I884.J 
Correspondence. 
757 
ated must be exceedingly small. So it must ; but the whole 
thing is very minute. The currents with which surgeons and 
others deal who apply electricity to the animal body are, I be- 
lieve, the feeblest that are ever used. It must be remembered, 
too, that the conductors — the blood in the vessels — are moving 
very rapidly indeed. 
I regard the experiment with the magnets and the eggs as 
bearing very strongly on the views I have put forward. Evi- 
dently the presence of the magnets produced some change in 
the embryo of sufficient importance, in many cases, to destroy 
life, and in others to interfere with the performance of the proper 
functions of the bird when hatched. 
I suggest that the presence of the magnets in the neighbour- 
hood of the eggs generated minute currents of electricity in the 
blood and other vessels, which aCted detrimentally on the forma- 
tion of the chick. 
I would suggest, as an extension of the experiment, that mag- 
nets of different power be placed in the neighbourhood of separate 
eggs, sufficiently removed from each other to be independent in 
their aCtion ; and that the poles of the magnets, made small or 
large, as convenient, be placed in different positions with reference 
to each other and to the egg. 
It appears to me that if the presence of a magnet can be made 
to aCt prejudicially on the embryo, it should also, by suitable 
arrangement, be possible to make it aCt beneficially. 
Sydney F. Walker, M.S.T.E and E.M.I.M.E. 
THE OPTICAL EFFECTS OF AN UNUSUAL 
POSITION OF THE HEAD. 
Can any of your readers solve for me the following optical (or 
physiological ?) problem ? In my school-days, when taking a 
stroll with any of my companions, it was a common practice 
among us, on reaching any point where there was a wide 
prospedt, to look at it bending downwards, and looking either 
between our knees or alongside one of them, the crown of the 
head being turned downwards. In this ungraceful posture the 
landscape appeared much more beautiful than when viewed in 
the ordinary upright position, everything appearing to have a 
warmer and richer colouration. 
R. D. 
[We should think that the effedt must be due to a determina- 
tion of blood to the head, caused by the unusual attitude.— 
Ed. J. S.] 
