OCT 25 1802

8637.

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 23, 1892.

LIQUID OXYGEN.

BY G. D. LIVEING, F.R.S., CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND.

It is now fifteen years since Pictet and Cailletet first liquefied oxygen. Since then liquid oxygen has been the object of investigation by Olsewski, Wrobleaski, and more particularly by Dewar. At a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution in London, in June last, Dewar exhibited a litre of liquid oxygen in an open vessel; and he has prepared from time to time many litres of the liquid for the purpose of examining its properties. The method he uses is the same in principle as Pictet's, but he has much larger and better pumps for exhausting and compressing the gases. The essential thing is to cool the oxygen well below its critical temperature, or absolute boiling point, - 119° C. This is effected by means of some other gas, such as ethylene, which has a much higher critical temperature, namely + 10° C., and still a very low boiling point under atmospheric pressure, namely - 103°. Nitrous oxide, which has a critical temperature of +53° C., and boils under atmospheric pressure at 93° C., may also be employed. If the liquid ethylene be first cooled to – 80° C. by immersion in a mixture of solid carbonic acid and ether, it can then be easily reduced to 103° by allowing it to evaporate at the pressure of the air; and by pumping away the vapor as fast as formed the temperature of the remaining liquid can be reduced as low as 140°, twenty-one degrees below the critical temperature of oxygen. At this temperature oxygen is liquid if condensed until its pressure is equal to 30 atmospheres or thereabouts. On removing the pressure the liquid boils and is cooled by its own evaporation until under a pressure of one atmosphere it falls to 182° C. By pumping away the gas as it is formed, the temperature is easily reduced to 200° C., and the liquid then remains quite tranquil, and has the appearance of so much water.

Air may be liquefied in the same way, but the boiling point of nitrogen is somewhat lower than that of oxygen, namely - 1939 C., so that when liquid air is allowed to boil away gradually, the residue becomes richer and richer in oxygen until nearly pure liquid oxygen is left.

The compressed oxygen met with in commerce always contains a little air and some carbonic acid, and both pass into the liquid Oxygen. The carbonic acid crystallizes out in the solid state and renders the liquid milky. It may, however, be filtered through paper, and is then perfectly limpid.

To prevent the rapid deposition of hoar frost on the vessel containing the cold liquid, it has to be protected by an outward vessel, and the intervening space well dried. A beaker glass may

be fitted with a varnished wooden cover and a smaller beaker to contain the liquid inserted through a hole in the cover, the space between the two being dried by a layer of phosphoric anhydride.

Oxygen does not show any increased chemical activity in consequence of liquefaction. As already mentioned it may be filtered through paper without affecting the paper. It is powerfully magnetic. Poured into a saucer of rock salt it at once assumes the spheroidal state, exaporating from its surface, but quite tranquil. If now it be brought near the pole of an electro-magnet, it will jump up, through half an inch or more, and adhere to the pole, looking like a blob of transparent ice. Of course it is not really solid, and as soon as the current of the electro-magnet is broken it falls down. Like iron it is attracted by either pole in

differently.

As it is the only transparent element which is magnetic, its behavior to light is of great interest with reference to the electro

magnetic theory of light. According to that theory it would be expected that light reflected from a plane surface of a transparent magnetic body, when the reflected and transmitted rays are at right angles, would not be polarized in the plane of incidence as it is when the reflecting body is diamagnetic. Dewar has found, however, that light incident at the proper angle and reflected by liquid oxygen at 200° C. is very completely polarized in the plane of incidence.

Seen by transmitted light liquid oxygen, in a thickness of three or more inches, has a faint, but decided, blue tint. On examining the transmitted light through a prism, the cause is plain. There are several absorption bands, of which the strongest is in the yellow. These bands, as observed by Olsewski, and by Liveing and Dewar who extended their observations into the ultraviolet, are identical in position with, but much darker than, the diffuse bands produced by oxygen gas. They coincide with certain diffuse dark bands noticed by Brewster in the solar spectrum, and ascribed by him to atmospheric absorption because they were stronger when the sun was near the horizon than when he was high in the sky. The persistence of these bands indicates continuity in the physical state of oxygen when passing from the gaseous to the liquid state.

