Climatic Changes, Prof. T. C. Chamberlin takes up a suggestion of
Tyndall's that the periods of terrestrial glaciation might be dependent
upon the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, the peculiar competence
of which to retain solar heat he had demonstrated. Following out the
doctrine of atmospheric loss on its own lines, although only in a
tentative way as yet, he seems to find a rhythmical action that may in
part explain the glacial oscillations. The idea, he says, hinges on
the action of the ocean as a reservoir of carbon dioxide, and on the
losses of the organic cycle under the influence of cold. Cold water
absorbs more carbon dioxide than warm water. As the atmosphere becomes
impoverished and the temperature declines, the capacity of the ocean
to take up carbonic acid in solution increases. Instead, therefore, of
resupplying the atmosphere in the stress of its impoverishment, the
ocean withholds its carbon dioxide to a certain extent, and possibly
even turns robber itself by greater absorption. So also, with increased
cold the progress of organic decay becomes less active, a greater part
of the vegetal and animal matter remains undecomposed, and its carbon
is thereby locked up; and hence the loss of carbon dioxide through the
organic cycle is increased. The impoverishment of the atmosphere is
thus hastened and the epoch of cold is precipitated. With the spread
of glaciation the main crystalline areas whose alteration is the chief
source of depletion become covered and frozen, and the abstraction of
carbon dioxide by rock alteration is checked. The supply continuing the
same, by hypothesis, re-enrichment begins, and when it has sufficiently
advanced warmth returns. With returning warmth the ocean gives up its
carbon dioxide more freely, the accumulated organic products decay
and add their contribution of carbonic acid, and the re-enrichment is
accelerated and interglacial mildness is hastened.
=Additions to the Missouri Botanical Garden.=--We learn from the
ninth annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden that while the
decorative features were maintained in 1897 in about the same manner as
heretofore, considerable additions have been made in certain classes,
especially orchids, and the collections of cultivated species, with
their named varieties, are now estimated to number about five thousand.
Circumstances made possible material additions to the contents of the
herbarium; and, besides the purchased current collections, rather
larger and more numerous than usual, the garden has secured the
herbarium of the late J. H. Redfield, very rich in earlier collections
representing the flora of the United States; the herbarium of the late
Dr. J. F. Joor, containing 4,133 specimens, and largely adding to the
representation of the flora of Louisiana and Texas; the interesting
herbarium of Gustav Jermy, of San Antonio, Texas, containing a very
full set of Carpathian plants and a nearly complete local flora; the
important pre-Linnæan herbarium formed by Boehmer and Ludwig; and a
Chinese collection by Dr. A. Henry. Even larger additions were made to
the library. The instruction of garden pupils was continued, and the
garden was visited by several research students. Among the scientific
papers accompanying the report and bound with it are those of C. H.
Thompson on American Lemnaceæ; N. N. Glatfelter on _Salix longipes_; H.
C. Irish on the Genus Capsicum; A. S. Hitchcock on Cryptogams collected
in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman; J. N. Rose on Agaves; C. H.
Thompson on Cacti Anhalonium; and seven shorter papers under the heading
of "Notes and Observations."
=The Indian Idea of the "Midmost Self."=--In attempting to explain
the significance of a pentagonal stone dodecahedron with vestiges of
figures on it found near Marietta, Ohio, Dr. J. C. Morris assumed
that, besides the Aryan idea of three dimensions of space, there is,
to the Indian and to the Eastern mind, another--the fullness. "It is
not the length and breadth and thickness of a cube, for instance, but
the whole of it, which is as much to be considered as any one of its
sides. A cube would therefore be represented numerically by seven, a
dodecahedron by thirteen. Among the Mexicans the thirteen lunar months
would thus correspond in the year with the twelve zodiacal signs and
the earth which passed under and embraced them all." Again, the five
digits came to be a measure of man's power or individuality, and thus
a sacred number. A pentagonal dodecahedron, then, might be the emblem
of the world; and the best time to be active in some contemplated
pursuit might be shown by the zodiacal sign that came uppermost when
the dodecahedron was thrown or rolled with appropriate ceremonies.
As Mr. Frank H. Cushing interpreted the doctrine at the same meeting
of the Anthropological Society, when the primitive man contemplates
or considers himself or anything in its relation to space or the
surrounding directions, "he notices that there is ever a front or face,
a rear or back; two sides, or a right and a left; a head and a foot, or
an above and a below; and that of and within all of these is himself
or it; that the essence of all these aspects in anything is the thing
itself--that is, the thing that contains their numbers or sum, yet is
one by itself. This is indeed the very key to his conception of himself
and of anything in relation to space and the universe or cosmos. He
observes that there are as many regions in the world as there are
aspects of himself or sides to any equally separate thing; that there
are as many directions from him or his place in the world (which is his
'midmost' or place of attachment to the Earth-mother), or from anything
in the world (which is its midmost or natural station), toward these
corresponding regions. Hence to him a plane would be symbolized not by
four, but by five--its four sides and directions thence, and its central
self--as was actually the notion of the prairie tribes; a cube, not by
six, but by seven, as was the notion of the valley Pueblos and Navajos;
a dodecahedron, not by twelve, but by thirteen, as was the notion of
the Zuñis, the Aztecs, and apparently--from this example--of the mound
builders as well."
