June 2, 1893.] 



and had absorbed much of the cerebrum and the upper part of 

 the cerebellum, the outlines of the Arbor Vitae being plainly 

 visible. I have never seen anything like this in any other bird, 

 nor have I seen any account of worms being found parasitic in 

 the brain before. G. H. French. 



Carbondale, 111. 



Epidemic Forms of Mental or Nervous Diseases or Disorders. 



In response to the inquiry concerning " epidemic forms of men- 

 tal or nervous diseases or disorders," in the issue of May 19, 1 send 

 the following account of an incident which " came to pass " un- 

 der my own eyes. Several years ago our next-door neighbor's 

 little girl, perhaps five or six years old, met with an accident 

 which rendered it necessary that she use a crutch. Another little 

 girl of about the same age, who lived in the adjoining house, 

 seeing the little lame girl with her crutch, obtained a stick which 

 she used as a crutch, hopping and limping, just as she saw the 

 little lame girl doing. At first no attention was paid to this 

 childish fancy, this imitation, this ■' playingbeing lame." After 

 some days had elapsed, however, and this play became so con- 

 stant as to be annoying, the stick was taken away, and the little 

 girl told to put her foot to the floor. She screamed and cried 

 and insisted most strenuously that she could not put htr foot to 

 the floor: she could not stand upon it, etc. I cannot say how 

 long she persisted in thinking she was lame, but shall never for- 

 get how real her apparent affliction was to her, nor her screams 

 of pain when she declared she could not stand without her 

 "crutch"' Mrs. W. a. Kelleeman. 



Columbus, O. 



The Winter of 17.9. 



"In the famous winter of 1709 thousands of families perished 

 in their houses, the Arabic Sea was frozen o\er, and even the 

 Mediterranean." 



The above is found in a foot-note on page 39 of Professor 

 Meech"s article on the intensity of the heat and light of the sun at 

 diflferent latitudes, published in one of the "Smithsonian Con- 

 tributions to Knowledge ' It seems incredible The "Arabic 

 Sea," I take it, is what we call the Arabian Sea, or at least some 

 one of the bodies of water which border on the Arabian peninsula. 

 No information is given as to where the •' thousands of families 

 Ijerished with cold in their houses." 



The Arabian Sea measures about 500 miles across its narrowest 

 part. Can it be possible that it was frozen over? or the Red Sea? 

 or the Persian Gulf? or the Gulf of Oman? Has the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea been frozen over either in historic, or even in glacial 

 times ? 



The statement in Professor Meech's paper is made unequivo- 

 cally, as if speaking of a well-known and well-established fact. 

 It is not put in quotation marks, nor is any authority cited. 



A few weeks ago I wrote to Professor Langley, secretary of the 

 Smithsonian, asking for any information which he might be able 

 to give me To-day I received the following reply: — 



"I beg to say that I do not know the original source from 

 which his particular statements were derived, but that the winter 

 in question was one of exceptional severity is fully attested by 

 well-authenticated records. 



" Umler the article ' Temperatur,' in Gehler's ' Physikalisches 

 Worterbuch,' it is stated that at Paris the thermometer fell many 

 times to — 19° C. ; that in the Kleiner Belt of the Danish seas the 

 Ice extended so far from the coast that the end of it could not be 

 seen from the highest towers; and that the cold must have been 

 especially intense in southern Germany and Italy, since the Adri- 

 atic Sea was wholly covered with ice. 



"Additional records of this severe winter will probably be 

 found in the memoirs of E. Brtickner, who has been making an 

 extended study of variations in climate." 



There is nothing in the fact that at Paris the thermometer fell 

 to — 19° C, or 3^° below our zero, nor that in the Danish waters 

 ice formed far out from the coast to compare in any way with 

 the freezing over of " the Arabic Sea or the Mediterranean ! " 



The fact — if it be a fact — that the Adriatic Sea was wholly 

 covered with ice would indeed be very remarkable, but even that 



SCIENCE. 305 



was a small affair (indicating a moderate climatic aberration) in 

 cotnparison with a temperature so abnormally low as to freeze 

 over so large a body as the Mediterranean, or one so large and so 

 exceptionally warm as the Arabic Sea. 



