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on the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, by which time, it will be remembered, the storm had ceased in this country.

Now, referring to fig. 4, we have an explanation of all the facts just mentioned regarding the time of commencement and direction of this storm. Imagine a vast circular mass of air, from 800 to 1000 miles in diameter, set in motion by some powerful but unknown cause somewhere in North America, and having two independent motions,-one of rotation round its centre, and another of translation. Its rotatory velocity, in a direction contrary to that of the hands of a watch, most rapid towards the centre, and diminishing towards the circumference, was, on the average, about 70 miles an hour; and it progressed in a north-easterly direction, at the rate of about 15 miles per hour. Its centre passed on the north-western side of this country, and consequently its lower segment only traversed Britain. The continuous circles in fig. 4 show the storm or cyclone setting in on Sunday evening, and it will be seen that it strikes the southern parts of the country from the south-west, but Scotland more from the south, in accordance with the observed direction of the wind. On Monday morning its centre was to the N. of Britain, and its position is indicated by the dotted circles. The direction of the wind is now westerly, and it has commenced to blow at Copenhagen from the S.W., being still N.W. in the Atlantic. A circle drawn more to the N.E. would represent its position on Monday night and Tuesday morning, when it was passing off, with the wind from the N.W. The diameter and velocity of this cyclone may be thus computed: Its direction was W.S.W. at the "Balclutha" about noon of the 17th, and it reached the middle of England about 9 o'clock on the evening of the 19th, thus traversing a distance of 830 miles in 57 hours, which gives a rate of between 14 and 15 miles an hour. To find the diameter of the cyclone we may proceed thus:-Since its influence was felt at the same time 830 miles out on the North Atlantic and on the east coast of Great Britain, it must have measured at least between 800 and 900 miles across. Or thus: When its centre was in the latitude of Cape Wrath, or rather a little south of it, its influence extended to the northern portion of the Bay of Biscay, ie., over about 9° of latitude, thus giving it a radius

of 540 miles, or a diameter of a little more than 1000 miles. Or once more: Selecting a particular station, as Shields, we find that there the storm commenced on Sunday evening about 10 o'clock from the S.W., and ended on Tuesday about 2 P.M. from the N.W., thus veering through an angle of 90° in forty hours. Now, in this time the cyclone would travel 40 times 15-i.e., 600 miles. Its magnitude must therefore have been such that the chord of 90° measured 600 miles, which gives for the circle a diameter of 850 miles.

In conclusion, I may add that the storm seems to have died gradually away after having passed over this country; and by the time it should have reached the upper part of the coast of Norway, its force was quite expended; for a merchant ship from Archangel, which was in this neighbourhood at the very time, and whose log-book I inspected, had fine weather throughout the voyage. We might have anticipated as much, having already noticed the gradual diminution of the barometric depression in its journey onwards.

On the Solid-hoofed Pig; and on a Case in which the Fore Foot of the Horse presented Two Toes. By JOHN STRUTHERS, M.D., F.R.C.S., Lecturer on Anatomy in the Edinburgh School of Medicine.

I. On the Solid-hoofed Pig.

After quoting the words of Blumenbach, that "Swine with solid hoofs were known to the ancients, and large breeds of them are found in Hungary and Sweden," Dr Prichard* states that "There are breeds of the solid-hoofed swine in some parts of England. The hoof of the swine is also found divided into five clefts." The occurrence of a solid-hoofed variety of the hog seems, however, to have escaped the notice of modern naturalists. I have not met with any reference to it in the works of Jenyns, T. Bell, Cuvier, Owen, or Darwin; it is not noticed in Mr Youatt's work on the Pig, in which he treats of the breeds in the various counties of England, in Hungary and Sweden, and in the other parts of the globe in

* Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. Fourth Edition, vol. i. p. 354.

which the hog is known to exist, wild or domesticated; nor is there any allusion to it in what has been called the "Pig's foot controversy" between Fleming and Conybeare.*

