JANUARY 15, 1914] 
horizontal antennz being thus utilised. The observa- 
tions were not sufficiently numerous to justify definite 
conclusions being drawn, but so far as they went they 
tended to support Mr. Marconi’s results as to the 
southerly origin of these disturbances. 
The aérials of many stations are, of course, to some 
extent directive, and this may account for the com- 
parative immunity of one station from atmospherics 
while another in its vicinity is more disturbed by 
them, although both might be affected equally by local 
thunderstorms. WiLFRED Hatt. 
H. Morris-Airey. 
9 Priors Terrace, Tynemouth, 
Northumberland, January 12. 
A Recently Discovered Stone Gircle, near Matlock, 
Derbyshire. 
On the summit of ‘ Bilberry Knoll,” in the district of 
Matlock, latitude 53° 7’ 13”, and longitude 1° 32’ 15” 
W., there are remains of what I believe to have been 
an important station in prehistoric times, dedicated 
_ to the sun-worship cult. 
a is ‘ee 
The highest point of the hill is crowned by a 
mound, obviously artificial, built up of large boulders 
and earth, and, although much disturbed, many of 
the stones occupy positions in which they were origin- 
_ally placed. Some of them appear to form part of the 
circumference of a circle with thirty-six bays, or divi- 
sions, of 144 ft. diameter. Near the centre there are 
two chambers, one in horse-shoe form, and the axis 
through these chambers is in line with the “ Nine 
Ladies,” a well-known circle, on Stanton Moor. 
The range of hills (of which Bilberry Knoll forms 
the highest point, 928 ft. above O.D.) occupies a very 
strong natural position, and the summit was appar- 
ently further protected by ramparts, remains of which 
may be seen about 200 yards south of the circle 
mound. 
The circle commands an extensive view in every 
direction, and there are in sight more than thirty 
positions which bear distinctive names. 
To discover the significance of some of these posi- 
tions I have taken observations of the sunset on those 
days usually regarded as sacred in the ‘* Druidical,’’ or 
sun-worship cult, more particularly of the May Eve 
and June Solstice festivals. But sunsets down to the 
horizon are rare, and I had no data by which to 
determine the true date of May Eve. I ultimately 
decided on May 11 as being consonant with May 
Eve (old style), and this year, on that date, the full 
disc of the sun rested upon a distant horizon (altitude 
to’), exactly over the intersection of intervening hills, 
on an alignment N. 58° oo’ W. 
At the June solstice the results were more decisive, 
the sunset being almost exactly over the ‘‘ Nine 
Ladies.” This well-known circle lies a little more 
than five miles away, N. 46° 30’ W., and the height 
of horizon is about 13’. And N. 46° oo’ E., with a 
similar altitude, stands ‘‘Blakelow Hill’’; this hill 
would thus indicate the rising sun, and, conjvintly 
with the ‘“‘ Nine Ladies,” provides irrefutable evidence 
of purpose. For, whereas ‘‘ Blakelow Hill’’ is a dis- 
tinctive natural feature, the ‘‘ Nine Ladies” occupies 
a chosen site, slightly below the highest ground, on a 
broad plateau. And, whilst it is in sight, and indi- 
cates the sunset from ‘“ Bilberry Knoll,’ it is not in 
- sight from a circle only 13 miles away on Harthill 
Moor, nor from ‘‘Arbor Low,’’ which is’ within 
54 miles, though a difference of very few yards in 
position, on higher ground, would have placed it in 
sight of all three. It was therefore clearly estab- 
lished as an adjunct to “ Bilberry Knoll.” 
Comparing these results with data which I have 
NO. 2307, VOL. 92| 
NATURE 
555 
since obtained from Sir Norman Lockyer’s valuable 
work on ‘‘Stonehenge,” I find the alignment for sun- 
set on May 6 to be about N. 61° oo’ W., but the date 
actually observed appears to be subject to local varia- 
tion, the Roman calendar being May 9g (the date of a 
fair day at Matlock). Making allowance for this, and 
for variation in obliquity of the ecliptic, it seems prob- 
able that this hill intersection would indicate the sun- 
set on the eve of the May year festival. 
The alignment for the June solstice I make N. 47° 
15’ W., which is so near as practically to confirm my 
conclusions. 
Investigations on the various sites would, I be- 
lieve, prove that the better-known Derbyshire circles, 
‘“Arbor Low,” the ‘“‘ Bull Ring’’ at Dove Holes, and 
‘“Wet Withins ’* on Eyam Moor, were also established 
with alignments to distinctive features that would 
indicate the rising and setting sun on these dates. 
Joun Simpson. 
Spring Mount, Bank Road, Matlock, 
* January 5. ~ 
Trepanning among Ancient Peoples. 
A NoTE in Nature of October 30, 1913, p. 273, 
referring to the late Dr. Lucas Championniére’s paper 
on prehistoric trepanning, which was read at the last 
annual public meeting of the Five Academies in Paris, 
contains this observation :— 
“Tt is remarkable that the operation was not prac- 
tised among highly civilised races like Greeks, 
Egyptians, Arabs, Hindus, and Chinese. . . .” 
But the subjoined quotations would seem to militate 
with the soundness of this expression so far as it 
concerns the ancient peoples of Greece and India :— 
“In surgery his (Hippocrates’s) writings are im- 
portant and interesting, but they do not bear the same 
character of caution as the treatises on medicine; for 
instance, in the essay ‘On the Injuries of the Head,’ 
he advocates the operation of ‘trephining’ more 
strongly and in wider classes of cases than would be 
warranted by the experience of later times ”’ (‘‘ Encyclo- 
peedia Britannica,” 1910, vol. xiii., p. 518). 
“The next most elaborate chapter (of the Hippo- 
cratic collection) is that on wounds and injuries of the 
head. . . . Trephining was the measure most com- 
monly resorted to, even where there was no compres- 
sion” (ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 125). 
“Jivaka (afterwards termed the King of the 
Physicians) had learnt the whole art of healing with 
the exception of the operation of skull-opening. Now 
a man who was afflicted by a cerebral malady came to 
Atreya (Jivaka’s master) and asked him to treat him. 
Atreya replied that the man must dig a pit that day 
and provide it with dung. . . . When Atreya came, he 
placed the man in the pit, opened his skull, and was 
about to seize the reptile with his pincers (when Jivaka 
advised him how to take it away). . . . When all this 
had been done the man was cured” (E. A. von 
Schiefner, ‘‘Tibetan Tales,” trans. Ralston, 1906, 
p. 98). The same book, p. 100, relates how Jivaka 
cured a man whose head itched greatly by drawing 
out of his skull a centipede through the same opera- 
tion. In the “Lives of Jivaka and Amrapali (his 
mother),’’ translated into Chinese in the second 
century A.D., he is said to have used a golden knife in 
skull-opening. 
“Les Saniassis sont enterrés jusqu’au col; un 
Religieux du méme ordre casse des cocos sur la téte 
du mort jusqu’a ce qu’elle soit brisée; ensuite on la 
couvre de terre. On ignore aujourd’hui le motif de 
cette pratique singuliére, 4 moins que ce ne soit pas 
pour faciliter 4 leur 4me le moyen de sortir par une 
ouverture plus honnéte que la bouche, les oreilles et 
