June 28, 191 7] 



NATURE 



353 



skull is that at the level of the posterior part of the 

 parietal there is a decided flattening-, which continues 

 on to the superior part of the occipital bone. The 

 occipital projects strongly, and has a thick ridge bi- 

 furcating downwards. The flattening of the skull is 

 not paralleled by any skull in the South African 

 Museum, although, according to Mr. Boule, it has 

 been seen on some negro skulls and also upon a 

 Namaqua skull now in the Paris Museum. The paper 

 gives a full account, with photographs, of this inter- 

 esting specimen. Prof. G. Elliot Smith thus sums up 

 the question: "Whatever the date of the Boskop 

 remains may be, the evidence now in our possession 

 suggests that this early inhabitant of the Transvaal 

 represents tha tvpe of the immediate ancestors of the 

 men of the Upper Palaeolithic (or, as I prefer to call it, 

 the Neanthropic) age, possibly somewhat modified in 

 the course of his southern migration. It probably 

 represents the earliest (not necessarily in actual age) 

 known phase of Homo sapietis in the course of his 

 transformation from a condition analogous to that 

 of Neanderthal man to that of Cro-Magnon." 



Two very important palaeontological papers by Mr. 

 R. Bullen Newton have recently been published. The 

 first, "On the Conchological Features of the Lenham 

 Sandstones of Kent and their Stratigraphical Import- 

 ance," forms the subject of his presidential address to 

 the Conchological Societj' of Great Britain and Ireland 

 (Journ. Conch. Soc, vol. xv., pp. 56-149, four plates). 

 The work on these puzzling deposits begun by Prest- 

 wich, Wood, Lyell, and other noted geologists, was 

 well advanced by the late Mr. Clement *Reid (Nature, 

 vol. xxxiv., 1886, pp. 341-43, and in his "Pliocene 

 Deposits of Britain," Mem. Geol. Surv., 1890), who 

 regarded the beds as of Coralline Crag- age, and 

 equivalent to the Diestian of Belgium. Mr. Newton 

 has now very carefully gone over Mr. Reid's material 

 in the Museum of Practical Geology with the Graham 

 Wallas and other collections in the British Museum 

 (Natural History), and here discusses most fully each 

 fossil species and its occurrence in time and space, 

 illustrating photographically all the more important 

 forms. The conclusions he comes to will certainly 

 surprise our older geologists, for he terminates the 

 Pliocene with the Red Crag, and refers to the Upper 

 Miocene, in descending order, (a) the Coralline Crag; 

 (b) the Diestian of Belgium; (c) St. Erth beds; (d) 

 Lenham Sandstones ; (e) Anversian of Belgium ; and 

 (/) the Upper Miocene of Germany; whilst he refers 

 the " Box Stones " to the Middle Miocene. These 

 important and seemingly well-based conclusions de- 

 serve a wider notoriety than the pages in which they 

 appear are likely to obtain for them. The second 

 paper describes an interesting mass of " Fossiliferous 

 Limestone from the North Sea " (Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc., vol. Ixxii., 1917, pp. 7-22, one plate). After a 

 painstaking investigation of its fossil contents, Mr. 

 Newton decides that it represents a submarine expo- 

 sure of beds belonging to the lower portion of the 

 Coralline Crag. The accompanying plate is worthy 

 of attention, since the process adopted is the best yet 

 employed in this country for depicting shells. 



Science for' May 18 contains an address by Prof. 

 R. p. Carmichael on the provision made by mathe- 

 matics for the needs of science. While very properly 

 defending the study of mathematics for its own sake, 

 he points out that many of its most interesting 

 problems have been suggested bv natural phenomena, 

 while, conversely, this debt has been amply repaid by 

 the application of mathematics to astronomy, physics, 

 and chemistry, not to mention other sciences. Prof. 

 Carmichael is one of a group who are now working 



NO. 2487, VOL. 99] 



at a new development of the theory of difference 



equations, and he expresses a hope that this may have 



some direct application to theoretical physics. As he 



says, our latest physical hypotheses seem to be tending 



I towards an atomic, discrete, or statistical form, so 



j that differential equations are not always the most 



appropriate tools to be employed. Not impossibly we 



I may have a Boscovitchian interlude, after which a 



I deeper insight may bring us back to a flux-theory 



: again. In any case, it is satisfactory to find that 



' mathematics is still growing with remarkable vigour, 



i and providing new methods of attacking a new set 



; of problems. 



I A RECENT technological publication (No. 82) of the 

 j Bureau of Standards, Washington, describes an ex- 

 ! perimental investigation recently made of the causes 

 ! of failure of a number of articles, particularly bolts, of 

 : wrought brass of the type 60 copper, 40 zinc, with 

 I special reference to the presence of initial stress. The 

 j work was taken up in connection with tests, made 

 I for the New York Board of Water Supply, of failed 

 : brass bolts which had been in service in the construc- 

 I tion of the new Catskill Aqueduct, which is to supply 

 j water to the city from the watersheds of the Catskill 

 I Mountains. In view of the fact that most of the 

 I equipment and materials used in this construction 

 j would be subjected to the corroding action of both 

 I water and the atmosphere, a substitute was sought 

 [ for steel, which would ordinarily be used, and it was 

 considered possible to find a brass which would have 

 mechanical properties comparable with those of steel 

 and yet be practically incorrodible. As such a sub- 

 stitute the so-called manganese bronze was chosen. 

 In the course of the investigation the physical proper- 

 ties, micro-structure, and initial stress distribution 

 have been studied in failed and sound materials, not 

 only from the Catskill Aqueduct construction, but also 

 from the filtration plant of the city of Minneapolis, 

 the Navy Department, and the Panama Canal, and 

 in new material from a nupiber of manufacturers. 

 Failure has occurred (i) as a result of faulty practice 

 in forging bolt-heads, flanging plates, etc. ; (2) as a 

 result of the presence of initial stress ; and (3) as a 

 result of service overstress due to drawing up bolts 

 too tightlv. This investigation shows that an average 

 initial stress of 5000 lb. /sq. in. (350 kg. /cm.*) is to 

 be regarded as a safe limit for rods and bolts of this 

 type of material under ordinary service conditions, in 

 which the service load itself is not greater than from 

 5000 to 10,000 Ib./sq. in. Experiments have also been 

 made to ascertain under what conditions of annealing 

 initial stresses could best be removed, and have shown, 

 that temperatures of from 300° to 400° C. are sufficient 

 to reduce in from one to seven hours the initial 

 stresses to a safe value. 



Messrs, Ross, Ltd., have purchased from the Con- 

 troller appointed by the Board of Trade the Zeiss 

 Optical Works at Mill Hill, including all machinery 

 and tools therein ; also their business premises at 13 

 and 14 Great Castle Street, W. r., including the stock- 

 in-trade, etc. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Orbit of Comet 1915a (Mellish). — The orbit of this 

 comet, which was discovered by Mellish on February 

 10, 19 15, and afterwards became a naked-eye object, 

 has been investigated by L. Rosenbaum (Ast. laktt. 

 Stockholms Obs., vol. x., No. 5). The comet 

 traversed a heliocentric arc of 205° during the eleven 

 months of its visibility. After taking account of per- 



