January 4, 1894] 



NA rURE 



235 



geology. Priz Tremont — To the savant, artist, or mechanic 

 requiring assistance to attain an object of use or benefit to 

 France. Priz Gegncr — For the assistance of the savant dis- 

 tinguished for his contributions to the positive sciences. Priz 

 Delalande-Gturineau—To the young French explorer, or the 

 man of science, who shall have rendered the greatest service to 

 France or science. Priz Jerome Ponti — To the author of 

 scientific work of which the continuation or development is 

 important to science. Priz Tchihatchen — To the naturalist 

 of any nationality who shall have pursued explorations in the 

 .\siatic continent or neighbouring islands, having for their 

 object the advancement of any branch of natural, physical, or 

 mathemaiical science. Priz HouUevigue — Awarded in rotation 

 by the Academy of Sciences, and by the Academy of Fine Arts. 

 Priz Cahoiirs — For the encouragement of young workers known 

 for their interesting re-earches, and more especially for 

 researches in chemistry. Priz Alberto-Levy — For a means of 

 preventing or curing diphtheria. Priz Laplace — To the head 

 student of the Ecole Polytechnique. 



1895. For the improvement of the theory of the relation 

 between the flywheel and the regulator. JViz Gay — For a study 

 of the regime of rain and snow over the whole surface of the 

 earth. Priz L. La Gaze — To the authors of the be-t work on 

 physics, cheiiiistry, and physiology. Priz Deles^e — To the 

 author of a work dealing with geology or mineralogy. Priz 

 Bordin — For the memoir that adds most to the knowledge of 

 natural history (zoology, botany, or geology) of Tonkin or one 

 of the French possessions in Central Africa. Grand Priz des 

 Sciences Physiques — For the work that contributes most to the 

 advancement ol French paleontology by dealing in a thorough 

 manner with the vertebrata of the coal measures, and those of 

 the secondary epoch, and comparing them with existing types. 

 Priz Chuussii'r — For important works in legal or in practical 

 medicine. Priz Petit d'Ort>ioy — Pure and applied mathematics 

 or natural science. Priz Leconle — To be awarded (i) to the 

 authors of new and important discoveries in mathematics, 

 physics, chemistry, natural history, or medical sciences ; (2) to 

 the authors of new applications in these sciences. Priz Gaston 

 Piantd — To the French author of a discovery, invention, or 

 important work in the domain of electricity. 



1896. Priz yanssen — Astronomical physics. Priz Sevres — 

 On general embryology, apulied as far as possible to physiology 

 and medicine. Priz Jean Pcnaud— For the best work 

 published during the preceding five years, 



1898. Priz Damoiseau -For a development of the theory 

 of the pertur'aiions of Hyperion, the satellite of Saturn dis- 

 covered simultaneously by I3ond and Lassell in 1848, principally 

 taking into account the action of Titan. Also to compare 

 observation with theory, and thence deduce the mass of Titan. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



pROF. J. W. JUDD contributes to the Fortnightly zx).z.x\.\z\t 

 ■*• on " The Chemical Action of Marine Organisms," dealing 

 with the nature of the ocean-floor, and showing that the opera- 

 tions going on there are similar to those described by Darwin 

 in his work on vegetable mould and earthworms. Prof. Judd 

 favours the organic view of the origin of manganese nodules, 

 and believes that the chemical theory is improbable. He 

 says : — 



"All the facts collected by the deep-sea exploring expedi- 

 tions point to the conclusion that accumulation of material is 

 going on with the most extreme slowness at these abysmal 

 depths where the manganese nodules are found in greatest 

 abundance, and it may well be that these slowly accumulating 

 muds have been passed through the bodies of marine worms or 

 other organisms an almost infinite number of times. At each 

 passage of the clay through the organism a small addition of 

 mangane>e and iron oxides would be made to the mass by the 

 action of ihe living strucure on the sea water, and thus in the 

 course of time these oxides might be sufficienily concentrated 

 to build up, by concretionary action, the remarkable nodules on 

 the ocean-bed. 



''Such action would be in complete analogy with processes 

 going on both in fresh and salt water, by which calcareous, 

 silicious, phosphatic, and ferruginous deposits are being every- 

 where formed in the waters of the ocean, while all theories of 

 the direct separation of the manganese and rarer metals from 

 their state ol excessively dilute solution in sea-water by chemical 



NO. 1262, VOL. 49] 



reactions appear to me to be beset with the greatest difficulty. 

