156 
NATORE 
[ DECEMBER 13, 1906 
work, and a number of manuscripts in ten different 
languages and one wholly unknown tongue. Dr. Lecoq’s 
discoveries probably constitute the greatest archzological 
find since the days of Layard and Rawlinson.’? Dr. 
von Lecoq will probably not be over-pleased with the last 
sentence of this telegram, for the wording of which he of 
course is not responsible. He had been sent to explore 
sites in Chinese Turkestan like those discovered by Dr. 
Stein some years ago; Dr. Stein published his discoveries 
in his well-known book ‘‘ Sand-buried Cities of Khotan ” 
(reviewed in Nature of July 21, 1904, vol. Ixx., p. 275). 
Dr. von Lecoq has evidently trodden successfully in Dr. 
Stein’s footsteps, and has, judging by the description in 
this telegram, found antiquities of the same type as those 
brought back by the earlier explorer, and now exhibited in 
the British Museum. To compare with the epoch-making 
discoveries of Rawlinson and Layard the work even of the 
pioneer of the archeology of Turkestan, Dr. Stein, would 
show great want of a sense of proportion. Such com- 
parisons are always odious, and often, as in this particular 
instance, simply silly. 
Tue eighteenth annual dinner of the Institution of Elec- 
trical Engineers was held on December 4. The president, 
Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., presided over a dis- 
tinguished company. Mr. H. Babington Smith, who pro- 
posed the toast of ‘‘ The Institution of Electrical 
Engineers,’’ pointed out the good which has been done by 
the visit of foreign friends in the summer, one of the 
results of which was the establishment of the International 
Commission for the Standardisation of Electrical Nomen- 
clature and the Rating of Electrical Machinery under the 
auspices of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. The 
recent growth of wireless telegraphy was then compared 
with that of what might be called ordinary telegraphy. 
In 1825 a telegraph line was laid for a distance of about 
eight miles, and this might be regarded as the starting 
point of ordinary telegraphy. Little advance was made 
during the next ten years, and it was more than forty 
years before telegraphy across the Atlantic became prac- 
ticable. Wireless telegraphy, on the other hand, was put 
into practical application in less than ten years from its 
beginnings, and the crossing of the Atlantic will probably 
be satisfactorily accomplished in less than forty years. 
The president, in replying, referred to the tablet  re- 
cently unveiled by Lord Kelvin in memory of Michael 
Faraday in the building (formerly a chapel in which 
Faraday worshipped) of the National Telephone Company 
at Barnsbury, London, N. It is seventy-five years since 
Faraday first published a description of his original 
magneto-electric machine. Progress has indeed been great 
since then, especially during the last few years. The basis 
upon which the subject rests has been firmly established 
by Faraday’s disciples, Kelvin, Maxwell, and others, and 
the progress has been great because the efforts of scientific 
and practical men have been combined in due proportions. 
Lord Justice Buckley proposed ‘‘ Science and Industries.”’ 
Sir Arthur Riicker, in responding, said that science and 
‘industry are mutually supplementary. The general view, 
no doubt, is that industry follows rather from science, and 
the corresponding view is that science follows from in- 
dustry. There is an element of truth in both views. Very 
frequently, indeed, great scientific discoveries follow from 
the efforts of those who are interested in industry. The 
two things are best closely combined. 
In No. 1496 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National 
Museum (vol. xxxi., pp. 569-591) Mr. M. Ward Lyon 
points out that the great anteater inhabiting Central 
NO. 1937, VOL. 
led 
if ®) 
America, for which he proposes the name Myrmecophaga 
centralis, is readily distinguishable from the typical M. 
iridactyla (or jubata) of Brazil by skull-characters. As 
shown in the plate accompanying his paper, the most 
distinctive difference between the skulls of the two forms 
is to be found in the degree to which the frontals inter- 
penetrate the nasais, the dissimilarity in this respect being 
very great. It was only to be expected that detailed ex- 
amination would reveal local differences in a type ranging 
from Guatemala to Brazil. 
No. 1495 (vol. xxxi., pp. 539-568) of the Proceedings 
of the U.S. National Museum is devoted to a detailed de- 
scription, by Mr. A. Hrdlicka, of a collection of twenty- 
six skulls of the orang-utan obtained by Dr. Abbott in 
western Borneo, twenty-four of these coming from the 
Sakaiam River district in Landak. Some difficulty was 
experienced in determining which specimens belonged to 
fully adult animals, the dentition affording no trustworthy 
evidence. The best test, in the case of males, appears to 
be the fusion of the temporal ridges to form a sagittal 
crest. After recording measurements of a number of the 
specimens, the author refers to various dental abnormali- 
ties, such as the presence of supernumerary cheek-teeth 
and the diminution in the size of the hinder molars in some 
female specimens. 
Two papers in the American Anthropologist (vol. viii., 
No. 2, April-June), the one by Dr. J. C. Merriam and the 
other by Prof. F. W. Putnam (to whom we are indebted 
for separate copies of both), deal with recent cave-explor- 
ation in California, and the evidence thereby afforded in 
favour of the existence of Pleistocene man in that State. 
The mammalian fauna of Mercer’s, Potter Creek, and 
Samwel Caves (which appear to be the most important 
of the group) has been described in various papers by 
Messrs. E. L. Furlong and W. J. Sinclair, who have re- 
corded remains of the ground-sloth Megalonyx and of two 
remarkable new genera of ruminants, Preptoceras and 
Euceratherium, which seem to show evidence of affinity 
both with the musk-ox and with the Himalayan and 
Tibetan takin (Budorcas). In some of these caves it 
appears to have been the custom of the natives to throw 
in the bodies of their deceased relatives, and the bones 
remaining from these appear to be younger than those of 
the ground-sloth fauna. The most important evidence of 
the coexistence of man with the latter is afforded by certain 
polished and pointed bones, a small percentage of which 
are perforated. Many of these bones recall those found in 
the shell-mounds, although they are less rough, and some 
may be portions of Euceratherium skeletons. Stone- 
payments showing unmistakable evidence of man’s handi- 
work occur in the caves, and in Prof. Putnam’s opinion 
these are probably of Pleistocene age. According to the 
same authority, two perforated bones figured in his paper 
“are sufficiently important to warrant the belief that man 
inhabited the vicinity of the caves at least as early as the 
latter part of the Quaternary period.” 
Pror. KeEtiocc, of the Stanford University, gives in 
Science of November 23 a short account of a preliminary 
investigation conducted by Miss L. Ramsay under his 
direction as to assortative mating, in nature, between 
individuals of different varieties of the lady-bird Hippo- 
damia convergens. The investigation was interrupted by 
the great earthquake, but from sixty cases noted it is con- 
cluded that the matings are ‘‘ wholly non-selective ; . they 
are chance matings.’’ This conclusion is not, however, 
quite in accordance with the numbers given in the text. 
