'44 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 475 



work-tables arp braced diagonally from the walls by iron 

 rods. The rooms are heated by steam radiators. The walls 

 and ceilings are finished in dull white and the woodwork in 

 dark walnut, colors being avoided in order to keep the 

 physiological conditions of sight normal. Natural and col- 

 ored light can be let into the dark room through the south 

 wall. The central hall is lighted through glass panels in 

 the doors. 



The fittings of the laboratory have cost about $450 — a 

 grant additional to the appropriation of $1,100 for instru- 

 ments. This does not include, however, the arrangements 

 for lighting, heating, and the special flooring. It is probable 

 that the cost would be slightly more in the United States. 

 Of the original amount appropriated, moreover, $300 is an 

 annual allowance for the maintenance of the laboratory. 

 The writer hopes, also, to have soon a paid assistant, who 

 will be constantly at work in the rooms. 



The laboratory will, it is hoped, serve two main purposes: 

 First, it is used to illustrate the undergraduate courses 

 in psychology in the university; and, second, it is designed 

 to serve as a centre for advanced research in the new lines 

 of experimental work. Being the only foundation of the kind 

 in Canada,' it will represent what we are doing in this line 

 in the Dominion. The Department of Education of Ontario 

 undertakes with great liberality to publish the researches of 

 students who do work of real merit, and to distribute them 

 generously. Publications issued from other such centres 

 everywhere will be received in return with much gratitude; 

 and new ideas in matters of technique, arrangement, etc., 

 especially detailed notices of new pieces of apparatus, re- 

 prints from the journals, and announcements of new discov- 

 eries, will be welcome. J. Mark Baldwin. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Feb. 33, 

 Mr. Theodore Bent read before a large audience a paper on his 

 recent exploration among the Zimbabwe and other ruins. The 

 paper, says Nature, was one of great interest. Mr. Bent said 

 that, with his wife and Mr. Robert Swan, he went to Mashonaland 

 primarily to examine the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe. These 

 ruins, so named to distinguish them from the numerous minor 

 Zimbabwes scattered over the country, were situated in south 

 latitude 30" 16' 30", and east longitude 31° 10' 10", at an eleva- 

 tion of 3,300 feet above the sea-level, and formed the capital of a 

 long series of such ruins stretching up the whole length of the 

 west side of the Sab» River. They covered a vast area of ground, 

 and consisted of the large circular building on a gentle rise with 

 a network of inferior buildings extending into the valley below, 

 and the labyrinthine fortress on the hill, about 400 feet above, 

 naturally protected by huge granite bowlders and a precipice run- 

 ning round a considerable portion of it. Mr. Bent gave a minute 

 description of the ruins, drawing attention to evidence that their 

 ancient inhabitants must have been given to the grosser forms of 

 native worship. Perhaps the most interesting of their finds in 

 one portion were those in connection with the manufacture of 

 gold. Mr. Bent held that the ruins and the things in them were 

 not in any way connected with any known African race; the ob- 

 jects of art and the special cult were foreign to the country alto- 

 gether, where the only recoguized form of religion was, and had 

 been since the days when the early Portuguese explorers pene- 

 trated into it and El Masoudi wrote, that of ancestor worship. It 

 was also obvious that the ruins formed a garrison for the protec- 

 tion of a gold -producing race in remote antiquity. So we must 

 look around for such a race outside the limits of Africa, and it 

 was in Arabia that we found the object of our search. All 

 ancient authorities speak of Arabian gold in terms of extravagant 

 praise. Little, if any, gold came from Arabia itself ; and here in 



^ The first lu tUe Briclsbi Dominion as far as my Information goes. 



Africa gold was produced in large quantities, both from alluvial 

 and from quartz, from the remotest ages. A cult practised in 

 Arabia in early times was also practised here ; hence there was 

 little room for doubt that the builders and workers of the Great 

 Zimbabwe came from the Arabian peninsula. He had no hesi- 

 tation in assigning tliis enterprise to Arabian origin, and to a pre- 

 Mahomraedan period. 



