Ukcember 7, 11SS3.] 



SCIENCE. 



739 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Osteology of the cormorant. 



I WOULD make a couple of corrections to the article 

 on the osteology of tlie cormorant in Sciknce for 

 Xov. 10. 



First, the occii)ital style is figured as pointing up- 

 wards and backwards, and is spoken of as figured ia 

 situ for the first time. Having made several dissec- 

 tions of coriuorants in past years, I would suggest that 

 the bone is the ossified tendon of some of the exten- 

 sor muscles of the neck, and that it points backwards, 

 and, if any thing, downwards, as figured by Selenka 

 (Bronn's Thierreichs, Vogel, figs, o, (!, pi. viii.). As 

 drawn in Sciic.vcE, it would project through the skin 

 of the nape. 



Secondly, the patella is spoken of as very large and 

 as throwing "some light on such birds as Colymbus 

 and Podiceps, where this bone becomes anohylosed 

 with the tibia in the adult:" and Professor Owen is 

 referred to as authorizing this statement. Now, Pro- 

 fessor Owen describes the patella as ' co-existing with 

 the long rotular process in the loon' (C'omp. anat., 

 ii. 83), and figures it as distinct from the process in 

 fig. 34, /. In fact, the rotular process was regarded 

 as the ancliylosed patella until tlie time of Nitzsch. 

 This celebrated ornithologist pointed out the co-exist- 

 ence of an enormous patella and rotular process in 

 Podiceps, and showed the true nature of the process 

 COsteogr. beitr. zur nat. der vogel,' Leipzig, ISU, 

 pp. 98-101, pi. ii., figs. 13, 14). In fact, the rotular 

 process of the divers is exactly the same in nature as 

 in other birds, differs only in size, and in no wise rep- 

 re^sents the cocktUUnfj patella. In position and func- 

 tion the rotular process resembles the olecranon. 



J. Amory Jeffries. 



Sense of direction. 



Professor Newcomb's paper in SciKXCE of Oct. 

 :i6 opens an exceedingly interesting, if not a very im- 

 portant subject. It has exacted of me a good deal of 

 thought, and this capricious sense has been a source 

 of no little annoyance. I should like to give a little 

 of my experience. With me the co-ordinates almost 

 invjiriably revolve 180°. AVIien a boy, I studied geog- 

 raphy, and when at recitation sat with my face to the 

 north. I thus had the whole world mapped out in my 

 mind to correspond with my pro|)er sense of the di- 

 rections. Soon after this, my father moved to a new 

 home; and there I found, to my great annoyance, 

 that my co-ordinates h.ad revolved 180°. My geog- 

 raphy was in the greatest confusion. When I heg.in 

 to travel, I found that the ci>-ordinates would change 

 m the most unexpected manner, first one way, and 

 then the other. I could not trust my sense of direc- 

 tion. 



When I came to Lebanon, I found myself with my 

 original boyhood co-ordinates. I graduated, and went 

 back to Arkansas. Upon my return to Lebanon a few 

 months afterwards, the directions had revolved 180°, 

 and I found myself practically in a new town. 1 had 

 to learn it , all over again; and to-day, if I desire to 

 point to the nnrth, my hand instinctively moves to- 

 ward.s the south. In travelling I have found it use- 

 ful to trust as little as possible to the sense, and bo 

 guided by the map. In an extended tour through 

 Europe, I was in the habit of preparing myself, before 

 entering each city, by a careful study of its map, — 

 noting the position f)f the railway-station, direction 

 of the streets etc. In this manner I was enabled to 

 control the sense of direction. In only one or two 

 fnnances did I fail to keep the directions right. 



I make two practical suggestions: — 



1. Students in geography should alw.ays sit with 

 their faces to the north. 



2. Travellers should prepare themselves, before 

 entering a new pl.ice, by a previous subjective ar- 

 rangement of the directions they are to find there. 



J. I. D. Hinds. 



Cumbertaiul iiniversily, Li-lmnon, Tt-iin. 



Synchronism of geological formations. 



In Science of Nov. 10, weekly summary, under 

 above he;iding. Professor A. Ileilprin is reported as 

 having called attention to two conclusions of Huxley's 

 on this subject, and to have maintained, that while 

 the first-mentioned conclusion could be logically dis- 

 proved, and the second derived no contirniation from 

 the supposed facts, the oi)inion of the older geologists, 

 that geological contemporaneity is equivalent to chro- 

 nological synchronism, was therefore probably cor- 

 lect. 



Professor Huxley, in his presidential address to the 

 Geological society for 1802, supported the conclusions 

 called in ([uestion by reasoning, which, so far as I 

 know, has yet to be shown to be illogicivl. Neither 

 am I aware, that, during the twenty-one years which 

 have since elapsed, geological or paleontological re- 

 search has tended otherwise than to maintain Uie 

 logical basis on which he then rested. 



If Professor Ileilprin will but do what he is re- 

 ported to claim can be done, he will earn the gratitude 

 of all other geological students by helping to settle 

 wh.at h.as proved a vexatious question for the past 

 half-century. E. Nugkxt. 



Pottfitown, Xov. 22, ISS:;. 



From superstition to humbug. 

 Your editorial in the Nov. 10 issue of Science 

 might very appropri.itely have contained an account 

 of the ' magnetic springs ' which underlie this portion 

 of the state of Ohio. From my residence three of 

 these springs may be seen, at one of which a large 

 bath-house has already been erected, where, during 

 the present sea.son, an aver.age of forty patients daily 

 tested the curative effects of the waters. These 

 springs .are found along the bank of a small creek and 

 at the base of a valley, perhaps twenty-five feet in 

 depth. The water, which contains less than a sixth 

 of one per cent of iron, is Virought to the surf.ace of 

 the ground through an iron gas-pipe, and " becomes so 

 highly charged with magnetism that it will impart its 

 properties to a knife-blade." The vill.age of Magnetic 

 Springs, a few miles distant, has several large hotels, 

 all jt which are so crowded with guests, that rooms 

 must be engaged weeks in advance. Change of resi- 

 dence, rest, and good nursing have together effected 

 a number of cures, all of which, of course, are ascribed 

 to the magnetic properties of the water. Many of 

 the guests return to their home as disappointed as 

 the little girl, who, after drinking a glass of the water, 

 said, ' I do not feci one particle magnified, and I 

 think these springs are a humbug.' 



E. T. Nelsok. 



Delaware, O., Nov. 22, 188:!. 



Primitive visual organs. 

 The notice of Dr. Sharp's conununicali<ui made 

 before the Academy of natural sciences of Philadel- 

 phia, in No. 42 of Science (397], on the habits and 

 on the pc'culiar visual organs of Solen ensis .and S. 

 vagina, between and at the base of the short tentacu- 

 lar processes along the external edge of the distal 

 part of the siphon* of these animals, reminds me 

 that I have observed similar habits in other marine 

 animals, and that possibly we nniy infer that similar 



