November 17, 1904] 



NA TURE 



69 



" I am afraid that too much importance has been hitherto 

 attached to the differentiation of stone-celts into axes, adzes, 

 wedges, scrapers, Src. : the savage certainly does not 

 recognise the fine distinctions embodied on the labels 

 attached to these articles in an ethnological museum. . . . 

 The actual manufacture of a celt is now a lost art in Queens- 

 land. . . . The original celt in its simplest form is a water- 

 worn pebble or boulder, an adaptation of a natural form ; 

 otherwise, it is a portion removed from a rock, &c., in situ, 

 either by fire, indiscriminate breakage or flaking." 



A record of a careful excavation of Jacob's Cavern, 

 McDonald County, Missouri, by Messrs. Charles Peabody 

 and W. K. Moorehead, is given in Bulletin i., department 

 of archeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. The 

 implements are of well known types, and nothing suggestive 

 of Palaeolithic culture was discovered ; it is possible that 

 the cave-dwellers were different from the Osages and from 

 the lower Mississippi tribes. The paper is illustrated by 

 eleven plates. The Phillips Academy is to be congratulated 

 on its activity. 



An interesting and well illustrated resumi of the recent 

 archEEological discoveries in Crete is given by M. S. 

 Reinach in I'Anthropologie (Tome -xv., Nos. 3-4, p. 257). 

 The author tentatively proposes the following chronology 

 of the development of the Cretan civilisation : — (i) 4500 (at 

 least) to 2800, Neolithic period. Black pottery, with angular 

 designs and no spirals ; numerous stone vessels ; no metal ; 

 rudimentary figurines of burnt clay. (2) 2S00 to 2200, 

 period of Kamares or Minoan I. About 2800 first certain 

 contact with Egypt (twelfth dynasty) ; introduction of copper 

 and bronze into Crete ; painted pottery derived from Neolithic 

 pottery. (3) 2200 to 1900, period of transition or Minoan II. 

 Building of first palace. Continuation of relations with 

 Egypt and commercial dealings with the islands of the 

 Archipelago, notably with Melos. (4) igoo to 1500, culmin- 

 ation of the period of Kamares or Minoan III. Building 

 of the second palace : great development of ceramics, 

 glyptics, and painting. An artist of Knossos went to 

 Pliylakopi, in Melos, and executed the " flying-fish fresco "; 

 the linear Cretan writing occurs on Melian pottery. An 

 insular confederation (?) took possession of Knossos and 

 there established a new dynasty (?). (5) 1500 to 1200, 

 Mycena"an period. Ceramics with zoomorphic and curvi- 

 linear designs. The centre of civilisation passed to the 

 Peloponnesos ; decadence and abandonment of the palace. 

 The last king of the Minoan dynasty, Idomeneus, left Crete 

 about 1200 for Italy, and founded Salentium ; shortly after- 

 wards the Dorians conquered Crete, and the island entirely 

 retrogressed into barbarity. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



C.AJiBKiDGE. — The report of the studies and examinations 

 syndicate on the previous examination, in which it is 

 proposed that a modern language may be substituted for 

 Greek or Latin, will be discussed in the Senate House on 

 December i. 



Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S., St. John's, and Mr. F. H. 

 Neville, F.R.S., Sidney, have been appointed members of 

 the general board of studies. Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., 

 has been appointed a manager of the Gerstenberg student- 

 ship in moral philosophy for students of natural science. 



Dr. Myers has been appointed demonstrator of experi- 

 mental psychology. 



The Isaac Newton studentship in astronomical physics 

 and optics, value 200!. a year for three years, will be vacant 

 next term. Candidates must be B.A.'s of the university, and 

 under twenty-five years of age on January i, 11505. Appli- 

 cation is to be made to the Vice-Chancellor before 

 January 26. 



Additional benefactions to the university, amounting to 

 some 3500/., have been paid or promised since February of 

 the present year. A considerable number are ear-marked 

 for the endowment of a Huddersfield lectureship in special 

 pathologv. 



