198 



NA TURE 



\y2Lne 30, 1887 



image, masthead touching masthead, and as^iall schooner iinder 

 sail, some 8 or 10 miles away, exhibited an iiiverted image of 

 its topsails. In the direction of Saltburn a tug-b^at (paddle 

 steamer) steaming within perhaps 2 miles of the coast was quite 

 normal in appearance. The smoke rising from it drifting east- 

 ward appeared normal for a short time, but suddenly expanded 

 on rising to about ten times its thickness, and then tailed off 

 again at its topmost eastward corner to the normal thickness. A 

 large steamship lying about half-way across the bay showed no 

 signs of being affected by the "mirage." 



These phenomena disappeared in about 20 minutes, and were 

 followed by a haze which obscured the distance. 



The weather had been very hot and sultry all day, with about 

 70° in the shade, and a gentle south-east by east breeze, and 

 a perfectly clear sky. 



Estimating the height of the Redcar houses at 50 feet and the 

 distance at 7 miles, they would occupy 5' of arc ; and taking the 

 thickness of the air stratum producing the "mirage" at 35' of 

 arc, the elongation of the buildings would be seven times their 

 ordinary height. 



Though I have been informed that "mirages" were visible 

 on the previous hot days, the phenomenon is on the whole of 

 rare occurrence here, and has never been witnessed by myself 

 before. Chas. O. Trechmann. 



Hartlepool, June 18. 



P.S. — My point of view would be about 20 feet above sea- 

 level. 



A Suggest'.on for Anthropologists. 



So far as the undersigned has seen, all reviewers of the 

 "Precis d' Anthropologic," lately issued by Profs. Hovelacque 

 and Herve, of Paris, have noted with no little interest the atti- 

 tude of the work towards the problem of the origin of man. 

 Rejecting on the one hand the doctrine of the monogenesis of 

 the human family in the way of a purely natural evolution out of 

 lower forms of life, and on the other hand discrediting the poly- 

 genesis of men by special creation in different centres of distri- 

 bution, these eminent anthropologists present, as the probable 

 truth, a comjDromise hypothesis, which they call transfor/nis/nc 

 fwlygeniqiic. According to this view, men were evolved from 

 the lower animals, but in more than one original centre, and from 

 more than one original pair. A French reviewer has well inti- 

 mated the significance of this new teaching by observing that it 

 marks a distinct schism in the ranks of the Darwinistic anthropo- 

 logists, and inaugurates debates and investigations from which 

 most important new light may be expected. 



In this connexion it has occurred to me that if I were an 

 anthropologist, and especially one of Darwinian principles, I 

 should be exceedingly eager to institute investigations looking to 

 the establishment or overthrow of a still different conception of 

 the matter — one not yet studied with anything like the thorough- 

 ness which it deserve^. I might call the hypothesis to which I 

 allude the hypothesis oi trausfcrmisnic bigeniquc. Being neither 

 its inventor nor a believer in it, I can the more freely call the 

 attention of believers in transformism to its decided richness of 

 promise. Indeed, if there is any middle ground of truth between 

 the anthropology of Darwin and the anthropology of Agassiz, it 

 can nowhere so hopefully be sought as precisely here. The 

 hypothesis to which I refer is that according to which the human 

 family consists of the descendants of two primitive human races — 

 the one white and originating at the North Pole, the other dark 

 and originating at the South Pole. 



The only work in which I have ever found this view suggested 

 is one published in Sweden about the year 1842, and two years 

 later in an English translation, in London, under the following 

 title: " The Theogony of the Hindus; with their Systems of 

 Philosophy and Cosmogony. An Essay, by Count M. Bjorn- 

 stjerna." I may be allowed to add that all I have published 

 respecting the north polar origin of the race was already in its 

 third edition before I had seen, or had any knowledge of, this 

 work. 



