I02 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVllI. No. 446 



below its digestive tract) has become transformed into the back- 

 boned nervous belongings. There is, hovi'ever, the big liver of the 

 ancestor to be reckoned with. Where has it gone to in the course 

 of the transformation f In the young lamprey it is shown that a 

 kind of temporary liver may be regarded as existing in the brain, 

 and this is looked upon as the rudiment or remnant of the liver 

 whicli was once the possession of the vertebrate's ancestor. On 

 the whole, it may be said, we are getting on very nicely in bio- 

 logical theory ; and, whether we accept the views thus set f oi'th or 

 not. we may at least feel some curiosity in knowing how modern 

 speculation is deriving the vertebrates from lower forms, and how 

 ■ the modern backboned animal is thought actually to carry in its 

 spinal cord the remnant of the ancestral digestive system. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Hon. C. B. Farwell of Chicago received a telegram on 

 Aug. 11 from Professor Dyhrenfurth, in charge of the rain-pro- 

 ducing experiments provided for by the last Congress, now being 

 conducted on the ranch of Nelson Morris, in Texas. The professor 

 says that the first experiment was made on the 10th, powder being 

 exploded high in the air; and that it rained heavily there on the 

 11th. 



— Mr. P. Howard Collins, the author of a useful epitome of 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer's system of philosophy, has written a pam- 

 phlet in which he discusses the causes of the diminution of the 

 jaw in the civilized races. In opposition to the views of Weis- 

 manu, says Nature, he contends that the phenomenon is due to 

 disuse. ■• 



— A recent issue of Nature, quoting from Das Wetter for July, 

 reports a curious case of globular lightning which occurred at 

 Berga, near Schlieben, in Germany, between 3 and 4 o'clock on 

 the morning of July 1. The lightning entered the chimney and 

 split into two parts, one portion running along the rafters of the 

 roof, and the other entering a bed-room occupied by a man and 

 his wife and three children. The man, who was up, on account 

 of the violence of the storm, saw the ball jump on to the bedstead, 

 which it broke, and from there it slowly travelled to the opposite 

 side of the room, and disappeared, with a loud crash, through the 

 wall. None of the occupants were injured, further than being 

 deafened for a short time. 



— Tlie Vienna correspondent of the London News, recalling that 

 paper's description of the Eoman remains at Hainburg, about 

 twenty-four miles from Vienna, on the site of the ancient Eoman 

 frontier town of Carnuntum, on their discovery a year or two ago, 

 says that new excavations are now taking place in the immediate 

 neighboi-hood of the Castle of Petronell, the residence of the 

 Counts of Abendsberg Traun, which is about two miles distant 

 from Hainburg, and have resulted in the discovery of many inter- 

 esting architectural remains and much sculpture. These discov- 

 eries lead to the conclusion that Carnuntum must have been a much 

 larger town than was thought, for it seems that it must have con- 

 tained several hundred thousand inhabitants. 



— It is the fashion to write articles on theories of rest and how 

 to obtain it, says the Illustrated American. Anna Brackett con- 

 tributes an admirable paper, entitled " The Technique of Rest," 

 wherein she sets fortlf the possibilities of absolute rest, both mental 

 and physical, under difficult circumstances. The celebrated Dr. 

 Hammond has also given some very erudite and practical views of 

 the same theme. It would be well for the rushing, hurr3'ing, 

 scurrying, never-resting crowd of workers to stop a moment and 

 listen to such notes of solemn warning; and, at least in the choice 

 of "recreations," to select such diversions as will tend to create 

 exhausted vitality, and not add fresh fuel to a consuming fire. 

 Dr. Hammond lays some stress on the trite truth that rest is often 

 but a change of work. The athlete may rest over a game of chess 

 or whist. The brain-worker of sedentary habit who concentrates 

 a weary mind upon an intricate game which demands unremitting 

 alertness of attention is diverting from his chosen calling just so 

 much mental vigor, — exactly, to an atom, so much vital power. 

