Science Notes.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 November 1883, Page 8

Science Notes.

The Rev. Hugh Macmillan, writing on the Marriage at Cana, declares that the wine drunk must have been intoxicating, for besides its saying that the guests were " well drunk," the marriage taking place just before Passover, the wine must have been of the previous vintage and kept six or seven months. He moreover, asserts that specimens of the wines of Palestine have frequently been analysed by experts, and they are never found to contain less than io to 20 per cent, of alcohol.

An interesting discovery, of much importance for geological and archaelogical science, has recently been made in a coal mine at Bully-Grenay, in the French department of Pas-de-Calais. A new gallery was being pierced, when a cavern was broken into, which discovered the fossil remains of five human beings in a fair state of preservation —a man, two women, and two children composed the group. The man measured about seven feet, the women six feet six and six feet, the children four feet and rather less than this. In addition, some fragments of arms and utensils of petrified wood and of stone, with numerous remains of mammals and fish, were brought to light. A second subterranean chamber enclosed the remains of eleven human bodies of large size, several animals, and a large number of various objects, with some precious stones. The walls of the cave exhibited drawings representing men fighting with gigantic animals. Owing to the presence of carbonic anhydride a third and a larger chamber, which appeared to be empty, was not searched. Five of the petrified human remains will be exhibited at the mayoralty at Lens. The remainder of the bodies which have been brought to the surface are to be conveyed to Lille, there to await a thorough examination by the Faculte des Sciences. Information has been telegraphed to the representatives of the Academie des Sciences of Paris and to those of the British Museum.

An interesting discovery has been made in Paraguay of a tribe of Indians with tails. An Argentine domiciled in the Argentine Missions has a yerba establishment in the Paraguayan Missions, in a district called TacuraTuyu. While gathering the yerba in the yerba woods the other day, his mules were attacked by some Guayacuyos Indians, who fled after killing several mules.

The muleteers pursued, firing on the Indians, one of whom, a boy about eight years old, was captured. This boy was brought to Prosedas, where Don Francesco Golcochoa, the Argentine referred to, lives, and excited much curiosity, owing to his having a tail 6 to 8 inches long. The boy, who has been photographed by Germans, is, it is stated, very ugly ; but his body is not covered with hair. A brother of the boy, at present in the possession of Colonel Rudeciudo Roca, has also a tail ; and all the tribe are said to be similarly adorned. If these Indians knew their value for exhibitional purposes they would not remain long in Paraguay. The possession of tails would ensure them a warm welcome and large profits on this side of the Atlantic, where we are ever on the search for pleasing novelties. —St. James's Gazette. [The discovery seems vouched for. Its scientific interest is limited to the fact that abnormal structures may be perpetuated. As Charles Darwin once observed, these monstrosities neither support nor contradict the theory of Evolution.]

The following is almost too neat to be true, but it is printed in the Hull Gazette ; Mr. W. Dawson, a cattle dealer and a local preacher, of Winterton Lincolnshire, lately absconded, leaving large liabilities behind him, and forging, it is said, the names of two gentlemen to the amount of £7OOO. " The text of his last sermon, preached the day before he left the district, Acts xx. 38—' Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake,' that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.' "