io6 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Feb. 3, I J 



the blood far more thoroughly and effectually. And this 

 for the following reason. Lungs, in their specified form, 

 can only aerate a small proportion of the blood at each 

 inspiration ; the respiratory system of the insect, on the 

 contrary, simultaneously purifies the whole, without the 

 need of first conveying it to a definite centre. Thus an 

 insect has none of what we generally term venous blood, 

 or that which, having run its course through the arteries, 

 has been deprived of its life-giving particles, and clogged 

 with impure matter which must be thrown off in the 

 lungs before it can again be fit for use ; and the venous 

 blood amounts to one-half of the whole. Consequently, 

 an insect need possess only half the amount of blood 

 which it would otherwise require; and a considerable 

 amount of weight is again dispensed with. This perfect 

 aeration of the blood it is that gives to an insect its 

 bright and vivid life, its tireless energy, and the quick 

 vivacity of movement which renders it, proportionately 

 speaking, infinitely superior in speed and agility to 

 any other living being. And this it is which renders it 

 a creature of flight, in the most perfect acceptation of the 

 term. 



With minor details of structure, as in the case of the 

 bat and the bird, we need not concern ourselves. Enough 

 has been shown to prove that the power of flight, so far 

 from being a mere faculty dependent upon the possession 

 of wings, is the outcome of a most elaborate series of 

 bodily modifications, prompted, in the first place, by the 

 three essential requirements of great muscular power, 

 increased air-supply, and utmost possible lightness of 

 frame ; and, in the second, by the consequent alterations 

 which cannot but follow upon the first ; for a change of 

 structure, great or small, inevitably brings others in its 

 train. If the bones are altered, the muscles must be 

 altered too ; if the muscles are altered, the nerves must 

 be altered ; and so on. And so radical a change as that 

 brought about by the possession of the power of flight 

 cannot but influence, directly or indirectly, even the 

 remotest and most insignificant portions of the frame. 



Now, man is as little suited to flight as almost any being 

 upon the face of the earth. Relatively speaking, he of all 

 creatures is one of the least muscular. To work wings 

 of the size which he would require, with the rapidity 

 necessary to their successful employment, would be 

 altogether beyond his powers, while, even were their 

 motion to be rendered automatic, the character of his 

 bodily balance would still render flight impossible. 



For, as has already been pointed out, the natural atti- 

 tude of all flj'ing animals is horizontal ; that of man is 

 perpendicular. To pass through any resisting medium — 

 air, earth, or water — the form must be more or less 

 conico-cylindrical. Birds are so ; insects are so ; 

 moles and earth-worms are so ; fishes are so. And man 

 is not. 



So our hopes of flight, if such hopes we may justly enter- 

 tain at all, must be based not upon the ingenuity of cunning 

 artificers who shall devise wings to bear us aloft in air, 

 but upon the progress of mechanical science, which, by 

 discoveries as yet undreamt of, may conquer the difficulties 

 of aerial locomotion, and enable us to rise aloft by means 

 of machines whose power of ascension shall not be a 

 mere question of specific gravity. Possibly such machines, 

 if ever they should be invented, may be adapted to the 

 individual, who thus would acquire all the con- 

 veniences accompanying the power of flight, and yet 

 would be independent of his own physical exertions. 

 Such may, or may not, be one of the inventions of which 



man will be able to avail himself in future ages. But as 

 to the possibility of his acquiring the power of actual 

 flight there can be no question at all. Nature has long 

 since answered that inquiry in the negative. Flight, as 

 we have seen, is much more than a mere faculty de- 

 pendent upon the presence of wings ; it is possible only 

 to those beings whose entire organisation has been/ 

 moulded in accordance with the special requirements 

 following upon its possession. And as man is not one 

 of those beings, and as his physical conformation is ai 

 matter wholly beyond his own control, we may dismiss 

 at once and for ever the notion that under any circum- 

 stances or at any time he will be able to acquire the 

 enviable faculty of flight. 



Natural |i(0ior^* 



KING'S CHLAMYDOSAURUS. 

 An Australian lizard, which had hitherto not beers 

 brought over alive, arrived a short time ago at the 

 menagerie of the Natural History Museum in Paris, but 

 unfortunately only survived for three weeks. 



This lizard was remarkable, as it had on the sides of 

 the neck a large projecting membrane jagged at its edge, 

 and folded upon itself after the manner of a fan. Whea 

 in a state of repose it was applied close to the neck, around 

 which it formed a kind of collarette. This strange lizard is 

 King's Chlamydosaurus {Chlamydosaiirus Kingii, Gray). 

 The two halves of the collarette were continuous under 

 the throat, but separated behind, where they slightly 

 overlapped. Each consisted of a fold of skin covered 

 with large carinate scales, and sustained on each side by 

 a subcutaneous thickening having the appearance of 

 cartilage, as well as by a bony process springing from the 

 hyoid bone. Special muscles moved this apparatus, 

 enabling the animal to erect or fold it at will. We do 

 not think, however, that it can be unfolded to its fullest 

 extent, as the number of supports appeared to be insuffi- 

 cient, and the observations made while the creature was 

 in captivity confirmed this view. The lizard now and 

 then raised this appendage when attempts were made to- . 

 catch it, but only very incompletely. 



At present the exact use ot this collarette is not known,, 

 but as it is of the same character as the membranes on 

 the sides of the bodies of other Lacertians, such as the 

 "flying dragons," or of certain mammals, as, for example,, 

 bats, " flying foxes," etc., it is probable that they are 

 employed for a similar purpose and that they constitute 

 an accessory means of locomotion. According to Lcr 

 Nature, from which we borrow the accompanying 

 illustration, this lizard lives in trees, the one under 

 observation being constantly perched, and it is probable 

 that when it jumps from one branch to another it erects 

 this membrane, which thus serves as a kind of para- 

 chute. On the other hand, as it feeds mainly uport 

 insects, and perhaps catches them in their flight by 

 throwing itself upon them, it may use this appendage 

 to increase and regulate its bounds. Much stronger and 

 more elegant than the ocellated lizard, the Chlamydosaurus 

 may attain a length of about 31 inches from the snout 

 to the tip of its very long tail. Its limbs are strong, 

 and its claws curved and sharp-edged, as is necessary 

 for a chmbing animal. It is agile and abrupt in its 

 movements. When resting it leans upon its tail, and 

 raising itself on its fore-paws erects its head, which 