Can any reader of Science, or any one else, throw any light on 

 this subject? c. B. Warring. 



Animal Effigies. 



Can you or any of your readers furnish me with a reference 

 or references as to large numbers of small animal efiBgies of pot- 

 tery found together in any mound of the United States ? 



^ C. B. M. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



'The Moon's Face: A Study of the Origin of its Features. By G. 

 K. Gilbert. 53 p. Washington, April, 1893. 



The present paper, although delivered as the presidential ad- 

 dress before the Philosophical Society of Washington last De- 

 cember, has only recently been distributed in its complete form. 

 Mr. Gilbert is well known as a geologist and a student of topo- 

 graphic form, and in this paper he has carried his studies away 

 from things terrestrial and turned his eyes and his attention for 

 a time to things celestial. The observations upon which the 

 paper is based were made during three months of the past year, 

 eighteen nights being available for the work, and the 26J-inch 

 refractor of the U. S. Naval Observatory being the instrument 

 employed. Numerous laboratoi-y experiments were also carritd 

 on, and the literature relating to lunar topics was searched. The 

 craters, as the most conspicuous features of the moon's face, are 

 mainly dealt with in the paper, and after a description of their 

 characteristics and a statement of the various theories advanced 

 to account for them, the author advances a theory of his own. 

 The volcanic theory is one held by many writers, but a compari- 

 son of terrestrial and lunar craters, even when the differences in 

 condition are considered, led Mr. Gilbert to reject the hypothesis 

 as untenable. The "bubble" theory, advocated by Robert 

 Hooke in his itficrograp/iia, in 1667, is mentioned, but as Mr. 

 Gilbert had not seen the book the theory is not discussed in any 

 detail. It may not be amiss to devote a few words to it here. 



Hooke describes the features of the craters as he saw them 

 through his telescope, and gives an illustration of some of them. 

 Except as regards detail and the characteristic central hill shown 

 in Mr. Gilbert's figures, those given by Hooke are very similar. 

 In describing the craters he says: 'These seem to me to have 

 been the effects of some motions within the body of the moon, 

 analogous to our earthquakes, by the eruptionof which, as it has 

 thrown up a brim or ridge round about higher than the ambient 

 surface of the moon, so has it left a hole or depression in the 

 middle, proportionally lower." He also mentions, what is of 

 more interest, that he had made several experiments to ascertain, 

 if possible, the origin of the pits. "The first was with a very soft 

 and well-tempered mixture of tobacco-pipe clay and water, into 

 which, if I let fall any heavy body, as a bullet, it would throw 

 up a mixture round the place, which for a while woiild make a 

 representation not unlike these of the moon, but considering the 

 state and condition of the moon, there seems not any probability 

 to imagine that it should proceed fi-om any cause analogous to 

 this; for it would be difficult to imagine whence those bodies 

 should come; and next, how the substance of the moon should 

 be so soft; but if a bubble be blown under the surface of it, and 

 suffered to rise and break; or if a bullet or other body sunk in it 

 be pulled out from it. these departing bodies leave an impression 

 on the surface of the mixture exactly like those of the moon, 

 save that these also quickly subside and vanish. But the second 

 and most notable representation was what I observed in a pot of 

 boiling alabaster, for then that powder being by the eruption of 

 vapors reduced to a kind of fluid consistence, if, whilst it boils, it 

 be gently removed beside the fire, the alabaster presently ceasing 

 to boil, the whole surface, especially that where some of the last 

 bubbles have risen, will appear all over covered with small pits 

 exactly shaped like these of the moon, and by holding a lighted 



