VUl 



SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



VIII. Ferns the Ancestors of Flowers . . .107 



Chemical Attraction — Transition from Ferns to Flowers 

 — The Gingko Tree and Cycads— Extinct Seed-pro- 

 ducing. Ferns. 



IX. Elephants 119 



The Indian and the African Elephant — Size of Modern 

 Elephants — Ears and Teeth of Elephants — Earliest 

 Elephants brought to Europe — The Elephant's Legs 

 — Tusks used in Digging — Elephants used in War — 

 Geological Strata since the Chalk — Ancestral Mam- 

 mals — The Typical or Ancestral Set of Teeth — The 

 Peculiarities of the Teeth of Elephants — Extinct 

 Relatives of Elephants — Ancestors of Elephants — 

 Origin of the Elephant's Trunk. 



X. A Strange Extinct Beast 148 



Fossil Skeletons and Jaw-bones — The Skull and Teeth 

 of Goats — The Teeth of Rats — The Rat-toothed 

 . Goat — Origin of the Rat-toothed Goat. 



XI. Vegetarians and their Teeth . . . .159 



Teeth of Carnivors — Mixed Diets — Disease-germs in 

 Food. 



XII. Food and Cookery 170 



Special Diet of Various Races — Food and Habit — 

 Nervous Control of Digestion — Wholesale Food and 

 Mechanical Cookery — The Burnt Offering of the 

 Jews — Women Neglect Cookery — A Great German's 

 Appreciation. 



XIII. Smells and Perfumes 184 



Smells and Memory — Accidental Qualities — Bacteria 

 and Smells — Some Remarkable Smells. 



XIV. Kisses 



'93 



Kissing and Smelling — Variations in the Sense of 

 Smell — Radiation and Odours — Attraction by Smell 

 — Unconscious Guidance by Smell. 



XV. Laughter 204 



Why do we Laugh ? — Varieties of Laughter — The 

 Laugh of Escape from Death — The Laugh of 

 Derision. 



XVI. Fatherless Frogs . 213 



Fertilisation of the Egg-cell — Egg-cells Developing Un- 

 fertilised— M. Bataiilon's Discovery. 



