aft mail J 
eee eee ee 
ipril 17, 1873] 
either by the positive metal alone or by the two metals in con- 
_ junction, without the presence of another body ready to combine 
_ with one of its elements when Jet free. 
Grove’s gas battery is essentially different from this, if the 
_ oxygen and hydrogen condensed on the platinum plates play the 
part of the two metals ; but it closely resembles this if hydrogen 
acts the part of the positive metal, and platinum that of the 
negative ; the dilute sulphuric acid will then be decomposed on 
account of the simultaneous presence of the oxygen which can 
combine with the liberated hydrogen. Viewed in this manner, 
Grove’s gas-baitery is only a special case of the reaction men- 
tioned in the communication to the Royal Society, and the 
formulze will be— 
Before contact— 
mPt|0.|H,SO,|nH 
After contact— 
mPt| H,O | H,S0O, | (n—2)H.' 
The practical interest of this arrangement lies in the fact that 
it is an approximation towards a constant air-battery. Should it 
ever come into use it would, of course, not be in the form de- 
scribed in this paper, but probably in a combination of copper 
and zinc, with an aérated solution of zinc chloride, which has 
an electro-motive force six times that of the silver-copper cell, 
and three quarters that of a Daniell’s cell. Chloride of zinc is 
preferable to the sulphate, as it offers less internal resistance, 
and a solution of 20 per cent. is about the best conductor. A 
single cell of this kind decomposes dilute sulphuric or hydro- 
chloric acid, with copper electrodes, 
The power is thus obtained at a minimum of expense, for the 
oxygen which combines with the zinc costs nothing. 
Such a battery would appear to be specially applicable to 
cases where the galvanic current has to be frequently broken, as 
in telegraphy, for, at each period of rest, it renews its strength 
by the absorption or diffusion of more oxygen from the sur- 
rounding air. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie.—The second number of this 
journal for 1872 scarcely possesses the same scientific value 
as former numbers. We have, first, the concluding part of 
Dr. E. von Martens’ lecture, read before the Anthropological 
Society of Berlin, December 1871, on the different uses of the 
Conchylia. The paper is characterised by true Germanic ex- 
haustiveness, but it indicates a want of appreciation on the part 
of the author of the relative value of authorities, ambiguous 
allusions in Longfellow’s ‘‘ Hiawatha” being adduced as evi- 
_ dence, side by side with the statements of scientific travellers. 
Dr. Martens passes in review every use to which shells have 
been put in ancient or modern times, and in civilised or uncivi- 
lised countries —Dr. Robert Hartmann continues his notice of 
the remains found in the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, and 
draws attention to the absence of the domestic cat from the more 
ancient fauna of Europe. The most numerous animal remains 
belong to the common European stag (Cervus elephas), but are 
of colossal size, and so nearly akin to Cervus Canadensis as to 
raise the question whether the C. e/ephas of the Swiss Lake de- 
posits may not be identical with C. canadensis. No trace of rein- 
deer has been discovered, although that animal was common in 
Switzerland during the glacial period. 
In the third number (1872) of the journal, we have an inte- 
resting report of the remains of pile dwellings in the Archipelago 
of North Celebes, which have been examined by the Dutch 
“Assistant Resident,” J. G. F. Riedel. The paper is illus- 
trated with drawings of these huts, and of the different types of 
head most commonly observed among the North Celebes tribes 
in the present day. It would appear that the Aborigines were 
not lake-dwellers. The Toun Singals, however, who were of 
foreign origin, and arrived in the country between the 12th and 
13th centuries, although they at first dwelt on the strand of the 
present Negeri Atep, soon left their original settlements, and 
built themselves pile-huts on ‘the great Minahasa Lake, where 
they were secure from the pursuit of the robber tribes of Djai- 
lolo, whose incessant attacks had been the chief incentive to 
their immigration. The remains of these lake-dwellings give 
evidence of their solidity, for Herr Riedal found that the piles 
were for the most part 3ft. in diameter, and 2o0ft. in height 
above the surface of thelake ; the length of each hut was nearly 
NATURE 
473 
7oft., and the breadth goft. Among other events the en- 
forced conversion to Christianity of the Toun Singals in 1830 
has separated them still more from the habits of their race, and 
the memory of the older pile-dwellings seems to be fast dying 
out among them. 