For the further satisfaction of those readers to whom the work 

 may not be easily accessible, it may be stated that the idea is by 

 no means elaborated and formally presented as a scientific 

 solution of the problem of the origin of man. On the contrary, 

 it is so transient and incidental a suggestion on the part of the 

 Count that the substance of all he says is found in two sentences 

 on page 177 of the English translation, as follows: — "As, 



according to the nature of the thing \i.e. owing to the secular 

 cooling of the earth], both the polar regions must have been 

 prepared equally early for the reception of mankind, it is possible 

 that the appearance of man took place at the same time in both 

 regions ; perhaps the white race in the countries about the North 

 Pole, and the black race in those about the South Pole. A 

 number of difficult problems might hence be solved." How 

 singular it would be if this passing remark of a Swedish Count, 

 writing upon the mythology of the Hindus, and more than a 

 generation ago, should prove to be the watchwo 'd of the most 

 advanced school of scientific anthropologists at the opening ol 

 the twentieth century. William F. Warren. 



Bad Gastein, Austria, June 20. 



Snow in Central Germany. 



In a note in Nature of May 12, p. 42, it was stated tha: 

 the quantity of snow which fell in Central Germany fron 

 December 19 to 23, between 50° and 52°-5 N. latitude, anc 

 between 7° and 18° E. longitude, weighed no less than io,ooo,ooc 

 tons. I think there is a mistake in the calculation. Supposing 

 that the snow was equivalent only to a stratum of water o 

 5 centimetres in height, its weight would be not 10,000,000, bu 

 10,000,000,000 tons. Otto Knopf. 



Berlin, June 21. 



Meteor. 



At about 7.45 p.m. on June 19 a brilliant meteor was see: 

 in broad daylight from this place. At a rough estimate it fol 

 lowed the meridian of Antares for about 30", and disappearec 

 near the meridian of that star. H. KiNG. 



Chithurst, Petersfield. 



Medicine in McGill University. 



In a criticism of my "Outlines of Lectures on Physiology' 

 which appeared in Nature for May 12, you say : — " Pathology 

 or the application of physiology to disease, is hardly touches 

 upon in this book. It is a most unfortunate omission unless bot 

 pathology and therapeutics are taught more systematically tha: 

 with us." About three years ago "Institutes of Medicine 

 (then including physiology proper, histology, and pathology) wa 

 divided, and now these departments are each taught separatel) 

 and each is provided with its own laboratory. A systemati 

 course of lectures and demonstrations in pathology is given, wit 

 instruction and practice in making autopsies (after Virchow 

 Therapeutics is taught from the physiological point of view, an 

 also has its own laboratory. So that it only becomes necessai 

 to make such reference to pathology, &c., in the lectures o 

 physiology as suffices to indicate that the subject does bear on th 

 study of disease, and thus interest the student in it from ii 

 bearing on his life-work. 



It may be interesting to English readers to learn that vei 

 recently two of Montreal's citizens have given one million doUai 

 to erect and endow a " Royal Victoria Hospital " in commemon 

 tion of the Queen's Jubilee. This hospital is to be located clos 

 to McGill University. 



I make these statements simply in justice to the Medic 

 Faculty. T. Wesley Mills. 



Phy^iological Laboratory, McGill University, 

 Montreal, May 28. 



The University of Tokio. 



In vol. XXXV. of Nature, p. 401, it was stated thi 

 the recent amalgamation of the Engineering College ar 

 the Unive;sity of Tokio occasioned the " total eliminatic 

 of Europeans from the teaching staff, their place beir 

 taken by Japanese." Justice to the new University requires tl 

 correction of this statement, which is not only misleading, bi 

 erroneous. It is true that two well-known foreign Professo 

 vacated their posts — one immediately after the amalgamatioi 

 and the other within six months thereafter. Their place, ho\ 

 ever (for they taught the same subject), is soon to be filled by i 

 engineer who is expected shortly from England. But givir 

 full allowance to this temporary vacancy, any person who wi 

 take the trouble to compare the number of foreign Professors i 

 the two establishments before the incorporation with the numbi 



