May 14, 1903] 



NATURE 



47 



.l/an. — Mr. E. N. Fallaize read a paper on the classification 

 of the subject-matter of anthropology. After defining 

 anthropology quite generally as the " science of man," and 

 pointing out how vast was the scope of such a science which 

 must include all that man is and all that man does, Mr. 

 Fallaize suggested the following classification of the ques- 

 tions with which the science has to deal : — A. Man's place 

 in Nature, including under this head the investigation of 

 man's place in time and man's place in space, the first 

 ■section (for which the term palaeanthropography was 

 -uggested) dealing with the origin and descent of man, 

 Tertiary man, the physical types of the Stone, Bronze, and 

 Iron ages; the second with the distribution of mankind, and 

 the classification of races by physical types — general ethno- 

 logy. Under B. fall all questions dealing with physical 

 structure — anthropography ; while C. deals with the func- 

 tioning of the organs— physiological anthropology — in- 

 cluding such questions as heredity, atavism, racial fertility, 

 and the like. Section D. deals with specifically human 

 activities in the following order : — (a) gratification of the 

 senses, including dancing and the aesthetic arts ; (6) 

 ^■^ratification of the intellect, the sciences, especially in the 

 arlier stages "of their development; (c) communication of 

 ideas, language and writing ; (d) social structure, the in- 

 dividual and the social organism ; (e) man's intercourse with 

 Nature : (o) material nature — technology ; ()3) immaterial 

 nature — the study of religion and folklore. — Mr. J. Gray 

 read a paper on the measurements of the Colonial Coronation 

 contingent. The paper contained an analysis of the measure- 

 ments of about one hundred men of the native troops 

 encamped at the Alexandra Palace during the Coronation 

 celebrations. Amongst the races measured were natives of 

 Sierra Leone and the West Coast of Africa, Nigeria, Lagos, 

 Old Calabar, Central Africa and Somaliland ; also Fijians, 

 Maoris, Chinese and Singhalese. The mean values of the 

 head dimensions and stature were calculated for each group, 

 and also possible deviations from the mean in other samples. 

 The results were plotted out on a chart, and the conclusions 

 arrived at were that broadly the same race stretches from 

 Sierra Leone to Somaliland, but that towards North Africa 

 the breadth of the head increases. The Asiatic and Poly- 

 nesian races, such as the Chinese, Fijians, and Maoris, were 

 infallibly distinguished from the African races by the 

 greater breadth of their heads. The measurements of the 

 African races showed remarkably good agreement with Mr. 

 Randall Maclver's measurements of the Berbers, and Sir H. 

 Johnston's measurements of the Central Africans. 



Zoological Society, April 21.— Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. Henry Scherren 

 read a short paper dealing with the literature of feather- 

 tracts as found in the writings of Hunter and Linnaeus. 

 The author directed attention to a figure in the " Amoeni- 

 tates " (1766) in which these tracts were shown, and 

 suggested that a passage in " The Garden of Cyrus " proved 

 that Sir Thomas Browne knew of them, and that they 

 varied in extent and position in different birds. — Mr. Old- 

 field Thomas read a paper on some mammals collected by 

 Captain H. N. Dunn in the Egyptian Soudan. Nineteen 

 species were enumerated, of which five were described as 

 new. — In a paper on the geographical distribution of the 

 Mygalomorphae, an order including the trapdoor spiders 

 and the species formerly grouped together under the com- 

 prehensive title Mygale, Mr. R. L Pocock pointed out 

 that the known facts justified the mapping of the world 

 into the following zoological regions : — (i) The Holarctic, 

 including Europe north of the southern mountain chains. 

 North Asia, and North America north of about the 45th 

 parallel of latitude. (2) The Mediterranean, including South 

 Europe, Africa north of the Sahara, and the desert regions', 

 of South-western Asia. (3) The Sonoran, including the t 

 United States of America south of about the 45th parallel \ 

 of latitude and the plateau of Mexico. (4) The Ethiopian, j 

 including Africa south of the Sahara, South Arabia, and 

 Madagascar. The last-mentioned island ranks merely as \ 

 a subregion of the Ethiopian. (5) The Oriental, including j 

 India, Ceylon, Burma, Siam, and all the Indo- and Austro- 

 Malayan Islands to Australia, " Wallace's line " being 

 non-existent so far as spiders are concerned. (6) The 

 Australian, including Australia and New Zealand, the latter 

 being worthy of recognition as a suBregion. (7) The Neo- 



NO. 1750, VOL. 68] 



tropical, including Central America, apart from the Mexican 

 plateau, the West Indies and South America. These 

 spiders, moreover, furnished very strong evidence in favour 

 of a former union between Africa and South America, and 

 of a connection between the Afro-Mascarene and Austro- 

 Zelandian continents on the one hand, and Austro-Zelandia 

 and the southern extremity of South America on 

 the other.— Mr. Woodland read a paper on the phylo- 

 genetic cause of the transposition of the testes in mammals. 

