Sept. 26, 1872] 



NATURE 



435 



Mork, I wrote as follows in NATURE for February 17, 1S70 : — 

 " . hi'i/oQ' is certainly far more appropriate to express what is 

 niiTely a parallelism, and not a necessary or complementary re- 

 Li'.i'inship between light and sound." In the subsequent letter on 

 ll i- suliject you adopted the word "analogy;" pardon, tliere- 

 f. I'— , my po'mting out an obviously accidental "reversion to the 

 ] riinitive type " which appeared in your paper Sept. 12. 

 Sept. 16 W. F. Barrett 



The Fringes on the Lighter Side of the Rainbow 

 At the place referred to by Mr. Thompson in Nature {No. 

 150, p. 393) I mer^y followed Sir John Herschel ; expressing my- 

 se'f, it is true, not very accurately, in my anxiety to save space 

 in Nature at the end of a letter a'ready too long. If Mr. 

 Thomp'on refers to Sir John's " Mete^rology," sections 219 to 

 224 and still thinks the point requires fiUler elucidation, he may 

 possibly supply the deficiency by devising an experiment to prove 

 tint the width of the fringes does not vary inversely as the 

 di.'.meter of the drops. 



In answer to Mr. Thompson's concluding question, perhaps 

 so lebody else will furnish the latest intelligence. I do not 

 know what has happened in tlie last five years, and I do not 

 ki-..ow whit you call violet ; but I believe that in 1867 the ex- 

 treme rate of vibration for visible rays was about Soi million 

 millions a second. C. J. Mo.nro 



A Curious Phenoinenon 



A VERY curious phenomenon was witnessed here on We^nes- 

 d-y afternoon last, September 4, about three o'clock, in a westerly 

 direction. A somewhat heavy thunderstorm, originating to- 

 wards the south, hid divided its fury before reaching this imme- 

 dlue neighbourhood, one branch passing N.E. towards the 

 I'ennine Hills, the other ta'dng the N.W. course, that to 

 the N.E., however, being more violent. As the storm was 

 pa- sing, a stream — apparently o' water, and fully six inches 

 in breadth — shot with consider.able speed from the vicinity 

 of a dark, fiery cumu'us across a rain cloud of a veiy deep 

 blue, murky tinge. Its passage, as witnessed by my boy 

 from its commencement, w'as similar to that of a rocket, at firs 

 assuming a quivering motion, then darting suddenly for^'ard, for 

 some distance horizontally, afterwar Is obliquely. Its apparent 

 length wouM be fully twenty yards, being of a very light slate 

 colour. After 1 saw it the plienomenon remained about two 

 minutes ; but its total duration woul i be not less than five, 

 vanishing gradually during its whole length. 



Whatever the phenomenon itself — or its cause, its upward 

 course was certainly veiy strilcing. and to me unprecedented — 

 tlie impression on some people's min.ls being that it was water 

 drawn up from Lake Ullswater into tlie clouds by the lightning ! ! 

 A terrific storm of thunder and lightning occurred on the pre- 

 vious evening at 9 p.m., when several fatal accidents were re- 

 ported. T. F. 



Blencowe School, Cumberland, Sept. 7 



APPEAL FJR SKELETONS OF WILD SPECI- 

 MENS OF THE LARGER CARNIVORA FOR 

 OUR MUSEUMS 



"VT EITHER in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 -'■^ Surgeons nor in that of tiie University of Oxford 

 is there a skele'.on of a wild lioi or a wild tiger, and it is 

 probable that tbere is no such ske'eton existing in Eng- 

 land. The preparations in our Museums, illustrating 

 the anatomy of the la'ger carn'.vora, are almost without 

 exception derived from menagerie specimens. 