 All the observations that have been made in recent years upon 

 the deposits of the ocean-floor point to one conclusion, namely, 

 that where materials have once passed into a state of solution in 

 the waters of the sea they can only be separated from it in the 

 open ocean by the wonderful action of living organisms." 



Prof. Buechner discusses "The Origin of Mankind," his 

 article being more or less a review of a pamphlet by Abel 

 Hovelacque, entitled " Les debuts de Thumanite," in which 

 the results derived from archaeological researches are compared 

 with the observations of travellers as to the lowest types of the 

 human family that can exist. Captain Gambier, R.N., writes 

 on " The True Discovery of America." He shows that Jean 

 Cousin, a sea-captain of Dieppe, discovered the River Amazon 

 in 1488, that is, four years before Columbus discovered San 

 Salvador. There is clear evidence that Cousin was thoroughly 

 conversant with all that was known of geography, hydrography, 

 and nautical astronomy in his day, and that he sailed up the 

 Maragnon, which was his name for the River Amazon as he 

 heard it from the natives. On board Cousin's ship, as second 

 in command, was a man named Vincent Pincon, and 

 Captain Gambler's contention is that this Pincon was the same 

 man as the Vincent Pinc^on who i> known to have commanded 

 one of the ships under Columbus. The Pincon that sailed 

 with Cousin was tried by court-martial for insubordination when 

 the ship returned to Dieppe, and was condemned to perpetual 

 banishment from the soil of France. He went to Genoa, and 

 from there to Palos, in Andalusia, where his two brothers 

 carried on the business of shipowners and traders, making 

 occasional voyages themselves. It is not too much to suppose 

 that Columbus met the Pinions, and was indebted to them for 

 informal ion about Cousin's voyajje. Jealousy and human self- 

 interest will explain why Cousin's name was carefully omitted 

 from all writings referring to the discovery that was afterwards 

 made by Columbus and the three Pincons who accompanied 

 him on the celebrated voyage. 



In addition to these articles, the Fortnightly contains one in 

 which Dr. Thin comments upon the most important points 

 brought out in the Report of the Leprosy Commission in 

 India. 



The Neiv Peviezv, which appears for the first time this month 

 as an illustrated review, contains an article on the late Prof. 

 Tyndall, by Mr. P. Chalmers Mitchell. Sir William Flower 

 contritiutcs to Good Words an excellent description of the 

 structure and action of " Birds' Wings." "The Vanishing 

 Moose and their Extermination in the Adirondacks " is the title 

 of a well-illustrated article by Mr. Madisson Grant in the 

 Century. Mr. Grant says that the last moose in New York 

 State was killed on the east inlet of Raquette Lake, in the 

 autumn of 1861. In the Century also is related the circum- 

 stances that led to the first employment of chloroform, in 1847, 

 by Sir James Simpson, the scribe being his daughter, Miss 

 E. B. Simpson. Since chloroform may soon be superseded by 

 some newer anaesthetic, it is well that the events which estab- 

 lished it as the great alleviator of animal suffering have 

 been recorded. Other magazines received by us are the 

 Hu?>ianitarian, which reprints the address on "Biology 

 and Ethics," recently delivered by Sir James Crichion Browne 

 at Sheffield, Scribner, the National Review, Contemporary, 

 the Modern Review, and Longman's, but none of these contain 

 any articles of scientific interest. 



THE RISE OF THE MAMMALIA IN 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



I. 

 TN a remarkable address delivered before the Zoological sec- 

 ^ tion of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, at the Madison meeting, in August, Prof. H. F. 

 Osborn gave an account of the recent achievements of explora- 

 tion and research in connection with the rise of the mammalia 

 in North America, and suggested the lines along which further 

 advances were desirable. The length of the address precludes its 

 complete publication here, but the most important features will 

 be found in the following extracts. Among the omitted por- 

 tions are sections dealing with the origin and evolution of 

 Trituberculism, the succession of the Perissodactyls, and that 

 of the Artiodactyls, and the relation of the Ancyclopoda (Cope) 

 to the law of correlation. 



