lYov. II, i8S6] 



NA TURE 



47 



certain conditions, even some quadrupeds show clear traces of 

 it. In the course of his investigations, Prof. Cunningham has 

 brought many new and interesting facts and phenomena to light. 

 Thus in man and the chimpanzee the quality of this lumbar 

 curve is identical ; the only differences are its e.vlent and its 

 development. And then among the members of the human race 

 this curve does not appear to be equally prominent ; upon some 

 — as the Australian, the Negro, and the Andaman Islander 

 — the curve is by no means so well marked as it is in the Euro- 

 pean. Not that the absolute degree of curvature is less in these 

 races, but whereas in the European the bodies of the vertebrje 

 are iiiore or less moulded in adaptation to the curve, in the lower 

 races there is to be found no trace of this. With this subject 

 the first part of this memoir is taken up, and the adaptation of 

 the vertebral bodies with reference to the lumbar curve is con- 

 sidered in a first section. The method of making the measurements, 

 and the results derived from theoi, are given, and special points 

 in connection with the European and several of the lower races 

 (Australian, Tasmanian, Andaman, Negro, and Bushman) are 

 given. Then follow details of the indices of the hnnbar ver- 

 tebras in the four man-like apes, as well as in nine of the lower 

 a]ies. The statement that this curve is more marked in the 

 female than in the m.ale is strongly supported by the evidence 

 adduced in this memoir, and it would seem that the vertebral 

 tindies of the female are moulded more in adaptation to the 

 curve than those of the male. 



The second section of this part of the memoir treats of the 

 entire lumbar curve as found in man and the apes. The diffi- 

 culties in the way of securing accurate curvatures of the living 

 spine seem to be insuperable. Parow, who worked hard on this 

 subject, has signally failed ; hence the standard of comparison 

 must be sought for in the dead, and the details of how this has 

 been done are given at some length. Racial differences are 

 next discussed, and the development of the spinal curve is 

 treated at great length, with some excellent illustrations. The 

 condition of the lumbar column in the anthropoid apes is next 

 considered. It was, as we have seen, thought that the lumbar 

 curvature did not exist save in man. Goodsir is positive about 

 it. Sir W. Turner at one time was equally so. Sir Richard 

 Owen denies its presence in the gorilla and orang-utan. 

 Huxley was among the first to assert its existence. Broca and 

 Topinard followed. As to the facts to be seen by frozen sec- 

 tions, Cunningham has not succeeded in getting fresh material 

 for the gorilla ; but in the case of the chimpanzee the curve 

 differs but little from that in man. In the orang it is feeble, 

 resembling that in man in some respects, and in others differing 

 from that in the chimpanzee. In a gibbon {Hylobatcs agilis) it 

 stands intermediate between the chimpanzee and orang. In 

 some of the monkeys it is also to be found, and even in some 

 quadrupeds. 



In a second part of his memoir, Prof. Cunningham, taking 

 advantage of the same anatomical method which enabled him to 

 make such interesting discoveries as to the extent of the curves 

 of the vertebral column, viz. by sections through recently 

 frozen bodies, has been able to advance our knowledge of 

 the topographical anatomy of the orang, chimpanzee, and 

 gibbon, very considerably. Certain relations of distinct morpho- 

 logical importance cannot by any other method be with accuracy 

 ascertained. The question of how far the cereljrum in the 

 anthropoid apes projects backwards in relation to the upper 

 surface of the cerebellum, was at one time a burning question, 

 and, although fairly set at rest, cannot be said to have been un- 

 mistakably demonstrated until now ; when the whole of the parts 

 were frozen in their places, sections were made, and we have 

 the results in this memoir amply corroborating previous induc- 

 tions. Sections of the brain in situ in the adult male and 

 newly-born child, in the male and female chimpanzee, female 

 orang, and gibbon, are all figured. Other points in the 

 anatomy of the brain, as the condition of the corpus callosum, 

 and of the hippocampus minor are also alluded to, and a few 

 further details as to other visceral anatomy are given. 