 Let those men and women who are thinking for a living stop 

 thinking, as a conscious effort, when they would rest. If she who 



would plan her life wisely will make a careful estimate of the 

 comparative values of those things which enter into it only by her 

 own consent, offsetting them in the inventory by those demands 

 which are essential, she will draw a pencil through every diversion 

 which is akin to her life-work. If she is a wise journalist or liter- 

 ary woman, she will eschew whist as a wary thief of her powers, 

 whose dangers are even enhanced by her mental habit of self-sur- 

 render and concentration. 



— Professor Tito Martini of Venice contributes to the issue of 

 the Rivista Seientifico-Industriale for the end of June, the results 

 of some experiments on the crystallization of thin liquid films. 

 He finds, according to Nature, that a strong solution of sodium 

 sulphate, when cooled to near its saturation point, possesses a vis- 

 cous character which enables it to form a thin film on a metallic 

 ring, as in Mr. Boys's experiments with soap-bubbles. On rapid 

 evaporation such a film crystallizes to an extremely beautiful 

 open lattice-work of minute crystals, which preserve their trans- 

 pai'eucy for some time, and then effloresce and crumble to pow- 

 der. The experiments succeeded with rings up to thirty-six mil- 

 limetres diameter. Similar experiments with ammonium chloride 

 and sodium hyposulphite have hitherto proved unsuccessful. 

 With a transparent film of liquid sulphur, however, even more 

 beautiful results have been obtained. The author regards such 

 experiments, besides being eminently suitable for lecture demon- 

 stration, as likely to throw light on the nature of molecular ar- 

 rangement in relation to crystallization. 



— During the last two centuries, says the Scottish Oeographieal 

 Magazine, the Lapps of Norway have been moving gradually 

 southwards, preserving their uncivilized and nomadic mode of 

 life in their new environment. Dr. Yngar Nielsen of Christiania 

 has recently studied this interesting ethnological question (Le Tour 

 du Monde, Nouvelles Geog., p. 137). According to him the south- 

 ern limit of this people is now marked by the railway from 

 Trondhjem to Ostersund, nearly along the 63d parallel of north 

 latitude. To the north of this line are found ancient tombs, places 

 of worship, and names of Lappish origin. Here the Lapps of the 

 present day, though nominally converted to Christianity, retain in 

 secret some of their pagan customs, whereas further south they 

 are good Christians, and have changed even in type. About the 

 year 1600 the southern limit of the Lapps was on the parallel of 

 the northern extremity of the fiord of Trondheim; since then they 

 have made several excursions southward, and have been repeatedly 

 checked by the Norwegian Government. In 1890 they advanced 

 as far as the plateaus of the Hardanger Fjeld. The Norwegians 

 do not resert to violence, but defend their property by legal pro- 

 cesses. The question of the Lapp invasion is, however, one that 

 demands the serious attention of the Government. 



— In a paper on "Some aspects of Acclimatization in New 

 Zealand," read before the Australasian Association at its Christ- 

 church meeting by Mr. G. M. Thomson, the following remarkable 

 ease of hereditary transmission of an apparently defective charac- 

 teristic was described (New Zealand Journal of Science, July). 

 In the district of Strath Taieri, in Otago, some years ago, certain 

 sheep on one of the runs, probably the progeny of a single ram,, 

 were found to be evidently short-winded. Apparently the action 

 of the heart was defective, for when these sheep were driven, they 

 would run with the rest of the flock for a short distance and then 

 lie down panting. The result of this peculiar affection was that 

 at nearly every mustering the.se short-winded sheep used to be left 

 behind, being unable to be driven with the rest. Sometimes they 

 were brought on more slowly afterwards, but if it happened to be 

 shearing time they were simply caught and shorn where they lay. 

 As a result of this peculiar condition a form of artificial selection 

 was set up, the vigorous sheep being constantly drafted away for 

 sale, etc., while this defective strain increased with great rapidity 

 throughout the district, for whenever the mobs were mustered for 

 the market, shearing, or drafting;, these " cranky " sheep (as they 

 came to be called) were left behind This defective character ap- 

 peared in every succeeding generation, and seemed to increase in 

 force, reminding one of the Ancon sheep referred to by Darwin. 

 At first, of course, the character was not recognized as " heredi- 

 tary," but as the members of this cranky breed increased to a very 



