SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 February 1884, Page 4

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

A letter signed "Te Whiti, New Zealand," on " Dull Heaving and the Microphone," appears in the number of " Knowledge " for November 30. Mr Proctor has received a challenge from the Zetetic or Earth-Flattening Society. Ho meets them with five prepositions proving the earth's rotundity, and charges the leaders with insincerity in not believing the theory they advocate. Mr Kirby, the entomologist, has just published a work expounding the theory ot evolution. He joins A. R. Wallace, how ever, in contending for the action of spiritual intelligences in controlling the action of natural laws for definite ends, especially in the case of man. Mr Herbert Spencer, in an essay on "The Nebular Hypothesis," argues that Laplace's theory is inconsistent with the phenomena observed in the asteroids, and he advocates the Olbers explosion theory as being more consistent with the observed phenomena. Mr Proctor, while admitting the force of Spencer's argument and the defects oi the nebular hypothesis, maintains that the alleged planetary explosion is impossible, and that the theory of meteoric aggregation, combined with that of vapourons condensation, overcomes all the difficulties. Extinction of tiie Mastodon. — Professor John Colletts geological report of Indiana for the year 18S0 states thaifthe mastodon was in existence in North America much more recently than is generally supposed. Thirty individual specimens have been discovered in Indiana, almost always in marshes, ponds; or other miry places, indicating at once the cause of the death of the animal and the preservation of the bones from decay. During the summer of 1880, an almost complete skeleton of a mastodon was found six miles north-west from Hoopston, Iroqouis county, Illinois, which practically settles the question not only that it was a recent animal, but that it survived until the life and vegetation of to-day prevailed. The tusks formed each a full quarter of a circle, were 9ft. long, 22ft. in circumference at the base, and in their water-soaked condition weighed 1751b.

Census Results in England. — It appears, from the last census of England and Wales, that in 1881 the total .population was 12,639,902 males, and 13,334,537 females, pgainst 11,058,934 males and 11,653,332 in 1871. Taking the six great groups into which the nation is here divided, we find that in 1871 the total population of 22,712,2(50 was divided thus : — Professional class, 684,102 (including 197,984 females); domestic class, 5,905,171 (including 5,660,443 females) ; commercial class, 815,424 (including 57,237 females) ; agricultural class, 1,657,138 (including 186,696' females) ; industrial class, 5,137,725 (including 1,521,998 females) ; and finally indefinite and non-pro-ductive class, 8,512,706 (including 4,028,974 females). The corresponding figures for 1881 are : —Professional class, 647,075 (including 196,120 females); domestic class, 1,803,810 (including 1,545,302 females) ; commercial class, 980,128 (including 19,46*7 females); agricultural class, 1,383,184 (including 64,840 females) ; industrial class, 6,373,367 (including 1,578,189 females); and indefinite and non-produrtive classes, 14,786,875 (including 9,930,619 females), and this wiHi a total popuktion of 25,974,439. The most notable increase in the professional class is that of artists — from 16,562 in 1871 to 58,517 in 1881 It is also e\ident fiom the census that women are playing a more im- ! part in the education work of the country. Strange Marine Monster. — A wellauthenticated account of an unknown seamonster has been attracting the attention of scientific circles in England. While the boats of Captain Seymour's barque Hope On Averc on the watch for whales off the Pearl Islands (between forty and fifty miles from Panama), the water broke a short distance away, and Captain Seymour made ready for a whale. But a head like that of a horse rose from the water and then dived. The creature was seen by all the boat's crew. Captain Seymour describes the animal as almost twenty feet in length, with a handsome horse-like head, with two unicorn -shaped horns protruding from it. The creature had four legs or doublejointed fink, a broAvnish hide, profusely speckled Avith large black spots, and a tail which appeared to be divided into parts. The creature Avas seen on two different clays, and it a\ hales had not been about at the time an effoit avoulcl have been made to catch it. Captain Seymour and his officers agree in considering that the creature is peculiar to the locality, and that it could easily be killed Avith lances and guns. It is impoi'tant to notice that officers of the Pacific Mail Company state they have seen the animal on several occasions, but not so closely as did the oificers and men of the Hope On." This report gi\ r es colour to the many plausible statements that have been made about the sea serpent. The Comet. — W. K. Bradgate, Avriting in "Knowledge " of thePons-Brook's comet, — that now visible in the evening sky —says : " This comet, -whose identity Avith that of 1812hasnowbeen proved, Avas discovei'ed by Pons,ofMaiseilles,onJuly2o, lSl2,intheconstellation Lynx. It shortly afterwards- developed & tail 2degs. long, and Avas visible to the naked eye for ten Aveeks. The portion of the heaA r ens represented in the map is taken from Proctor's ' Star Atlas ' ; the path of the comet from November 13 to December 29 is projected from Chandler's corrected elements of SchulhofF and Bosscrt. On January 30, ISS4, it will be in Cetus, on February 13 in Sculptor."