August 30, 1877] 



NATURE 



383 



Sir Wm. Thomson read a paper On an Impycveii lilethod of 

 Recordins; the Dep'h in Flyitu; Soundings, by substituting 

 C/iromati of Silver laid on by Albumen in.iead 0/ Green Vitrio! 

 Solution. 



On the Eddystone Lighthouse, by J. N. Douglas. — He stated 

 that the rock upon which this lighthouse was built had 

 been so undermined by tlie sea that it had been determined to 

 I uild another of larger ditrensions at a distance of 120 feet from 

 the present structure. He expressed a hope, however, that if 

 Smer. ton's wonderful handiwork were taken down, it would be 

 considered woithy of another site on English soil. 



On Remit Ex/erimrnls in Telephones, by Prof. Graham Bell, 

 of Boston. — He stated at the outset that after the lecture 

 delivered by >rr. Preece it would be scarcely necessary for him 

 to put before them a description of the ccnslruction and the 

 operation of the telephone in its present form, but he thought it 

 would be intt resting if he took up the sub;ect in another light, 

 and showed them the evolution of the telephone, and described 

 to them ihe process by which the instrument had been brought 

 up to its present state. Having alluded to the fact that it was 

 now some years since his attention was first directed to the 

 form of the vibrations of the air during the production of speech, 

 and having pointed out that he was not aware how the idea of 

 using electricity as a means of conveying these vibrations from 

 one place to another suggested itself to him, Mr. Bell gave an 

 interesting account of the time and labour which he, assisted by 

 Dr. Clarence, J. Blake, Prof. Pearcc, and other friends on the 

 other side of the Atlantic, had devoted in endeavouring to dis- 

 cover some means by which the sound of the human voice could 

 be successfully conveyed to whatever place was desired. He 

 gradually traced the progress of these researches, and enumerated 

 the different forms of instruments which had been invented for 

 the purpose of accomplishing the object desired, several of which 

 instiuments he exhibited, at the same time explaining th.it expe- 

 riments were still being made in Boston with a view to fuuher 

 improvements in, and in the further development of, the telephone. 

 He confessed that he did not yet know which was the best form 

 of instrument that could be used, reminded his audience that he 

 did not bring the invention before them as a perfected one, that 

 it was still in embryo, but expressed a hope that at the next 

 meeting of the British Association he might have the opportunity 

 of producing before them still more perfect forms of the instru- 

 ment. Prof. BtU then announced that he had brought with 

 him his telephonic organ, and that he should presently attempt 

 to produce a little "bad" music for the benefit of the Asso- 

 ciation. This organ, he explained, resembled a harmonium or 

 parlour organ. The reeds were all connected with a battery, and 

 in front of^ each reed there was a little screw with a platinum 

 point. When the instrument was blown the reeds vibrated 

 against the screws, which were all connected with a telegraph 

 wire, which had been brought into that room, and contact being 

 made, the music was thus conveyed. Pie also explained that the 

 organ was in the Guildhall, and that telegraphic communication 

 had been made between that building and the Post-office, and 

 between the latter place and the room in which they were then 

 .assembled. Exfetiments with the instrument were then pro- 

 ceeded with, the telegraph wire being attached by Mr. Preece to 

 a telephone with a powerful battery and with a somewhat capa- 

 cious "mouth." Harris, Mr. Preece's assistant, who was 

 stationed at the Post-ofhce, was then communicated with by that 

 gentleman, and told to request the organist to " strike up," and 

 almoslimmediately the audience were astounded by hearing with 

 perfect distinctness the well-known air, " God save the Queen." 

 The organist was then ordered, through Harris, to play " some- 

 thing with chords," and again the sounds of music were clearly 

 heard, although this time the tune could not be recognised. 

 Another instrument without a battery, was then connected with 

 the wire, but as Mr. Bell had prophesied, the sounds of music 

 conveyed to the audience by means of this instrument were very 

 faint, being audible only to those at the top of the room. The 

 first instrument was now again used, Harris being requested by 

 the professor to sing as loudly as possible. In a second or 

 two the favourite song " Auld Lang Syne " was heard with 

 remarkable clearness, although many of the notes were somewhat 

 "shaky." Harris next read a newspaper paragraph, and 

 although the sound of his voice was distinctly heard, no one was 

 able to ascertain the subject of what he was reading. Prof. Bell 

 explained the reason of this, and informed the audience that the 

 louder the voice was at the transmitting end the more indistinctly 

 it was heard at the other end. 



