January 6, 192 1] 



NATURE 



60.S 



In strang^e contrast to these ancient inhabitants 

 of Java and yueensland is the ancient type of 

 South Africa represented by the Boskop man. 

 The characters ol his skull are so peculiar that 

 we must regard him as a separate and hitherto 

 unknown type. .\s to his facial characters we 

 know little ; his eyebrow ridges and forehead 

 show certain features which give grounds for the 

 belief that the face was flattened^ — much as in 

 living representatives of the Hottentot and Bush- 

 man stocks. l*"rom the fragmentary lower jaw 

 one infers that the teeth and palate were of very 

 moderate dimensions — not much larger, if any, 

 than in modern Kuropeans. The dimensions of the 

 cranial cavity, on the other hand, are enormous : 

 the length of the cranium is 205 mm. ; its width 

 I ■54 mm.; and its capacity or brain space is 

 estimated by .Mr. Haughton to be 1832 c.c— about 

 350 c.c. above the average for Englishmen. The 

 vault of the skull is thick and flat, two great parietal 

 lH)s.ses of bone rising up on each side of its median 

 suture and marking the sites of the parietal emin- 

 ences. There are also p<'culiar features in the 



: region of the mastoid process behind the ear and 

 in the zygomatic-temporal region in front of it. 

 The only fossil skull which shows any marked 

 degree of resemblance to the Boskop specimen is 

 the Olmo skull found in a Pleistocene deposit 

 in the north of Italy in iHd^. It, to<j, is a very 

 wide and long skull, with flat roof and projecting 

 upper forehead, but showing none of the peculiar 

 features of the Boskop skull. Mr. Haughton has 

 rightly recognised that certain traits which are 

 found in the Hottentot and Bushman skulls, as 

 well as in the Boskop cranium, can best be ex- 

 plained by supposing the Boskop man to 

 stand in the Pleistocene ancestry of those puzzling 

 .Mongolian negroids of .South Africa- the Hotten- 

 tots and Bushmen. I-'urther, on the strength of 

 the evidence referred to in the foregoing, 

 we find, at a remote period in South .•\frica 

 I and in .Australia, primitive representatives of 

 { the native races now occupying these coun- 

 tries ; differentiation from the primitive to 

 the modern type seems to have taken pl;i<-c 

 /I/ s\\u in each I'ase. 



Obit 



1 111. death occurred on Thursday, December 23, 

 of Mk. Fkank Pii.i.iNOEK, C.B., Chief Inspector of 

 the Technological Branch of the Board of Educa- 

 tion. .Mr. Pullinger, who was born in iS<)t), was 

 educated at Manchester (irammar Sch(;ol, Owens 

 College, -Manchester, and Corpus Christi College, 

 Oxford. He tiK)k a l-'irst Class in the l-inal 

 Honours School of Natural Science in 1887, and 

 in 1889 was elected Burdett Coutts scholar of the 

 L'niversity. .\fter spending a year in research 

 work at Oxford and another year as a L'niversity 

 extension lecturer, he was in i8<ji appointed 

 .Secretary for Education to the Devonshire County 

 Council. This post he relinquished in 1894 in 

 order to take up an appointment as an Inspector 

 of Schools under the Science and Art Department, 

 in 1900 Mr. Pullinger was appointed Divisional 

 \ Inspector and in 1908 Chief Inspector of the 

 ■! Technological Branch of the Board of Education, 

 t into which the Science and .Art Department had 

 ! been merged. He was a man of great force of 

 ; character and possessed a very intimate know- 

 ledge of the needs of technical education. The 

 years during which he was Chief Inspector wit- 

 nessed a rapid growth in the responsibilities of 

 the Board towards technical education, and Mr. 

 Pullinger 's wide experience and clo.sc association 

 with technical problems were in con.sequencc of 

 \ery great value. In particular it may fjc said 

 that he organised an inspectorate containing in 

 Its ranks men of expert knowledge in engineering, 

 building, chemical, and other industries, and 

 transformed the whole process of inspection. His 

 dc;ith at a comparatively early age is greatly rc- 

 1,'retlcd by all who have the futuri' ><'. tithnical 

 i"(lii(;iti<in ;il hc:irl 



i 111: cU.il!. ,^ .iiiiiuuiu'e<) on Cliristni.i> D.iv 

 of the Rhv. Henkv Hovtk Wixwoon. of Bafh, 



MO. 2(^~ I . vm . 106"! 



uary. 



at the age of ninety years. Mr. W'irnvood 

 was for half a century one of the most 

 active amateur geologists in the West of 

 England, and the stimulating friend of many 

 who have made important advances in geological 

 science. In early life he was associated with 



I Prof, (now Sir) W. Boyd Dawkins and the late 

 Mr. \V. \. Sanford in several explorations of 

 bone-caves and prehistoric burial places. In 1865 



I he announced the discovery of flint implements in 

 definite association with the remains of extinct 

 ;inimals in the <ave named Hoyle's Mouth, near 

 Tenby. In his own district he diligently observed 

 all temporary excavations, and made notes which 

 w-ere published in the Proceedings of the Bath 

 Natural History Club. When the British Associa- 

 tion visited Bath in 1888 he wrote the section on 

 geology for the local handbook. He also took 

 much interest in the Bath Royal Institution, and 

 collected the fund by which it secured the unique 

 museum of local fossils of the late Charles Moore. 

 He delighted in making this museum accessible 

 for the promotion of research. Mr. Winwood was 

 elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1864, 

 served for many years on the council, and was a 

 vice-president in 1898-1900 and 1915-17. 



Thk death of Mu. J. C. \'. .Maik-Rimi 1 v cm 

 DecemlHT 20, in his seventy-eii^'hth year, is an- 

 nounced. Mr. Mair-Ruinley was a member of 

 the fnstituticjns of Civil I';ng:ineers and Mechanical 

 I'^ngineers, and gave much assistance to the re- 

 .search committees inaugurated by thl- latter in- 

 stitution. His papers contributed to the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Engineers were awarded the Walt 

 medal and a Telford preinium in 1881. ;\\\<\ a 

 Telford premium in 18H5. 



