70 NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 
archeology, history, art, linguistics, Indices, Sinics, 
Hellenics, philology (Latin and Celtic), French lan- 
guage and literature, Italian, Spanish, English, Ger- 
man, law, and economics. 
Now, this is what science means to France. How 
shall we give it honour here? The study of man 
holds as large a es as the study of Nature. And in 
this study of man language is the servant, and not 
the exclusive master, as it has been made in England. 
One of the first steps required seems to be to put 
the study of man in its place as part of the essential 
education for all, quite independent of the minority 
who specialise in dead languages. We need to te: ich 
in every school the course of civilisation, its successes 
and its failures, the grandeur of the characters and 
thoughts which have stimulated action, to show man 
as the most potent and ruling influence upon Nature, 
At present, to even the small minority who master dead 
languages for effective use, most of the literature is 
Betenowr , and the physical facts of civilisation are 
ignored. The time spent in general education upon 
dead languages—mostly ineffective—would suffice for 
a fair acquaintance with both man and Nature, if 
practically used, [te STS ral gal Bs 
The Third Fossil Tsetse-Fly. 
AmonG some fossil insects collected in the Miocene 
shales of Florissant, Colorado, by Mr. Geo. Wilson, 
and transmitted to me by Mr. F. H. Ward, 1 find a 
beautifully preserved tsetse-fly. The insect is inter- 
mediate in size between the two fossil species pre- 
viously found (both of which may be seen in the 
British Museum), and is evidently distinct. It may 
be called Glossina veterna, n.sp., and will be best 
distinguished by the following measurements in milli- 
metres: length 12-5, length ‘of wing 10-9, length of 
proboscis 4:1, length and “width of abdomen each 5°60. 
The body and legs are brown or black, the abdomen 
without dark bands; the wings are hyaline, faintly 
brownish. The scutellum has long marginal and 
apical bristles, exactly as in the living species. The 
post-alar and first dorso-central bristles are also well 
preserved and normal. The anterior basal cell of the 
wing is about 0-6 mm. broad at end, its truncate 
apical end is short, and the lower margin does not 
bulge much near the end. The abdomen is hairy, as 
in living species. This excellent specimen affords 
additional evidence for the existence of two tsetse-flies 
in the American Miocene, astonishing as the fact is. 
The new species is nearest to G. osborni, but is too 
large to be the female of that form. 
T. D. A. CockERELL. 
University of Colorado, Boulder, August 31. 
The Designation of Hours. 
A propos the alteration of official time, now immi- 
nent: would it not be a good plan to suggest a modi- 
fication of time nomenclature? As follows : Midday is 
12 noon; well and good. Half an hour later is 12. 30 
p-m., and we have the confusing spectacle of 11.30 
p-m. arriving eleven hours afterwards! I suggest, as 
long as the 24-hour system is followed, that ez ich 12-hour 
cycle be definitely marked off. Thus half-past 12 
(day-time) would be 0.30 p.m., to be followed, quite 
logics ully, by 1 p.m., 1.30 p.m., etc., up to 12 p.m. 
Half-past 12 at night would be 0.30 a.m. Comparison 
could then be made with the 24-hour system, unless 
indeed the powers that be are foolish enough to label 
the first half-hour of each new day 24.30 a.m.—to be 
followed by 1 a.m. C. H. CoiiinGs. 
g Tollington Place, Tollington Park, N., 
September 18. 
NO. 2448, VOL. 98] 
ARCHASOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE 
AMERICAS.1 
HE work before us is the third volume of a 
series devoted to the archeology of the 
Latin Americas, in which the author contrives to 
give a general account of this enormous field, 
mainly based upon a widely scattered and not 
always easily ‘accessible literature, from the 
earliest Spanish chronists to the present plethora of 
Americanists. There are few readable works 
which take a wider and more scientific view of 
the main questions, whilst the flood of the more 
professional publications deals with smaller areas 
and often intensely with abstruse detail of one or 
other of — the 
numerous — pro- 
blems. 
In this quarter 
of the globe, 
from Mexico and 
the Antilles, and 
extending far 
down in western 
South America, 
a peculiar and 
unique kind of 
civilisation de- 
veloped, and cul- 
minated in two 
widely separated 
centres, not in 
the steamy-hot 
tropical lands, 
but literally 
above them, in 
the uplands 
where a more in- 
vigorating —cli- 
mate still repaid 
agricultural toil. 
Having dealt 
first with the 
Mexican - Maya 
civilisation, 
which has spread 
its influence in 
ever - weakening 
waves down to 
Panama, the 
author devoted 
his second volume to South America, the civilisa- 
tion of which centred in the Peruvian highlands. 
Having first treated these north and south 
centres, with their radiating influence into the 
Middle Americas, he has shorn these by anticipa- 
tion. From a broad point of view the present 
volume could therefore deal only with what was 
left over, and this residue is of minor importance, 
since it applies to peoples with a civilisation not 
exactly degenerafe, but approaching the original 
stratum, which had not risen to anything great of 
its own. 
Fic. 1.— Greater Antilles: Wooden idol. 
(Scale, one-sixth.) From ‘‘ Central American 
and West Indian Archaology.” 
1 “Central Americin and West Indian Archzology: Be'ng an Introduc- 
tion to the Arc heology of the States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and 
the West Indies." By T. A Joyce. Pp. xvi+270. (Lendon : Philip Lee 
Warner, 1916.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
—_= 
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