Feb. 15, 1872] 



NATURE 



315 



description of a new genus and species of Characinoid Fishes 

 from Demerara, proposed to be called Nannostomus bcchfoydi. — 

 A communication v/as read from Lieutenant Reginald Beavan, 

 of the Revenue Survey Department of India, containing desi rip- 

 tions of two new species of Cyprinoid Fishes from the Punjab. 

 — Mr. Howard Saunders exhibited specimens of and described a 

 new species of Green Woodpecker from Southern Spain, which 

 he proposed to call Gccinm sharpii. 



Anthropological Institute, February 5. — Dr. Charnock, 

 vice-president, in the chair. W. J. Jeaffreson, M.A. , was 

 elected a member. — Lieut. -Col. G. G. Francis exhibited a series 

 of flint, stone, and bone implements and human bones from 

 Paviland, Gower. — Mr. George Harris, vice-president, read a 

 paper "On the hereditary transmission of endowments and 

 qualities of various kinds." Of the actual transmission of 

 qualities no doubt could be entertained. Many thought they 

 were mainly derived from the mother, and in some instances they 

 were inherited from the grandparents. That was often observed 

 in cases of disease. Endowments did not, however, always 

 directly descend, but were transmitted in various ways, such as 

 in the descent of particular talen'.s. In other cases it was 

 modified in the transmission ; occasionally the various qualities 

 of both parents seemed to be divided among the different 

 members of the family. That was observable in the breed- 

 ing of animals. Physical qualities were also transmitted in 

 the same way, and artificial acquirements had been considered 

 transmissible. The most extraordinary instances were related 

 of the existence of complete continuity, both mental and moral, 

 between the parents and the children. The author considered 

 the subject to be one of deep interest, and suggestive f'f various 

 theories, and irespecting which the observations of each might 

 add to the common stock of knowledge. — A paper on " the 

 Wallons," by Dr. Charnock and Dr. Carter Blake, was then 

 read. The Wallons were descendants of the old Gallic 

 Belgx who held their ground in the Ardennes, when 

 Gaul was overrun by the Germans. The Wallons were 

 tall, somewhat slender, raw-boned, tough, rough, and hardy, 

 and made excellent soldiers. Their hair was dark, eyes fiery, 

 dark-brown, or blue, and deep sunk. The ordinary Wallons 

 stood in a similar relation to Belgium to what the Irish 

 peasant did to the Sassenach. They were poor, jovial, g"od- 

 natuicd, superstitious, chaste, hospitable, quarrelsome, violent, 

 and generous, like the Irish. They were poetical, rich in song, 

 and fond of the dance. They surpassed the Flemish in adroit- 

 ness, activity, and skill, and the French in earnestness, perse- 

 verance, and diligence. As evidence of their peculiar character, 

 a Wallon would drag a pig from Namur to Ghent, or even to 

 Bruges, to gain a few sous more than he could in his own 

 district. Some of the most eminent of the modem statesmen of 

 Belgium were of Wallon descent. Notwithstanding these gene- 

 ral remarks, a special mental and moral character might be pre- 

 dicated of the Wallons of each district. The ppper concluded 

 with copious remarks on the language of the Wallons, together 

 with their proverbs. 



Society of Biblical Archaeology, February 6. — Dr. Birch, 

 president, in the chair. — The following gentlemen were duly 

 proposed as members of the society : — Mr. T. H. Christy, Mr. 

 James Collins, Mr. George C. Hale, Rev. Prof. Mahaffey. An 

 important communication was received from M. Clermont Gan- 

 neau, on an " Inscription in Hebrew or Ancient Phoenician 

 Characters of the time of the Kings of Judah, discovered at 

 Siloam-el-Fokani, near Jerusalem." In this paper M. Ganneau 

 related the discovery of two incised tablets, executed on the wall 

 of a ruined rock-cut chamber or sacellum, near to the house of 

 the Sheikh of Siloam. The inscriptions were in the old Archaic 

 character, now familiar to the archreological world in the famous 

 Moabite Stone. Some Christian hermit had, about the fourth 

 century of our era, wilfully mutilated part of the writing, but 

 enough still remained to attest its extreme value as a palaographic 

 record. Portions of the first four lines of the first tablet the 

 learned savant believed to contain the name of the divinity Baal, 

 and to denote a votive dedication to him by a functionary, name 

 illegible, about the period of the later Kings of Judah. The 

 author inclined to think that the cave had been orii.inally dedi- 

 cated to Baal at a still earlier period, probably by one of 

 Solomon's Moabitish wives, and that it was afterwards added to 

 and finished in a subsequent reign. M. Ganneau piomised, in 

 conclusion, shortly to lay before the society a more perfect 

 examination and conjectural restoration of the inscriptions on both 



tabltts, and expressed a hope that the records in question would 

 prove not inferior in importance to any other, as being themselves 

 I he oldest, or nearly the oldest, positively Hebrew inscriptions in 

 existence. 



