572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ting its second teeth, but the proportions of 

 the bone and of the teeth are those of a 

 fully-grown person. The measurements of 

 every part largely exceed those of similar 

 parts in any child, and equal, in some points 

 surpass, those of adults. Peculiarities were 

 remarked in the shape of the fragment, as 

 a retrocession of the lower part of the jaw, 

 indicating the absence of a chin, and a very 

 oblique slope of the hinder surface of the 

 symphysis, as is observed in a higher de- 

 gree in the anthropoids and in a lower de- 

 gree in savage races and other fossils of 

 men, such as the jaw of Nanette, with which 

 this one has considerable similarity. 



An Inpnblished Letter of Sir Isaac New- 



ton^S* At the convcrsa,zione given to Pro- 

 fessor Helraholtz at University College, Mr. 

 Latimer Clark exhibited the accompanying 

 interesting unpubhshed letter from Sir Isaac 

 Newton to Dr. Law : 



" London, December 15, 1716. 



" Dear Doctor : He that in ye mine of knowl- 

 edge deepest di^jgeth, hath like every other 

 miner ye least breathing time, and must some- 

 times at least come to terr ; alt for air. 



"In one of these respiratory intervals I now 

 Bit doune to write to you, my friend. 



" You ask me how, with so much study, I 

 manage to retene my heaiih. Ah, my dear doc- 

 tor, you have a better opinion of your lazy friend 

 than he hath of himself. Morpheous is ray best 

 companion ; without 8 or 9 hours of him yr cor- 

 respondent is not worth one scavenger's peruke. 

 My practizes did at ye first hurt my stomach, but 

 now I eat heartily enow as y' will see when I 

 come down beside you. 



"I have been much amused by ye singular 

 4>evotxtva resulting from bringing of a needle into 

 contact with a piece of amber or resin fricated 

 on silke clothe. Ye flame putteth me in mind of 

 sheet lightning on a small how very small 

 scale: But I shall in my epistles abjure Philoso- 

 phy whereof when 1 come down to Sakly I'll give 

 you enow. I began to scrawl at 5 mins frm 9 of 

 ye elk, and have in writing consmd 10 mins. 

 My Ld. Somerset is announced. 



"Farewell, Gd bless you and help yr sincere 



friend (Signed) Isaac Newton. 



"ToDr. Law, Suffolk." 



Nature. 



The Endowment of Research. A meet- 

 ing of the Fellows of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society was lately held to consid- 

 er the question of the endowment of re- 

 search, when resolutions were offered by 

 the Earl of Crawford, Sir Edmund Beck- 

 ett, the Astronomer Royal, Captain Noble, 



and others, expressing opinions adverse to 

 the granting of public money for scientific 

 research where it does not appear that re- 

 sults useful to the pubhc will be cbtained, 

 or where the researches proposed are likely 

 to be undertaken by private individuals or 

 public bodies, as not tending to the real 

 advancement of science ; disapproving the 

 foundation of a physical observatory at the 

 national expense; recommending the dis- 

 continuance of the Government grant to the 

 Committee on Solar Physics ; and calling for 

 the publication of full accounts of all money 

 expended by the Government for scien- 

 tific purposes, and clear definitions of the 

 nature of the work to be undertaken. The 

 resolutions gave way to an amendment, 

 which was adopted, declaring that no suffi- 

 cient reason existed at present why the So- 

 ciety, in its corporate capacity, should ex- 

 press an opinion on the subject. 



Frost - formed Earth - Beds. Professor 

 W. C. Kerr contributes to the "American 

 Journal of Science " some observations on 

 the superficial earths which cover the rocks 

 of the Middle and South Atlantic States for 

 a depth of from a few feet to twenty or 

 thirty feet, and sometimes twice as much. 

 The earths are easily discovered to be for 

 the most part the result of the decomposi- 

 tion in situ of the exposed edges of the un- 

 derlying strata, the vertical and highly in- 

 clined bedding lines of which are distinctly 

 traceable by the eye through the earth-cov- 

 ering, and are seen to pass by insensible 

 gradations into the undecayed rock beneath. 

 The question is discussed, by what agency, 

 and when, was this decomposition effected. 

 The beds present, generally, unstratified 

 masses of earth, interspersed with pebbles 

 and coarser stones, with a general tendency 

 of the heavier fragments to seek the bot- 

 tom, or to descend, like a stream, to the 

 lower levels of the formation. Indications 

 of a proper stratification by the action of 

 water are seldom present; and such action 

 is excluded by the most obvious features of 

 the deposits. The appearances point rather 

 to a settling by some kind of movement of 

 the mass. A clew to the origin of the beds 

 is given by the mineral veins which rise to 

 the level of their floors. Fragments of the 

 mineral are thickly scattered around them, 



