Septembbe 9, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



347 



tions, the water from Gastein, for instance, 

 being nearly a hundred times as active as that 

 from Vichy. The activity of a water is 

 greater at a spring than that of the same 

 water after keeping for some time. The gas 

 from a spring is often strong enough to 

 blacken a photographic plate after several 

 hours' exposure, though the intensity of ac- 

 tion is very small in comparison with that of 

 radium itself. The authors raise the question 

 as to whether it is possible that the therapeutic 

 action of certain waters can be connected with 

 their radioactivity. 



Bouchard, Curie and Balthazard have ex- 

 perimented upon the physiological effect of 

 the emanation, and find that it has a marked 

 toxic action on inhalation, producing intense 

 congestion of the lungs. The tissues after 

 death show a decided radioactivity. 



Veneziani has tested the action of radium 

 rays upon the protozoon Opalina ranarum 

 from the intestinal canal of the frog. While 

 the organism dies very soon after removal 

 from its normal habitat, under the influence 

 of a radium preparation of 10,000 units it 

 lives much longer and preserves its activity. 

 From this the author concludes that while 

 radium often has a destructive influence upon 

 the living cell, this action is by no means uni- 

 form, and the radium may sometimes have 

 the opposite effect. 



The great sensitiveness of recent methods 

 of detecting minute quantities of emanations 

 and infinitesimal radioactivity is compared by 

 Berthelot with the sensitiveness of the nerves 

 of smell for certain odors. For example, he 

 cites the odor of iodoform, which can be 

 recognized in quantities as small as one hun- 

 dred billionth of a gram. In such a case a 

 distinct odor could be perceived even though a 

 gram, of the substance would not lose a thou- 

 sandth part of its weight in hundreds of years. 

 He calls attention to the risk of inferring 

 from spectroscopic methods the change of one 

 element into another, inasmuch as the sensi- 

 tiveness of the spectroscope belongs to the 

 same order of delicacy. It is well possible 

 that the indication of spectral lines of one 

 element might appear in the spectrum of an- 



other, owing to the presence of an infinitesimal 

 amount of the element as an impurity. 



J. L. H. 



ANCIENT NATURAL HISTORY LORE. 



Ajst interesting article is contributed to 

 Nature (Vol. LXX., p. 207) by Dr. E. Lydek- 

 ker on portraits of mammals preserved in 

 ancient Egyptian inscriptions. The amount 

 of research which has been carried on in this 

 line of late years is considerable, the most 

 elaborate contribution being the recently pub- 

 lished memoir of Lartet and Gaillard on 

 the mummified animals of Egypt.* To the 

 zoologist these investigations are valuable 

 chiefly for their bearing upon questions of 

 geographical distribution and minor variation, 

 but to the archeologist their interest is much 

 greater and more general. 



In calling attention to the fact that no mean 

 harvest of information may be gleaned from 

 this ancient field, it goes almost without say- 

 ing that a rich reward awaits him who will 

 critically reexamine and collate the mass of 

 fact contained in classic writings on natural 

 history, though it is clear the task of eliminat- 

 ing fancy, fable and rank superstition is not 

 an easy one. That a good beginning has 

 already been made, so far as relates to the 

 more familiar animals, will not be disputed by 

 any one who has examined Otto Keller's 

 ' Thiere des classischen Alterthums ' (Inns- 

 bruck, 1887), a work of great interest alike to 

 the naturalist and antiquarian. This book, 

 however, falls short of completeness, the omis- 

 sions including even such important creatures 

 as the lion, elephant and rhinoceros. 



Regarding the lion in particular, it must 

 be confessed that the grossest ignorance and 

 misconceptions prevailed not only in classic 

 times, but until well along in the middle ages. 

 One of the most surprising fallacies enter- 

 tained concerning both the lion and panther 

 was that parturition occurred but once during 

 lifetime, each pair producing a single cub, and 

 each generation consequently being not more 

 than half as numerous as the preceding. The 

 theory of spontaneous generation came in 



* Archives Museum d'Hist. Nat. de Lyon, Vol. 

 VIII., No. 2, 1903. 



