Ee 
May 11, 1899] 
NAT ORL ou 
culation is based on what seems a faulty method. The average 
of life, about fifty years, is taken, and the expectation of life (in 
reality a somewhat larger figure), twenty-five years, is added, 
making up seventy-five, the manifest assumption being that the 
full term of life of a species is equal to its average life plus the 
expectation of life at that age, a conception for which I know 
of no physiological justification. Eighty-six to eighty-seven 
years, the period given by the formula, probably represents with 
fair accuracy the average age at which people would pass from 
life by senile decay if their lives were not shortened by 
deleterious influences and conditions. ERNEST D. BELL. 
“ Primitive Constellations.” 
' REFERRING to your reviewer's hostile notice of my work, 
“<* Primitive Constellations,” I have seldom realised the strength 
of my general position until I have seen some attack on it. 
Against my main contention, z.e. the identity of various Greek 
and Babylonian constellations, he has nothing to say, except 
that I start with my ‘‘ theory ready made.” Really, he does me 
much honour. Am I the inventor of the ‘‘ theory” that, e.g., the 
signs of the Zodiac were derived from Babylonia? But, leaving 
nine-tenths of the book with merely a little abuse, he has much 
to say on the transliteration of Babylonian words, and expresses 
great scorn because, following Prof. Sayce, I deliberately write sa, 
and not sha, and so on. He says I ‘‘really ought to know 
there is no /in Assyrian.” Indeed. I am at present away from 
books, but happento have Sayce’s ‘‘ Assyrian Grammar” at hand. 
At p. 46 Tread, ‘‘a, ha YY ne ee Aa), ah, ht, h.” Again, 
I am perfectly aware of the force of ‘* the determinative particle 
kz,” and, in a book for general readers, have naturally chosen to 
write ‘‘ Barsipki,” not ‘* Barsip*i,” ‘‘ Suanaki,” ‘* Tintirki,” &c. 
If the critic had endeavoured to refute my general proposition, 
or had carefully examined my treatment of any particular con- 
stellation figure, e.g. the d7vow, how much more useful it would 
have been. But a policy of pin-pricks does not venture on this. 
Berry Pomeroy, Boscombe, April 18. R. Brown, JUN. 
THE writer of the review did not suggest that Mr. Brown 
had discovered the Babylonian origin of the signs of the Zodiac. 
The theory which the reviewer laid to his charge was to the 
effect that the Greeks of the pre-Homeric and Homeric ages had 
a full knowledge of the constellations known to their descendants 
in Ptolemaic times ; and, further, that they obtained such know- 
ledge at this early period from the Babylonians through inter- 
course with the Phoenicians andthe ‘‘ Hittites.” It is from this 
theory that the reviewer entirely dissents. Mr. Brown’s whole- 
sale assertions that representations of animals in early Greek art 
are astronomical symbols it was thought might be charitably 
explained by supposing that he began his studies with this part 
of his theory ‘‘ready made.” Of the two cuneiform signs 
which Mr. Brown cites as proving the existence of the % in 
Assyrian, the first only represents the vowel a, the second is 
only used to indicate the smooth breathing; that he should rely 
on a grammar published more than twenty years ago shows that 
he has not made himself acquainted with the recent literature 
on this subject. It is satisfactory to learn that Mr. Brown is 
aware of the force of the determinative particle £7; but to 
transliterate such a determinative (which was not pronounced) 
as though it formed a syllable of the word to which it is 
attached is, to say the least, misleading—particularly so in a 
book for general readers. Mr. Brown’s numerous blunders in 
citing Hebrew, Phoenician, and Assyrian words, show that he is 
not acquainted with these languages at first hand; and it was 
‘stated that such a knowledge is essential to a writer who treats 
the subject of Babylonian astronomy from the linguistic side. 
THE ROVAL SOCIETY SELECTED 
CANDIDATES. 
ee following are the names and qualifications of the 
fifteen candidates selected by the Council of the 
Royal Society, to be recommended for election into the 
Society this year :— 
W. F. BARRETT, 
F.R.S.E., M.R.I.A., Professor of Experimental Physics in the 
Royal College of Science for Ireland, Memb. Physical Society, 
Royal Dublin Society, and of General Committee of the British 
NO. 1541, VOL. 60| 
Association. Author of numerous original investigations and 
papers; amongst them are:—‘‘ The discovery of certain 
physical phenomena produced by the contact of a hydrogen 
flame with various bodies, and its application as a delicate 
chemical re-agent’’ (Phz?7. dMag., November, 1865); ‘‘ The 
discovery and investigation of a serious source of error in the 
determination of the absorption of heat by liquids” (zézd., 
September, 1868) ; ‘‘ The discovery and investigation of sensi- 
tive flames” (24¢d., March and April, 1867); ‘‘ The application 
of sensitive flames as a delicate acoustic re-agent in illustrating 
the laws of the reflection, refraction, and interference of sound- 
bearing waves and the detection of inaudible vibrations” (Proc. 
