Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883
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Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883
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Mouldy grain and bread have also caused poisoning. Prof. Varnell states
that "six horses died in three days from eating mouldy oats. There was a
large amount of matted mycelium, and this when given to other horses for
experiment, killed them within thirty-six hours." The writer has himself
seen seven hogs die within a few days while being fed on mouldy corn.
Flour which has become stale may produce similar injurious effects,
although most of the germs are destroyed in the process of baking. It is
quite probable, however, that a poisonous substance is generated by the
mould fungus, which cannot be destroyed in this way.--_Milling World_.
* * * * *
MOIST AIR IN LIVING ROOMS.
The injurious effect of dry heat in inhabited rooms is quite generally
known, and different methods have been suggested for moistening the
air. To test the effectiveness of these methods, J. Melikow, of St.
Petersburg, has estimated the quantity of moisture in the air of
different rooms by means of August's psychrometer, and also tested
the different methods of increasing the moisture. He arrived at the
following results, which are of decided practical value:
1. When large and small open vessels filled with water are placed in the
room, they do not increase the moisture of the air at all.
2. Tubs of water of the same temperature as the room and parlor
fountains have very little effect.
3. When hot air is used, open vessels of water placed over the pipes
have no effect at all.
4. Wolpert's revolving wheel increases the moisture but slightly.
5. The Russian tea machine and the steam pulverizer (atomizer) are
effective but only for a short time.
6. Wet hand towels suspended in a room are insufficient.
7. Of all the methods tested, the most efficient seemed to be to hang up
a number of wet cloths on a winch or some contrivance that permits
of turning them, so as to hasten their giving out moisture to the
air.--_Med. Zeitung_.
* * * * *
[The following article is from the June number of the _American
Naturalist_, edited by Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr., and Prof. E. D. Cope.
Published by McCalla & Stavely, Philadelphia, Pa.]
THE DEVELOPMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN PHYSIOGNOMY.
[Footnote: Abstract of a lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute
of Philadelphia, Jan. 20.1881, in exposition of principles laid down in
The Hypothesis of Evolution, New Haven, 1870, p. 31.]
By E. D. COPE.
The ability to read character in the form of the human face and figure
is a gift possessed by comparatively few persons, although most
people interpret, more or less correctly, the salient points of human
expression. The transient appearances of the face reveal temporary
phases of feeling which are common to all men; but the constant
qualities of the mind should be expressed, if at all, in the permanent
forms of the executive instrument of the mind, the body. To detect the
peculiarities of the mind by external marks has been the aim of the
physiognomist of all times; but it is only in the light of modern
evolutionary science that much progress in this direction can be made.
The mind, as a function of part of the body, partakes of its perfections
and its defects, and exhibits parallel types of development. Every
peculiarity of the body has probably some corresponding significance in
the mind; and the causes of the former are the remoter causes of the
latter. Hence, before a true physiognomy can be attempted, the origin
of the features of the face and general form must be known. Not that
a perfect physiognomy will ever be possible. A mental constitution so
complex as that of man cannot be expected to exhibit more than its
leading features in the body; but these include, after all, most of what
it is important for us to be able to read, from a practical point of
view.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Section of skull of adult orang-outang _(Simia
satyrus)_. FIG. 2.--Section of skull of young orang, showing relatively
shorter jaws and more prominent cerebral region.]
The present essay will consider the probable origin of the structural
points which constitute the permanent expression. These may be divided
into three heads, viz.:
1. Those of the general form or figure.
2. Those of the surface or integument of the body, with its appendages.
3. Those of the forms of the head and face.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Figure of infant at birth; _a_, front of face.
(The eye is too far posterior in this figure.)]
The principal points to be considered under each of these heads are the
following:
I. THE GENERAL FORM.
1. The size of the head.
2. The squareness or slope of the shoulders.
3. The length of the arms.
4. The constriction of the waist.
5. The width of the hips.
6. The length of the leg, principally of the thigh.
7. The sizes of the hands and feet.
8. The relative sizes of the muscles.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Portrait of a girl at five years of age.]
II. THE SURFACES.
9. The structure of the hair (whether curled or not).
10. The length and position of the hair.
11. The size and shape of the nails.
12. The smoothness of the skin.
13. The color of the skin, hair, and irides.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Portrait of the same at seventeen years, showing
the elongation of the facial region, and less protuberance of the
cerebral.]
