Whether there be no connection between brachycephalism and
this modern deification of machinery?
20. Robert L. Bowles, M.D. "Sunburn on the Alps" (Alpine Journal,
November, 1888) and "The Influence of Light on the Skin" (British
Journal of Dermatology, No. 105, Vol. 9).
21. It has now been cleaned - with inevitable results.
22. Maupassant himself was partial to scents. See his valet's diary.
23. Since this was written (1917) the condition of these beasts has
improved. Somebody now feeds them - which could hardly have been expected
during those stressful times of war, when bread barely sufficed for the
human population. They are also fewer in numbers. Their owners, I fancy,
can afford to keep them at home once more.
24. This is my last (7 July, 1894) and somewhat mysterious letter from
the old fellow. "The question you ask is one of great ornithological
importance and I believe has never been worked out, but I am absolutely
afraid to ask any questions in the British Museum, as they jump at an
idea and cut the ground from under the original man's feet. This I
regret to say is my experience. I have been asked what does it matter
who makes the discovery? I reply, 'Render unto Caesar, etc.' If you are
going to work it out, keep it dark. The British Museum have not the
necessary specimens - in this country I believe it is not known how the
change takes place. I tried some years ago to work it out with live
specimens, but failed because I could not get young birds. Now in answer
to your question, my belief is that the young bird moults into the
winter plumages direct and that this is changed into the full plumage in
spring either by a spring moult or by a shedding of the tips of the
feathers. This is private because it is theoretical, and for your
private use to verify...."
Of the Finland seal, by the way, Dr. Guenther wrote: "The skin differs in
nothing from that of Phoca foetida. In the skull I observe that the
nasal bones are conspicuously narrower than in typical specimens from
the northern coasts. There is also a remarkable thinness of bone, a want
of osseous substance; but it is impossible to say whether this is due to
altered physical conditions or should be accounted for by the youth of
the specimen, or whether it is an individual peculiarity."
25. Winter 1882-1883; possibly later.
26. The centre of this usage, so far as Europe is concerned, seems to
have been the Caucasus.
27. I have been there since, and vainly endeavoured to track the legend
to its lair. Its only possible foundation is that I possessed the
ordinary tourists' map of the district.
28. Add to all the other varieties, now, the countless legions of the
guardie regie, which threaten to absorb the entire youth of Italy. At
this moment there is a distressing dearth of housing accommodation all
over the peninsula; in Rome alone, they say, apartments are needed for
10,000 practically homeless persons, and a mathematician may calculate
the number of houses required to contain them.
