Dec. 27, 1888J 



NATURE 



215 



Foundation Scholarships : Hough, Christ's Hospital (;^8o) ; 

 Pocklington, Yorkshire College (/"80) ; Chevalier, Cowper 

 Street School (^60) ; Rosenberg, private tuition (^50). Exhi- 

 bitions : Morton, Queen's College, Belfast {£10) ; Franks, 

 Coatham School, Redcar (;^50) ; Lc Sueur, University College, 

 Abervstwiih (;^33A). Sizarships : Cummings, Henderson, 

 Dale,' Legg. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



We have received a new instalment of the current volume of 

 the Annals of the Moscow Observatory (series ii. vol. i. fasc. 2), 

 published in French and German by Prof. Bredichin. It contains 

 four papers, by the editor, on the comets of 1886 and 1887 I. ; 

 the results of M. Belopolsky's observations of the last total solar 

 eclipse at Yurievets, with interesting reproductions of photo- 

 graphs of the corona, and remarks upon the movements on the 

 surface of the sun ; photoheliographic observations made in 1885, 

 by the same author ; photometric observations, by \V. Ceraski ; 

 and a paper on the rotation of the red spot in Jupiter, by P. 

 Sternberg. All published observations which were made in 

 Europe and the States from 1879 to February 1888 are given, 

 and the conclusion is, that the spot did not change its position 

 in 1879 and 1880, but has changed it byo-o893h. since 1880-81, 

 which change cannot be explained by mere variations of its shape. 



The last volume of the Memoires of the Kharkoflf Society of 

 Naturalists contains a very full list of vascular plants in the 

 neighbourhood of Voronezh, by L. Gruner. The names of 778 

 species are given, but, the aquatic plants being still only imper- 

 fectly known, the Voronezh flora will probably include more 

 than 800 species of Phanerogams. —The Mastigophone and 

 Khizopodcr of the fait lakes of Slavyansk are described by M. 

 Vysoiski ; the Chlorosponr of Kharkoff, by M. Alexe'enko ; 

 and the Chrysididic and Tenthredinida: of Kharkoff, by Prof. 

 Jarochewsky. 



Journal of the Russian Chemical and Physical Society, vol. 

 XX. fasc. 7. — Full reports on the eclipse of the sun of 

 Augu'^t 19, 1887 (continued). The reports of the various obser- 

 vations at Krasnoyarsk are given in full. — Notes on the action 

 of acids, the tertiary acetate of amyl, and on the combinations 

 of amylene with acids, by D. Konovaloff. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, December 6.—" On 7//j'/a<rt'/rtn/w5 australis, 

 Ouen. By Sir Richard Owen, F.R.S. 



This pai er, illustrated by drawings of the natural size, was 

 descriptive of a skull discovered in one of several small caverns 

 at a depth of 80 feet from the surface, in New South Wales. The 

 essential characters of the dentition were those of the feline 

 mammals, save that the piercing and killing teeth were the fore- 

 most pair of incisors ; the work of molars was mainly done by a 

 single large trenchant or sectorial tooth on each side of both jaws. 

 This tooth was followed by a small tubercular molar in close con- 

 tact therewith, and by a second similar molar with an intervening 

 vacancy. The latter character is that by which the present fossil 

 diflers from the Australian one described in the author's work 

 "The E.xtinct Mammals of Australia," 2 vols, quarto, 1877. 

 The largest carnivorous kind, equalling the lion in size, bears the 

 name of Thylacolco ; the skull of the present fossil shows that a 

 Carnivore of the size of a leopard formcriy, also, roamed over the 

 land of kangaroos. These, being the largest native quadrupeds 

 seen by Banks and Captain Cook, were described by Dr. Shaw 

 under the name ol Macropus major. 



Anthropological Institute, December 11.— Francis Galton, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chain— Dr. J. G. Garson exhibited a 

 new form of anthropometric instrument, specially designed for 

 the use of travellers.— Dr. R. H. Codrington read a paper on 

 social regulations in Melanesia. The part of Melanesia in view 

 comprised the Northern New Hebrides, the Banks's Islands, Sta. 

 Cruz, and the South -Eastern Solomon Islands. The social 

 regulations which obtain among the people were described from 

 personal observation, and from information given by natives. 