It was observed by Jannsen, and Liveing and Dewar's observations tend to the same conclusion, that the intensity of these diffuse bands, for a given thickness of the gas, increases as the square of the density. On the kinetic theory such a result would follow if the molecules of oxygen absorb the corresponding rays when they are under the influence of other molecules but not when in free path. For both the number of the molecules in a given thickness, and the frequency of their collisions, increase directly as the density.

Furthermore, oxygen gas produces, besides these diffuse bands, certain absorptions consisting of rhythmical groups of fine lines. These, in the solar spectrum, are known as A, B, and a; and it was Egoroff who identified these lines with the absorptions of oxygen gas. Their intensities appear to increase directly as the density, and may therefore fairly be ascribed to the action of the free molecules of oxygen gas. What becomes of these absorptions when the gas is liquefied? Olsewski, looking through 30 millimeters of the liquid, observed an absorption at the place of A. Liveing and Dewar, looking through six inches of the liquid, saw absorptions corresponding to both A and B, but somewhat different from those due to the gas. As produced by the gas, A is a group of lines which are very close together on the less refrangible side and are set farther and farther apart as they get more refrangible; so that the group when seen with low dispersion has the appearance of a shaded band with a strong, sharp edge on the less refrangible side, gradually fading away on the more refrangible side. B is on the blue side of A, and is precisely similar to it, but not so intense. a is still more refrangible, and still weaker. The absorption of the liquid at the place of A is also a shaded band, but its shading is turned the other way. Its sharp and strongest edge is on its more refrangible side, and it fades away on the less refrangible side. The strong edge does not correspond exactly with the strong edge of A, but is a little more refrangible, though still falling within the group. The band of the liquid could not be resolved, like A, into lines. The band corresponding to B is precisely similar, but fainter. It overlaps B, and has its strong edge a little more refrangible than that of B. It seems that we have in these bands the absorptions due to the individual molecules of oxygen, only modified in the way described by the change from gas to liquid; and we should infer that the molecules of the liquid are still the same as those of the gas.

There is more difficulty in determining the physical characters of oxygen than the facility with which it can be manipulated

would lead one to expect. ble vessels for it. Thin glass in one piece, like test-tubes and beakers, does very well, but thick glass and all kinds of cement are mostly cracked by cooling; and massive vessels involve the waste of a large volume of the liquid in the process of cooling them down to 180° C. With some trouble, however, Liveing and Dewar have succeeded in measuring the refractive index of liquid oxygen, at its boiling point, for the D ray of sodium. They used a hollow prism with glass faces clamped together and made tight at the joints with glycerine. The refractive index so found was 1.2236, somewhat less than that of water in the liquid state, which, near its boiling point, is about 1.32.

It is especially difficult to find suita

The density of oxygen at - 182° is 1.124. These figures give ແ . 1 for the refraction constant, = .1265, and for the cor(μ2 + 2) d responding refraction equivalent 2.024. The mean values of the constant and equivalent as found by Mascart and Lorenz for gaseous oxygen are the same as those here given for the liquid.

Ozone is more easily liquefied than ordinary oxygen, but is formed with a storage of energy, and in a concentrated state is very explosive. When oxygen, ozonized in a Siemens' tube cooled with solid carbonic acid and ether, is passed into liquid oxygen, the ozone is dissolved and imparts a deep-blue color to the liquid. The boiling point of oxygen is lower than that of ozone, so that, as the oxygen evaporates, the strength of the solution and the depth of its color increase. The last drop has a steel-blue color, and explodes spontaneously with violence. If a glass tube conveying ozonized oxygen be cooled down to 180° C, or nearly so, the liquid ozone may be seen condensing on the sides and running down. It has been found impossible to collect the liquid, however, for no sooner have two or three small drops run together than they explode, shattering the vessel.

It is certainly remarkable that a substance which, unlike many substances which are formed with a storage of energy, is so unstable at high temperatures, should also be very unstable at low temperatures. Perhaps its instability may be connected with its powerful absorption of light, which is put in evidence by its deep color. What the form may be in which its excessive energy is stored, we can at present only guess at. Can it be that the three atoms, of which its molecule consists, rotate with great velocity about their common centre of mass in exceeding close proximity, and that a small impulse from without increasing the velocity as well as the distance of the atoms suffices to send them off in hyperbolic orbits to scatter destruction amongst the other molecules which they encounter? This might be the case if the velocity of the atoms greatly exceeds the velocity of agitation of the molecules on which the temperature depends.

