NATURE 



[November 15, 1894 



portion of rib with the incised figure of a horse upon it, found 

 in this layer in Robin Hood Cave in Derbyshire (Fig. 13). 



No portions of the human skeleton have been found in the 

 Palseolithie stratum of British caves, except a single tooth. 



On the continent many caves have been discovered in France, 

 Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland, with similar deposits and 

 implements to those found in England, and showing also the 

 same two stages of culture. More numerous examples of figure 

 carving of the same type as that found in the Derbyshire 

 cave have been obtained in French caves (Fig. 14), and the 

 teeth of carnivorous animals and shells, both artificially bored 

 for ornaments (Fig. 15). 



By associating British and continental evidence we can form 

 a good idea of the mode of life of the cave-dwellers of Paleo- 

 lithic times. The caves gave him shelter in cold weather, from 

 which he further protected himself by fires, and clothing made 

 from the skins of animals he secured in the chase, sewn together 

 by means of bone needles and tendons of reindeer for thread. 

 .■\rmed with flint-tipped spears and daggers of bone ornamented 

 with carved handles representing the chase, he lived by hunting 

 the reindeer, the wild horse, and the bison ; he also lived on 

 birds and fish, which he speared with barbed harpoons. The 

 game he brought home was cut up with flint knives, and cooked ; 

 the long bones were broken with heavy flints for the marrow 

 they contained, which was evidently considered a delicacy. 

 When not engaged in the chase, the manufacture of flint im- 

 plements must have formed an important part of his home work. 

 He must also have spent much time in carving ornaments on 

 bone. These, it may be remarked, show that he was an artist 

 of no mean order in depicting animals, but give us little in- 

 formation regarding his own form, as he seldom represented 

 himself, and when he did he figured himself in miniatures and 

 naked (Fig. 14I ; they also show that he was in the habit of 

 wearing long gloves to cover his hands and arms (Fig. 15). 

 Besides ornamenting himself with perforated shells, pieces of 

 bone, ivory, and teeth, he probably painted his body of a red 

 colour. He, like the river-drift people, possessed no domestic 

 animals, and had no dog to assist him in hunting. 



{To be continued.) 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Dr. J. Lorrain-Smilh has been appointed 

 Demonstrator in Pathology, in the place of Mr. L. Cobbett, 

 who has been elected to the John Lucas Walker Research 

 Studentship. 



An Isaac Newton Studentship in Astronomy, worth ;^200 a 

 year for three years, will be vacant in the Lent Term. Candi- 

 dates must he B.A.'s under the age of 25 on January i, 1895. 

 Names and testimonials are to be sent to the Vice Chancellor by 

 January 31, 1895, with a statement of the course of study or 

 research proposed. 



At the biennial election to the Council of the Senate, held on 

 November 7, Dr. Peile, Mr. C. Smith, Dr. Maitland, Dr. 

 Sidgwick, Dr. D. Macalister, Dr. Forsyth, Mr. Whitting, and 

 Mr. K. T. Wright were returned for a period of four years. 



Dr. Donald .Macalister was, on November 9, elected with- 

 out opposition to represent the University on the General 

 Medical Council for a second term of five years. 



This year has been memorable as the twenty-first anniversary 

 of the establishment of the University Extension lectures, the 

 system having been founded by the University of Cambridge in 

 the year 1873. The twenty-first annual report of the Cam- 

 bridge Syndicate has just appeared. During the past session 

 seventy-five science courses have been delivered at various 

 centres. This number is less than those of the last two or three 

 years, the diminution being attributed almost entirely to the 

 decrease in the temporary work undertaken by the Syndicate 

 during the preceding sessions for the technical instruction com- 

 mittees of various County Councils. Whereas in some places 

 grants of money from the local authorities have enabled local 

 committees to arrange more easily courses of University Local 

 Lectures on scienlilic subjects, in others the cheap technical 

 classes organised independently by the lo;al authorities have 

 influenced very injuiiously the attendance at the local lectures, 

 and in some cases caused their discontinuance. The County 



NO. 1307, VOL. 51 J 



Councils are just beginning to feel their feet, but it 'seems 

 ungenerous of them to forget that they were helped over 

 their initial difficulties by University Extension Lectures. 

