i8 



NATURE 



[November 19, 1914 



volves social co-operation, tht- i^rowth of articulate 

 speech, the invention of weapons, and the discovery 

 of the use of fire. Ag^ain, it involves the growth of 

 the erect gait and of other modifications in the bodily 

 structure. He urges that if this hypothesis be not 

 accepted, man is an exception to the rule of animal 

 life— that the structure of every organism is made 

 up of apparatus subserving its special conditions of 

 nutrition and reproduction. 



With part viii. of his useful periodical, Y'lsvakarma 

 Mr. A. K. Coomaraswamy has for the present sus- 

 pended its publication. The work contains one 

 hundred examples of Indian architecture, sculpture, 

 painting, and handicrafts. Mr. Eric Gill supplies a 

 rather flamboyant introduction. The nineteenth 

 century, he tells us, "for all its hard-headedness, was 

 soft-hearted and loose-thinking." The newly awakened 

 interest in Oriental art is, he thinks, "a genuine 

 reaction against the irreligious gentility and banality 

 of modern European art." There is some excuse for 

 this acrid cri*ticism, and Visvakarma helps to show 

 that the art of India has much to interest the European 

 student. But the cause of Oriental art will scarcely 

 be promoted by disparagement of the aims and 

 methods of European artists. 



Messrs. C. A. Hall and Duncan Smith have re- 

 printed from the Transactions of the Paisley Philo- 

 sophical Institution, 1914, a paper dealing with the 

 geological and historical significance of some hazel 

 nuts and other plant remains discovered during 

 excavations at Paisley Abbey in March, 1914. These 

 remains rested on the gravel of an ancient sea-beach, 

 which is believed to be the 25-ft. raised beach, a 

 pronounced feature in various parts of the Clyde area. 

 This, after attaining its maximum elevation, was 

 depressed and submerged. When hazel trees grew in 

 this area it was some 25 ft. lower than it is at present. 

 The writers, associating Neolithic man with the 

 25-ft. raised beach period, urge that their investiga- 

 tion forms a fresh link in the chain of evidence by 

 which the age of Neolithic man may be determined. 



A CLASS in mineralogy, with free access to a repre- 

 sentative series of specimens, is the latest development 

 of the Children's Museum, Bedford Park, Brooklyn. 

 The collection of minerals, according to the November 

 number of the Children's Museum News, has also 

 been rearranged and expanded, economic uses being 

 the basis of classification. 



"The Middle Triassic Marine Invertebrate Faunas 

 of North America " is the title of a very fully illus- 

 trated memoir by Prof. J. Perrin Smith, published in 

 Washington by the Department of the Interior (U.S. 

 Geological Survey) as Professional Paper No. 83. It 

 deals chiefly with cephalopods, especially ceratites 

 and other ammonoid groups, 142 out of the 148 pages 

 of letterpress being devoted to that class. In Triassic 

 times the sea, which had previously covered large 

 portions of the area now occupied by the North 

 American continent, had retreated westwards until 

 it formed only a gulf in the region of the Great Basin. 

 The most remarkable feature of the fauna of the 

 Middle Triassic beds of this tract is its complete lack 

 NO. 2351, VOL. 94] 



of relationship to that of Japan, and its marked 

 affinity to tlxat of south-eastern Europe. It is, in fact, ■ 

 of " such a distinctly Mediterranean character that if 

 a palaeontologist from Austria were set down in the 

 Triassic area of the Humboldt desert he could hardly 

 tell from the character of the fauna whether he was 

 collecting in Bosnia or in Nevada." 



Prok. Perrin Smith's work on the Triassic ammo- 

 noids referred to in the preceding paragraph was 

 doubtless the forerunner of a paper on accelerated 

 development in fossil cephalopods, issued in the Leland 

 Stanford Junior University Publications, University 

 Series, for 1914. To do justice to this thoughtful 

 communication would take much more space than is 

 at our disposal ; and it must suffice to state that, 

 owing to the compression of the earlier stages, a large 

 number of groups do not exhibit a recapitulation of 

 their ontogenetic history. There is, in fact, a constant 

 loss of stages or characters, which become pushed 

 back and finally crowded out of the ontogeny, all 

 along the race-history, so that successive types do not 

 exhibit their full genealogical story. In addition is 

 "convergence," which, in ammonites, has rendered a 

 number of types descended from perfectly distinct 

 ancestors so alike as totally to defy recognition of 

 their genealogy. 



Mr. Frederick Chapm.an provides a comprehensive 

 review of the Cainozoic strata of Australia in the 

 fifth memoir of the National Museum, Melbourne 

 (July, 19 14). He shows that the supposed nummulites 

 of Australia should be referred to Amphistegina, and 

 regards the earliest beds of what he calls "the Aus- 

 tralian Cainozoic system" as of Oligocene age. The 

 correlation of the strata with those of Europe, and the 

 description of typical sections, make this paper 

 especially welcome. 



The inspiring story of the rise and progress of 

 the Scottish school of geology was selected by Prof. 

 T. J. Jehu as the subject of his inaugural lecture as 

 Murchison professor of geology and mineralogy in 

 the University of Edinburgh. Due stress was laid 

 in this discourse on the influence of Sir Andrew 

 Ramsav, T. F. Jameson, Sir Arch. Geikie, also Prof. 

 J. Geikie and other Scottish workers, in promoting 

 a just appreciation of glacial phenomena in our 

 islands. 



Prof. Gurich, of Hamburg, has published (Born- 

 traeger, Berlin, price 5.50 marks) an illustrated 

 account of "Die geologischen Naturdenkmaler des 

 Riesengebirges," which forms a scientific guide to a 

 region of granite tors and ice-worn hollows which has 

 been little visited by strangers. The fine view of the 

 Schistose Schneekoppe (1605 miles) reminds us of our 

 own highlands, where the cirques are becoming 

 modified by downwash and general decay. A block 

 of orbicular granite is figured, which is probably of 

 local origin. This, like other natural monuments in 

 the district, has been put under special guardianship. 



One of the most interesting and readable memoirs 

 issued in the Clare Island Survey series is by 

 T. Hallissy on the geology of the island (Proc. Royal 