Mathematical Society, February 8.— Prof. Cayley, vice- 

 president, in the chair. The chairman mentioned that the presi- 

 dent had made inquiries at the Home Office as to the mode of 

 procedure requisite for obtaining a charter for the society, and 

 that the [matter would come on for consideration at the next 

 subsequent meeting (March 14) when members would have an 

 opportunity of stating their views upon the desirability of in- 

 corporation. — Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher was elected a member of 

 the society. — Mr. Cotterill gave an account of his paper "On 

 an Algebraical Form, and the geometry of its dual connection 

 with a polygon, plane, or spherical." The chairman. Dr. Hirst, 

 and Prof. Clifford took part in a discussion on the paper. 



Entomological Society, Februarys. — Prof. Westwood, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. McLachlan brought before the notice of 

 the meeting an illustration of the manner in which the increase 

 of plant-lice is checked by Hymenopterous parasites ; a family of 

 aphides collected round a poplar twig exhibited had been utterly 

 destroyed by these parasites, there remaining only the inflated 

 em' ty skins much resembling the egg of some large insect, and 

 each with a circular hole whence the parasite had emerged. — Mr. 

 Druce exhibited a selection from a large collection of butterflies 

 formed in Costa Rica by Dr. Van Patten. It included about 

 fifty new species and one new genus. Amongst the more strik- 

 ing forms were four new species of Papilio, three of Morpho, 

 three or four of /(//rt/w, &c. — Prof Westwood exhibited draw- 

 ings and specimens of various interesting species of Acarnia, in- 

 cluding forms new to Britain. One of these was allied to the 

 poi.sonous Argas pcrsicus, and had been found in the ciypt of 

 Canterbury Cathedral. Mr. Bond had also seen examples found 

 in a church on a gentleman's coat after two young bats had fallen 

 upon. him from the roof. Another pertained to the genus Tivgulus, 

 and had been found in Dorsetshire — Major Parry read a paper 

 on new species of Leucanoid Coleoptcra, which was followed by 

 others by Prof. Westwood and M. Snellen van SoUenhoven, on 

 insects of the same family. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Physical Society, January 25. — Dr. Robert Brown, 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. Turner exhibited a large speci- 

 men of the electrical eel (Gymiwlns dcctikus) of South 

 America, which he had received a few weeks ago from Dr. Rid- 

 path, surgeon. West India Mail Steam Packet Service. He 

 described the arrangement of the electrical organs, and compared 

 them with the corresponding organs in Toipcdo, 3Ialap/i-riiriis, 

 and A/cirmyrtts, and in the tail of the common skate. Dr. T. 

 Strethill Wright made some remarks on the relation of these 

 curious organs to various electrical apparatus. The organs of 

 the electrical fishes were not properly batteries, but w ere pro- 

 bably condensing apparatus. Some time ago he made an arti- 

 ficial electrical eel, and with it he had performed all the experi- 

 ments Prof. Faraday had done with the electrical eel itself, 

 which he would exhibit and explain to the society. He gave a 

 sketch on the board of condensing voltaic apparatus, which was 

 probably analogous to that of the electrical fishes. — Various 

 species of Pedunculated Ciriipedes of Barnacles were exhibited 

 from Shetland, Cornwall, the Black Sea, &c., by Mr. C. W. 

 Peach. In October last Mr. Gathertr, of Lerwick, sent him a 

 fine colony of Lepas fasciciila7-is which bad been taken floating off 

 Kirkallister lighthouse by a gentleman fishing, and who saw a 

 great many similar masses floating past his boat. They are each 

 attached to a bulb like mass, and are in various stages of growth. 

 About ten are left, some having fallen off. When very young 

 they are attached by a short peduncle to feathers, cork, cinders, 

 and seaweeds, or any other floating object. As they increase in 

 size thfy form a bulb on the foot-stalk. 7 his in time becomes 

 so large that it falls off, and thus the animal is buoyed up v.'ith it 

 — in fact, "paddles its own canoe." When thus afloat the 

 animals multiply, and the bulb is enlarged also. It is far from 

 rare, and found in all seas. In Cornwall, after long-continued 

 south-west winds, it is thrown ashore by thousands. — "Remarks 

 on the Diamond Fields of South Africa," by Mr. Andrew Taylor. 

 Dublin 

 Royal Geological Society of Ireland, January 10. — Dr. 

 W. Frazer in the chair. Prof. E. Hull, F.R.S., read some 

 notes on the Marble of Carrara.— Prof. Macalister read 



