32$ 



SCIENCE. 



the brain, after removal from the skull, especially without 

 the membrane, if left to itself, very soon loses its shape. 

 It is absolutely necessary therefore to examine the brain 

 in situ, and alter removal from skull to place it in some 

 hardening fluid in which it will float. Even with these 

 precautions, through the change of the surroundings, 

 shrinkage, etc., the brain is always somewhat altered. 

 It happens, however, that I have had lying in alcohol tor 

 some years a number of human and monkey brains. 

 Among the latter, examples of the genera Cebus, Ateles, 

 Macacus, Cynocephalus, Cercopithecus, etc., taken out of 

 the skull sufficiently carefully, but preserved in the rudest 

 manner without any regard to the above precautions. 

 Now, while all of these brains have somewhat lost the ; r 

 natural contour, they are not so changed that in a s ; ngle 

 one, human or monkey, do I find the cerebellum uncov- 

 ered by the cerebrum, and in every instance the posterior 

 lobes overlap the cerebellum to a greater extent than 1 

 find is the case in my Orang. If the cerebrum and cere- 

 bellum in the Orang and Chimpanzee invariably bear the 

 same proportion to each other as they do in man and the 

 monkeys, why should not the bram of an Orang or 

 Chimpanzee, after lying in alcohol for rome years, exhibit 

 the cerebellum covered by the cerebrum as in them ? 

 Why should it be necessary to replace the brain of the 

 Chimpanzee or the Orang in ihe skull, to make plaster 

 casts, e'c, if there is no difference between their brains 

 and those of man and the monkeys, tor there is no neces- 

 sity of having recourse to such measures to prove that 

 the cerebellum is covered in the latter ? 



In the account I gave of the female Chimpanzee, 1 I 

 stated that I found the cerebellum uncovered. I had 

 the opportunity a short time since, of verifying that 

 statement in the male, noticing in situ that the cerebel- 

 lum was uncovered by the posterior lobes. This was 

 found to be the case by Mr. Arthur Browne, the Super- 

 intendent of the Phila. Zool, Garden, in a third Chim- 

 panzee which died there. With all i eference to Prof. 

 Marshall's 5 photograph of a plaster cast of the brain of 

 a Chimpanzee, and however it may truthfully represent 

 the relations of the c-reb-llum in his specimen, I must 

 say that it would bs simply monstrous it accepted as an 

 illustration of either of mine, and with profound respect 

 for Prof. Huxley's 3 opinion regarding the interior of the 

 skull being a guide for the determination of the propor- 

 tion between posterior lobe and cerebellum, I find it any- 

 thing but a safe one as regards the anthropoid apes. For 

 the space between posterior lobes of brain and dura 

 mater and bone, both posteriorly and laterally, I find 

 variable in situ, due to the state of the blood vessels and 

 amount of fluid in arachnoid and subarachnoid cavities. 

 In speaking of the Gorilla, Prcf. Bischoff 4 observes, p. 

 ioo, " Das es bei ersterem am wenigsten von oben Hin- 

 terlappen der grossen Hemisphere bedcckt wird und bei 

 der lletrachtung des Schadel gewiss von oben mit seinem 

 hinterem Rande sichtbar wird." And in reference to the 

 Chimpanzee, 5 p. 95, "Die llinterhauptsld.ppen des gros- 

 sen Gehirns bei diesem Affen wie bei dem Menschen das 

 kleine Gehirn uberzogen und von oben fast ganz bedeck- 

 en." AndVrolik* states, p. 7, of the Orang :" Ce lobe 

 ieur ne se prolonge pas autant que chez l'hornme ; 

 il ne recourve pas si bien le cervelet du moins il ne cache 

 pas complement surtout vers les cotes." The fact of 

 ihe cerebellum being covered by the posterior lobes in 

 n y Orang and that figured by Gratiolet, and but slightly 

 uncovered in that of Vrolik's, is no more strange than 

 that Bischoff 1 should find it covered in one Hylobates, and 

 Prof. Huxley ' having stated it to be uncovered in anoi hei 



1 Pfw eedina "f the K» ad, Nat. Sci«n< cs, Phila., 1879. 



1 Natural Hi.tory Review, 1861. 



in Nature, p, <,7- 



' Das (,'liirn d< r* (iorillas, 1877, 



mi dct Chimpanset, 1871, 

 • rdaifi Vertfagen, Deel, 1 1, 1862. 

 iijk<: /iir Hylobates, i860. 

