting electricity but of evolving it as a vital act 

 on stimulation from the little masses of protoplasm, bioplasm, or 

 living matter with which the nerve-cords are studded. Although 

 there are many olijections to this theory, still the badly-conduct- 

 ing power of the nerves for electricity does not appear an 

 insuperable one when we think of the nerve-force merely as a 

 stimulus, for the quantity of a stimulus necessary to rouse up 

 vital action bears an infinitesimally small proportion to the result. 

 But when the same force is assumed to be the efficient cause of 

 muscular contraction, the question assumes a very different aspect. 

 In Dr. Belle's theory the muscular fibre proper is held not to con- 

 tain protoplasm, and to be incapable of living action or of evolving 

 force, the contraction being produced by inductive electric action 

 on the sarcous particles, which causes them to change their posi- 

 tion and thus approximate the ends of the muscular fibre. The 

 source of the electricity is said to be the protoplasm masses con- 

 tained in the muscles, in continuous contact with the motor 

 nerves, and it is conveyed to the muscular fibres by loops of fine 

 nerve-fibres crossing them in various directions. In this theory, 

 even supposing insulation to be complete, it is obvious that the 

 conducting power of the nerve-fibre becomes of supreme import- 

 ance, because not the stimulus only, but the whole force of mus- 

 cular motion, must be conveyed by it. Now, the nerve-cords do 

 conduct electricity certainly, but so many million times worse 

 than metallic wires, that the loss of energy by transformation into 

 heat must be enormous. Such a loss is inconsistent with the 

 economy of nature and with the actual (acts ; therefore, unless 

 the nerve-force is a specific force different from surface-electricity, 

 galvanism, and magnetism, though analogous to them, and 

 probably easily convertible into electricity, Dr. Scale's theory 

 cannot be upheld. I have not yet seen any reply by Dr. Bealc 

 to this objection. John Drvsdale 



Liverpool 



Kirkes' Physiology 



In a letter headed "Kirkes' Physiology," in NATURE of last 

 week, signed " W. Percy Ashe," your correspondent would not 

 appear to be practically acquainted with the semi-lunar valves at 

 the base of the great vessels emerging from the heart, for his 

 arguments, although perfectly correct in themselves, and based 

 on well-known physical laws, do not, 1 submit, apply in the in- 

 stance he quotes, for the simple reason that the conditions neces- 

 sary for their application do not e.\ist. 



Let us consider briefly the shape of I he sinuses of Valsalva during 

 the diastole of the ventricles of the heart. For our purpose Vfe 

 shall be sufficiently correct in describing them as three inverted, 

 empty, and slightly truncated pyramids ; one surface, the outer 

 one, of each, fs formed by the arterial coat, whilst the otl er tivo 

 sariaces, constituting the semi-lunar valve, are in apposition with 

 the corresponding surfaces of the other two valves. Now, the 

 pressure over the whole surface of the sinus may be divided 

 into four pressures, one sustained by each of the three sides, and 

 one by the bottom. 



The three sides sustain an equal pressure, but the two mner 

 ones constituting the valve are by far the weakest, and the 

 pressure on each of these is really supported by an equal 

 pressure on the corresponding surfaces of the other two valves, 

 and consequently maybe considered as «//,• whilst the pressure 

 on the third side is resisted by its own strength, and it is formed, 

 as I have said, by the wall of the artery, which is particularly 

 strong at this point. 



The remaining pressure is sustained by the bottom or trun- 

 cated apex of the pyramidal pouch. This pressure is greater 

 in proportion to its extent of surface than the other pressures— 

 the column of fluid being higher— and this surface directly 

 rests on and is /,7;-//a//)/i7/;/vi/</«/ in the structure of the ventricle, 

 which must thus undoubtedly support it. 



Therefore the idea that "the reflux is most efficiently sustained 

 by the muscular substance of the ventricle," which is the main part 

 of Mr. Savory's theory, is most directly confirmed by the actual 

 construction of the valves, and which your correspondent may 

 see for himself by making a vertical section through the aortic 

 valves in a sheep's heart. 



As at the time of the greatest pressure on the valves the 



ventricles are dilating, it follows that they cannot reduce the 



area of the valves at that time, as your correspondent in his last 



remarks would seem to imagine, nor in fact can they ever do so. 



