October jisl, igiO.] PROCEEDINGS. V 



means of division with whole numbers. Let irhc the number 

 to be dealt with and a + h^^ii a whole number. Obtani ;// by 

 dividing- ii into ar. Then 



// - i/i I (;/ - ///")' I I 



/; -. . + ■ , + 



4 (// + m) 4 fi\n + ///) 



on squaring /;, subtracting- from a- and again dividing by the 

 whole number n and the approximate root is half the sum of 

 the divisor and the dividend. 



Mr. E. L. Rhead, M.Sc.Tech., F.I.C., called the attention 

 of the meeting to an extremely bright meteor which he observed 

 in the Northern sky on October 20th, at 10-38 p.m. Its path 

 was eastward from a point immediately under the Great Bear. 

 The period of visibility was approximately 4 seconds, the 

 brightness increasing to a maximum and then fading. Its 

 motion was somewhat slow. About the middle of the flight an 

 explosion took place and .some five fragments were detached 

 and fell almost vertically, the main body proceeding in the 

 original direction. 



The appearance was a more or less conical sheet of flamr 

 with jagged edges, and the direction in which it was observed 

 was a little E. of magnetic North. 



Professor G- ELLIOT SMITH, M.A., i\I.D., F.R.S., gave some 

 " Observations on Recently Discovered Fossil Human 



Skulls." 



The announcements made in ' Nature ' last ye^ar of the 

 discovery of fossil human skulls m Australia (Talgai) and 

 South Africa (Boskop) suggest certain observations concerning 

 the problems relating to early mankind. P'or not only do they 

 add to the number of the distinct types of early humanity with 

 which we are acquainted, but also they force upon us the 

 further consideration of the question of early migrations, of 

 the reality of which the wiclespread distribution of certain 

 definite types of stone implements already afforded convincing 

 testimony for all who were willing to accept the i)lain 

 significance of positive evidence. 



There are reasons for believing that when Homo sapiens 

 first became differentiated from other human species many 

 human strains other than those which made their way into 

 Western Europe in the Upper Palaeolithic (or as I prefer tO' call 

 it the Early Neoanthropic) Age were also budded off from the 

 original parent stock. Some of these diversely specialised 

 strains were the ancestors of the Australians, others of Negroes, 

 others again of the Mongolian race, and yet others of the 

 brachycephalic types of humanity, none of which were repre- 

 sented in Europe, excepting possibly the last of the groups 

 mentioned, which began to filter into Eastern Europe in 

 Solutrean times, but did not become at all common in the West 



