412 



ITATURE 



[January 26, 191 1 



ing to at least one member of the Ceramic Society, and 

 were somewhat carpingly criticised by Mr. Bernard 

 Moore, a representative of the manufacturers on tlie 

 late Departmental Committee. How Mr. Thomason 

 effectually disposed of Mr. Moore in the course of the 

 subsequent discussion, will be evident to any unpre- 

 judiced reader. 



It is not to be expected that in such a, journal as 

 we are noticing there would be much reading pour 

 tire. But in the concluding paper, which tells of 

 a visit paid by the society to a white-lead works, 

 where the members seem to have been most hospit- 

 ably entertained by the proprietors, there is a very 

 distinct flavour of comedy. After the luncheon, one 

 of the senior members of the party made an attempt 

 to express the gratitude of the society to their quondam 

 hosts. Unfortunately the speaker had evidently been 

 much perturbed by the sight of a lavatory basin 

 marked "leadless glaze," and this untoward circum- 

 stance, combined with the influence of "a sumptuous 

 table " from which the party "had almost succeeded in 

 abolishing that ' dangerous element,' water," led him 

 to make an ill-mannered and vituperative attack upon 

 what he was pleased to call "a band of faddists who 

 had little better with which to occupy their meddle- 

 some minds" than to bring down upon the trade "a 

 perfect plague of inspections, committees^ arbitrations, 

 and commissions." But the orator "took heart of 

 grace. He did not despair " so long as they had such 

 friends as Mr. Bernard Shaw on the Lead Commis- 

 sion." Mr. Shaw is as ubiquitous as King Charles's 

 head, but it is a little hard on him to confound him 

 with Mr. Bernard Moore, with whom he has little in 

 common. The sorry thing is that the silly speech 

 reflects the attitude of a not inconsiderable section 

 of the manufacturers to what is a great and crying 

 evil in tbeir industry. 



AN INSTITUTE OF HUMAN PALAEONTOLOGY. 



THE Prince of Monaco, as is well known, is a 

 scientific man of high attainments, more 

 especially in the sphere of oceanography.^ His own 

 researches and those conducted under his auspices 

 have been of first importance. A short time ago an 

 account was given in these columns of the beautiful 

 and well-equipped Museum of Oceanography wTiich 

 he erected at Monaco, and in last week's Nature 

 (p. 379) mention was made of the Oceanographical 

 Institute founded and endowed in Paris by the Prince. 

 As stated in another column, the institute \vas in- 

 augurated on Monday, Januarv^a^, and it is hoped 

 to give an account next week' of the opening. 



In 1872 M. Emile Riviere discovered the first Palaeo- 

 lithic skeletons of the Baousse-Rousse caves ("The 

 Red Caves ") or Grimaldi caves, as it was decided they 

 should be called at the International Congress of 

 Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology at Monaco 

 in 1906. Later investigations revealed fresh remains, 

 and the Prince himself in 1907 discovered the fourth 

 grave, that of the two famous "Negroids." The 

 Prince took great interest in these important dis- 

 coveries, and generously assisted in the work which 

 was mainly conducted by the Canon de Villeneuve, 

 Profs. Boule, Verneau, and Cartailhac. A great deal 

 has been written on these finds in various journals, 

 and the official reports have been published by the 

 Prince in two volumes ; he has also established a 

 Museum of Archaeology at Monaco. The Prince was 

 so much impressed by the wonderful mural engrav- 

 ings and frescoes of Palaeolithic age which adorn so 

 many caves in central and south France and north 

 Italy that he commissioned Dr. Emile Cartailhac and 

 I'Abbc^ H. Breuil to make a thorough investigation of 



NO. 2152, VOL. 85] 



them, which, with his customary munificence, will be 

 I)ublished in a series of sumptuous monographs, of 

 which the first " La Caverne d'Altamira a Santillanc 

 pres .Santander (Espagne)," has recently appeared. In 

 the current number of V Anthropologic (tome xxi., 

 p. 725), it is stated that the Prince has decided to 

 founa in Paris an institute of human palaeontology. 

 In a letter to the Minister of Instruction announcing 

 his decision he says that he has come to feel that 

 greater prominence should be given to the study of the 

 mystery which shrouds the origin of mankind, and 

 that a methodical basis of archaeological investigation 

 is required. " Et je pensais que la philosophic et la 

 morale des soci^t^s humaines seraient moins incer- 

 taines devant I'histoire des generations, ^crite aver 

 leur propre poussiere." Having seen that oceano- 

 graphy was fittingly domiciled in Paris and Monaco, 

 he gave some attention to the requirements of human 

 palaeontology. 



The Prince goes on to state his intention of found- 

 ing in Paris a centre for the pursuit of studies based 

 on systematic excavation. The site for the institution 

 has been selected, and the staff and a financial board 

 of management appointed. The munificent founder 

 adds that he has endowed the '* Institut de Pale- 

 ontologie humaine " with the sum of 1,600,000 

 francs, and proposes to make over his col- 

 lections to it conditionally. The Prince, desirous 

 of securing the most favourable terms of existence for 

 this foundation, begs the Government to recognise its 

 value and approve its statutes. A. C. H. 



NOTES. 



Tuf. death of Sir Francis Galton at Grayshott House, 

 near Haslemere, on January 17, marks another link broken 

 with the greater leaders of nineteenth-century science. Sir 

 Francis passed away quietly after only a few days' illness, 

 clear in mind, and able within a few hours of his death 

 to question his physician humorously as to the statistics 

 available for the reputed action of strjxhnine as a drug. 

 By his own desire his body was interred at Clavendon, near 

 Warwick, a peaceful country churchyard, close to the 

 house which had once been the home of his mother 

 (Violetta Darwin), and still remains a spot with much of 

 artistic interest to those who value the family history of a 

 noteworthy scientific stock. The funeral took place an 

 Saturday, January 21, the Master of Trinity College (repre- 

 senting the University of Cambridge and the college) and 

 the vicar of Clavendon taking the service. Among the 

 relatives and friends present were Miss E. Biggs, Mr. and 

 Mrs. E. G. Wheler, Father Charles Galton, S.J., Major 

 Hubert Galton, Miss Violet Galton, Mrs. Moilliet, Major 

 Guy Lethbridge, Mr. Geoffrey Butler, Mr. A. F. G. Butler, 

 Charles Galton Darwin, Miss A. Jones, and Prof. K. Pear- 

 son. The Royal Society was represented by Sir George 

 Darwin and Mr. William Bateson, the former also repre- 

 senting the Royal Meteorological Society ; Prof. A. Dendy 

 represented the University of Tendon and King's College ; 

 Major Leonard Darwin, the Royal Geographical Society : 

 Dr. Charles Chree, the Kew Observatory ; and Dr. David 

 Heron, the Galton Eugenics Laboratory. We hope next 

 week to publish some account of Sir Francis Galton 's life 

 and work. 



The two principal candidates for the vacant seat in the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences caused by the death of M. 

 Gernez were Mme. Curie and Prof. E. Branly. At the 

 meeting of the academy on Monday, January 23, Prof. 

 Branly was elected to the vacancy by the narrow majority 

 oT two votes. In the first ballot he received 29 votes 

 against 2S civen to Mme. Curie, and in the second 30 



