40 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
to light in greatest number and of truest value the differential characters between 
the lowest Homo and the highest Simla.'''' 
To realize the character of the man who once thought and lived in the an- 
cient Neanderthal skull, we must consider its interior capacity \ and only by con- 
sidering that, can we realize that he was a man very much like men we meet to- 
day in the walks of civilization. The artist may claim to use his skull-cap as a 
model, and build up a mass of plaster representing a brute-man with giant trunk 
and semi-hairy back and breast, with grinning savage Jaws, and forehead low, 
in which the "bosses" are brought tout into special prominence — and with ia 
crown rising to a cone, unlike enough to the fossil — which is rounded in the 
coronal region — on which short grizzly hair exaggerates the brutish aspect, but 
cannot persuade us, who have had one glimpse into that fossil, that his work is 
aithful. — Phrenological Journal. 
BOTANY. 
CONDITIONS MOST FAVORABLE FOR VEGETABLE ACTIVITY. 
PROFESSOR GOODALE. 
The assimilative activity of plants is measured by the amount of carbonic 
acid consumed and oxygen given off. Respiratory activity is measured by the 
amount of oxygen consumed and carbonic acid given off. For most rapid assimila- 
tion the amount of carbonic acid must not exceed a definite amount for each sort 
of plant. Some people argue that if a teaspoonful of medicine is good, a whole 
bottleful at a dose would be better. But apply this to plants-, and we soon find 
that if^ we increase the carbonic acid beyond a certain amount, the plant suffers 
from it. Geologists will then question how it was in the coal period. It has been 
concluded that there was really less carbonic acid in the atmosphere at that time 
than has been supposed. Moreover, we find that the equisetacea, and other 
descendants of the plants of that age, need more carbonic acid than do others. 
The amount generally found in the atmosphere seems best for plants at this time. 
For vegetable activity there is a maximum, minimum and optimum temperature. 
Let a plant grow where the conditions of moisture, heat, etc., can be regulated, 
and we find that, when the temperature rises above a certain limit, the plant dies, 
as does its individual cells; or let the temperature fall below a certain limit and 
the same thing occurs. These limits vary very much in different plants. Between 
these points lies the optimum temperature for each plant, which varies, of course, 
with the others. The optimum temperature for corn, e. g. , is much higher than 
that of barley, and this fact has a very important bearing on the distribution of 
plants. From iio° to 120° is the maximum for ordinary greenhouse plants. 
