488 



NATURE 



[Sept. 28, 1876 



and the Germ Theory. Dr. Carmichael had made a considerable 

 series of experiments, the results of which were generally con- 

 firmatory of those of Dallinger and Drysdale, and of Tyndall. 

 Prof. G. S. Boulger read a paper On Sex in Plants, giving a 

 comprehensive view of recently-acquired knowledge on the 

 subject. 



This department certainly did not produce papers ranging 

 over more than a small portion of the field allotted to it. Some 

 contributions of high merit were made, but in many departments 

 of natural history no sign was made that any work was going on 

 in the British Isles. 



Department of Anthropology. 

 Mr. James Shaw read a paper On Righthandcdness, expressing 

 the opinion that there was a constitutional reason for the greater 

 use of the right hand. Lefthandedness seemed very mysterious 

 physiologically ; it must be far more common than transposition 

 of the viscera which had been supposed to account for it. In 

 several cases of transposition of the viscera, the persons affected 

 had been found to be right-handed. Another paper by Mr. 

 Shaw was On the Mental Progress of Animals during the Human 

 Period. In the discussion which followed Dr. Grierson men- 

 tioned an instance of intelligence which had come under his own 

 notice. Five years ago a barrel was put up in his garden at the 

 top of a high pole. The barrel was perforated with holes and 

 divided in the centre. In the course of two days two starlings 

 visited the barrel, and returned on the following day, and in 

 about a week afterwards two pairs of starhngs came and occupied 

 it, and brought up their young. They were very wild starlings, 

 and readily took flight when any person went near the barrel. 

 In the second year four pairs of starlings occupied the barrel, 

 and they were much tamer than the previous ones, and this last 

 year there were a number of pairs of starlings so tame that they 

 would almost allow him to take hold of them. They had now 

 changed their mode of speaking, for the starlings in his garden 

 frequently articulated words. 



Mr. Hvde Clarke read a paper On the Prehistoric Names of 

 Men, Monkeys, and Lizards, tending to prove that in early times 

 and by some savage races at the present day, every word which 

 was used as distinctive of man was likewise applied to other 

 animals, but only to those which used their fore feet as hands, 

 or in a distinctive manner. A paper contributed by Herr von 

 Humboldt von der Horck was read by Mr. Hyde Clarke. The 

 author was in charge of an expedition to the polar seas, and sent 

 an account of the Laplanders and people of the north of Europe. 

 He divided the Lapps into the nomadic or mountaineers, and the 

 sea or fish Lapps. The nomads were stronger, healthier, and 

 better developed, and rarely intermarried with the Finns or the 

 Norwegian settlers. 



Mr. Hyde Clarke's researches On the Relations between the 

 Hittite, Canaanite, and Etruscan Peoples and the Early Peruviatis 

 and Mexicans were laid before the department. He believes 

 that they really belong to one family, representing an early 

 culture which became arrested. They had little community 

 with the Semitic or Aryan types. Mr. J. Park Harrison dealt 

 with the origin and meaning of the "Picture Writing " of Easter 

 Island. He said that many of the tablets were gradually getting 

 destroyed, and he called attention to the desirability of acquiring 

 as many of them as possible, and of instituting a careful ethno- 

 graphical exploration of Easter Island. 