Dr. Bastian gives us in the third number a very complete and 
carefully elaborated paper on Comparative Philology. He begins 
by treating of the physiological formation of speech ; and of the 
widely differing groups of emotions which respectively find ex- 
ression in vocals and in consonants. He passes in review the 
various nations, whose original language exhibits a preponderance 
of either of these distinctive characters. Among the older races 
of America and Africa consonants largely predominate, while in 
the Malay Polynesian dialects vocal sounds are strongly in the 
ascendent. The phonetic character of a language influences its 
grammatic peculiarities, 
Herr Rade, who has spent eight years in endeavouring to dis- 
cover among the Kaukasian tribes some fixed type of their 
nation, finds from his prolonged investigation of living and dead 
skulls that the mingling of races has been so continuous in these 
regions, that it is impossible any longer to recognise the ‘* Kau- 
kasian Race” as it was defined by Blumenbach. Herr Rade has 
hitherto failed in detecting certain evidence of the existence of 
Lacustrine dwellings in any of the Kaukasian lakes which he 
examined, 
Dr. Virchow, at a recent special meeting of the Anthropolo- 
gical Society of Berlin, read an interesting paper on the results 
of a series of explorations made by himself and his sons in the 
course of last year in the little island of Wollin, lying off 
Pomerania, in the Baltic. Wollin or Julin as the locality in 
which the sea-kings or Vikingar had established their once for- 
midable republican settlement of Jomsburg, has always presented 
special features of interest for Northern inquirers and historians, 
The early chroniclers of Northern Germany and Scandinavia 
make frequent allusion to the enormous wealth and great im. 
portance of the trading ports of this small island. After 
ages of decay and desertion the island is again acquiring 
some slight amount of recognition through the recent estab- 
lishment of baths near the little town of Wollin. It is here 
that Dr. Virchow and his sons found unmistakeable evi- 
dences of the early existence of a large and wide-spread 
population. Near the little lake of Vietzig, under a surface of 
loam or clay-mud, Dr. Virchow came upon a bed of débris from 
4 to 7 ft. in depth, which was entirely formed of fish and animal 
bones, broken vessels, and all the ordinary adjuncts of the 
Kjokkenméddinge as they have been revealed in the Lacustrine 
deposits of Pomerania. At some places where the hills have 
been cut, the exposed surfaces seem composed almost entirely of 
the scales and bones of fishes and other animal remains. At one 
spot, onthe S.E. of the present town, a burying ground was 
discovered, on which 60 grave-hillocks could siill be counted. 
On penetrating below the surface a heap of burnt and fractured 
bones was found at a depth of 18 to 20in., but in no grave, explored 
by Dr. Virchow, was any trace of urn, stones, or textile fragment 
to be seen ; al:hough remains of fused bronze were met with. A 
small grant of money has been made by the Society for the pur- 
pose of continuing the exploration of the island, and if the work 
should be placed under the direction of Dr. Virchow we may 
anticipate valuable results from a more systematic investigation 
of this site of the most formidable piratical republic ever founded 
in Northern Europe, ? 
In a paper laid before the Societé d’Anthropclogie de Paris 
by M. Broca, on the Toulouse form of narrow or flat-head de- 
formities, the author enters at length into the consideration of 
the probable effect on the cerebral functions produced by the 
ligatures, with which the peasant mothers of some parts of 
south-west France still compress their children’s heads, 
THE Zoologist for April, after a reprint from the American 
Naturalist of Prof. N.S. Shaler’s paper, ‘* Notes on the Right 
and Sperm Whales ;” and ornithological notes from Lincolnshire 
and Devon, enters further into the discussion of Dr. Baldamus’ 
theory as regards the cuckoos’ egg. Mr. Hewitson replies 
sharply to Mr. Smith’s paper in the preceding number; Mr. 
G. D. Rowley opposes the theory, and thinks that ‘birds are 
only too glad to sit on cuckoos’ eggs,” as they will sit on 
nothing rather than not incubate. Mr. Doubleday writes to the 
same effect, as does also Prof. Newton in a quotation from the 
Field. Mr. Smith acknowledges that in writing his former 
letter, he had not seen Prof. Newton’s article on the subject in 
NATURE (vol. iii. Nov. 1869), but still maintains that British 
