August 21, 1884] 



NA TURE 



4o- 



coloured or brown spots began to appear on the face and hands, 

 but these remained limited to Ike portions of the surface exposed to 

 light." 



May it not therefore be claimed that there is much foundation 

 for the suggestion that the black skin of the negro is but the 

 smoked glass through which alone his widespread sentient nerve- 

 endings could be enabled to regard the sun? 



Nathaniel Ai.cock, 

 Surgeon-Major, Army Medical Department. 



Since the foregoing was written there has appeared in the 

 British Medical /carnal, July 26, a most valuable paper by Dr. 

 lion " Some Effects of Variations of Light." which sums 

 up in these words, " We are tempted to conclude that light and 

 heat impose each its own effects upon plants, as they do upon 

 animals," and that "light is a stimulus direct as well as 

 indirect.'" 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Alii delta R. Accademia del Lined, May 18. — On the molybdate 

 of didymium, by Alfonso Cossa. — On the geological constitution 

 of the Maritime Alps, by D. Zaccagna. — On some psychological 

 difficulties that may be solved by means of the idea of the infinite, 

 by Francesco Bonatelli. — Remarks on the Oriental manuscripts 

 of the Marsigli Collection at Bologna, with a complete list of the 

 Arabic manuscripts in the same collection, by Baron Victor 

 Rosen. — The Ligurians associated with the barrows of the first 

 Iron Age found in the district of Golasecca, Lombard)', by Luigi 

 Pigorini. — Note on Bartolomeo da Parma, an astronomer of the 

 thirteenth century, and on a treatise by him on the sphere pre- 

 served in the Victor Emmanuel Library, by Enrico Narducci. — 

 Report on the antiquities discovered in various parts of Italy 

 during the month of April, by S. Fiorelli. — Meteorological ob- 

 servations made at the Observatory of the Campidoglio during 

 the month of April. 



June 1. — Obituary notice of A. Wurtz, by S. Camiz2aro. — 

 On the expansion of sulphuric ether under various pressures, by 

 G. Pietro Grimaldi. — On the physiology and pathology of the 

 supra-renal capsules, by Guido Tizzoni. — Analysis of a silicated 

 hydrate of baryta, by Alfonso Cossa and Guiseppe La Valle. — 

 On the observations of atmospheric electricity made at the 

 Central Meteorological Office, Rome, by Pietro Tacchini. — 

 Meteorological observations made at the Observatory of the 

 Campidoglio during the month of May. 



June 15. — Description of a Buddhist Codex in the Pali lan- 

 guage, forwarded to the Academy by L. Nocentini, Italian 

 Vice-Consul at Shanghai. — Obituary notice of Hermann Ulrici, 

 by S. Ferri. — Reports on the influence of heat and magnetism 

 on the electric resistance of bismuth, by Prof. Augusto Righi ; 

 on the constants of refraction, by Dr. R. Nasini ; on the capillary 

 equivalent-, of simple bodies, by Prof. R. Schiff. — Note on a 

 problem in electrostatics, by Vito Volterra. — A method of 

 determining the ohm in absolute measure, by Guglielmo Men- 

 garini. — Experimental researches on the variation in the density 

 of water between o° and 10°, by Filippo Bonetti. — On the spec- 

 trum of absorption of the vapour of iodine, by Arnolfo Morghen. 

 — Remarks on Shelford Bidwell's new explanation of Hall's 

 phenomenon, by Augusto Righi. — On the electric conductivity 

 of the combinations of carbon, by Adolfo Bartoli. — On the pene- 

 trability of glass by gases under pressure, by Adolfo Bartoli. — 

 On the coexistence of different! empirical formulas, and espe- 

 cially on those containing the capillary constant of liquids or the 

 cohesion of solids, by Adolfo Bartoli. — On the atmospheric 

 waves produced by the Krakatoa eruption, and observed at 

 Palermo, by Gaetano Cacciatore. — Remarks on the dynamics of 

 storms, by Ciro Ferrari. — On the intestinal canals and branchial 

 tubes of the Salpidae, by Francesco Todaro. — Report on the 

 antiquities found in various parts of Italy during the month of 

 May, by S. Fiorelli. 



Revue d' Anthropologic, tome viii. , fasc. 3, Paris, 1S84. — The 

 contents are : — An unfinished paper of Paul Broca, on his mode 

 of preparing the cerebral hemispheres, which, with another 

 chapter on the best methods of casting the required moulds, was 

 to have formed part of the treatise on the circonvolutions of the 

 schematic brain, on which he was engaged at the time of his 

 death. The present paper breaks off in the middle of his ex- 

 planation of the process of mummifying the brain. — An essay 

 on the ethnology of North Africa, by M. Camille Sabatier. 

