5oS 



NATURE 



[February i6, 191 i 



really has its obvious and simple meaning of " reeking 

 with sacrifice." Virgil was, however, misled, and para- 



Shrases the. passage in the Odyssey (^neid, i, 416) with 

 is usual amplification into: " centumque Sabaeo)ture 

 calent arae. " But it is evident that this was not accepted 

 at the time. The elder Pliny more than once discusses 

 the question and asserts emphatically " Iliacis tempori- 

 bus . . . nee ture supplicabatur " (N. H., 13, i, i). What- 

 ever, therefore, may have been the development in later 

 times, the Homeric altar of Aphrodite at Paphos could not 

 have been an incense-altar. It is true that it has been 

 contended that sacrifices of blood were not offered to 

 Aphrodite. But this is not sustainable. Victims were 

 offered to the Paphian Venus in the time of Horace. 



W. T. Thiselton-Dyer. 



The Electromotive Foice of Standard Cells. 



At the International Conference on Electrical Units and 

 Standards, held in London in October, 1908, it was 

 decided that the electromotive force of the Weston normal 

 cell should be taken provisionally as 10184 international 

 volts at 20° C. until further measurements, made under 

 the auspices of the International Scientific Committee on 

 Electrical Units and Standards, should enable a more 

 accurate value to be assigned. 



Measurements of a high degree of accuracy have now 

 been completed, and show that the Weston normal cell 

 made according to approved specifications has an electro- 

 motive force of 1-0183 international volts at 20° C, i.e. 

 I part in 10,000 less than the provisional value assigned 

 in 1908. 



In consequence, the International Committee has passed 

 a resolution expressing the desire that from January i, 

 and until a further recommendation, electrical standardisa- 

 tion in the standardising laboratories of all countries should 

 be based on the value of 10183 international volts for the 

 electromotive force of the Weston normal cell at 20° C. 



Accordingly, all standard cells tested at the National 

 Physical Laboratory will be compared \yith Weston normal 

 cells of which the electromotive forces have been deter- 

 mined by direct measurement to be 10183 international 

 volts at 20° C. These latter cells, together with new 

 ones, will from time to time be remeasured in terms of the 

 international ohm and the international ampere in order to 

 ensure a constant standard of voltage. 



It was assumed in the National Physical Laboratory 

 certificates for 1909 and 19 10 that the electromotive force' 

 of the Weston normal cell was 1-0184 international volts 

 at 20" C, and therefore these certificates may be corrected 

 for the change now introduced by subtracting i part in 

 10,000 of the value stated on the certificate. 



R. T. Glazebrook (Director). 



The National Physical Laboratory, January i. 



Klaatsch's Theory of the Descent of Man. 



TitERE appeared in Nature of December 15, 1910, 

 p. 206, a letter from Prof. Keith on Klaatsch's theory of 

 the descent of man. As this letter is likely to give great 

 discredit to the work of Klaatsch, in this country at 

 least, I find myself, as a pupil of Klaatsch, justified in 

 saying a few words more about it. 



Klaatsch gives an account of his theory in a paper, 

 entitled " Die Aurignac-Rasse und ihre Stellung im 

 Stammbaum der Menschheit," in the Zeitschr. f. Ethno- 

 iogie, 19 10, Heft 3 and 4. After a short description of the 

 skeleton of the .\urignac man, described by O. Hauser and 

 himself in detail before, and after some general remarks 

 about morphological methods in comparing the fossil man 

 with anthropoid apes, Klaatsch goes on to consider in 

 some detail the comparative anatomy of the humerus, 

 ulna, and radius, and the skeleton of the hind limb of 

 Aurignac and Neanderthal man, orang-utan, and gorilla. 

 As Prof. Keith in his letter says that this basis is " flimsy 

 in the extreme," we may very well examine it again. In 

 the skull, the resemblance between Neanderthal man and 

 gorilla (called the N.-G. group), on one hand, and the 

 Aurignac man and orang (called the A.-O. group) on the 

 other, is hardly visible at all, only in the supraorbital ridges 

 there are still some traces of it. ' But the resemblances are 



NO. 2155, VOL. 85] 



very well marked in the skeleton of the limbs, especially of 

 the arms. A superficial glance will show that the bones 

 of A.-O. are slender, whilst those of the N.-G. ?re 

 " clumsy." But this is no basis for exact scientific v 

 search ; the important point is that there are differeiu 

 in morphological details. The caput humeri, which artit t. 

 lates with the scapula, has a greater longitudinal diamet< r 

 in A.-O. and a greater transversal diameter in N.-(>. 