 A considerable portion of the whole subject was thus in view, 

 and with particular differences there is a general agreement, from 



which a wider likeness throughout the Melanesian population 

 may be inferred. The social regulations dealt with .were only 

 those relating (I.) \o Marriage, and (II.) to Property. / Social 

 Regulations r/lating to Marriage. (l) The entire arrangement 

 of society depends on the division of the whole people, in every 

 settlement, large or small, into two or more classes, which are 

 exogamous, and in which descent follows the mother. This 

 division comes first of all things in native thought, and all social 

 arrangements are founded upon it. A woman regards mankind 

 as divided into husbands and brothers ; a man regards woman- 

 kind as divided into wives and sisters — at least, on about the 

 same level of descent. (2) The members of these divisions 

 are all intermixed in habitation, property, subordination to a 

 chief, and in the well understood relationship through the father; 

 the divisions, therefore, aie not tribes. (3) Examples from two 

 regions— (<;) where these divisions are two, as in the Banks's 

 Islands and Northern New Hebrides ; {b) where there are moie 

 than two, as in Florida, in the Solcn.on Islands. {a) r. Where 

 there are two divisions there is no name to either. In Moia 

 there are two vti'e (distinction) ; in Lepers' Island two 'caivung 

 (bunch of fruit). 2. The divisions are strictly exogamous"; 

 irregular intercourse between members of the same is a heinous 

 crime ; avoidance of the person and name of father-in law, &c., 

 is the custom. 3. No communal marriage in practice, or tradi- 

 tion of it ; yet a latent consciousness of the meaning of the words 

 used for husband and wife, mother, cS:c. The story of Qat shows 

 individual marriage. The levirate, and practice of giving a 

 wife to set up a nephew in the worid. 4. Descent through the 

 mother makes the close relation of sister's son and motl'.er's 

 brother ; the son takes his mother's place in the family pedigree. 

 Certain rights of the sister's son with his uncle. The mother is 

 in no sense heed of the family. The bridegroom takes his bride 

 into his father's house, if not into his own. 5. A certain prac- 

 tice of couvade prevails. 6. No capture in marriage. Adoption 

 of no importance, {b) i. In Florida, in the Solomon Islands, 

 and the neighbourhood, is found an example of four or six 

 divisions, called kema. In strict exogamy, descent followhig the 

 mother, and local and political intermixture, all is the same as in 

 the Banks's Islands. But each kema has its name, and each has 

 its bzdo, that which the members of it must abstain from. 1 he 

 names are some local, some taken from living creatures. The 

 bitto is mostly something that must not be eaten. 2. Question 

 whether totems are present. The bird which gives its name to 

 one kema is not the buto of it, can be eaten. Comparison fiom 

 the Island of Ulawa. 4. Exceptional condition of part of 

 Malanta and San Cristoval, in the apparent absence of exoga- 

 mous divisions of the people, and in descent being counted 

 through the father. //. Pi-operty and Successun. A. i. Land 

 is everywhere divided into (i) the town; (2) the gardens; 

 (3) the bush. Of these, the first two are held in property, the 

 third is unappropriated. 2. Land is not held in common, 

 i.e. each individual knows his own; yet it is rather possession 

 and use for the time being of what belongs to the family, and 

 not to the individual. A chief has no more j: roperty in the land 

 than any other man. Sale of land was very rare before Europeans 

 came ; and sale of land by a chief beyond his own piece, no true 

 sale. Example at Saa of the fixed native right of property in 

 land. Abundance makes land of little value. 3. Land reclaimed 

 from the bush by an individual, and the site of a town founded 

 on the garden ground of an individual, has a character of its own. 

 4. Fruit-trees planted by one man on another's land remain 

 the property of the planter and his heirs. In a true sale the 

 accurate and particular knowledge of property in land and trees 

 is remarkably shown. 5. Personal property is in money, pigs, 

 canoes, ornaments, &.c. B. i. The regular succession to pro- 

 perty is that by which it passes to the lister's son, or to others 

 who are of kin through the mother. 2. But that which a man 

 has acquired for himself he may leave to his sons, or his sons 

 and their heirs may claim. This is the source of many quarrels, 

 the character of a piece of land being forgotten, or disputed by 

 the father's kin. 3. Hence a tendency to succession to the 

 father's property by his sons follows on the assertion of paternity, 

 and the occupation of new ground. 4 A man's kin still hold a 

 claim on his personal propeity, but his sons, who are not his kin, 

 will generally obtain it. — In the absence of the author, Dr. 

 Edward B. Tylor read a paptr by Mr. A. W. Howitt on 

 Australian message .' ticks and messengers. The use of message 

 sticks is not universal in Australian tribes, and the degree of per 

 fection reached in conveying informarion by them differs much. 

 Some tribes, such as the Dieri, <Io not use the message stick at 

 all, but make use of emblematical tokens, such as the net carried 



