SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 8, 20 February 1892, Page 175

SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

our nearest neighbour. The chimpanzee may be regarded as the animal which approaches most nearly to man. Although smaller than the full-grown gorilla, there is not the great disparity in the size or structure of the two sexes that there is in that animal. When the chimpanzee stands upright the arms reach only a short distance below the knees, being in this respect more human-like than any other ape. The face is furnished with distinct whiskers, eyebrows, and eyelashes. The forehead is more vaulted, and the brain, as might be expected from the intelligence of the animal, larger than in any other ape. The tusks are much smaller, and the whole of the teeth make a close approximation to those of the human species. GOOD EYESIGHT OF INDIANS. Dr. L. Webster Fox is of opinion that savage races possess the perception of colour to a greater degree than do civilised races. In a lecture lately delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, he stated that he had just concluded an examination of 250 Indian children, of whom 100 were boys. Had he selected 100 white boys from various parts of the I nited States, he would have found at least five of them colour blind ; among the Indian boys he did not discover a single case of colour blindness. Some years ago he examined 250 Indian boys, and found two colour blind, a very low percentage when compared with the whites. Among the Indian girls he did not find any. Considering that only two females in every 1,000 among whites are colour blind, he does not think it surprising that he did not find any examples among the Indian girls. SMELL AND MEMORY. The central seat of the olfactory sense must be very near to the central seat of memory, for it is noticeable that nothing recalls a past event like an odour. A little child was thrown out of a pony-carriage in a country lane. Near the spot where the fall took place there was a manure heap, which gave forth the peculiar dry ammoniacal odour so often recognisable from such heaps—an odour distinctive yet not altogether unpleasant. The child was stunned by the fall, and on recovering and returning to consciousness smelt this odour powerfully. Over fifty years have elapsed since that little mishap, and yet whenever the person referred to passes, in country lanes, a heap giving out the same odour, the whole scene of the accident recurs with every detail perfect, and sometimes with a recurrence of the giddiness and nausea which were experienced at the moment. AMERICAN ‘ FLINTS.’ Extensive excavations of the prehistoric mounds in Ohio and Indiana have lately been carried on under the supervision of Professor Putnam. In one mound, near Anderson Station, Indiana, 7,232 flint spear heads and knives have been discovered. They were found in a layer one foot thick, extending over a space of 20 by 30 feet. They are made of grey flint found only in Indiana. The largest find of flint implements previously made in America did not include more than 1,800 specimens. What one cannot help wondering is how there should come to be over 7,000 of these implements embedded within such a narrow space. Was it an ancient armoury ? Was this a refuse heap of spoiled flints ? Was it the floor of some hut in which a flint artificer worked, and are those the stock in trade he had on hand when suddenly ‘called away’’ Or, finally, were those flints designedly stored away where they have been found in order to show to future ages what the old stone-chippers could do ’ ANIMAL TAMING BY ELECTRICITY. A German journalist, Herr Waldemar Otto, has invented a unique electrical arrangement for taming animals and initiating them in the usual wild beast performances. The essentials of Herr Otto’s inventions are a whip composed of wire and a metal foot-plate which is wholly or partially to constitute the.floor of the cage, the whip and the plating being connected with the respective poles of a powerful galvanic battery. Whenever the animal which it is desired to tame comes in contact with the metallic plate it will, on the pressure of a key, receive with every stroke of the whip a sharp electric shock. A very few applications of this novel lash are said to completely subdue the spirit of the onetime denizen of the forest or plain, as the case may be. When it is considered that the electric current has effected its purpose, pressure on the key can be released and the whip made to operate in the ordinary physical way. In view of the terrible fate which has recently befallen several of the daring members of perhaps the most dangerous existing profession, the Otto method of animal taming would appear to have a successful future before it. THE FALSETTO VOICE. Mr E. Davidson Palmer, Mus. Bae. Oxon., calls the attention of scientific men to an apparently unknown fact in connection with voice production. This tact has to do with the so called ‘ falsetto ’ voice. The general opinion about this kind of voice is that it is something altogether unnatural, and that it ought never to be used. According to modern scientific theories, however, it is one of two or more registers, ami is supposed to be intended by nature to be used only at the upper extremity of the vocal compass. But it is quite possible to produce this kind of voice at a much lower pitch (at least an octave lower) than that at which singers are ever taught to use it. Produced in this way it may be so weak and feeble as to be practically useless. Still it is possible so to produce it, as men and singers well know. What they do not know, and what scientific men appeal to be totally unaware of, is that it may be develo|>ed at this low pitch, ami not only developed, but completely transformed. When thus transformed, it loses entirely its unnatural and effeminate character, and becomes a strong manly voice, which is easily mistaken for what is commonly called ‘ chest voice,’ but which, unlike that kind of voice, is capable of bearing throughout its whole compass, any strain that may be put upon it.