III. THE HEAD AND FACE.
14. The relative size of the cerebral to the facial regions.
15. The prominence of the forehead.
16. The prominence of the superciliary (eyebrow) ridges.
17. The prominence of the alveolar borders (jaws).
18. The prominence and width of the chin.
19. The relation of length to width of skull.
20. The prominence of the malar (cheek) bones.
21. The form of the nose.
22. The relative size of the orbits and eyes.
23. The size of the mouth and lips.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Profile of a Luchatze negro woman, showing
deficient bridge of nose and chin, and elongate facial region and
prognathism.]
The significance of these, as of the more important structural
characters of man and the lower animals, must be considered from two
standpoints, the paleontological and the embryological. The immediate
paleontological history of man is unknown, but may be easily inferred
from the characteristics displayed by his nearest relatives of the order
Quadrumana. If we compare these animals with man, we find the following
general differences. The numbers correspond to those of the list above
given:
I. _As to General Form_.--(3) In the apes the arms are longer; (8) the
extensor muscles of the leg are smaller.
II. _As to Surface_.--(9) The body is covered with hair which is not
crisp or woolly; (10) the hair of the head is short; (18) the color of
the skin, etc., is dark.
III. _As to Head and Face_.--(14) The facial region of the skull is
large as compared with the cerebral; (15) the forehead is not prominent,
and is generally retreating; (16) the superciliary ridges are more
prominent; (17) the edges of the jaws are more prominent; (18) the chin
is less prominent; (20) the cheek bones are more prominent; (21) the
nose is without bridge, and with short and flat cartilages; (22) the
orbits and eyes are smaller (except in Nyctipithecus); (24) the mouth is
small and the lips are thin.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Face of another negro, showing flat nose, less
prognathism and larger cerebral region. From Serpa Pinto.]
It is evident that the possession of any one of the above
characteristics by a man approximates him more to the monkeys, so far
as it goes. He retains features which have been obliterated in other
persons in the process of evolution.
[Illustration: FIG.8.--Portrait of Satanta, a late chief of the Kiowas
(from the Red river of Texas), from a photograph. The predominance of
the facial region, and especially of the malar bones, and the absence of
beard, are noteworthy.]
In considering the physiognomy of man from an embryological standpoint,
we must consider the peculiarities of the infant at birth. The numbers
of the following list correspond with those already used (Fig. 3).
I. _As to the General Form_.--(1) The head of the infant is relatively
much larger than in the adult; (3) the arms are relatively longer;
(4) there is no waist; (6) the leg, and especially the thigh, is much
shorter.
II. _As to the Surfaces_.--(10) The body is covered with fine hair, and
that of the head is short.
III. _The Head and Face_.--(14) The cerebral part of the skull greatly
predominates over the facial; (16) the superciliary ridges are not
developed; (17) the alveolar borders are not prominent; (20) the malar
bones are not prominent; (21) the nose is without bridge and the
cartilages are flat and generally short; (22) the eyes are larger.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Australian native (from Brough Smyth), showing
small development of muscles of legs and prognathism.]
It is evident that persons who present any of the characters cited in
the above list are more infantile or embryonic in those respects than
are others; and that those who lack them have left them behind in
reaching maturity.
We have now two sets of characters in which men may differ from each
other. In the one set the characters are those of monkeys, in the other
they are those of infants. Let us see whether there be any identities in
the two lists, i. e., whether there be any of the monkey-like characters
which are also infantile. We find the following to be such:
I. _As to General Form_.--(3) The arms are longer.
II. _Surface_.--(10) The hair of the head is short, and the hair on the
body is more distributed.
III. _As to Head and Face_.--(21) The nose is without bridge and the
cartilages are short and flat.
Three characters only out of twenty-three. On the other hand, the
following characters of monkey-like significance are the opposites of
those included in the embryonic list: (14) The facial region of the
skull is large as compared with the cerebral; (15) the forehead is not
prominent; (16) the superciliary ridges are more prominent; (17) the
edges of the jaws are more prominent. Four characters, all of the face
and head. It is thus evident that in attaining maturity man resembles
more and more the apes in some important parts of his facial expression.
