48o 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 12, 1889 



of the physical qualities of the inhabitants of Styria and 

 Carinthia. Amongst other papers were the following : — Dr. 

 Hoernes, the present position of prehistoric studies in Austria ; 

 Herr Troeltsch, the protection of prehistoric antiquities ; Dr. 

 Woldrich, the Stone Age in Central Europe ; Prof. Virchow, 

 '* Crania Americana " ; and quite a number of writers described 

 particular prehistoric discoveries, "finds" of bronzes, stone 

 implements, &c. 



On Thursday afternoon last a statue was erected at the 

 Veterinary School at Alfort to the memory of Henri Bouley, 

 who after being a professor there, held a chair at the Museum of 

 Natural History, and who before the close of his career was 

 President of the Academy of Sciences. He was the author of 

 books on veterinary medicine and rural economy, which gave 

 a great impulse to French agriculture. He made successful 

 efforts to raise the education and social position of veterinary 

 surgeons. The statue bears the words, "To Henri Bouley, 

 1814-1885 ; his pupils and his friends." 



Recently we referred to an entomological tour about to be 

 undertaken in Ceylon on behalf of certain German Museums, by 

 Herr Friihstorfer, a Berlin naturalist. The Ceylon papers now 

 contain an account of the tour in the island, and its results, from 

 which it appears that he left Colombo at the beginning of 

 April, and went via Ratnapura and Pelmadulla to Balangoda, 

 in the neighbourhood of which place he stayed for some time, 

 and then he took a trip over the hills to the low country round 

 about Bintenne. In this neighbourhood he stayed altogether 

 ten days, after which he made his way to Belihuloya, which he 

 describes as most interesting country for naturalists, the hills 

 round offering fine scope for the insect-trappers. Here he col- 

 lected some very good specimens, principall)' dragon-flies of 

 scientific interest. Beetles were also plentiful, and he was 

 successful in obtaining some excellent specimens of the rare 

 family of the Cetonidct, and also captured one or two of the leaf- 

 butterflies, which are so seldom seen, and so difficult to catch 

 when seen, owing to the practice they have when pursued of 

 flying to a bush or a tree, where their peculiar colour and shape, 

 assimilating to the colour and shape of the leaves, render detec- 

 tion almost impossible. On May 6, Herr Friihstorfer went on, 

 vid Haldumulla and Koslande, to Wellaway, where he collected 

 some beautiful butterflies, notably several specimens of the family 

 known as Papilics {niontanus). In the jungle near the Kotti- 

 yagalle estate, he captured some splendid butterflies, and an 

 almost incredible number of grasshoppers. Here he collected, 

 amongst other interesting specimens, a number of the insects 

 which, from their red bodies and golden crests, are called 

 " soldier" grasshoppers. Returning to Colombo for a time, he 

 made an excursion to Panadura and the Bolgodde lakes, where 

 he found centipedes of all kinds, including many rarities. On 

 July 8 he journeyed to Kandy and Matale, and on to Dambool, 

 where he stayed a week, and where he gathered his best speci- 

 mens of Orthopteras or locusts, amongst them being some leaf- 

 locusts of beautiful shape, and golden beetles, which are greatly 

 in request by collectors and museums. While in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dambool he visited Anuradhapura, and thence he 

 went on, over Habboorenna, to Kanthalai and Trincomalee, 

 where he added to his store of butterflies. 



Herr Frupistorfer, however, did not work alone. He 

 employed altogether fourteen other collectors, who have been 

 collecting for him in all parts of the island, and the result is that 

 he has now a gigantic collection, the number of which he says it 

 would be difficult to estimate ; but he thinks he is well within 

 the mark in saying that it includes 25,000 beetles, about 7000 

 butterflies, about 3000 Orthopteras, a like number of dragon- 

 flies, and a thousand spiders and centipedes. He has a large 

 number of butterflies and Orthopteras that are not to be found in 



the Colombo Museum ; while, numerically speaking, he says he 

 has more than three times the number of dragon-flies to be seen 

 there. Amongst his most valuable specimens are the leaf-butter- 

 flies and locusts, and the long-horned beetles and MantidcE. 

 Besides all these, he has a good collection of snakes, amongst 

 which are cobras, sea-snakes, and specimens of the Uropeltida; 

 and false snakes. Besides reptiles, Herr Friihstorfer has a valu- 

 able collection of shells. He describes Ceylon as being a very 

 rich field for naturalists. 



At the July meeting of the Anthropological Society of Bom- 

 bay, Mr. Kitts, of the Indian Civil Service, read a paper on the 

 early history of Northern India, in which the theory recently 

 put forward by Mr. Hewitt, on the early history of India, was 

 stated and discussed. The theory of Mr. Hewitt is briefly this : — 

 That the first immigrants who settled in India and have left 

 traces surviving were the so-called Kolarian races, who came 

 from the north-east, and that their descendants, to the number 

 of ten millions or thereabouts, are still occupants of Northern 

 India. The Kolarians were succeeded and conquered by the 

 Dravidians, who came from the north-west, and developed in 

 India a very high state of civilization, both social and political. 

 Large estates belonged to single owners, such as the talukdari 

 tenures in Northern India, and the ze?nindari and patidari 

 tenures in Southern India. "In short," says Mr. Hewitt, "it 

 was the Dravidians who founded and consolidated the present 

 land revenue system of India." The Dravidians also organized 

 the pimchayet and chowkidar system of village government, 

 which has survived to the present day. All the manual arts 

 and industries practised in the India of to-day were known to 

 and practised by the Dravidians. The Aryans, migrating into a 

 land occupied as India then was by the Dravidians, with a 

 strongly-organized system of government, found great difficiUy 

 in obtaining a foothold, and even when they had secured a 

 tract of country in the north-west for themselves, did not obtain 

 supremacy over the rest of India by force of arms. The agents 

 of their subsequent advance were three — religion, commerce, 

 and military ability. Friendly alliances were concluded between 

 the new-comers and the snake races of the Dravidians. The 

 Aryans admitted the noble races of the Dravidians to be of royal 

 blood, and accepted Siva or Lingam worship as not dishonouring 

 to their religion. The Dravidians, thus recognized as of noble 

 blood, were the ancestors of the modern Rajpoots and the 

 Kshatriya caste. Intellectually the Aryans were far superior to 

 the Dravidians, and the Aryan tongue was accordingly adopted 

 as the lingua franca for commercial purposes. So, too, the 

 Aryan became a necessary element in every court and in every 

 commercial enterprise, and from this time forward (about six 

 centuries B.C.) their supremacy was assured. 



A RECENT issue of the Japanese Official Gazette contains an 

 elaborate table showing the number of earthquake shocks felt 

 in Tokio, and registered at the Central Observatory, from 1875 

 to 1889. The Official Gazette says that a large part of the area 

 on which the city of Tokio stands, being of the character of 

 alluvial deposit, is exceptionally sensitive to shocks of earth- 

 quake. These statistics, covering a period of fifteen years, 

 unmistakably indicate the three closing and the three opening 

 months of the year as the period of maximum seismic activity 

 for Tokio. March is the month, pa^- excellence, and next to it 

 comes December. The order in respect to frequency of shocks 

 is March, December, February, May, January, Novembed 

 October, April, June, July, September, August. 



In a special article of some length on the new Welsh InteJ 

 mediate Education Act, the Times says that, while it recognize 

 without supplanting, the higher elementary schools which we^ 

 so warmly fostered by the Education Department halfadozg 

 years ago, it takes power, not only to deal with intermediate 