Lions breed well in confinement and hence an ordinary 

 menagerie specimen may not only itself have been during 

 its whole life confined in a c ige, but its ancestors may 

 have suffered a like fate. At all events it has been 

 trapped whilst still young, ani reared in confinement, as 

 is usually the case with the menagerie tiger. Now an 

 animal confined in a narrow space from its youth up.vards 

 never has free pUy for its muccles, and as its food is pro- 

 vided for it, is never called upon to exert them in a violent 

 rnanner. The result is that the bonv framework on which 



the muscles act never attains in such specimens its full 

 development, and the ridges and inequalities on the bones 

 corresponding to the origin and insertion of the muscles 

 are not well marked. Moreover, menagerie animals, as 

 is well known, very frequently suffer from diseases of the 

 bones, and the marks of these diseases may be seen on 

 many of the skeletons in every anatomical museum. 

 Now, it is of great importance to possess perfect skeletons 

 of adult wild large carnivora, both for general study, and 

 more especially for comparison with the remains of 

 similar carnivora which are to be found in the more 

 modern geological deposits in Great Britain. Consider- 

 ing the number of tigers and lions which are annually 

 killed by English sportsmen, it is surprising that this de- 

 sideratum has not yet been supplied. The reason probably 

 is that sportsmen generally do not know that it exists, or 

 do not understand how a skeleton should be prepared. 

 The sportsman is usually content with preserving the skin 

 of his tiger or lion ; but no doubt there are many who 

 would gladly aid the cause of science by preserving the 

 skeleton as well, if they knew how much the result of 

 their labours would be v.alued at home. I propose here 

 to give a few simple directions for the rough preparation 

 of skeletons for transmission to England, merely prenising 

 that I trust that if any sportsman may be induced by 

 reading these notes to send hone a skeleton, that he will 

 send it to the Oxford Museum, in which I am especially 

 interested, and I hope some old University man may help 

 us in this matter. Any packages should be addressed to 

 Prof. Rolleston, Museum, Oxford. Skeletons of other 

 wild animals are, of course, of great value, and will be 

 most gladly received ; they also are too frequently o.ily to 

 be got from menageries. 



Direction! for PrcpariiKz Skeletons. — The skin havin^ 

 been removed from the anim.al, the abdomen should be 

 slit cpen, and all the viscera extracted. The limbs 

 should then be s-vered fro.n the body, the scapula or 

 blade bone being left att.iched to the fore limb, the hind 

 limb being removed at] the thigh joints, and care beino- 

 taken that the articular surfaces are not injured in the 

 process. The flesh should now be removed roughly from 

 each of the limbs with knives ; the several bones which go 

 to form each limb should if possible be allowed to remain 

 attached to one another. On no account should the 

 small bones of the hind or foie foot be separated from 

 their attachments. Mr. Flow, r, indeed, advises that the 

 skin be not removed from the feet at all. The limbs 

 being thus roughly cleaned, they should be placed in water 

 for sever d hours to allow the blood to soak out, and they 

 should then be placed in the sun till dry. The head 

 should be disjointed from the neck, and the flesh cut off 

 it. It is most convenient to commence with the strong 

 muscles of the jaw. After these have been cut through, 

 the ligaments which hold the lower jaw in place may°be 

 divided, and it may be separated from the skull. The 

 tongue may no'.v be removed, and search must be made 

 in its base for several small bones constituting the hyoid 

 apparatus, which should be carefully taken out, and tied 

 at once to the lower jaw for fear of loss. A considerable 

 quantity of the braiu may be removed by means of a 

 spoon-shaped slick through the aperture at the back cf 

 the sku'l where it joins the neck. The rest may be re- 

 moved by means of large shot put in at the hole, and 

 shaken up with water. The neck may be cut off close to 

 the trunk, and the tail close to the rump, and the flesh re- 

 moved with the knife. The chest cavity should be left 

 entire, the flesh being removed as well as circumstances 

 will permit. The whole of the pieces should be treated 

 with water, and then dried, a; in the case of the limbs. 

 The skull, limbs, tail, and neck may be conveniently 

 placed inside the chest cauiy for packing, and if it be 

 necessary to get the skeleton iato a short packing case 

 the back bone may be divided behind the chest cavity, 

 and the hinder vertebra; and hip bones laid along side cf 