My attention was first directed to this variation by the appearance presented by the toes in one of the skeletons of the pig in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. There is no record of a dissection of this pig, or of its history, except that it was presented to the College in 1839 by the late Sir Neil Menzies of Rannoch, Perthshire. On recent inquiry, through my pupil Mr Donald M'Gregor, from Rannoch, I have received some information regarding this breed, for which I am indebted to the careful inquiries made on the spot by Mr Duncan M'Gregor. The solidhoofed breed has been well known and abundant on the estates of the late Sir Neil Menzies, at Rannoch, for the last forty years. Most, if not all of them were black. They were smaller than the ordinary swine, and seem to have had shorter ears. They liked the same food and pasture as the common swine, and showed no antipathy to herd with them. They were more easily fattened, though they did not attain so large a size as the ordinary swine; their flesh was more sweet and tender, but some of the Highlanders had a prejudice against eating the flesh of pigs which did not "divide the hoof," unaware, apparently, that the Mosaic prohibition applied to all pigs. A male and female of the solid-hoofed kind was brought to Rannoch forty years ago, by the late Sir Neil Menzies, which was the commencement of the breed there; but I have not yet been able to learn with certainty where they were brought from. Although they did not breed faster than the common kind, they multiplied rapidly, in consequence of being preserved, so that the flock increased to several hundred. At first, care was taken to keep them separate, on purpose to make them breed with each other, but after they became numerous they herded promiscuously with the common swine. As might be expected in a promiscuous flock, some of the young pigs had solid and some cloven feet, but I am unable as yet to say whether any definite result was ascertained as to the effect of crossing; *Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vols. vi. and vii.; and Fleming' Lithology of Edinburgh, 1859.

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whether any experiments were tried as to crossing; or whether, after the promiscuous herding, some of the pigs of the same brood presented cloven and some solid hoofs. No pig was ever known there with some of its feet solid and some cloven; nor, so far as is known, was there any instance of young born. with cloven feet, when both parents were known to be solidhoofed. The numbers diminished-from what cause is not apparent; so that last year there was only one or two-one of them a boar, which died; and now the solid-hoofed breed appears to be extinct at Rannoch.

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The condition of the toes in the specimen in the Museum is likely to be so interesting to naturalists, in relation to the question of variation, that I have thought it worth while to give the following account of it, with the permission of the College :FORE FOOT.-The distal phalanges of the two greater toes are represented by one great ungual phalanx, resembling that of the horse, but longer in proportion to its breadth. The middle phalanges are also represented by one bone in the lower twothirds of their length, presenting separate upper ends for articulation with the proximal phalanges. The proximal phalanges

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Fig. A. From the right fore foot of the Solidungulous Pig.

are separate through their entire length. The whole foot above the middle phalanges presents the usual arrangement and proportions in the hog. In the accompanying sketch which I tok, from the right fore foot, going high enough to show part of NEW SERIES.-VOL. XVII. NO. JI.-APRIL 1863.

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the metacarpal bones, the natural size is given, and the epiphyses are also shown.

The bones affected by the variation deserve particular description.

Middle Phalanx.-There is no symphysis or mark indicating a line of coalescence of the two phalanges. The surface across the middle is somewhat irregularly filled up to nearly the level of each lateral part. Each half of the phalanx, as indicated by the notch between the separated upper ends, has the full breadth of the proximal phalanx above it. The breadth of the phalanx is nearly an inch at its middle, the length of each side is seven lines.

Distal Phalan.r.-The proportions of the ungual phalanx are,-Length, 12 inch. Breadth, behind, ; at the middle, ; at the tip, The breadth of the os pedis of the horse considerably exceeds the length.

The anterior surface of the phalanx is considerably arched transversely, and presents a raised portion in the middle, as if two toes had come together and pushed forwards a small middle one. This narrow middle piece is marked off by a fissure on each side; also above, where it passes up to the joint forming the middle of three pyramidal processes; and below, reaching to within inch of the tip, it is marked off by the depression and streaking of the laminated part of the phalanx. The fissure which bounds it laterally presents an elliptical vascular foramen, which increases the appearance of former separation.

On each side of this median raised portion is a lateral raised portion, as shown in the sketch, suggesting the idea of three rudimentary phalanges pushed forwards by the coalescence of two large phalanges behind them. The lateral raised portions appear to be merely the representatives of the middle smooth part, which is marked off by the laminated portion of a terminal phalanx, as seen in the sketch of the terminal phalanx of the external lesser toe. Each is marked off externally from the lower or outer half of the surface by a distinct smooth groove, which begins a little above and in front of, but is not continued from, the usual lateral foramen of the phalanx, and the position of which is indicated in the sketch. The laminæ commence at the outer side of this

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