=The Bactrian Camel for the Klondike.=--The great Siberian or Bactrian
camel is recommended by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the famous Hamburg importer
of wild beasts, as the best animal for the Klondike climate. It is at
home in the coldest regions, can carry or go in harness, can cross
mountains or traverse valleys, and is so easily supplied that Mr.
Hagenbeck can undertake to deliver any number in New York, duty paid,
for three hundred dollars each. It can endure thirst and long spells of
hunger as well as freezing cold, and is not too delicate to make its bed
on the snow. It sheds its coat before the summer heat, but as the cooler
weather of the fall comes on "it grows a garment of fur almost as thick
as a buffalo robe and equally cold-resisting. It is far more strongly
built than the southern camel. It does not 'split' when on slippery
ground, though it falls on moist, wet clay which yields to the foot. On
ice and frozen snow it stands firmly, and can travel far." It is said
that an excellent cross can be made between the male Bactrian and the
female Arabian camel; but when the parentage is reversed the progeny is
useless. General Harlan is said to have marched two thousand Bactrian
camels four hundred miles and crossed the Indian Caucasus in ice and
snow, with the loss of only one animal, and that by an accident. This
camel is native to the high plateaus, steppes, and deserts of Mongolia
and South Siberia, and it has been found wild on the plain of Tsaidam,
maintaining itself in this "arid, cold, and waterless region, where
the herds are said to travel seventy miles to drink. Nothing," we are
further told, "but too much comfort or a damp climate seems to hurt it.
For food it prefers dry, salty plants and bushes and grows sick and lean
on good pasture. The salty efflorescence of the steppes is eagerly eaten
by it, and in this country it prefers dry food, especially wheat straw
and hay. Prjevalski's camels would eat almost anything--straw, bleached
bones, old pack saddles, straps, and leather. The Mongols told him of
camels which had been without food a long time, and then devoured an old
tent belonging to their owner. They even ate meat and fish, and one of
the traveler's camels made a meal of the bird skins ready for stuffing."
=Nicaragua and its Ferns.=--Tropical America is described by B. Shimek,
in a paper on the Ferns of Nicaragua, as the fern paradise of the
earth. "No other corresponding division of the earth's surface," he
says, "presents as great a total number of species, or as many species
which are peculiar to it. Nowhere else is the great variation in form
and size, in structural characters and habits of growth, and in the
arrangement and character of the reproductive organs, better shown than
here. This richness in the fern flora, exhibited in almost unlimited
variety, is, no doubt, accounted for by the topography and contour of
that part of the American continent which lies within the tropics. It
is narrow when compared with the continents of the Old World, and it
contains high mountain chains, which form its longest axis. Its narrow
form brings all of it more or less within the influence of the adjacent
oceans, which furnish to most of it an abundance of moisture. Its high
mountains supply all the conditions effected by altitude, and, moreover,
cut off the otherwise abundant moisture from certain areas. We have
thus within comparatively restricted limits all the possible degrees of
moisture and temperature, and the effect of environment finds abundant
expression in the great variety of fern structures." After palms, ferns
form the most conspicuous feature of tropical vegetation, and in size
they vary from species only a fraction of an inch high to splendid
tree ferns or vines single fronds of which are more than thirty feet
long. In texture "some rival the flimsiest lace, while others develop
thick, leathery fronds.... In habit the variation is fully as great. In
western Nicaragua, for example, where there is a distinct dry season,
ferns growing on bare volcanic rock become so dry that they may be
ground to powder between the fingers, and yet they retain life; while
in the eastern part, with its deep jungles in which perpetual shade and
moisture prevail, the more delicate as well as the more gorgeous forms
have full opportunity for the development of their many peculiarities."
In a very small territory of Nicaragua, including a strip along the San
Juan River in no case extending more than six miles away from it, and in
the little island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua, Mr. Shimek, in less than
four months, while engaged in general botanical work, collected more
than a hundred and twenty species of ferns; and yet only about one fifth
of one hundred and twenty-one species recorded by Fournier, two fifths
of one hundred and thirty-five species credited by Hemsley to Nicaragua,
and two fifths of those reported by Baker and Hemsley from adjacent
Costa Rica, occur in his list.
