234 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



their tribes, apart from any low cunning connected 

 with the crossing of the examined palm with silver, 

 have everywhere a deep and earnest belief in the 

 characteristic lines and markings of the open human 

 hand. The human skin is a terrible revealer of 

 secrets, whether it be the face or the hand. There is 

 a palmistry of the face as well as of the palm. The 

 human skin, like that other thicker one we call the 

 "crust of the earth," accumulates wrinkles the older 

 it gets. Every line which marks a face or a continent, 

 is either one of energy, or one expressing the lack of 

 it. Are the gipsies very far wrong, therefore, in their 

 endeavours to construct a knowledge of individual 

 human character from the lines of a. human hand ? 

 The French Biological Society does not appear to 

 think so, although the gipsies are not referred to. At 

 a recent meeting, one of its most eminent members 

 produced a large and important collection of the 

 impressions made of the skin of the thumb. Thumb- 

 marks are a very ancient and convenient form of seal 

 impression. We have seen them on Egyptian and 

 Assyrian bricks, as well as on the sham wafers of 

 wills. Indeed, the criss-crossing seen on a will or 

 deed which has to be signed is only a rude represen- 

 tation of the lines of the inner surface of the finger or 

 thumb which has to be laid thereon, usually when the 

 deed or will is subscribed to. Gipsies have long 

 declared that these markings of the interior of the 

 human palm and fingers denote character, and they 

 profess to be able to read them. However that may 

 be, Professor Fere has recently shown that in the case 

 of epileptic patients the " thumb-marks " are quite 

 different from those in sane and wholesome persons^ 

 In one half of the impressions he produced and 

 exhibited, they are unsymmetrical from right to left. 

 The impressions of the finger and thumb-marks of 

 lepers have also been found markedly to differ from 

 those of healthy relatives. The cause assigned is that 

 of nervous degeneration. 



Our readers have heard the story of the man who 

 was born blind, and who on being asked his ideas 

 concerning the colour of scarlet, said it must be like 

 the sound of a trumpet. He was not far wrong in 

 this respect, for physiologists and psychologists have 

 now discovered a distinct relationship between colour 

 and sound. A distinguished scientist, Professor 

 Gruber, has been experimenting in this important 

 department of research for years past, and has just 

 given to the world the results of his valuable experi- 

 ences. To a very small number among his best 

 educated patients the sound of the vowel "e" was 

 accompanied by a sensation of yellow colour; of "i," 

 by blue ; of " o," by black ; and so on through the 

 long list of vowels and diphthongs, and also to some 

 extent with numbers. The same colour was not 

 always induced by the same sound in different 

 patients, but the observations have been carefully 

 tested. 



We are pleased to notice the organ of the Maiden 

 Natural History Society ("The Gazette"), the July 

 No. of which contains " The Dragon-flies of the 

 Months," July, by Mr. Harcourt Bath ; " A Short 

 Treatise on the Structure and Habits, etc., of Birds," 

 by William E. H. Pidsley. A further account of 

 "The Mole" (Talpa vulgaris), and "Snake Catch- 

 ing," by Dr. Arthur Stradling, C.M.Z.S., etc. 



The "Naturalist's Journal," first issued in July last 

 by W. P. Collins, 157, Great Portland Street, W., 

 will prove handy to collectors of Natural History 

 objects. Mr. Harcourt Bath has inserted a few in- 

 teresting notes on Reptiles. There are notes on rare 

 butterflies, and other articles, bringing together facts 

 and captures from various parts of the country. The 

 magazine is well printed and got up. 



One of our most greatly disliked, and perhaps too 

 abundant, English birds is the common sparrow. 

 He is such a dreadful Bohemian. Being an English 

 bird, the sparrow has naturally his likes and dislikes. 

 As a natural grain-consuming bird, he makes war 

 upon the insectivorous kinds. It has recently been 

 discovered that sparrows have a particular dislike to 

 certain colours, such as "purple" and "blue." A 

 correspondent in Nature states that some caged spar- 

 rows he had would not touch their food if he put 

 strips of blue paper upon it ; that they manifested a 

 discourteous dislike to ladies who came into the room 

 wearing blue dresses, and that several of them were 

 cured of the vice of pecking at a certain part of a 

 wall they had access to by plastering a piece of blue 

 paper over it. Our English sparrows are- terrible 

 Radicals, especially where blue happens to be the 

 Liberal colour. It is not often our good fortune to 

 apply political colours to practical ends, but here is a 

 good suggestion for young Conservative farmers : — 

 Let every shock of wheat in the cornfield, by way of 

 experiment, be bound up with a strip of blue, whose 

 colour it has been demonstrated sparrows greatly 

 dislike. 



It can hardly be wondered at, considering its 

 fatal action in Hamburg and elsewhere, that cholera 

 is just now a matter of considerable microscopical 

 study by scientists. It is now generally accepted 

 that this dreaded disease is due to the enormously 

 rapid growth of a bacillus or germ, known as the 

 "comma" bacillus from its shape. It has been 

 found that they grow more rapidly in ordinary arti- 

 ficial culture solutions when the latter contain milk- 

 sugar, but their growth ceases when lactic acid is mixed 

 with it. It is suggested, therefore, that the best 

 drink for cholera patients would be lemonade into 

 which some lactic acid has been mixed. A good 

 many rotten apples will soon be lying about. Science 

 has discovered that rottenness so called (fitly regarded 

 as a sign of mortification) is only a birth from death 

 unto life. It is a good illustration of how Nature 



