January 14, 19 15] 



NATURE 



539 



Scotland, where the amount was 49-31 in., and it was 

 least in the north-east of England with 2482 in. The 

 only districts with an appreciable deficiency of rain 

 were the west and north of Scotland, where the per- 

 centage of the average rainfall was respectively 91 

 and 94. In the south-east of England the aggregate 

 rainfall was 125 per cent, of the average, which is 

 the highest difference from the normal, in the Channel 

 Islands it was 121 per cent, of the average, in the 

 south-west of England 119, in the south of Ireland, 

 III, in the midland counties 109, and in the east of 

 England 108 per cent. In no other district was the 

 rainfall more than 104 per cent, of the average. The 

 rainv days were not generally ver}- different from the 

 normal. There was a slight excess of sunshine in the 

 eastern districts, whilst the western districts were 

 mostly in agreement with the av^erage. 



A FEW weeks ago we announced with regret the 

 death in Cambridge, on December 9, of Prof. 

 .\. van Gehuchten, professor of the anatomy, 

 pathology, and treatment of diseases of the 

 nervous system in the University of Louvain. 

 Sir Cliflford AUbutt, in two short communications 

 to the Educational Supplement of the Times (January 

 5) and the British Medical Journal (December 26) 

 expressed the grief of manv friends at Cambridge, 

 as well as of biologists generally, at the loss which 

 science has sustained by Prof, van Gehuchten 's death. 

 To these sources, and an appreciative obituary notice 

 contributed by Dr. F. E. Batten to the latter journal, 

 we are indebted for the following details. In 1887, 

 after a brilliant career as a student under the late 

 Prof. J. B. Carnoy, and in laboratories at Berlin and 

 Frankfurt, van Gehuchten returned, at the age of 

 twenty-six, to Louvain, where he had been appointed 

 instructor in anatomv, especially in the field of neuro- 

 logy, of which subject he became one of the most 

 original investigators and exponents of our time. 

 During twenty-four years the records of his now 

 famous researches into the nervous system appeared 

 in a series of papers in which each challenged the 

 others in interest and importance. His researches 

 dealt especially with the unit of modern neurology — 

 the neuron ; w-ith the origin and causes of the motor 

 nerves ; the pathology of certain virulent nervous 

 maladies ; the phenomena of normal and morbid re- 

 flexes ; and incidentally but verj- effectively with the 

 development of methods. It was in 1897 ^^^^ ^^ 

 began his long and fruitful series of study on methy- 

 lene-blue staining methods, a report on which he 

 presented to the International Congress of Medicine at 

 Moscow in that year. 



A REMARKABLE human skeleton, discovered by Dr. 

 Hans Reck in the Oldoway ravine in German East 

 .\frica, is described in the Antiquary for January, by 

 Mr. J. Reid Moir. In the layer resting immediately 

 upon the basal basaltic lava, rhinoceros bones were 

 discovered, and in the overlying deposit, that in which 

 the human remains were found, a great number of 

 elephant bones, differing from the present-dav African 

 elephant, and a splendid hippopotamus skull were 

 unearthed. Dr. Reck believes that it is impossible 

 to imagine that this skeleton attained its position in 

 NO. 2359, VOL. 94] 



the deposit in which it was found otherwise than 

 during its normal accumulation, and that any idea 

 of an artificial grave having been dug into this 

 stratum is untenable. If these facts be accepted, the 

 remains seem to belong to the Pleistocene period. 

 They do not represent a ver\' early or primitive type, 

 and they thus present a close analogy to the celebrated 

 Ipswich man. The obvious conclusion is that man 

 must have been developed at a period much earlier 

 than is generally supposed. But before this startling 

 conclusion is accepted we must have much more pre- 

 cise details of the geological age of the stratum in 

 which the remains were found. A decision on the 

 question may safely be deferred until Dr. Reek's 

 detailed report is available for study. 



Prof. Flinders Petrie contributes to Ancient 

 Egypt, part i. of 1915, a valuable article on metals 

 in Egypt, in which he brings together all the avail- 

 able information on the use of copper, gold, silver, 

 lead, tin, bronze, and iron. The account of iron is 

 particularly instructive. First, we have the sporadic 

 Iron Age, beginning with the Gerzeh beads and the 

 well-known piece of sheet iron from the pyramid of 

 Khufu at Gizeh. Incidentally, we are told that the 

 supposition that iron might disappear in course of 

 time is a fallacy. A lump of oxide of iron is prac- 

 tically insoluble when buried, and its strong colouring 

 and staining power make it very obvious. The 

 developed Iron Age in Egypt began about 1200 B.C., 

 whereas in .\ssyria, iron, as a tribute from the 

 Chalybes, dates from 881 B.C. An Ethiopian source 

 for the Egyptian iron may be discarded, as, if it 

 were common there, it would soon have reached Eg}"pt 

 at a very early date; but the Ethiopian slag-heaps 

 are not earlier than the general special culture of 

 that region, which began in the XXV th dynasty, and 

 continued from 700 B.C. onwards. The sources of the 

 European and Euphratean iron would be quite 

 sufficient to account for the general use of iron in 

 Eg}pt, even apart from the Ethiopian. 



The picture-film entitled "The Escape," exhibited 

 by Messrs. Ruffell, at the Alhambra Theatre, on Tues- 

 day, possesses scientific interest. Apparentlv an 

 ordinary melodrama of low life, with an exceptionally 

 well-ordered and pictured scenario, it is designed for 

 educational purposes in eugenics. Many of Zola's 

 and de Maupassant's novels and stories might be thus 

 eugenically underlined. The kinematograph has 

 already done good educational work, e.g. in botam* 

 and general biology, and there is no reason why it 

 should not develop its usefulness all round the educa- 

 tional field. A long view and some imagination are 

 needed if the average person is to draw the eugenic 

 moral from tragedies of even,day life, but a picture- 

 film interspersed with explanatory- mottoes, easily re- 

 membered, is a real educative force. The drama deals 

 largely with evil conditions imposed by heredity and 

 environment. A connection is made between them 

 and criminal behaviour, operating both in the home 

 and in public. Selfish luxury- is exposed as well as 

 selfish brutality, and the effects on the new generation 

 of the nation's men and women are vividly indicated. 

 .\ picture-play like this should help many to visualise 