 ' Vertebrate Anatomy, p, 411. 



CAUSES WHICH DETERMINE THE PROGRES- 

 SIVE MOVEMENT OF STORMS.* 

 Prof. Elias Loomis. 



For the purpose of discovering the causes which deter- 

 mine the progressive movement of storms, I have made 

 an extensive examination of the course and velocity of 

 storm centres in tropical regions, and also of abnormal 

 paths in the middle latitudes of Europe and America. I 

 have examined the courses of all those hurricanes wh ch 

 have orginated near the West India Islands, and also all 

 the stcrm tracks delineated on the maps of the Monthly 

 Weather Review . I have examined the courses of all 

 those hurricanes in Southern Asia and its vicinity whose 

 paths have been best determined, and also all the 

 storm iracks delineated on the maps of the Interna- 

 tional Series of Observation. The following summary 

 presents some of the results derived from this investiga- 

 tion. 



1. The lowest latitude in which a cyclone centre has 

 been found near the West India Islands is ten degrees ; 

 and the lowest latitude in the neighborhood of Southern 

 Asia is six degrees. Violent squalls and fresh gales ot 

 wind have, however, been encountered directly under 

 the equator. 



2. The ordinary couise of tropical hurricanes is toward 

 the west-northwest. In a few cases they seem to have 

 advanced toward a point a little south of west, and in a 

 lew cases their course has been almost exactly toward 

 the north. 



3. Tropical hurricanes are invariably accompanied by 

 a violent fall of rain. This rain fall is never less than 

 five inches in twenty-four hours for a portion of the track, 

 and frequently it exceeds ten inches in twenty-four 

 hours. 



4. Tropical storms are generally preceded by a north- 

 erly wind, and after the passage of the low centre, the 

 wind generally veers to the southeast at stations near 

 the centre, and the southerly wind which follows the low 

 centre is generally stronger than the northerly wind which 

 preceded it. Tf is fact appears to suggest the explana- 

 tion of the origin of the cyclone, and the direction of its 

 progressive movement. The prevalent direction of the 

 wind in the neighborhood of the West India Islands is 

 from the northeast Occasionally a strong wind sets in 

 from a southerly quarter. The interference of these winds 

 gives rise to a gyra'iop, and a fall of rain sometimes re- 

 sults. When rain begins the latent heat which is liber- 

 ated causes an inflow of wind from all quarters, by which 

 ihe rainfall is increased; and since the winds are de- 

 flected by the rotation of the earth, an area of low pres- 

 sure is produced, and the force of the winds will be main- 

 tained as long as the rainfall continues. The effect of this 

 strong wind from the south is to transport the low centre 

 in a northerly direction ; and by the combined action of 

 this south wind and the normal wind from the northeast 

 the centre of low pressure is usually carried in a direction 

 between the north and west. 



The electrical blowpipe of M. Jamin consists of a 

 pair of carbon pencils— an electric candle, in fact — sur- 

 rounded by a coil of insulated copper wire wound a 

 few inches dis ant from the pencils in the plane of their 

 axes. The current is so led that, in circulating round the 

 coil, it will auract the electric arc formed at the lower end 

 of the carbon pencils, and cause it to flash out almost in 

 the form of a fish-tail gas flame. This spreading out of 

 the arc is the special feature of the action of the ap- 

 paratus. It facilities the application of the heat of the 

 electric arc to the fusion of relractory substances, and 

 enables us better to take advantage of this little-used 

 means of producing a very high temperature. 



* Read before the A. A. A. S., Boston, 1880. 



