650 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 30, ij 



Emmanuel College holds its Entrance Scholarship Examina- 

 tion conjointly with Christ's and Sidney-Sussex Colleges. The 

 subjects in Natural Science are Chemistry, Physics, Elementary 

 Biology, and Geology and Mineralogy. In all branches of 

 Natural Science there is a practical examination. The exami- 

 nations will begin on January 6 next. A candidate for a 

 Scholarship at one of the above Colleges may be elected to a 

 Scholarship at either of the others in default of better qualified 

 candidates. 



Mr. I.ea will lecture on Chemical Physiology this term at the 

 New Museums. 



Mr. Sedgwick has arranged for a repetition class in Elementary 

 Biology in the Morphological Laboratory, to be superintended 

 by Mr. Weldon. 



Owens College, Manchester. — At a recent meeting the 

 Council, on the recommendation of the Senate, made the follow- 

 ing appointments to the three vacant Berkeley Fellowships : — 

 In Chemistry, Dr. L. Claisen, formerly First Assistant in Or- 

 ganic Chemistry to Prof. Kekule of Bonn. In Zoology, Dr. 

 John Beard, of the University of Freiburg, and formerly of 

 Owens College. In Philosophy, Mr. W. E. Johnson, B.A., of 

 King's College, Cambridge. The Berkeley Fellowships are for 

 the encouragement of original research, and the holders are 

 required to reside in Manchester during term time. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 Bulletins iff la Sociiti d' ' Antkropologie de Paris, tome vii. 

 fasc. 2, 1884- — This number contains several more than usually 

 interesting communications regarding French palaeontological 

 inquiry. — M. D'Acy's paper on the silex of the Chelles Station, 

 which was begun in a previous number, shows that we must 

 regard the Chelles deposits as belonging to two distinct forma- 

 tions : the old Quaternary, or true Chellean, containing remains 

 of Elefihas antiquus and Rhinoceros merckii, and the later 

 Quaternary, or mousterian period, represented as usual by 

 Elephas primigrnius. — Paron de Baye communicates the dis- 

 covery in the Neolithic caverns at Petit Morin (Maine) of trans- 

 versely cut arrow-heads similar to those found in large quantities 

 in Denmark, but hitherto undetected in France. They were 

 intermixed with numerous ordinarily shaped arrow-heads, frag- 

 ments of Neolithic pottery, and roughly-cut flints, and deposited 

 in a cavity on the summit of a hill, while a vertebral bone (ap- 

 parently of a badger), which was found in a grotto at a distance 

 of 250 m. from the deposit, still retained a portion of a similarly 

 shaped arrow-head. — M. Gustave Chauvet announced the dis- 

 covery, in a tumulus on the right bank of the Charente, of a 

 curiously ornamented bronze chariot, similar to those found in 

 Mecklenburg and in Scandinavia. The tumulus, which is situ- 

 ated near Charroux (Vienne), and locally known as "le Gros- 

 Guignon," contained a vaulted recess in which the body had 

 rested, and on either side of which lay wheels with detached 

 ornaments, as circles and spheres, and bronze and iron nails, 

 together with two urns undoubtedly Gallic. — M. Nicaise re- 

 ported the discovery of another chariot-bier in a tumulus at 

 Septaulx (Maine), on which the body had been laid. In front 

 of the right wheel lay the skeleton of a boar, between whose 

 ribs a long knife was embedded. To this report the writer 

 has added many interesting details in regard to several 

 funeral chariots found in other parts of Marne, more especially 

 in the Gallic cemetery of Varilles, where three skeletons (one 

 adult and two children) had been interred in the same chariot. 

 The weapons, horse-bits, bronze rings, &c, inclosed in these 

 tumuli indicate their Gallic origin. — On the sepulchral grotto 

 of Rousson, near Alais, by M. Charvet. This cave, which was 

 opened in 1SS3, was found to contain a large number [of skulls, 

 mostly dolichocephalic, together with other human bones, and 

 pins and beads of a metal regarded by French paleontologists 

 as copper rather than bronze, and similar to that of various 

 objects found in the Baume des Morts Cavern of Durfort, first 

 explored in 1869, and regarded as belonging to a mixed Celto- 

 Ligurian race. — On a series of explorations at Plouhinec, by M. 