 --A communication from Mr. F. F. Laidlaw dealt with the 

 marine Turbellaria collected during the " Skeat Expedi- 

 tion " to the Malay Peninsula. In it ten new species were 

 described, three of which were referred to new genera. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, April 21.— Mr 

 Charles Bailey, president, in the chair.— Mr. Spencer 

 Bickham read a paper on caoutchouc, in which he de- 

 scribed the methods of collection and preparation employed 

 m the different countries where this product is obtained and 

 remarked upon the geographical distribution of the 'trees 

 from which caoutchouc is extracted. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, May 4.-M. Albert Gaudry in the 

 cha.r.-Notice on Admiral Ernest de Faulque de Jon- 

 qui^res, by M E. Ouyou.-Waves of the second order with 

 respect to their velocity in vitreous media, possessine 

 viscosity, and affected by finite movements, by M P 

 Duhem.— On some physical properties of trimethy'lcarbinol" 

 by M. de Forcrand. Determinations of the melting and 

 boiling points, specific heat in the solid and liquid states 

 heat of fusion and volatilisation are given.— On glvcuronic 

 acid in the blood, by MM. R. L6pino and Boulud.— On 

 the ancient lines of the Pliocene and Quaternary beaches 

 on the French coasts of the Mediterranean, by M. Ch 

 Dep^ret. A preliminary study of the changes of level of 

 the Mediterranean from the Pliocene epoch up to the present 

 time. Four distinct lines of beach can be made out; the 

 early Pliocene at an elevation of 170 to 175 metres,' the 

 recent Pliocene at an elevation of 60 metres, 'early 

 Quaternary at an altitude of 25 metres, and a later 

 Quaternary at an altitude of 4 to 5 metres. The hypothesis 

 of a simple series of negative movements lowering the level 

 of the sea is insufficient to explain these facts.— Remarks 

 by M. Edmond Perrier on the sixth volume of his " Traits 

 de Zoologie. "—Secular perturbations, by M. Jean Mascart. 

 —The period of the sun-spots and the mean annual 

 temperature variations of the earth, by M. Charles 

 Nordmann. The work of Koppen has shown that it is 

 only in tropical stations that any connection can be traced 

 between the mean annual temperature and the sun-spot 

 frequency. A study of the observations made at twelve 

 tropical stations shows that the mean annual temperature 

 undergoes a variation the period of which is sensibly equal 

 to that of the sun-spots. The effect of the spots is to 

 diminish the mean terrestrial temperature, that is to say, 

 the curve which represents the temperature variations "is 

 parallel to the inverse curve of the sun-spot frequency. — On 

 the twilights observed at Bordeaux during the winter of 1902- 

 1903, by M. EsclanKon. The hypothesis of finely sus- 

 pended dust being the cause of the phenomenon would appear 

 to be insufficient. It is more probably due to clouds. — 

 On the r function and its analogues, by M. A. Pellet. — 

 On the, approximation of numbers by rational numbers, 

 by M. Emile Borel. — On the relative motion 'of the work 

 and the tool in cutting the section of a mechanism, by 

 M. G. Koenigrs. — A transmission dynamometer giving 

 directly the work in kilogrammetres, by MM. GaifTe and 

 GUnther. An electrical contrivance by means of which the 

 work can be directly read off on an ammeter. The 

 apparatus can be easily arranged to be self-recording. — 

 The theory of electric and magnetic dichroism, by M. 

 Georges Meslin. — The repulsion of the anode light by the 

 kathode rays, by M. Salles. — On metallic diaphragms, by 

 .M. Andre Trochet. If a plate of platinum is interposed 

 between the two electrodes of a copper voltameter, when 

 the current has attained a certain density, copper is de- 

 posited on the platinum. The dependence of this deposit 

 upon the current and the shape of the bipolar electrode is 

 studied quantitatively. — On compounds of aluminium 



