SCIENCE LETTER FROM PARIS. 31 
developed with precision, in one and the same epoch and strata. Investigations 
prove that such and such a type runs into another over several epochs. There 
are, furthermore, great inequalities in the duration and prolongation of these types 
and the "struggle for life" does not receive entire corroboration, since the 
strongest and the most perfect types are precisely those which have had the 
shortest destinies. In a word, the paleontologist can distinguish in this grand 
history of animal existence, types which correspond to epochs, similarly as we 
allude to the age of Pericles or that of Louis XIV. There appear to be persistent 
or cosmopolitan types that play the role of permanent reservoirs. 
Lead salts enter very largely and against our will into our daily food, drink, 
and even raiment. Dr. Galippe announces that sulphate of copper is another 
metal that can be found in our daily bread and vegetables. But blue vitriol it is 
now believed is not poisonous ; that is to say, taken in moderation, such as it 
exists in wheats and vegetables grown in France. As revealed by the analysis of 
Dr. Galippe, there is a very respectable " trace " of blue vitriol in these products ; 
from whence does it come? From the soil; the latter has received it from the 
practice of French farmers since years steeping their seed grain in solutions of blue 
vitriol to kill weevil and similar vermin. 
The astronomer Herschel introduced us to lunar men. M. Zaborouski 
directs our attention to the case of two conscripts, medically examined in 1880. 
They had caudal appendices, one three-quarters of an inch in length, the other 
two and a quarter inches. When the latter was raised it fell down of its own 
accord. Both were malformations. Max Hortels gives a list of nineteen 
analogous cases. This does not indicate that a man with a tail is a reality ; but 
that a man with an appendix is a phenomenon. Other lusus naturce ; in the 
Yellowstone mountains of America, male hares, or what are designated such, 
suckle their young very frequently. In 18 ;2, M. Courty drew the attention of 
scientists to a man at Montpellier, whose right breast secreted milk, and that might 
put a first class wet-nurse into the shade. 
M. Manouvrier has conducted some curious experiments to test the relative 
power of hand-pressure. Men, not belonging to the laboring classes, and aged 
between 25 and 45, pressed respectively upon an instrument, a kind of dynanom- 
eter; the minimum pressure was 84 pounds, and the maximum 187 pounds; 
there was always a mean difference in favor of the right over the left hand of 22 
pounds; while 6)^ pounds was the difference between big and little men. The 
maximum hand-force of women was 97 pounds; the minimum 35 pounds. Small 
women had invariably stronger hands than large women. Every-day life confirms 
that. 
