Jan. 15, 1885] 



NA TURE 



2 S7 



personal observations made during his tenure in 1883 of a 

 medical official post in the country of these tribes, who live under 

 the French protectorate, and occupy an immense territory of 

 Barbara, lying between 32° and 33 20' N. lat. and o° 40' and 

 1° 50' E. long. After giving a summary of the principal his- 

 torical events connected with this people, who lay claim to being 

 the sole representatives of the pure Berbers in Algiers, Dr. Amat 

 enters at great length into the consideration of the results ob- 

 tained by his careful anthropometric examination of fifty 

 natives of Ghardaia. From the means of these determinations 

 it would appear that the M'Zabites are of generally lower 

 stature, and have less delicately proportioned limbs and features 

 than the Arabs, but that, like the latter, they are often perfectly 

 white in infancy, while light-coloured hair and beards are occa- 

 sionally met with among the adults. The people are under the 

 government of a religious or teaching body, composed of a 

 powerful caste of learned clerks, or tolbas. The practice of 

 interring food and domestic utensils with the dead points to 

 usages of m >re ancient date than thuse of the form of Islamism 

 which they follow. Unlike the genuine Arabs, they migrate in 

 large numbers to the citie-, where they conduct prosperous mer- 

 cantile businesses, while they are the great corn purveyors of the 

 Sahara. They employ among themselves a special form of lan- 

 guage, which i> a Berber dialect with certain affinities to the 

 Kabyle, and is not a written tongue. The form of Islamism 

 followed is that known as Owahbite Ibadite. — The concluding 

 part of M. Denicker's notes on the Kalmuks. The author here 

 treats of the special form of Buddhist Lamaism followed by the 

 Kalmuk tribes, their hierarchy, mythology, rituals, religious festi- 

 vals, objects of worship, and the special forms under which Cakya, 

 Mowni, and others of their most highly-venerated so-called 

 bourkans, are worshipped. Owing to the comparatively late 

 adoption of Buddhism, the Kalmuks have retained in their epic 

 poems, aphorisms, and folk-lore, of which examples are given, 

 more of the primitive Mongolian character than some of their 

 kindred ; but the Russian Kalmuks, like their brethren in China, 

 are rapidly losing the warlike and aggressive spirit of their 

 ancestors under the levelling systems of government to which 

 they are subjected in both empires. — On the horizontal plane of 

 the cranium, by E. Goldstein, with tables giving the variations 

 and differences determined among persons of different races. 

 These tables, which are remarkable for their voluminous and 

 detailed character, will be found of great use in studying the 

 causes of the angular variations observable in various ethic 

 groups, and in the anthropoids, and in determining how far such 

 deviations from a fixed horizontal line are dependent on race, 

 age, or disease. 



Bulletins de la Sociite d' Anthropologic de Paris, tome vii., 

 fasc. 3, 1884. — M. de Ujfalvy's report of the results obtained by 

 Dr. Lenhossek and others from an examination of the ancient 

 Magyar tumuli, laid bare on the reconstruction of the town of 

 Szegedin after the inundations of 1S79. — On the age and cha- 

 racter of the covered allies of dolmens on the plain of Ellez, 

 near Tunis, by M. Girard de Rialle. The report is based on 

 the communications of M. Poinssot. — On the presence of EUplias 

 primigcnitts in the alluvial Chelles-beds, by M. Chouquet, who 

 does not consider the juxtaposition of fossil remains as a proof 

 of contemporaneity, but rather as the result of distinct deposi- 

 tions, which frequently belong to different geological periods. — 

 Communication by M. D'Acy on the mammoth of the Cromer 

 forest beds. — On the caves of Saumoussay, near Saumur, by M. 

 Bonnemere, whose opinion that they are of pre-Roman date is 

 opposed by M. Drouawlt and others. — On the exploration of the 

 caves of Muikow in Cracovia, by M. Zaborowski. The authen- 

 ticity of the supposed "finds" of Muikow is forcibly called in 

 question by MM. Mortillet, Szambatty, and other local authori- 

 ties -Notes on the anthropological characters of California, by 

 M. Ten Kate, who has here given the results of the cephalo- 

 metric and other measurements made by him in his explorations, in 

 1 8S3, of the d istricts of Cali fornia south of 24 ' 40' N . lat. The crania 

 examined were of a well-marked Melanesian character, dolicho- 

 cephalous, with moderate prognathism. — On a supplementary part 

 of the great pectoral muscle, by M. Chudzinski. — On the influence 

 of climate and race on the normal temperature of the human 

 body, by Dr. Maurel. The results deduced from carefully 

 tested determinations seem to be that the temperature of Euro- 

 peans in intertropical and equatorial regions is raised only about 

 0° 30' above its normal range in Europe, but that the mean tem- 

 perature of certain races, as the Hindoos, is about o° 50' higher 

 than that of Europeans. — On a gorilla fcetus, by M. Denicker. 



