354 NA TURE 
cilitate the rapid identification of the rocks. In 
general appearance the map will more closely resemble 
those prepared in Germany or France than those com- 
piled in England. As already mentioned, the respon- 
sible and onerous task of reducing the mass of materials 
obtained from so many different sources, and embodying 
the results of so many months of patient investigation, in 
the new map, has been performed by Mr. R. Brough 
Smyth. Mr, A. Everett, a draughtsman employed in the 
Mining department, has been entrusted with the duty of 
colouring the map, and Mr. R. Shepherd has performed 
the diffiult work of colouring it on stone. 
NOTES 
Srp SAMUEL and Lady Baker arrived at Cairo, last Sunday. 
All was well. 
THE twenty-second session of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science commenced its meetings at 
Portland, Maine, on Wednesday, 20th inst. Prof. Lovering, 
of Cambridge, is president for the year. 
THE discovery is announced, from America, of another small 
planet, No. 133, by Prof. Watson, of the Ann Arbor Obser- 
vatory. 
THE session of the Iron and Steel Institute at Liege was 
brought to a close on Thursday, on which evening the King of the 
Belgians gave the members a grand receptionat Brussels. There 
was an interesting discussion on Wednesday morning between Mr. 
Bulgenbach and Mr, Bell at the Institute, on the subject of the 
construction of high furnaces. Papers were read relative to 
various technical matters, and the President read a paper upon 
the extension of commercial relations with China. In the after- 
noon more than 450 excursionists paida visit to the factory of 
Messrs. Cockerill at Seraing. Several speeches were made, 
and the visitors, who were most cordially received, remained 
four hours. It has been decided that the Congress should meet 
in 1874 in Philadelphia, and in 1875 in England. A very in- 
teresting paper was read at one of the meetings by M. Julien 
Deby, C.E., ‘* On the Rise and Progress of the Iron and Steel 
Industries in Belgium,” in which he’said :—‘‘ We are very igno- 
rant of the state of things in this country prior to the arrival of 
Julius Czesar. . Archzological discoveries of quite recent date, 
still unpublished, seem to indicate that at the period of the great 
Roman conqueror’s invasion Iron had already been made in Bel- 
gium, while it was yet unknown to the inhabitants of the British 
Islands. The oldest records we have consist in vast deposits of 
cinder which cover many acres of ground, and are situated at Niew 
Rhode, between Louvain and Aerschot, in Brabant, as well as at 
Tessenderloo, in the Antwerp campagne, where they generally 
occupy the top of the many ferruginous hillocks of that region. 
Along with these accumulations of iron cinder are found flint 
arrow-heads and fragments of coarse pottery, characteristic of 
the earliest dawn of civilisation, and which must have belonged to 
the old pre-historic workers of these deposits. At a later period, 
and during the Roman dominion, iron was produced in very 
many places in Belgium. Immense heaps of cinder are to this 
day scattered in many parts of the country, and several of these 
are being profitably worked in the neighbouring blast furnaces.” 
THE meetings of the British Archeological Association at 
Sheffield were brought to aclose on Saturday. The time 
has been spent by the members in visiting most of the 
places of archzological interest in the district during the 
day, and in listening to papers read in relation to the 
places visited, as well as on other subjects. On Wednes- 
day night, at a conversazione in the Cutlers’ Hall, Mr. R, 
N, Phiilips read a paper on the ‘* Manufacture of Hard. 
[Aug. 28, 1873 
ware by Celts and Romans,” illustrated by fine specimens in 
bronze of various degrees of advancement, a baked clay melting. | 
pot, and a bronze ingot. He adduced evidence of mining and 
smelting by Romans, and stated their wood-smelted iron to be 
of unequalled malleability. He suggested that the Romans 
held Britain for the sake of its mineral wealth ; their extensive 
beds of scoriz in the Forest of Dean were still so rich in iron- 
stone that they were being re-smelted. Mr. T. Morgan read a 
paper on the ‘‘ Earliest Tribes of Yorkshire,” and Mr. Alfred 
Wallis one on the “‘ Pre-historic Remains on the Derbyshire 
Borders.” f 
AT the meeting of the Somersetshire Archwological’ and 
Natural History Society held at Wells last week Dr. Beddoe 
gave a brief sketch of the ethnological history of the county, 
and showed its bearings upon the physical aspect of the popula- 
tion at the present day. We learn from the paper that the 
people of the eastern half of the county have, on the whole, 
broader heads, lighter hair, and darker eyes than those of the 
western half. In all these respects the eastern men approach 
more to the ordinary English, the western to the Irish, standard. 
The mixed blooded inhabitants of the towns appear to be lighter 
as to both eyes and hair than the people of either division. The 
fair and handsome Frisian type is pretty common in the north 
of the county. In the hilly south-eastern region about Win- 
canton dark complexions and dark or even black hair attest the 
late and imperfect Saxonisation of the country; the same may 
be said of the Quantocks, About Minehead and Dunster, per- 
haps from the less fixity of the population induced by seafaring, 
there is more evidence of mixture of blood ; and in Exmoor and 
in some villages of Mendip the narrow skull, prominent jaws, 
and bony frame of the Gaelic type and the Turanian oblique eye 
and pyramidal skull crop up. , 
Dr. BELL PETTIGREW, F.R.S., has been appointed Lecturer 
on Physiology at the School of Medicine, Surgeons’ Hall, Edin- 
burgh. ; ; 
THE Secretaries of Section C (Geology) of the British Asso- 
ciation request the attention of authors to the rule requiring the 
early transmission of papers. In order that the work of the 
Organising Committee may be completed in time, all papers and 
reports, accompanied by abstracts, should be forwarded to the 
General Secretaries not later than September 4. 
We are indebted to Mr. G. Gore, F.R.S., for a copy of a re- 
print of an able article of his on the ‘‘ National Importance of 
Scientific Research,” which appeared in a recent number of the 
Westminster Review. We are glad to have the opportunity of 
drawing attention to Mr. Gore’s paper, as it forcibly expresses 
the view we have so persistently advocated in our own columns. _ 
Mr. Gore, after showing that the pursuit of pure Science is rarely 
rewarded in this country, points out that itis the duty of the State’ 
to provide and pay for pure scientific research, for the following 
reasons :—“ Because the results ef such labour_are indispensable 
to national welfare and progress ; because the results are of im- 
mense value to the nation, and especially to the Government 5 
because nearly the whole pecuniary benefit of it goes to the na- 
tion, and scarcely any to the discoverer ; because research cannot 
be efficiently provided for by means of voluntary effort; and 
because there appears to be scarcely any other way (except by 
application of University revenues) in which discoverers can be 
satisfactorily paid for their labour.” At present, as the writer 
states, the men paid the highest are not those who discover 
knowledge, but those who use and apply it. The reason for 
this apathy of the public as regards scientific work is, as Mr. 
Gore shows, clearly traceable to a widespread and lamentable 
ignorance of the nature and value of scientific inquiry. To 
diffuse natural knowledge among all classes of society is there © 
fore a great duty at thejpresent time, 
