Dhcember 14. ISS;!.] 



SCIENCE. 



775 



piodupcil. With a medium rapidity of stimulation, a 

 contraollon was observed in the beginning, followed 

 by a dilatation. The latent period of vaso-constrie- 

 tion was estimated at 1.5"; that of vaso-dilatation, at 

 3.5". The vaso-dilator effects continued for some 

 time after the cessation of the stimulus. — {Cfiitr.- 

 blatt. nud. ici,<w., ISJ^S, 513.) w. ii. ii. [497 



Mammals. 



Birth of a mandrill in captivity. — Amamliill 

 was born in the Hamburs zoological garden in July, 

 1S82. It lacked the brilliant coloring of the face 

 characlerislic of the adult, and had but weakly devel- 

 oped face;wnnkles. The countenance and posterior 

 callosities were fle.sh-colored. Only the upper and 

 posterior portion of the head and a space on the 

 median line of the back were dark. — {Zool. rjarlen, 

 xxiv. 18S3, '2Xi. ) I-. w. T. [498 



The circulation in the kidneys. — This paper by 

 Cohnheim and Key furnishes an extremely important 

 and intercsiing addition to our knowledge of the 

 physiology of the kidney, and will undoubtedly, with 

 the future work that is promised on the subject, throw 

 much light also on the etiology of sonie of the diseases 

 of that organ. The method which they employed in 

 their investigation cannot be thoroughly understood 

 without reference to the plates which accompany the 

 article. It is sufficient to say that the organ was en- 

 closed in a sort of plethysmograph, to which Roy has 

 given the name of oncometer, by means of which 

 variations in volume of the kidney can be registered. 

 With regard to the normal circulation in the kid- 

 neys, it was found that both the respiratory and pulse 

 waves were shown in the kidney tracing, as well as 

 the Traube-Hering waves, when these occurred. 



Stimulation of the vaso-niotor centre directly by 

 means of dyspnoea, as well as stimulation of the 

 central end of sensory nerves, caused a strong and 

 rapid diminution in volume of the kidney, owing to 

 the contraction of its vessels. This diminution in 

 volume occurs when both splancbnies are cut; but 

 in those cases in which they succeeded in severing 

 the kidney from all external nervous influences, the 

 kidney, instead of contracting, showed an increase in 

 volume corresponding to the general rise of blood- 

 pressure. 



The influence of the splanchnics on the kidney 

 circulation was especially studied. Section of the 

 splanchnics caused no increase in the volume of the 

 kidney, so that the tonic influence which these nerves 

 have been supposed to exert on the kidney-vessels is 

 rendered very doubtful, though the authors do not care 

 to make any positive statement with regard to this 

 point. Stimulation of either the central or peripheral 

 end of the divided splanchnics gave a strong diminu- 

 tion in volume of the kidney. The fact, that, after 

 section of both splanchnics, stimulation of the cen- 

 tral end of a sensory nerve still causes a contraction 

 of the kidney, shows that vaso-motor nerves pass to 

 this organ by some other path. In order to cut ofl 

 the kidney from all external ner\ous connection, it 

 was nece.-sary to divide not only the nerve-trunks in 

 the hilus, but also to destroy the external coat (tunica 



adventitia) of the blood-vessels. In cases in which 

 this was successfully accomplished, they could ob- 

 tain no distinct evidence of a vaso-motor tonus of 

 the kidney-vessels. Stimulation of the nerves of the 

 hilus showed the presence only of vaso-constrictorand 

 sensory nerves: in no ease did they obtain any evi- 

 dence of vaso-dilator nerves. 



The circulations in the two organs are, to a grea{ ex- 

 tent, independent of each other. Clamping the renal 

 artery on one side has no effect at all on the circula- 

 tion in the other kidney, and the same may be said 

 with regard to the closure of other large arteries of 

 the body. Throwing ire-cold water, or water heated 

 to .50° C, on the whole of the skin surface of the ani- 

 mal, has little or no effect on the kidney circulation; 

 a fact which seems to indicate that the direct connec- 

 tion between the functions of the skin and the kidney 

 is not so close as has been stipposed. A future paper 

 on the influence of the composition of the blood on 

 the circulation in the kidney is promised. — [Vir- 

 chow's arckiv, xcii. 424.) w. n. u. [499 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 Ethnology of Yunnan and the Shan country. 



— Mr. Colquhpun has traversed the region lying be- 

 tween Canton and Kangoon, including Yunnan, the 

 south-western province of China. The details of his 

 exploration have been published in the Proc. roy. 

 ffeogr. .fOC, Dec, 1SS2, in a volume entitled 'Across 

 Chrysee,' or will appear in a work now preparing on 

 the Shan country. From Canton westward the 

 people were pure Chinese; west of that, to the Tun- 

 nan frontier, the people were mixed oif the rivers; 

 and aboriginal races were found inland. Through- 

 out Yunnan the chief population consisted of Shans 

 disguised under a great variety of tribal names. Lolo 

 and Miao-tzu, aborigines and Thibetans under the 

 name of Kutsnng, were seen. Mr. Keane, com- 

 menting upon this paper, said that amongst the Tun- 

 nan tribes were the widely dispersed Lolo people, 

 who seem to extend in isolated groups from Szechuen, 

 Kwei-chew, and Y'unnan, down to the Tonquin high- 

 lands, and who by some travellers had been described 

 as physically more like Europeans than Indo-Chijiese. 



— {Journ. antlirop. inst., xiii. .". ) j. w. p. [500 

 North-eastern Papua. — During a period of six 



years, I875-S1. Mr. Wilfred Powell made frequent 

 visits to the eastern coast of Xew Guinea. Torres 

 Straits has become famous as a pearl-flshing ground, 

 worked by fleets of large boats built for the purpose, 

 and manned by natives from all parts of Polynesia. 

 The most fever-cursed portion of the island is the low 

 alluvial plain skirting the Gulf of Papua, opposite 

 Queensland. Here is found the only cannibalism 

 known to the author to exist on the island. The 

 whole of the population here are of a lower type than 

 those in the more elevated districts to the east. At 

 Biimier Islands the two races meet and intermingle, 



— the darker and more barbarous type of the Gulf of 

 Papua and the south-west coast, and the lighter col- 

 ored and better featured type, more resembling the 

 Polynesian, inhabiting the south-east and the eastern 

 peninsula. The last-mentioned people are numerous 



