Dec. 14, 1876] 



NATURE 



149 



the spread of the diseases by means of infected bedding, clothing, 

 &c. This shows, I think, quite clearly, that it is necessary that 

 in some way or another I should be supplied with the mortality 

 returns, and especially with details of the deaths from infectious 

 diseases. As regards the cases which do not prove fatal, there 

 is at present no official way of obtaining information about them." 

 Dr. Corfield has stated so clearly the ill effects of the present 

 arrangement as to show that there is evidently urgent need for an 

 alteration. 



At the Hamburg meeting of the German Naturalists, Pror. 

 Virchow gave an address on the present position ot anthropology. 

 In introducing his subject he pointed out that anthropology, 

 although one of the youngest of the sciences, already occupies as 

 advanced a position as many of the older branches of study ; and 

 also that the races possessed of least ability are also those lowest in 

 the scale of culture. To judge of the capacity for culture from the. 

 signs of it which exist is only admissible in the case of people who 

 are surrounded by great intellectual activity, but not in the case of 

 entirely isolated people. Thus the Australian Papuas by no 

 means stand so low as has hitherto been believed. On this fact 

 Virchow founds an important doctrine, which opposes the idea 

 that such people must necessarily fade away when they come into 

 contact with civilisation. Virchow thinks that the extinction of 

 such races is rather to be ascribed to the barbarousness of Euro- 

 peans and to the incapacity of the latter to educate the former. 

 There is yet no evidence that uncivilised races must become 

 extinct, which indeed is contradicted by the history of Euro- 

 peans themselves. If the civilised people of the present day 

 be considered as the product of a higher development, we 

 cannot regard the possibility of such a development as a cause 

 of the extinction of such people as are now on the same plat- 

 form of culture which we ourselves once occupied. In relation to 

 this Virchow spoke o'' the value of a systematic observation, of 

 collections of skulls weapons, clothing, also of evidences of intel- 

 lectual activity, religious ideas, language, &c. , and urged the 

 important services that might be rendered in this respect by 

 captains both in the navy and in the merchant service. No time 

 is to- be lost ; every day is of value, since many of the lower 

 races are rapidly becoming extinct. Virchow showed the utility 

 of such observations by reference to the German peoples, of 

 whose anthropology we as yet know almost nothing. Osteo- 

 logical remains, to be of any scientific value, should be seen in 

 the place where they are found. Virchow spoke of the value 

 of the statistics recently taken as to the colour of the hair, eyes, 

 and skin of German children, to which we have already referred. 



The Siberian explorers, Brehm and Finsch, have arrived at 

 St. Petersburg, after a most successful journey. 



The following extracts of a letter from Dr. Miklucho 

 Maclay, dated July 3, Maclay Coast (New Guinea), appear in 

 the Golos, November 28: — "I landed on June 28; the 

 natives received me in a very friendly way, and were not at all 

 astonished to see me amongst them again ; they said they had 

 been long awaiting my arrival, as I had said when leaving 

 them I would soon return. Since the departure of the Isumrud 

 in December, 1872, no ship had visited the shore. Three or 

 four months after that time there was an earthquake on the 

 island, which destroyed many villages in the highlands. Talking 

 with my old acquaintances, I was astonished to hear how many 

 Russian words they had retained since my first stay ; they pro- 

 nounce the words perfectly, and have introduced them in com- 

 mon use. Hundreds of natives from the neighbouring settle- 

 ments helped in building me a house. I have brought for the 

 Papuas various seeds of useful plants and of fruit-trees, and I 

 hope they will grow as well as the Indian corn I left here in 

 1872. I expect soon to make some excursions in the highlands." 

 The captain_of the Sea Bird, who transmitted this letter, adds 



that Dr. Maclay was perfectly well on board the ship during the 

 cruise and on his landing. 



The Omsk correspondent of the Irkutsk newspaper Siberia, 

 writes under date September 27, that M. Potanin's expedition 

 in Mongolia (Nature, vol. xiv., p. 534) has been stopped by 

 the Chinese authorities at Toolty, a short way beyond the 

 Chinese frontier. Arriving at Toolty, the members of the ex- 

 pedition expressed their wish to make a visit to the Governor ot 

 the place. Being told that he resided in a convent some miles 

 from the town, they proceeded thither, but on their arrival they 

 were informed that the Governor was not at home, and that tlie 

 visit must be made next morning. On going next morning to the 

 convent they were met at the doors by a hostile crowd, which 

 soon began to throw stones at them, seriously injuring two per- 

 sons. The authorities then appeared and took the members ot 

 the expedition into custody, but released them next day, an- 

 nouncing that they could not answer /or their safety if they 

 insisted on proceeding further. 



Some very important geological discoveries have been made 

 by Prof. Hartt and his assistants in Brazil. Working over again 

 the region explored by Prof. Theodore B. Comstock in 1 870; 

 and by Messrs. Hartt and Derby in 1871, they have extended 

 the Devonian down 1,000 feet below the beds discovered by 

 Messrs. Smith and Comstock. The lower beds are Oriskany, 

 with the characteristic North American fossils, as well as some 

 others (seventy-five species in all) which have undoubted 

 Devonian afifinities. Carboniferous beds were also discovered to 

 the northward, making a complete section from the base of the 

 Devonian to recent beds in the lower Amazonian Valley, 



Prof. Tyndall has accepted the ^office^ of President of the 

 Midland Institute for 1877. 



The professors of the new School of Anthropology established 

 in Paris under the patronage of the Faculty of Medicine and the 

 Municipal Council, intend to organise excursions. The first 

 of these was made last Sunday to the St. Germains Museum of 

 National Antiquities, of which M. Mortillet is the sub-director. 

 He explained to a large number of visitors the arrangement of 

 the collections and the scientific value attached to the several 

 curiosities which are exhibited. 



M. Leverrirr has organised meteorological warnings for St. 

 Cloud, Clichy, Boulogne, and Levallais Perret, and will gra- 

 dually extend them to the suburban districts. He will give a 

 lecture at Boulogne to the several delegates of Communes for the 

 purpose of teaching them the use of the meteorological maps 

 published daily^by the Observatory. 



On the l6th ot next month, at the scientific meeting of the 

 Zoological Society, we are informed that Captain Feilden, Natu- 

 ralist to the Arctic Expedition, will exhibit the birds obtained by 

 him in the regions he has so recently traversed. 



At the last meeting of the French Geographical Society, it 

 was intimated that M. Jules Trebeau had been sent to explore 

 French Guiana, which although a part of the territory of a 

 civilised nation is almost untrodden by explorers. M. Trebeau 

 will proceed by the river Maroni, up to its source, with a party 

 of three French and ten negroes, and will return by the Oyapok 

 or Amazon, according to circumstances. 



" Niphon and its Antiquities " is the title of a pamphlet by 

 Mr. W. C. Borlase, in which irom personal investigation during 

 a stay of some weeks in Japan, and the study of the best works 

 on the subject, the author^gives an interesting summary ot what 

 is known of the ethnology, mythology, and religions ot the 

 Japanese. The pamphlet is published by Brendon and Son, 

 Plymouth. 



