SEPTEirBEK 16, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



381 



king of France and Poland, and sometimes 

 called ' father of French surgery.' We would 

 fain reproduce it in all the quaintness of the 

 original, as follows : 



Etant a Tine mienne vigne, prfea le village de 

 Meudon, oil je faisois rompre de Men gi.iirles et 

 grosses pierres solides, on trouva an milieu do 

 I'une d'ieelles un gros crapaud vif, et n'y avoit 

 aucune apparence d'ouverture, et m'esmerveillai, 

 eomme cet animal avoit pli naltre, croJtre et avoir 

 vie. Lors le Carrier me dit qu'il ne s'en falloit 

 esmerveiller, parce que plusieurs fois il avoit 

 trouvg de tels et autres animaux an profond des 

 pierres, sans apparenee d'aucune ouverture. — 

 (1564). 



Differing in nowise from the above, except 

 that they are attested by numerous reputable 

 witnesses, are the accounts presented to the 

 French Academy in the early days of its his- 

 tory, one such being preserved in the Memoires 

 for 1719, and another in the volume for 1731. 

 Nor should one fail to note what the old 

 Toulonese historians have said concerning 

 edible mussels which the inhabitants cracked 

 out of the solid rock in the harbor of their 

 city. Instead of going clam-digging, those 

 in search of a delicacy sallied forth with a 

 hammer, and the shell-fish so obtained were 

 said to have had an admirable flavor.* 



Coming down to our own time and country, 

 the curious will find in the American Journal 

 of Science for 1822 (Vol. XIX., p. ,167) an 

 edifying description by Mr. David Thomas of 

 the discovery of a live toad in a block of 

 limestone during the excavation of the Erie 

 Canal. The details of this incident, even in- 

 cluding the fact that the toad got away, are 

 authenticated by various ' witnesses of unim- 

 peachable veracity,' one of them afterwards 

 becoming a state senator, as we are told. And 

 so with similar anecdotes, which meet the 

 eye from time to time in the daily newspapers. 



Not the slightest suspicion of untruthfulness 

 in any of these instances is attached either to 

 the narrator or to the spectators who corrobo- 

 rate the original statement to the best of their 

 belief and knowledge. It is probably furthest 

 from the minds of these worthy people wilfully 



* Bouche, H., ' Chorographie, ou Description de 

 la Provence,' vol. i., p. 924, Paris, 1664. The 

 account evidently refers to boring moUusks. 



to deceive the public, and yet, on the other 

 hand, a little reflection shows that from the 

 very nature of things such tales are incredible, 

 and those who vouch for them must be mis- 

 taken in their observations, even as the most 

 alert and sharp-sighted persons are deceived 

 by the feats of a prestidigitator. The evi- 

 dence given by the spectators would, so far as 

 appearances go, be perfectly trustworthy, but 

 when we subject their accuracy of observation 

 and memory to the test of reason, which asks 

 whether they relate that which is perforce 

 impossible, the credibility of these witnesses 

 is at once challenged. The fact remains that 

 the sea serpent has not yet been captured, and 

 in every instance these long-imprisoned frogs 

 and toads and other animals have suddenly 

 become vivified and succeeded in making their 

 escape. Hence we are bound to agree with 

 Dr. Traquair when he remarks that he ' should 

 certainly not like to see the issue of a trial, 

 civil or criminal, depend on the question of 

 whether a man had seen the sea serpent, or 

 had witnessed a family of young adders creep- 

 ing down their mother's throat' 



C. E. Eastman. 

 Harvard Univeesitt. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



The medal of the Society of Chemical In- 

 dustry, awarded every second year for services 

 to applied chemistry, has been presented to 

 Dr. Ira Eemsen, president of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University. 



Dr. Ludwig Sylow, professor of mathe- 

 matics in the University of Christiania, has 

 been made a foreign knight of the Prussian 

 order ' pour 'le merite.' 



Dr. Moritz Cantor, the well-known mathe- 

 matician of the University of Heidelberg, cele- 

 brated recently his seventy-fifth birthday. 



Dr. "William H. Welch, of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University, has given the Lane lectures 

 at the Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, 

 his subject being 'Infection and Immunity.' 



We leafn from Nature that the Lancashire 

 and Western Sea Fisheries Joint Committee 

 has appointed Dr. J. T. Jenkins, professor of 

 biology in Hartley University College, South- 



