POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



717 



Mrs. Joseph Bryan, who is now president. 

 The first work of the society was to secure 

 the " old Powder Horn," or powder maga- 

 zine, in WiUiamsburg, which was built in 

 1714, and was the object of historical dis- 

 putes between Governor Lord Dunmore and 

 the Commons, among whom Patrick Henry 

 was prominent. This building was in a 

 state of decay. It has been repaired and 

 restored to its old proportions and appear- 

 ance. Next the society saved the pictur- 

 esque home of Martha Washington in Fred- 

 ericksburg from being carried off to the 

 Chicago Exhibition by purchasing it. It has 

 been made to look, within and without, as 

 much as possible as it did when Martha 

 Washington lived in it. The house is to be 

 used as a museum for colonial and Revolu- 

 tionary relics. The churchyard at James- 

 town, with its ruin and twenty acres of land 

 adjoining it, have been presented to the as- 

 sociation by the owner, Edward F. Burney, 

 and will be preserved and kept in order. The 

 restoration of the Old Brick Church (St. 

 Luke's) in Smithfield, Va., which was built 

 in 1632, is contemplated as the next work of 

 the association ; and it is negotiating for the 

 possession of the old lighthouse at Cape 

 Henry, which was used for about one hundred 

 years, but was abandoned about fourteen years 

 ago for a new and more modern structure. 



Discovery of a "Missing Link." Dr. 



D. G. Brinton communicates to Science an 

 account of the discovery in the early Pleisto- 

 cene strata of Java of three fragments of 

 three skeletons, that introduce us to a new 

 species, a new genus, and a new family of 

 the order of Primates, Pithecanthropus erec- 

 ius, standing between the apes and man 

 in other words, apparently supplying the 

 " missing link " which has been so long and 

 so ainxiously waited for. The material. Dr. 

 Brinton says, " is sufficient for a close osteo- 

 logical comparison. The cubical capacity of 

 the skull is about two thirds that of the 

 human average. It is distinctly dolicoce- 

 phalic, about seventy degrees and its norma 

 vcrticalis astonishingly like that of the famous 

 Neanderthal skull. The dental apparatus is 

 still of the simian type, but less markedly so 

 than in other apes. The femora are singu- 

 larly human. They prove beyond doubt 

 that this creature walked constantly on two 



legs, and when erect was quite equal in 

 height to the average human male. Of the 

 various differences which separate it from 

 the highest apes and the lowest man it may 

 be said that they bring it closer to the latter 

 than to the former. One of the bearings of 

 this discovery is upon the original birthplace 

 of the human race. The author (Eugene 

 Dubois, of the Dutch army) believes that 

 the steps in the immediate genealogy of our 

 species were these : Frothi/lobatcs ; Anthro- 

 popitheeus sivalensis; Fithccanthropns (rec- 

 tus; and Homo sapiens. This series takes us 

 to the Indian faunal province and to the 

 southern aspects of the great Himalayan 

 chain, as the region somewhere in which 

 our specific division of the great organic 

 chain first came into being." 



The Work of the Naturalist. With its 



second number, January 11th, Science gets 

 into good working order, and gives a budget 

 of excellent scientific papers from first 

 hands. Among them is a clear summary of 

 the proceedings of the Baltimore meeting of 

 the American Society of Naturalists during 

 the last Christmas vacation. At this meet- 

 ing the influence of environment upon the 

 successive steps of development, and as a 

 cause of variation, was discussed with con- 

 siderable freedom. Prof. Charles S. Minot, 

 of Harvard, spoke on the work of the natu- 

 ralist in the world, defining his object to be 

 to discover and publish the truth about Na- 

 ture. First and foremost of the conditions 

 of success is truth. The naturalist's first 

 business is to get at the truth, in the way of 

 which stand as the most prominent obstacles 

 the limitations of his own abilities and the 

 limitations of accessories for carrying on his 

 work. The naturalist must observe, experi- 

 ment, and reason, and his training must 

 necessarily be along these lines. The great 

 work of the future is to be done by experi- 

 menters. Again, the reasoning faculty is 

 one of our weakest points. The naturalist 

 must learn to distinguish carefully between 

 discussion and controversy, and while being 

 led and taught to indulge freely in tlie for- 

 mer with all the intelligence at his command, 

 he must also be taught to avoid the latter. 

 The naturalist is exposed to many evils like 

 this matter of controversy, which tend to 

 cause him to depart from his proper mission 



