Oct. 12, 1882] 



NATURE 



579 



But the classical research of Liebig and Wohler on 

 " oil of bitter almonds " in 1832, recalled investigators 

 to the true paths of advance. By recognising the exist- 

 ence in a series of compound molecules of a group of 

 elementary atoms — which group they called benzoyl — 

 Liebig and Wohler were able to bring together, and so to 

 explain the properties of compounds derived from this 

 oil, compounds which to the less imaginative chemist 

 appeared to belong to altogether different classes of 

 bodies. 



Thus was inaugurated the modern conception of com- 

 pound radicle, a conception which, being much more 

 elastic than that of the Berzelian radicle which preceded 

 it, and being at the same time sufficiently precise, was 

 destined to lead to that of a replacing value for each 

 radicle, and so to be merged in the wider hypothesis of 

 the chemical equivalency of elementary atoms. 



But in other and different fields the influence of the 

 work of Wohler has also been felt. Called to the Pro- 

 fessorship of Chemistry at Gottingen in 1S36, for more 

 than forty years Wohler pursued his investigations into 

 the properties of metals and metallic compounds. Do 

 we not owe to him much of our knowledge of aluminium 

 and of nickel ? Was it not he who taught us how to 

 separate cobalt from nickel and from manganese ? Did 

 we not learn from him much concerning the properties of 

 chromium, tungsten, tellurium, arsenic, and titanium ? 



His researches have thrown light on the chemistry of 

 palladium and iridium, of beryllium and yttrium, and 

 largely on the properties of silicon. 



In 1833 Wohler published the " Grundriss der Chemie," 

 a book which is known wherever chemistry is studied, 

 and which has been translated into the English, French, 

 Dutch, Swedish, and Danish languages. 



In 1861 the publication of his '• Mineral Analysis" 

 enriched analytical chemistry with methods of rare 

 accuracy and general applicability. 



Wohler's translations into German of the Lchrbuch and 

 Jahresberichte of Berzelius brought those classical works 

 within the reach of every chemist. 



But what shall be said of the influence of this great 

 student of nature on others? Many a chemist looks to 

 Gottingen as to the place where he learned what research 

 means. 



He has lived long and nobly ; he has seen chemistry 

 grow from a feeble plant to a spreading tree, and to that 

 growth he has in no small measure ministered. 



M. M. P. M. 



PALAEOLITHIC CRA VELS OF NORTH-EAST 



LONDON 

 T"\URING the present spring and summer several new 

 *-f and instructive sections through the beds con- 

 taining Palaeolithic implements have been laid open at 

 and near Stoke Newington. For the first time in my 

 memory sections have been exposed which show the real 

 age of the beds near the valley of the Hackney Brook, 

 together with the older deposits on which they rest. 

 Stoke Newington, Highbury, and Hackney are now so 

 much built over, and where not built over, the surface of 

 the ground has been so much .disturbed for market 

 gardening, brick-making, and excavations for sand and 

 gravel, that one might live near the place for a lifetime 

 and never see a section of four feet which would show 

 the true nature of the uppermost deposits. 



In Nature, vol. xxv. p. 460, I described the " Palaeo- 

 lithic Floor" lighted on by me at Stoke Newington. 

 This "floor" is a place where Palaeolithic implements 

 and flakes occur in large numbers. They are found about 

 four feet beneath the surface of the giound, and nearly all 

 the examples are as sharp as knives. That this was 

 really a working place where tools were made in Palaeo- 

 lithic times is proved by the fact of my replacing flakes 



on to the blocks from which they were originally struck 

 Hitherto I have described this "floor" as belonging to the 

 Hackney Brook, and Dr. John Evans, in his " Stone 

 Implements of Great Britain," p. 523, says : " The 

 Sbacklewell gravel lies on the slopes of the valley 

 of the Hackney Brook." This in one sense, is really 

 the case, but recent sections show that the Hackney 

 Brook is quite modern, that it has cut its way through 

 the Shacklewell gravels and only slightly disturbed 

 them ; in some places it has washed the " Palaeo- 

 lithic Floor" quite away. The "floor" really be- 

 longs to the Thames and the Lea, and one part 

 of it occurs at the point of the former confluence of the 

 two streams at four miles north of the Tower of London. 

 It is also older than the "trail" or "warp" of the 

 Rev. O. Fisher which occurs just above the " floor." 

 The " floor ' I now find to be by no means restricted to 

 the slopes of the Hackney Brook, for I have seen a good 

 section of it with tools and flakes in si/it at three-quarters 

 of a mile to the east of the stream and quite removed from 

 its slopes. The present Hackney Brook may possibly 

 follow some old depression left by previous denudation on 

 the north bank and bed of the ancient Thames, but that 

 is all. I have no doubt that the unabraded implement 

 found at the bottom of a sand and gravel pit at Highbury 

 by Mr. Norman Evans ("Stone Implements," p. 525) and 

 compared by Dr. John Evans to the tools from Hoxne, 

 High Lodge, and the cave of Le Moustier, really belongs 

 to the " Palaeolithic Floor," for I have an example recently 

 found by myself near the Highbury position, which I know 

 came from the " floor," for I there saw the "floor" in 

 section. The unabraded implements, from their character 

 and position clearly belong to a recent Palaeolithic period, 

 and they agree partly with the Le Moustier examples, but 

 the Hackney Brook is far more modern than the most 

 recent of Palaeolithic times. At first the evidence seemed 

 to indicate that the men worked on the old banks of the 

 brook ; it is now clear, however, that it was on the im- 

 mensely older banks of the ancient Thames, that the 

 men really fabricated their tools. 



As no section through the " Palaeolithic Floor" has 

 hitherto been published, the accompanying illustration, 

 Fig. 1, engraved to scale, will give an idea of its nature. 

 The upper part of the illustration shows a section, facing 

 the east, 300 feet long from north to south. It is taken 

 through the gardens between Alkham and Kyverdale 

 Road and south of Cazenove Road— the latter is shown 

 on Stanford's Library Map of London. It is north of, 

 and close to Stoke Newington Common. The south end, 

 nearest the brook, is 83 feet 3 inches above the ordnance 

 datum, whilst the north end is 90 feet 6 inches, showing 

 a rise of 7 feet 3 inches in 300 feet — the heights are my 

 own. Varying at from 4 feet to 6 feet from the surface 

 there is a thin stratum of sub-angular broken flints 

 and other stones seldom more than 4 or J inches in 

 thickness, and sometimes obliterated or with only a tingle 

 thickness of stones. This is the "Palaeolithic Floor," 

 and it is indicated in the upper part of Fig. 1 by the 

 letters a, a, a. At 8 feet below the " floor " and about 1 2 

 feet from the surface of the ground is a bed of gravel and 

 sand about S feet in thickness containing implements of 

 older date ; this bed is shown at the base of both the 

 upper and lower sections seen in Fig. 1. 



To more clearly show the nature of the " floor," the 

 60 feet of the upper figure (where marked) is engraved 

 below to a larger scale ; b is the 12 feet gravel containing 

 rolled fossil bones and abraded Palaeolithic implements ; 

 C is fine buff-coloured sand, often full of fossil shells of 

 land and freshwater molluscs, d d d is the " floor,'' with 

 its numerous unabtaded tools and flakes ; in the part 

 illustrated, the "floor" is in duplicate. After the men 

 had made their tools on the " floor " where the lower d's 

 occur, a slight flood of water covered up the tools with a 

 thin coating of sand ; the men then walked over the 



