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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[May i8, i88S. 



portant vessels which carry the blood to and from the head, 

 and a second later the wounded dog is lying on the ground, 

 the life-blood pouring in volumes from its mangled throat. 

 So much for the analogy of the monkey. But we have 

 also the analogy of the savage. 



In uncivilised races all the teeth are superior in size, 

 strength, and quality to our own, while flesh — and even 

 raw flesh — is torn by the incisors and canines with per- 

 fect ease. Cookery, with a savage, is an art seldom 

 brought to any great degree of perfection. He slays his 

 victim, cuts a slice or two from any part of its body which 

 he may fancy most, and after roasting it more or less in- 

 completely at his fire, tears it to pieces and devours it. 

 Sometimes he dispenses with cooking operations alto- 

 gether, and swallows his meat raw. Hence the labour 

 thrown upon his teeth is increased, and they, answering 

 to the demand upon them, continue year after year, and 

 generation after generation, in a state of perfection almost 

 unknown to dwellers in civilised countries. And the 

 canines especially, in ourselves the most useless of all 

 the teeth, are available and efficient for purposes which 

 our own could never fulfil. 



3ut we do not depend in our argument wholly upon 

 the analogy ; we have also a very suggestive fact. 

 For upon some of the old Peruvian pottery we 

 find pictorial representations of ancient warriors depicted 

 as possessing well-developed canine tusks, projecting to 

 some little distance from the mouth. 



This fact is very remarkable ; and if in Peru, 

 why not in other parts of the world as well ? The pre- 

 sent small size and feeble powers of the teeth in question 

 are amply accounted for by the degeneration ensuing 

 upon century after century of disuse ; just as doctors are 

 telling us now that our modern refinements in cookery, 

 by minimizing the labour thrown upon the teeth, are 

 gradually diminishing the quality and utility of molars, 

 prje-molars, and incisors alike. Of course in this matter 

 the substances employed as food are not without their 

 influence ; our diet is no longer a natural one. But 

 diminished exercise of any bodily member invariably 

 leads in the end to partial or complete atrophy ; and 

 such atrophy tends eventually to become hereditary. 

 Hence the present uselessness of man's canine teeth 

 affords no proof whatever that in bygone ages they were 

 as we see them now. The presumption, drawn from 

 analogy, is that before man became an intelligent and 

 reasoning being, his canine teeth were sufficiently large 

 and strong to serve him as weapons, probably, but not 

 necessarily,in conjunction with other portions of his frame. 

 The old pottery seems, at any rate, to give colour to 

 this supposition. And therefore it is more than probable 

 that in primeval man these teeth were weapons, and 

 that they have since lost their character simply owing 

 to the fact that we no longer have need of their services. 



Alcoholism and Criminality. — M. Marambet, in a 

 communication to the Academy of Medicine, stated that 

 after examining 3,000 convicted criminals he found that 

 of the vagabonds and the mendicants 79 per cent, are 

 drunkards; of the assassins and incendiaries 50 and 57 ; 

 of robbers, 71. Of those convicted of crimes against the 

 person 88 per cent, and those guilty of attacks on property, 

 77 per cent, are alcoholics. Of 100 criminal youths 

 under twenty, 64 are already drunkards. Drunkenness 

 has greatly increased in France since the consumption of 

 spirits has been substituted for that of wine. 



THE STORM AT DACCA. 



T N his report upon the recent terrific storm at Dacca,, 

 the Government Meteorological Reporter gives the 

 following explanatory history of the phenomenon : — 



" A moisture-laden current, which on the 6th was con- 

 fined to the south of the province, had advanced between 

 the 6th and 7 th in a northerly direction, and had on the 

 morning of the 7 th penetrated as far as Central Bengal, 

 as represented by Berhampore ; and in the southern part 

 of North Bengal, as represented by Ram.pore, Maldah, 

 and Rungpore, but it failed to reach as far as Dinagepore. 

 The moisture-laden current was, however, driven back 

 at 10 a.m. on the 7th, and by 10 a.m. on the 8th the dry 

 westerly wind had almost completely re-established the 

 former position. These fluctuations in the area occupied 

 by these more or less opposite winds were unusually 

 large and well marked, and such cannot happen unless 

 the atmosphere is in a somewhat disturbed condition.- 

 The result of such a conflict of more or less opposing 

 winds, varying so largely as to humidity, is usually to- 

 produce local storms known as north-westers, and, as a 

 matter of fact, during the first few days of the week local, 

 storms were reported from several stations in the Dacca, 

 Chittagong, Noakhally, and Tipperah districts of East 

 Bengal. The usual local storms or north-westers were 

 accompanied by the formation of a small but very violent 

 tornado or whirlwind, which passed through Dacca and 

 the neighbouring district on the evening of the 7th, 

 causing much destruction to life and property throughout 

 its course. It is very rarely that Bengal is visited by 

 storms of this type. On account of the suddenness of 

 their appearance, their short duration, the small path 

 over which they act with destructive violence, and the 

 difficulty of obtaining trustworthy and accurate accounts 

 of the phenomena preceding and attending them, no 

 attempt has hitherto been made to work out scientifically 

 the subject of Indian tornadoes. Two or three only have 

 in fact been described. On the other hand, tornadoes of 

 the most violent character are rather frequent in parts of 

 the United States, and the scientific work which has 

 there been done clearly shows that the atmospheric con- 

 ditions which appear invariably to precede the formation 

 of tornadoes are violent contrasts of temperature and 

 humidity immediately to the north and south of the path 

 to be traversed by the storm. From the above descrip- 

 tion of the weather in parts of the east and north of 

 Bengal at the beginning of the week, it will be seen that 

 the conditions were precisely those invariably found to 

 precede tornadoes in the United States. In addition, 

 however, to these antecedent conditions, there must be 

 some particular cause or set of causes which must deter- 

 mine the formation of a tornado, but of which nothing 

 at present is known, for similar, though perhaps not 

 such violent, contrasts of temperature and humidity in 

 different air currents in Bengal frequently happen at this 

 season of the year ; yet in most cases they are only 

 followed by the formation of dust storms and north- 

 westers, which are sometimes very fierce. It is only 

 from the presence of unknown and exceptional conditions 

 that perhaps once in five or ten years excessively fierce 

 whirlwinds, tornadoes, or even waterspouts are formed,, 

 instead of the usual class of Indian hot-weather storms. 

 Much doubt exists as to whence the enormous energy dis- 

 played in tornadoes is derived, but it is possible, as in the 

 case of cyclones, the energy is derived from the conden- 

 sation of aqueous vapour into rain ; for in most tornadoes 

 torrential rain follows after the passage of a storm ." — Times. 



