4o8 



NATURE 



[August 21, 1890 



of the bones were damaged or utterly destroyed by the workmen 

 originally engaged in the excavations. In the course of M. 

 Verneau's examination of these sepulchral chambers, he discovered 

 that a special burying-place had been allotted to children close 

 to the stone hearth, which was placed at the entrance of the 

 allee, while the adult skeletons had been deposited in other 

 parts of the chambers. He is of opinion that \hQ foyer or hearth 

 was designed to facilitate the ventilation of the air before the 

 chamber was opened for the deposition of fresh bodies, but the 

 presence in the surrounding ashes of half-burnt animal bones 

 suggests the possibility that these rudely constructed hearths may 

 have been used for the preparation of funeral repasts. The great 

 number of artificially perforated cranial bones proves that the 

 process of trepanning was of frequent occurrence amongst the 

 Neolithic tribes of Les Mureaux. The great variety of cranial 

 types, which range from the extremes of brachycephalism to 

 those of dolichocephalism, shows that a blending of several 

 distinct races had taken place prior to the settlement of these 

 ■early people. The objects found at Les Mureaux, moreover, 

 indicate that these tribes must have had communication with 

 distant regions, for while the stones of which the allee is built 

 have been obtained from the opposite shores of the River Seine, 

 some of the shells, as patella, purpura, and others used for 

 ornamentation, must have been derived from intercourse with 

 people of the remote sea-coast. Perforated flint and bone 

 pendants were found on several of the skeletons, as many as five 

 of these objects being suspended around the neck of a very young 

 child. — On the dietary of the Lapps, by M. Rabot. The author 

 has borrowed so largely from the narratives of earlier foreign 

 travellers, and more especially from those of Dr. Broch and other 

 Danish writers, that his work can lay no claim to originality. 

 According to the author it would seem that we are justified in 

 assuming that the sedentary Lapps and most of those who have 

 entirely given up a nomadic life live almost exclusively on fish, 

 while the pastoral section of the people prefer animal food. — • 

 The cephalic index in the population of France, by Dr. 

 Collignon. The author here shows how we may trace in the 

 distribution of various cephalic indices the main centres of the 

 different races which have occupied the French territories. 

 Among the various peoples settled in France he distinguishes 

 three groups — namely, (i) a Ligurian or Iberian people, the repre- 

 sentatives of the Cro Magnon and other primitive tribes, who 

 exhibited the dolichocephalic type, with a short stature and a 

 brunette coloration. This race appears to have spread from 

 the Gulf of Lyons to the Maritime Alps. (2) A Celtic brachy- 

 cephalic race, which predominated in the districts extending 

 from the Mediterranan to the eastern limits of France. (3) A 

 blonde dolichocephalic people, who had forced themselves 

 wedge- like through the Celtic mass of the population, separating 

 it into two sections, and advancing from north-east to south- 

 west. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 11. — M. Duchartre in the 

 chair. — On the equilibrium and mutual reaction of the volatile 

 alkalies, by M. Berthelot. The author has considered the cases 

 of the mutual reactions of water, hydrochloric and sulphuric 

 acids on piperidine, and has determined the various heat changes 

 which result. He has also investigated the amount of heat de- 

 veloped in the action of ammonia and the fixed alkaline bases 

 on the same compound. Pyridine and aniline have been simi- 

 larly experimented upon.— On the meteoric iron of Magura, 

 Arva (Hungary), by MM. Berthelot and Friedel. An examina- 

 tion of two samples of this meteorite has led the authors to the 

 conclusion that the numerous small crystals are quartz, and not 

 diamonds as has been supposed. — On an electric lamp called 

 the Stella lamp, destined for use in mines, by M. de Garson. — 

 On some new hydrates of gases, by M. Villard. The prepara- 

 tion of the hydrates of propane and of the fluorides of carbon is 

 described. — On a new fatty acid, by M. E.Gerard. The new 

 acid is intermediate between palmitic and stearic acids, and 

 presents analogous properties ; nevertheless its melting-point is 

 notably lower than that of the more fusible of these two homo- 

 logues. The author proposes to call it daturic acid. — Re- 

 searches on the purple produced by Purpura lapillus, by M. 