The subject was a female resembling in its pose and its thoracic 

 development a human foetus of five or six months. The lower 

 members presented the true gorilla character. — On the antiquity 

 of the Dingo in Australia, by M. Zabrowski. — On the case of a 

 living double monstrosity, by M. Fourdrignier. — On cephalo- 

 metric determinations of certain murderers who had been exe- 

 cuted, as compared with measurements yielded by an equal 

 number of persons distinguished for excellence of character or 

 attainments, by Dr. Bajenoff. — On the first rudiments of 

 infantine speech, by Dr. Allaire. The author consideis that 

 six distinct periods are observable in the development of the 

 powers of speech, which are dependent on the successive pro- 

 cesses of suction, digestion, dentition, &c. , labial sounds being 

 first emitted, while the dentals are acquired after the gutturals 

 and nasals. — On recent German views regarding the cradle of 

 the Aryan races, by M. Ujfalvy. — On the depopulation of the 

 Marquisas, by M. Clavel, who considers that the general change 

 of habits, and the cessation of intertribal wars, with its attendant 

 decrease of activity, which have resulted from their contact with 

 Europeans, must, rather than alcoholism of which he has seen 

 no genuine cases, be accepted as the real factors in the rapid 

 diminution of population that is going on in the Polynesian 

 archipelago. — Note on the chariots of war employed by the 

 Gauls, by M. Petriment. — On the significance of the annual 

 festival of the Indian Arikaris of Dokata, by Dr. Hoffman. — On 

 the pathological characteristics of the Mandinguis of the Ouolof 

 country, by Dr. Tautain. — On the " Couvade," by Dr. Maurel. 

 The writer, on the authority of Dr. Lenoel of Amiens, asserts 

 that this usage exists at the present day among the Indians of 

 Guyana, near the Amazon. 



Reale Istituto LombarJo, November 13, 1S84. — The paintings 

 of the Italian masters in the public museums of Europe, by Prof. 

 G. Mongeri. — On the projected Penal Code for Italy, by Prof. 

 A. Buccellati. — On the secular variation of the elements of ter- 

 restrial magnetism at Milan, by Ciro Chistoni. — On the total 

 eclipse of the moon, October 4, 1884, by Prof. G. Celoria. — 

 Meteorological observations made at the Brera Observatory, 

 Milan, during the months of August and September, 1884. 



November 27. — Experimental studies on the antiseptics of 

 tubercular virus, by Prof. G. Sormani and Dr. E. . Brugnatelli. 

 — Successful treatment of a large tumour of twenty-two years' 

 standing in the left side of a patient forty years of age, by Dr. 

 G. Fiorani. — On the geometrical movement of the invariable 

 systems, by Prof. C. Formenti. — The paintings of the Italian 

 masters in the public museums of Europe (continued), 1 y Prof. 

 G. Mongeri. — Meteorological observations made at the Brera 

 Observatory during the month of October 1884. 



Jahrbikher fur wissenschaftliche Bolanik, herausgegeben 

 von Dr. N. Pringsheim, Band xiii., Viertes Heft. — "Beitrage 

 ziir Morphologie und Physiologie der Meeresalgen," by G. 

 Berthold, contains detailed investigations of the heliotropism of 

 marine Algae ; also of the influence of other factors upon their 

 structure and mode of growth, together with a description of 

 certain means by which marine Algce protect themselves from 

 too great intensity of light, e.g. (1) by hair-like organs, of which 

 the author distinguishes three types ; (2) by peculiar formations 

 in the protoplasm of individual cells : the most highly developed 

 structures of this order are found in the genus Chylocladia, 

 where one is to be seen in each of the peripheral cells of the 

 thallus, and appears as a highly refractive, plate-like mass in 

 close apposition with the outer wall. Reactions show that these 

 structures consist chiefly nf a substance of a proteid nature. — 

 " Ueber die Wasservertheilung in heliotropisch gekrummten 

 Pflanzentheilen," by A. Thate. The author tests Kraus's view 

 that in organs with positively heliotropic curva'ure the shaded 

 side contains more water than the illuminated side ; he con- 

 cludes that such a difference in amount of water cannot be 

 proved, though on the other hand it cannot be asserted that it 

 does not exist, analytical methods being as yet too imperfect : at 

 best only approximate results can be obtained by Kraus's 

 method. 



Band 'xiv., Erstes Heft. — "Beitrage zur Entwickelungs- 

 geschichte einiger Inflorescenzen," by K. Gobel. This article 

 is chiefly devoted to the study of the development of the inflor- 

 escence in the Graminece. The author finds that, as regards 

 their symmetry, the different varieties of inflorescence in this 

 order cannot be referred to one type, but to two, the dorsiventral 

 and the radial. — "Ueber Bau und Funktion des pflanzlichen 

 Hautgewebesystems," by M. Westermaier, suggests as an im- 

 portant function of the epidermis that it shares with the vascular 



