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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 252 



The accompanying motions of attention are not merely signs of 

 the former, but are essential, constituent factors of it. Suppress 

 the expressive movements, and you suppress the whole process. 

 The fundamental role of these movements is to keep up and re- 

 enforce the attentive consciousness. The brain in attention acts 

 both as an intellectual and as a motor organ. 



A special form of spontaneous attention is surprise, and it is sim- 

 ply an exaggerated form of it. Descartes has given a good ac- 

 count of it, recognizing {though in other terms) the increase of 

 nervous influxes that accompany it, the direction of energy towards 

 muscles, and the typical facial expression. Surprise is a shock 

 caused by the unexpected, a sort of emotional hiatus. This lasts 

 until the object that caused the surprise is apperceived, recognized, 

 adapted to. In surprise one feels much, and knows little ; and the 

 intense emotion rivets the attention. On the physical side the 

 symptoms are exaggerated, the eyelids are widely opened,' perhaps 

 the mouth too. 



The utility of attention in the struggle for life is evident. The mo- 

 ment differentiation is clear, one part of the organism concentrates 

 the energy and arouses a rudimentary attention. Riccardi places the 

 origin of attention in the arthropods. The attention gets centred 

 upon the most perfect sense in the animal, whichever that is. In 

 the higher animals attention is marked, and in all such as play, 

 showing thereby a surplus of energy, there is also an attention to ob- 

 jects not directly useful in the struggle for existence. This is the 

 higher form of attention, equally evident in children. 



In a succeeding article Professor Ribot will give a similar ex- 

 position of voluntary attention. 



Primitive Mind. — An interesting glimpse into the thought 

 processes of unenlightened peoples is furnished by the following 

 observation of the Ainos (a degenerate Japanese tribe distinguished 

 for their long growth of hair) during the recent eclipse. The Aino 

 is said not to be imaginative, but, on being shown the eclipse 

 through a smoked glass, he cried out that the sun was fainting 

 away and dying. A silence ensued, broken by an exclamation of 

 fear that the sun would dry up. They brought water and sprinkled 

 it upwards towards the sun, crj'ing, " O god, we revive thee ! O god, 

 we revive thee ! " Some squirted the water upwards with their 

 mouths, some threw it up with their hands. A group of women 

 and girls sat down with their heads between their knees, as if ex- 

 pecting some calamity. Their tradition with regard to the eclipse 

 says that " when my father was a child, he heard his old grand- 

 father say that his grandfather saw a total eclipse of the sun. The 

 earth became quite dark, and shadows could not be seen ; the birds 

 went to roost, and the dogs began to howl. The black, dead sun 

 shot out tongues of fire and lightning from its sides, and the stars 

 shone brightly. Then the sun began to return to life, and the faces 

 of the people wore an aspect of death ; and, as the sun gradually 

 came to life, these men began to live again." Otherwise they have 

 no theory of the eclipse, but their personification of the phenomenon 

 is evident. 



EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL. 



Wissmann's Expedition across Africa. 



LlEtTTENANT WisSMANN, whose journeys in the Kongo basin 

 won him a well deserved fame as a traveller and energetic explorer, 

 has just returned from his second expedition across the African 

 continent. In the spring of 1886 he started from Angola for Lu- 

 luaburg, a station of the Kongo Association which is situated in the 

 empire of the IVIuata Yambo. Since Pogge's first journey in 1876, 

 there have been six Muata Yambos, and, as at the death of the 

 ruler the capital is changed, six capitals of the empire. We gave a 

 report of Wissmann's expedition from Luluaburg to the Baluba 

 country in No. 228 of Science. On his return from this excursion, 

 he found one building of the station, which contained twenty-one 

 rooms, burnt down, and the commander sick with malaria. His 

 description of the station is of some interest. It consists of a num- 

 ber of houses for the officers of the station, barracks, a house for 

 twelve women, stables, and a prison. The latter is called the 

 cold house,' as it is not permitted to have a fire in it during the 



^ That this is instinctive is borne out by the fact that it occurs in those bhnd from 

 irth, and in whom opening the e es could not thus increase sensation. 



night, — a regulation which is much feared by the negroes, the 

 nights being very cool on the high plateau. The station is protected 

 by a stockade, and a glacis three hundred feet in width. The 

 roads in the neighborhood of the station are fifteen feet wide, and 

 kept very clean. About two thousand feet from the station a vil- 

 lage of the Bassilange is situated. 



