Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/207

 SCIENCE.

��The tail of a irhale ia no wi%e more com- ■ncturally, nor a whit more interesting mor- plioIwicalJ?, than Uie sting of a be«; but it occupies an innnilelj greater space, anil is more abvlons luth to the gaze or the curious and the stud; of the com- petent, — a [act which Lbe manngenient ol a popular museuiu cannot afford to ignore.

The national museum haa very properly developed miHil in tho!e departments, like Ichthyoli^y, geolt^, and ethnology, which receive, independently, govern- ment aid, and thus furnish both workers and mate- rial. If!ome of the other departments have so far been left without material support, those persons feel least like complaining who are familiar with the animate intentions of the director and his efficient A'sislant. and with the viut amount of work accom- plish^ in oi^nizatlon and installation since the buUdIng was (Completed. C. Y. KiLer,

lion, euraior 1/ fiwetffa, U.S.X.M. Wmstitnglon. D.C„ Feb. li.

Plaatic BDOw. A phenomeuoti new to ini' was observed at the close of the north-eait storm thin noon, which showed the cobeiive force in wet snow. The railing to my norcb has a top sloping about l«n degrees each way. My attention was directed to a festoon of snow six- teen inches and a half between ends, and seven inches deep, formed from a snow-ribbon. As It left the railing, it was gradually twisted, so that the bol- lAm of the loop was In a position the exact reverse of what it had held when upon the rail. The twlet-

���had extended for a number of inches in direction In the part thai remained upon the f^l. This loop hung free, and moved over an arc of five or six degt^es when the wind struck It. It was ol short duration, as the water from the rail melted the centre; and the ends, as Ihey swung back, were broken oCt about four inches from the rail, and showed a spiral twist likn that In a twlat-tlrill. On the next panel was the end of a former loop; and this hung free, and measured nearly ten inches in ' ■■ Edward H. Williams. Juii.

��^^nrr. E. Bi

��ID., Feb. 16. Hereditary malformation.

.brook writes to the society of a

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��Sslogy In Paris an account of hereditary hypospadias, rtt reported to the Lancel by Ur. Llngard. The order of inheritance Is as follows: first generation, one affected; second, one; third, one, whose widow afterwards married a. man unaffected. This woman bail seven sons — three by her first husband, and tour byher second husband — ail affected. I will divide these seven sons into the first and second set. Of the finl three, one died childless: the other two had K Hns, all affected. Of the second set were born ~ —four affected, and seven unaffected.

��Three sons are reported of the first set in the next or sixth generation, two of whom are affected: while, of three sons belonging to the second set in the same generation, none are affected. Aside from the great value of such a compact series of well-auttientlcated facts, a very interesting question, oft^n mooted among Btock-breeders.of the permanenceln the effects of Brftt impregnations, receives here a partial answer. The running-out of this influence in a few generations should also be carefully studied, I do not speak of the transmission of hereditarv traits of the male through the mother, hecanse t>r. Llnganl does not seem to have looked among the female descendant* for co-ordinated malformations. Otis T. Uasok.

The Oeorgla ivouder-giirl and her leasoiu.

��on several occasions, In the presence of her parents, and usually of her business-manager. On one occa- sion I was permitted to make a careful examination

��> the fact that I might be sbaklng hand's with a 'giant.' The muscles of her arm and tore-arm were not unusually developed; nor did they stand out prominently, as they do in muscular sub- jects of cither sex. She is above the average stature for women, but does not strike one as being either exceedingly active in movement or overpowerful in frame; as to the former, rather the reverse, I think.

Of the experiment with the staff, 1 shall simply state that in my case, on two occasions, the staff gyrated rapidly about Its long ails, obliging me to quit my hold. This was ohsen^ed by other persons present during the experiment. In the test with the hat. Hiss Lulu stands before you with her hands ex- tended horisontally, palms up, with the little Bneers and sides touching each other. On the surface thus presented we place our hat, with the outer aspect of the crown resting on the two palms. The experi- menter is then invited to lift the hat off. ^Vhcn I tried this experiment, the hat was only removed after considerable force was exerted, and then came away

��: for the result here, I would say that 1 knelt Id such a position that my eyes were but a short dis- tance away; and my line of vision was in the same plane with the opposed palmar surfaces and the crown of the hat. This latter was of very light Manila straw, with the outer periphery of the crown rounded. Now, as the form of this surface was a broad ellipse, with a major axis of perhaps seven Inches, and a minor axis of six, quite smooth, it would be simply an impossible feat for Miss Lulu to seize it when the distance between the Inner mar- gins of the opposite thenar eminences In a right tine Is less than six inches.

Permit me now to present a test which Professor Newcomb did not witness. It consisted in standing upright, with one foot in a<lvance of the other to act as abrace, and holding In the hands with a Brm grasp an ordinary chair. This Is to be done by selling it at the rear uprights, about where the back joins the bottom; the former being towards you, and parallel with your anterior chest-wall, against which you

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