536 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
parts of the turnpike-road where the mud had been much disturbed no 
iris was visible.” 
A French Academy Commission, composed of Becquerel, Despretz, 
Combes, andPouillet, have recently examined and commended M. Serrin’s 
newly-invented regulator for electric lights. 
Heat. — No. 12 of Poggendorff’s “ Annalen” contains an article “ On the 
Passage of Radiant Heat through Moist Air,” by Professor Magnus, and this 
paper has been translated and published in the Philosophical Magazine. 
The author states that “ neither by the application of a source of heat of 
100, nor by using a strong gas-flame, could any difference be perceived in 
the transmission of heat through air, whether it was dry or saturated with 
vapour.” In consequence of results contradictory to these having been 
obtained and published by Dr. Tyndall, the author has repeated his expe- 
riments and reiterates his former statement, that aqueous vapour, so long 
as it is not separated as fog, exercises at 15 C° no appreciable influence on 
the transmission of thermal rays, and that the rays of the sun, so long as 
the air is clear, reach the earth in the same manner, whether the atmo- 
sphere is saturated with vapour or not.” Dr. Tyndall explains, in a suc- 
ceeding paper in the Philosophical Magazine , the manner in which he 
considers the difference of the results in the two cases occur. 
Drs. Matthiessen and Von Bore, in their experiments “ On the Influ- 
ence of Temperature on the Electric Conductivity of the Metals,” have 
come to the conclusion that “ all pure metals, in a solid state, vary in 
conducting power to the same extent between 0 and 100 C,” and that 
■‘•metalloids conduct electricity better when heated than when cold.” 
ZOOLOGY. 
rpHE Hominal Kingdom. — Dr. Fee, of Strasbourg, has entered into a 
controversy with M. De Quatrefages, who was supported by the recently 
deceased Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, with respect to the separation of man 
from the other mammalia, which was suggested by the last-named, on the 
ground that Man possesses moral and religious sentiments ( mcralite et 
religiosite) which are peculiar to him, and are possessed by no other animal. 
Dr. Fee adopts the position, that if the intellectual faculties were to be 
taken as a standard, it would be necessary to re-classify the whole animal 
kingdom ; insects would have to be placed before fishes, birds before most 
mammals, &c. He argues that it is not proved that the brain of man is 
different in its character from that of animals ; that some men are hardly 
more capable of education than some animals, and, therefore, that a human 
kingdom is inadmissible. 
European Apes . — The Rev. A. C. Smith, having recently visited Spain, 
made particular inquiry concerning the presence of the Barbary ape 
(Macacus inuus ) upon the rock of Gibraltar. Undeceived by the incredulous 
tone of a French skipper, who professed that no such animals existed, he 
applied for information to the signal-man posted at the top of the rock. 
This man declared having seen them that very morning “ on the move,” 
