throw down again the blue lake. The basic, and even the neutral acetate of lead, yield with the red coloring matter of the privet a blue precipitate, which is soluble in acetic acid. Ammonia readily alters this coloring matter, giving rise to a yellow substance not well defined in its character. From these observations it would appear that the red coloring principle of the berries of the privet is a substance sui-generis and distinct from any hitherto known. I therefore propose to designate it by the name of liguline.

In order to obtain liguline in a state of purity, the filtered juice of the berries was precipitated by neutral acetate of lead, and the well washed lake suspended in a small quantity of water was decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen. The residue was then thoroughly washed by ether, in which the liguline is insoluble.* Being taken up by alcohol, and again treated by acetate of lead, sulphuretted hydrogen and ether, it might be supposed to be pure. I was, however, unable to obtain concordant results in a series of elementary analyses, the carbon of the direct lead compound varying between 21:56 and 23.00 per cent, and the hydrogen from 1.89 to 2:58.

It is probable that the process described by Mr. Glénard for the preparation of oenoline, the red coloring matter of wines (An. de Chim. et de Phys., Dec. 1858, p. 368), would be preferable for the extraction of liguline. I accordingly applied it, but the berries having been gathered too late in the season, the coloring matter had become so far altered that my trial was unsuccessful, so that the question of the elementary composition of liguline remains unsettled.

The following further observations on this coloring matter are not without interest. It is not precipitated by gelatine, which throws down the red coloring matter of wines. With hypochlorite of lime it gives a yellow color and a yellow precipitate. With chlorid of gold, a yellow color and reduction of the metal. With chlorid of platinum, no change in the cold, but a brown color by heat. With chromate of potash a green; with bichromate brown, and with sesquichlorid, and ferroso-ferric sulphate of iron the same color. Chlorine destroys the color of liguline. The chlorids of sodium, barium and mercury, the nitrates of baryta, lead, mercury and bismuth, as also the sulphates of starch, soda, lime, zinc, manganese and cadmium are without action on the coloring matter of the privet.

The bicarbonates of lime and of the alkalies (unlike the neutral alkaline carbonates which turn it to green) give a blue color with liguline, and the same is true of the chlorids and nitrates of zinc and calcium. The colors thus obtained offer however some

*The author has previously stated that the coloring matter is soluble in ether— there is apparently some error of the copyist.-NOTE OF THE TRANSLATOR.

peculiar differences when seen by transmitted light; in this way the blue produced by a chlorid of zinc and bicarbonate of lime appears red, while it is green with the chlorid of calcium or the nitrate of lime or zinc. The blue color produced by a solution of bicarbonate of potash, on the contrary, offers no variation when thus viewed by transmitted light.

The recent juice of the berries of privet alters readily even when mixed with alcohol; its fine crimson color turns to red, and the liquid then mingled with a solution of bicarbonate of lime gives a gray instead of a blue color, and gives a dirty blue with acetate of lead. This change appears to depend upon the development of ammonia from the transformation of the azotized matter of the juice; when separated from these matters and isolated, on the contrary, liguline may be preserved without change, either in aqueous or alcoholic solution. Its color is then an

intense crimson.

Even the strong mineral acids in the cold do not alter liguline, but in the presence of alkalies on the contrary, it is rapidly altered, although the red color can be, to a certain extent, restored by an acid. This alteration is dependent upon the absorption of oxygen, as may be shown by introducing a mixture of liguline and potash ley in a glass tube over mercury, when rapid absorption takes place.

The property of liguline to produce blue with solutions of bicarbonate of lime renders it a delicate reagent for the detection of this salt in potable waters. For this purpose it suffices to let fall a drop of an aqueous or alcoholic solution of liguline into the water, the crimson tint which this communicates to distilled water is replaced by a beautiful blue. In place of the solution we may employ a test paper impregnated with the coloring matter, which is best as prepared from the lead precipitate. We may, however, employ the recent juice of the berries, taking care to redden the paper slightly by exposing it to the vapor of acetic acid before drying.

As a reagent for the detection of bicarbonate of lime in waters, liguline is greatly to be preferred to a tincture of logwood, and the paper prepared with it becomes a valuable reagent for the laboratory as well as for the naturalist in the field. I have found by this reagent that while bicarbonate of lime is indicated in the springs which flow from the jurassic strata, and especially those that supply the city of Nancy, no change of color is produced by a solution of liguline with the waters of other streams which have their source in rocks destitute of calcareous matter.

The observations which I have given above were made for the most part with the fruit of the privet gathered in the autumn of 1856, and I have in fact indicated in a note in the Bulletin of the local Society of Acclimation for the North-West district

(Nancy, 1857, p. 121). I have delayed publication in the hope to render my research more complete by a good elementary analysis, but I am now induced to publish the results already obtained that I may claim the right to continue and complete. the investigations, having learned that Mr. Glenard proposes to undertake a similar research.

In conclusion, we may remark that the coloring matter of the privet offers a great analogy with that of the wines of Villefranche isolated and examined by Mr. Glenard; this analogy is shown by their composition and their properties. Its reaction with bicarbonate of lime may render it a valuable reagent in chemical analysis. The fact that it is not precipitated by gelatine, which, as is well known, throws down the red coloring matter of wines, will serve to distinguish the two when associated. It still remains to be decided whether the coloring principle of all red wines is the same, but this is a question foreign to our present subject.

ART. XXVIII.-On the Method of Measurements, as a diagnostic means of distinguishing Human Races, adopted by Drs. Scherzer and Schwarz, in the Austrian circumnavigatory Expedition of the "Novara"; by JOSEPH BARNARD DAVIS.

