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THE "UNITY," CONTROVERSY.

YOUR

OUR correspondent, "R. G.," "complains, in the November number of SCIENCE GOSSIP, that I have not been successful in answering Mr. Milton's objections to the theory propounded in the May number. I will now, with your permission, attempt to satisfy his cravings, and likewise pass a few criticisms upon the theory which he would substitute for mine. I should like to state, however, before commencing, that I in no way lay claim to originality in the few remarks which have excited so much animadversion; my desire was simply to put old truths in a new light.

In support of the time-honoured idea that the different races of mankind sprang from one pair, as stated in the Book of Genesis, and that the subsequent differences in colour and physique arose from the combined influence of solar heat and other external agencies, exerted during a long series of years, I adduced the cases of the Arabic, Jewish, and Indo-Circassian nations, all of which have a small minority of dark, and a large majority of white, tribes amongst them.

I attempted to deduce from this undeniable fact that it was the minority which had changed colour, solely on account of the circumstances in which it had been placed ;'for intermarriage with other races has been, in every one of these instances, strictly forbidden. To this very plain and intelligible argument, Mr. Milton gave the following answer :"It (history) does not tell us whether the Jews of Cochin were or were not black when, at the mandate of Nebuchadnezzar, they went forth from the land of the Euphrates to settle in Malabar." Now, this is scarcely an ingenuous reply, for Mr. Milton must know that the colour of all the Shemitic races, as represented on the walls of the Nineveh palaces and on the Egyptian obelisks and temples, was not black, but a warm red-brown; and, just before, he had himself quoted these very monuments as undeniable authorities concerning the colour of the negro 2,400 years ago!

Again, to show how quickly changes in the colour of entire races might be effected, I cited the fact that all along the west coast of Africa, the tribes on the coast were becoming extinct, and fresh tribes pouring in from the interior, and changing in colour from brown to black on deserting their native highlands-a result particularly noticeable according to Mr. Winwood Reade, a well-known African traveller, amongst the Camma and Foulah tribes. Mr. Milton could not disprove this, but only replied by a sneer-intended, I presume, to depreciate the value of Mr. Reade's evidence. Now, as Du Chaillu, Burton, and, indeed, almost all who have visited this coast, mention this fact, it requires something more than mere flippancy to explain it away.

Since writing the above, I have met with the following confirmatory evidence in Mr. Charles Brooke's work, entitled, "Ten Years in Sarawak." That gentleman says, on page 71, in reference to the Dyaks: "The colour of their skin varies consider ably, not so much between one tribe and another, as in various localities; and whether it be attributable to different kinds of water, or food, or increase of shade from old jungle, is a question. But there is no doubt that all who reside in the interior are much fairer than those who have moved towards the mouths of the rivers, and a very few years is able to effect the change of appearance."

A third consideration which I brought forward, i.e., that my theory was the only one which accounted for the presence of brown adults amongst black races, the brown individuals being generally found in the highlands, was completely unnoticed. May I beg Mr. Milton and "R. G." to devote their best attention to this point?

Mr. Milton cites the case of the "gipsies" to prove that races do not change colour by changing climate, saying that "their residence here extends beyond historic times; yet climate has as little assimilated them in complexion as in temper." Mr. Milton is very unfortunate in this venture, for it happens that the gipsies, according to the best authorities, did not enter England, or, indeed, western Europe, till about A.D. 1427, when they pretended to have letters commendatory from the King of Hungary. Then, as to the last part of the assertion, may I not fairly retaliate in the style adopted by Mr. Milton, when treating of the Malabar Jews? How do you know what their colour was when they arrived? and how can you prove that their complexion has not been modified by residence in our climate?

But while Mr. Milton is satisfied with demolishing, or attempting to demolish, my humble theories, "R. G." boldly endeavours to raise his own upon their ruins. Certainly, he is candid enough to confess his do not agree very well with Revealed Truth; but then they combine the amiable characteristics of consoling the black (inferior) races, and flattering the amour propre of the white (superior) nations.

