500 



NA TURE 



[March 27, 1890 



and personally, along with Mr. R. Buist, aided its establishment 

 under the Committee of Proprietors. 



Much that is useful for the purposes of administration may be 

 learned from Norway, especially in connection with the Society 

 for the Advancement of Norwegian Fisheries in Bergen, a place 

 so classic to marine zoologists, from the days of Michael Sars 

 to those of Fridtjof Nansen. Nowhere in Scotland can we point 

 to a series of open-air reservoirs of pure sea-water, such as at 

 Arendal, in which larval fishes can be raised to post-larval and 

 subsequent stages ; though at Stonehaven an enclosure of this kind 

 formerly existed, and was used about thirty years ago in experi- 

 menting with young salmon (smolts). Yet no place is better 

 fitted — both scientifically and economically — for such an arrange- 

 ment than St. Andrews, as has indeed been often pointed out. 

 The Norwegians are also fortunate in having the services of an 

 able and original naturalist — trained from boyhood in marine 

 zoology, besides others of European reputation. Sweden, though 

 rich in names well known wherever zoology is studied, e.g. 

 Loven, places the direction of the fisheries under the Academy 

 of Agriculture, the Governors of the provinces, and the Intendant ; 

 while the Inspector of the Sea-fisheries of Gothenburg and 

 Bohus submits a special report to the Academy. The arrange- 

 ments seem to work fairly, but it is doubtful if any feature of 

 the system would be of advantage to this country. 



No central authority for the whole of Germany yet exists, each 

 of the States having Inspectors of Fisheries. Prussia, however, 

 has the Special Commission at Kiel, the scientific work of this 

 body being very much in its own hands. It has done good ser- 

 vice in regard to the scientific aspects of the marine fisheries. 

 The encouragement held out by the Deutsche Fisherei Verein 

 to fresh-water fisheries is noteworthy and commendable. 



One of the most satisfactory arrangements is seen in the 

 Fishery Board of the Netherlands, in the composition of which 

 all interests have been consulted. Moreover, the recent ap- 

 pointment of a scientific Superintendent of the Fisheries (viz. 

 Dr. P. Hoek, an able zoologist) is important. The names of 

 Hubrecht and Hoffman, who represent scientific zoology on the 

 Board, are a sufficient guarantee that both tact and talent are at 

 the service of the State. The solid scientific work done in the 

 department by Profs. Hubrecht and Hoffman would alone give the 

 Dutch Board a reputation, and when we add the names of 

 other workers who have aided it, the position is considerably 

 enhanced. Further, the mode by which scientific questions are 

 referred to special committees — say of zoologists or physicists — 

 and their reports thereon dispassionately discussed at meetings of 

 the whole Board, obviates the possibility of the mistakes caused 

 by a commiltee having perhaps only a single head to direct it 

 in a particular inquiry. 



The Italian system is satisfactory so far as the composition of 

 the Board goes, though it seems to be a large one for efficiency, 

 and the somewhat irregular nature of the meetings would hardly 

 suit the methodical system generally followed in this country. 

 The short period of office (three years), is perhaps not of much 

 moment if re-election of the right men takes place. The fine 

 Zoological Station at Naples under Dr. Dohrn (who, however, is 

 too closely occupied to serve on the Central Committee of the 

 Fisheries), gives the Italian Government a source of independent 

 and reliable information, and of a different kind from that 

 derived from the servants of a Board. The establishment of 

 hatching stations, and the series of local committees throughout 

 the country are features worthy of note, especially if due care be 

 taken in the composition of the latter, so as to avoid the entrance 

 of those who trade, it may be, on the credulity or ignorance of 

 the fishing population. W. C. McIntosh, 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



V Anthropologie, paraissant tous les deux mois, tome i. No. i, 

 1890 (Paris). — The first number of the new French review of 

 anthropology, formed by the amalgamation of the older 

 Revue d' Anthropologie and the Revue d' Ethnogrdphie, begins 

 with an article by Dr. Topinard, one of its joint editors, on the 

 skull of Charlotte Corday, which ranked among the most interest- 

 ing of the curious contents of the anthropological section of the 

 Paris Exhibition, to which it was presented by Prince Roland 

 Bonaparte, The author explains that, in making choice of this 

 special skull, his object is not to compare its craniological 

 characteristics with the moral disposition historically attributed 

 to the individual to whom it had belonged, but simply to make 



it the text for an exposition, which might serve our own and 

 future students as a lesson for the examination and description 

 of an isolated skull after the precise methods taught by Broca, 

 and having regard to the present condition of our science. In 

 accordance with this object. Dr. Topinard, confining himself 

 almost entirely to craniometrical determinations, of which he 

 gives a most comprehensive series, together with several well- 

 drawn illustrations, only occasionally enters into the comparative 

 relations presented by this cranium to other isolated crania. 