[Illustration: Esequibo Indian woman, showing the following
peculiarities: deficient bridge of nose, prognathism, no waist, and
(the right hand figure) deficiency of stature through short femur. From
photographs by Endlich.]
It must be noted here that the difference between the young and
embryonic monkeys and the adults is quite the same as those just
mentioned as distinguishing the young from the adult of man (Figs. 1 and
2). The change, however, in the case of the monkeys is greater than
in the case of man. That is, in the monkeys the jaws and superciliary
ridges become still more prominent than in man. As these characters
result from a fuller course of growth from the infant, it is evident
that in these respects the apes are more fully developed than man.
Man stops short in the development of the face, and is in so far more
embryonic.[1] The prominent forehead and reduced jaws of man are
characters of "retardation." The characters of the prominent nose with
its elevated bridge, is a result of "acceleration," since it is a
superaddition to the quadrumanous type from both the standpoints of
paleontology and embryology.[2] The development of the bridge of the
nose is no doubt directly connected with the development of the front of
the cerebral part of the skull and ethmoid bone, which sooner or later
carries the nasal bones with it.
[Footnote 1: This fact has been well stated by C. S. Minot in the
_Naturalist_ for 1882, p. 511.]
[Footnote 2: See Cope, The Hypothesis of Evolution, New Haven, 1870, p.
31.]
[Illustration: The Venus of the Capitol (Rome). The form and face
present the characteristic peculiarities of the female of the
Indo-European race.]
If we now examine the leading characters of the physiognomy of three
of the principal human sub-species, the Negro, the Mongolian, and the
Indo-European, we can readily observe that it is in the two first named
that there is a predominance of the quadrumanous features which are
retarded in man; and that the embryonic characters which predominate are
those in which man is accelerated. In race description the prominence
of the edges of the jaws is called prognathism, and its absence
orthognathism. The significance of the two lower race characters as
compared with those of the Indo-European is as follows:
_Negro_.--Hair crisp (a special character), short (quadrum. accel.);
prognathous (quadrum. accel.); nose flat, without bridge (quadrum.
retard)[1]; malar bones prominent (quadrum. accel.); beard short
(quadrum. retard.); arms longer (quadrum. accel.); extensor muscles of
legs small (quadrum. retard.).
[Footnote 1: In the Bochimans, the flat nasal bones are co-ossified with
the adjacent elements as in the apes (Thulie).]
_Mongolian_.--Hair straight, long (accel.); jaws prognathous (quadrum.
accel.); nose flat or prominent with or without bridge; malar bones
prominent (quadrum. accel.); beard none (embryonic); arms shorter
(retard.); extensor muscles of leg smaller (quad. retard.).
_Indo-European_.--Hair long (accel.); jaws orthognathous (embryonic
retard.); nose (generally) prominent with bridge (accel.); malar bones
reduced (retard.); beard long (accel.); arms shorter (retard.); extensor
muscles of the leg large (accel.).
The Indo-European race is then the highest by virtue of the acceleration
of growth in the development of the muscles by which the body is
maintained in the erect position (extensors of the leg), and in those
important elements of beauty, a well-developed nose and beard. It is
also superior in these points in which it is more embryonic than the
other races, viz., the want of prominence of the jaws and cheekbones,
since these are associated with a greater predominance of the cerebral
part of the skull, increased size of cerebral hemispheres, and greater
intellectual power.
A comparison between the two sexes of the Indo-Europeans expresses their
physical and mental relations in a definite way. I select the sexes of
the most civilized races, since it is in these, according to Broca and
Topinard, that the sex characters are most pronounced. They may be
contrasted as follows. The numbers are those of the list already used.
I first consider those which are used in the tables of embryonic,
quadrumanous, and race characters:
MALE. FEMALE.
I. _The General Form_.
2. Shoulders square. Shoulders slope.
4. Waist less constricted. Waist more constricted.
5. Hips narrower. Hips wider.
6. Legs longer. Legs shorter (very frequently).
8. Muscles larger. Muscles smaller.
II. _The Integuments, etc_.
10. More hair on body, that Less hair on body, that of head
of head shorter; beard. longer; no beard.
