430 



NATURE 



{Sept. 4, 1879 



him " as having weighed heavily upon science by impeding 

 the comprehension of the value of new observations. 



In discussing the antiquity of man, the present geologi- 

 cal epoch is considered with " almost absolute certainty " 

 as having commenced less than ioo,oco years ago, and 

 the opinion is pronounced that no facts have as yet been 

 discovered which authorise us to place the cradle of the 

 human race elsewhere than in Asia. As to the appear- 

 ance of primitive man, our author concludes that "all that 

 the present state of our knowledge allows us to say is 

 that, according to all appearance, he ought to be charac- 

 terised by a certain amount of prognathism, and have 

 neither a black skin nor woolly hair. It is also fairly 

 probable that his colour would resemble that of the yellow 

 races, and his hair b: more or less red. Finally, every- 

 thing tends to the conclusion that the language of our 

 earliest ancestors was a more or less pronounced mono- 

 syllabic one." 



Once in possession of these views of our author, we can 

 with the greater advantage read the excellent summaries 

 and descriptions which form a large portion of the work 

 relative to migration, acclimatisation, and " fossil races " ; 

 but perhaps the most interesting are those devoted to 

 the "Psychological Characters of the Human Species." 

 These tend to show in a new sense the brotherhood of 

 man, so that if political economy could be called the 

 "dismal science," anthropology should be considered as 

 the most cheerful of its learned sisters. M. de Quatre- 

 fages combats some of the views of Sir John Lubbock as 

 expressed in his " Origin of Civilisation " with great force, 

 and has some very useful reflections on the danger of 

 attributing all sense of honesty as absent in certain races 

 on insufificent data. " Nothing is more common than to 

 hear travellers accuse entire races of an incorrigible pro- 

 pensity for theft. The insular populations of the South 

 Sea have, amongst others, been reproached with it. 

 These people, it is indignantly affirmed, stole even the 

 nails of the ships ! But these nails were iron, and in these 

 islands, which are devoid of metal, a little iron was, with 

 good cause, regarded as a treasure. Now, I ask any of 

 my readers, supposing a ship with sheathing and bolts of 

 gold, and nails of diamonds and rubies were to sail into 

 any European port, would its sheathing or its nails be 

 safe?" 



In conclusion, though many parts of this work show 

 that to the author Darwin must have lived and written in 

 vain, and some of the portions appear as anthropology 

 little advanced from the time of Prichard, we cannot but 

 still feel grateful that the general literature of this little- 

 known, but most necessary of sciences, should have been 

 enriched by a useful though not infallible book. 



W. L. Distant 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



t The Editor does not hold h imself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 

 notice is taken of anotiymous communications. 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 

 short as possible. 7 he pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even op com- 

 munications containing interesting arid ncn/el facts. 1 



Parthenogenesis in a Beetle 

 I DO not know whether any instances have been recorded of 

 parthenogenesis in the coleoptera, nor does the interest of the 



case I am about to relate consist in the discovery of the operation 

 of a not uncommon mode of insect reproduction in a new field, 

 but rather in its altogether abnormal and fortuitous character in 

 the species of beetle concerned, viz., Gastrophysa raphani. My 

 own observations hitherto on this species have been uniformly 

 to the effect that unimpregnated females lay always barren egg.«, 

 and that one intercourse with the male renders fruitful all eggs 

 subsequently laid. I bred the female in question from the egg 

 this year, and have kept her isolated since her exclusion as an 

 imago. She has laid, up to the present, about twenty batches 

 of eggs consisting of about thirty-four and fifty-one alternately 

 in the batch. Of these, some fifteen batches have been ob- 

 served ; and only in one of these, No. 10, to wit, consisting of 

 thirty-four eggs, and in one of these thirty-four only were any 

 traces of development observed. This batch was laid between 

 the 2nd and 4th of August. On the 5lh I noticed in one an 

 appearance which is usual about this time in fertilised eggs, 

 which I have been accustomed to think about as the "embryonic 

 scroll," and which, on reference to Huxley's "Anatomy of Jn- 

 vertebrated Animals," pp. 444-445, I am inclined to think may 

 be what is there called "the sternal band (Keimstreif oi the 

 German embryologists)." This scroll is invariably present in 

 gastrophysa eggs regularly developing, and enables one to pre- 

 dict with certainty the position of the ventral aspect, and of the 

 head and tail of the future larva. On the 6th this same appear- 

 ance was more distinctly marked. On August 10 a further well- 

 defined stage of development had been reached. On the nth 

 the ocelli were plainly visible. Next day I noted the antenna-, 

 mandibles, palpi, and legs. The segments, warts, and spiracles 

 were also to be seen. On the 1 2th and some subsequent days I 

 saw plainly somewhat feeble but unmistakable and decided 

 movements of the legs, especially of the tarsi and ungues. At 

 this season of the year the egg should have been hatched in 

 about ten or twelve days. I have no longer any hope of this, 

 and all larval movements appear to have ceased. All the other 

 (thirty-three) eggs have undergone the usual degeneration, but 

 this one presents a striking contrast to them, showing all the 

 external parts perfectly formed and distinctly visible, as far as 

 the position of the larva (which is just the reverse of the usual 

 one, namely, with the dorsum in place of the venter next the 

 surface of attachment) allows them to be seen. There is an un- 

 unsual appearance of brownish coloration towards the caudal 

 end, the nature of which I have not made out. The failure to 

 hatch out, however, does not hinder this from being a decided 

 case of embryonal development in an egg laid by a female of 

 Gastrophysa raphani whose virginity is assured ; and it is a 

 solitary instance occurring among some eight or nine hundred 

 eggs laid by the same beetle both before and after and along 

 with it, all of which (as far as observed) were normally and 

 uniformly barren. J. A. OsBORNE 



Milford, Letterkenny, August 18 



Fonts in the Rocks of Brook Courses 



I BELIEVE the present an opportune time to direct the atten- 

 tion of geologists to the occurrence of water- graven fonts in the 

 rocks of brook courses, as the season of field-work is come, and 

 the summer conditions of our water-courses facilitate observations 

 of this most curious and interesting, as w ell as deeply important, 

 of river physics. 



So long ago as two years, examining the rocks bared on a 

 river channel for the purpose of making a section, I found fonts 

 in the rocks over which the waters run (in Slievardagh coal-field, 

 'lipperary). I had not previously known of their occurrence. 

 Those I first found I then looked on as something exceptional, 

 but as my investigations extended and as I learned to recognise 

 the conditions under \iVi<^ fonts are graven, I foun I them to be 

 pretty general in streams having rapid descents. Nor do I think 

 their occurrence is generally known and noted by geologists and 

 physicists. I have seen in print but one allusion to them — in 

 Nature, vol. xix. p. 76, where they are notified as observed in 

 a river in East Africa during the dry season as a " noteworthy 

 peculiarity." 



In what hereinafter appears, I do not at all mean to question 

 the theory given as explanatory of the large " well -like basins" 

 on the African river; doubtless our traveller had his good 

 reasons for his conclusions. 



The mode of occurrence of these fonts in the Slievardagh 

 brooks is, I venture to submit, as follows :— They are graven in 

 the rocks by falling waters ; these waters being the main stream. 