NEW DISCOVERIES AT BAOUSSÉ ROUSSÉ, NEAR MENTONE.

BY THE MARQUIS DE NADAILLAY.

I KNOW of no discovery touching pre-historic times more remarkable than those made in the caves of Baoussé Roussé, between Mentone and Ventimiglia, on the borders of France and Italy. These caves were first discovered in 1872 by Mr. Rivière. Since that time this learned gentleman has vigorously prosecuted his excavations,' and they have yielded numerous human skeletons, all belonging to the celebrated Cro-Magnon race, who at the end of the quaternary period, or perhaps at the beginning of neolithic times, ruled not only the south of France, but also all the Mediterranean shores. It is these same men we meet with under the names of Iberians, Ligurians, Sicanians, perhaps also under those of Pelasgians and Berbers. It is their bones that the brothers Siret found in the south of Spain, Professor Sergi in Italy, and Mr. Rivière at Baoussé Roussé.

All the bones, wherever found, show a great similitude. They are robust, and bespeak an athletic constitution and a large muscular power. The men were remarkably tall, the crania are dolichocephalic, the tibias platycnemic, but since Dr. Manouvrier's

They are related at length in "L'Antiquité de l'homme dans les Alpes maritimes." Paris, I. B. Baillière et fils, 1887.

The

observations, we cannot see there an inferior character. cranium of the first skeleton found (an old man) measured 1,590 cubic centimeters. The cranium of the woman found next to him 1,450 cubic centimeters; but this last measurement is not quite accurate, on account of the decomposed state of the bones.

The man had upon his head a net of small shells (Nassa neritea), and bracelets of shells round his arms and legs. Near him Mr. Rivière collected more than 150 stone implements, and also numerous bones of mammals, birds, and fishes, evidently the food of these people.

New discoveries quickly followed the first ones, and we always find a particular mode of inhumation, which, I believe, still exists, or lately existed, in some Indian tribes. The bones of all the adults, after the total decomposition of the flesh, were painted in red with the help of peroxide of manganese or other substances frequently met with in the different caverns.

The last excavations took place in Februaay, 1892, in one of these caves, named Barma Grande. A communication made to the Academie des Inscriptions, March 4, 1892, informed us of the discovery, at 8 metres below the level of the ground, of three new skeletons, a man, a woman, and a young subject whose dentes sapientiæ had not yet evolved. They had been buried on a bed of cinders, broken fragments of charcoal, remains of all sorts, evidently the hearth on which the family cooked their victuals. The boy wore a necklace formed of two rows of the vertebræ of a fish and one row of small shells. At different points hung pendants cut out of the canine teeth of stags, decorated with parallel striæ. The man had also a necklace of fourteen canines of the stag, also striated. With the skeletons were found a certain number of stone instruments, some of them finely worked, but none of them polished, and some bone implements of very gross fabrica

.tion.

3

The man was very tall, and, if we judge by the length of the thigh-bone (545 millimeters), his height must have exceeded two metres (6 feet 6 inches). The boy, who had not yet attained his manhood, measured 1.63 metres (5 feet 8 inches). We must also remark the extreme wear of the teeth, very apparent already in the boy, and which in the man extended to their very root. I have already said that the caves of Baoussé Roussé yielded numer ous bones of mammals, but none of them belonged to the extinct species, not even to the reindeer which is found in the south of France even at a late period On the other hand, no polished stone implement was ever found in these caves. We can therefore give these men a pretty accurate date, and place their existence, as I have said, at the end of the quaternary or the beginning of the neolithic times. One cave remains as yet unexcavated. It be longs to the Prince of Monaco. Orders are given that the excavations shall begin next spring. If they produce anything of interest, I will not fail to report them to the readers of Science. Rougemont, Sept. 2.

THE PREVENTION OF CHOLERA ASIATICA.

BY HUGH HAMILTON, M.SC., M.D.

THE symptoms of cholera are so well known that it is a matter of common knowledge; however, to make the subject plain, it is very similar to Cholera Morbus, well known to every American, which is due to indigestion and disorder from the eating of im proper fruits or too large amounts of perfect raw fruit. In Cholera Asiatica there is vomiting, purging, chill, sweat, death in a longer or shorter period. When Cholera Asiatica is epidemic, many of these lesser complaints of the digestive apparatus pass under its name, and, as a consequence, many remedies seem to cure the disease, which in fact is probably not Cholera Asiatica but Cholera Morbus, which is bad enough.

