November 7, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



757 



ing the transfer, told how the building had 

 been erected originally ui^on the rocks and con- 

 nected with the shore by bridge, and how the 

 structure had been used successively as a bat- 

 tery, a place of amusement, and a landing- 

 place for inunigrants, until finally in 1896 

 it was opened to the piiblic as an aquarium 

 by the Department of Parks. Charles H. 

 Townseud, recently appointed director of the 

 Aquarium, and formerly a member of the 

 United States Fish Commission, said in part: 

 " The possibilities of an aquarium as an 

 institution for the instruction of the people 

 have never been properly imderstood. What 

 we want to do is to make it a part of the city's 

 educational system. It should be a place for 

 study and investigation. Fish culture is fast 

 becoming a profession. We could establish a 

 fish hatchery in the building. This would be 

 interesting, and it could be arranged with 

 glass sides so that the fish could be seen." 

 Professor Osborn said it would be the aim 

 of the Zoological Society to make the 

 Aquarium even more popular than it had 

 been, and added : " We have chosen as di- 

 rector Mr. Charles H. Townsend, widely 

 known for his services in the United States 

 Fish Commission, and the fact that a man 

 of his character and scientific reputation ac- 

 cepts this position signalizes our determina- 

 tion to increase not only the attractiveness, 

 but the educational value of the Aquarium to 

 the masses of the people who visit it. Mr. 

 Townsend will have full authority here; but 

 we are fortunate in associating with him as an 

 advisory board three experts in marine life — 

 Professor Charles L. Bristol, of the New York 

 University, Dr. Alfred G. Mayer, of the Brook- 

 lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and Pro- 

 fessor Bashford Dean, of Columbia University. 



The British Medical Journal states that 

 the Huxley memorial lecture of the Anthro- 

 pological Institute of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land was delivered in the lecture theater of 

 the building formerly occupied by the Uni- 

 versity of London in Burlington Gardens by 

 Dr. D. J. Cunningham, F.E.S., professor of 

 anatomy in Trinity College, Dublin, who se- 

 lected the subject of right-handedness and 



left-brainedness. He pointed out that the 

 characteristic was one of vast antiquity, and 

 argued that it had been attained in the or- 

 dinary course of the evolution of man by 

 natural selection; but the condition thus es- 

 tablished and transmitted from one individual 

 to another did not reside in the right upper 

 limb itself or in the vessel which conveyed 

 the blood to it. All the evidence went to 

 show that right-handedness was due to a 

 transmitted functional preeminence of the left 

 brain. This preeminence was not a haphazard 

 acquisition picked up during the life of the 

 individual, it was not the result, but through 

 evolution it had become the cause, of right- 

 handedness. The superiority of the left cer- 

 ebral hemisphere rested upon some structural 

 foundation transmitted from parent to off- 

 spring, and the exceptional cases of right- 

 brainedness and left-handedness were due to 

 the transference of this structural peculiarity 

 from the left to the right side, or more prob- 

 ably to a transposition of the two cerebral 

 hemispheres in the same way that transposi- 

 tion either partial or complete of the thoracic 

 and abdominal viscera sometimes occurred. 

 At the conclusion of the address the Huxley 

 memorial medal was presented to Professor 

 Cunningham by the president. Dr. A. 0. 

 Haddon. 



The Electrical World states that during the 

 passage of the special train on the Grand 

 Trunk Railway, between Toronto and Mon- 

 treal, on October 13, bearing the members 

 of the American Association of General Man- 

 agers and ticket agents from Chicago to Port- 

 land, wireless telegraphic signals were received 

 by the party as the train passed St. Dominique 

 station, at the rate of sixty miles an hour. 

 No special attempt was made to signal to a 

 great distance, but the train remained in 

 touch with the station for from eight to ten 

 miles. Two vibrators, ten by twelve feet, con- 

 nected with an induction coil of the usual 

 pattern (eight-inch spark), served to trans- 

 mit the waves from the station, while on the 

 train itself the waves were received by a co- 

 herer of the ordinary type. A relay rendered 

 the signals audible to the passengers by ring- 

 ing bells in three cars. The collecting wires 



