6i4 



NA TURE 



October 17, 1901 



somewhat different lines on which ihey had worked in their 

 range-finder (of which 400 are now in use in our Navy), differed 

 on ihis point from him and preferred the method of single co- 

 incidence. Mr. Barr's paper, illustrated by lantern slides, was 

 of too highly a technical nature to be dealt with in detail in the 

 space at our disposal, suftice it to say it bids fair to 

 revolutionise the method of carving or engraving the 

 matrices used in type casting. The new process dispenses with 

 wax and electro-plating processes, and secures a pattern cut out 

 of solid brass in a much shorter time than was possible in any of 

 ihe older methods. The author described the great difficulties 

 he had met with in this work, both in the design of a strong, 

 rigid and easily worked pantograph and in the attempt to carve 

 out- rapidly the large amount of superfluous material in the brass 

 plate which had to be removed in order that the design should 

 be left clearly in relief on a smooth plane ; all these had now 

 been overcome. Special machinery had been designed capable 

 of extraordinary accuracy for cutting rapidly the punches needed, 

 and for grinding the cutters. 



The last paper we need refer to was one by Mr. C. R. Garrard 

 on some recent developments in chain driving, which elicited 

 a very interesting discussion, one of the best during the meeting. 

 He gave figures as to the extraordinary pressure per square inch 

 used in chain bearings as compared with those adopted in 

 ordinary engineering work ; in an ordinary bicycle chain as high 

 a figure as 11,765 pounds per square inch may be occasionally 

 reached ; an account was given of the most recent methods of 

 making these chains and of the quality of steel used, and, lastly, 

 of the use of chains for high-speed driving purjjoses. 



Apparently for the reason given before, local engineers took 

 but little interest or share in the proceedings of the Section, and 

 on the whole it was a disappointing meeting, both from the 

 point of view of attendance and discussion on the papers and 

 also in the quality and general value of the papers dealt with. 

 Section G still calls in vain for papers from the numerous engin- 

 eering laboratories throughout the kingdom ; there are scores of 

 young engineers, engaged in scientific research work, and until 

 I hey can be got hold of, and the class of papers radically altered, 

 Section G will fail to appeal to the great body of engineers in 

 the country. T. H. B. 



ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 'PHE Anthropological Section of the British Association met 

 "^ in the new Anatomy Department of the Glasgow Univer- 

 sity, which was formally opened by Lord Lister on the first 

 afternoon pf the meeting. The address of the president of 

 the Section, Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F. R.S., dealt with 

 the human brain, and the part which it has played in the 

 evolution of man, and is to be found in full in Nature of Sep- 

 tember 26, p. 539. The rest of the programme was planned as 

 follows : Thursday morning and Monday afternoon were devoted 

 to physical anthropology, which was represented by an unusual 

 number of highly specialist papers ; Tuesday to ethnography, 

 chiefly American and Malayan ; Friday and Monday morning 

 to archaeology ; and Wednesday to anthropometry and folklore. 

 The principal papers are classified below in order of their 

 subject-matter. 



Anthropography. 



Prof. J. Cleland, F.R.S., gave a demonstration of the cartilage 

 of the external ear in the monotremata in relation to the human 

 ear, illustrated from Echidna and Ornithorkyiuhus. 



Dr. J. F. Gemniill illustrated, by a -series of fine microscope- 

 projections, Ihe origin of the cartilage of the stapes and its 

 continuity with the hyoid arch, showing that the stapes is 

 developed independently of the periotic capsule, and belongs to 

 the hyoid bar. 



Prof. A. Macalister, F. R.S., contributed notes on the 

 morphology of transverse vertebral processes, with the object 

 of determining embryologically the morphological relations 

 of the several parts of the neural arch. A further note on the 

 third occipital condyle showed that two distinct structures are 

 comprised under this naine — a mesial ossification in the sheath 

 of the notochord, and a lateral and usually paired process caused 

 by the deficiency of the mesial part of the hypochordal element 

 of the hindmost occipital vertebra, with thickening of the lateral 

 portion of the arch. 



I'tincipal Mackay read a paper on suprasternal bones in the 



NO. t668, vol. 64] 



human subject, which gave rise to an animated discussion of the 

 embryological evidence. 