— The United States Hydrographio Office makes a report of the 

 magnetic storm of Feb. 13-14, 1893, as recorded by the self-regis- 

 tering magnetic instruments of the United States Naval Observa- 

 tory, Washington, D.C. These records of this unusually severe 

 magnetic storm are of especial interest as occurring at the same 

 time as the fine displays of aurorse and the appearance of a large 

 group of sun spots. The magnetic storm commenced suddenly at 

 12.40 A.M. (75th meridian time), Feb. 13, with a movement of the 

 north end of the declination magnet to the westward and a rapid 

 increase in the horizontal and decrease in the vertical components 

 of the earth's magnetic force. The north end of the declination 

 magnet remained to the westward of its normal position until 

 10.30 A.M, when it crossed to the eastward, all the time oscillating 

 violently, and did not return to its normal position until 8 P.M. of 

 the 13th, after which it kept oscillating on each side of its mean 

 position until the end of the storm. It registered a change of di- 

 rection of \h°. The first increase in the horizontal force was fol- 

 lowed by a rapid decrease, the force falling to much less than its 

 usual strength, with rapid changes. Its change during the storm 

 was 2 J percent of its mean strength. The vertical force decreased 

 so much that the sensitive balanced magnet used to record it was 

 upset at 8 p.m. of the 13th, and its further record lost. The aurorae 

 were seen at Washington at about 2 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. of the 13th, 

 the latter time being marked by an unusually disturbed condition 

 of the magnets. 



— The usual monthly meeting of the Royal Meteorological So- 

 ciety was held on Wednesday evening, the 17th of February. A 

 paper on "The Untenahility of an Atmospheric Hypothesis of 

 Epidemics" was read by the Hon. RoUo Russell. The author is 

 of opinion that no kind of epidemic or plague is conveyed by the 

 general atmosphere, but that all epidemics are caused by human 

 conditions and communications capable of control. In this paper 

 he investigates the manner of the propagation of influenza, and 

 gives the dates of the outbreaks in 1890 at a large number of 

 islands and other places in various parts of the world. Mr. Russell 

 says that there is no definite or known atmospheric quality or 

 movement on which the hypothesis of atmospheric conveyance can 

 rest, and when closely approached it is found to be no more availa- 

 ble than a phantom. Neither lower nor upper currents have ever 

 taken a year to cross Europe from east to west, or adjusted their 

 progress to the varying rate of human intercourse. Like other 

 maladies of high infective capacity, influenza has spread most 

 easily, other things being equal, in cold, calm weather, when ven- 

 tilation in houses and railway cars is at a minimum, and when 

 perhaps the breathing organs are most open to attack. But large 

 and rapid communications seem to be of much more importance 

 than mere climatic conditions. Across frozen and snow-covered 

 countries and tropical regions it is conveyed at a speed correspond- 

 ing, not with the movements of the atmosphere, but with the 

 movements of i)opulation and merchandise. Its indifference to 

 soil and air, apart from human habits depending on these, seems 

 to eliminate all considerations of outside natural surroundings, 

 and to leave only personal infectiveness, with all which this im- 

 plies of subtle transmission, to account for its propagation. •' The 

 Origin of Influenza Epidemics" was the title of a paper by Mr. H. 

 Harries. The author has made an investigation into the facts 

 connected with the great eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, and the 

 atmospheric phenomena which were the direct outcome of that 

 catastrophe. He has come to the conclusion that the dust derived 

 from the interior of the earth may be considered the principal 

 factor concerned in the propagation of the recent influenza epi- 

 demics, and that, as this volcanic dust invaded the lower levels 

 of the atmosphere, so a peculiar form of sickness assailed man and 

 beast. A "Report on the Phenological Observations for 1891 " 

 was made by Mr. E. Hawley. This report differs in many respects 