The memoir forms a quarto volume of some 150 pages, the 

 typography of which is extremely creditable. The woodcut 

 illustrations and plates are excellent, and the publication of this 

 treatise as a Cunningham Memoir marks the appreciation of its 

 value by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, as the 

 series of its publication — known as the Cunningham Memoirs, 

 because the expenses thereof are defrayed out of the funds left 

 by a Mr. Cunningham — is reserved only for works which the 

 Council believe contribute some new facts to science. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Bulletin de t' Academic Royalc dc Bcl^ii]uc, August. —Note on 

 the eruptive rocks of the islands of Clarion, Prince Edward, 

 Macdonald, and Heard, by A. F. Renard. These insular 

 groups, which stand on the great submarine plateau in the 

 southern regions of the Indian Ocean, are shown to be entirely 

 volcanic, in no way connected either with the Madagascar group 

 or with the lands of the South Polar seas. Marion and Prince 

 Edward, which were visited and partly explored by Mr. 

 Buchanan, of the Challenger Expedition, consist of old plutonic 

 formations, such as feldspar basalts and much more recent black 

 and other lavas. Heard, discovered in 1S53 by the American 

 captain Heard and also visited by the Challenger, is largely 

 covered with a black volcanic sand formed of grains of mag- 

 netite and augite. Elsewhere occur more recent lava forma- 

 tions, which show no trace of the erosive action exercised by the 

 sands on the older rocks. All the specimens collected here 

 belong mainly to the group of feldspar basalts. — On the presence 

 in Belgium of Bothriocephalus latus, Bremser, by Edouard van 

 Beneden. A few recent instances are recorded of the presence 

 in Belgium of this human parasite, which is common enough in 

 Plolland. — Experimental researches on the influence of mag- 

 netism on the phenomenon of polarisation in dielectrics, by 

 Edmond van Aubel. In this second communication the author 

 gives the result of fresh experiments, showing ho.v, by means of 

 a specially-constructed electro-magnet, the electric field which 

 interfered with previous researches may be completely eliminated, 

 while preserving an intense magnetic field. The electro-magnet 

 here described may also be used in ordinary physical experi- 

 ments, wherever it is necessary to ascertain whether the phe- 

 nomena observed with the Ruhmkorff and other electro-magnets 

 are due to magnetism and not to the electric field or to the heat 

 of the current traversing the bobbins. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, November 2. — M. Jurien de la 

 Graviere, President, in the chair. — Fresh communication on 

 rabies, by M. Louis Pasteur. (For summary of this report, see 

 p. 30). — Note on the unequal flow of gases, by M. Haton de 

 la Goupilliere. Having, in previous papers, given a complete 

 analytical solution of the various problems connected with this 

 subject, the author here determines the true character of his 

 formulas in their relation to experimental applications. — Re- 

 marks on M. Fontaine's report concerning his experiments on 

 the transport of power by electricity, by M. Marcel Deprez. It 

 is pointed out that M. Fontaine's method, which replaces the 

 gener.ator and receiver by a series of machines coupled together 

 in sufficient number to produce the desired effect, s o far from 

 being based on any new principle, is the same as that proposed by 

 all electricians who have sought to obtain high tensions without 

 having recourse to the construction of the special machines first 

 suggested by the author. The means employed by M. Fontaine 

 to control simultaneously the four series of generators is also 

 stated greatly to resemble that described in a patent taken out 

 on April 2S, 1885, by M. Deprez. — Experimental researches 

 connected with the cerebral functions, by M. Brown- Sequard. 

 These researches have been undertaken in order to show how 

 varied and numerous are the purely dynamic effects proceeding 

 from influences exercised on the encephalon by the sensitive 

 nerves, and on the motor nerves by the nervous centres. Ex- 

 periments carried on for seven or eight years lead to the general 

 conclusion that all the motor nerves, and nearly all the excitable 

 parts of the nervous centres, may have their excitability greatly 

 modified, even under the influence of remote and slight irrita- 

 tions of the greater part of the nervous system.— On the atomic 

 weight of the oxide of gadolinium, by M. A. E. Nordenskjold. 

 This compound is not a simple oxide, but consists of the three 

 closely-related oxides of yttrium, erbium, and ytterbium, all 

 with very different atomic weights. Nevertheless, even when 

 derived from quite different minerals occurring in localities far 

 removed from each other, it is here shown to possess a constant 

 atomic weight. On the other hand, this substance is not a 

 true chemical combination, but an isomorphous mixture, 

 thus presenting a new phenomenon in chemistry and min- 

 eralogy. It is the only known instance of three isomorph- 

 ous substances of the class which must still be regarded as 