THE FRENCH ASSOCIA TION AT HA VRE 

 "T* HE French Association commenced its Session this year at 

 Havre on August 23. M. Broca, the well-known anthro- 

 pologist, is president this year, and after a few remarks on the 

 rapid and steady progress of the Association, he announced as 

 the subject of his presidential address, "The Fossil Human 

 Races of Western Europe." 



M. Broca spoke of the antiquity of historical nations, showing 

 that it has been very much exaggerated, mainly by the nations 

 themselves, and that even in the case of Egypt the historical 

 epoch cannot be pushed back beyond 6,000 or 7,000 years. M. 

 Broca then showed that up to a very late period man's advent on 

 the earth was universally accepted as very recent, long posterior 

 to the last geological phenomena which have modified the con- 

 ditions of 11*6 and produced charges in cUmate, and with these 

 in the flora and fauna. The president then gave a brief sketch 

 of the change of opinion which has taken place during the past 

 th'riy or forty years, on the question of the antiquity of m.in ; 

 pointed out with what incredulity the accounts of the first finds 

 of human remains under conditions showing their antiquity were 

 received, and that it was only after long years of labour, 1840 to 

 1S5S, that Boucher de Perthes at last managed to obtain a 

 serious hearing for the arguuient in favour of the genuineness of 

 his discoveries and of the antiquity of man. The English pale- 

 ontologist, Falconer, went to Abbeville, in 1S5S, in order to 

 examine at on:e the beds explored by Peithes, and the rich 

 collection of cut-flints and bones which had been exhumed. 

 M. Broca re'ers also to the early work in the same direction 

 of Prestwich, Evans, Flower, and I.yell, stimulated by 

 whose example, French men of science at last came for- 

 ward in earnest to examine for themselves. The French 

 Anthropological Society took the matter up, and the prudent 

 and straightforward Isidore Geoffroy .St. Hilaire at last declared 

 that the last objections to the antiquity of man had vanished. 

 Fossil man had proved his right to be received on the platform 

 of positive science. The year 1S59, which saw the doctrine of 

 the antiquity of man make its way into science with irresistible 

 force, was the beginning of one of the most fruitful of eras. 

 New and boundless horizons were opened to the view of men of 

 science ; over all Europe geologists, arch.-eologists, anthropolo- 

 gists, set themselves to work wiih astonishing activity. Only 

 eighteen years have passed since then, and never, perhaps, in 

 any past time, have we seen so rich a harvest. 



Boucher de Perthes raised only a corner of the veil which 

 conceals early humanity. He proved that man lived during all 

 the quateinary epoch, that he was the contemporary of the 

 reindeer and other animals which have since migrated, of the 

 mammoth, and other extinct animals. But was this all ? and Is 

 humanity not older still ? This latter question, still more grave 

 than the former, was soon asked ; more grave, for the duration 

 of each of the three periods of the tertiary epoch was incom- 

 par.ibly longer than the quaternary epoch. But M. Broca did 

 not intend to discuss the researches concerning tertiary man ; the 

 discoveries made by M. Desnoyers at St. Prest, near Chartres, 

 and by Prof. Capellini in several tertiary beds of Tuscany, tend 

 to establish the existence of man during the pliocene period ; 

 those of the Abbe Bourgeois in the commune of Thenay {Loir- 

 et-Cher) carry back even to the miocene, i.e., to the middle- 

 tertiary, the existence of an intelligent being who knew how 

 to cut flint, and who could be nothing else than man. But these 

 facts, although collected by thoroughly competent observers, and 

 although accepted after keen discussion by many eminent sovanis, 

 are not yet sufficiently numerous nor incontestable to constitute 

 a definitive proof. Tertiary man is not yet on the platform of 

 science ; he holds the place occupied by quateiniry man twenty 

 ye.irs ago. Will it be given to another Boucher de Perthes to 

 demonstrate with irresistible evidence the existence of tertiary 

 man ? That is the secret of the future. 



After referring to the vast amount of evidence for quaternary 

 man obtained both in the Old and Nsw World, M. Broca said 

 that he is better known now than many peoples mentioned in 

 history. We know enough to establish with certainty the multi- 

 plicity and the great diversity of quaternary races, and although 

 the regions hitherto explored include only Western and a part 

 of Central Europe, we can now, on this little comer of the globe, 

 recognise and distinguish at least three fossil human races con- 

 nected with two essentially different types. The two types are 

 the dolichocephalic and the brachycephalic— the long-heads and 

 the short or round-heads. Between these are the niesatocephahc. 



