September 25, 1890] 



NATURE 



535 



ten metres in depth, has retnrded the work, which is of a com- 

 plicated nature in consequence of the different groups of materials 

 that have been brought to light, and which include two distinct 

 foyers, belonging the one to the reindeer age, and the other to a 

 probably earlier period, besides numerous sepulchral remains and 

 several accumulations of the bones of horses. The latter are 

 perhaps the most curious of the Solutre finds, since within an 

 area of about 4000 metres there is a circular embankment con- 

 structed of horse-bones so densely packed that it is estimated to 

 contain the remains of no less than 10,000 animals. According 

 to the author, these bone-mounds may be regarded as the kokken 

 moddings of the early men of Solutre, whose principal food must 

 therefore have been horse-flesh. — A note on two Phoenician 

 skulls found in Tunis, by Dr. Bertholon. — Art among the 

 barbarian races at the fall of the Roman Empire, by Baron J. de 

 Baye. The author shows how greatly archaeology has gained in 

 recent times by the researches of French and other men of science 

 in regard to art among the barbarian nations. In France the 

 Abbe Cochet, by his clear definitions of the distinctive features of 

 industrial art among races of Burgundian and Frankish origin, 

 has given a new and firm basis to mediasval archaeology, and to 

 him we are indebted for several very important works on the 

 forms and symbolical character of barbaric ornamentation, 

 which is now shown to be common to peoples of the most 

 widely separated countries. The present article is copiously 

 illustrated with drawings of buckles and other ornaments pre- 

 senting symbolical designs, which have been found not only in 

 Central Europe, but in Russia, the Crimea, and Northern 

 Caucasia. From a careful study of these objects, which have 

 ordinarily been referred to as specimens of Gothic art, it would 

 appear that so-called Gothic forms of ornamentation have an 

 eastern origin, and were gradually vulgarized by barbarian tribes 

 in their passage westward. — A history of the so-called Oppidum 

 de Castel-Meur en Cleden (Finistere), by Paul du Chatellier. — 

 The muscles of the face in a negro of Ashantee, by Dr. Popovsky. 

 This case, according to the author, supplies an instance of the 

 interlacing of the facial muscles, which is not unfrequent among 

 the inferior races, and belongs to a class of anomalies presenting 

 a strongly-marked character of atavism. 



Bulletin de V Acadhnie des Sciences de St. Petcrsbourg, 

 nouvelle serie, vol. i., Nos. 2 and 3. — The chief papers (in 

 French or German) are : — On the normal variations and the 

 perturbations of magnetical declination, by H. Wild. — On some 

 (seven) species of Russian and Siberian earthworms, by N. 

 Kulaguin. — New contributions relative to the Olenellus mick2vitzi 

 from the Lower Cambrian deposits of Esthonia, by Fr. Schmidt. 

 — On the quantitative determination of antimonium and sodium, 

 by F. Beilstein and O. Blaese. — A formula for the computation 

 cf the length of the arcs of longitude upon the earth ellipsoid, by 

 A. Bonsdorff. — The bases of a mathematical theory of the in- 

 terior diffusion of light, by Dr. O. Chwolson. The general 

 solution of the problem is not possible ; but, on the hypothesis 

 that the interior diffusion of light in a transparent body is due 

 to particles of matter which reflect the light, and can be con- 

 sidered as independent sources of light, the author, after having 

 established the general theory, discusses several special cases in 

 which the problem appears simplified to some extent. — Sahidic 

 fragments of the Bible, by O. Lemm. — Fishes from the Lower 

 Silurian deposits, by J. Rohon. The little hooks, described 

 by Pander as " Conodonts," which formerly were taken for teeth 

 of fishes, but are now considered to have belonged to Annelids 

 and Gephyrece, are accompanied by real teeth of Vertebrata 

 which wholly differ from them, and prove that fishes were living 

 at the earliest times of the Silurian epoch as well. — Report of 

 the Russian delegates to the Paris Conference upon Metrical 

 Measures, by H. Wild and O. Backlund.— On the ancient 

 Turkish dialects : (i) Seldschuk verses in the Rebab-Nameh, by 

 W. Radloff. — Ad Plutarchi quae feruntur Moralia, by P. Nikitin. 

 — Devonian fishes from the Yenisei, by J. Rohon, followed by 

 remarks upon the spinal cord of Devonian fishes generally. — 

 De scholiis in Sophoclis tragaedias a P. N. Papageorgio editis, 

 by A. Nauck. — Preliminary results of his observations made 

 upon the satellites of Saturn by means of the 30- inch refractor, 

 by Herm. Struve. The observations were made for the purpose 

 of determining the orbits of the interior satellites, Rhea, Dione, 

 Tethys, Enceladus, and Mimas, and later on, the dimensions of 

 the planet and its rings. 



Memoirs of the Odessa Society of XcUuralists, vol. xiv. — On 

 the diffusion of a solution of common salt, by N. Umoff. 

