November io, 1923] 



NA TURE 



699 



i 



Current Topic 



H.M. THE -King has approved of the following 

 awards this year by the president and council of the 

 Royal Society : — A Royal medal to Sir Napier Shaw, 

 for his researches in meteorological science ; a Royal 

 medal to Prof. C. J. Martin, for his researches on 

 animal metabolism. The following awards have also 

 been made by the president and council : — The 

 (Copley medal to Prof. H. Lamb, for his researches 

 in mathematical physics ; the Davy medal to Prof. 

 H. B. Baker, for his researches on the complete 

 ilrv'ing of gases and liquids ; and the Hughes medal 

 to Prof. K. A. Millikan, for his determination of the 

 electronic ( liaige and of other physical constants. 



The following is a list of those recommended by 

 the president and council of the Royal Society for 

 election to the council at the anniversary meeting 

 on November 30 : — President : Sir Charles Sherring- 

 ton ; Treasurer : Sir David Prain ; Secretaries : Mr. 

 W. B. Hardy and Mr. J. H. Jeans ; Foreign Secretary '■ 

 Sir Arthur Schuster ; Other Members of Council : Sir 

 Frederick Andrewes, Prof. C. G. Barkla, Sir William 

 Bragg, Prof. W. E. Dalby, Prof. A. S. Eddington, 

 Prof. T. R. Elliott, Prof. E. S. Goodrich, Sir Sidney 

 Harmer, Sir Thomas Holland, Sir Frederick Keeble, 

 Prof. T. R. Merton, Prof. H. F. Newall, Prof. D. Noel 

 Paton, Dr. A. Scott, Mr. F. E. Smith, and Prof. J. F. 

 Thorpe. 



On Saturday, November 3, His Majesty the King 

 f Sweden, accompanied by Baron Palmstierna, the 

 iPSwedish Minister, and the Royal Suite, visited the 

 I-innean Society's rooms in Burlington House, and 

 was received by Dr. A. B. Rendle, the president, the 

 officers, council, and staff. An inspection was made 

 of the various objects of interest connected with the 

 great Swedish naturalist, Carl von Linn^, such as 

 his herbarium and zoological collections, manu- 

 scripts, correspondence, and volumes copiously 

 annotated by their author. Before leaving, the King 

 signed the Roll and Charter Book of the Society, 

 on the emblazoned vellum page specially prepared 

 for signature. 



According to a telegram from New York which 

 ppeared in the Times of October 31, an expedition 

 if the Smithsonian Institution, of which Dr. J. P. 

 Harrington is the head, has discovered, at Santa 

 Barbara, in California, two human skulls for which a 

 very high antiquity is claimed. They are said to 

 belong to an era far earlier than that of Neanderthal 

 an. The evidence upon which this claim is based 

 would appear to be a low forehead and very pro- 

 nounced eyebrow ridges. The mouth cavity is ex- 

 tremely large and the walls of the skull very thick. 

 They are said to be twice the thickness of ancient 

 Indians' skulls. Until more detailed evidence is 

 available, judgment must be suspended as to the 

 likelihood of this claim to a high antiquity being 

 substantiated ; but it may be pointed out that 

 skulls exhibiting Neanderthaloid characteristics, 

 especially in the pronouncetl eyebrow ridges, have 

 been found on more than one occasion in the United 



NO. 2S19, VOL. 112] 





s and Events. 



States. Although a great age has, been attributed 

 to them, upon further examination they have been 

 pronounced to be merely a relatively modern variety 

 of the Indian type. It is significant that the new 

 Santa Barbara skulls were associated with a material 

 culture, implements, fish-hooks, etc., which is said 

 to show a great advance upon any culture that can 

 be associated with Neanderthal man. 



The Times of November i contains an interesting 

 account by its Peking correspondent of some results 

 of the American Expedition to Mongolia organised 

 by Prof. Osborn and led by Mr. R. C. Andrews, 

 which included Mr. W. Granger as palaeontologist, 

 and Mr. F. K. Morris as zoologist. The expedition 

 was despatched in consequence of the reported 

 existence of vertebrate fossils in Mongolia. Mr. 

 Andrews, in a preliminary visit to the area, found 

 indications that a systematic search might yield a 

 rich harvest of Mesozoic vertebrates. The expedition 

 with five motors and seventy camels travelled through 

 Kalgan to part of the Gobi Desert — about 300 miles 

 south-west of Urga. Excavations there resulted in 

 the discovery of seventy skulls and twelve complete 

 skeletons. The local conditions are so favourable 

 for the perfect preservation of fossils that fourteen 

 fossil reptile eggs were found, one of which contains 

 an embryo of an unhatched Dinosaur. Five eggs 

 were found in a nest close beside the skeleton of what 

 was presumably the parent reptile. The shells had 

 been cracked and gradually filled by the fine, wind- 

 blown dust which formed the loess. The skeletons 

 are Mesozoic Dinosaurs and are regarded by Prof. 

 Osborn as the ancestors of the famous fossil horned 

 reptiles of Montana. One of them has been named 

 Protoceratops andrewsi. Prof. Osborn considers that 

 the Dinosaurs developed in the northern plains of 

 the Old World and thence crossed into America 

 through northern China. The collections are being 

 taken to the American Museum in New York. It is 

 hoped that funds will be raised to -continue the work 

 in Mongolia on a still larger scale. Preliminary 

 technical reports on the discoveries have been already 

 published in America, and announced by members of 

 the expedition to the Geological Society of Chin a. 



The foundation ceremony at Sukkiir in the Pro- 

 vince of Sind, India, on October 24, when Sn ( leorge 

 Lloyd, the retiring Governor of Bomh.iy, laid a stone 

 which marks the commencement of operations for 

 the construction of an irrigation barrage, is worthy 

 of more than the casual note which has appeared 

 in the daily press. It marks the inception of, perhaps, 

 the largest and most impressive irrigation scheme 

 constructed in any part of the world. Sind, which 

 is one of the driest tracts in India, depends for its 

 irrigation upon inundation canals from the river 

 Indus, the overflow from which is sporadic and 

 fluctuating. In flootl times there is a full supply of 

 water; during the cold season only the most fortu- 

 nately situated areas obtain any supply at all, while 

 a minimum of 20,000 cubic feet of water per second 

 runs waste to the sea. It is the object of the barrage 