 Gaillard. Four tumuli opened in March 1884 contained cinerary 

 urns, four human skulls, and other bones, flint lance- and arrow- 

 heads, and broken pottery. — A communication by M. Kerck- 

 hoffs concerning the lacustrine station lately brought to light 

 near the alluvial beds, in which the notable Maestricht jaw was 

 discovered in 1823. The recent explorations of this interesting 

 site have been conducted by M. Ubaghs, who has found 

 a well-preserved dolichocephalic cranium, together with the 

 bones of Bos primigenius, the horse, stag, beaver, dog, 



&c. , with bone instruments, remains of coarse pottery, &c. — 

 On human sacrifices and anthropophagy among the Vaudous or 

 serpent-worshippers of Haiti, by M. Dehoux.— On the settle- 

 ments of the Canadian Redskins, and the fluctuation in their 

 numbers, by M. Petitot. The author considers that the solar 

 and demon worship, and the chief social institutions of the Sioux, 

 Hurons, and other North American tribes indicate their affinity 

 with the Dravidian races of India. — The report of a discussion 

 raised by M. Beauregard on the correctness of his views regard- 

 ing the Dardous, which had been called in question by M. de 

 Ujfalvy.— On the Cachmiris and Pandits, by M. de Ujfalvy. 

 The former he regards as a mixed Mongol and Aryan race, while 

 in the latter he believes we have the representatives of a primi- 

 tive North- West Indian Aryan type. — On the pretended Eastern 

 origin of the Algonquins, by M. Petitot ; and on the diffusion of 

 analogous myths in different lands, by M. Luys. — On dynamo- 

 metric errors, by Dr. Manouvrier, having special reference to 

 the inexactness of instruments, and the discrepancies between the 

 modes of gradation observed by different instrument-makers. — 

 On the ethnographic researches of M. Quesde in the Antilles, 

 by M. Hamy. The presence of cut flints, although there are no 

 indications of any siliceous rock-formations, points to primitive 

 commercial relations with the mainland. — On the methods of 

 measuring the circumference of the head, by M. le Bon. — Anew 

 classification of the pelvis considered from an obstetric point of 

 view, and with special reference to racial distinctions, by Dr. 

 Verrier. — On the traditions and tribal divisions of the Somalis, 

 by M. Bardey. Their legends include one in which Abel is 

 represented as the black and evil brother, while Kahil is white- 

 skinned and good, while the people profess to derive their descent 

 from two men miraculously saved with their wives from an inun- 

 dation which ingulfed all the inhabitants of the lands near the 

 Mount Taizz, sixty miles east of Mocha, on the summit of which 

 they remained till the waters subsided. 



Biilltin de VAcadimie Koyale de Belgique, Tuly 5. — Mono- 

 graph on the central nervous system of adult Ascidians, and its 

 relations to that ..f the Urodele larvae (four plates), by MM. Ed. 

 Van Beneden and Ch. Julin. — Note on the calculation of 

 averages; application of a new principle of probabilities, by E. 

 Catalan. — Remarks on the ventral disk of the sea-snail, Liparis 

 barbatus (one plate), by Maurice Stuckens. — On the respiration 

 of bats during the period of hibernation, by E. Delsaux. — 

 Anatomy of the cephalic kidney of the larva of Polygordius ; 

 a contribution to the history of the excreting apparatus of worms, 

 by Julien Fraipont. — On the central and surface nervous systems 

 of the Archiannelids (Protodrilus, Polygordius); a contribution 

 to the history of the origin of the nervous system in these worms, 

 by Julien Fraipont. — On a theorem in mechanics applicable to 

 systems whose movement is periodical, by E. Ronkar. 



August 2. — Note on two remarkable experiments in capillary 

 attraction, by G. van der Mensbrugghe. — On the theory of 

 elliptical functions, by P. Mansion. — On the remainder in 

 Taylor's formula, and on the binomial theory, by P. Mansion. 

 — Chemical analysis of a rich phosphate recently discovered in 

 the neighbourhood of Havre near Mons, by C. Bias. — On the 

 conductivity of gaseous bodies for heat, by E. Ronkar. — On the 

 theoretic relations between the coefficients of expansion, the in- 

 ternal heat of vaporisation, and the specific heats of bodies in 

 the liquid and gaseous states, by P. de Heen. — Description of a 

 new apparatus for determining the coefficient of diffusion of salts 

 in solution, and the variations experienced by this quantity 

 according to the temperature, by P. de Heen. — On the genera- 

 tion of certain surfaces by means of quadrilinear groups, by C. 

 Le Page. — Researches on the production of cyanhydric acid in 

 the vegetable kingdom, by A. Jorissen. — Historic note on 

 Stephen Dushan, Emperor of Servia, and the Balkan Peninsula 

 in the fourteenth century, by Emile de Borchgrave. — Discourse 

 pronounced at the obsequies of M. Alexandre Pinchart, by M. 

 Silngeneyer. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Mineralogical Society, October 21. — Anniversary meeting. 

 — The Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — 

 The Hon. Sec, Mr. R. H. Scott, read the Report of the 

 Council. — The scrutineers reported that the following were 

 elected Officers and Council : — President : Rev. Prof. T. G. 

 Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., Pres.G.S. ; Vice- 

 Presidents: Rev. S. Haughton, M.D., F.R.S., W. H. Hudle- 



