420 



KNOWLEDGE. 



November, 1913. 



from these diversities one ought to have many 

 thousands before one for comparison. It seems to 

 me quite probable that this would prove a fruitful 

 line of research for anyone with leisure and 

 opportunity to follow up ; for, when we consider 

 the distinct anatomical problems involved in the 

 pronouncing of different languages it seems not im- 

 probable that definite structural peculiarities might 

 become apparent in accordance with the " tongue " 

 spoken. We know that it is practically impossible 

 for Europeans to acquire the elaborate tongue and 

 throat movements of not a few barbarous languages, 

 and it would be extraordinary indeed if this wide 

 diversity in muscular function did not leave some 

 trace which the methods of the anatomist might 

 reveal. 



In Figure 465 is reproduced a photograph of 

 a cast from part of the jawbone of O'Brien, the 

 Irish giant, the capture of whose body gave 

 John Hunter so much trouble. I placed it 

 there, because it shows the typical arrange- 

 ment of the genial tubercles in a very marked 

 manner. It also tells us something else, which 

 I think is not a little instructive. There can 

 be no question that the Irish speak our 

 language with much greater correctness and pre- 

 cision than the average Anglo-Saxon, and further 

 investigations seemed to show that in Irish jaws 

 there was a fuller development of the genial 

 tubercles than in those found in English museums. 

 On following the same line of research a little 



further it became apparent that a greater symmetry 

 and uniformity of the development of the genial 

 tubercles was to be found in French and Italian 

 jaws than in English. This seems to be a matter 

 well worth following up. 



A few other suggestive points come out from a 

 further examination of the plaster casts, reproduced 

 in the plates, which have no very direct bearing 

 upon our present enquiry. One, for instance, is the 

 obvious kinship between certain American monkeys 

 and the lemurs, as evidenced by the duplicated pit 

 (see Figures 475 and 476). In nearly all the Old 

 World apes of which I have specimens, the two 

 cavities appear in close proximity or merged into 

 one, but in the American monkeys and the 

 Madagascar lemurs they are generally separated 

 by a marked interval. The lower jaw in certain 

 highly specialised apes, such as the howler and 

 proboscis monkeys, appears very difficult to inter- 

 pret. Here again a more extended collection, giving 

 opportunities for exact comparative methods, would 

 be certain to throw a good deal of light on what 

 is at present a subject which seems to have been 

 very little studied. 



Apart from these by-products of the enquiry I 

 think it will be acknowledged that many of the 

 facts put forward in this article go far in justifying 

 my suggestion that the chin, which is so marked a 

 characteristic of the modern human mandible, may 

 be considered part of the necessary mechanism of 

 articulate speech. 



Note : The illustrations in the above article are by Menie Gowland. 



REPORTS. 



THE YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION.— By the 

 unanimous vote of the council of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union the President for the next year will be Mr. T. 

 Sheppard, F.G.S.,of Hull. The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union 

 is one of the most successful associations of its kind in Great 

 Britain, and has published many important monographs on 

 the flora and fauna of the county, and also issues The 

 Naturalist, which is one of the oldest scientific monthly 

 magazines in the country. The Union has a membership of 

 nearly four thousand, and about forty important natural 

 history societies are affiliated with it. Until recently Mr. 

 Sheppard was the Honorary Secretary, and took a leading 

 part in the editing and publishing of its important monographs, 

 and there is no doubt that it is largely due to his efforts that 

 the Union owes its present influential position. Mr. Sheppard 

 is well known from the excellent work he has done in connection 

 with the three municipal museums at Hull. He is the author 

 of numerous books and monographs, as well as of the remark- 

 able series of Hull Museum Publications, close upon a hundred 

 of which have been published during the past fourteen years. 

 He has already filled the presidential chairs of the Yorkshire 

 Numismatic Society, the Hull Geological Society, the Hull 

 Literary Club, the Hull Scientific Club, and the Hull 

 Shakespeare and Playgoers' Society. 



CAN LEAD BE TURNED INTO GOLD ? — At a 

 meeting of the Alchemical Society on Friday night, October 

 10th, Professor John Ferguson, M.A., LL.D., and so on (of 

 Glasgow University), delivered an interesting address on 

 English Alchemical Literature, in the course of which he 

 said the English literature on the subject was not very bulky 

 although it might be precious. Other chemical and technical 

 processes had very extensive literature in which the various 

 discoveries were traced. So far as he knew there was no gold 

 made by alchemists in existence at the present time. When 



they saw a gold medal they knew it was gold, but there was no 

 proof that gold was ever made from mercury, lead, or any 

 other metal. Even if a piece of gold was produced which was 

 alleged to have been made by an alchemist, they had no 

 knowledge at present as to how it was done. He had never 

 come across an old book or manuscript on alchemy which 

 ever explained the method by which base metals could be 

 transmuted into gold. There were many manuscripts extant 

 at the British Museum and the Oxford Library bearing on the 

 subject, and in them one could find enough material to occupy 

 his whole attention for many years. 



He did not propose to deal with the manuscripts because of 

 their great abundance and also because of their inaccessi- 

 bility, but would confine his remarks to books printed in the 

 English language on the subject. There were many books in 

 Latin whose authors are Englishmen, but he had not time to 

 deal with them. The earliest printed book on alchemy was 

 published somewhere about the year 1474 or 1480. Probably 

 it had been taken from a manuscript, and so far as he knew it 

 was the only book on the subject printed in the fifteenth 

 century. A number of books were printed in the sixteenth 

 century, and still more in the seventeenth century, but after 

 that the number declined, and during the eighteenth century 

 and nineteenth century most of the books dealing with the 

 subject were reprints. The lecturer then dealt in great detail 

 with the various authors, most of whom claimed to have 

 discovered the secret powder for transmuting base metals 

 into gold. There was a wide field for research work among 

 the manuscripts at the British Museum and the Oxford 

 Library. Whether any of those manuscripts contained the 

 precious secret he did not know, but he hoped that now he 

 had called attention to the literature on that subject it would 

 lead others to investigate the matter, which was a very 

 interesting one. 



