448 



8C1ENCE. 



[Vol. IL, No. 34 



Illinois birds. — Nelirling continues his annotated 

 list of Illinois birds in the full and learned manner 

 so distinctive of German work. The present instal- 

 ment contains thirty-nine species, from the bobolink 

 to the great horned owl inclusive. — (Journ.f. ornith., 

 xxxi. 84.) J. A. J. [282 



The OS intermedium of the foot. — Dr. Karl Bar- 

 deleben gives a resuine of his observations upon the 

 bones of the foot. A well-developed intermedium is 

 present in many species of marsupials, but not in all. 

 Its presence in a given species does not always imply 

 its existence in closely allied species. For example: 

 it occurs in Chironectes variegatus, but not in C. 

 palmatus. The bone varies in size from one centi- 

 metre to a fraction of a millimeti-e. It does not ex- 

 ist in marsupials of which the hand has undergone 

 regressive alterations, e.g., Halmaturus Bennetti, 

 H. giganteus, etc. The separation of an intermedi- 

 um is indicated in the monotremes, many edentates, 

 as well as in the genera Elephas, Hippopotamus, and 

 Tapirus, by a fissure, more or less deep, in the as- 

 tragalus. Dr. Bardeleben suggests the name 'os 

 trigonum ' for the bone in question. — {Zovl. anz., no. 

 139.) F. w. T. [283 



Odontoblasts and dentine. — E. E. Andrews 

 has studied the development of teeth in pig embryos, 

 and publishes the remarkable conclusion that the 

 odontoblasts entirely disappear, forming the matrix 

 of the dentine, and have nothing to do with the den- 

 tinal fibrils, wliich he claims arise from deeper lay- 

 ers, probably from nerve-fibres. ( We are not prepared 

 to agree with these views.) — (iV". E. journal of den- 

 tistry, ii. 193.) c. s. M. [284 



{Man.) 

 Measurements of the depth of sleep. — Two of 



Vierordt's pupils, Monninghoff and Piesbergen, have 

 made the depth of sleep the subject of an investiga- 

 tion. They worked upon the principle that the 

 depth of sleep is proportional to the strength of the 

 sensory stimulus necessary, to awaken the sleeper, 

 that is, to call forth some decisive sign of awakened 

 consciousness. As a sensory stimulus they made 

 use of the auditory sensation produced by dropping 

 a lead ball from a given height. The strength of the 

 stimulus was reckoned, in accordance with some re- 

 cent investigations of Vierordt, as increasing, not 

 directly as the height, but as the 0.59 power of the 

 height. For a perfectly healthy man, the curve 

 which they give shows that for the first hour the 

 slumber is very light; after 1 hour and 1.5 minutes, 

 the depth of sleep increases rapidly, and reaches its 

 maximum point at 1 hour and 45 mimites ; the curve 

 then falls quickly to about 2 hours 15 minutes, and 

 afterwards more gradually. At about 4 hours 30 

 minutes, there is a second small rise which reaches 

 its maximum at 5 hours 30 minutes, after which the 

 curve again gradually apisroaches the base line until 

 the time of awakening. Experiments made upon 

 persons not perfectly healthy, or after having made 

 some exertion, gave curves of a different form. — 

 (Zeitsch.f. bioL, xix. 114.) w. H. H. [285 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Notes on Mitla. — In July, ISSl, Mr. Louis H. 

 Aymg visited the ruins of Mitla, which lie in Oaxaca 

 directly south of Vera Cruz. Mitla is not so grand, 

 so magnificent, as Uxmal ; but it has a beauty of its 

 own, as it nestles quietly at the foot of the mighty 

 mountains, tlie ruins of grim ' Fortin ' standing sharp 

 against the evening sky; and, as the sun sinks, one 

 might fancy he heard the weird chant of the priests, 

 the lament of the mourners for the dead who rest in 

 Lyobaa, the Centre of Eest. Appended to M. Ayme's 

 itinerary is a translation by Mr. S. Salisbury, jun., of 

 the description of Mitla, by Francisco de Burgoa, 

 written in 1674. Then follows a report" of the various 

 buildings constituting the north and south groups, 

 which for detailed statement and brevity is a model 

 archeological document. Mr. Ayme is able to correct 

 some of the errors of his predecessors. It is gratify- 

 ing to quote the following: " The buildings are care- 

 fully looked after by the government, and have an 

 intelligent guardian in the person of Don Felix 

 Juero." Comparing the present account with Bur- 

 goa's, Mr. Aym^ concludes that in 1644 the ruins 

 were practically as they are to-day. — {Proc. Amer. 

 antiq. sac, ii. S2. ) j. w. p. [286 



The Olmecas and the Tultecas. — Mr. Philipp J. 

 J. Valentini gives some very cogent reasons for think- 

 ing that the sanguine hopes of the decipherers of Amer- 

 ican hieroglyphics will never meet the realization of 

 those who unravelled the sacred languages of Egypt 

 and Mesopotamia. Except for the wonderful similar- 

 ity which early Mexican civilization bears to that of the 

 ancient nations of the eastern hemisphere, only a frac- 

 tion of the workers could have been induced to under- 

 take the labor. The right way to treat these matters 

 is to moderate our expectations. With such motive, 

 the author then endeavors to fix the main epochs, and 

 to inquire who were the Olmecas and the Tultecas. 

 The former search results in fixing the dates of all we 

 know concerning Mexican history between the years 

 2.S2 and 1521 of the Christian era. Mexican history 

 begins with the record of a race of giants, the Qui- 

 name', or Quinametin, who are claimed to have been 

 a people of Maya origin, found by the Nahuatls on 

 the Atoyac River, when they were migrating south- 

 ward. When the name of the Olmecas .appears in 

 the early Mexican records of the Jfahoas, we must 

 not hesitate to recognize in them that people east of 

 Anahuac who spread along the Atlantic slopes and 

 south through Yucatan, Tabasco, and the whole of 

 Guatemala, and whom we designate to-d.ay by the 

 collective name of Maya. No nation, empire, or 

 language of Tultecas ever existed. The Tultec exo- 

 dus is shown to refer to the migrations of the Colhuas 

 who shared with the Mexicans the rule of the up- 

 lands. Their journey to Culiacan was not from the 

 Pueblos, but from the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 — (Proc. ^iwer. ftJiWg. soc. ,ii. 193-230. ) j. w. P. [287 



North-eastern Borneo and the Sulu Islands. — 

 Although north-eastern Borneo is close to the Sulu 

 group, there is a great difference in the people. The 

 Sulus are Malays, with a considerable infusion of 

 Arab and Chinese blood. The Bajaws, or sea-gypsies. 