 This paper is entirely devoted to the consideration and recapitula- 



tion of the geographical descriptions given by Herodotus, Sal- 

 lust, and other ancient writers of Lybia, under which designation 

 most of the then known African continent was included. It also 

 treats of the great invasions from Asia, and of the differences 

 between the various African races. As distinct from the Lybians 

 or mountaineers, and the Getula? or pastoral occupants of the 

 plains, the author believes we may recognise a separate branch, 

 which bore the name of Escs or Oscs, and which probably have 

 given origin to the modern Basque Escualdunacs and other kin- 

 dred western races. — A continuation of M. Deniker's observa- 

 tions on the Kalmuks. This paper is devoted specially to the 

 sociology of the people, the condition of the women, and the prac- 

 tices observed at betrothals, marriages, &c, being fully treated of. 

 The Lamas, who exercise a great influence on the people — inter- 

 vening in all the great events of life from the cradle to the 

 grave — are employed in several of the steppes by the Russian 

 Government to keep the civil registers of the various hordes. — 

 On various skulls of Arizona and New Mexico, by M. Ten 

 Kate. From a comparative study of these and other crania 

 collected by the author in his extensive travels in the Far West 

 and in the Mexican territories, he is inclined to regard the con- 

 structors of the casas grandes of Arizona and the "cliff-dwel- 

 lers " as closely allied to the Indian tribes of the Pueblos, or 

 so-called "towns" of New Mexico. He found the same brachy- 

 cephalic characteristics and the same evidence of artificial de- 

 formity in skulls of the ancient Pueblos of Quarra as in the 

 modern Mexican Indians. — On the circumference of ihe thorax, 

 and its relation to the dimensions of the rest of the body, by 

 M. Ed. Goldstein. This paper is based on the data supplied 

 by Dr. Snigerev in his great work on the recruiting of the Rus- 

 sian army, more especially in the districts of the Vistula and 

 the north-west of the empire. The great ethnological fact 

 established by these determinations appears to be that, as com- 

 pared with Poles, Germans, Lithuanians, Russians, and Samo- 

 gitians, the Jews are distinguished by relative smallness of 

 stature, and by the generally inferior dimensions of the chest, in 

 both of which particulars they would appear to fall considerably 

 below the mean of all the other races brought under the notice 

 of the authorities at the head of the department for recruiting 

 the Russian army. 



Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo, July 17. — Note on the 

 present conditions of the agricultural interests in Europe and 

 America (continued), by Prof. Gaetano Cantoni. — Memoir on 

 cellules and parasites in their pathological relations (concluded), 

 by Prof. G. Sangalli. — Mental affection of Torquato Tasso ; his. 

 detention in the Hospital of Sant' Anna, according to some re- 

 cently-discovered documents, by Prof. A. Corradi. — On the 

 equilibrium of elastic and rigid surfaces, by Dr. Gian Antonic 

 Maggi. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Edinburgh 

 Royal Society, July 21. — The Right Hon. Lord Mon- 

 creiff, President, in the chair. — Mr. John Murray communicated. 

 with remarks, a paper by Dr. Guppy of H.M.S. Lark, on the 

 coral reefs and calcareous formations of the Solomon Group 

 Islands. Dr. Guppy showed that the coral rocks were merely 

 superficial, thus confirming Mr. Murray's theory that coral atolls 

 and barrier reefs were formed without subsidence. A chalk, like 

 the white chalk of England, had been discovered on one of the 

 islands. — Prof. Tait gave an approximate empirical formula repre- 

 senting, for certain ranges, the compressibility of water in terms of 

 the temperature and pressure. — Mr. J. T. Cunningham read a 

 critical note on the latest theory in vertebrate morphology. — Mr. 

 Milne Home submitted the tenth and final report of the Boulder 

 Committee. At some period, geologically recent in the earth's 

 history, an Arctic climate prevailed in the part of Northern 

 Europe considered. As an effect, local glaciers occurred in 

 Scotland, of some of which there were traces still visible. Sub- 

 sequently Scotland was entirely submerged beneath the sea, and 

 most of the valleys were filled with sand, gravel, and mud. A 

 north-westerly oceanic current prevailed, carrying masses of 

 floating ice with boulders, which were deposited on the hills. — 

 Mr. H. R. Mill gave a paper on the periodic variation of tem- 

 perature in tidal basins. — Mr. W. Peddie gave a communication 

 on the isothermals and adiabatics of water near the maximum 

 density point. — The meeting, which was the last for the session, 

 was brought to a close by remarks from the Chairman on the 

 work of the past session. 



