April 7, 192 1] 



NATURE 



187 



skulls diflfered markedly from those of the Long 

 Barrow men. On the other hand, in every respect 

 these London skulls corresponded more closely with 

 those of Anglo-Saxons than with those of Long 

 Barrow men. Occasionally a Londoner might repro- 

 duce the Long Barrow type, as in the case of the 

 notorious thief Jonathan Wild, but these cases were 

 so rare as not to affect the average contour. 



Further, the Londoner of to-day had changed his 

 head shape from that of the seventeenth-century 

 Londoner, but it was in the direction of the short- 

 headed mid-European race, and farther away still 

 from the Mediterranean type, of which the Long 

 Barrow men were such good examples. 



When the average contours of the modern London 

 skulls were superimposed upon those of the Long 

 Barrow men, it was at once evident that there were 

 two sets of differences, which Prof. Parsons provi- 

 sionally described as "masticatory" and "respira- 

 tory." The former consisted of increased length of 

 skull in front of the auditory meatus, of a tilting 

 forward of the malar bone and outer margin of the 

 orbit, of a greater splay of the zygomatic arch, of an 

 increased width of the ramus of the jaw, and of a 

 flattening of the side of the head. All these changes 

 were just as evident in an average contour of Eskimo 

 skulls as in that of Long Barrow men, and they were 

 all explicable by assuming an increased development 

 of the great masticatory muscles. 



The second set of changes between the Long Barrow 

 and London skulls was the deep face and deep orbital 

 openings of the latter, as in all Nordic skulls. The 

 face of the English child at birth closely agrees with 

 that of the Long Barrow man, and at three and five 

 months the orbits and nose have markedly increased 

 in d'^pth from above downward. This is to be attributed 

 to the narrowing and deepening of the nose to adapt 

 the individual to a cold climate, ensuring that the air 

 shall be more perfectly warmed bv contact with the 

 turbinated bones which act as radiators. As the 

 nasion moves up the tops of the orbits have to keep 

 pace with it, and so the characteristic depth of the 

 Nordic orbits is accounted for. 



It is interesting to note that though the Eskimo 

 agree with the Long Barrow folk in the first set of 

 ma«;ticatorv characteristics, thev differ from them 

 and agree with the Nordic people in the second set 

 of respiratory changes. 



T 



Pendulum Operations in India and Burma.^ 



HE paper referred to below, recently published by 

 the Survey of India, is an opportune contribu- 

 tion to geodetic knowledge. It gives the results of 

 pendulum observations at io8 stations distributed over 

 mountains, plateaux, plains, and coasts. Col. (now Sir) 

 G. P. Lenox Conyngham, Major Cowie, and Capt. 

 Couchman were the observers. The work extended 

 over six years, 1908-13, and it is evident that un- 

 remitting care was bestowed upon it throughout. 



This is the first attempt made outside the United 

 States of America to apply to pendulum observations 

 the correction for isostasy, first introduced by Mr. 

 Hayford in 1909 when he was reducing the pendulum 

 observations of America. The deduction of the cor- 

 rection for isostasy for any particular pendulum 

 station involves considerable labour; the whole earth 

 has to be divided into circular concentric zones, with 

 the station as their centre ; • the mean heights of the 

 several zones, above or below sea-level, have then to 

 be determined from maps. This course has to be 

 pursued de novo for each successive station. The 



1 Survey of India. Professional Paper No. 15 : "The Pendulum Opera- 

 tions in India and Burma." By Capt. Couchman. (1915.) 



NO. 2684, VOL. 107] 



application of Hayford's system to the pendulum 

 stations of India is thus a most interesting feature 

 of Capt. Couchman 's work, and students of modern 

 geodesy will find his explanations helpful and clear. 

 The final results obtained by Couchman furnish 

 strong evidence in support of Hayford's contention 

 that isostatic compensation is complete at a depth of 

 about 113 km. 



Geodesy is a science demanding world-wide co- 

 operation ; the results obtained in one continent 

 require to be tested in others. The theory of isostasy 

 initiated in America has now been shown by Capt. 

 Couchman to explain anomalies in Asia. But this is 

 not sufficient ; geodetic results and theories should 

 be submitted to an international association for 

 scrutiny. The old International Geodetic Association, 

 which had been endeavouring for fifty years to co- 

 ordinate the surveys of all countries, came to an end 

 in 19 14, when the war broke out. If geodesy is to 

 progress, a new international association will have 

 to be formed. 



The old association, always sympathetic and 

 anxious to help, had an uphill task ; it had to con- 

 tend with jealousies, and to accept results, whether 

 good or bad, without being able to discriminate or 

 criticise. Its authority rested largely on the personal 

 reputation of the late Prof. Helmert, whose right to 

 the f>osition of director was universally recognised, 

 and whose death during the war was lamented in 

 many countries. 



In 1914, when the old association came to an end, 

 two questions were awaiting an international decision, 

 namely, the introduction of a new spheroid of refer- 

 ence and the treatment of isostasy. Obsolete 

 spheroids of reference are still employed by various 

 surveys, and their continuance is due, not to any 

 local belief in their correctness, but to an unwilling- 

 ness to face the laborious complications of a change 

 until a new spheroid has received international 

 approval. 



The problem of isostasy is also awaiting inter- 

 national consideration. In America Hayford and 

 Bowie have worlted out a complete system of com- 

 putations, and in India Crosthwait and Couchman 

 have followed Hayford's lead.' Will the system be 

 accepted in Europe? When this question comes to 

 be considered bv the future international association 

 Capt. Couchman 's work on the pendulum operations 

 in India will be found a useful and weighty con- 

 tribution. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Notice is given by the University of London that 

 applications for grants from the Dixon Fund for 

 assisting scientific investigations mustlae made to the 

 .Academic Registrar of the University, South Kensing- 

 ton, S.W.7, before May 15 next. 



Two further lectures under the scheme for the 

 exchange of lecturers between Holland and England 

 are announced. Both will be given at the rooms of 

 the Royal Society of Medicine, i Wimpole Street; 

 the first, by Prof. W. Einthoven, of Leyden, entitled 

 "The Relation of Mechanical and Electrical Pheno- 

 mena of Muscular Contraction, with Special Refer- 

 ence to the Cardiac Muscle," will be delivered on 

 May 2 at 5 p.m. ; and the second, by Prof. Bolk, of 

 Amsterdam,- entitled "The Somatic Changes in 

 Affections of the Endocrine Glands and their Signi- 

 ficance in the Evolution of Man," on May 12 at 

 5 p.m. The lectures, which will be delivered in 



'^ In Professional Paper No. 13 (ipn) Crosthwait applied Hayford's 

 method to the observations of the plumb-line in India. 



