Volume 5 / Book 8 — Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies

Ten pages of the last Compte Rendu of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Mr. Walsh says, in a letter to the Journal of Commerce, are allotted to an elaborate report from an able committee, on Mr. Gratiolet's Memoir concerning the cerebral protuberances and furrows of man and the Primates, the first order of animals in the class Mammalia, which include the Ape. The inequalities on the brain of man and most of the mammifers were denominated by the celebrated Willis, gyri,—convolutiones,—plicæ; the French use the phrase—plis cerebraux. The theories of Willis gave birth to the whole system of Dr. Gall: the plicæ are found in the class of mammifers alone; they are rarer and less marked in the lower than in the higher species of the great family of monkeys and baboons. They have been regarded as indicia or exponents of more or less perfection in the organ of intelligence, by their number, their projection, and their measure of separation by the furrows. The Report puts these two questions—among the numerous differences of the cerebral plicæ, in number, disposition and proportion. Is it possible to discriminate, in man, and among the mammifers that have them, constant characters of particular types, of families, genera, and even of species? 2d. Do some of those types exclusively distinguish such or such a family, and are they more or less marked or impaired, but still recognizable, according to the genera? The Report adds—These questions are solved in the affirmative by the results of Mr. Gratiolet's researches relatively to the great family of Apes. The importance of these results for the zoologist and the phrenologist is then signalized, and the insertion of the Memoir in the volume of Transactions emphatically recommended. According to the author, it is with the brain of the Orang-Outang that the brain of man has the most points of resemblance. The distinguishing points in regard to all the Apes of the superior class are designated, and they correspond to the physical indications which denote a higher intellectual power.

Respecting the African Exploring Expeditions, Miss Overweg (daughter of one of the travellers) and the Chevalier Bunson, have received in London interesting letters, stating the continued success of the adventurous scholars. Previous to the 6th of August Dr. Overweg had safely joined his companion, Dr. Barth, at Kuka. The latter started on a highly interesting excursion to the kingdom of Adamowa, while the former was exploring Lake Tsad. The boat, which had been taken to pieces in Tripoli, and during a journey of twelve months had with immense trouble been carried on camels across the burning sands of the Sahrá, had been put together and launched on the lake; and the English colors were hoisted in the presence, and to the great delight, of numerous natives. Dr. Overweg, in exploring the islands of Lake Tsad, had been every where received with kindness by their Pagan inhabitants.

The Courrier de la Gironde states that a civil engineer of Bordeaux, named De Vignernon, has discovered the perpetual motion. His theory is said to be to find in a mass of water, at rest, and contained within a certain space, a continual force able to replace all other moving powers. The above journal declares that this has been effected, and that the machine invented by M. de Vignernon works admirably. A model of the machine was to be exposed at Bordeaux for three days, before the inventor's departure with it for London.

The British Government has granted 1500l. to Colonel Rawlinson, to assist him in his researches among the Assyrian antiquities; and 1200l. for the publication of the zoology and botany collected during the Australian expedition of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, commanded by the late Captain Stanley, son of the late Bishop of Norwich.

The Museum of Berlin says that a Prussian has discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, a basso-relievo, representing a fleet of balloons—another proof that "there is nothing new under the sun."

An invention by Captain Groetaers of the Belgian engineers has been lately tested at Woolwich. It is a simple means of ascertaining the distance of any object against which operations may have to be directed, and is composed of a staff about an inch square and three feet in length, with a brass scale on the upper side, and a slide, to which is attached a plate of tin six inches long and three wide, painted red, with a white stripe across its centre. A similar plate is held by an assistant, and is connected with the instrument by a fine wire. When an observation is to be taken, the observer looks at the distant object through a glass fixed on the left of the scale, and adjusts the striped plate by means of the slide; the assistant also looks through his glass, standing a few feet in advance of his principal at the end of the wire, and as soon as the two adjustments are effected and declared, the distance is read off on the scale. In the three trials made at Woolwich, the distance in one case, although more than 1000 yards, was determined within two inches; and in two other attempts, within a foot. It is obvious that such an instrument, if to be depended on, will admit of being applied to other than military surveys and operations, and may be made useful in the civil service.

Signor Gorini, of the University of Lodi, has recently made some important discoveries which have been much discussed in the scientific journals. His experiments to illustrate the origin of mountains are most interesting. He melts some substances, known only to himself, in a vessel, and allows the liquid to cool. At first it presents an even surface, but a portion continues to ooze up from beneath, and gradually elevations are formed, until at length ranges and chains of hills are formed, exactly corresponding in shape with those which are found on the earth. Even to the stratification the resemblance is complete, and M. Gorini can produce on a small scale the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes. He contends, therefore, "that the inequalities on the face of the globe are the result of certain materials, first reduced by the application of heat to a liquid state and then allowed gradually to consolidate." The professor, has also, it is said, succeeded, to a surprising extent, in preserving animal matter from decay without resorting to any known process for that purpose. Specimens are shown by him of portions of the human body which, without any alteration in their natural appearance, have been exposed to the action of the atmosphere for six and seven years; and he states that, at a trifling cost, he can keep meat for any length of time in such a way that it can be eaten quite fresh.

Count Castelnau, a French Savant who is well known in the United States, has lately communicated to the Geographical Society of Paris the result of some personal inquiries at Bahia, in South America, respecting a race of human beings with tails. We suppose there is not a particle of truth in the information he received, but he is so respectable a person that his report deserves some notice. "I found myself in Bahia," he says, "in the midst of a host of negro slaves, and thought it possible to obtain from them information of the unknown parts of the African continent. I soon discovered that the Mohammedan natives of Soudan were much farther advanced in mind, than the idolatrous inhabitants of the coast.—Several blacks of Haoussa and Adamawah related to me that they had taken part in expeditions against a nation called Niam Niams, who had tails. They traced their route, on which they encountered tigers, giraffes, elephants, and wild camels. Nine days were consumed in traversing an immense forest. They reached at length a numerous people of the same complexion and frame as themselves, but with tails from twelve to fifteen inches long, &c., &c."

The Paris journals announce that M. Vallée, one of the officials of the Jardin des Plantes, has succeeded in hatching a turtle by artificial means. On the 14th of July last, he found some turtles' eggs on the sand in the inclosure reserved for the turtles, and placed three of them under his apparatus in the reptile department. On the 14th of this month he examined the eggs, and found a turtle, about as big as a walnut, in full life. He hopes to be able to rear it. This is the first case on record of one of these creatures having been produced artificially.