2 Dr. Manouvrier has shown that platycnemia is produced by long and hard work continuously acting on the muscles of the leg. It is found to a large extent in hard walkers, in populations living near the mountains. It is more frequent in men than in women; and it very rarely, if ever, exists in children.

3 The state of the bones precluded any accurate measurement, and comparison, when we reach these extreme heights, is very difficult. The Museum of Paris possesses the skeleton of a giant who measured 2.14 metres, and whose thigh-bone measured 563 millimeters.

But to the science of the subject. The cause of Cholera Asiatica is the bacteria, or vegetable fungus, found in the body of those dead from the disease and in the ejections and dejections of those afflicted with it. These bacteria belong under the head of those peculiarly fatal to mankind. It assumes the shape of a comma, i.e. (,), or an S-shape. It belongs in the class Spirillæ, i.e., S-shaped, but has been described by Professor Koch as Komma bacillus. Now this comma bacillus is found in the intestines of fresh cholera-corpses and in the dejections of those ill with the plague. This being the source of the disease, although not its origin, we readily see that we must study its habits of propagation; its physical characteristics upon certain organic matter; its behavior on living material. Then we can scientifically regard its prevention.

1

It grows quickly upon a surface of gelatinous substances, and renders it after a while fluid. Looked at by a strong glass, capable of magnifying it 100 diameters, it looks like a funnel-shaped ring curled upon itself at the edges, if the gelatine or glue has been stuck with a needle. Upon the smooth surface of gelatine it has a rosy shimmer. It requires a heat of the human body to grow, that is, 98.5° F. (374° C.), so that it will not propagate at ordinary temperatures of the room. It grows on potato parings and pieces of bloody meat at 30° to 40° C. (86° to 104° F.), at 16° C. (61° F.) it ceases to grow, at 10° C. (50° F.) it exists, i.e., is not killed completely. Just here the nature of heat and cold may be noticed. Cold, agreeably with most vegetable seeds or spores, merely places them in a state of non-germination, particularly if dry; instances are easily brought to one's mind in a crude way by the vitality of the wheat, barley, rice, etc., exposed to excessive cold, while in a congenial temperature and moisture they grow. Heat, however, when applied to the boiling point, destroys all germination; because it is a rapid method of degeneration. Further, this comma bacillus is aerobic, i.e., requires air or oxygen from the atmosphere to live. The bacilli are divided into classes that are ana-aerobic, semi-ana-aerobic (?), and aerobic, meaning without atmospheric oxygen; sometimes requiring oxygen and sometimes not free oxygen; the last as we have above stated.

The method of discovering this comma bacillus in the dejections next engages one's attention. It is easily cultivated under aseptic conditions upon a gelatine surface exhibiting the characteristics spoken of above. It is colored by the method known to all bacteriologists, that of Professor Gram.

Solution No. 1, a, watery solution of aniline oil; b, saturated accoholic solution of Gentian violet. a is made as follows:

Aniline oil, one (1) part;

Distilled water, twenty (20) parts.

Filter. To the clear filtrate (it must be shaken and filtered until clear) add 5 parts of the b, i.e., saturated alcoholic solution of pure Gentian violet, to 100 parts of a, aniline water, made above. After drying on a little piece of glass, the dejecta of a patient sick with Cholera Asiatica spread very thin, and then immersing it in the solutions, mixed as above, for three (3) minutes, and then for three (3) minutes more in a solution, 2, made as follows:

until all color seems to disappear; then dry the little glass and view under a microscope to 1,000 diameters; the commu bacillus will be larger than an ordinary comma (,).

