August 9, 1888] 



NA TURE 



357 



Revue (T Anthropologie, troisieme serie, tome iii. troisieme fasc. 

 (Paris, 1888). — Report on the excavations made in the bed of the 

 Liane in 1887 in laying the foundations for a viaduct, by Dr. 

 E. T. Hamy. The mouth of this river, which is now filled with 

 alluvial deposits, was in earlier times a vast estuary opening into 

 the Channel ; and in the recently completed excavations there has 

 been found a mingled mass of animal bones, with metal and 

 pottery fragments, belonging to all historic ages, from Roman 

 times to our own, while the deep underlying strata recall, in their 

 general character and appearance, Quaternary formations. 

 Besides these remains, several pieces of a human skeleton have 

 been found, including the cranium, which is considered by M. 

 Hamy and other anatomists as belonging, in regard to its essential 

 characteristics, to the oldest Quaternary cranial type. A slight 

 degree of prognathism is the only feature of inferiority which it 

 presents, and it in no way resembles the Negro or Negroid form. 

 The remarkable elongation of all the bony parts in a vertical 

 direction may be regarded as the special peculiarity of this skull, 

 of which M. Hamy gives numerous measurements, based on the 

 system adopted in the Crania Ethnica. — Continuation of an 

 essay on the stratigraphic palaeontology of man, by M. Marcellin 

 1 Joule. The larger portion of this paper treats of the actual 

 condition of palaeontological research in England, and describes 

 at length the numerous directions in which light has been thrown 

 by recent British geologists on the effect of glacial action in 

 determining the character and forms of the predominant geo- 

 logical features of the British Isles. The writer gives unqualified 

 praise to the labours of Ramsay, Geikie, and others, lamenting, 

 however, that in regard to numerous important points the views 

 of the leading English palaeontologists pre.-.ent great divergencies. 

 In the second part of his essay M. Boule passes in review the 

 results obtained by recent investigations of the traces existing in 

 the Alps of recurring and intermittent glacial periods. In this 

 inquiry he has made special use of Herr Penck's great work, 

 "Mensch und Eiszeit " (1884), in which the strongest evidence 

 is brought forward in proof of more than one advance and 

 retrogression of glaciers in the valley of the Iller, and at other 

 points of the Alpine range. These views have been confirmed 

 by M. Blaas, and quite recently (1887) by M. Baltzer, and with 

 few exceptions they have been generally adopted by Continental 

 geologists ; M. Falsan, Prof. Favre, of Geneva, and one or two 

 others alone refusing to renounce the theory of one sole glacial 

 period, while, however, they admit the possibility of the oldest 

 glaciers having experienced more or less prolonged phases of 

 advance and retreat. — The latest stages of the genealogy of man, 

 by M. Topinard. This paper embodies the concluding and most 

 important of the lectures delivered by the Professor at the Paris 

 School of Anthropology. Beginning with the Lemuridse, he 

 treats of the grounds on which this animal family has been 

 included by some, as Cuvier, under the Quadrumana, while 

 Linnaeus, Huxley, Broca, &c, class them with the Primates. To 

 the latter view M. Topinard adheres, while he agrees generally 

 with Prof. Huxley in including three groups under the Primates, 

 viz. man, the Simians, and the Lemurians, the second group 

 being separated into numerous divisions and subdivisions. M. 

 Topinard's paper is interesting as a full and unbiassed exposition 

 of the various hypotheses advanced by the leaders of modern 

 biological inquiry as to the descent of man. While he freely 

 expresses his personal aversion to the views of Vogt, which 

 evidently point to the Ungulata as supplying the point of de- 

 parture from which the primary source of man's descent emanated, 

 he does ample justice to the great value of his labours, and 

 acknowledges the benefit which he has derived from following 

 the paths of inquiry inaugurated by the daring German physicist. 