4, GranvUle Place, Blackheath E. Prideau.x 



The Rhinoceros in New Guinea 



Lieut. Sidney Smith, late of II. M.S. Basilisk, reports that 

 while engaged in surveying on the north coast of Papua, between 

 Iluon Bay and Cape BasiUsk, being on shore with a party 

 cutting firewood, he observed in the forest the "droppings" 

 (excrement) of a rhinoceros in more than one place, the bushes 

 in the neighbourhood being also broken and trampled as if by a 

 large animal. The presence of so large an animal belonging to 

 the Asiatic fauna in Papua is an important fact. 



Skins of a very fine species of Bird of Paradise, having plumes 

 of a brilliant red in place of the yellow plumes of the common 

 species (/'. apoda), were obtained from the natives further to the 

 eastward. Alfred O. Walker 



Chester, Jan. 21 



[We should be inclined to doubt very seriously the occurrence 

 of any rhinoceros in New Guinea. At any rate, the important 

 fact, as our correspondent terms it, cannot be considered as 

 established. 



The red-plumed Paradise Bird of the south of New Guinea 

 has been named by Mr. Sclater, ParaJtsea raf;giaiia (P. Z. S,, 

 1873, p. 559), from skins sent home by Mr. D'Albertis. — Ed.] 



. Si 



Thomson's "Malacca" 



In your review (Nature, vol. xi. p. 207) of Mr. J. Thom- 

 son's very interesting work on the "Straits of Malacca, Indo- 

 China, and China," you have justly acknowledged that the 

 author "makes no pretension to have travelled in the interests 

 of science, but only to be a photographer and pn observer 

 of the ways of men ;" and as his excellent book will no doubt 

 have a wide circulation, it may perhaps not be an unthankful 

 office to correct two statements with reference to the natural 

 history of Penang, which I had some opportunity of studying 

 during a sojourn there of some eighteen months. 



Our author, describing the noise made by the insects on 

 Penang Hill, says : " One beetle in particular, known to the 

 natives as the ' trumpeter,' busies himself all day long in pro- 

 ducing a booming noise with his wings." Mad Mr. Thomson 

 succeeded in observing one of these insects whilst " booming," 

 which he states he was unable to do, I think he would have 

 found the musician to have been no beetle at all, but one of the 

 Cicadidn.', and the sound not produced by the wings, but, as is 

 generally known, internally, by the vibration of a membrane set 

 into action by a special muscle. These insects are abundant at 

 Penang, one species, Dundubia iinperatoria, being particularly 

 large, and which, with several other species, were taken by 

 myself when there. It is nothing unusual for these insects to be 

 wrongly described by natives, as we are told by Mr. Gervase F. 

 Mathew, R.N. (in the Entoinologis( s ]\[onthiy Magazine), that 

 in Tobago Cicada gigas makes a noise like the whistle of a loco- 

 motive ; and he was told by the natives that the sound was that 

 of the "tree-locust." At Surinam it is said Cicada tiliiccii is 

 called the " harper," on account of its giving forth a sound like 

 that of a harp. 



Mr. Thomson also tells us (p. 35), when describing planter 

 life in Province Wellesley, that the planters, when driving home 

 at night from one estate to another, have the possibility of an 

 encounter with an orang-outan, a rhinoceros, or a tiger. The 

 orang, however, is not lound there at all, and I know of no 

 instance of an attack by a rhinoceros. In fact, that animal is 

 so scarce that during my whole stay there the only report of one 

 which I heard was that the animal's dung had been seen in the 

 jungle. Tigers are still anything but scarce, but during my 

 many nightly rides whilst living on the sugar plantations I am 

 happy to say 1 never heard or saw one, nor was our roll-call 

 ever diminished by that animal. The tiger there is a midnight 

 prowler, but confines himself more to pigs, goats, and dogs, 

 'i'he wild animals are gradually being beaten back by the culti- 

 vation of the land, and the same may be said of even the insects. 

 No doubt they abound in the centre of the peninsula, and there 

 also, no doubt, may be found the Negrito stock, of which our 

 author has given us a good photograph as found at Johore. 



The illustrations of this very interesting book are excellent, 

 and photography seems to be doing for anthropology what 

 spectrum analysis is still achieving for astronomy. 



Streatham Cottage, West Dulvvich W. L. Distant 



Bees and Flowers 

 My children noticed with much interest, last, autumn, the 

 curious manner that the bees attacked the flowers of the Antir- 