Roy. Dubl. Soc., January, 1868 ; Sczence Review, April, 1867 ; 
Nature, May, 1877); ‘‘The discovery of recalescence and 
other molecular changes in iron and steel when raised to a 
bright heat” (P27. Mag., December, 1873; Brit. Assoc., 
1890) ; ‘‘ The investigation of the molecular changes accompany- 
ing the magnetisation of iron, nickel, and cobalt, and the dis- 
covery of the retraction of nickel, and the elongation of cobalt by 
magnetisation, -with the determination of its amount” (Phz/. 
Mag., December, 1873, and January, 1874; Brit. Assoc., 
1873, 1874, and 1882; The Electrician, October, 1882; 
Nature, October, 1882) ; ‘The investigation of the magnetic 
properties and the determination of the physical constants of 
various alloys of manganese steel” (Brit. Assoc., 1887 and 
1889 ; Proc. Roy. Dubl. Soc., November and December, 1889, 
March, 1886, and in Zhe Electrician). Also brief papers on 
the spheroidal state (Proc. Roy. Dubl. Soc., December, 1877) ; 
on the magnetic properties of columnar basalt (z47a., December, 
1889), and on the magnetic moment of ingots of manganese 
steel (zzd., December), &c. 
CHARLES BOOTH, 
Hon. Sc.D. (Camb.), Merchant and Shipowner. As having 
applied Scientific Methods to Social Investigation, exemplified 
by :—(1) A Study of Changes in the Occupations of the People 
in England, Scotland, and Ireland, from 1841 to 1881 (Journ. 
of Statistical Soc., 1886) ; (2) A Study of the Condition of the 
Aged Poor in England and Wales from Official Statistics and 
Extended Private Enquiry (‘‘The Aged Poor,’ Macmillan, 
1894) ; (3) A Study of the Condition of the People of London, 
1889 to 1899, in twelve volumes, of which nine are already 
published (‘*Life and Labour of the People in London,” 
Macmillan). 
DAVID BRUCE, 
M.B., Surgeon-Major, Army Medical Staff. Has made im- 
portant investigations relating to the nature and causes of Malta 
Fever, and discovered the micro-organism which is the cause 
of that disease, and provedits nature by experiment. Has suc- 
cessfully investigated the endemic disease of horses in Zululand, 
and proved the agency of the Tsetse Fly in producing it. 
Author of the following papers: ‘‘ Discovery of a Micro- 
organism in Malta Fever” (Practitioner) ; ‘* Sur une Nouvelle 
Forme de Fiévre rencontrée sur les Bords de la Mediterranée ” 
(Annales de P Inst. Pasteur); ‘‘On the Epidemic of Cholera 
in Malta during 1887” (Zrans. Epidem. Soc.) ; ‘‘ Report (to 
the Governor of Natal) on the Tsetse Fly Disease or Nagana” 
(1897) ; and a previous Report on the same subject ; ‘‘ Ueber 
die Virulenzsteigerung des Cholera Vibrio” (Centralblatt f. 
Bacteriologie, &c.). Eminent in Pathology and Bacteriology. 
HENRY JOHN HORSTMAN FENTON, 
M.A. (Camb.). Author of several papers on the action of 
hypochlorites and hypobromites on urea and other nitrogen 
compounds. Has made the remarkable discovery that hydrogen 
peroxide, although inactive alone, in presence of an iron salt, 
at once oxidises tartaric and other similar acids, carbohydrates, 
&c., giving rise to very characteristic products—a discovery of 
special importance in connection with plant metabolism, which 
he has elaborated with particular skill and thoroughness. His 
results are described in the following papers :—‘‘ Oxidation of 
Tartaric Acid in Presence of Iron ” (Zvrans. Chem. Soc., 1894) ; 
‘© A New Method of obtaining Dihydroxytartaric Acid, and the 
use of this Acid as a Re-agent for Sodium ” (z2d., 1895) ; ‘“ New 
Formation of Glycollic Aldehyde” (zdz¢.) ; ‘*The Constitution 
of a New Dibasic Acid resulting from the Oxidation of Tartaric 
Acid” (zézd., 1896) ; ‘‘ A New Synthesis in the Sugar Group” 
(zd2d., 1897); ‘‘ Properties and Relationships of Dihydroxy- 
tartaric Acid,” I. and II. (zéz¢., 1898); ‘‘The Oxidation of 
Polyhydric Alcohols in presence of Iron” (zézd@., £899). 