12. Skin rougher (generally). Skin smoother.
III. _The Head and Face_.
16. Superciliary ridges more Superciliary ridges low.
prominent.
22. Eyes often smaller. Eyes often larger.
[Illustration: The Wrestler; original in the Vatican. This figure
displays the characters of the male Indo-European, except the beard.]
The characters in which the male is the most like the infant are two,
viz., the narrow hips and short hair. Those in which the female is most
embryonic are five, viz., the shorter legs, smaller muscles, absence of
beard, low superciliary ridges, and frequently larger eyes. To these may
be added two others not mentioned in the above lists; these are 1, the
high pitched voice, which never falls an octave, as does that of the
male; and 2, the structure of the generative organs, which in all
mammalia more nearly resemble the embryo and the lower vertebrata in the
female than in the male. Nevertheless, as Bischoff has pointed out, one
of the most important distinctions between man and the apes is to be
found in the external reproductive organs of the female.
From the preceding rapid sketch the reader will be able to explain the
meaning of most of the peculiarities of face and form which he will
meet with. Many persons possess at least one quadrumanous or embryonic
character. The strongly convex upper lip frequently seen among the lower
classes of the Irish is a modified quadrumanous character. Many people,
especially those of the Sclavic races, have more or less embryonic
noses. A retreating chin is a marked monkey character. Shortness
of stature is mostly due to shortness of the femur, or thigh; the
inequalities of people sitting are much less than those of people
standing. A short femur is embryonic; so is a very large head. The faces
of some people are always partially embryonic, in having a short face
and light lower jaw. Such faces are still more embryonic when the
forehead and eyes are protuberant. Retardation of this kind is
frequently seen in children, and less frequently in women. The length of
the arms would appear to have grown less in comparatively recent times.
Thus the humerus in most of the Greek statues, including the Apollo
Belvidere, is longer than those of modern Europeans, according to a
writer in the Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie of Paris, and
resembles more nearly that of the modern Nubians than any other people.
This is a quadrumanous approximation. The miserably developed calves of
many of the savages of Australia, Africa, and America are well known.
The fine, swelling gastroenemius and soleus muscles characterize the
highest races, and are most remote from the slender shanks of the
monkeys. The gluteus muscles developed in the lower races as well as
in the higher distinguish them well from the monkeys with their flat
posterior outline.
It must be borne in mind that the quadrumanous indications are found in
the lower classes of the most developed races. The status of a race or
family is determined by the percentage of its individuals who do and do
not present the features in question. Some embryonic characters may
also appear in individuals of any race, as a consequence of special
circumstances. Such are, however, as important to the physiognomist as
the more normal variations.
Some of these features have a purely physical significance, but the
majority of them are, as already remarked, intimately connected with
the development of the mind, either as a cause or as a necessary
coincidence. I will examine these relations in a future article.
* * * * *
THE PRODUCTION OF FIRE.
In 1867 the Abbe Bourgeois found at Thenay, near Pont-levoy
(Loir-et-Cher), in a marly bank belonging to the most ancient part of
the middle Tertiary formation, fragments of silex which bore traces of
the action of fire. This fire had not been lighted by accidental causes,
for, says Mr. DeMortillet (_Le Prehistorique_, p. 90), the causes of
instantaneous conflagrations can be only volcanic fires, fermentations,
and lightning. "Now, in the entire region there is no trace of volcanic
action, and neither are there any traces of turfy or vegetable deposits
capable of giving rise to spontaneous inflammations--phenomena that
are always very rare and very exceptional, as are also conflagrations
started by lightning. Well, in the Thenay marls, the pieces of silex
that had undergone the action of fire were found disseminated at
different levels, and this could not have been a simple accident, but
was evidently something that had been done intentionally. There existed,
then, during the Aquitanian epoch, a being who was acquainted with fire
and knew how to produce it."
Mr. De Mortillet supposes that this being was an animal intermediate
between man and the monkey, which he calls the _anthropopithecus_.
This precursor of man made use of fire for splitting silex and
manufacturing from it instruments whose cutting edge he perfected by
means of a series of retouchings produced by slight percussions upon one
of the surfaces only.