Mr. Bertram F. Hartshorne, late of H.M. Ceylon Civil 

 Service, read a paper entitled The Rodiyas of Ceylon. The 

 people treated of in his paper were a numerically small race, 

 living in various isolated communities in the hill country of 

 Ceylon. Their caste is the very lowest, and they have from 

 time immemorial been regarded by the Singhalese people with 

 disgust and abhorrence, their very name implying the notion of 

 filth. The popular belief has commonly considered them to be 

 either in some way connected with the Weddas, an aboriginal 

 race of the highest caste, or else to be outcast Singhalese or 

 ostracised Kandyans. There appears, however, to be no real 

 ground whatever for either of these theories — the features of the 

 Rodiyas, as well as their general physique and their craniology, 

 marking them out as a separate and distinct race, no less than 

 their customs and language. Their customs are distinguished 

 by peculiar funeral ceremonies, and by sacrifices offered to two 

 sorts of devils in cases of serious sickness ; and their language, 

 which is now in one of the last stages of decay, is of unknown 

 origin and development, and can neither be classified as Aryan 

 nor Dravidian. In all probability it represents the remnants of a 

 more complete and extremely ancient language, although it pos- 



sesses no separate alphabet, nor any literature. The earliest 

 historical mention of the Rodiyas apparently occurs in the year 

 437 B.C., and they are expressly referred to by name in the year 

 204 B.C., and again in the year 589 a.d. in the ancient Singha- 

 lese chronicles. The condition of the people, however, has at 

 all times been degraded, notwithstanding the fact that the males 

 are invariably possessed of a fine physique, and the females are 

 considered to be handsome. The peculiar social disabilities 

 which have been imposed upon the Rodiyas by the uses of ages 

 are now rapidly disappearing with the advance of civilisation, 

 whilst at the same time the idiosyncrasy of the people themselves 

 as well as their customs and their language, is gradually becoming 

 merged in the more modern type of their Singhalese surroundings. 

 The president (Mr. Wallace), in moving a vote of thanks to 

 Mr. Hartshorne, said the Rodiyas were a race of people who, 

 though in a degraded condition, yet possessed physical cha- 

 racters w hich seemed to show thev were intellectually superior 

 to the races who treated them in this manner. This might be 

 another of those examples to which he alluded in his address, of 

 a remnant very fast dying out — a remnant of one of those early 

 higher races which had been overrun and overcome by a lower 

 race intellectually, but more energetic, and had been reduced to 

 an extremely degraded position. It was also a valuable example 

 proving that degradation long continued did not alter to any 

 great extent the physical features of the race. Though they had 

 been for ages in this degraded condition they retained a fine type 

 of face, almost equal to many European forms. 



Mr. William Harper contributed a paper On the Natives of 

 British Guiana, who were generally said to belong to five tribes, 

 namely, the Arawacks, the Caribs, the Accawoi, the Macuri, 

 and the Warans. Representatives of several other tribes were, 

 however, frequently met with on British soil. These people 

 were merely remnants of a few barbarous tribes found, for the 

 most part, between the Amazon and the Orinoco. It was ex- 

 tremely difficult to obtain any information as to the origin of 

 these tribes ; and the general result of the author's investigations 

 was that, though it did not now admit of proof, it was very pro- 

 bable that all the Brasilio-Guarani tribes came from the north, 

 though not at the same time. Of the tribes in British Guiana, 

 the Warans and Macuri had probably been longer in the country 

 than the Caribs, Accawoi, and Arawacks. These tribes differed 

 a good deal firom one another in their language, characteristics, 

 and habits, but not in their outward appearance or mode of 

 living. The author suggested that light might be thrown on the 

 origin of these tribes by collecting fac-similes of the rock- writing 

 to be found among them, and comparing them with similar 

 writing to be found in other parts of America, especially in the 

 valley of the Mississippi. 



Mr. Kerry Nichols read a paper On the New Hebrides, Banks, 

 and Santa Cruz Islands. The natives inhabiting these islands 

 seemed to owe their origin to the same stock from which the 

 western and southern portion of New Guinea and the islands 

 lying immediately to the southward of that country appear to 

 have been peopled. The stock was evidently Papuan, and had, 

 by its numerous and wide-spreading branches, not only extended 

 itself over the islands of the coral sea, but as far east as the 

 Fijis, in which latter country, however, the race had evidently 

 received a great infusion of Malay blood. Whatever opinion 

 might be formed on the identity of the present race, the striking 

 resemblance in person, feature, language, and customs which 

 prevailed throughout, justified the conclusion that the original 

 population issued from the same source, and that the peculiari- 

 ties and characteristics which distinguish the tribes or communi- 

 ties on different islands had been mainly brought about by long 

 separation, local circumstances, and the intercourse of foreign 

 traders and settlers. Physically considered, these people were a 

 well-built, athletic race of savages, who appeared to inherit, in 

 a very marked degree, all the characteristics of the Papuan race. 

 The men average about 5 feet 6 inches in height, are erect in 

 figure, with broad chests and massive limbs, which in many in- 

 stances display great muscular development. The colour of 

 the skin was usually of a dark reddish brown, but sometimes it 

 was quite black, and was often covered with a short, curly hair, 

 especially about the breast, back, and shoulders. He saw 

 several instances in the Island of Tanna where the body was 

 almost completely covered in this way. They had well- 

 formed heads, the cranium in the majority of instances 

 betokening a fair degree of mental development. The hair, 

 which formed one of the most remarkable features of this 

 race, was distributed thickly over the head in the form of 

 small spiral (juris, and when allowed to grow in its natural way 



