Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/652

636 After his death, there was found in the brain of Mr. Lawler a globular calcareous mass half an inch in transverse diameter, so wedged into its substance as to obstruct the backward flow of the blood. There were indications that this mass had occupied a different position, and was dislodged at the time of his fall. This case confirms the growing opinion that the faculty of language is associated with the left hemisphere of the brain, and demonstrates, as far as one case can, that the posterior lobe takes part in the operations of speech and written language.

Ascent of Mount Seward.—This mountain is, with the numerous lesser peaks connected with it, the most westerly of the Adirondack range in New York. The ascent in company with a guide has recently been made, and its barometrical measurement taken by Verplanck Colvin, Esq. The ascent took two days and a part of a third. The barometric observations were laid before Prof. Hough, of the Dudley Observatory, who made the computations, and gave as the result an altitude of 4,462 feet. Mr. Colvin speaks of the wanton waste by fire of the woods, and the consequent diminution of the rivers, and recommends to the State government the creation of an Adirondack park, or timber preserve, suggesting that the officers necessary for its care might be supported by a per-capita tax upon sportsmen, artists, and tourists a tax which he says they would willingly pay if the game should be protected from unlawful slaughter, and the grand primeval forest be saved from ruthless desolation.

A Four-legged Fish.—The members of the Australian Eclipse Expedition, if they were unsuccessful in the primary object of their voyage, saw some strange things along the shores to the north of the great Continent of Australia. Mr. Foord tells a wonderful story, "amply attested by witnesses," A a fish with four hands. This extraordinary creature was found crawling on a piece of coral dredged up from the bottom of the sea. "The body was that of a fish," says Mr. Foord, before the Royal Society on January 22d, [sic] "but, wonderful to relate, it had in the place of fins four legs, terminated by what you might call hands, by means of which it made its way rapidly over the coral reef. When placed on the skylight of the steamer, the fish stood up on its legs, a sight to behold. It was small, and something like a lizard, but with the body of a fish." It is to be hoped that a full and scientific description of this latest marvel of deep-sea dredging may soon be published, as the specimen appears to have been brought back to Melbourne. Mr. White, too, of the same expedition, tells strange tales about the rats. "The little island," he said, "upon which we pitched our tent was overrun with them, and what was most extraordinary, they were of every color, from black to yellow, and some tortoise-shell."—Nature.

Fungi in Cow's-Milk.—On this subject, Prof. Law, of Cornell University, makes a communication to The Lens for July. He says the presence of living organisms in milk has been recognized by various observers. In milk of an abnormally blue color, cryptogams and swarms of infusoria have been noticed, and kindred objects have been seen in milk of a yellow and greenish tint. Dr. Percy's "Report to the New York Academy of Medicine, in 1858, 'On Swill Milk,' shows the presence of spores in such milk when drawn, and the growth of mycelium within twenty-four hours thereafter, though the liquid had stood in a well-corked bottle in the interval. This report shows, further, the tendency of such milk to induce severe and even fatal disorders of the digestive organs of infants, fed upon it exclusively in its fresh condition." Prof. Law examined some specimens of milk, two of which, after twelve hours' exposure, being placed under the microscope, showed an abnormal adhesiveness of the oil-globules, which had accumulated in dense masses instead of remaining apart as in healthy milk. Intermixed with the globules were dark-colored, spherical bodies of a much larger size, 'spores,' and filaments. Upon examination of the water drunk by the cows, it was found to contain numerous spores of low forms of vegetable life. The cows yielding the morbid milk appeared in health so far as appetite, rumination, pulse, breathing, and state of skin were