=Wave Length and other Measurements.=--Describing the measurement of
absolute wave length before the Astronomical and Physical Society of
Toronto, Mr. A. F. Miller remarked that a somewhat incorrect idea
prevailed as to the smallness of the space occupied in the performance
of luminous undulations; in fact, some people seem to regard the wave
length of light as something almost inconceivably small. Really,
however, we are familiar with much smaller dimensions. For instance,
the author had found from actual measures that the wave length of one
of the characteristic lines in the spectrum of sodium vapor was very
nearly equal to 1/42000 of an inch. The thickness of ordinary gold leaf
is given as 1/282000 of an inch, from which it becomes evident that the
wave length of sodium light, which is an average wave length for the
visible spectrum, is six and a half times as great as the thickness
of gold leaf. Such a dimension as 1/42000 of an inch could readily be
measured by a suitable micrometer; but of course the waves of light, as
well as the ether particles by which they are transmitted, are entirely
invisible, and even were this otherwise the frequency of the undulations
is so inconceivably great that the actual phenomena of the movements
could never become perceptible. In measuring the absolute wave length,
therefore, we are forced to take the indirect method of observing the
results of undulations in cases where, by a suitable arrangement of the
experiment, equal and opposite phases of vibration are made to arrive
simultaneously at the same spot, so producing phenomena of interference.
=The "Causses" of Southern France.=--It is surprising to find existing,
in a country so old and supposedly so familiar as France, a region
similar to our Colorado plateau, full of cañons, caves, and cliff
dwellings, until recently almost unknown and wholly unexplored. Yet
such is the region of the Causses, described and illustrated with a
striking series of lantern views, before the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, by the well-known cave explorer, Dr. H.
C. Hovey, of Newburyport, Mass. The local name Causse, derived from
the Latin calx, lime, is applied to a limestone area, and here to a
limestone plateau. Along the western slope of the Cévennes Mountains
lies an elevated table-land, chiefly of Jurassic limestones, which
had been cut and carved by the streams, especially the Tarn and its
affluents, into a group of high plateaus separated by deep cañons. The
cliffs of the Tarn Valley are from one to two thousand feet and even
more in height, and with their precipitous sides and the brilliant and
varied coloring of their strata are not unworthy of comparison with our
own great cañon regions of the West. At some points, where the beds are
markedly unequal in hardness, the weathering process has resulted in
structures as remarkable as Monument Park or the Garden of the Gods.
Such is the "rock city" known as Montpellier-le-Vieux, at the junction
of the Jonté and the Durbais, on the Causse Noir. This strange area of
natural ruins covers some two thousand acres with a fantastic similitude
of castles, palaces, streets, and temples. It seems surprising that
a country so picturesque for the tourist and so interesting for the
geologist should have remained almost unknown till the present time.
Fine roads pass over and around it, but they avoid the wild and rugged
portions that possess such scenic interest, and leave the Causses--as
they have been for ages--barren solitudes, occupied only by shepherds
with their huts and flocks. The people, also, as is so often the case
in such regions, have a superstitious dread of the deeper caverns and
the seeming ruins, and do not lend themselves readily to exploration.
The cliffs are full of caves, some of which--the more accessible and
simple--are used as sheepfolds, and even in some cases inhabited, but
the wilder ones are held in dread. It seems that cliff dwellings are
actually still in use to some extent in this region. The French Société
de Spéléologie has now for some years been investigating the Causses
with great interest. Ere long this will become a favorite region for
tourists; but at present one must leave all ordinary facilities of
travel and take to canoes and mules. This was done by Dr. Hovey and
his party, under the leadership of M. Edouard A. Martel, of Paris, who
has been one of the most active explorers. They entered and traversed
many remarkable caves, some never before visited, and some that have
been previously explored by M. Martel and others of the société. One of
these, known as the Baumes Chaudes, is a great triple cavern, one of
the main branches of which had yielded a large number of prehistoric
skeletons to Dr. Prunières, of Marvejol. In the third division are a
number of deep pits, locally called "wells," from forty to a hundred and
thirty feet deep; these communicate with lower passages and subterranean
streams. They are death-traps to animals, the remains of which, of many
kinds and in all stages of decomposition, accumulate at the bottom, and
are gradually covered by stalagmitic deposits. Another remarkable cave
was discovered and named after its daring and enthusiastic explorer, M.
Louis Armand, of Paris. It can only be entered by a "well" two hundred
and forty feet deep, and below this lies another of still greater
depth. The party was provided with rope ladders for use in such places;
and the intrepid investigator who essayed the descent went down, by
actual measurement, six hundred feet from the surface. He described the
stalactites as magnificent. Both from a geological and an archæological
point of view this account was of unusual interest. Dr. Hovey had many
beautiful views of the cañons and the cave openings in their walls;
while his observations, and those of the Société de Spéléologie, are
very curious as to the persistence, in this strangely overlooked region,
of conditions closely akin to what are usually called "prehistoric"
times.
