August 3, 1883.] 



SCIEXCE. 



Uo 



types of the carnivores, and believes that in the hyena, 

 cats, dogs, bears, and weasels, he can trace the form 

 and position of markings possessed by the former. He 

 acknowledges several difficulties, however, in the 

 case of the leopard, jaguar, and other peruliarly spot- 

 ted cats. He believes that the ungulates follow the 

 same law in regard to markings as the carnivores. — 

 (Jahresb. terein valerl. naturk. WUrtt., xxxix. 188.3. 

 56.) F. w. T. 1164 



(Ifan.) 



Functioii of the crico-thyroid muscle. — 



Martcl brings forward some experiments to show 

 that the crico-thyroid, and not the thyro-arytenoid 

 muscle is par excellence the muscle used in the 

 production of different tones in singing and speaking. 

 The most interesting point of the paper, perhaps, is, 

 that he shows, by registering with simple levers the 

 movements of the thyroid and cricoid cartilages re- 

 spectively, that, when the different chest-notes (from 

 do- to do*] are sounded, the thyroid cartilage re- 

 mains immovable, while the cricoid is brought closer 

 and closer to it as the pitch of the note is raised. 

 In the contraction of the crico-thyroid muscle, or, as 

 he prefers to call it, the thyro-cricoid muscle, the 

 thyroid cartilage is therefore to be considered as 

 the fixed point. The action of the thyro-arytenoid 

 muscle, according to him, is preparatory to that of 

 the crico-thyroid, in that it gives the vocal cords their 

 proper position, and acts .as .an .antagonist to the 

 latter muscle. The length and tension of the vocal 

 cords, however, are governed by the crico-thyroid. 

 This view of the function of the crico-thyroid is sup- 

 ported by the results obtained when the muscle, or 

 the nerve going to it, is divided in the dog, and, 

 among men, by the pathological cases in which there 

 is paralysis of this muscle. The general result in 

 such eases is a pronounced hoarseness, and an in- 

 ability to sound any but the lowest tones. — {Arch. 

 dephysioL, 1883, .582.) w. u. II. [165 



Summation of stimuli in the sensory nerves 

 of man. — From numerous experiments made upon 

 himself with electrical stimuli, de Watteville comes 

 to the conclusion that the action of stimuli applied to 

 a sensory nerve increases, within certain limits, with 

 their frequency. Stimuli which are subminimal, as 

 long as they follow at slow intervals, will call forth 

 a sensation when made to follow each other with 

 greater rapidity. This summation takes place more 

 readily when the stimulated nerve is exposed to the 

 action of the kathode; and the author is of the opin- 

 ion that it is local, as in motor nerves, and not cen- 

 tral. The summation may be explained as the after 

 action of electrical stimulation: the induction shocks 

 following with such rapidity that the excitation in 

 each case falls within the period of heightened irrit.a- 

 bility. — {Neurol, centralbl, no. 7, 1883.) w. ii. H. 



[166 

 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Tribute to American scholarship. — An inter- 

 esting tribute to Aniorican srholarsliip is paid in the 

 fact that M. Barbier, on the authority of Mr. Stephens 

 and later writers, was setting up Del Rio's ' images 

 of men in bas-relief in front of the model of the 



Temple of the Sun, as he had done in the Trocadcro. 

 Dr. Hau of the Smithsonian institution drew his 

 attention to Del Rio's description of the Temple of 

 the Cross, as well as to the statements of Dupaix and 

 Galindo; and the bas-reliefs at Washington will stand 

 in their proper place in front of the shrine containing 

 the group of the t'ross. Again, Prof. Cyrus Thomas 

 has discovered that the cast on the left slab of the 

 Tablet of the Cross proves conclusively the correct- 

 ness of the statement previously made in Science, 

 that Waldeck's figure of this slab, as published by 

 the French scientific commission, 1860-60, was cop- 

 ied from Catherwood's drawing. This is proved by 

 the fact that Catherwood's errors, of which M. Char- 

 nay's cast brings to view quite a number, are all 

 faithfully reproduced in Waldeck. — o. T. M. [167 



Prehistoric trepanning. — The object of recall- 

 ing attention to this much described subject is to 

 speak of the novel experiments of L. Capitan. Many 

 years ago Dr. Charles Rau, wishing to know how 

 long it would take a savage to bore a hole through a 

 hard rock with a w^oodeu spindle, using sand and 

 water, actually made the experiment, and has put on 

 record his experience. M. Capitan has proceeded in 

 the same way respecting prehistoric trephining, test- 

 ing the various methods of boring and of removing a 

 rondelle or fragment of bone. The experiments on 

 the skulls of the dead were to study the methods, the 

 difficulties in the way of the operation, and the time 

 required. It is the trephining of the living among 

 savages, and the fatality of the result, that most inter- 

 est the student: therefore M. Capitan continued his 

 researches upon living canine subjects. The first 

 experiment was upon a small spaniel. The skin of 

 the head and temporal muscle were removed, and the 

 trephining was practised upon the antero-superior 

 portion of the right parietal. The operation was not 

 very painful, and in twenty minutes a rondelle of 

 boiie was removed. There was little hemorrhage and 

 the meninges were not wounded. After a few days 

 the spaniel was as lively as ever. Two other dogs were 

 subsequently treated, with like success. Just what 

 the method and amount of cicatrization might be, 

 after such primitive operations, will be known when 

 the autopsy of the subjects takes place in the future. 

 — {Bull, soc.anthrop. Paris, v.iiZr>.) j. w. p. [168 



Catlinite. — The beautiful red stone iiipes in col- 

 lections of Indian culture-objects are made of a stone 

 called catlinite. Mr. E. A. Barber tells us that for 

 many generations the aborigines have procured this 

 material from the Great red pipestone quarry, situ- 

 ated on the dividing-ridge between the MinnesoU 

 and Missouri rivers, at a place called by the French 

 Couteau dcs prairies. Catlin, the celebrated travel- 

 ler, was the first white man permitted by the Indians 

 to visit the place; and therefore Dr. C.'T. Jackson. 

 to whom specimens were sent, named the mineral 

 catlinite. The myths relating to the quarry, as well as 

 surface indications, show th.at the pl.ace has been 

 worked for a very long time. In 1073 Marquette 

 smoked in pe.ace a catlinite pipe with the Indian-> of 

 the upper Mississippi. Father Hennepin ajiplies the 

 term 'calumet' to these ceremonial pipes. There is no 