WEIGHT and measure have been very frequently applied as means to determine the physical proportions of different human races, and to ascertain their essential diversities. But it may well be doubted whether they have ever been employed in that systematic and comprehensive manner, which will afford the results they are capable of yielding. Travellers have generally contented themselves by speaking in indefinite comparative terms of the people with whom they have come into contact. But few have submitted any considerable number of these people to the test of measurement, and thus ascertained their dimensions. Anthropology stands in need of many more accurate and extended observations, to derive the full results from these sources of knowledge.

The subject itself is a large one, and some have confined themselves to one branch of it, some to others. Where actual measurements have been carried out, many have contented themselves with taking the stature of a few, or a number, of the people; others have, besides, ascertained the length of the limbs; and a few have subjected the head to a series of superficial measurements. As we are fully assured that this latter division of

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the body is the seat of those faculties which lie at the base of all the peculiarities of human races; bearing essentially and intimately upon their manners and customs, all their institutions, their religious impulses; their capacity for civilization, and the development to which it has attained, it is not surprising that it should have attracted the chiefest attention. Besides the superficial measurements of the head, a more extensive series of observations has been made upon the bony skull itself, with a view of determining its relative proportions, for comparison in the same race, or among different races. Many observers, advancing a step nearer, have endeavored to ascertain, by measure and by weight, the internal capacity of this marble palace. And, lastly, some have laboriously devoted their inquiries to the great central mass of the nervons system, and availed themselves of the opportunities that have occurred to them, to determine the size and the weight of the brain, and its different parts. As this last investigation comes nearest of all to the specialties of human beings who are so finely discriminated by Professor Owen, as archencephala-it is to be regretted that the occasions for research among distinct races are so few, and have been so little availed of, and the investigation itself is so elaborate and nice, that hitherto this most interesting part of anthropological anatomy is, as it were, a tabula rasa, to use the language of one of the most laborious inquirers in this branch of science-Prof. Huschke, of the University of Jena. It is, however, fortunate that gauging the internal capacity of the skull should afford the means of so accurate an approximation to the yolume and the weight of the brain; and thus, for the comparison of these important points among the different families and tribes of men. Hence, the labors of Tiedemann, the distinguished physiologist, who, with a very amiable design, undertook to show that the brain of a negro was not smaller than that of the European-an attempt similar to that of the late Sir William Hamilton. Tiedemann might have succeeded in impressing us with his own conclusion, had he not published the tables on which this conclusion was based, and which themselves refute such an erroneous opinion. To Tiedemann succeeded Professor Morton, of Philadelphia, Professor Van der Hoeven, of Leyden, and others. Among the most recent, is Prof. Huschke, of Jena, one of whose results of whose own estimation of the capacity of the skull, and of the size of the brain, is, that the Germanic races, among whom through our Anglo-Saxon forefathers we rank, as one great branch, have the largest brains of any people. They distinctly exceed the French in this respect.

That great diversities, capable of metrical appreciation, prevail among human races is very well known. Some of the tribes of North American Indians are remarkable for their great stat

ure. Catlin assures us that the men among the Crows, whose hair will frequently reach the calves of their legs, are most of them six feet or more. Other tribes are of a decidedly lower stature. Of the gigantic Patagonians of South America, the most extravagant accounts have been given by travellers. But Capt. King affirms them, upon measurement, to be from 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet high, which is supported by the statement of M. D'Orbigny, that some are 6 ft. 3 inches, and the medium stature is above 5 ft. 8 inches English. On the contrary, the average height of the Bushmen is only 4 feet 4 inches. This gives a range of very nearly two feet between the tallest and the shortest races of men we are acquainted with. The other races of mankind are comprised within these limits of difference. Some tribes of the Negritos average about 4 feet 8 inches; the so-called Malay races, ascending to a mean of 5 feet 3 inches. But among the Negrito tribes of the Pacific there is, as that eminent ethnologist, Mr. Crawford, has clearly shown, a great diversity of stature. They dwell in islands scattered over a large extent of ocean, and although some tribes do not reach 5 feet in height, others, as those of New Caledonia, attain to 6 feet, and individuals among them even more. In the recent expeditions to the Andaman Islands, for the purpose of selecting a spot for a penal settlement, the inhabitants are spoken of as "dwarf Negrillos," and as "men of middle size." An individual who was measured, gave a stature of 4 feet 9 English inches. (Selections from the Records of the Government of India, No. xxv: the Andaman Islands.) Thus, in stature alone, a very great diversity prevails. And it is remarkable that tribes in close proximity to each other frequently exhibit startling contrasts. Dr. Livingstone, whose opportunities had he been an ethnologist were so extraordinary, observed in the plains of the interior of Southern Africa, scattered among the Kafirs, who are a tall, fine and robust race, the hordes of the diminutive Bushmen. He was deeply impressed with what he saw, so contrary to all his preconceptions; and expresses his great surprise that such dissimilar races should be everywhere scattered about the country without being mingled, where they have dwelt for unlimited ages, exposed to all the same influences of air, climate, food, &c. The tall Patagonians and some tribes of the Fuegians, distinguished for their dwarf stature, afford a similar example of contrast.

The brothers Schlagintweit, following in the train of Mr. Hodgson, carried on an extensive series of metrical observations on the tribes of the Himalaya and of India. Many curious results, chiefly pointing to the different proportions of parts of the bodies and limbs of these people from those of Europeans, have been attained, which will be published in the ethnological portion of their projected work. After ascertaining the weight of