Two Walsingham medals in biology have been awarded 

 this year, one to Mr. R. P. Gregory, fellow of St. John's 

 •College (for botany), and one to Mr. K. Lucas, fellow of 

 Trinity College (for physiology). 



New buildings of the Borough Polytechnic Institute, in- 

 cluding buildings for engineering, building trades, domestic 

 economy, &c. , are to be opened as we go to press by Mr. 

 J. W. Benn, M.P., chairman of the London County Council. 



Lord Reay will deliver the prizes at the Northampton 

 Institute for the session 1903-4 on Friday, December 9, at 

 8 o'clock. The prize distribution will be followed by a 

 conversazione, which will be continued on Saturday, 

 December 10. 



Dr. Frederic Rose, His .Majesty's Consul at Stuttgart, 

 and the author of a series of diplomatic and consular re- 

 ports on technical instruction in Germany, has been elected 

 assistant educational adviser to the Education Committee 

 of the London County Council. 



The committee in charge of the fund for the develop- 

 ment and better equipment of the science schools in Trinity 

 College, Dublin, has announced that 15,886/. has now been 

 subscribed towards the 78,000/. necessary for the annual 

 up-keep of the new schools. It will be remembered that 

 Lord Iveagh offered to provide the sum of 34,000/. required 

 to erect the new buildings if the amount required for up- 

 keep were obtained by public subscription. The committee, 

 in making an earnest appeal for further subscriptions, points 

 out that the next most urgent need of the university is the 

 development of the school of botany and plant physiology. 



It mav be taken as indicative of the widespread interest 

 in higher education among the Welsh people that large sums 

 of money are contributed in a great number of small amounts 

 towards the expenses of the university colleges. For 

 instance, in the preliminary list of subscriptions, paid or 

 unpaid, towards the permanent buildings fund, published 

 in the calendar of the University College of North Wales 

 for the session 1904-5, we notice that more than 6500/. is 

 made up of amounts under five pounds, and, in addition to 

 this, there are more than two hundred gifts of five guineas 

 or five pounds. The total amount of subscriptions up to 

 the present towards the permanent buildings fund reaches 

 27,190/. 



The Education Committee of the County Council of the 

 West Riding of Yorkshire arranged last summer for the 

 attendance of a group of art-masters from the schools in 

 their administrative area to attend for six weeks at the 

 School of Industrial Arts, Geneva. The committee has now 

 published extracts from the report received from^ the 

 administrator of the Geneva school on the work of the York- 

 shire teachers, and a summary of the reports submitted by 

 the art-masters who studied at Geneva. The teachers seem 

 to have benefited greatly by their visit, and there can be 

 little doubt that a first-hand acquaintance with Continental 

 methods is of great value to English teachers. One interest- 

 ing wav in which scientific observation may be rendered 

 useful in art instruction comes out in the report of one of 

 the visiting masters, who writes of the Geneva School of 

 Industrial Arts that : " .Another very useful adjunct is a 

 garden where Nature is allowed to have very much of her 

 own wav. Here the form and colour of plants and flowers 

 and their growth at various stages can be carefully and 

 leisurely studied." 



SPE.4KING at the Birmingham Municipal School on 

 Tuesday, Mr. Alfred Moselv referred to some lessons taught 

 bv the 'American educational system. He remarked that 

 .America differs from us in an intense belief in educa- 

 tion, and the realisation bv manufacturers of the value of 

 the thoroughly trained college student in their factories. 

 We are face to face with a condition of things which is 

 somewhat alarming. A scientific education has become an 

 absolute necessity if we are to hold our place industrially. 

 We have an Empire such as those who have not travelled 

 do not realise, an Empire teeming with natural resources 

 in every direction, merely awaiting the skilled hands of the 

 mechanic and farmer to develop them. What we have in 

 Canada and our other colonies makes the United States 

 pale bv comparison, but the United States have learnt to 

 develop their resources, while we have been quarrelling over 

 the village pump. It is Mr. Mosely's intention at an early 

 date to approach some of the steamship companies to see 

 whether facilities can be arranged for some school teachers 

 to visit the United States and observe what is done there. 



NO. 1829, VOL. 71] 



