Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/781

Rh we eat, and it is not too much to suppose that a proper knowledge of the culinary art would, if tolerably wide-spread, do not a little to diminish crime and drunkenness. Now that ladies are to be admitted without let or hinderance to all the degrees of the University of London, we hope the Senate will see fit to add "cooking" to the list of subjects for the B. Sc. Science in the kitchen has long been a desideratum, and cooking has not hitherto been regarded really as a branch of chemistry, and, as such, an ennobling occupation. The English of all classes have everything to learn on this subject, and even the very best of our cooks seem to go right rather by intuitive talent than by any exact knowledge which they may possess. In the cookery book of the future, however, we may hope to see milligrammes, cubic centimetres, and degrees of Celsius, replace the less exact measurements to which cooks have been accustomed, and then, perhaps, success in cooking will become a certainty.—London Lancet.

Distribution of Color in Animals.—It is not in the least unusual to observe in domesticated mammals asymmetrical distribution of color, while in feral animals the distribution is always symmetrical. A number of facts illustrating this are cited by Mr. J. A. Ryder in the "Proceedings" of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He instances the case of a raccoon in the collection of the Philadelphia Zoological Society, in which the variation from the typical coloration of the species was great. Here the color areas were disposed symmetrically in the same manner as in the ordinary specimens. The difference was only in the shade, this specimen being of a rich, brownish yellow, except the tail-rings and the lateral bands on the face, which were of a considerably deeper hue. The nose, feet, and eyes, in the ordinary specimens, are black, while in this specimen all the dermal structures were of a much lighter tint. Again, in a specimen of Lepus silvaticus, in the Academy's collection, the fur is cream-colored, and very long and soft, but perfectly symmetrical and uniform in color. In rats, nearly white, the color areas were also found to be very nearly the same on both sides. The same is to be said of specimens of Virginia deer. In many domestic animals there is a decided tendency to preserve the symmetry of the ancestral type, but domestication seems to be at the bottom of the variability and asymmetry of color of animals brought under its influence. In conclusion, the author summed up the facts as follows: 1. Bilateral symmetry of coloration is interfered with in some way by domestication; 2. Where variation of color takes place in feral animals, they are invariably, so far as observed, symmetrically colored; 3. It is possible that the degree of asymmetry is an indication of the length of time that domestication has been operative.

Travels in Formosa.—In the island of Formosa the inhabitants of all the level country are Chinese. Wages on the island are 20 per cent, higher than in Amoy. Opium makes up two-thirds of the value of all their foreign imports. Opium-smoking prevails to an extraordinary extent; but a traveler in the island, Mr. James Morrison, affirms that there is not much excess of indulgence in that habit. The coolies that carried his palanquin always smoked opium at night, and continued smoking after he had gone to bed; yet they were always ready to start before six o'clock in the morning, and seemed fresh. A coolie will carry twenty miles a day for ten consecutive days. Smoking in this way costs from ten to fifteen cents a day. The daily wage of a chair-coolie is seventy-five cents. The chair is the usual vehicle for travel in Formosa. Ponies may be used for riding short distances, but the numerous rivers, too deep to ford, and too rapid to swim, render them useless for long journeys. The Formosan chair is very light, but hardly roomy enough for the average man of European race. It is forty inches long, forty-eight inches high in the centre, and forty inches at the sides, twenty-one inches wide inside with a seat about ten inches high. The method of carrying, says Mr. Morrison, is simply diabolical. Four men carry, two being placed at the ends of the poles, and two close to the chair, one in front and one behind, the two latter supporting the chair by means of cross-pieces or yokes