Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/880

862 said that he collected a larger body of original documents than had up to that time been gathered in either Asia or Europe. He first brought the Thibetan classics within the range of the Indian and European scholar, presenting the libraries with two copies of the collection of three hundred and forty-five folios, one of which was a gift to him from the Grand Lama. His published essays corrected the misinformation and dissipated the fantastic theories that had prevailed on these subjects. Retiring from active service, he went to Darjeeling and engaged in the study of Himalayan natural history. He discovered thirty-nine new genera and species, contributed "a vast number of papers on Himalayan mammals, raised himself. . .to the highest rank among the original ornithologists of the day," and presented collections to a number of societies and museums. An expert is quoted as saying that "in some respects he was in advance of the science of the day. He was fully alive to the importance of geographical distribution, and was the first to attempt a demarcation of the zones of life resulting from differences of elevation in the Himalayas."

 

plant is the wild tamarind, or jumbai plant (Leucæna glauca), of the river sides and waste places of tropical America; and very strange are its effects upon the non-ruminant animals that feed upon its young shoots, leaves, pods, and seeds, as described in the British Association by Mr. D. Morris, of Kew Gardens. It causes horses to lose the hair from their manes and tails, has a similar effect upon mules and donkeys, and reduces pigs to complete nakedness. Horses are said to recover when fed exclusively on corn and grass, but the new hair is of different color and texture from the old, so that the animal is never quite the same as it was. One instance is cited in which the animal lost its hoofs too, and had to be kept in slings till they grew again and hardened. Ruminant animals are not thus affected, and the growth of the plant is actually encouraged in the Bahamas as a fodder plant for cattle, sheep, and goats. The difference in its action upon ruminants and non-ruminants is probably due to changes effected upon it in the chewing of the cud.

the events mentioned in the thirtieth report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology is the completion of the arrangement of the Mary Hemenway collection in such a way that a nearly complete exhibition of the archaeology and ethnology of the Pueblo peoples of our Southwest is presented in the u[)per hall and the gallery on the floor below. Mr. Valk's explorations in New Jersey, enforced by the observations of Prof. G. F. Wright, are mentioned as confirming the opinion that stones worked by man are found in the glacial deposits of the Delaware Valley. Valuable relics have been obtained from the prehistoric sites of Mount Kineo and from the Indians of Maine. Mr. Gordon has examined deposits in Honduras attesting a mixture of several types of culture, and has obtained many objects of interest from the exploration of two caves. His general report on the ruins of Copan, already noticed in the Monthly, is a publication of very great value. Many contributions of literature and specimens, all deserving fuller notices than we can give them, are acknowledged in the report.

experiments are of various kinds, and while some are of such a character as to suggest cruelty unless performed under the most careful guards, there are probably others to which animals may be indifferent, or which may be even agreeable to them. Of the last seems to be one described by Dr. E. A. de Schweinitz in a recent address before the Chemical Society of Washington. "A fine blooded horse, not available for ordinary use on account of his propensity to run away, was converted into a subject for the cultivation of the tuberculin antitoxine. He was, of course, expected to rebel; but, on the contrary, he received the hypodermic injection of the poison of the tuberculosis germ in quietness and even seemed interested in watching the operation. As a burned child dreads the fire, it was supposed he would resist the second operation. But as soon as he observed the doctor appear with the syringe and bottle, he trotted 