114 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 315 



in all likelihood formed of burned clay, like hundreds that have 

 come down from the primeval potters of Europe and America, and 

 was itself made by an impression from an original carving of clay 

 or other substance. The face shows slight evidences of retouching : 

 perhaps the expressive wrinkles over the right eye were added after 

 the figure was impressed by the matrix. 



The surface of many ancient Mexican vases is loaded with orna- 

 ment, such as stamped or modelled faces and heads of men and ani- 

 mals. This fragment may have formed such an ornament ; and if 

 the vase was designed to contain the ordinary intoxicating beverage 

 of the Aztec peoples, — the fermented sap of the century-plant (the 

 Agave Americana), — the expression of this face would be singu- 

 larly appropriate, and the association recall the bacchanalian 

 figures moulded by ancient Roman artisans upon their drinking- 

 cups of Samian ware. Enormous quantities of this national drink — 

 the modern pulque, the ancient ocili — are still consumed, and 

 special trains upon the railway convey it in hogsheads and goat- 

 skins to the capital city from the district where this clay object was 

 discovered. 



The story the ancient artist has sought to tell by every lineament 

 of the face is evidently one of habitual and excessive drunkenness. 

 The swollen eyeballs, covered by thick lids ; the inane unsymmetric 

 forehead, with a curious forked wrinkle on its weak side ; the hang- 

 ing full and flabby cheeks ; the lips, tumid and uncontrolled, en- 

 closing a meaningless mouth, — in all these we have a consistent 

 story of continued vinous excess. This consistency is worthy of 

 especial attention : not a feature or line in all the face fails to give 

 forth the same mute evidence of complete abandonment to the 

 poison. Finally, the artist, with a stroke of genius worthy of Ho- 

 garth, has caught the very spirit of besotted helplessness by sinking 

 the entire right side of the face out of symmetry, thus proving, that, 

 while possessing no knowledge of our modern notions of nervous 

 centres and facial paralysis, the pre-Columbian sculptor had devel- 

 oped the capacity to place upon the human face the physiological 

 evidences of a mind and body lost in the last stages of alcoholism. 



No. 2 is also a fragment of some larger object, perhaps a vase. 

 It was moulded, as was the case in the former instance, upon a soft 

 prepared surface of clay, by means of a matrix, but it shows no 

 evidence of retouching. It is the face, in relief, of an individual less 

 deeply sunk in bacchanalian indulgence ; but the expression is that 

 of a drunkard, and not that of a person in the repose of sleep 

 or nerveless in the relaxation of death. The lips are slightly apart, 

 and there is breath between them. The eyes are closed, but the 

 face is under control, and its texture is firmer than in the preceding 

 figure. It is a work of less merit than No. i, but the artist has 

 succeeded in delineating drunkenness in every feature, and has 

 maintained throughout the typical stolid expression of the aborigi- 

 nal American races. 



No. 3 represents a face moulded upon the leg of a terra-cotta vase. 

 This portion of the clay vessels of Southern and Central America has 

 often been seized upon by the ancient potter as a basis for elabora- 

 tion. Sometimes it is wrought to represent the head of an animal, 

 as the crocodile or fish ; while among prehistoric pottery from 

 the Chiriqui cemeteries, northward from Panama, nearly every 

 carefully made vase has hollow legs. A ball of clay rattles loosely 

 in this open space, and, through a narrow aperture, may be seen 

 moving when the vessel is shaken. The Mexican vase - legs 

 are in some localities quite abundant, because, like the "cres- 

 cent ears " of the pots of the prehistoric Italian terr-amare, 

 their solidity preserves them where the less firm portions of the 

 vessels have crumbled. The exigencies of the case have confined 

 the artist of this basso-relievo to a triangular surface, narrowing 

 downward nearly to a point, and he has admirably adapted his 

 work to the predetermined shape. On the foot of what may have 

 been an ancient pulque jar we see here represented still another 

 and a far more cheerful phase of intoxication. The individual has 

 reached a state of mental excitement where he is " o'er all the ills 

 of life victorious." He " accepts the good the gods provide " with 

 child-like joy and abandon. In the elation of the moment he half 

 closes his eyes, but at the same time, unlike the preceding inebriates, 

 he finds companionship in the outer world by shrewdly keeping 

 it in view. There is no flabbiness in his cheeks and lips : the for- 

 mer are bunched in a jolly grimace ; the latter, drawn thinly over 



his big teeth, broaden into a grin as successful as the narrowing 

 margin of the vase-leg will permit. In short, we have before us the 

 work of an aboriginal artist, who tells us successfully the story of a 

 jolly reveller, who might be about to sing to his companions the 

 chorus of "Willie brew'd a peck o'maut." 



