438 
rOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
said that the series of experiments he had made upon different animals led 
him to the belief that the right side of the brain was more important for 
organic life than the left side. Although the two sides of the brain were 
precisely alike when the animals were born, by greater development of the 
activities one side came to be quite different from the other. 
Geological Systems and Endemic Diseases. — At the British Association at 
Liverpool, an important paper on the above subject was read by Dr. Moffat, 
showing that the soil has an influence on the composition of the cereal 
plants grown upon it, and on the diseases to which the inhabitants are sub- 
ject. The district in which he practises consists geologically of the carboni- 
ferous and new red or Cheshire sandstone systems. The inhabitants of the 
first are engaged in mining and agricultural occupations, those of the latter 
in agriculture chiefly. Anaemia with goitre is a very prevalent disease 
amongst those living on the carboniferous system, whilst it is almost 
unknown amongst those residing on the new red sandstone, and consump- 
tion is also more prevalent amongst the inhabitants of the former. As 
anaemia is a condition in which there is a deficiency of the oxide of iron 
which the blood naturally contains, Dr. Moffat was led to make an examina- 
tion of the relative composition of the wheat grown on soils of Cheshire 
sandstone, carboniferous limestone, millstone-grit, and a transition soil 
between Cheshire sandstone and the grit. The result of the analysis showed 
that the wheat grown on the soil of the Cheshire red sandstone contains the 
largest quantity of ash, and that there is a larger quantity of phosphates in 
it than in the soils of the carboniferous and millstone grit systems, and also 
a much larger quantity of oxide of iron than in either of them. He has 
calculated that each inhabitant on the Cheshire sandstone, if he consumes 
one pound of wheat daily, takes in nearly four grains more per day of the 
sesquioxide of iron than the inhabitant of the carboniferous system, who 
seems therefore to be subject to this great liability to anaemia in con- 
sequence of the deficiency of iron and phosphates in the food he consumes. 
METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING. 
What is Glaucopyritc? — This is a new mineral, which our American 
cousins have introduced us to. The American Engineering and Mining 
Journal gives a full account, of which the following is portion. Speaking 
of the kidney-shaped masses, it says, they are entirely surrounded with 
lamellar calc-spar; and, if this is removed with acetic or dilute muriatic 
acid, the surface appears to be formed by numerous, mostly \ery small, 
crystals, in comb-like aggregations. On the layer of these crystals, Sand- 
berger could discern, with a magnifying glass, as a fundamental type, twins 
<>f two flat rhombic tables, lying crosswise to each other, and presenting the 
habitus of cerussite — twins of similar combination ; besides these, triplets 
ran be distinctly recognised. The streak of the fine granular masses is 
shining, but the lustre of the crystal faces is feeble, except certain faces 
supposed to be normal prismatic and bruchy diagonal prismatic, which have 
a strong metallic lustre. The colour of the mineral is light lead-grey to 
