746 



NATURE 



[November 17, 192 



or otherwise, of the hosts, while th(»Hc which have a 

 wide ranRc have retained aprinV'^-- "l.iptability. — 

 W, N. Edwardi : On the ciiti< ( ture of the 



l)CVi>iii.iii i)l;ii>( PsiIi)i)Iivtoii us of J'stlO' 



phy ' '.I ; ' N' \v Bruns- 



wit i '. ■ !• _p ii'.(.|. '.lii.vv that as 



in tiic curly land plants uf llic i<li\ i ' > liert the stem 

 iH provided with stomatn. Th« ^. Kxinblc in size 

 ana distrilnition the stumata of Asteroxylon but 

 have cuticle thickenini^s. No stomata were seen on 

 the highly culiculariscd spines, but these spines do 

 not resemble intumescences of Khynia. and Psilo- 

 phyton is probably nearer to Astcroxylon. 



Aristotelian Society, November 5. — Prof. T. Percy 

 Nunn. president, in the chair. — i. P. Nunn : (Pre- 

 sidential address) Scientific objects and common- 

 sense things. The greatest achievement of the 

 physical sciences is generally held to be the discovery, 

 behind the veil of common -sense things and observ- 

 able events, of a world of scientific objects and 

 unobscrvable events. The primary qualities of 

 common-sense things are transferred without diffi- 

 culty to scientific objects. Size, mass, and motion, 

 for example, belong to an electron in the same sense 

 in which they belong to a flying bullet or to a planet. 

 Their materiality being thus assumed, these objects 

 have constantly increased their hold upon the 

 scientific mind. The philosophical question involved 

 in this concept is whether objects can exist which 

 only possess the primary qualities of common-sense 

 things and have none of their secondary qualities. 

 To resolve this problem we must have a satisfactory 

 theory of the common-sense thing. Such a theory 

 is that a thing is a structure embracing and actually 

 consisting of all the sense-data which common-sense 

 regards as qualities of the thing and are presented to any 

 percipient at any time or place. Unless this doctrine 

 IS hopelessly wrong, tne pretension that scientific 

 objects are the reality of which the common-sense 

 world is but the appearance, must be entirely 

 abandoned. The real achievement of science is not 

 to have disclosed any reality behind the veil of 

 sensible things, but to have greatly extended and 

 deepened and rationahsed the scheme of the world 

 revealed in perception. 



Ipswich. 



Prehistoric Society of East Anglia (Autumn London 

 meeting), October 10. — H. Bury (Presidential 

 address): The distribution of palaeoliths in the 

 Hampshire basin, with special reference to a " palaeo- 

 lithic horizon " separating levels at which implements 

 are common from those in which they are extremely 

 rare. This horizon indicates the liighest altitude 

 reached by the rivers in palaeolithic times; the 

 implements found at higher levels were buried during 

 glacial conditions, when the normal drainage was 

 temporarily obliterated. The differences in the 

 level of the horizon in the Hampshire, Thames, and 

 Somme Basins respectively (150 to 130 feet) are due 

 to changes in the position of the river mouths, and 

 not to local warpings of the earth's crust. There is 

 clear evidence from the New Forest and Bournemouth 

 Plateaux that the river fell and rose again in Lower 

 Palaeolithic times, the total range of movement (loo 

 feet) agreeing exactly with the change from the third 

 to the first terrace of the Somme, which Commont 

 attributes to the Chellean period. But the English 

 evidence makes it clear that tne subsequent rise of 

 the river (in or after Acheulean times) was much 

 higher than Commont admits, and reached the 

 extreme level of the Palaeolithic horizon. The 

 corresponding sea-level is more difficult to ascertain, 



NO. 2820, VOL. 112] 



but evidence from the Isle of Wight points to no 

 feet O.D. — M. C. Burkitt : The discovery in "'.rtL-r., 

 Spain of an industry wliich appears to be tr 1 



between tlx.s. i,i the late palieolithic and tht ,- ^ 



of the I tgcH. Masses of shells cemented to 



the root un caves on the coast of the .\stuii.is 



arc accompanied by a stone hand-pick ma<l 

 flat pebble fluted to a point, the butt and ti: 

 being unworked. This implement is found with 

 the accompanying shell middens to overlay depositn 

 containing the typical harpoons of the Azilian 

 industry, and is evidently earlier than the ♦•arly 

 neolithic stage. — L. Armstrong : The ex' 

 undertaken at Grimes' Graves, Norfolk, di 

 past summer. A survey of the site was made m p.^j.' 

 to a.sccrtain the level at which the floor-stone flint 

 worked by the prehistoric miners outcropped in the 

 adjoining valley. This season, aided by a grant Imm 

 the Percy Slacien Memorial Trust, excavations were 

 made with the view of determining whether a phase 

 of mining could be traced on the hill slope ciirlu-r 

 than the large galleried pits sunk from the top of the 

 adjoining hill. A type of flint mine was discovered 

 in which the radiating galleries were absent ; descent 

 was made by aid of rough steps left in the chiilk ; 

 these were excavated by small hand-picks of splintere<l 

 bone, which in one case was human. No trace of 

 these pits can be detected on the surface ; they are 

 filled with an extremely compact deposit of chalk. 

 Thus they are in direct contrast to the conditions 

 in the long-known pits of Grimes' Graves, which 

 seems to indicate a more ancient period of working. 

 A glacial disturbance of the sides of the vallev has 

 thrust up a series of blocks of the flint tow 

 surface, which would probably attract the 

 of the flint hunters. — A. G, Wade : Ancuui imu- 

 mines at Stoke Down, Sussex (t/. Nature, October 20, 

 P- 597)- 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, October 22. — M. Albin Haller 

 in the chair. — H. Deslandres : An equatorial of a new 

 type, named the table equatorial, intended especially 

 for researches in physical astronomy. — A. Chatelet : 

 The properties of finite Abelian groups. — A. Bloch : 

 The paratactic circles and the cycUd of Dupin. — 

 M. Hadamard : Remarks on the preceding com- 

 munication. — Maurice Gevrey : Some ^ properties of 

 quasi-analytical functions of one or more variables. — • 

 Harald Bohr : Nearly periodic functions. — G. Valiron : 

 The theorem of Picard-Borel. — A. Guillet : The s^-n- 

 chronisatio.i of circular movements. — M. Huguenard : 

 A method for the absolute measurement of the 

 velocity of a current of air. This method utilises 

 a novel principle. During the passage of an electric 

 spark in air, in addition to the sound-wave, a little 

 cloud of warm air is formed wliich can be rendered 

 visible by means of a second spark placed on the 

 axis of the first. If the air is moving, this cloud is 

 carried along at the velocity of the air current and 

 its position determined by eye for low velocities or 

 photographically for high velocities. A diagram and 

 description of the apparatus is given : it is not 

 necessary' to know the temjierature or pressure of 

 the gas nor the velocitA* of sound, and veiy- high 

 velocities can be readily measured by this method. — 

 Marius Pascal : Observations on the note by M. P. 

 Noaillon on "Superficial circulation." — P. Idrac : 

 The structure of sea winds and their utilisation for 

 hovering flight. A summary- of the results of exf>eri- ; 

 ments on the movements of air currents over the 1 

 sea, carried out during the autumn at the hghthouse 

 of Jument d'Ouessant. — Alex. Veronnet : The evolu- 

 tion of the trajectory^ of a star in a resistant medium. 



