Nov. 28, 1878] 



NATURE 



91 



She advocated the use of a phenol preparation for the destruc- 

 tion of this pest. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse read a paper contain- 

 ing descriptions of new Telephoridce from Central and South 

 America. — Sir Sydney Saunders communicated a paper on the 

 habits and affinities of Sycophaga and Apocrypta from the syca- 

 more figs of Egypt. — Mr. Distant commvmicated descriptions of 

 new species of Hemiptera-Homoptera. 



Geological Society, November 6. — Henry Clifton Sorby, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Arthiu: Goodger, Kev. Walter 

 Howchin, Lieut. -Col. C. A. McMahon, Oswald Milton Prouse, 

 and M. G. Stuart, were elected Fellows of the Society. — The 

 following communications were read : — On the range of the 

 mammoth in space and time, by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, 

 F.R.S. The author expressed his opinion that the result of the 

 evidence collected since the death of Dr. Falconer has been to 

 establish the view of that palaeontologist as to the mammoth 

 having appeared in Britain before the glacial epoch. The evi- 

 dence as to the occurrence of the mammoth in the south of 

 England was first examined. The remains found beneath the 

 bed of erratics near Pagham belonged, not to Elephas primi- 

 genius, but to E. antiquus. But in 1858 remains belonging to 

 the former were found by Prof. Prestwich under boulder-clay in 

 Hertfordshire. In Scotland remains of E. primigenius have 

 been found under boulder-clay, but whether under the oldest 

 boulder-clay is uncertain. In 187S a portion of a molar was 

 brought up from a depth of sixty-five feet near Northwich. It was 

 in a sand beneath boulder-clay, which the author considered to 

 be undoubtedly the older botdder-clay. The author now assents 

 to Dr. Falconer's opinion (which he formerly doubted) that 

 E. primigenius was a member of the Cromer forest-bed fauna. 

 It is also clear that it was living in the southern and central 

 parts of England in post-glacial times. It has not been found 

 north of Yorkshire on the east and Holyhead on the west, pro- 

 bably because Scotland and north-west England were long occu- 

 pied by glaciers. Its remains have been found on the continent 

 as far south as Naples and as far north as Hamburg, but not in 

 Scandinavia. Its remains, as is well known, abound in Siberia, 

 and it ranged over North America from Eschscholtz Bay to the 

 Isthmus of Darien, E. columbi, E. americanus, and E. yacksoni 

 being only varieties. The author then discussed the rela- 

 tions of E. primigenius to E. columbi, E. armeniacus, and 

 E. indicus, and came to the conclusion that it is the ancestor of 

 the last. — The mammoth in Siberia, by H. H. Howorth, F.S. A. 

 Communicated by J. Evans, LL.D., F.R.S. The author dis- 

 cussed the theories which account for their presence : — I. That 

 the animals lived much further south, and were carried down by 

 rivers to where they now lie ; 2. That they lived on the spot. As there 

 are physical difficulties in the way of the transport theory, as the 

 mammoth was covered with dense hair and fed on plants grow- 

 ing on the spot, and as the remains are not confined to the 

 vicinity of rivers, it is probable that the second view is the cor- 

 rect one. It seems probable that the climate of Siberia has become 

 more severe. The author considered the cause of the mammoth's 

 extinction. This he held to have been sudden. The remains 

 must have been preser\-ed after death. He therefore maintains 

 that they were destroyed by a flood due to some sudden convulsion 

 %vhich also changed the climate. — On the association of 

 dwarf crocodiles Nannosuchus and Theriosuchus pusillus, 

 £.g.) with the diminutive mammals of the Purbeck series, 

 by Prof. R. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. The author noticed 

 an objection which had been raised to his view of the 

 origin of the differences between the mesozoic and neozoic 

 crocodiles by the adaptation of the latter to the destruction by 

 drowning of large mammalia (Q. J. G. S., xxxiv. p. 422), 

 namely, that mammals were coexistent with the mesozoic forms, 

 and remarked that from their small size they would hardly con- 

 stitute a suitable prey for the crocodiles to which he then 

 specially referred, but would be more likely to perform the same 

 part as the ichneumons of the present day, which check the 

 increase of crocodiles by destroying their eggs and newly- 

 hatched young. He stated, however, that in waste slabs of 

 "feather-bed " marl which accompanied the Becklesian Purbeck 

 Collection to the British Museum, the remains of small croco- 

 •diles were detected in considerable abundance ; and he gave a 

 d^cription of these, and especially of one which he named 

 T^ayjsuckus pusillus. This reptile, which is estimated to have 

 -be«i about eighteen inches long, had scutes presenting the " peg 

 and groove" character of those of Goniopholis, with which 

 "*f°n^ *£ further agreed by having the antorbital part of the 

 skull of the broad-faced alligator type. In the dentition it 



resembled the triassic theriodonts more than any other croco- 

 diles. The vertebrae are amphiplatyan. In conclusion, the 

 author indicated the conditions which have to be fulfilled in the 

 case of recent crocodiles to enable them to drown a large mam- 

 mal without inconvenience to themselves, and showed that these 

 conditions were realised also in the neozoic forms, whilst there 

 was no reason to suppose that any mesozoic crocodiles possessed 

 the adaptations in question. 