Prof. J. Symington combated Hochstetter's view that 

 the " temporary fissures " of the human cerebral hemispheres are 

 merely the product of incipient maceration and putrefaction in 

 laboratory specimens. He admitted, however, that the arcuate 

 fissure is of no morphological significance, and that it has nothing 

 to do with the hippocampal fi-.sure, which latter can be traced 

 in the foetal brain in the position which it occupies throughout life 

 in the monotremata and marsupialia. The rudimentary grey and 

 white matter on the back of the adult human corpus callosiim is 

 probably the remains of a hippocampal formation. 



Mr. J. F. Tocher and Mr. J. Gray discussed the fre- 

 quency and pigmentation value of the surnames of Scottish 

 school-children in East Aberdeenshire. There is a presumption 

 that the present possessors of surnames inherit some of the 

 physical characteristics of their ancestors of the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries, when hereditary surnames first became 

 common in Scotland, and this is confirmed by the fact that among 

 751 surnames noted, 63 Highland names covered 13 to 14 per 

 cent, of the population : the same proportion of Highland blood 

 as had been previously ascertained by measurements. There is 

 wide variability in the pigmentation value of difterent surnames ; 

 Erasers, for example (from blonde Inverness-shire), tending to be 

 blonde ; and Robertsons and Gordons (from Perthshire and 

 West Aberdeenshire) to be dark. A committee of the Associa- 

 tion was appointed to assist Messrs. Gray and Tocher in 

 organising a similar pigmentation-survey for the school-children 

 of the rest of Scotland. 



Miss Nina Layard exhibited a skull found in peat in the 

 bed of the river Orwell, now in the museum of the College of 

 .Surgeons. It proved to be of the same pre-Roman British type 

 which is common in the Fen district. 



Mr. W. M. Douglas, superintendent of police, described the 

 working of the Bertillon method of personal identification, as 

 practised in Glasgow. In discussion. Dr. Garson laid stress on 

 the value of the form of nose and ear in identification, as against 

 the colour of hair and eye ; pronouncing photographs useless, 

 but finger prints most important. 



Ethnography. 



The Report of the Ethnographic Survey of Canada summarised 

 the work of the year, and introduced a copious memorandum by 

 Mr. C. Hill Tout on the natives of British Columbia. The 

 committee was reappointed with a grant of 15/. Mr. J. O. 

 Brant Sero, a Canadian Mohawk, gave an account of the 

 traditional history of the Caniengahakas and their culture-hero 

 Dekanawideh, with notes on their social and political organisa- 

 tion. This striking communication is printed in full in Man for 

 November. 



Mr. Hesketh Ptichard described in detail the manners and 

 customs of the Tehuelche Indians of Patagonia, and Mr. 

 Seymour Hawtrey those of the Lengua Indians of the Gran 

 Chaco. 



The Report of the Skeat Expedition to the Malay Peninsula 

 contained an elaborate account of Malay industries, and was 

 illustrated by photographs and reproductions of native im- 

 plements and fabrics. Mr. Skeat contributed a detailed study 

 of the Sakais and Samangs, wild tribes in the interior of the 

 Peninsula who retain many marks of a primitive stage of culture. 



Messrs. Annandale and Robinson, who are still in the field, 

 sent a full account of the half-Siamese half-Malay community 

 of Sai-Kau in the northerly border-state of Nawnchik, in 

 which the two peoples live side by side and have given rise 

 to a mixed type of culture. Physical measurements show the 

 survival in both of a marked Negrito element. 



Mr. R. Shelford propounded a provisional classification of 

 the swords of the tribes of Sarawak. 



Dr. W. H. R. Rivers discussed the functions of the maternal- 

 uncle, son-in-law and brother-in-law in Torres Straits, with 

 the view of illustrating the underlying principles and the practical 

 working of certain phases of primitive society. 



Mr. C. S. Myers analysed the emotional life of the inhabi- 

 tants of Murray Island, which he studied in the course of the 

 Cambridge expedition to Torres Strait. The excitability of the 

 native is due rather to the varying sanctions of society than to 

 distinctive mental constitution. 



Mr. W. Crooke described the organisation of the projected 

 Ethnographic Survey of India and offered criticisms in detail, 

 regretting, in particular, that it had not been found possible to 



