92 



NATURE 



{May 23. 1889 



treated under paraffin, by M. Mahoudeau. — A description of 

 the cranium and brain in two assassins, by MM. Fallot and 

 Alezais. This communication gives a minute analysis of the 

 convolutions and other parts of the hemispheres, while it supplies 

 numerous and special measurements of the various parts of the 

 skull together with the respective cerebral and cranial indices. — 

 On the cranial alterations observable in rachitic conditions, by 

 M. Regnault — On the first temporal convolution in the right and 

 left hemispheres, in the case of a person who was known to 

 have suffered from deafness of the left ear, by M. Manouvrier. 

 — A communication regarding the truth of the reports made by 

 various travellers that cannibalism exists among the Fuegians, by 

 M, Hyades. According to this writer there is absolutely no 

 ground for this charge.— On a Peruvian bell, by M. Verneau. 

 — On the antiquity of Egypt, and the evidences of its con- 

 dition in prehistoric times, by M. Beauregard. In this 

 very exhaustive article the author passes in review the material 

 evidence remaining of the ages of cut and polished stone 

 and of bronze. He believes that Egypt at the time of the 

 Pharaohs exhibited the mixed condition of combining the 

 use of flint implements with the simultaneous acquaintance 

 with the means of extracting copper, and blending it with 

 other metals, including tin, although no distinct hieroglyphic 

 for the latter has been recognized in the older language 

 of Egypt. It remains undetermined where and when first 

 the ancient Egyptians obtained the tin which enters into 

 the bronze fabricated in the valley of the Nile as far back 

 as the seventeenth century before our era. — On the birth rate in 

 France, by M. Chervin. This paper contributes the most 

 elaborate and detailed series of statistical tables, for the separate 

 departments, of the births, marriages, and deaths registered, as 

 well as of the numbers of children born in a definite number of 

 households. The means obtained from these lists show that 8 

 per cent, of all the marriages in France are sterile, and that while 

 25 per cent, yield only one child, 100 families supply a mean of 

 only 259 children. Many curious points of interest are suggested 

 by this complex report, but it does not do much to explain the 

 causes of the want of increase in the papulation of P'rance, as 

 compared with that of other ciuntries. — On the hinged and 

 cantoned crosi in Cyprian decorative art, by M. Max Richter. 

 The remains of ancient art in Cyprus strongly resemble those of 

 Hissarlik, excepting that there is no trace of the swastika, or 

 hinged cross on the decorated red jars of the Bronze Age, while 

 its later appearance and disappearance in Cyprian art appears to 

 -coincide with the predominance and decline of Phoenician in- 

 fluence. — On the survival in Brittany of some of the usages and 

 privileges of clanship, by M. Sebillot. — On a semi-pagan pro- 

 cession on St. John's day, in th: Basses Alpes, by M. Arnaud. 

 From time immemorial the peasants of Lauzet have proceeded 

 after the benediction of the neighbouring lake to throw stones 

 into its waters amid loud and angry cries of vengeance against 

 the evil spirits who bring rain and hail storms. In this strange 

 •ceremony the local curd is constrained by popular will to take 

 part. — On phallotomy among the Egyptians, by M. Letourneau. 

 — On the centre of creation, and the first appearance of the 

 human race, by M. Lombard. The writer supports Signor 

 Saporta's view that vegetable forms, which now cover our con- 

 tinents, have spread slowly and continuously from north to south, 

 recent species forcing back or obliterating those of more ancient 

 origin. The laws which Signor Saporta endeavours to establish 

 for the diffusion of vegetable forms, M. I^ombard thinks may 

 be extended to the animal kingdom, including man, whose 

 cradle he would seek in circumpolar regions. — Report of sixth 

 Conference on Transformism, under the presidency of M. Duval, 

 by M. Bordier. — Report of fifih Broca-Conference, by M. 

 Topinard, a member of the commission for awarding the prize 

 instituted by Madame Broca in memory of her husband. The 

 memoirs presented between 1885 and 1888 are not numerous, 

 but great value attaches to two among these works, viz. the 

 general ethnography of Tunis, by Dr. Rene Collignon, to whom 

 the Broca Prize for 1888 has been unanimously awarded ; and 

 ethnological researches in regard to the human remains dis- 

 covered at Spy, by M. Fraipont, wh > received a silver medal in 

 recognition of the great merit of his work. — On the longevity 

 of the Berber races, by M. Letourneau. — On a Palaeolithic 

 station on Mont Roty, and on a novel flint implement, by the 

 Abbe Blanquet. — On an ancient cemetery at Biskra, Algeria, by 

 M. de Mortillet. — On a sepulchral dolmen, discovered at 

 Nanteuil-le-Houdouiu (Oise), by MM. Collin and Lair. — A 

 •prehistoric station at Frileuse (Seine-et-Oise), by M. Vauville. 



