88 



NATURE 



[March 17, 1910 



of obstacles. This extension is valid only when the space 

 occupied by the obstacles is small compared with the total 

 volume. It appears in the case of spherical obstacles that, 

 if each small obstacle has radius lo-* cm., and there are 

 10* of them per cubic centimetre, then sound of wave- 

 length 50 cm. will have its intensity diminished in the 

 ratio of i/e after passing through a thickness of less than 

 12 cm. of such a medium. — Dr. R. D. Kleeman : The 

 ionisation of various gases by the )8 rays of actinium. 

 .\ set of experiments carried out on the ionisation in 

 various gases by the /3 rays of actinium. The results are 

 of interest in comparison with the ionisations produced by 

 the )8 rays of uranium, on account of the different pene- 

 trating powers of the rays. The results are exhibited in 

 the subjoined tables. It will be seen that the relative 

 ionisations by the j3 rays of actinium are practically the 

 same as those obtained with the ;3 rays of uranium. 



Geological Society, February i8. — Annual general meet- 

 ing.— Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., president, in the chair. 

 — Prof. W. J. Sollas : Anniversary address : the evolution 

 of man in the light of recent investigations. Considering 

 first the human remains of the Pleistocene epoch, the 

 president pointed out that, so far as the evidence extends, 

 it shows that the cranial capacity of the human skull in- 

 creases rather than decreases as we pass backwards in 

 time. The oldest known human skulls are later than the 

 Chalky Boulder-clay. The cranial capacity is merely a 

 morphological character of unknown significance. Observa- 

 tion shows that no discoverable connection exists between 

 it and the intellectual power. The most recent researches 

 in comparative anatomy emphasise the close connection 

 between man and the anthropoid apes, especially the 

 gorilla and the chimpanzee. A similar result is afforded 

 by the investigations of Uhlenhuth and Nuttall into blood- 

 relationship. All recent researches converge to show that 

 the genealogy of man is to be traced through the anthro- 

 poid apes and the catarrhine monkeys to the lemurs. 

 Cope's suggestion of a direct descent from extinct lemurs 

 receives _ no confirmation. Primitive characters, when 

 present in man, can be better explained by regression and 

 adaptation. Man probably diverged from the phylum of 

 the primates above the point of origin of the gibbon, and 

 not far^ from that of the gorilla and the chimpanzee. He 

 owed his progress, in the first place, to emancipation from 

 a forest life, and commenced his career as the ape of the 

 plains. The erect attitude and the use of the hand as a 

 universal instrument followed as a consequence. Ancestral 

 man was probably a social animal at a very early period, 

 and social life afforded a stimulus to the development of 

 the powers of speech. He was probably distinguished by 

 great bodily strength and by the possession of formidabfe 

 natural weapons of defence and offence. With the inven- 

 tion of weapons made by art the necessity for natural 

 weapons disappeared, and a regressive development of the 

 teeth with adaptation to purely alimentary functions com- 

 menced. A purely human dentition characterises the 

 Heidelberg jaw, which is the oldest known. This, how- 

 ever._^still reveals in all other respects strong simian 

 affinities. The growth of the brain in size and complexity 

 might be correlated with the evolution and use of the 

 hand, but to a far greater extent with the development of 

 NO. 2107, VOL. 83] 



the powers of speech and the consequent exchange, multi- 

 plication, and coordination of ideas. 



February 23.— Prof. W. W. Watts, F.R.S., president, in 

 the chair. — T. O. Boswvorth : Metamorphism around the 

 Ross of Mull granite. The Ross of Mull granite is a 

 coarsely crystalline plutonic mass, forming the western por- 

 tion of the Ross of Mull, and extending over some twenty 

 square miles. The intrusion is conspicuously later than 

 the Moine rocks, and is regarded as one of the " newer 

 granites." The rock shows very little evidence of faulting 

 or movement of any kind, and is traversed by sheets of 

 mica-trap. The eastern boundary of the granite is a verv 

 intricate line of junction with typical Moine schists and 

 gneisses, into which it has been intruded. Injection- 

 breccias occur along the margin, where the granite is 

 crowded with schist-inclusions. The changes in the pelitic 

 schists are of two kinds, and are considered under the 

 separate headings (a) impregnation, and (b) thermal meta- 

 mo^phism. 



Zoological Society, March i.— Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Sir G. F. Hampson : 

 A list of the moths collected by Mr. Sheffield A. Neave in 

 Rhodesia north of the Zambezi and the adjacent Katanga 

 district of the Congo Free State. Nearly two hundred new 

 species are described. The moth fauna of the district is 

 mainly of a West African type, with a considerable admixture 

 of East African and Mashonaland forms. As there are no 

 high ranges of mountains or deep river valleys, the fauna 

 presents a very uniform tropical African character, with 

 no high mountain forms or forms peculiar to the faunas 

 of the drier parts of southern or northern Africa. — T. H. 

 Burlend : The urogenital organs of Chimaera monstrosa. 

 This paper dealt with the urogenital organs of Chimaera, 

 both immature and adult of each sex. Much of the early 

 work of Leydig and Hyrtl, which later writers had ignored 

 or disputed, was now confirmed and supplemented. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, March 8. — Sir Herbert 

 Risley, president, in the chair. — Dr. A. Keith : The 

 Gibraltar skull. This skull was presented to the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, some forty 

 years ago by Mr. Edward Busk. Huxley had seen the 

 cranium, but evidently did not recognise that it was of 

 the same type as the Neanderthal skull. The merit of 

 discovering that this skull was Neanderthaloid and 

 belonged to that ancient Palaeolithic race of men to which 

 Schwalbe has given the specific name of Homo primi- 

 genius belongs to several anthropologists, but to Prof. 

 Sollas must be ascribed the merit of having given, qu'te 

 recently in the Philosophical Transactions, the first detailed 

 description. The skull deserved further investigation, 

 because it was the only specimen of Neanderthaloid man 

 yet known that showed the face in a perfect condition. In 

 the two recently discovered examples described by M. 

 Marcellin Boule and by Prof. Klaatsch, the facial 'arts 

 were so mutilated that reconstruction was necessary to 

 obtain an approximate conception of the original or natural 

 form. Dr. Keith, with the aid of Mr. F. O. Barlow, had 

 been able to obtain a cast of the interior of the skull, and 

 was thus able to study certain surface markings of the 

 brain. The brain-cast was remarkable for its width and 

 for its flatness ; the left occipital pole predominated over 

 the right occipital pole, a character that has been associated 

 with right-handedness. The fissure of Sylvius was wide 

 and apparently open, but this character is due, as in native 

 Australian brains, to the great size of the ridge of bone 

 which occupies the fissure. It has been found possible to 

 expose the sutures of the Gibraltar skull, and thus to 

 localise definitely important points in its topography. The 

 cerebral development of Palaeolithic man has been very 

 much underestimated. This is partly due to the fact that 

 the height of the skull was measured from the inion to 

 the glabella, two points which are fairly stationary in 

 modern men, but which in Palaeolithic men, as in anthro- 

 poids, grew upwards so as to occupy a relatively high 

 position as regards the brain. These points are from 

 8 to 10 mm. higher in Palaeolithic men ; hence the height 

 of the skull, when measured from them, is comparatively 

 low. M. Boule has found the capacity of the La Chapelle 

 skull to be considerably above the average for modern 

 Europeans, anql such was undoubtedly the case as regards 