Anthropological Institute, November 12.— Mr. John 

 Evans, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The 

 following new Members were announced : — Mr. M. J. Gabriel, 

 and Mr. George H. Radford. — Mr. Robert Cust read a report 

 on anthropological proceedings at the Oriental Congress, in 

 which he gave a digest of all the papers and discussions at that 

 Congress which appertained to the science of anthropology. — 

 Mr. Park Harrison read a paper on some characters which are 

 still in use as tattoo-marks by the Motu, a people located in the 

 South-Eastem Peninsula of New Guinea, and described by the 

 Rev. Dr. Turner as a superior race to the Papuans, from whom 

 they differ both in colour and customs. About half of the more 

 distinctive forms tattooed on a Motu girl, carefully copied by 

 Dr. Turner, correspond with letters in the Asoka inscriptions in 

 India, which are believed to be allied to Phoenician, whilst 

 several others resemble letters admittedly derived from the same 

 stock, but independently acquired. The marks are mostly 

 arranged in groups of three ; on the right arm, however, nine or 

 ten ar« apparently connected by a line running above them all. 

 The characters are twenty-three in number, and are formed of 

 straight lines in the following combinations ; viz., five of 2 lines, 

 nine of 3 lines, five of 4 lines, and three of 5 lines, much in the 

 same proportion as in the Rejang and Lampong alphabets of 

 Sumatra, the letters of the former of which have been shown to 

 be identical with Phcenician characters reversed. Archaic forms 

 of letters have also been met with in several islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago and Melanesia, but are now without 

 meaning. The Motu characters are used simply for ornament 

 or as charms. As an example of the use of letters for tattoo- 

 marks, the case of the Austrian subject was cited, who, having 

 been taken prisoners in Biunnah, a few years ago, was there 

 tattooed with letters and other patterns. Besides the characters 

 on the Motu girl, there were various pictures, or hieroglyphics, 

 consisting of eyes and eyebrows, a lunar crescent, and other 

 forms. 



Meteorological Society, November 20. — Mr. C. Greaves, 

 F.G.S., president, in the diair. — Rev. T. L. Almond, Rev. T. 

 C. Beasley, F. T. Bircham, H. F. Blanford, G. Chatterton, E. 

 Easton, W. L. Fox, G. F. Lyster, Lieut. -Col. VV. Stuart, R. 

 Tennent, and H. Yool were elected Fellows of the Society. — 

 The foli'jw ing papers were read : — Report on the phenological 

 observations for 1878, by the Rev. T. A. Preston, M.A. — Up- 

 bank thaws, by the Rev, Fenwick W. Stow, M.A. — Comparison 

 of thermometric observations made on board ship, by Capt. H. 

 Toynbee, F.R.A.S. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, November 11. — M. Fizeau in 

 the chair. — M. Loewy presented a memoir by M. Stephan 

 and himself, on determination of the two differences of 

 longitude, Paris-Marseilles and Algiers-Marseilles. He re- 

 marked, on the difference of velocity in transmi-^sion of signals 

 through air and under water, that this velocity was found 

 about 36,000 kilom. per second in the former case and 4,000 

 kilom. in the latter, numbers agreeing closely with those 

 got lately by Dr. Albrecht, in Prussia, from shorter lines. — On 

 the vision of coloiu-s, &c., second extract from work by M. 

 ChevTeul. — On the dilatation of heated bodies and the pressures 

 they exercise, by M. de Saint Venant. — On the energy of a body 

 and its specific heat, by M. Clausius. — Report on a memoir of 

 M. Popoff", entitled, "New Researches relative to Expres- 

 sion of the Conditions of Motion of Water in Sewers." This 

 shows the necessity of new formulae, involving either change of 

 known mmierical coefficients or consideration of the movement 

 as being generally varied. Several problems are enunciated as 

 needing solution. — On measm-ement of the magnifying power in 

 optical instnmients, by M. Govi. It is inexact to say such and 

 such a lens or microscope magnifies a cenaiu number of times 

 the image of objects, while it is not added at what distance 

 the image must be for this magnification to take place. The 

 distance of distinct vision is variable. — On the possibility of 

 obtaining, with protoxide of nitrogen, an insensibility of long 

 diuration, and on the harmlessness of this anaesthetic, by M. 



