514 The American Naturalist. [June, 
cesophageal ganglia. It follows necessarily that the tube 
around which the nervous matter has been formed, i. e., the 
central canal and ventricles, represents part or the whole of 
the alimentary canal of the vertebrate ancestor. The author 
believes that he has found in the infundibular region the re- 
mains of the terminal CESophageal tube. In the light of this 
view we have sufficient reason for the degeneration of certain 
components of the foremost group of nerves, for with the loss 
of function of the invertebrate alimentary canal, and mouth 
parts in connection with it, the sensory parts of the nerves 
supplying that region degenerated.— Z^«/^ Goff. 
ARCHEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.' 
Anthropometry as Applied to the Determination 
OF THE Attributes or Powers of the Mind of Man.— 
This is a problem. My only purpose is to consider its feasi- 
bility. Its benefits will be apparent. Can it be done ? 
It will not do, in this age of science, to determine on the en- 
trance to the consideration of a given subject that its discov- 
ery or elucidation is impossible because of its extent, distance, 
mystery, or difficulty. These may be a bar to its discovery, 
but not to its consideration or attempted discovery. 
The scientific discoveries made within the last few years are 
sufficient answer to this. What question presents greater ap- 
parent difficulties — impossibilities that the knowledge that the 
composition of the flame of the sun or the fixed stars — yet the 
solar and stellar spectrum has resolved these into their original 
elements, and we know them as well as we do that of the can- 
dle or the coal, which burn before our eyes. 
Professor Langley has just informed us that the greater 
part of the sun's rays are not luminous, and that those which 
are, are really blue, and not white. 
Who could have foreseen that when Galvani, of Bologna, in 
dissecting a frog (what nonsense, for a great philosopher to 
fool away his time dissecting frogs !), should have touched with 
a wire a given nerve, and that the twitch it made in response 
to his touch should have since then run through a million 
» This department is edited by Thomas Wilson. Esq.. Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, D. C. ^ 