When we really find this comma bacillus, then the patient has the epidemic cholera. Upon this fact is founded all the advance in our treatment of it. Here the scientific value of hygienic and sanitary regulations becomes apparent. Pardon me just here for referring to the recent work of Professor L. Brieger, the president of the Medical Section of the Imperial Institute for Infectious Diseases at Berlin, Germany, upon the immunity from the fatal effects of Cholera Asiatica which he has been able to produce in Guinea-pigs. The microbes of cholera, technically cultures, were

1 Berl. Klin, Wochenschr., 1884, Nos. 31, 32, and 32a.

2 Dr. Carl Gunther's Bakterol: Leipzig, 1890. Pl. viii., Fig. 47.

3 Bakterol: Diagnos: Eisenberg, Hamburg, 1891, p. 256.

Of

raised on agar-agar gelatine, put into peptonized meat-broth, and kept upon ice several days, then injected into the Guinea-pigs, about four cubic centimeters, for five or six days successively, when they could withstand the cholera cultures which, when given to other unprotected Guinea-pigs, quickly produced death. course, this immunity of the mammal, Guinea-pig, presents a vista of relief by protection similar to that given to us by vaccination from small-pox, and promised by "Koch's tuberculin" in the treatment of consumption (Tubercular Phthisis). We look forward to that day of scientific medicine.

The careful, methodical German has been directed by his imperial officers to be very careful in personal hygiene and to observe to the letter the regulations in the case of those sick from Cholera Asiatica, while the doctors have been compelled to carefully examine each case by the methods above given, and, if unable to do so, to send some of the diarrhoeal fluids to the district police stations to be examined at once at government expense so careful are they to determine what the disease really is. Then the patient must be isolated, his nurses rendered strictly a-septic before being allowed to leave the apartments, all the attendants to be washed in solution of carbolic acid twice daily, and the patient too. No eating, drinking, smoking, or anything in contact with the mucous intestinal tract, such as mouth or nose, allowed in anyone except under strict anti-sepsis.

By this means it has been possible to prevent the spread of the disease to another case, if discovered in time. This element of unwell, but not ill, persons with Cholera Asiatica is the problem; the half-sick ones damage to the utmost hygienic arrangements, and bring disgrace on the attempts of "State" medicine to prevent its spread. This brings one to the application in a more extended sense of isolation or detention in quarantine of numbers of people. This is a troublesome problem to successfully solve; it is now taxing all the wit and wisdom of our land. We trust it may be successful.

The best disinfectants are:

1. Lime-water; a quantity equal to the amount of the stool and allowed to cover and remain upon it one hour. 2. Chloride of lime (small boxes); two tablespoonfuls on each stool and allow to remain on it twenty minutes before cleansing the utensils, then washed with lime-water. 3. A soft soap of potash, mixed with 5 per cent of crude carbolic acid solution. This to be used for all vessels, clothes, clothing, both body and bed. 4. A one per cent solution of carbolic acid for bodily bathing of patient and nurses. 5. Daily scrubbing the floor and furniture with lime-water, and two hours afterward with a one per cent carbolic acid solution in the patient's room. 6. A boiling of an hour of all clothing. 7. All the shoes, effects, etc., in the room of a patient either afflicted or dead from Cholera Asiatica shall be disinfected and not used for ten days.

The conclusion of the matter is:

Live carefully; keep away from those afflicted with the disease, except specially protected as aforesaid; keep clean; isolate the patient and his attendants. Harrisburg, Penn., Sept 13.

FLORIDA PITCHER PLANT.

BY CHARLES B. PALMER, A.M., COLUMBUS, OHIO. AMONG the many curious and interesting objects which came under my notice during a residence of several years in Florida, none interested me more than an insectivorous plant (Saracenia variolaris) which is common about Orange Heights, in eastern Alachua County. I have no reason to suppose that it is limited to this locality, but this is the only place in which I have observed it. It is a modest plant, seven or eight inches in height, growing in damp situations among the coarse grass of the pine woods.

It bears a single radical flower, the most striking feature of which is the style, which expands into a broad umbrella, entirely enclosing the flower. But it is not of the flower, but of the pitcher-like leaf that I wish to speak.

4 Deutsch. Med. Wochenschr., 1892, No. 31 (Aug. 4, 1892).

5 Regulations of Minister of Interior, Germany, Aug. 1, 1892.

When the young leaf first makes its appearance, it is spatulate in form, with a simple notch on one side near the end, ranging upward at an angle of about 45 degrees. As the plant grows, the sides separate, forming a tube, while the notch increases in size and rotates in direction, until it becomes an ample opening ranging downward at an angle of about 45 degrees. At the same time the end of the spatula enlarges into a dome-shaped hood, the upper lip at the opening projecting well forward and downward over the lower. The tube is largest at the top, narrowing gradually to a point a short distance above the ground. The front or open side of the tube has a narrow rib, the rest of the circumference being round and smooth.

