492 



NATURE 



[June 8, hji i 



lion would lie for the makiri}*, obtaining, and using of 

 l;intcrn-slidcs tal<cn from a publication by or for a recog- 

 nised teacher for class demonstration or tho illustrntion of 

 n paper before a learned society? " 



An appeal afjainst the use of the New Forest for military 

 manopuvrcs, signed by a larf*e number of distinguished 

 ztx>logists, botanists, ornithologists, entomologists, and 

 other naturalists, appeared in The Times of June 2. The 

 appeal, after referring to the use of the New Forest in 

 this way in May, points out that May and June are 

 exactly those months of the whole year in which non- 

 disturbance is of vital importance to the birds, insects, and 

 plants which give to the New Forest its unique interest, 

 not only for men of science, but for all educated persons 

 who take an interest in natural history. The damage done 

 by bodies of troops during this period must inevitably 

 result in a destruction of the wild life of this area that 

 can never again be repaired. The signatories recognise 

 that manoeuvres must be held, but express the wish that 

 wild tracts of country other than the New Forest might be 

 utilised for the purpose ; and, if this cannot be, that future 

 manoeuvres may at any rate be deferred until after July 15, 

 when less harm would be done. 



A SPELL of exceptionally bright and warm weather was 

 experienced over the British Isles at the close of May and 

 at the beginning of the present month, and some exception- 

 ally high temperatures for the time of year have occurred. 

 For thirteen consecutive days, from May 25 to June 6, the 

 shade temperature at Greenwich exceeded 75°, and on 

 June 5 the thermometer registered 84°, which is 1° warmer 

 than any previous reading on the corresponding day since 

 1841. A heavy thunderstorm occurred in and around the 

 metropolis on May 31, when the rainfall at Greenwich 

 measured i-o inch and at Epsom 286 inches, of which 

 244 inches fell between 5.20 p.m. and 6.10 p.m. The 

 summary of the weather for the week ending June 3 

 issued by the Meteorological Office shows that extreme 

 temperatures of 80° and above occurred during the period 

 in nearly all parts of Great Britain, whilst the mean 

 temperature for the week was largely in excess of the 

 average over the entire kingdom, the excess amounting 

 to 99° in the west of Scotland to 8-4° in the north-west 

 of England, and to 8-2° in the south-west of England. 

 The bright sunshine exceeded 70 per cent, of the possible 

 duration in nearly all districts. May was exceptionally 

 bright and warm, and at Greenwich the mean tempera- 

 ture was 5° above the normal, whilst on fifteen days the 

 shade thermometer exceeded 70°, and on five days towards 

 the close of the month the thermometer in the sun's rays 

 exceeded 140°. The aggregate rainfall for the month was 

 1-88 inches, of which i inch fell on May 31, and in all 

 rain only fell on nine days. The duration of bright sun- 

 shine was 212 hours, which is twenty-five hours more 

 than the average. 



The death is announced of Dr. J. C. Oman, author of 

 several books on Indian customs and beliefs, at seventy 

 years of age. From The Times we learn that in 1877 Dr. 

 Oman joined the staff of the Lahore Government College 

 as professor of natural science. In the Punjab capital, 

 where he remained for twenty years, he won the esteem 

 and regard of a great number of Indians of all castes and 

 creeds by his sympathetic interest in their doings. When 

 he retired from the Government service he was appointed 

 to the principalship of the Khalsa (Sikh) College at 

 Amritsar, and held the position for two years. His first 

 book, " Indian Life, Religious and Social " (1889), was 

 also, in a much revised and enlarged form, his last, for 

 NO. 2 1 71, VOL. 86] 



three years ago it was again issued under the title of 

 " The Cults, Customs, and Superstitions of India.'' 

 Among his other works are "The Great Indian l'.\'' 

 which was included in Bi^n's Standard L; 

 " Mystics, .Ascetics, and Saints of India," and " liran 

 mans, Theists, and .Muslims of India." Dr. Oman was a 

 Fellow of the Linnean Society ; and in recognition of his 

 contributions to Indian ethnology, the degree of D.Litt 

 was conferred upon him by the Punjab University. 



In connection with the recent discovery of rema;;. 

 Palaiolithic man in Jersey, the elaborate monograph by 

 MM. M. Boule and R. Anthony on the skull found at 

 La Chapelle-aux-Saints, published in the March-.Xpril issu- 

 of L'Anthropologie, is of more than ordinary interest. 

 The morphological characteristics of this specimen are very 

 remarkable, and in its simian type it is intermediate 

 between man and the anthropoids. The writers thus 

 record the result of their examination : — " L'enc^phale de 

 I 'Homme fossile de la Chapelle-aux-Saints est d^*ji un 

 enc^phale humain par I'abondance de sa mati^re c<!'r6brale. 

 Mais cette mati^re manque encore de I'organisation 

 sup6rieure qui caract^rise les Hommes actuels." 



The question of the existence of that strange birth rite 

 known as the Couvade among the Basque race has been 

 again raised in correspondence in the March-.Xpril issue of 

 L'Anthropologie. It is now denied that any word in the 

 Basque language describes the practice, which is said to 

 be opposed to the national family system. On the whole, 

 while the extent of the area in w^hich the practice has 

 been alleged to prevail may have been overstated, its exist- 

 ence in certain districts seems to be certain. In view of 

 the rapid modification of national customs now in pro- 

 gress, the writer with some force appeals for a complete 

 re-examination of the question so far as it affects the 

 Basque people. 



The July-December (19 10) issue of the Journal of the 

 Royal Anthropological Institute, which has recently made 

 a rather belated appearance, is full of interesting matter in 

 connection with the problems of early man. Prof. Boyd 

 Dawkins issues his Huxley lecture on the arrival of man 

 in Britain in the Pleistocene age, in which he confirms 

 his original theory, published in his book on " Early Man 

 in Britain," issued in 1880. He still believes that the 

 cave men have handed down their culture to the Eskimo 

 by means of the post-Glacial hunters in northern Asia. 

 He now so far modifies this theory as to suggest that the 

 facts do not, as he originally supposed, imply identity of 

 race ; it may have been brought about by tribes of different 

 race. This must, he imagines, remain an open question 

 until we have more evidence than we now possess of the 

 Palajolithic hunters of Siberia, as well as more evidence 

 from the caves of Europe. 



In the July-December (1910) issue of the Journal of the 

 Royal Anthropological Institute Dr. J. H. .Anderson, a 

 promising recruit to the school of physical anthropolc^y in 

 Australia, subjects to a searching analysis the existing 

 formulae for the estimation of cubic capacity in the living, 

 and gives the results of a series of experiments on the 

 actual capacity as determined by the displacement method.) 

 This he follows up by a paper of more general interest| 

 on the proportionate contents of the skull as demonstrate 

 from an examination of forty Caucasian crania receive 

 from the metropolitan hospitals and benevolent asylums 

 the City of Melbourne. The results are that the bra 

 volume probably decreases with advancing age ; that 

 variation in the volume of the brain is compensated bj 



