NOVKMDER 2, 1S93] 



'.VA TURE 



Irunk is taken as a standard, the same general result? are 

 obtained, but the lenirth of the thorax as compired with that of 

 the trunk is greater in the Celts than in the Kymri. A com- 

 ]iarison with similar measurements of various races of Tunis, 

 negroes of the Soudan, and a single bushman, leads the author 

 to the conclusion that in any given race all the measures of the 

 body increase in absolute length and diminish in relative length 

 as the stature increases, and vice vcisA. — In a piper on the 

 IMatriarchate in the Caucasus, Maxime Kovalevsky adduces 

 facts which tend to prove that the ancestors of the 

 mountaineers who live in the high valleys of the Caucasus at the 

 present time practised what Morgan and Fison have called 

 '•'Troup marriage."- — Dr, H. Ten Kate gives an account of his 

 re-searches in Malaysia and Polynesia during a scientific mission 

 promoted by the Royal Geographical Society of the Nether- 

 lands, in the course of which he examined 999 Malaysians of 

 <lifferent races, and 314 Polynesians. The predominant colour 

 of the skin among the Malaysians is brown and dark brown, 

 while among the Polynesians it is light brown and yellow. The 

 Malaysians have generally wavy or curly hair, but straight hair 

 is a characteristic of the Polynesians. The Malaysians are 

 mesocephalic ; the Polynesians brachycephalic. Among the 

 Malaysians the nose is concave or rctrotisse, while the Poly- 

 nesian noies are straight and aquiline in about equal propor- 

 tions. As regards stature, the Malaysians are below middle 

 height and the Polynesians tall. — Dr. P. Topinard gives an 

 interesting account of Anthropology in the United States, 

 where the subject has received so much attention durinsj the 

 last few years. The question of the antiquity of man in North 

 America is discussed at some length, and the general conclusion 

 arrived at is that it does not exceed 15,000 years. Dr. Topinard 

 proposes to continue the examination of American questions in 

 future numbers of L Anthropologic. 



Bulletin de V Academie des Sciences de St. Petersboitrg, New 

 Series, vol. iii. No. 3, — Preliminary report on the results of the 

 archaeological expedition to the Orkhon River, by W. Radloff. 

 The ruins of Khara-Calgasun, the old city of the Uigurs, close 

 by which lie the ruins of a palace of the Mongol Khans, have 

 ieen explored, as also the Tiikiie monuments in the valley of 

 Tsaidamin-nor. In the monastery of Erdeni-dsu, about 27 miles 

 south-east of Kosho-tsaidam, and 20 miles south of Khara- 

 balgasun, the expedition has discovered several stones, covered 

 with Mongolian, Tibetan, and Persian inscriptions which, in 

 Prof. Radlofif's opinion, prove that the old town of Karakorum 

 stood at this spot. This position would agree with the Chinese 

 indications which give to Karakorum a position of 100 li south 

 of Ughei-nor. Many maps, plans, photographs, and casts of 

 inscriptions have been brought in by the expedition. — Reports 

 of MM. Clements, Dudin, Yadrintseff, and Lewin, relative 

 to the same expedition. — Photographic spectrum of Nova 

 AurigK, 1892, observed at Pulkova, by A. Belopolsky. Full 

 ■details of the observations and measurements made on ^the 

 photographs are given. In his conclusions the author considers 

 an eruption of the star as not probable, and concludes in favour 

 o*" a superposition of the spectra of two or more bodies in the 

 spectrum of the Nova. — On a group of peculiar rocks brought 

 from the Taimyr-Land by A. Middendorft, by Dr. K. Chrust- 

 schoff. — On a new species, Felis pallida, from China, by Eug. 

 Biichner. The species is near to Felis chaiis, Giild., but par- 

 tially differs in coloration, as also in the length of the tail. The 

 specimens descibed were brought in by Przewalski in 1884 

 from the south Tetung ridge in Gan-su. — On the state of the 

 basin of the Black Sea during the Pliocene Age, by N. Andru- 

 soff. The following conclusions are arrived at : The now deep 

 P-irt of the Black Sea remained submerged since the Sarmatian 

 epocl), and was covered with brackish lakes of the Caspian type ; 

 however, it was separated from the Mediterranean by a continent 

 which occupied the place of the Archipelago and the .Egean 

 Sea. Tliis continent was submerged, and a communication be- 

 tween the Mediterranean and the Black Sea was established at 

 a very recent epoch, when the Black Sea already had its present 

 shape. — On the differential equation of Lame-Hermite, by F. 

 Brioschi. — On the Perseids observed in Russia in 1892, by Th. 