I shall not enter in this place upon a discussion as to the existence
of an anthropopithecus or Tertiary man, whom every one does not as yet
accept, but will confine myself to giving the facts as to the use of
fire in the remotest epochs, incontestable proofs of which exist from
the time at which Quaternary man made his appearance. How this was
discovered is indicated, according to Aryan tradition, by the Vedic
hymns. The ancestors of the Aryans, these tell us, had seen the lighting
dart forth from the shock of black clouds. They had seen the spark that
fired the forests issue from the friction of dry branches agitated by
the storm. They took a branch of soft wood, _arani_, and passing a thong
around a branch of hard wood, _pramontha_, they caused it to revolve
rapidly in a cavity in the _arani_, and thus evoked the god _Agni_, whom
they nourished with libations of clarified butter, _soma_.
The _Pramontha_, became the _Prometheus_ of the Greeks, the Titan who
stole the fire, and it is from the Sanscrit _Agni_ that is derived the
Latin _Ignis_, "fire," and the Greek [Greek: Agnos], "pure," and the
_Agnus Dei_ of the Christians, who purifies all.
Orientalists generally agree that the sign which is seen under the forms
[inline illustration], [inline illustration], or [inline illustration],
on a large number of objects of Aryan origin is a sort of sacred
hieroglyphic, representing the _arani_ or _svastika_, formed of two
pieces of soft wood fixed by four pins in such a way as not to revolve
under the pressure of the Pramontha.
This process of producing fire is also found among a host of more or
less savage peoples, and especially in India, where, during the last
month of the great feast of sacrifices, the sacred fire must always be
kindled three hundred and sixty times a day with nine different kinds of
wood that are prescribed by the rite.
Fig. 1 shows the arrangement in use among the Eskimos, and Fig. 2 that
employed by the Indians of North America.
In 1828 there still existed at Essen, in Hanover, an analogous apparatus
designed to produce an alarm fire. This was a large, horizontal, round
wooden bar whose extremities pivoted in two apertures formed in vertical
posts, and which was provided with a cord that was wound around it
several times. Several persons, by pulling on the ends of this cord,
caused the bar to revolve alternately in one direction and the other,
and the heat developed by the friction lighted some tow that had
previously been inserted in one of the apertures in the post.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ESKIMO PRODUCING FIRE BY FRICTION.]
It is certain that the alternate motion must have been produced directly
by hand before being effected by cords. This simpler process is still in
use in Tasmania, Australia, Polynesia, Kamtschatka, Thibet, Mexico, and
among the Guanches of the Canary Isles, who are supposed to be the last
representatives of the inhabitants of Atlantis, which sank under the
waters at the close of the Quaternary epoch.
Chamisso, who accompanied Kotzebue in his voyage, describes it as
follows: "In the Caroline Islands, they rest a vertical piece of
roundish wood, terminating in a point, and about a foot and a half in
length and one inch in diameter, upon a second one fixed in the ground,
and then give it a rotary motion by acting with the palms of the
hands. This motion, which is at first slow and measured, is at length
accelerated, while at the same time the pressure becomes stronger,
whereupon the dust from the wood which has formed by friction and
accumulated around the point of the movable piece begins to carbonize.
This dust, which, after a fashion, constitutes a match, soon bursts into
flame. The women of Eap are wonderfully dexterous in their use of this
process."
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PROCESS EMPLOYED IN NORTH AMERICA FOR PRODUCING
FIRE.]
Fig. 3 shows another manner of obtaining fire by rotation which is
employed by the Guachos, a half savage, pastoral people who inhabit the
pampas of South America. Longitudinal friction must have preceded that
obtained by rotation. It is still in use in most of the islands of
Oceanica (Fig. 4), and especially in Tahiti and in the Sandwich Islands.
In these latter, says again Chamisso, upon the fixed piece of wood they
place another piece of the same kind, about the length of the palm, and
press it obliquely at an angle of about 30 degrees. The extremity that
touches the fixed piece is blunt, and the other extremity is held with
the two hands, the two thumbs downward, in order to allow of a surer
pressure. The piece is given an alternating motion, and in such a way
that it shall always remain in the same plane inclined at an angle of 30
degrees, and form, through friction, a small groove from six to eight
centimeters in length. When the dust thus produced begins to carbonize,
the pressure and velocity are increased. Wood of a homogeneous texture,
neither too hard nor too soft, is the best for the purpose.
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