358 



NATURE 



\Auo7tst I, 1878 



has been cleared from the superincumbent foliage and 

 opened, revealing remains of skeletons which appear to be- 

 long to the polished stone-age. M, Lepic has discovered a 

 series of bone- caves near Soyons on the Rhone, and 

 known as La Caveine de Ndron. Here human remains 

 are found intermingled with rhinoceros, elephant, horse, 

 and reindeer bones, an immense number of flints, hatchets, 

 arrow-heads, &c. M. Lepic, in extending his explorations 

 to the plain of Soyons, above these caverns, discovered 

 unmistakable remains of human habitations, together with 

 the ordinary kind of bone, silex, and other debris. In the 

 latter, however, was found a large hatchet formed of 

 hematite, the first of the kind met with ; fragments only of 

 the stone having been hitherto obtained. In the grotto of 

 Savigny stag-horn tools have been found precisely similar 

 to those in use among the Lapps and Esquimaux for 

 smoothing down the rough seams of their skin garments. 

 At the aqueduct at Nimes a Celtic inscription in Greek 

 characters has been brought to light, this being the third 

 of the kind found in Southern Gaul. The Abbd Maillard 

 has made a careful survey, and drawn up a comprehensive 

 plan of the so-called prehistoric stations at Thorignd-en- 

 Charnie. M. de Pruni^res has laid before the society the 

 results of his examination of the dolmens of I'Aum^de 

 Lozire, in which he had found an enormous mass of 

 human bones belonging, for the most part, to a dolicho- 

 cephalic race. The great number of the cranial bones, 

 which presented perforations and cicatrised margins, 

 confirms the view that trepanning was resorted to by 

 primitive men for various pathological conditions. — M. 

 Fischer's paper on cave-conchology and his reference to 

 the identification of Isle of Wight fossils at Langerie- 

 Basse, led to an interesting discussion on the question 

 whether navigation could date as far back as the a;;e of 

 bone caverns, or whether different geographical relations 

 alone could explain the presence of shells far from their 

 centres of origin. — M. Boyer has made the skulls found 

 •in the Puy-de-D6me caves the subject of careful study, 

 and shows that a greater variety of type is to be met with 

 than is usually admitted, while M. A. Roujon has turned 

 -his attention to the general anthropology of the district, 

 •which has led him to the assumption that five distinct 

 types have succeeded one another in France. — M. Mor- 

 "tillet has presented the society with a copy of a map of 

 prehistoric France, drawn up by him for M. Elisde 

 R^clus' " G^ographie Universelle," in which he has noted 

 down all stations, caves, and dolmens discovered up to the 

 present time. — M. Piette has drawn up a report of the 

 remains in France of a Gallic civilisation, as exemplified 

 in the collections brought together in the exhibition held 

 at Rheims in 1876. One of the most important of the 

 papers included in the Bulletins under consideration is 

 M. Lagneau's exhaustive review of the ethnic distinctions 

 between Celts and Gauls, a question which necessitates a 

 -careful reference to classical authorities, and seems still 

 far removed from any satisfactory determination. — An- 

 other question similarly open to discussion, although 

 widely different in character, is considered by M. Topi- 

 ■nard, who has made the publication of his manual of 

 anthropology the occasion lor discussing the differences 

 of meaning, to be practically attached to the terms eth- 

 nology, anthropology, and ethnography. A summary of 

 such a paper would be of little use, and from the 

 minutely-detailed series of definitions which the writer 

 has thought it necessary to give, it would appear that 

 Frenchmen have been less ready than ourselves to accept 

 the more special meaning of anthropology as applied to 

 inan zoologically, and distinct from man when considered 

 in reference to characteristics of race. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Total Solar Eclipse of May 28, i9oo.--In a 

 recent note upon solar eclipses that will be total upon the 

 North American continent, reference was omitted to one 



in the last year of the present century. On May 28, 

 1900, the moon's shadow will traverse the southern part 

 of the United States territorv, entering it near New 

 Orleans and passing off in Chesapeake Bay. The 

 elements of this eclipse are as follow : — 



G.M.T. of Conjunction in R.A., May 28, 1900, at 

 2h. 56m. 22s. 



R.A 



Moon's hourly motion in R.A. 

 Sun's ,, ,, 



Moon's declination 



Sun's ,, 



Moon's hourly motion in declination . . . 

 Sun's ,, „ ,, 



Moon's horizontal parallax 



Sun's ,, „ 



Moon's true semi -diameter 



Sun's ,, .„ 



.. 64 56 48-5 

 37 16-9 

 2 32-4 

 .. 21 50 I7"i N. 

 21 27 15-3 N. 



2 38-5 N. 



o 24*2 N. 



58 26-6 



8-8 



15 55-6 



15 47'o 



The central eclipse begins in 116° 34' west of Greenwich, 

 latitude 18' o' N. ; it occurs at apparent noon in 44° 50' 

 W. and 44° 57' N., and ends in 31° 45' E. and 25° 21' N. 

 Other points upon the line of central eclipse in American 

 longitudes are : — 



Lonj. 



At New Orleans the eclipse will be total for about 

 twenty-five seconds, commencing at 7h. 29m. 23s. A.M. ; 

 local mean time with the sun at an altitude of 30°, and at 

 the point 76° 4' W. and 36° 45' N., totality will begin at 

 8h. 47m. 27s. A.M., and continue im. 39s., which is about 

 the longest duration of the total eclipse in United States 

 territory, and indeed the longest available for observa- 

 tion upon land, on this occasion. After traversing the 

 Atlantic the moon's shadow enters Portugal near Ovar, 

 where totality lasts im. 303., and passes off Spain about 

 ten miles south of Alicante. In Alicante the total phase 

 will commence at 4h. lom. lis. p.m., local mean time, 

 ending at 4h. iim, 293. At Greenwich a partial eclipse 

 is visible, magnitude o'68, at 3h. 54m. p.m. 



Cometary Notes. — Tempel's comet was detected at 

 the observatory of Arcetri, Florence, on July 19, and as 

 stated last week by Prof. Winnecke at Strasburg on the 

 following evening. From the Strasburg observation it 

 appears that the comet will arrive at perihelion Sep- 

 tember 7'i646 G.M.T. It has also been observed in this 

 country with the aid of the ephemeris, given in this 

 column. 



Of the supposed comet reported to have been dis- 

 covered by Mr. Lewis Swift on July 7, we have no further 

 intelligence. 



In a communication to the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, Mr, Tebbutt, of Windsor, New South Wales, 

 puts upon record the circumstance of his having first 

 determined the orbit of the great comet of 1 861, in addi- 

 tion to having been its first discoverer (on the night of 

 May 13). Mr. Tebbutt's name was not associated with 

 this grand object in Europe, in the same manner that 

 the great comet of 1858 had been associated with 

 the name of Donati, for the simple reason that there 

 being no telegraph from Australia in that year, the news 

 of his discovery did not reach Europe till the comet had 

 so far diminished in brightness as to be of interest only to 

 the astronomer. Otherwise a message by cable that a 

 large comet discovered by Mr. Tebbutt might be looked 

 for above the European horizon at the end of June, would 

 doubtless have led to "Tebbutt's comet "being as uni- 

 versally known as was " Donati' s comet" three years 

 I earlier. The period of revolution of Tebbutt's comet is 

 just under 400 years, while that of Donati's is little short 

 of 2,000. 



Encke's comet will just be coming into view at the 