Let me give them in "R. G.'s" own words: "This is only one of the many arguments which convinces me that man differs in species, and not in variety only. Is it not more in accordance with the idea of Divine justice to believe that several races of men have been created admirably adapted for the character and circumstance of their places of abode, &c?" And again: "I do not believe that any amount of education and training will ever give the negro the intellect of the European, any more than it will deprive him of the capability he possesses of withstanding the malarious influences of his native climate."

In these extracts, "R. G." evidently declares

himself a believer in different centres of creation for mankind, as well as for animals and plants. That is, he thinks that every distinct race had its own Adam and Eve. But then the following difficulties suggest themselves. Did every race have separate progenitors? What are the limits of this theory? If the black and white were separately created, why not also the fifty different coloured tribes to which "R. G." so touchingly referred in enumerating the difficulties of my hypothesis? And if "R. G." concedes this, how can he account for the universal diffusion of legends recording "the descent of mankind from one pair," "the deluge," "the confusion of tongues," &c.? But if he repudiates the design of carrying out his theory to such extremes, and allows that climate has power to modify races, then he adopts the principle for which I contend, and our difference becomes no longer one of essentials, but only of degree.

"R. G." says, as I have shown, that you can no more educate the negro up to the European standard, than you can deprive him of the power of resisting his own unhealthy climate. But is this true? On the contrary, as has been shown in several letters to the Times, the black troops brought from the West Indies, to join in the Ashantee war, had so completely lost the power, which their ancestors possessed, of resisting African fever, that there were actually more black than white soldiers disabled by disease! It is well known that the average duration of the negro's life in America is far longer than that enjoyed by his relative at home, and that his physique is much more strongly developed. These facts, then, seem to prove that "R. G.'s" theory is not correct; they seem to show that the negro will bear removal from the place of his birth as well as any other human being; and that, therefore, there is no ground for believing he was created only to inhabit his native land. Again, "R. G." denies that great solar heat, an unhealthy climate, and complete isolation would produce a race marked by strong physical peculiarities. On the contrary, he avers that a race subjected to such conditions would die out; and further says that "unhealthy climate" is merely a comparative term, meaning "a climate uncongenial to white men." In order to show "R. G." that I am by no means peculiar in the opinion he so flatly challenges, I subjoin the views of Professor Huxley, extracted from a lecture delivered by him at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, October 11, 1867. He said,-"Now and then a group of men were shut off for thousands and thousands of years in a limited area, under peculiar physical conditions. Within the epoch immediately preceding our own-when the fauna and flora were what they are now-the whole of the southern part of Africa was a vast island, like Australia. It was perfectly certain that for untold

ages the great sandy desert of the Sahara was the bottom of the sea continuous with the Mediterranean. Imagine, in the course of these changes, a stock of men shut off, and mixing with themselves only for untold ages, and at length hardening down into something like what were called races among animals. Imagine another lot shut off in a different part of the world—in Australia; another in South America; others in Hindustan; and the result would be distinct breeds originating even from one homogeneous kind of men. These breeds were, he believed, what were now known as persistent modifications of mankind. They were persistent because they had persisted so long. They had become what they were in virtue of the selective influences of the different localities in which they were shut up." "R. G." will see in this a repetition, almost verbatim, of the assertions made, and illustrations used,) in the August number of SCIENCE-GOSSIP. I, myself, cannot see how "R. G." can call unhealthiness a comparative term, since malaria and other air-poisons can suit no human constitution living, and certainly nowhere is human life shorter, and tribe-extinction more common, than on the malarious coast of western Africa.