 Augustin Letellier. — On the multiplication and fertilization of 

 Hydatina senta (Ehr.), by M. Maupas, This communication 

 completes the work recorded in a former ^sipex {Comptes rendus, 

 cix., 1889) on the following infusorians : Cycloglcena lupus 



NO. 1086, VOL. 42I 



(Ehr.), A'ij/aw/waJ^a species (?), and A dtnela va^a (Da.vis), and 

 consists of observations of two specimens of Hydatina senta. — 

 On a peculiarity in structure of aquatic plants, by M. C. 

 Sauvageau. — On the reputed digestive power of the liquid in 

 the covered capsule of Nepenthes, by M. Raphael Dubois. The 

 author has come to the following conclusions: (i) that this 

 liquid contains no digestive juice comparable to pepsin, and that 

 the Nepenthes are not carnivorous plants ; (2) that the phenomena 

 of disintegration or false digestion observed by Hooker were 

 without any doubt due to the activity of external micro-organ- 

 isms and not to the secretion of the plant. — Anatomical researches 

 on hybrids, by M. Marcel Brandza. It has been found that 

 (l) certain hybrids present in their structure a juxtaposition of 

 particular characters such as are found in both parents ; (2) in 

 other cases the structure of different parts of the hybrid is, for 

 every tissue, simply intermediate between that of the parents ; (3) 

 other hybrids have in certain organs a structure intermediate 

 between that of the tissues of both parents, whilst in other organs 

 a juxtaposition of anatomical characters peculiar to the parents is 

 observed. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Swanage : its History, Resources as an Invigorating Health 'Resort, 

 Botany, and Geology: edited by J. Braye (Everett). — Hand-book of 

 Cyclonic Storms in the Bay of Bengal : J. Eliot (Calcutta). — Cyclone 

 Memoirs, Part 2 : — Bay of Bengal Cyclone of August 21-28, 1888 (Calcutta). 

 — Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries : J. S. Jeans (Spon). 

 —The Protoplast: E. C. C. Baillie (Nisbet).— Smithsonian Report, 1886, 

 Part 2, and 1887, Part 2 (Washington). — Obs. Meteoroldjicas hechas en el 

 Observatorio Astrondmico de Santiago, 1882-84, 1885-87 (Santiago de Chile). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Freshwater Algae. By Alfred W. Bennett 385 



Aphasia, or Loss of Speech. By Dr. Ernest S. 



Reynolds 386 



Chemical Crystallography. By A. E. Tutton . . . 387 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Symons : " British Rainfall, 1889" 388 



Wilkinson : " Photogravure " 389 



Deighton : " Elements of Euclid " 389 



Macdonell : "Camping Voyages on German Rivers " 389 



Buxton: " Epping Forest " 389 



Letters to the Editor :— 



The "Barking Sands" of the Hawaiian Islands.— 



H. Carrington Bolton 389 



Relative Growth of Boys and Girls. — Charles 



Roberts, M.R.C.S 390 



The Perseid Meteors.— W. H. S. Monck ; W. F. 



Denning 390 



The Eclipse of Thales. — William E. Plummer . . 390 

 The Rotation of Mercury. — Prof. Alexander 



Winchell 391 



Wet and Dry Bulb Thermometers.— Commander T. 



H. Tizard, R.N 391 



Experiment in Subjective Colours. — W. B. Croft . . 391 

 The Science and Art Museum, Dublin, and the 



National Library of Ireland 391 



Comparison of the Spectra of Nebulae and Stars of 

 Groups I. and II. with those of Comets and 

 Aurorae. II. By Prof. J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S. 393 

 On the Soaring of Birds. By Prof. Magnus Blix. 



{With Diagrams.) 397 



Electrolysis of Animal Tissues. By Dr. G. N. 



Stewart 398 



Lobster Culture in the Isle of Mull 399 



The French Association for the Advancement of 



Science 399 



C. H. F. Peters 400 



Notes 401 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Objects for the Spectroscope. — A. Fowler 404 



Moscow Observatory 404 



Leander McCormick Observatory 404 



Coggia's and Denning's Comets (b and c 1890) . . . 404 

 Sexual Selection in Spiders. By R. I. Pocock . . . 405 

 The Terminology of Hydrolysis, especially as 

 effected by " Ferments." By Prof. H. E. Arm- 

 strong, F.R.S 406 



Scientific Serials 407 



Societies and Academies 408 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received ' 408 



