466 



SCI^J^CU. 



[Vol. VUL, No. 198 



etc., contains numerous erroneous statements re- 

 garding geographical laws. The book is fully illus- 

 trated with cuts and maps. Most of the latter are 

 fairly good specimens of work, but a better ex- 

 ample of hachure work might have been selected 

 than the map of the Yellowstone national park, 

 while that of the Neversink mountains near Read- 

 ing, Pa., is by no means a good specimen of con- 

 tour work. 



Mr. Carpenter's little book ' is essentially a de- 

 scription of the methods of work in use upon the 

 U. S. geographical surveys west of the 100th merid- 

 ian, in which organization his experience was 

 obtained. It is almost unnecessary to say that it 

 deals ;admost entirely with traverse methods of 

 location. 



A number of text- books have been written upon 

 stadia surveying, and many tables for the reduc- 

 tion of stadia measurements have been made, 

 most of which are theoretically faulty, but all 

 good enough for the material to be treated. 

 Among these are Winslow's ' Stadia surveying ' - 

 and Johnson's ' Topographical surveying.' ^ The 

 former contains only the theory of the instrument, 

 with tables for its use. It is a convenient little 

 volume. The latter goes into the subject more 

 fully, giving the theory, describing the instru- 

 ments in ordinary use, and the routine of field and 

 ofifice work, together with the applications of the 

 method to railroad, canal, ditch, and pipe line sur- 

 veys, surveys of drainage basins, and city and town 

 sites, etc. In discussing the cost per square mile by 

 this method it will be noticed that no reference is 

 made to scale, a fact which necessarily makes the 

 figures of no value. Mr. Johnsto discusses the 

 relative advantages of the use of the plane-table 

 and the stadia instrument at some length, to the 

 disadvantage of the former, but it will be seen 

 that he assumes that the plane-table is used simply 

 as a stadia instrument. His concluding objection to 

 the plane table, viz., that it is a very difficult in- 

 strument to learn, suggests a want of familiarity 

 with it. 



Lieutenant Reed's ' Topographical drawing and 

 sketching ' * relates principally to the office work 

 upon maps. A few pages are, how^ever, devoted 

 to field sketching and the use of instruments, but 

 these treat of that ruder class of surveying known 

 as reconnoissance. A chapter is devoted to the 

 use of photography as an aid to topographic work, 



1 Geographical surveying. F. DeY. Cabpentek. New 

 York, Van Nostrand, 1878. 12°. 



2 Stadia surveying. By Arthur Winslow. New York, 

 Van Nostrand, 1884. 12°. 



3 A manual of the theory and practice of topographical 

 surveying by means of the transit and stadia. By J. B. 

 JOHNSON, C.B. New York, Wiley, 1885. 8°. 



•* Topographical drawing and sketching, including appli- 

 cations of photography. By Lieut. Henry A. Reed, U.S.A. 

 New York, Wiley, 1886. 4°. 



an idea which is very popular with amateur topog- 

 raphers. That portion of the work which treats 

 of the office preparation of maps is very full, and 

 is excellent. The book is beautifully illustrated 

 with plates of conventional signs and examples of 

 existing maps. 



M. VuLPiAN recently communicated to the 

 French academy the interesting results of an 

 experiment on brain-mutilation in a fish. The 

 cerebral lobes were removed from a carp on March 

 18 last, and the fish was under daily observation up 

 to the 29th of September, when it died from causes 

 believed by the author to be wholly unconnected 

 with the brain injury. During all this time its 

 movements and respirations were normal, not dif- 

 fering from those of its uninjured fellows. In 

 fact, two months after the operation, M. Vulpian 

 could not perceive any difference in its move- 

 ments and behavior from those of healthy fishes. 

 Its sight was in no wise impaired. It saw and 

 avoided obstacles, and readily recognized the yel- 

 low and white fragments of boiled egg on the 

 bottom of the aquarium. It struggled actively 

 with its feUows to obtain the small particles of 

 food thrown into the water, seeing them from a 

 distance, and following them as they fell. At the 

 approach of the one feeding the fishes, it would 

 swim from the opposite side of the aquarium, 

 manifesting no impairment of intelligence. Its 

 sense of taste was preserved, as shown by its re- 

 jecting non-alimentary substances accidentally 

 taken into its mouth. The sense of smell only, 

 was destroyed, owing to the section of the olfac- 

 tory processes ; otherwise it seemed to retain all 

 the senses, and the intellectual and instinctive fac- 

 ulties of the normal healthy fish. Upon examina- 

 tion, the cerebral lobes and pineal gland were 1 1 

 found to be entirely wanting, but the rest of the •' 

 brain was intact. Although nearly six months 

 had elapsed since the operation, there was no in- 

 dication of the regeneration of the lobes. The 

 opening in the cranium closed up in about two 

 months, and, had the fish lived a month or two 

 longer, the author was certain that the walls 

 would have been wholly ossified. The experi- 

 ment shows that the instinct and the will — facul- 

 ties which in all higher animals seem to be located 

 in the cerebrum — are capable of their full mani- 

 festation in the fish after its complete ablation. 



— Dr. Beaulieu, in the Economiste frangais, 

 gives the foll9vving as the quantity of tobacco con- 

 sumed by each 1,000 people in Europe ; in Spain, 

 llOpovmds ; Italy, 138; Great Britain, 138; Prussia, 

 182 ; Hungary, 207 ; France, 210 ; Denmark, 284; 

 Norway, 229 ; Austria, 273 ; Germany, 336 ; Hol- 

 land, 448 ; Belgium, 560. 