"R. G." makes merry over my supposed doubt as to whether white or red was the original colour of man. I am inclined to think that the fact of the great primitive nations of antiquity being red or copper-coloured, proves that the original colour was white or yellow; that, as the more tropical and arid regions of the earth's surface were reached, it turned into red, and in isolated and low countries into a dark brown, very nearly approaching black. "R. G." says, why "may he (our progenitor) not have been black? and instead of the negro being a degenerated white man, may we not be improved negroes? If climate can degenerate, can it not regenerate?" I believe it can, and that the superior robustness and longevity of the negro in the New Continent to his own compatriot in Africa, is due to this. As to his preceding questions, perhaps the opinion of M. Quatrefuges, the celebrated French savan, may have some weight. He says, "All travellers who have lived in countries where only the negro race dwelt, have remarked that sometimes children were born of paler colour, less distant from the white type. This is to be explained by the influence of white ancestors, whose type reappears exceptionally amongst their negro descendants. This reappearance of the ancestral type is what is called atavism; and as black children are never found amongst the white races, it must be inferred that if the negroes descend from the whites, the whites do not descend from the negroes." I think I have now answered most of the queries of "R. G." and Mr. Milton. I may add, in conclusion,-What is

British Medical Journal.

the supposed use of this new theory of different centres of creation? It is opposed to the biblical account of the creation "R. G." acknowledges, and seems unnecessary to account for the universal diffusion of man. When we find the same races often speaking nearly the same tongues, inhabiting places so far removed from each other as Easter Island (near South America) and Madagascar (off Eastern Africa), the northern extremities of Europe and America, the Andaman Islands (in the Bay of Bengal), and the islands of Australia and Tasmania, the frozen regions of Rupert's Land, and antarctic Tierra del Fuego, we must see that no such theory as the one proposed is needed to account for the diffusion of mankind over the earth's surface. The wonderful similarity of customs and traditions, whether preserved and practised at the Arctic circle or in the torrid zone, the capabilities for locomotion and change of habitat possessed by all races in common, the identity of the physical conformation of mankind in all essential points, prove that man is homogeneous, and possesses, even in his lowest degradation, an intellect which is capable of high cultivation, and a power of deducing conclusions from experiences which the wisest brute does not share. These and other considerations amply prove to my mind, if not to that of "R. G.," not only the probability of, but the necessity for, a theory which insists upon the acknowledgment of "The Unity of Mankind."

BUGS.

(Acanthia lectularia.)

F. A. A.

VERY little appears to be known regarding the

history and habits of our bed-bug; and as I was recently quartered in a room where there was an unusually large allowance of these creatures, and as the very thought of sleep was out of the question, I thought I would notice some of the habits of these appalling creatures, and send the notes on to SCIENCE-GOSSIP, in the hope of some other correspondents adding thereto. The wall of the sleeping(?) room was papered with a white paper ornamented with spotty flowers. The first thing I noticed was that when the lamp was placed near the wall, to facilitate observation, the bags, with one accord, scampered to the dark spots, and, there resting, became immediately invisible-in fact, they pretended to be spots, and not bugs at all; they evidently loathed themselves. Bugs, if hotly pursued on a perpendicular surface, let go their legs and drop to the floor. After taking a few steps, they either dip into crevices, or pretend to be heads of tin-tacks, or stains on the wood. They fall by a movement of the legs, and a slight upheaving of head and tail. The movement is instinctive; for when they are on a flat surface, I observed them make the same motions, evidently trying to fall out