Being unable to find in botanical literature any adequate account of the manner in which this plant performs its remarkable functions of catching and devouring insects, I was led to make the study myself. Placing several of the plants in flower-pots for continuous observation, dissecting numbers of others in the woods almost daily, and continuing these observations during several different seasons, the little pitcher has come to seem like a familiar friend, and has yielded me an amount of pleasure and satisfaction that would seem incredible to any but a lover of nature.

If one were to say that he had seen a tree which could catch and eat squirrels, rabbits, field-mice, etc., he would be set down as a bungling imitator of the celebrated Baron; but here is a frail plant which we tread upon unnoticed, that actually captures, devours, and digests number of animals endowed with much greater activity, and doubtless with higher powers of perception, than any mammals.

If the plant has any odor attractive to insects it is not perceptible to human olfactories. But when near the opening they seem possessed with a desire to enter, and the way is open and easy. At the edge of the opening they are seen to sip a secretion of the plant, and immediately hasten on to the interior. Here some of them will continue to eat ravenously until they are seized with a sort of palsy, causing them to tremble violently, release their hold, and fall into the liquid at the bottom of the tube. Others, after entering the dome, become frightened and endeavor to escape. And here is discovered one of the remarkable features of the plant - an arrangement clearly intended to deceive the unlucky prisoner. The hood projecting over the opening forms a dark background, while the opposite side of the dome is brilliantly lighted by means of more than a hundred transparent spots or windows. Just as a bird which has entered a room by a dark passage, beats against the window-pane, so the poor insect exhausts his strength at the windows of his prison, and finally falls exhausted—literally "in the soup."

The bath seems to cure their palsy, for they invariably struggle vigorously to escape by climbing up the side of the tube. But the effort is vain. It seems remarkable that insects which walk upon glass and other smooth surfaces at will can make no progress here. The inner surface of the tube has a wonderfully smooth feel, and under the microscope is seen to be covered with very fine hairs forming a nap in the downward direction. About half-way up the tube there is a change in the appearance. It looks as if the lower part were wet and the upper dry, but the microscope shows that the appearance is caused by a different arrangement of the hairs on the surface. On the upper half, they appear like bundles of grain with the ends well spread. The purpose of this arrangement is not apparent; but having on one occasion found a larva at the half-way point, it occurred to me that possibly certain species had feet able to traverse the lower half, and such would be stopped by the different arrangement above. However this may be, the insect which once enters this doubly and trebly guarded prison "leaves hope behind," Even when rescued, he seems unable to resist the temptation to taste again the insidious nectar which leads him to his doom. Cut away the bood, and let a blade of grass down into the tube. half-dead fly climbs eagerly out. Too weak to fly, he can be handled at will. Place him on the outside of the tube, an inch or more from the opening, with head turned away from danger. He staggers forward a few steps, stops and considers, then like the confirmed toper in front of a saloon, turns around and goes

A

back for one more drink. At the first taste, he becomes crazed, sips ravenously till the tremens comes on, and drops him down to certain death.

The number and variety of insects disposed of by a single plant is astonishing. Every order is represented. One would think that a grasshopper, large enough to reach across the tube and almost close it up with his body and long legs, would have small excuse for being in such a place. But there he is slowly dissolving. Beetles, moths, larvæ of numerous kinds, including large woolly caterpillers, all go the same way. The hymenoptera are represented by ants, but I have never found any species of bee, though I have searched diligently for that special purpose.

The statements of certain botanists that the pitchers are "half filled with water containing drowned insects," and that "it is dif ficult to believe that they have any connection with the economy of the plant," need revising. A chemical analysis of the fluid is wanting, but it is a secretion of the plant and not rain-water. The construction of the plant makes it impossible for rain to enter. Furthermore, I have seen a plant which had been cut off at the root send up a new leaf, mature its pitcher, secrete its fluid. and begin business, during a period in which no rain had fallen. In every healthy pitcher may be found insects still alive and struggling; others dead; others farther down in the mass, coarsely broken up; and at the bottom only a pulp. The fact that the elytra, mandibles, and other hard parts of beetles, are dissolved with the rest, shows that the plant has remarkable digestive powers, Unlike animals, it has no means of rejecting unsuitable portions of food. Everything goes. The front door is always open, there is no back door, all sorts of visitors enter, none escape, every shred disappears.

CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.-XV. [Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.]

The Antiquities of Catamarca.

AMONG the mysterious civilizations of the New World which were extinguished before the arrival of the Europeans, that of the Province of Catamarca, in north-western Buenos Ayres, is not the least difficult of solution. In this region, over an area about four hundred miles square, the vestiges of a dense population are numerous, and there are abundant proofs that there prevailed a stage of culture definitely above that of the Pueblo dwellers of New Mexico. The ruins of stone-built structures are abundant, and are the only instances of such that we find east of the Andes in the whole of South America. They begin at a height of twelve to fifteen thousand feet, and continue down to the mesas and plains of the lowlands. From their positions and plans most of them were evidently defensive works, occupying points of vantage, and with walls three to five feet in thickness. The entrances are concealed or sometimes none exist, ladders having evidently been used by the inhabitants. They were acquainted with the use of copper, gold, and silver, made excellent pottery, wove fabrics with skill, cultivated maize extensively, and buried in mounds.

An interesting but brief notice of these remains is published by Francisco P. Moreno in the "Revista del Museo de La Plata," 1891. He considers the remains are anterior to the conquest of the country by the Incas about 1450. This is probable, but it would not militate against the evidence I have brought forward in my "Studies of South American Languages," p. 54, that the natives of Catamarca were themselves of the same blood and language as the Incas.

Central-American Languages.

The Empress Catherine II. of Russia at one time planned publishing specimens of every language on the face of the globe, but lost interest in her scheme, and dropped it before completion. When at St. Petersburg a year ago, I inquired about the material collected by her orders, but left unpublished. The Librarian of the Imperial Library could give me no information about it.

Now, part of it arrives in a publication from Costa Rica entitled " Lenguas Indigenas de Centro-America en el Siglo XVIII. MS. del Archivo de Sevilla. Publicada por R. F. Guardia y Juan Fernandez Ferraz. 1892." The editors do not state, and do not

seem to be aware, why these twenty-one vocabularies were collected by a priest in 1788; but I have no hesitation in attributing them to the desire to comply with the wishes of the empress of the Russias, and am sure it could be readily shown.

Their publication is praiseworthy, and carefully made; but it does not offer any new material on Central-American dialects in the sense of new stocks. Two of the Maya dialects, the so-called Pupuluca and Subinha, are slightly different from those already known; and the language termed "Lean y Mulia" is the same as what we know from other sources under the more appropriate name Xicaque. The vocabularies include the Chapanec of Chiapas and several Costa Rican dialects, though the majority are branches of the Maya family.

An Anatomical Criterion to Distinguish Male from Female Skulls

It has long been most earnestly desired to discover some anatomical feature which would enable us to distinguish the skulls of the sexes. Two years ago Virchow declared that all alleged modes of differentiation so far discovered were worthless. Very lately Dr. Thiem-Cottbus, in the "Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie,' Band 37, describes what seems a satisfactory craniological criterion of sex.

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The os tympanicum forms part of the posterior wall of the glenoid cavity of the inferior maxillary, and also closes in front and below the bony meatus of the ear. It arises perpendicularly from the petrous portion of the temporal bone posteriorily, and turns backward, in the woman at about half the height of the mastoid process, but in man at a less height. In the male, the bone developes a sharp edge, which divides to form the sheath of the styloid process; but in woman this sharpened edge does not exist, the bone is rounded into a tubercular form, and the fossa is shallower and flatter.

Thus, in the male this fossa-tympanico-stylo-mastoidea is small, and the posterior wall of the glenoid cavity extends so deep that it is not possible for the condyloid process to slip over it. In the female, it is so much more spacious that this feature alone will serve to distinguish the crania of one sex from the other; and it also explains the surgical fact that luxation backward of the inferior maxillary is observed only in women.

An Etruscan Ritual Book.

Before Rome was founded, the powerful federation of the Etruscans had spread an advanced civilization over central Italy, capping her hill-tops with fortifications, whose impregnable walls still bid defiance to time. But by the beginning of our era, the Etruscan people, and language and religion, had disappeared, leaving no testimony but their tombs. From these some five thousand inscriptions have been copied, but they tell us little. Not a single word of the language has been identified beyond peradventure.

