136 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 10, i< 



and Poitiers are represented on the Committee. Subscriptions 

 may be sent, before December 16, to M. J. Joyeux-Lafifuie, of 

 the Faculty of Sciences, Besan9on, or, in this country, to Prof. 

 Geddes, Sia, Princes Street, Edinburgh. 



The new balloon constructed by the Meudon aeronauts, 

 will be directed by a steam-engine, as advocated by M. Henry 

 Giflfard. Electricity will be quite given up, owing to its 

 want of power for continuous action. From the reports to be 

 published in the next number of the Comptes rendus, it appears 

 that a velocity of six metres per second was obtained. 



The Tokio Correspondent of the Times describes a strange 

 linguistic revolution which is coming over Japan. Hitherto the 

 Japanese language has been written by Chinese ideographs, or 

 pictorial symbols, of which many thousands had to be learned 

 by every youth. There were also two syllabaries or alphabets 

 which were used by the common people, but no one could enter 

 on the path of knowledge "without first acquiring a knowledge of 

 the Chinese characters, "a task which not only needed a very 

 hea\7 expenditure of time, but was also calculated to stimulate 

 the memory in an abnormal degree at the cost of other not less 

 important mental faculties." Moreover, with the new science 

 from the west before them, Japanese youth " could hardly afford 

 to spend years and warp their brains in learning the single 

 accomplishment of writing thoroughly their own tongue." A 

 movement, which appears to be as national as such a movement 

 could be, has now been set on foot to discard all existing methods 

 of writing Japanese in favour of Roman letters. A society called 

 the Roman Alphabet Association has been founded for the pur- 

 pose of disseminating knowledge on this subject and of providing 

 a uniform method of transliteration. It now consists of nearly 

 6000 of the leading men in the governing, educated, and literary 

 classes. Stupendous as this change may seem to us, there is 

 really no reason why it should not successfully be carried out. 

 It meets in Japan a crying evil, which stunts the mental growth 

 of its youth, places a barrier between them and the science and 

 discoveries of the age, and which haunts and embarrasses them 

 in their subsequent studies unless they acquire a foreign language 

 at once in order to get rid of this incubus. Besides, the Japanese 

 language is now written in borrowed symbols ; Chinese charac- 

 ters are as alien to it as Roman letters ; but the former have 

 been in use a thousand years, and if the Japanese can now suc- 

 ceed in getting rid of them they will have accomplished a revolu- 

 tion more marvellous and not less beneficent than any they have 

 passed through in the last seventeen years. 



We have received from Mr. Twining a pamphlet, of which 

 he is the author, on " Science for the Middle and Upper 

 Classes," which is intended for the consideration of those in- 

 terested in educational progress (London : J. J. Griffin and 

 Sons, 22, Garrick Street). He first deals with the chief pur- 

 poses of scientific instruction, which he classes under the heads 

 "bionomic" ("bionomy" being his convenient expression for 

 the science of daily life) " intellectual," " technical," and "pro- 

 fessorial." He then draws up and discusses a scheme of scien- 

 tific teaching extending over the whole school period of a boy. 

 There are, in addition, numerous observations on the teaching 

 f various branches of science. Mr. Twining's pamphlet is 

 herefore essentially for the teacher, and, as he has evidently 

 devoted great attention to the subject, and is himself engaged 

 in the practical work of education, his pamphlet should prove 

 useful and suggestive. 



In the Rmue Scicntifique M. de Lacaze-Duthiers describes a 

 curious phenomenon which he has observed in a parrot belong- 

 ing to him. The bird is very intelligent, having an excellent 

 memory for his friends and his enemies ; of this trait and other 

 marks of intelligence the writer gives several instances. The 



point of the article, however, is this : — The parrot has manifested 

 an extraordinary affection for a little boy named Raymond, but 

 usually called by the Southern diminutive, "Momon." The 

 child called M. Duthiers's attention one day to the fact that, 

 whenever he played with the bird, the eyes of the latter became 

 quite red. When the boy went away, the parrot would call out 

 his name perpetually ; when he returned, it would walk to and 

 fro on its perch, exhibiting every mark of extreme pleasure ; and 

 the eyes invariably grew red. At these times it would allow no 

 one else, however friendly, to approach the cage ; it would not 

 eat its most favourite food. When the boy hid himself for a 

 moment, the eyes became yellow, but suddenly reddened again 

 when he reappeared. This phenomenon was observed only 

 with this particular child, and with no one else. When the boy 

 went to school, or when the bird was brought to Paris from the 

 country, it ceased completely. An examination of the bird's 

 eye showed that the pupil is large, and usually dilated. The 

 iris is only represented by a circular yellow band, bordered ex- 

 ternally by a bright red strip. The pupils of parrots are known 

 to be very mobile. When the bird manifests joy, it contracts 

 the iris voluntarily, the yellow disappears, and the red strip 

 occupies its place, spreading itself out all over the surface of the 

 back of the anterior chamber of the eye, giving the striking red 

 tint observed first by the child. Here, then, is a bird, intelli- 

 gent, and full of affection for a particular person, manifesting its 

 joy by the contraction of its pupils, and^thus voluntarily modify- 

 ing the colour of its eyes. When violently angry, some streaks 

 of red dart across the eye, but they never remain as in the other 

 case. It is curious, concludes M. Duthiers, to see a phenomenon, 

 regarded as independent of the will in the superior animals, thus 

 found in association with feelings and acts which determine joy 

 or anger, and which is apparently as voluntary as the movements 

 of the feathers and all other essentially voluntary acts. 



Herr Stejneger continues to supply Naturen with inter- 

 esting reports of his 'recent boating expeditions in Behring's Sea. 

 In the latest of these we find much valuable information in regard 

 to important changes to which the fauna of these regions is being 

 subjected through the reckless destruction of some animals, and 

 the rapid spread of others by the introduction, through the 

 agency of man, of previously unknown species. Thus, while 

 there were upwards of 5000 sea-otters {Latax lutris) killed on 

 the Prybilof Islands in the first year of their occupation, after 

 six years not one of these animals was to be found on the spot, 

 nor have they ever reappeared there during the century that has 

 elapsed since then. At Mednij, on the other hand, where otter- 

 hunting is conducted with moderation and under legal restric- 

 tions, there is no marked diminution in the numbers of these 

 animals, and there is at present every prospect that the supply 

 of skins will continue to yield a fair source of wealth to the 

 inhabitants. The killing of foxes is similarly controlled in 

 some districts, where the natives refuse to allow Master Reynard 

 to be hunted, excepting in the last three months of every second 

 year, during which time no one is allowed to fire a gun, or drive 

 with dogs along the coast, lest the sound of the shots and the 

 barking should interfere with the success of the licensed fox- 

 hunters, who on these ^occasions occupy the earth huts specially 

 set apart for their use in the'several districts. 



Owing to the moderation shown in its pursuit, the Behring 

 Straits fox, known as the blue fox, from the colour of its skin in 

 winter, seems for the present to be in no danger of dying out, 

 several of these animals being generally visible on the strand of 

 every little bay, where they arrest attention by their loud, howl- 

 ing bark, which is often continued hour after hour through the 

 night. Till recently they might have been regarded as the only 

 terrestrial quadrupeds on Behring's Island ; but in the present 

 day the brown field-mouse (Arvicola rutila), which was un- 

 known eleven years ago, has made good its footing on the 