 From this exhaustive lesson in craniometry it would appear that 

 the skull of Charlotte Corday closely accords with the typical 

 form of the female skull, established by Broca as characteristic 

 of Parisian women, deviating only from the normally perfect 

 feminine cranial type in presenting a certain flatness of the 

 frontal region, and some traces of jugular apophysis. — The Bronze 

 Age in Egypt, by M. Montelius. The author, in opposition to 

 the opinions of Lepsius and Maspero, believes that the use of 

 iron was not known in the valley of the Nile as early as bronze, 

 which was probably fabricated 6000 B.C., and that the use of the 

 former metal was not sufficiently common to justify us in speak- 

 ing of an Iron Age in Egypt before 2000 B. c. He, moreover, 

 believes that we must consider the era of Egyptian civilization as 

 belonging mainly to the Bronze Age. — A short notice of the works 

 of Alexander Brunias, by Dr. E. T. Hamy. — On the rock- 

 sepulchre of Vaphio, in the Morea, by M. S. Reinach. The ex- 

 ploration of this tumulus was undertaken last year at the cost of 

 the Archaeological Society of Athens under the direction of M. 

 Tsountas, and although the contents have not yet been fully 

 examined, there can be no doubt of their extreme importance to 

 archaeology, as it has been proved beyond question that this 

 rock-sepulchre had remained intact till the present time. It ap- 

 pears from the report of M. Tsountas that the poniards and other 

 implements, together with many of the numerous funereal objects 

 brought to light by the explorations at Vaphio, are similar to 

 the remains obtained at Mycenae. Among these finds special 

 interest attaches to two golden goblets carved in strong relief, 

 representing both clothed, and almost nude, figures, engaged in 

 the hunting and taming of wild bulls. M. Reinach proposes in 

 a future number of this journal to discuss the Vaphio tumulus 

 more fully, but in the meanwhile he appeals to English arch<Teo- 

 logists to test the accuracy of a statement published in 181 3 by 

 the German traveller Baron von Stackelberg, that the so-called 

 Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae had a few years earlier been 

 ransacked by Veli Pasha, who was said to have disposed of part 

 of its treasures to Lord North. Dr. Schliemann questions the 

 truth of this report, but M. Reinach is of opinion that it bears 

 evidence of authenticity, deserving the notice of Englishmen, and 

 he hopes, in the interests of archaeological science, that some of 

 these precious objects may yet be found in one or other of the 

 great English collections. — We may remark, in conclusion, that 

 the present review surpasses its predecessors in the excellence of 

 its printing and its illustrations, while it has the great advantage 

 of being edited by MM. Cartailhac, Hamy, and Topinard. In 

 the space allotted to the consideration of the scientific literature 

 of various countries, to which more than half the entire volume 

 is devoted, there are various notices of Russian, Hungarian, and 

 other works, not generally accessible to the ordinary reader ; but 

 we trust that in future numbers the reports of English works 

 and memoirs will not, as in the present number, be drawn ex- 

 clusively from the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society of London. 



American journal of Science, March 1890. — Sedgwick and 

 Murchison : Cambrian and Silurian, by Prof. James D. Dana. 

 The relations of these two geologists to one another, and to 

 Cambrian and Silurian geology is given. The full paper 

 appeared in Nature of March 6 (p. 421). — Notes on the Cre- 

 taceous of the British Columbian regions ; the Nanaimo group, 

 by George M. Dawson. — Celestite from Mineral County, West 

 Virginia, by George H. Williams. A large number of celestite 

 crystal-, from an extensive railroad cutting into a bluff of lower 

 Helderl3erg limestone, has been investigated. — A method for 

 the determination of iodine in haloid salts, by F. A. Gooch and 

 P. E. Browning. — On the mineral locality at Branchville, Con- 

 necticut, fifth paper, by George J. Brush and Edward S. Dana ; 

 with analyses of several manganesian phosphates, by Horace L. 

 Wells. A new member of the triphylite group — a sodium- 

 manganese phosphate, which has been called natrophilite — has 

 been found, and the rare mineral hureaulite identified in the 

 Branchville minerals. — A simple interference experiment, by 

 Albert A. Michelson. Two pieces of plane glass, silvered on 



