Junk 6, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



91^ 



Wiechert (Gottingen), and von Zittel (Mun- 

 ich). 



The monthly general meeting of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London was held on May 

 23, Dr. Henry Woodward, vice-president, in 

 the chair. It was stated that there had been 

 173 additi,ons made to the Society's menag- 

 erie during the month of April, among which 

 special attention was directed to two jjairs 

 of the beautiful grey teal {Quevquedula ver- 

 sicolor), of the Argentine Eepublic, obtained 

 by purchase. After the proceedings of the 

 usual monthly general meeting had termin- 

 ated Professor J. Cossar Ewart delivered a 

 lecture on 'Horses and Zebras.' 



Mr. Eadweaed Muybridge writes to the 

 editor of the London Times as follows: In 

 the new volumes of the 'Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica' is reproduced in the articles 

 ^Egyptology' a tablet of Mena dating from 

 the first dynasty, or about 4700 B.C., and is 

 the oldest written sentence yet discovered. 

 In 'A History of Egypt, by W. M. Flinders 

 Petrie,' the author, referring to the Egyptian 

 artists of the fourth dynasty, says: 'They did 

 not make a work of art as such, but they 

 rivalled nature as closely as possible.' Two 

 figures — a bull and a deer — on the tablet of 

 Mena afford a remarkable confirmation of the 

 professor's statement, in regard to the knowl- 

 edge and expression of motion by the sculp- 

 tor of this age. A bull striving to attain his 

 utmost speed is represented in a phase of 

 movement, which after a lapse of 66 centuries 

 is reproduced in a photo-engraving illustra- 

 ting some consecutive phases in the stride of 

 Si horse, published in the 'Century Diction- 

 ary' under the heading of 'Gallop,' and in the 

 'Standard Dictionary' in its definition of 

 ■'Movement.' The phase employed by the 

 Egyptian artist has been, until recent years, 

 very rarely used in art; the nearest approach 

 to it that I can at this moment recall is in a 

 fresco painting on the walls of the Campo 

 Santo at Pisa, supposed to have been execu- 

 ted at Pisano. It, like the Mena tablet, illus- 

 trates a phase of the transverse gallop^ — a 

 ■system of motion adopted by the horse, the ox, 

 and the greater number of animals, whether 



single toed, cloven or soft-footed, when they 

 exert their utmost power to attain their high- 

 est speed. In the lowest line of figures on 

 the tablet is a deer, evidently jumping over 

 an obstacle. The animal is represented with 

 all its legs, flexed, in pairs, under its body; 

 A precisely similar phase may be found in a 

 series, in the library of the British Museum, 

 demonstrating a jump which sometimes takes 

 place in the rotary gallop of the deer, which 

 system of motion is always used by the deer- 

 and also by the dog, when from caprice or 

 necessity they endeavor to make rapid prog- 

 ress. This distinctive method of galloping 

 was unknown, and, indeed, unsuspected by 

 us moderns, until revealed by photographic 

 investigation of animal locomotion; but it 

 was apparently well known to the early ar- 

 tists of Egypt. 



VNIVERStTY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Yale University has received for the Shef- 

 field Scientific School a new building for 

 mineralogy, geology and physiography. The 

 donor and the value of the building are not 

 announced, but it is to be known as Kirt- 

 land Hall, in memory of the late Professor 

 Jared Potter Kirtland. Professor Kirtland, 

 who was a Yale graduate of the class of 1815, 

 and died in 1877, was professor of the theory 

 and practice of medicine in Ohio Medical 

 College and in Western Eeserve College. He 

 was a member of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, and served on the geological sur- 

 vey of Ohio. Plans for the new building- 

 show a four-story structure of 95 feet front 

 and 65 feet depth. It will be of plain red 

 brick, with white marble and other stone trim- 

 mings. Designs were made by Kirtland Kel- 

 sey Cutter of Spokane, a great grandson of 

 Professor Kirtland. The main floor will be 

 devoted to mineralogy, the second floor to 

 inorganic and physical geology, the third to 

 physical geography and phyisiography, and 

 the basement to mining. 



A NEW building, chiefly for surgery, is to be 

 erected for the Johns Hopkins Medical 

 School at a cost of $100,000. 



