Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/784

764 mechanism. The porpoise, being a pure mammal, has a four-cavitied heart, and a pair of lungs. Now, Nature has ordained that he shall live in the sea; the problem is, how to keep water out of the lungs. In the first place, his nose is guarded by a valve placed on top of his head, and when the porpoise breathes he comes to the surface, and takes a deep inspiration. Not a drop of water ever gets in. But how does he work his valve, and keep the water out of his lungs, when he is asleep? The answer to this question cannot be given yet. Mr. Buckland intends to study the subject when next he has a live porpoise at the Brighton Aquarium.

Reproduction of Ancient Colors.—A remarkable and very beautiful shade of blue is noticeable upon many of the ornaments found in the tombs of Egypt. Analysis, some time since, proved the color to be formed by a combination of soda, sand, and lime, with certain proportions of copper. From these substances the ancient Egyptians obtained three different products: first, a peculiar kind of red, green, and blue glass; second, a brilliant enamel; and lastly, this blue color, which was used for painting. By synthetic experiments, Peligot has succeeded in reproducing this peculiar shade of blue by heating together seventy-three parts of silica, with sixteen of oxide of copper, eight of lime, and three of soda. The temperature should not exceed 800° Fahr., as, in such case, a valueless black product is the result.

Prof. Huxley on Female Education.—A lady, Miss Sophia Jex-Blake, having failed to pass successfully an examination at the Edinburgh University, brought the charge of unfairness against the examining board. One of the lady's papers, that on natural history, having been submitted to Prof. Huxley for his opinion, he expressed his full concurrence in the decision of the board, so far as this paper was concerned. In a letter to the Times, giving a history of the affair, Prof. Huxley remarks as follows on the question of woman's education: "Without seeing any reason to believe that women are, on the average, so strong physically, intellectually, or morally, as men, I cannot shut my eyes to the obvious fact that many women are much better endowed in all these respects than many men, and I am at a loss to understand on what grounds of justice or public policy a career which is open to the weakest and most foolish of the male sex should be forcibly closed to women of vigor and capacity. We have heard a great deal lately about the physical disabilities of women. Some of these alleged impediments, no doubt, are really inherent in their organization, but nine-tenths of them are artificial—the product of their mode of life. I believe that nothing would tend so effectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, weariness, and that 'over-stimulation of the emotions,' which, in plainer-spoken days, used to be called wantonness, than a fair share of healthy work, directed toward a definite object, combined with an equally fair share of healthy play, during the years of adolescence; and those who are best acquainted with the acquirements of an average medical practitioner, will find it hardest to believe that the attempt to reach that standard is likely to prove exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated young woman."

Do Dogs perspire?—It is frequently urged, as an argument against the ordinary method of muzzling dogs, that it closes the mouth, and thereby prevents perspiration, which, in the dog, is said to take place only through the mouth. This, according to Land and Water, is an error; perspiration going on through the skin, as in other animals. The idea of perspiratory glands in the tongue is characterized as absurd, these organs being only found in the dog's skin, which is abundantly supplied with them. The real cruelty of the close or strap muzzle is, that it hinders free respiration, rather than free perspiration.

New Species by Sudden Variations.—A paper was read by Mr. Meehan, at the American Association, entitled "Change by Gradual Modification not the Universal Law," in which, after recounting a large number of facts in botany which go to show that varieties and new species are not always the result of imperceptible gradations,