34« 



NA TURE 



[Fed. II, 1886 



December, and the least 4-97 inches. On December 12 there 

 fell 5-34 inches, and on the following day 3-52 inches, or 8 86 

 inches on these two days. 



Amongst the objects which will be exhibited in the Ceylon 

 Section of the forthcoming Indian and Colonial Exhibition will 

 be a large ethnological collection from the Maldive Islands. 



The discovery of a portion of the vertebral column of a 

 specimen of Mosasaurus gracilis, Ow., is announced to have 

 been made in the hard white limestone or chalk of Whitewell. 

 near Belfast. 



Dk. ARcmB.-iLD Ge;kie, Director-General of the Geological 

 Survey, has now completed his "Class-Book of Geology," 

 and the work will be published during next week by Messrs. 

 Macmillan and Co. This volume completes the series of edu- 

 cational works on physical geography and geology projected by 

 Dr. Geikie. 



It is interesting to note that the trout and salmon reared in 

 February last year by the National Fish Culture Association 

 have achieved the growth of 6h inches, which is remarkable 

 considering they have been subjected to an artificial existence. 

 The whitefish hatched in 1885 have reached the size of 5 inches. 



The iris of the eye of Italians is most commonly chestnut ; 

 according to M. Mantegazza, the proportion of such is 64 per 

 cent., the black eyes number 22 per cent., the blue u, and the 

 gray 3. Piedmont and Lombardy have the largest proportion 

 of gray eyes ; Venetia, of blue. In general the chestnut colour 

 of hair amounts to 71 per cent. ; then comes the black hair, 26 

 per cent. ; then the blond, 3 per cent, (though in Venetia it is S). 1 

 Black hair is rare in Venetia. More than three-fourths of the 

 Italians have abundant hair. Southern Italy excels Northern in 

 this respect ; in Tuscany the poor heads of hair preponderate 

 (58 against 42 per cent.). As to beards, the colour does not 

 always coincide with that of the locks. While chestnut prepon- 

 derates, this preponderance is less marked ; and one sometimes 

 finds chestnut locks with blonde, and more often brown, beards. 

 Bushy beards with abundant locks are most common in the 

 South of Italy. In two-thirds of Italy, the natives wear the 

 beard short or are clean shaven. This practice dominates 

 especially in Tuscany (82 per cent.) ; the Sardinians have most 

 long beards {50 per cent.). Red hair in Italy has been a subject 

 of discussion among anthropologists ; some think red-haired 

 persons are remnants of a race almost extinct, and which ex- 

 tended to the banks of the Rhine and into England ; others 

 think red hair a mere physiological accident, from which no 

 conclusion can be drawn. In Italy throughout one finds a few 

 cases of red hair. In one commune, Sant' Agata di Puglia, red 

 hair is predominant. No explanation has been given of the fact. 

 Baldness is most common in Tuscany. In Italy generally, of 

 10,000 young men examined for military service 20 were rejected 

 for premature baldness, and 52 for diseases of the scalp. 



Mr. Charles T. Newton, C.B., will on Tuesday next 

 (February 16) give the first of three lectures at the Royal 

 Institution on "The Unexhibited Portion of the Greek and 

 Roman Sculptures in the British Museum " (illustrated by 

 drawings and casts). 



It has been recently pointed out that the number of births in 

 France per 10,000 inhabitants has diminished more than one- 

 third in a century. It was 3S0 in 1771-80, 2S9 in 1831-40, and 

 only 241 in 1871-80. 



Several Continental geologists have been lately engaged in 

 tracing the marks of the Ice Age on the Northern Alpine slopes. 

 According to Dr. Briickner (in Naliirforscher), the decrease of 

 size in the diluvial ice-streams from west to east, corresponding 

 to a decrease in the glaciers of the present, and due, no doubt, 

 to the lowering of the region eastwards, is a noteworthy feature. 