 The Technical and University Extension College at Exeter, 

 which is under the joint management of the local authorities 

 and the Cambridge Syndicate, has nosv completed its first 

 session's work, and about six hundred regular students have 

 already joined the College. Its success affords a striking illus- 

 tration of the method by which under the Local Lectures system 

 permanent educational institutions can be established. It should 

 not be forgotten that the Cambridge University Extension 

 movement was similarly largely instrumental in the foundation, 

 a few years ago, of University College, Nottingham, Firth 

 College, Sheffield, and other local colleges. 



The London Technical Education Gazette, the first number of 

 which has just been published, is intended to contain the official 

 announcements of the Technical Education Board of the London 

 County Council ; notices of important steps in technical educn- 

 tion taken by the various institutions in London ; and useful 

 information bearing upon the work. In the list of the con- 

 ditions which have to be fulfilled by evening classes in science, 

 in order to obtain grants from the Board, we are glad to note 

 the following : — " That as a condition of aid being granted by 

 the Board for the teaching of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, 

 mechanics, and botany, it will be regarded as indispensable 

 that provision should be made, to the satisfaction of the Board, 

 not only for the experimental illustration of the lectures or class 

 teaching, but for experimental work by the students themselves, 

 either in laboratories belonging to the institution, or, where this 

 cannot be arranged, in the laboratories of some neighbouring 

 institution with which the class should be associated ; and every 

 lecture must be followed by at least one hour's practical work 

 on the fame evening, or some other evening in the same week." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



iViedemann's Annalen Jer Physik und Chemie, No. II. — Ex- 

 periment.il researches on the origin of fnctional electricity, by 

 C. Christiansen. Friction by itself does not generate electricity. 

 The appearance of the latter is due to chemical decompositions 

 which are initiated by contact and completed on separation. 

 These results are those of experiments with a tube coated on 

 the inside with various insulators, .arranged so that mercury 

 could be brought into contact with them and withdrawn, after 

 which a charge was indicated by a galvanometer. — On thermo. 

 couples of metals and saline solutions, by August Ilagenbach. 

 In the case of couples consisting of metals and their talis, tlie 

 E.M.F. increases with the dilution, and more rapidly than the 

 difference of temperature. In combinations of platinum with 

 hot and cold saline solutions the same acids give about the same 

 forces, and dilTercnces of concenttation have a very marked 

 influence. Thehighcst E.M.F. obtained was thatof aplatinum- 

 cupricchloridc couple, which, with a j'6 per cent, solution, 

 and with the two communicating portions of the liquid at 25° 

 and 80" respectively, gave an E.M.F. of o'l54l volts. — Changes 

 of length produced by magnetisation in iron, nickel, and cobalt 

 ellipsoid", by H. Nagaoka. The optical lever method was 

 employed. As the field intensity increases, iron first expands 

 and then contracts, going through the opposite stages on revers- 

 ing, and showing a decided hysteresis. Nickel simply contracts. 

 Cobalt contracts first and then expands, the expansion increas- 

 ing to a limiting value as the field intensity increases. — On 

 elliplically-polariscd rays of electric force, and on electric 

 resonance, by L. Zehnder. The author shows how to produce 

 circularly and elliptically polarised electric rays by two wire 

 gratings placed one behind the other, with the directions of 

 wires crossed. — On refraction and dispersion of rays of electric 

 force, by A. Garbasso and E. .\schkinass. To produce a prism 

 capable of affecting ether waves of the length of those due to 

 Hertzian oscillations, a prism was constructed of a series of 

 parallel glass plates, upon which were stuck " resonators " made 

 of strips of tinfoil. This was placed between an exciter and a 

 suitable resonator. It was found that the rays were refracted 

 by angles differing according to the wavc-lcnglli. The deviations 

 for three different resonators were 9° 6', 7° 18', and 5" 24' re- 

 spectively. 