By turning this clay visage at various angles, it is found that the 

 most advantageous view of the features is that from above. A 

 large vase containing a liquid would in simple aboriginal habita- 

 tions naturally be placed where it would rest below the level of the 

 eye. Can it be possible the ancient artist wrought the model from 

 which this vase-leg was moulded, conscious he was addressing eyes 

 that would look from above upon his completed work ? 



With evidence before us such as that here detailed of the com- 

 paratively advanced culture in one direction of the old Mexican 

 peoples, and of the capacity of some of their artists to deal success- 

 fully with complex questions in designing and modelling figures 

 expressing conditions of the human mind, does it not seem prob- 

 able that upon our southern border a rich field and many surprises 

 await the patient scientific investigator ? — a field that is all the 

 more important to the anthropologist, because embedded in it is 

 the history of a culture that may be autochthonous ; and that is 

 of all the more moment to us, because this culture grew through 

 many centuries, subject to the developing forces of an environment 

 in some important elements similar to that which is to-day modify- 

 ing us and converting us into "Americans." 



Robert H. Lamborn. 



STREET-RAILWAY MEN VISIT AN 

 RAILWAY. 



ELECTRIC 



On Tuesday, Feb. 5, there was a gathering at Boston, Mass., of 

 street-railway men of New England, who had come from all quar- 

 ters of the six New England States. The object of the gathering 

 was to inspect the electric branch of the West End Road at Bos- 

 ton, installed by the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Com- 

 pany of New York. The party was met by Messrs. Blake & Saw- 

 yer, and the start was soon made from the Park Square end of the 

 line in a number of electric cars which President Whitney of the 

 West End Road had provided for the purpose. The cars were 

 quickly filled by the street-railway men, and the departure made 

 from Park Square in short order out to Boylston Street. The first 

 stop was made at the power-station of the road, situated at AU- 

 ston, where the visitors disembarked, and were shown the gener- 

 ating-station for the electricity used in operating the cars. On 

 entering the main room, and passing by the two high-speed Ar- 

 mington & Sims engines of 200 horse-power each, — one, though 

 running, being so noiseless in its action that its motion passed 

 almost unnoticed, — the four dynamos, of 80,000 watts capacity 

 each, engaged the attention of the party. From each dynamo 

 there are three leads passing under the floor to the switch-board, 

 where connection is made by separate conductors to the under- 

 ground conduit and overhead system. This switch-board and each 

 regulator have for their bases an insulating compound to which 

 they are fastened, and each regulator- shaft carries a gear ; so that, 

 by means of a rack which meshes into all four gears, the four 

 dynamos may be regulated by one operation. Still higher on the 

 wall are the safety fusible strips mounted on slate. At the top of 

 the switch-board are placed four improved lightning-arresters rest- 

 ing on insulated brackets. These arresters consist of a large elec- 

 tro-magnet, which may be short-circuited in fine weather by a 

 switch. From the terminal connected with the outside line there 

 is a circuit with an alternative path to the ground, with the use of 

 the usual break, an electro-magnet. To a lightning-current pass- 

 ing over the line, the large electro-magnet acts like a choking coil, 

 and offers a large resistance ; and the current, taking the alterna- 

 tive path, jumps over the air-space, when the electro-magnet, 

 operating, breaks the circuit, thus extinguishing the arc. The power- 

 station is lighted by a large number of electroliers, under control 

 in groups of five, at a switch-board at one end of the building. 

 The boiler-house has three 1 50-horse-power steel tubular boilers, 

 with Jarvis setting, feed-water heater, injector, steam-pump, etc. 

 The back wall of the power-house is built with a view to its ex- 

 tension in the rear, so that the capacity at the station can be 