 The experiments were made on the system recommended by Sir 



NO. 1 09 1, VOL. 42] 



William Thomson, by means of glass balls, and the results are 

 given day by day for a period of six months. The result is that 

 the law proposed by Dr. Fick for cylindrical vessels is not yet 

 proved. — On the influence of HCl and metallic chlorides upon 

 the photochemical decomposition of water, by E. Klimenko and 

 G. Pekatoros. — On the excretory organs of the Invertebrates, 

 note by A. Kovalevsky. — On isomery in the thiophene series, by 

 N. Zelinsky. Preliminary report. — On M. Timtchenko's anemo- 

 graph, which combines an anemometer with a weather-cock, by 

 A. Klossovsky. — On some snow-storms, by the same author. — 

 Catalogue of plants found in the neighbourhood of Kishineff 

 (420 dicotyledons and 84 monocotyledons). — On the peritracheal 

 cells of insects, by J. Pekarsky (with a plate). — On the action of 

 the phosphor-pentachloride upon citric acid, by E. Klimenko and 

 Buchstab. — On the snow-covering of South- West Russia, by 

 P. Pantchenko. — On the Nemertinse of Sebastopol Bay, by J. 

 Lebedinsky. Description , of a dozen species of Nemertina% 

 formerly unknown at Sebastopol. — Geological exploration in the 

 peninsula of Kertch, by N. Andnissoff. The Mediterranean 

 Miocene deposits of Kertch belong to a basin of the Miocene 

 sea, which extended from Varna, in the Balkan peninsula, to 

 the Ust-Urt, and was connected in the west with the Miocene 

 sea of Roumania and Galicia by means of one or several straits. 

 A good deal of information supplementing the former explora- 

 tions of the same author is also given. — On the history of the 

 development of the crab Eryphia spinifrons, by J. Lebedinsky ; 

 an elaborate paper, illustrated by several plates. — On the ex- 

 cretory organs of some insects, spiders, and myriapods, note by 

 A. Kovalevsky. 



Bulletin de la Societe des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1889, No. 4. 

 — On the chief properties of meteoric showers, by Th. I3redichin 

 (in French). After having developed in his former articles the 

 idea that the " anomalous " tails of comets give rise to meteoric 

 showers, which, as a rule, may appear annually with varying 

 intensities, the author now examines into those meteoric streams 

 which appear in great multitudes at intervals of several years. — 

 Studies on the palaeontology of Ungulata, by Marie Pavloff 

 (in French). — The cosmical origin of naphtha, by W. Sokoloff. 

 — Zoological researches in the Trans- Caspian region, by N. 

 Zaroudnoi (in French). The list of mammals mentioned is 

 now increased to 42 species, and that of birds to 309 species ; 

 the short notes about their habitats and modes of life are of 

 the same high character as in the preceding work of the same 

 author. 



Geological Annals of the Balkan Peninsula, vol. ii., fasc. i. — 

 Note on the meteorite of Jelica, by J. M. 2ujovic. Twelve 

 fragments of this meteorite, which fell on November 19, 1889, 

 were collected ; the largest of them weighed 3175 grammes. 

 Its composition resembles that of a trachytic breccia. In an 

 earthy, ash-coloured mass, porphyric elements and angular stony 

 pieces of a dark colour, sometimes 4 centimetres long, are dis- 

 seminated. The latter seem to be aggregates of crystals, prob- 

 ably of pyroxene. Closer microscopical examination is promised. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Sydney. 

 Royal Society of New South Wales, May 7. — Annual 

 Meeting. — Prof. Liversidge, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — 

 The Report stated that twelve new members had been elected 

 during the year. One honorary member, the Rev. J. E. 

 Tenison- Woods, and one corresponding member, Major-General 

 Sir Edward Ward, R.E., had died, and the total number on the 

 roll on April 30 was 461. During the year the Society held 

 eight meetings, at which the following papers were read : — 

 Annual address, by Sir Alfred Roberts, (i) Note on the com- 

 position of two sugar plantation soils ; (2) well and river waters 

 of New South Wales, by W. A. Dixon. The aborigines cf 

 Australia, by W. T. Wyndham. (i) Note on the recent rain- 

 storm ; (2) the source of the underground water in the Western 

 Districts, by H. C. Russell, F.R.S. On the high tides cf 

 June 15-17, 1889, by John Tebbutt. List of the marire 

 and fresh-water invertebrate fauna of Port Jackson and 

 the neighbourhood, by T. Whitelegge. The eruptive rocks of 

 New Zealand, by Prof. F. W. Hutton, On the application c f 

 prismatic lenses for making normal-sight magnifying spectacle^^ 

 by P. J. Edmunds. Flying machine memoranda, by L. Har- 

 grave. Irrigation in its relation to the pastoral industry of New 

 South Wales, by H. G. McKinney. (i) The analysis of 