 Bredikhin. Observations, with the view of determining the de- 

 crease of the inclination of the orbits of the meteors, in proportion 

 to the time-interval from August io'5, have been made through- 

 out the duration of the shower at Moscow, Pulkova, and a place 

 ia the district of Kineshma. All observations, including 339 

 meteors, are embodied in seven lists, or charts, published in 

 full. The radiant has been deduced from each chart separately, 



NO. 1253 VOL. 49,] 



and given for eight different dates, from July 29 to August 29. 

 The surface of radiation has a circular form, its diameter having 

 a length of nearly 45 ', and the radiant point really suffered dis- 

 placement. — On the embryonal development of the birch, pre- 

 liminary communication, by S. Nawaschin. It has two phases 

 in common with the development of the Casuarinre, which 

 therefore cannot be separated from other Angiosperms. They 

 are evidently connected, through the birch, with the lower 

 Angiosperms (Apetales). — On the representation of the daily 

 change in the temperature of the air by means of Bessel's inter- 

 polation formula, by H. Wild. Critics of conclusions, oppo-;e.i 

 to those of the author, and arrived at by Dr. Paul Schreiber, 

 director of the Chemnitz Meteorological Institute. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



' London. 



Entomological Society, October 18. — Henry John Elwe.«, 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. R. Adkin exhibited two Leiicania 

 vitellina and one L. cxtranea, taken in the Scilly Islands, in 

 August 1893. — Mr. R. South exhibited a specimen of Polyont- 

 inatus boeticits, and a number of varieties oi ChrysopJianus'phlcca: , 

 captured in Kent, in September last, by Mr. Sabine ; also a 

 curious variety of Argynnis etiphrosyiie, taken in Lancashire in 

 May 1893 ; a pallid variety of Vanessa tirtioE, taken in Mon- 

 mouthshire, in July 1893; and a Tripliana pronuba, the right 

 wings of which were typical, and the left wings resembled the 

 variety innnba, caught at sugar, in Dovedale, Derbyshire, in 

 July 1893. — Mr. G. H. Verrall exhibited a specimen of the 

 Tsetse [Glossina morsilans), and also one of the common 

 European allied species [Stomoxys calcitraus). He also exhibited 

 a specimen ol Hccinatobia scnata, Dsv. , which hes tatedwas not 

 uncommon on cattle in England, but believed to be harmless ; 

 while in North America the dreaded " horn-fly " is said to be the 

 same species. — Mr. Elwes exhibited a larva which he had found 

 three days previously under stones on a moraine, apparently 

 quite destitute of vegetation, in the Austrian Tyrol, at an elevation 

 of about 7000 feet. He remarked on the numberof Alpine butter- 

 flies, some of them in fresh condition, which he had seen whilst 

 chamois-hunting in the Austrian.Tyrol during the last week, and 

 he suggested that in such a fine autumn as the present one col- 

 lectors might find more novelties among the larva; of Alpine 

 species than in the summer. — Col. Swinhoe read a paper 

 entitled "A List of the Lepidoptera of the Khasia Hills" (pt. 2). 

 The President said he thought all entomologists would be grateful 

 to Col. Swinhoe, Mr. Hampson, Mr. Meyrick, and others for 

 the work they had recently been doing in describing the moths 

 of India ; but as the district of the Khasia Hills was probably 

 richer in species than any other part of India, except Sikkim, 

 and new species were being received almost daily, it was impos- 

 sible to make any list complete. Mr. Jacoby, Mr. McLachlan, Mr. 

 Jenner Weir, and Col. Swinhoe continued the discussion. — ^Mr. 

 E, Meyrick communicated a paper entitled "On a Collection of 

 Lepidoptera from Upper Burma." The author stated that the 

 species enumerated in the paper were collected by Surgeon- 

 Captain Manders whilst on active service in the Shan States and 

 their neighbourhood, shortly after the British annexation of the 

 territory. A discussion followed, in which the President, 

 Surgeon-Captain Manders, and Col Swinhoe took part. 



Paris, 



Academy of Sciences, October 23. — M. de Lacaze-Duthiers 

 in the chair. — Observations of Brooks' Comet (1893, October 

 16), made at the great equatorial of the Bordeaux Observatory, 

 by MM. G. Rayet and L. Picard. — On the movements of the 

 surface of the heart, by M. Potain. The object of this investi- 

 gation was to obtain the interpretation of the cardio-pulmonary 

 sounds resulting from the movements communicated to the lung 

 by the heart, and the local inspiration phenomena produced by 

 these movements. The movements were recorded by an instru- 

 ment capable of tracing simultaneously at several points of the 

 surface the displacements in all directions. From these traces 

 the actual trajectories of the points were constructed, the points 

 being five taken on the accessible surface of the ventricle of an 

 animal with an open chest. The general movement thus indi- 

 cated is, during systole, a rapid retreat of the surface and an 

 equally rapid translation to the right ; this is, in fact, the well- 

 known torsional motion. At the end of the ventricle, the retreat is 

 only effected towards the end of the systole. At the beginning 