of sight. The velocity with which bugs can run is something incredible. When on a smooth surface, they are able to go at a terrible rate; but if they get in a blanket it is all over with them-the wool of the blanket gets entangled round their legs, and they make a poor hobble of it indeed. In the corners where the bugs most congregated I saw a good many corpses (bugs' corpses) and transparent skins. This leads me strongly to suspect that bugs are cannibals, and "do each other eat;" but as I saw none enjoying the pleasures of the table, I cannot say for certain. I noticed two or three invalids, fat indeed, but suffering from a disease that immediately reminded me of the autumnal fungus which attacks and kills flies (Sporendonema musca). Whether this was the case or not, certain it is the bugs were marked with similar white powdery rings (I have recently read of a spider being similarly attacked). As I had a box of oil-colours with me, I thought I would give one or two a touch of spirits of turpentine; and I found they lived a long time (half an hour or more) when completely saturated in this elixir. I remembered hearing that salt and water was very fatal to bugs; I tried it, and found it produced almost instantaneous death. There are two sorts of bugs, varying in shape-onealmost circular, the other very much longer. Can you tell me, Mr. Editor, whether these two forms represent the sexes? There is a certain odourattached to bugs, disagreeable (probably from its. associations) to some people, but in reality aromatic, and far from unpleasant-indeed I know people who affirm the odour to be very agreeable. Many persons cannot detect it at all, so delicate is it; whilst others can discover the presence of bugs in a room by the scent alone. A few days ago I found the curious bug-scented Agaric (Lactarius quietus) in Epping Forest. The odour of the specimens found was very strong, and represented the concentrated 'otto of bugs." In neighbourhoods where bugs abound, what becomes of the defunct creatures? I have been told, but I do not know it for truth, that sometimes when the flooring boards of dirty old houses are taken up, the spaces between the joists are completely filled with dead bugs, which the labourers have ere now removed in solid masses with spades, and carted away. Notwithstanding that every precaution is taken, bugs will now and then put in an appearance in houses where the utmost cleanliness is observed, and if not soon routed, they speedily establish a colony. A day or two ago I saw one in a freshly-opened newspaper. They are not uncommon, associated with lice, in and upon 'busses and cabs; on the seats in the parks the latter are common enough. In some warehouses in the city bugs are abundant; some shops are positively swarmed with them. They are very liable to be imported into new and clean dwellinghouses unless a strict watch be kept.-W. G. Smith.

66

FANGS OF SPIDERS.

"The point envenom'd too!
Then, WENHAM, to thy work!"
HAMLET, Act v., Sc. ii.

O character so bad but an apologist may be found for it those wily murderers the spiders have an advocate in "E. T. S.," who is retained to prove them innocent of all poisonous intention or ability. But the case is a bad one; for the criminating evidence-both direct and circumstantial-is overwhelming.

As a modest witness for the prosecution, permit me to state briefly what I have done and seen, aided by that able detective, Wenham's Binocular. I took a female garden spider (Epeira diadema), soaked it in weak spirit and water for a fortnight; drew the mandibles from their half-rotten attachment, and found, protruding from each basal joint, broken filaments of muscle, and the rounded end of a large gland. I then broke up a portion of the horny integument of one mandible, and easily detached most of the muscle, leaving the glandular sac attached by a thread or duct to the fang, in the interior of which it could be traced for some distance. "From information I had received (Mic. Dic., art. 'Arachnida'), 'I expected to find the poison-bag encircled by muscular bands, and, indeed, so found it; the fibres coiling spirally and very regularly round it. The other mandible was immersed in a solution of caustic potash, which

GWR

Fig. 282. Fang and poison-bag of Spider x 50; a. point x 800.

I next bought a very large spider (species unknown to me) at Gardner's, in Holborn, and in its enormous fang saw the expected hole so plainly and of such a size that I immediately thought of "E. T. S.," and how completely he had "put his foot in it!"

The aperture is not merely an oval slit, as it is generally figured, but the side towards the point is deeply bevelled, thus facilitating the emission and direction of the venom.

"E. T.S." does not mention on what species he has made experiment, which is an important omission, as it is quite possible that all spiders may not be venomous. Now, if your correspondent still remain incredulous, as is very likely, pray let him call on me, and he shall have proof the most certain,-proof ocular and proof binocular. 24, Cornhill.

HENRY DAVIS.

The same subject has brought us the following renrarks by another correspondent:

"E. T. S." reopens a question which I thought had been settled, in its main features, by the communications that have already appeared in your columns. He objects that he cannot find the poison-bag of the spider nor see the orifice in the fang; and he cannot understand how the poison could be expressed from the end of a "closed sac." I can assure your correspondent that the unsatisfactory results of his experiments are due to defective manipulation. The spider to be operated upon should be soaked in water for forty-eight hours. The second joint of one of the mandibles may then be seized laterally with the forceps, and pulled from the head. The jaws will come away together, and the two poison-bags will be exposed, the broad ends being free, and the narrow ends still attached within the fangs. If it be desired to get the entire bag with the extreme point of its neck, the spider must be left in soak for a longer time. The poison gland I have not seen; indeed, I have not looked for it; but there is little doubt that it lies immediately behind, and is attached to the broad end of the bag. I think I can see the mark of the attach ment. These bags vary in size; a mounted one which I have just measured is about one-twelfth of an inch in length, exclusive of the neck or duct. They are clearly membranous, and are covered with bands of striated muscle obliquely disposed. There is therefore no difficulty in understanding how the poison is expressed from the bag, which it will be seen is not quite accurately described as a "closed sac." We are told that in the case of the poisonous snakes the immediate cause of the emission of the venom is purely mechanical, the erection of the fang creating a pressure upon the reservoir; but I do not think there is any similar arrangement in the spider. And this, taken in connexion with the disposition of the striated muscle, suggests an inte