The Etruscan religion profoundly modified that of Rome. They were a literary people, and in very early times wrote numerous religious books. These are referred to by Livy as works of divination, fatales libri, and by Cicero as books of ritual, Etruscorum rituales libri, or as Etruscan documents, chartæ Etruscæ; and even in the latter's day, they were in use by the Roman priesthood.

It seems an incredible piece of good fortune that one such Etruscan Ritual Book should turn up in fair preservation in the year 1891; but such seems to be the case. Two or three centuries, B.C., a mummifier of Alexandria bought a lot of waste paper and old rags for use in his business, and employed some of it in wrapping the corpse of a young lady. About 1849 her mummy was brought to Austria, and last year in her wrappings this Etruscan book was identified by Professor Krall. The Vienna Academy of Sciences has undertaken its publication, and on its appearance I shall return again to its curious history and character.

Ethnography of the Finns.

One of the most interesting questions in the ethnic history of the north of Europe is that concerned with the origin and migra

tion of the Finns. They are ancient settlers, as they were known to the Romans of the time of Tacitus as dwellers on the Baltic Sea. In language they are first cousins of the Magyars of Hungary and also of the Samoyeds of Siberia. Indeed, some maintain that their name "Suomi" is from the same radical as “Samoyed.”

Those resident in Finland proper rarely show any marked Mongolian appearance, as I can say from personal observation; but their strain is deeply Aryanized. A much less familiar branch of them are the Sirieni or Syränen, who dwell in north-eastern Russia, on both slopes of the Ural Mountains, extending east to the valley of the river Ob, on which the town of Muji is one of their principal resorts, in latitude 65° north.

This group has been carefully studied by M. Stephen Sommier, whose volume, "Sirieni, Ostiacchi e Samoiedi dell'Ob," appeared a few years ago in Florence. From numerous anthropometrical measurements he carried out, he satisfactorily showed that the Sirieni are Germanized Finns, quite like their relatives on the Baltic, and differing widely from the Ostiaks and Voguls to the east. It is probable, indeed, that the Sirieni, who are much given to trading and wandering, are an offshoot of the western branch of the stock, rather than the eastern.

NOTES AND NEWS.

THE sixth annual convention of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations will meet in New Orleans, La., on Nov. 15, as announced by the chairman of the executive committee. Titles of papers should be sent to C. F. Atkinson, Auburn. Ala., before Oct. 1. It is proposed to discuss the different subjects assigned to station workers for the Columbian exhibition.

A timely book is "The Career of Columbus," by Charles Elton, M.P., announced by the Cassell Publishing Company.

- Professor D. S. Margoliouth of Oxford has undertaken to translate the great Arabic geographical dictionary.

-G. P. Putnam's Sons are about to publish a new edition of Professor F. W. Taussig's "Tariff History," enlarged by about 100 pages of new matter, including a discussion of the McKinley Bill.

-Francis P. Harper will publish shortly a new and important edition of Lewis and Clarke's " Expedition over the Rocky Mountains," on which Dr. Elliott Coues has been engaged for some time. He is specially fitted for the task, and the index to this faithful reprint of the Philadelphia edition of 1814 will be of great scientific value.

Harper & Brothers will soon publish an interesting work by Walter Besant, entitled "London," which will not be a history of the city as a body politic, but the story of the life of the people at different periods from the earliest historical records to the times of the Georges, and will be fully illustrated.

Edward Stern & Co., Philadelphia, will publish at once "In Arctic Seas," by Dr. R. N. Keely, in which the author, who accompanied in the capacity of surgeon the West Greenland Expedition last summer, gives an account of the incidents of the voyage of the "Kite," conveying Lieutenant Peary's party to McCormick's Bay.

-On Sept. 1, The Open Court (Chicago, Ill.) began the publication of a series of articles by Mr. Charles S. Peirce, to be entitled "The Critic of Arguments." (The word critic here means an art, like logic.) This series will be devoted to a critical and historical discussion of the methods of reasoning. Mr. Charles S. Peirce is one of the most distinguished scholars and mathematicians of which America boasts. But especially in the department of modern logic has his work contributed, perhaps more than that of any other living investigator, to the permanent advancement of science. The results of his thought are, however, for the most part locked up in the proceedings and reports of learned societies, and now for the first time, in The Open Court, are they to be presented in a less rigid and technical form, and made accessible to all who place a value on right thinking.