Wissmann's expedition, when starting from Luluaburg in 

 October, 18S6, consisted of eighty-nine persons, among whom were 

 an interpreter, a Zanzibari, and thirteen Angola men, while the rest 

 were Bassilange. The number of people, however, rapidly increased 

 to about one thousand, as the Lukugesha, the empress of the Muata 

 Yambo Empire, and the son of Kalamba, with their followers, joined 

 the expedition. When they arrived on the Lubi, an excursion into 

 the country of the Benangongo, who live on the right bank of the 

 river, was made. Then the river was followed to its confluence 

 with the Sankuru, which was crossed below the mouth of the Lubi. 

 It was originally Wissmann's intention to explore the country north- 

 east of this river, which forms the watershed between the Sankuru 

 and the Kongo. He found, however, the state of affairs in the 

 country east of the Sankuru so much changed since the time when 

 he visited it first, four years ago, that he was unable to carry out his 

 purpose. While formerly the cowry was the principal object of bar- 

 ter, now guns and ammunition were in demand. The slave-trade is 

 flourishing. The chiefs of the Bassonge and Bassenge, frequently 

 supported by slave-traders, make raids upon the neighboring tribes 

 in order to procure slaves. These are bartered to the traders for 

 guns and ammunition, or for ivory to the Bakuba, who buy the 

 women for their household, the men for being sacrificed at burials. 

 A short time before Wissmann's arrival a chief of the Bakuba had 

 died, and two hundred slaves were killed when he was buried. 

 Travelling eastward, Wissmann crossed a vast belt of primeval 

 forest which is inhabited by Batetela and the dwarfish Watwa. 

 The woods are almost void of large animals, and even birds are 

 scarce. On the Lukassi the expedition was attacked by the natives, 

 who killed several persons with their poisoned arrows. But after 

 a lively skirmish the natives were driven off, and, when the expedi- 

 tion reached their villages, they were found deserted. During the 

 month of January, 1887, Wissmann crossed a territory depopulated 

 by war and small-pox. The country of the industrious Beneki, 

 whom he visited on his first journey, he found entirely devastated. 

 Famine and small-pox prevailed among the members of the expe- 

 dition, and it was not until the Lomami was crossed that matters 

 became more favorable. At last Nyangwe was reached. Wiss- 

 mann found the Arabs of this place in a state of great excitement 

 on account of the events at Stanley Falls. Nevertheless he suc- 

 ceeded in returning the Bassilange to their native country, but 

 Wissmann himself had to give up the hope of further explorations, 

 and proceeded on the well-known route to the Tanganyika and by 

 way of Lake Nyassa to Zanzibar, whence he returned to Europe. 



The results of this expedition are not so important as it was 

 hoped they would be when Wissmann started from Luluaburg. 

 An expedition from the Kongo southward, or from Luluaburg north- 

 eastward, is what is wanted to give us a more thorough knowledge 

 of the 'hydrography of Central Africa. 



The Hudson Bay Expedition of 1886. — Lieutenant Gor- 

 don's report of the last expedition of the ' Alert ' to Hudson Bay 

 makes it clear that all hopes of establishing a trading-route from 

 England to the west coast of Hudson Bay must be abandoned. 

 The navigation of Hudson Strait proved extremely dangerous on 

 account of the prevailing fogs, the strong tides, and the narrowness 

 of the waters, but principally on account of the heavy ice of Fox 

 Basin, which frequently obstructs the western entrance of the 

 Strait, and of the faulty working of the compass. Besides, vessels 

 navigating these waters must be fortified for meeting the ice, and 

 must not be larger than two thousand tons, because a larger ship 

 would be somewhat unwieldy, could not make such good way 

 through the loose ice, and, being unable to turn so sharply, she 

 would get many a heavy blow, that a smaller ship would escape. 

 Gordon supposes that navigation can be opened between the ist 

 and loth of July, and that the closing of the season would be about 

 the first week of October. These results of Lieutenant Gordon's 

 experience agree exactly with what was mamtained by all experts 

 when the scheme was first propounded ; but at that time their 