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destroyed all the soft parts, but cleared the fang sufficiently to allow an evident orifice to be detected near the point, and an internal channel therefrom to be faintly indicated.

resting question, whether the spider may not have the power of ejecting or withholding the poison at will, in which case your correspondent's opinion that flies killed for food are not poisoned may be correct. The examination of the orifice near the end of the fang (or first joint of the mandible) is a less easy matter, but it is a mistake to say that it cannot be seen by transmitted light. If it were a simple perforation, of course there would be no difficulty, but being only an opening into the channel of which it is the termination, it is necessarily rather obscure. Still, I have traced it in a specimen mounted in the ordinary way in balsam, and if glycerine jelly be used, it can generally be seen readily enough with an inch object-glass. I shall be most happy, if your correspondent lives in London, and will drop me a line, to show him both bag and orifice. JOHN T. YOUNG.

32, Mount Street, New Road, Whitechapel.

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THE GENUS AMPHITETRAS.

THE genus Amphitetras was constituted by

Ehrenberg for the reception of those species of Diatomaceæ whose frustules assume a cubical form. This generic distinction has, however, been rendered valueless by the discovery of four-sided varieties of Triceratium. Professor Smith says that "the projection of the connecting membrane beyond the suture of the valve is a circumstance that first meets us in this genus." This characteristic is not, however, peculiar to the genus Amphitetras, as it occurs in Biddulphia.

The mode of growth (in zigzag filaments) was at one time considered of sufficient importance to remove it far apart from its near relation, Triceratium; but the discovery of a species of Triceratium growing in zigzag chains has destroyed that distinction. A valued correspondent of mine states it as his belief that all recent species of Triceratium will ultimately be found growing in that manner; but whether the genus Amphitetras should be merged in that of Triceratium, or the two genera formed into a new genus with somewhat enlarged generic character, is a question which will require a more perfect knowledge of the two genera than we at present possess. The species and varieties I am about to describe I think belong to the genus Amphitetras as at present constituted.

Amphitetras antediluviana.-The so-called typical form of this species has cubical frustules, cohering at the angles, forming a zigzag filament; valve square, with straight sides, and the angles more or less rounded; the surface has coarsely cellular markings. This species is variable in size and widely distributed.

Var. B has the sides deeply incurved and the

GWR

Fig. 283. Amphitetras antediluviana, var. y. of only one locality in which it has been found, viz., Hayling Island, Hants, in which it was rare. a and ẞ were more plentiful in it. (Fig. 283, × 400 diam.)

Dr. Greville describes and figures, in the "Transactions of the Royal Micr. Soc.," vol. xiii., pl. ix.. fig. 27, a form which he calls Amphitetras nobilis, and which seems to differ from var. y in the produced tubular apices. His species was detected in dredgings from the Red Sea.

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Var. d, with three straight or slightly convex sides, angles widely rounded; in other respects like the typical form. Rare; in a small gathering from Joppa. (Fig. 284, x 400 diam.)

Amphitetras crucifera.-Valve minute, with produced mammiform apices; surface of valve minutely punctate, with a cruciform blank space extending from the centre to the angles. Cleanings from West Indian shells. (Fig. 285, × 800 diam.)

Amphitetras ornata (?) var. B.-Valve with sides slightly incurved; angles produced, mammiform. Central portion of valve reticulate and punctate; the broad portions of the angles apparently girt with a punctate and costate band. This variety

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