May 5, 1898] 



NATURE 



^1 



Aylesford were of singular ihterest and importance, and were 

 described by Mr. Arthur Evans before the Society of Anti- 

 quaries. A large amount of material obtained by him still 

 waits description. But, after all, it is this collection of material 

 which is so indispensable and important ; and hence great credit 

 is due to Henry Lewis for the part he played in unravelling the 

 secrets of prehistoric anthropology. 



Tfie sixty-ninth anniversary meeting of the Zoological Society 

 of London was held on Friday last, the chair being taken by 

 Sir William H. Flower, K.C.B., F.R.S., President of the 

 Society. Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., read the report of the 

 Council, from which it appeared that the occurrence of the 

 Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, together with the very 

 favourable weather experienced during the summer and 

 autumn of that year, resulted in a large number of visitors to 

 the Society's gardens, and the total income of the Society 

 consequently reached the large amount of 28,713/., being 

 1 631/. more than in 1896, and greater than that of any 

 year since the year 1884. The principal new building 

 opened in the Society's gardens in 1897 was the new ostrich 

 and crane-house, which was commenced in the autumn of 

 1896. During the past summer, also, a new glass-house for the 

 reception of the Society's collection of tortoises was built, ad- 

 joining the reptile-house. The Council referred to the loss 

 sustained by the death of Mr. A. D. Bartlett, for thirty- 

 eight years superintendent of the Society's gardens, and re- 

 corded their deep sense of the services rendered by him 

 during the long period he held his post. The vacancy 

 thus caused has been filled up by the appointment, as super- 

 intendent, of Mr. Bartlett's second son, Mr. Clarence Bartlett. 

 The number of visitors to the gardens in 1897 was 717,755, 

 being 52,751 more than the corresponding number in 1896. 

 The number of animals in the collection on December 31 

 last was 2585, of which 792 were mammals, 1362 birds, 

 431 reptiles and batrachians. 



We learn from the thirty-first annual report of the Pealx>dy 

 Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology,that Miss Maria 

 Whitney has made a gift of great scientific interest from the 

 estate of her brother, the late Prof. J. D. Whitney. This con- 

 sists of the world-famous " Calaveras skull" and all the original 

 documents relating to its discovery and history ; with the gravel, 

 small human bones, and other objects found in the cemented 

 debris in which the skull was enclosed at the time of its dis- 

 covery, as shown by the photograph taken before the cemented 

 material was removed. With these are also a rude stone mortar, 

 stone pestle and steatite dish, found under similar geological 

 conditions in California. The full history of the discovery of 

 the skull by Mr. Mattison, in 1866, under four beds of lava in a 

 shaft he had sunk to the depth of 127 feet, is given in Prof. 

 Whitney's volume on the "Auriferous Gravels of California," 

 published in 1879 as vol. vi. of the Memoirs of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, When taken in connection with other 

 discoveries under similar geological conditions in California, 

 there seems to be no reason to doubt that these human remains 

 were found in the gravel under the lava, as stated by Mr. 

 Mattison. The principal question still in doubt is the exact age 

 of the lava beds and gravels. The skull itself, so far as can be 

 judged by a comparative study of the portion preserved, is of 

 the type which there are reasons for regarding as the oldest on 

 the Pacific coast. The objects, fashioned by the hand of man, 

 found in the gravel, have been considered by some authors to be 

 of a character too advanced in the development of the arts of 

 man on the American continent to have come from so old a 

 deposit. It is pointed out, however, that one cannot apply to 

 American archreology the old classification of the culture epochs 

 which, during the growth of science, has been used to distinguish 

 NO. 1488, VOL. 58] 



several periods of prehistoric culture in Europe. In addition to 

 Miss Whitney's valuable gift, the Museum received during the 

 past year a number of other objects of scientific importance, 

 including gifts from friends and collections made by exjieditions 

 to Yucatan and Honduras. A description of some of the results 

 of archaeological explorations in Central America and Yucatan 

 recently appeared in these columns (p. 568). 



The Deutsche Seewarte has rendered a valuable contribu- 

 tion to meteorology by the publication of means for the ter» 

 years 1886-1895, based upon the observations made three times 

 daily at nine stations connected with that institution. Dr. 

 Neumayer has always carefully adhered to the regulations 

 made by the various meteorological conferences, and the 

 present work, which continues the means previously published 

 for the years 1876-1885, contains monthly, seasonal, and 

 annual values and extremes made with trustworthy instru- 

 ments and trained observers. 



Since 1882, the Royal Meteorological Institute of Utrecht 

 has published a yearly volume relating to the thunderstorms 

 and optical phenomena observed in the Netherlands. The 

 number of stations at which thunderstorms are observed is 

 254 ; the days on which storms were recorded amounted to 

 119 during the year 1897. With the exception of the months 

 of January and February, during which no thunderstorms 

 were observed, they were regularly distributed throughout 

 the year. The report contains a discussion of the storms in 

 each month, and is accompanied by various charts. 



A VERY useful feature which is being introduced into Russian 

 schools is the sending out of the pupils in summer for small 

 natural science and ethnographic excursions, during which they 

 explore some region and make all sorts of collections and 

 observations. The Caucasus School administration is especially 

 active in that direction. One such excursion will be made to 

 the foot of the Elbrus this summer by fifty pupils of the 

 Ekaterinodar Gymnasium. The party intends to visit the 

 Great Karachai region, to ascend the Elbrus up to the snow- 

 line, and to cross the Main Ridge. The excursion will last 

 fifty days, during which the pupils will collect natural history- 

 specimens and ethnographical data, take photographs, sketch 

 landscapes, and live amidst the beautiful pine forests of the 

 Main Caucasus ridge. Some of the boys will take musical 

 instruments with them to enliven the party. 



A JOINT expedition of the West Siberian branch of the 

 Geographical Society and the Moscow Society of Amateurs of 

 Natural Sciences will this summer explore the hydrography and 

 the fauna of the lakes in the South of Omsk. The collection.^ 

 will be divided between the two Societies. 



Prof. J. Trowbridge, Rumford professor of the application 

 of science to the useful arts. Harvard University, describes in 

 the Century Magazine some experiments he made with a view 

 to determining the nature of Rontgen rays. He concludes as 

 follows : — " I believe that the experiments which I have 

 described support the theory that there are really two classes of 

 phenomena — one an electrical disturbance in a medium, another 

 the conversion of this electrical disturbance into fluorescent and 

 phosphorescent light at the surfaces of suitable screens or in the 

 body of suitable crystals. My experiments certainly show that 

 there are anode rays as well as kathode rays, and that both are 

 subject to the well-known laws of electrical induction. One 

 should not expect, therefore, that the electrical rays or lines of 

 force should be reflected and refracted like waves of light." 



Some interesting properties of Rontgen rays were recently 

 described by Prof. Rontgen in a communication to the Berlin 

 Academy of Sciences, and are summarised in the Electrical 