=Molecular Asymmetry and Life.=--Speaking in his presidential address to
the Chemical Section of the British Association on Stereochemistry and
Vitalism, Prof. A. R. Japp expressed the conclusion that "the production
of single asymmetric compounds or their isolation from the mixture of
their enantiomorphs [or opposite forms] is, as Pasteur firmly held,
the prerogative of life. Only the living organism, with its asymmetric
tissues, or the asymmetric productions of the living organism, or the
living intelligence with its conception of asymmetry, can produce
this result. Only asymmetry can beget asymmetry. The absolute origin
of the compounds of one-sided asymmetry is a mystery as profound as
the absolute origin of life itself. The two phenomena are intimately
connected.... No fortuitous concourse of atoms, even with all eternity
for them to clash and combine in, could compass this feat of the
formation of the first optically active organic compound. Coincidence
is excluded, and every purely mechanical explanation of the phenomena
must necessarily fail. I see no escape from the conclusion that at the
moment when life first arose a directive force came into play--a force
of precisely the same character as that which enables the intelligent
operator, by the exercise of his will, to select one crystallized
enantiomorph and reject its asymmetric opposite. I would emphasize the
fact that the operation of a directive force of this nature does not
involve a violation of the law of the conservation of energy."
=Dr. Russell's Photographic Researches.=--At the recent meeting of
the British Association at Bristol, Dr. W. T. Russell gave, before
the Chemical Section, some further information regarding his recent
researches on the surprising action exerted by certain substances in
the absence of light on photographic plates. The Journal of the Society
of Arts gives some of his more striking results: "Some ordinary type, a
portion of the cover of Punch, and the wrapper of a packet of tobacco
produced strongly defined pictures; the last mentioned was particularly
interesting, inasmuch as the red ink had proved active, the blue
inactive. Strangely, writing ink (old-fashioned) is quite inactive,
and paper having writing on it in ink, even over a hundred years old,
when placed between a sheet of active material and a sensitive plate,
yielded a picture in which the writing appeared quite distinctly, white
on black, in spite of the original being in some cases indistinct;
ferrous sulphate behaves like ink. The list of materials that are
active is very long, and includes wood, which gives a picture of the
grain and knots. Many metals are active, but zinc is very active only
when bright, so that a dirty sheet of zinc rubbed with sandpaper gives
a picture of the scratches. Many alloys are also active, pewter and
fusible metal being two of them, and curiously some brasses are, while
others are not. The effective agency that passes from the material to
the sensitive plate shows peculiarities. It passes through gelatin,
gutta-percha, celluloid, collodion, wet gum arabic, and some paper,
while other paper, glass, minerals transparent to light, and many other
substances are opaque to these emanations, and some striking effects
were exhibited demonstrating the interference of these opaque substances
when interposed between an active substance and the sensitive plate. For
instance, a five-pound note placed printing downward on the sensitive
plate gave a picture of the printing inscription, but when placed under
a zinc plate with the printing toward the zinc plate it gave a picture
of the opaque paper with the water marks distinctly showing, and, what
is still more astonishing, the zinc plate, after contact with the note,
itself yielded a picture of the inscription, showing that the influence
from the ink had passed to the zinc plate. It was noteworthy that the
signature was not in writing ink. A cutting from the Times, the paper
being transparent, showed a picture of the printing on both sides;
the picture, moreover, was reversible, showing that a perfect picture
of both sides of the paper had been impressed on the one plate. This
interesting phenomenon is, however, not quite explained, but the great
amount of work he has done leads him to the provisional opinion that the
effect is due to the evolution of hydrogen peroxide."
=Scientific "Trade Hunting."=--The recent movement in England toward the
establishment by the Government of a commercial intelligence office for
the securing and diffusion of information regarding foreign trade has
given rise to considerable discussion among the English trade papers.
The business of the office is to be the gathering of general information
of interest and value to the English merchant with a foreign trade,
and especially of pointing out new ways for the extension of foreign
commerce, and calling attention to possible new markets for English
goods. A number of schemes have been proposed, among others that of
sending an expert once every year or two to the different foreign "trade
areas," for the purpose of collecting information and samples, and of
giving a trustworthy estimate of its commercial prospects; another,
that of extending the consular reports in such a manner as to compass
the same ends. There is considerable opposition to the scheme from
some branches of business, where it is held that no one is so likely
to get hold of useful information as the trader himself, and that the
publishing of such Government reports as the scheme contemplates would
result in giving the information to foreign as well as English traders,
and thus negative whatever advantage might come to the English merchant
from his individual discovery of a valuable market.