5IO 



NATURE /3 



yApril 27, 1876 



syllabes caractdrisant les trois sections coniques ; d'ou 

 reguli^rement ellidomoide, paradomoide et hyperdomoide. 

 D'autres figures, moins chargdes, au contraire, que la 

 pyramide, sont dites trcvwidcs. Ce seront toujours, 

 domo'i'des et tremoYdes, des corps ou solides polygonaux, 

 ou du moins consideids comme tels, et les rapports carac- 

 tdristiques f, ^, se constilueront le lien commun dans 

 chacune des diverses families. Ce sont choses que les 

 curieux peuvent dludier dans mon ouvrage : Iheorie des 

 Cf istailoides." 



" Geometria renovata. Creation d'une geometric nou- 

 velle, d'une morphologic architectonique. Geometria 

 philosophica. Doctrine prdexcellente ; de meme que le 

 polygone engendre le cercle, de meme les cristallo* 

 domoYdes engendrent les sphdroides ; geometria Hugo- 

 dom.oidica sive Hugodomoidalis ! geometria aspheris- 

 tica ! de meme rdquidomoide ergendre la sphere ! " 



" Circulaire k messieurs les mathematiciens (on est tr^s- 

 poli dans cette gdomdtrique-lk) : — ' L'dquidomoide prd- 

 archimddien a I'honneur d'informer votre seigneurie que 

 par arrete de S. E. le Commandeur Leopold Hugo, Prd- 

 sident de la Gdomdtrique Architectoni-primordiale, il a 

 did nommd au poste occupd prdcddemment par la sphere, 

 et qu'il s'y maintiendra envers et centre tous. L'dqui- 

 dcmoide espere que votre seigneurie voudra bien, ainsi 

 que LL. AA. les Acaddmies scientifiques, accueillir 

 favorablement sa nomination et lui donner aide et appui 

 contre les retours cffensifs de la titulaire ddpossedde. II 

 saisit cette occasion pour exprimer k votre seigneurie 

 toutes les assurances de sa tres-respectueuse considera- 

 tion. 



" ' Equidopolis, le .' " 



The motto is " Devise anti-archimddienne. L'equido- 

 moide va bien : le re\>elle gagne du terrain! .... 

 suppression de la sphere !" 



\V e have, in a recent number of NATURE, given a sketch 

 of a work by the Scme author. Now we let him speak 

 for himself. When we say that there are " Placards 

 singuliers," " Placards plus ou moins singuliers destinds 

 k AIJM, les Eleves de Mathdmatiques (Pamphlet fan- 

 tasia)," " Objurgation Hugodomoidale," " Inauguration 

 Transatlantique, 



" Yankee doodle went to town 

 Upon ill' equidomody, 

 Cocked a leather to his hat 

 And called it cristallody ! " 

 &c., &c., in many languages, we have furnished our 

 readers with some idea of the two works before us. Spec- 

 tattif)i adj)iisst, rision teneatis ? 



Count Hugo is the author of at least six pamphlets ; 

 two more are in the press, and more in preparation, " and 

 still they come." 



Our latest acquisition is a sheet on " the Pan-imaginary 



theory (not the frying-pan)." "Here the space with — 



dimensions gives birth, by its successive phases, to the 

 real space, with n dimensions, and specially to the naturai 

 space with three dimensions, and to the sub-natural space 

 with two dimensions, &c." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the "writers of, rejected manuscripts:' 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.'^ 



"The Recent Origin of Man" 



The letter of the author of the above woik in Nature, vol. 

 xiii. p. 484, presents two points which demand an answer. 

 I. The reviewer is asked for his authority for the statement that 

 palaeolithic implements have been met with in Asia Minor. It is 

 to be found in Evans' "Ancient Stone Implements," p. 571, and 

 in Dawkins' "Cave-Hunting," p. 429. The discovery was 

 made by the Abbe Richard between Mount Tabor and the Sea 



of Tiberias. 2. My opinion, which is also shared by some of the 

 leading archaeologists of Britain, that the interments at Solutre 

 have not been proved to be palaeolithic, has unfortunately evoked 

 a charge of " ignorance and treacherous memory " (rom the au- 

 thor. I would merely remark that I am not ignorant of the ac- 

 count of Solutre in the "Matcriaux," and in the "'Archives du Mu- 

 seum de Lyon," the latter of which is apparently unknown to the 

 author, nor has my memory failed me concerning the debate en 

 Solutre at the French Association, and the human skulls and 

 implements which I then saw. Mr. Southall's argument as 

 to the modern date of some of the reindeer, based on the 

 percentage of gelatine in their bones, may be left to the tender 

 mercies of Mr. Evans, and the comparison of the finely-chipped 

 implements, with the Danish Neolithic finds, to those of M. de 

 Mortillet, who takes them to be typical of one of the stages of 

 the palaeolithic period. 



