Fbbbfabt 25, 1887.] 



SCIEJSrCE. 



185 



yeax came from Kilauea. The best authorities, 

 like Button, agree that the Kahuku flow came 

 from Mauna Loa, while Kilauea overflowed in the 

 Kau desert. The area of the flow is only about a 

 quarter of a mile in length and breadth. 



It is worthy of note that after the eruptions of 

 1823, 1840, and 1886, the returning lava has stood 

 at nearly the same level. That of 1823, described 

 by Ellis, is estimated by Button to have been 400 

 feet lower than at the time of his visit. Redu- 

 cing the figures to a uniform standard reference 

 to the sea-level, the altitude in 1823 was 3,177 

 feet; in 1840, 3,170 feet; in 1886, 3,140 feet, or 

 the lowest point. In 1882 the level of New Lake 

 was estimated at 3,577 feet. The highest level of 

 March 6 was at 3,719 feet. It appears, therefore, 

 that there has been no essential change in the 

 normal natural level of the molten lava for the 

 past sixty-five years. 



By advices sent as late as the middle of October, 

 it appears that the central cone has risen 700 or 

 800 feet above the lowest level of the pit, and it 

 is still rising. Small streams of lava issue, play 

 around, and harden between the central cone and 

 the walls of the pit ; so that the old Halema'uma'u 

 is being restored (fig. 3). 



Buring the months of September and October 

 Professor Alexander employed parties to make a 

 further survey and map of the great caldera. The 

 result is given in the annexed map after the sur- 





- ;".('ra. 



HALEMA'UMA'tT IN OCTOBER, 1886. 



veys of F. S. Bodge. The earlier map of Emerson 

 was based upon the sketch of W. T. Brigham, 

 made in 1866, and any general changes of outline 

 observed are due to the greater precision of Bodge's 

 survey. One observes differences in the northern 

 wall, the straightening of the cliff in front of 

 Kilauea-Iki, the more satisfactory representation 

 of the two side-craters, and the location of the 

 promontory at the old sulphur-beds. Halema'uma'u 

 itself shows changes between these two latest 



maps. Instead of the deep pit in the centres 900 

 feet below the Volcano House, there is a circular 

 ridge nearly 600 feet above that lowest point. The 

 lava which commenced to flow June 4 has con- 

 tinued to discharge ever since, and has now built 

 up this crater. There is a sort of moat between 

 the crater and the black ledge surrounding it as 

 vs^ell as the central pit within. There is represented 

 also an interesting patch of Aa to the north of 

 Halema'uma'u. C. H. Hitchcock. 



PARIS LETTER. 



In a paper recently read before the Biological 

 society of Paris, Br. Bebierre gave the results of 

 researches concerning the physical superiority of 

 the right side of the human body. Since the ex- 

 periments of Harting, Sappey, Jobert, Concet, 

 Milne-Edwards, and others, it has been generally 

 accepted that in right-handed persons the right 

 side is larger, longer, and heavier than the left 

 side. To ascertain whether this disparity exists 

 in early life, or is afterwards developed by educa- 

 tion, Br. Bebierre experimented upon the dead 

 bodies of young children, and found that, where 

 education and practice had not interfered, there 

 was no difference in size or weight between the 

 right and left limbs. This is well, so tar as it 

 goes, but there must be some reason for the supe- 

 rior development by education of the right side. 

 Even if we admit that education is the only reason 

 for this superiority, we must believe that some 

 circumstances in the foetal development, or in the 

 conditions governing the nervous centres, are 

 favorable to it, as it is so general, unless we 

 believe that the first man was by special design 

 created right-handed. But this belief I think no 

 naturalist would accept. 



As a consequence of the troubled international 

 relations on our continent, — a state of affairs 

 prejudicial to thought and business alike, and 

 which will end some day in a tremendous crash 

 and most foolish and unprofitable waste of human 

 energy and life, — chemists are busily engaged in 

 seeking improved methods of destruction. In 

 France a new explosive has been devised, said to 

 be as much superior to nitro-glycerine as the latter 

 is to common gunpowder. It is called ' melinite,' 

 and its explosive force is to that of gunpowder as 

 100 to 5. Its destructive effects are fearful, inas- 

 much as bombs charged with it do not explode 

 immediately upon striking a wall, or similar re- 

 sisting surface, the explosion taking place some 

 little time after penetration. This new war ma- 

 terial is the invention of MM. Locard and Hiron- 

 dard of Bourges, to whom the minister of war 

 has given an order for 200,000 bombs charged with 