 Having minutely described the various anatomical characteristics 

 which are common to man and to different mammalian families, 

 he gives his reasons for believing that our descent is derived 

 from the Simiadse through a long series of intermediate forms of 

 more or less strongly-marked anthropomorphic character, dating 

 back to the Miocene age, when a divergence from the common 

 type may have appeared, which, widening in the course of count- 

 less ages, has resulted in developing in man the perfect brain, and 

 the maximum of differentiation in the extremities which give him 

 his place in Nature. — On palaeontology in Austria-Hungary, by 

 M. M. Homes. The study of the prehistoric remains of their 

 country is of recent date among Austrians, since the Anthropo- 

 logical Society of Vienna, the only one as yet incorporated by 

 them, owes its origin to Rokitansky, and was only founded in 

 1870. Since that period, however, highly important results have 

 bee.i obtained from carefully conducted explorations in Carinthia 

 rnd Carniola, where the discovery of vast burying-grounds and 



lacustrine stations has thrown much light on the condition and 

 degree of civilization of primaeval man in South-Eastern 

 Germany. In Lower Austria almost all isolated hills and 

 mountains present evidence of Neolithic occupation, many of 

 them still retaining megalithic remains. Dr. Hornes's article 

 is especially interesting as showing what extensive, still almost 

 -untrodden tracts are being opened to palaeontologists in different 

 parts of the Slavonian and Czeck provinces of Austria ; while his 

 summary of the results already achieved, and his remarks on the 

 ethnographic character of the primitive peoples by whom these 

 regions were occupied in prehistoric times, throw consider- 

 able light on a hitherto obscure department of European 

 palaeontology. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, June 7. — "Note on some of the Motor 

 Functions of certain Cranial Nerves (V, VII, IX, X, XI, XII), 

 and of the three first Cervical Nerves, in the Monkey (A/acacus 

 sinicus)." By Charles E. Beevor, M.D., F.R.C.P., and Victor 

 Horsley, B. S., F. R.S. (From the Laboratory of the Brown 

 Institution.) 



In the course of an investigation which we are making into the 

 cortical representation of the muscles of the mouth and throat, 

 we have experienced considerable difficulty in describing 

 correctly the movements of these parts, especially when there 

 was any question of bilateral action occurring. 



On referring to text-books we failed to find any solution of 

 this difficulty, and we therefore determined to make a few 

 observations of the movements evoked by stimulating the several 

 cranial nerves supplying this region in the monkey, 1 so as to have 

 a definite basis whereon to ground our observations of the 

 movements obtained by stimulating the cortex. 



In the course of this work we have observed several facts 

 which do not harmonize with the views hitherto generally 

 received. 



The results are summarized as follows : — 



Method of Investigation. 



The conclusions we have arrived at are based almost 

 entirely upon the results obtained by exciting the respective 

 nerves at the base of the cranial cavity after separating them 

 from the bulb. 



We have also stimulated the nerves outside the skull in the 

 neck both before and after division. - 



In every case the animal was narcotized with ether. In all we 

 have done eight experiments, and in every case we have 

 operated on the same kind of monkey, i.e. Macacus sinicus. 



The nerves were in each case raised up from their position and 

 stimulated in the air by a faradic current through fine platinum 

 electrodes, the area of the operation having been gently dried. 



The current employed was from the secondary coil of an 

 ordinary du Bois-Reymond inductorium, supplied by a 1 litre 

 bichromate cell. The experiment was carefully begun with the 

 secondary coil at a distance of 30 cm. from the primary, this 

 interval being very rarely diminished to more than 15 cm. (zero 

 being of course the point where the secondary coil completely 

 overlaps the primary). 



Further Observations respecting the Examination of each Nerve. 

 A. Cranial Division. 



Vlh Nerve. — Excitation of the motor root of the trigeminus 

 evoked powerful closure of the jaws, and although the muscles 

 of one side only were in action, the teeth were approximated 

 without any lateral deviation of the lower jaw. 



Vllth Nerve. — The motor distribution of the facial nerve has 

 for the most part been well known for some time. However, we 

 consider that, unfortunately, a very fundamental error respecting 

 this distribution has crept into the text-books, it being supported 

 by one anatomical authority following another, and, moreover, 

 having been accepted by clinicians as an important aid in the 

 differential diagnosis of facial paralysis. We refer to the supposed 

 supply of motor fibres from the facial to the levator palati 

 through the superficial petrosal nerve. 



This idea, 2 upon which so much stress has been laid, is 



1 Previcus observers having employed animals of lower orders. 



2 Without definitely supporting this view, Gaskell (Roy. Soc. Proc, 

 vol. xliii. p. 390) shows that some large '' somatic" nerve-fibres leave the facial 

 nerve between its origin from the bulb and its exit from the stylo- 

 mastoid foramen. He suggests that some of them may possibly form a 

 nerve to supply the levator palati, but he leaves their real destination 

 undetermined. 