The discussion of the other questions raised in the letter, such 

 as the Neolithic age of the Rhinoceros hanitccchus of the Gibraltar 

 caves, or the reiterated assertion that the Irish Elk lived in 

 Europe in the middle ages, is unnecessary in the present state of 

 scientific inquiry. How an appeal to the mound at Hissarlik, 

 to the discoveries at Alise, to the pile dwellings, to the food in 

 the stomachs of fossil elephants and Mastodons, or to the recent 

 elevation of Uddevalia can prove the " recent origin of man," 

 may safely be reserved for decision to the judgment of thr reader, 

 without any comment from The Reviewer 



On the Formation of Coral Sand 



In the best books on geology one finds that the formation of j 

 coral sand is attributed to trituration by the force of the surf, the-; 

 waste of shells and minute globigerinae, and even to the drop- 

 pings of those fishes which are said to browse ^upon the livingl 

 coral. 



While residing at Santa Cruz in the West Indies about th; 

 time last year, my friend Mr. Quin, inspector of schools there 

 first pointed out to me the great importance of a certain sea- 

 weed in the formation of coral sand, and I had ample oppor- 

 tunity for verifying his observation while I stayed there. 



A Coralline limestone is formed of coral blocks, consolidated 

 coral- sand, and mud, shells, and myriad calcareous cases of 

 minute organisms. Of these, next perhaps to the coral itself (of 

 which I have seen great masses whose features were not quite 

 effaced by percolation, &c., in the upheaved limestone of Santa 

 Cruz), the bulkiest ingredient is the coral sand and mud, espe- 

 cially the sand, the shells and cases being of minor importance. 



We are invariably taught, as far as I have seen, that cor 

 sand is mainly formed of the trituration -of the coral skeletoi 

 among each other, but it is difficult to see how this can be whe 

 one has seen both the sand and the skeletons, and the action 1 

 the surf which is mostly among the coral yet alive and cushioned 

 with a vegetable matter. The coral skeleton is extremely hard 

 and crystalline, and when two pieces of dead coral are rasped 

 together by the action of the wave breaking over the reef they 

 will triturate themselves into very fine grains. One can under- 

 stand how the coral mud can be formed in this manner ; but not 

 so easily how the coral sand is formed. A glance at coral sand 

 as it is seen forming the curving beaches in the pretty coves of 

 the W^est Indian Islands shows that it is formed of coarse cal- 

 careous grains smoothed and rounded by the water, and of rather 

 a soft friable nature, more like water-washed fragments of stucco 

 or shell than crisp coral. On examining it more closely one 

 sees that it is mainly composed of fragments and scales of soft cal- 

 careous matter of a mellow whiteness, and easily broken between 

 the fingers. The larger of these scales have a peculiar shape, 

 roughly like a half moon, whilst others are plainly only broken 

 pieces of the larger. 



Nor is the source of these far to seek. One finds everywhere 

 strewed over the surface of the sand white bunches of a dead 

 sea-weed, or rather of its calcareous skeleton, bleaching in the 

 sunshine, every perfect leaf of which is one of these half-moon 

 shaped scales, and all connected together by flax-like fibres. 

 They have been cast ashore.by high tides from the fringing reef. 

 (See fig.) 



In the reef itself, whilel sailing over it, one sees among the 

 dark coral masses white sheets of coral sand, and when these 

 are scrutimised more closely they prove to be almost entirely 

 formed of these broken scales or leaf-skeletons. 



One day I went with Mr. Quin to the outer edge of the reef at 

 low water, and landed on its shoaling crest, Mr, Quin was 

 provided with a very useful lens, wherewith to view then 