The numbers of the Botanical Gazette (Crawfordsville, 

 Indiana) for March and April contain a careful study of the 

 histology of the leaves of Taxodiitm by Mr. Stanley Coulter, 

 and a description of a number of new North American mosses, 

 with illustrations, by Messrs. Renauld and Cardot. It is an 

 evidence of the attention paid in the United States to micro- 

 scopical technique, that this magazine frequently contains (as do 

 both the numbers now before us) valuable hints as to the pre- 

 paration of sections of tissues for the microscope, the use of stain- 

 ing reagents, or objects specially well calculated to demanstrate 

 difficult points of structure. 



In the Journal of Botany for April and May, Messrs. Murray 

 and Boodle complete their account of the genus Avrainvillea of 

 Siphonocladacese, — Students of conifers will read with very great 

 interest Dr. M. T. Masters's attempt to distinguish the North 

 American pines, Abies lasiocarpa, A. bifolia, and A. siibalpina, 

 with their varieties or subspecies. The paper is illustrated by a 

 series of excellent woodcuts. — Most of the other papers in these 

 numbers are of special interest to students of British plants. 



The Nuovo Giornale Botaniio Italiano for April, a large por- 

 tion of which is devoted to a report of the proceedings of the 

 Italian Botanical Society, contains several articles of general 

 interest besides those devoted to the Phanerogamic and Crypto- 

 gamic botany of Italy. — Dr. H. Ross has an interesting article 

 on the assimilating tissue and development of the periderm in the 

 branches of plants with few or no leaves. — In pursuance of his 

 careful examination of the Nymphasaceas, Prof. G. Arcangeli 

 now contributes a paper on the seeds of Victoria regia. — Signor 

 U. Martelli adds a species to the few hitherto known of the genus 

 Riccia—R. atromarg'mata from Sicily. — Signor C. Lumia gives 

 the result of an examination of the composition of the gas found 

 within the inflorescence of the common fig in an unripe condition, 

 which contains more than 5 per cent, of carbon dioxide, showing 

 that an active process of respiration must go on within the recep- 

 tacle. — Signor G. Cuboni gives an account of experiments carried 

 on with a view to check the plague of grasshoppers by infecting 

 them with a parasitic fungus, Entomophthora Grylli, which 

 had, however, only negative results. 



Rciidiconti del Reale Istituto Loinbardo, April. — Palcconto- 

 logical notes on the Lower Lias of the Lombard fore-Alps, by 

 Dr. C. F. Parona. These notes are communicated pending the 

 publication of the author's exhaustive treatise on the fauna of 

 Saltrio. They deal especially with the palaeontological features 

 of the Bergamo and Como districts in connection with the 

 various faunas that flourished in the Lombard Sea during the 

 Lower Lias epoch. The results of this summary survey agree 

 generally with the conclusions arrived at by Prof. De Stefani in 

 his comparative study of the various Lower Lias formations 

 throughout Italy. — New measurement of the curvature of sur- 

 faces, by Prof. Felice Casorati. A new solution is presented of 

 this problem, that of Gauss being shown to be defective and 

 inadequate, although he laid the first solid foundation for the 

 study of the subject in his classical work, " Disquisitiones 

 generales circa superficies Curvas." — Prof. Giovanni Zoja con- 

 tributes some historical notes on the cabinet of human anatomy 

 in the University of Pav'a, dealing more particularly with the 

 period from 1815 to 1864 under the able adminis'ration of 

 Bartolomeo Panizza. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 9. — "Zirconium and its Atomic 

 Weight." By G. H. Bailey, D.Sc, Ph.D., the Owens College, 

 Manchester. 



Before proceeding with any final estimation, those salts of 

 zirconium which were at all likely to be of service in the 

 determination were exhaustively examined with special regard 

 to their stability in presence of reagents and under the action 

 of heat. 



It was found that in consequence of their instability and 

 tendency to form numerous oxychlorides, neither the chloride 

 nor the oxychloride could be relied upon, and that the sulphate 

 was the most suitable salt to work with. Even this salt when 

 heated above 400° C. undergoes gradual decomposition with the 

 production of basic salts, though it is quite stable up to this 

 temperature A special method (applicable in a number of 