 There is a sulcus intertubercularis between two ridg» s 

 for the insertion of muscles. This runs straight down 

 in A.-O., whilst it is somewhat 8-shaped in N.-G. At 

 the distal end, N.-G. shows a much greater mesial epicon- 

 dyle, so that there results a sort of incision (incisura 

 supracondyloidea, Kl.). In -A.-O. the contour of the bone 

 is much straighter ; there is no sharp corner at all. 



Very interesting differences are found at the proximal 

 end of the ulna, but as this especially is a point where 

 very detailed descriptions and technical terms are necessary* 

 I shall pass at once to the radius. The shaft of that bone 

 — the same holds good in both groups for the ulna — is 

 almost straight in A.-O., but is distinctly bent in N.-G.* 

 so that the proximal and distal parts stand to each other 

 in a well-marked angle. In the lower limbs the differ- 

 ences are not so well marked, although there, too, they 

 exist. Differences are observed in the position of the 

 trochanter major and minor, in the formation of the 

 posterior intertrochanteric lines, in the angle between the 

 collum (neck) and the shaft of the femur, in the shape of 

 the malleolus and of the caput of the tibia, and so on. But 

 they are not so striking as in the upper limb. This is 

 quite clear, because the hind-limbs in man are highly 

 specialised for the purpose of supporting the body, so that 

 the influence of function is here much stronger than it is- 

 in the arms, which are free, and not always submitted 

 to the same mechanical influences. So the differences are 

 more hidden. But they can be seen by everyone whO' 

 takes the care of studying the bones thoroughly. 



I hope that even this short glance at the facts will have 

 shown to the reader that there are two distinct groups of 

 fossil man, the Aurignac man and the Neanderthal man, 

 the Aurignac man resembling in many points the orang, 

 the Neanderthal man resembling the gorilla. 



In the first part of his paper Klaatsch only gives these 

 " rather dry morphological facts." In the second part 

 he proceeds to offer an explanation of these facts. As 

 there is a close resemblance in morphological details 

 of the Neanderthal race and the gorilla, and of the 

 .'Vurignac race and the orang, he thinks that there must be 

 a real blood-relation between the respective races. Klaatsch's 

 idea, then, as to the descent of man is this. There was, 

 originally, one group of primates, " propithecanthropoi," 

 which, according to Klaatsch, resembled man more closely 

 than any other now living primate. These gave origin, 

 among others, to one group, out of which sprang the 

 Neanderthal race and the gorilla. The Neanderthal man 

 followed an upwards line in his development, the gorilla 

 sank back, having become specialised in one direction, and 

 by this being unfit for higher development. Klaatsch r*'- 

 gards the gorilla and the other man-like apes as " failf 'f 

 experiments of man " (misslungene Versuche zur defir 

 tiven Menschwerdung). 



In much the same way there sprang up another grou: 

 which developed into the Aurignac race and into v 

 orang. So " the Aurignac man did not spring up fro: 

 the Orang, just as the Neanderthal man did not sprir^ 

 up from the Gorilla " (p. 568, loc. cit.). How these tv 

 races of mankind reached Europe, Klaatsch tries to shov 

 in a sort of scheme, which has been published in Natlri 

 already (November 24, 1910). The Neanderthal race cam' 

 via Africa and Gibraltar, whilst the Aurignac race cam 

 via Asia. 



Further on, Klaatsch thinks it possible that there n; 

 races who are related in the same way to the chimpanz 

 and to the gibbon. Other suggestions Prof. Klaatsi 

 makes about the existing races and the other prehistor 

 races. According to him, the Galley Hill and " Briinn I 

 skull belong almost certainly to the Aurignac race. ver\ 

 likely also Chancelade and Engis ! As to the existin- 

 races, Klaatsch thinks to have found a relation of negro< 

 to the Neanderthal race. Otherwise his suggestions at 

 very hypothetical, and only meant as a working hyp' 

 thesis, so that it is no good now to consider them closel; 



