July 28, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



53 



being a common Cat Bird in which the haemapophysis had dis- 

 appeared from the first dorsal rib, the true ribs being thus reduced 

 to five in number. 



It is quite possible that reduction in the dorsal region has been 

 carried almost to its utmost extent among birds and existing 

 facts seem to support this theory. 



Among the highly specialized Passeres, the normal number of 

 ribs, counting as the first the most anterior that is connected with 

 the sternum, is uniformly six. 



Close to the Passeres stands the heterogeneous group of 

 birds termed Picarias, many of which are doubtless sur- 

 vivals of the ancient forms from which the Passeres have been 

 <ierived. 



If this be the case the line of descent of these Picarians is a 

 long one and in many respects they may have undergone more 

 modification than their more recent relatives. 



Certain it is that in this group we find, with very few excep- 

 tions, those birds having the smallest number of ribs, some- 

 times only five pairs, and at least once, in our Night Hawk, only 

 four. 



In the Swifts, near relatives of the Goatsuckers, it is not as- 

 serting too much to say that we can actually see the process of 

 rib reduction going forward, for among these birds we find many 

 specimens with six pairs of ribs, rarely one with seven, and in 

 the majority of cases six complete pairs of ribs and the lower 

 portion of a seventh, and this lower rudiment is present in vary- 

 ing proportions. 



Lower in the scale, among the Amphibians, the number of 

 vertebrae is inconstant, even in such species as Necturiis and Me- 

 nopoma, whose pre-sarial vertebrae are fewer in number than in 

 any mammal. 



Necturus may have eighteen or nineteen pre-sacrals, Menopoma 

 nineteen or twenty. Siren forty-one, forty-two or forty-three, and 

 ^mphiuma sixty-four or sixty-five. 



Variation in the number of caudals is, of course, to be ex- 

 pected, but in the long-bodied Siren and Amphiuma it may 

 amount to as many as five or six vertebra. 



A curious variant has been noted in the sacrum of Menopoma, 

 which Huxley, in the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica, describes and figures as composed of two vertebrae. 



Unfortunately the specimen on which the figure and descrip- 

 tion are based was abnormal, for, like the Salamanders, Meno- 

 jpoma has normally but one sacral, and an intermediate condi- 

 tion, a true abnormality, may exist of ten vertebrse connected 

 with the ilium on one side and one on the other. 



It is evident from the instances just I'elated that a considerable 

 amount of individual variation in size, proportion of various 

 bones, or even in the presence of certain bones, may exist in a 

 given species. 



Differences of size, unless excessive, are of little value, pro- 

 vided the parts retain their relative proportions and in judging of 

 differences of proportion the question of age must be taken into 

 account also. 



Broadly speaking, variations are of two kinds, due to modifi- 

 cations of development; or of structure, and the importance of 

 any departure from a given type depends very largely on the an- 

 swer to the question, to which of these two categories does the 

 variation belong. 



Modifications of development produce individual variations of 

 size and strength, length of limb and power of jaw, modifications 

 of structure — when constant — give rise to specific, generic or or- 

 dinal distinctions, as the case may be. 



In the occasional extra molar of the Orang the extra ribs of 

 birds, the tarsal tubejcle of the Great Auk, and the vai-ying num- 

 ber of vertibree in Amphibians we have variations of structure 

 that, being inconstant, have no specific value, and yet have a 

 morphologic meaning of their own. 



The extra molar of the Orang is probably a reversionary char- 

 acter, the extra ribs of the Auk and the little nodule occupying 

 the place of the missing metatarsal certainly indicate an ancestral 

 form with a longer body and four toes. 



In the abnormal sacrum of the Menopoma and the live pairs of 



ribs of the Cat Bird we have progressive variations, and these are 

 of much rarer occun-ance than retrogressive characters. 



The parapophyses in the sacral vertebrae of Cormorants are 

 teleological modifications, efforts to provide an additional brace 

 for the pelvic walls of these strong swimmers. 



The differences in the axial skeleton of birds and Amphibians 

 indicate that variation in this region is not greatest in animals 

 now possessing the largest number of vertebral segments, but in 

 those whose embryology hints at the existence of more vertebrse 

 in their comparatively immediate ancestors than are possessed t v 

 the descendants of these forms. 



This would account for the frequent appearance of extra ribs 

 in birds, the inconstancy of the number of vertebral segments in 

 Urodele Amphibians, and the constancy in the vertebral column 

 of mammals. 



To conclude, many variations are reversionary in character, 

 some progressive, and some due to physiological causes, most, if 

 not all, have some definite meaning in their abnormality. 



NOTES ON JAPANESE METEOROLOGY. 



BY ALBERT S. ASHMEAD, M.D., NEW TORK, NT. 



Despite the humid climate of Japan, rheumatism is very rare 

 among the natives, which is probably due to the practice of daily 

 hot bathing. 



Tl-.e meteorology of Japan is exceedingly peculiar and of ex- 

 ceptional interest. As particular influences in the process of ac- 

 climatization may be mentioned, lessened, eliminatory activity of 

 the lungs, increased activity of the skin, diminished cardial cir- 

 culatory power. A prolonged residence in the Japanese climate 

 is productive of general physical relaxation, with increased suscep- 

 tibility to cold. After a two years' residence in Japan, Europeans 

 feel the necessity of wearing more substantial winter clothing, as the 

 climate seems to have become harsher since the beginning of their 

 sojourn. Any foreigner who permanently resides there and wishes 

 to feel at ease must resort to the hot bathing of the natives ; being 

 in Japan, he must do as Japanese do. Europeans, on their first 

 arrival, are very prone to rheumatism, and even perfected accli- 

 matization does not do away with that propensity. The hot-bath 

 habit is singularly favorable to perfect acclimatization ; it, and 

 also the customary and frequent hot tea, mitigates the depressive 

 influence of the summer kakke months, the wet season of June, 

 July, and August. Strange to say, in their national disease, 

 beriberi, there is an entire absence of perspiration : these patiems 

 perspire only in their last agony. One should think, after that, 

 that the Japanese would consider baths as remedial in kakke. 

 Strange to say, it is not so; they consider it only as an essential 

 and, for them, very pleasant part of the toilet. 



In kakke the popular verdict is, and has always been, that it 

 is detrifiiental. The altitudinal is their most efficient treatment. 

 Such a treatment is always, at least in our European and Amer- 

 ican experience, a dry one; dry air. It is not so in Japan; in 

 their mountains, even as high as 3,000 feet above the sea level, 

 you "ill find an inci-ease of humidity, due to the precipitation 

 from the volcanic peaks. Even in this heavy humidity, where 

 they are endeavoring to cure a disease in which perspiration is 

 suppressed, they do not give to the hot baihs which are used 

 there as much, but not more than in other not s.snitary places, 

 credit for any good accruing to the patients. And, in fact, if 

 hot bathing contributed t'> the cure, such an influence would be 

 observed at the sea-level as well as in high altitudes. 



Of course, I cannot treat the question expressed here. Let me 

 only say that, in my opinion, humidity has nothing to do, di- 

 rectly at least, with beriberi; it is not a climatic rheumatism. 

 Its cause is the action of a carbonic poison in the blood, and that 

 poison cannot be eliminated through the influence of hot water. 

 Hot bathing, as I said, has nothing to do with it, either directly or 

 indirectly. Indirectly humidity has, because it keeps the car- 

 bonic gases together and prevents their dispersion. The oxydiz- 

 iug influence of the pure air of the mountain heights has every- 

 thing to do with the cure. 