Then it is becoming even more clear that tliere were at least two 

 ice-periods, separated by a long interglacial period. The 

 number of geological profiles containing two moraines (an older 

 and a younger) deposited by glaciers, and separated by a layer 

 which cannot have arisen under the ice, is considerable ; in the 

 region indicated nineteen such are known. The separating layer 

 is in some cases loam (from weathering) ; in others it contains 

 diluvial coal ; in others it is formed of river deposits, &c. The 

 position of these profiles shows that the ice- masses must have 

 shrunk to the highest parts of the range after the first ice-period. 

 The climate of that interval was probably much like the present ; 

 this is inferred from examination of the interglacial coal of Inns- 

 bruck, &c. The second glaciation was not so extensive as the 

 first ; for to the north of the moraines of the later glaciers appears 

 a projecting strip, of more or less breadth, of the older moraines. 

 This outer zone of moraine has also some special features in 

 composition. In the interglacial period the rivers cut valleys 

 in the masses deposited by the older glacier-streams ; and these 

 were filled again when the later glaciers came. Between the 

 Rhine and the Traun there is evidence of a still earlier period of 

 glaciation. Again, the coincidence of limits of the lake-region 

 in the northern border of the Alps with those of the diluvial 

 glaciers is significant. While some geologists attribute these 

 lake-basins to erosion by glaciers, others think they were pre- 

 glacial, and only prevented by the glaciers which occupied them 

 in the Ice Age from being filled with earthy matter, &c. Dr. 

 Bruckner notes the fact that most of the geologists who have 

 studied the features of the Bavarian lakes, take the former view, 

 while those who have studied the Swiss lakes (where the rela- 

 tions are more complicated) take the latter. 



The London Stereoscopic Company's second annual Inter- 

 national Amateur Photographic Exhibition, 1886, will be held at 

 the Art Galleries, 103, New Bond Street, W. , from April 15 to 

 May 24. 



There were (according to Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz) 19 deaths 

 from hydrophobia in Paris last year — a number higher than in 

 previous years ; and yet the number of stray dogs destroyed 

 was also higher (viz. 5060). Of these 19 persons, 15 were males 

 and 4 females. The youngest was a httle girl of 5 J years ; the 

 oldest, a man of 63. The time of incubation varied from 19 

 months (in the case of a young man of 26) to 29 days (a child of 

 n). In only one case was the time of the bite unknown. Ex- 

 cluding that, and the exceptional case of 19 months, an average 

 of about 2 months is arrived at for the time of incubation. As 

 to duration of the disease, the extreme limits were i day and 8 

 days ; average 3^ days. In no case were the lower limbs bitten. 

 In 12 cases out of iS, the upper members were bitten, especially 

 the hand (9 times out of 12), the wrist twice; in the 6 other 

 cases it was the face (5 times) and the skull (once) that were 

 attacked. Lastly, in 17 cases of the 18, the bite was that of a 

 dog ; in the remaining case, it was that of a cat. It will be 

 noted that these statistics relate only to Ji-atlis from hydro- 

 phobia. 



Fermentation can be utilised (as was shown by Roberts in 

 1861) for quantitative determination of sugar in urine. The 

 method has been recently developed by Ilerr Einhorn ( VirckoTus 

 Archiv), and he claims that the test will indicate one-tenth per 

 cent., or even, if the fermenting liquid be previously boiled ten 

 minutes, one-twentieth per cent, of sugar (the common reduc- 

 tion and polarisation-tests are exact to about 3 per cent. ). Herr 

 Einhorn uses three tubes of special shape : one with normal 

 urine having no sugar, .another with the urine to be examined, 

 and the third with urine having sugar added to it. The urine, 

 whether containing sugar, or normal, is boiled and diluted with 

 boiled water to the amount of the original volume. Compressed 

 yeast is added to the liquid in the proportion 10 per cent. Acetic 

 acid is of no use for the fermentation, and may be prejudicial. 



