368 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
through the substance of the soil and subsoil which brings all the 
circumstances of increased fertility in its train. 
Among the events of the quarter having an indirect bearing on 
agricultural subjects, we may mention that the University of Edin- 
burgh has issued a programme of examinations in various branches 
of applied science, under which students may receive diplomas as 
Bachelor and Master of Agriculture. There can be no doubt that a 
successful passage, thus guaranteed, through well-conducted exami- 
nations on all the subjects with which a man must be familiar to 
mark him out as a thoroughly well-educated agriculturist, will ulti- 
mately materially affect the future professional career of imdividual 
agricultural students; and in this way it will benefit agriculture 
and agriculturists generally. Professor John Wilson, of the Edin- 
burgh University, has done good service to the cause of general 
agricultural progress by obtaining at the hands of so distinguished 
an educational body this recognition of agriculture as one of the 
professions for which a liberal education is desirable. 
We add that the subject of the beet-sugar manufacture and of 
the sugar-beet cultivation has continued to engage attention. Mr. 
Gibbs, of Gilwell Park, near Woodford, lately read a paper before 
the Society of Arts, advocating the use of his drying-engine for 
the reduction of crop-weight in the field, and the consequent reduc- 
tion of the expense of carriage, which more than anything else tends 
to discourage the establishment of local sugar factories. And Mr. 
Baruchson, of Liverpool, has published a most exhaustive treatise on 
the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial aspects of the sub- 
ject, which ought to be read by every one who is disposed to intro- 
duce the cultivation of the sugar-beet upon his farm. 
2. ARCH/ZOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 
THE interest attaching to bone-caves yielding remains of man and 
works of art is still kept at a high pitch by new discoveries. During 
the past quarter a most interesting account of some explorations in 
Portuguese bone-caves* has reached us; and we thus obtain evidence 
that in the district of Cesareda man once existed in so uncivilized 
a condition that he lived in caves, ate human flesh, and possessed 
chipped flints for his only weapons. M. Delgado describes three 
caves in the Jurassic limestone of Cesareda, all of which he has 
thoroughly explored. In one (the Casa da Moura) he obtained 
* Da existencia do Homen no nosso solo em Tempos mui remotos provada pelo 
estudos das cavernas. Primeiro opusculo. Noticia acerca das Grutas da Cesareda. 
Por J. F. D. Delgado. 
