262 



NA TURE 



[January i6, 1908 



of the cleiti(-cl chief of that name, a renowned fighter who 

 lived in the reign of Nal<ibinge, the eleventh tiing of the 

 Baganda. 



Objects such as these are not readily to be obtained ; 

 indeed, it required years of careful investigation and all 

 the knowledge and experience gained in the field by this 

 veteran missionary to negotiate their safe removal from 

 the_ ancient shrines of Uganda to the show-cases of the 

 University museum. 



Manchester. — Daily observations at the meteorological 

 Observatory of the University at Glossop Moor are now 

 being taken with kites or captive balloons, and preliminary 

 records of the results are being published every day in the 

 Daily Telegraph and other papers. The work, which has 

 been instituted by Prof. A. Schuster, F.R.S., is under the 

 immediate direction of Mr. J. E. Petavel, F.R.S., assisted 

 by the following staff :— Mr. Travis Rimmer, resident 

 observer at Glossop Moor ; Messrs. T. V. Pring and VV. A. 

 Harwood, and Miss Margaret White, voluntary assistants. 

 The generous cooperation of the meteorological observa- 

 tories at Buxton, Huddersfield, Stonyhurst, Sheflfield, and 

 Manchester will facilitate the working out 'of comparative 

 results, in the subsequent utilisation of the observations, 

 and should add greatly to the value of this investigation 

 of the meteorology of the upper atmosphere. 



At a dinner of the Bristol University College Colston 

 Society on Tuesday, the president, Mr. G. A. Wills, stated 

 that contributions towards a university for Bristol have 

 in the past two years amounted to 40,000/. He also 

 announced that his father, Mr. H. O. Wills, has promised 

 100,000;. towards the endowment of the university for 

 Bristol and the west of England provided a charter be 

 granted within two years. 



The national importance of brain-power produced bv 

 universities, as well as sea-power obtained by a strong 

 navy, was insisted upon by .Sir Norman Lockver in his 

 presidential address to the British Association in'1903; and 

 a comparison was made of the e.xpenditure on higher 

 education with that on battleships. Prof. Turner, of the 

 University of Birmingham, speaking at Stourbr'idge on 

 January 6 in connection with the Stourbridge and District 

 Higher Education Committee, used similar illustrations in 

 referring to the cost of technical education. He pointed 

 out that the Birmingham University and other local 

 colleges and universities obtain a total grant per annum 

 of about 100,000/. Let this be compared with our naval 

 expenditure, and it is found that to build one battleship 

 of the Dreadnought type absorbs the whole of the funds 

 allocated to the local universities for seventeen years. 

 Battleships are a necessity, but the Armv and Navy cannot 

 exist apart from the nation's third line of defence— its 

 internal manufactures— and these depend largely upon the 

 rearing of an educated and skilled people. 



The annual meeting of the Geographical Association was 

 held on January 8. Mr. Douglas Freshfield, who presided 

 said that last year he had found it necessary to comment 

 on the cxtraordinarv decision of the Civil Service Com- 

 missioners to exclude geography from the examinations 

 for the higher branches of the Civil Service, including the 

 Foreign Office, but now he was able to congratulate the 

 association upon a reversal of that decision. The report 

 read supplied evidence that the association continues 

 energetically its work of improving geographical instruc- 

 tion. Major Close delivered a lecture on map projection. 

 It may be noticed that various lectures on the teaching of 

 geography have been arranged by the association. The 

 first will be delivered by Mr. G. G. Chisholm on 

 January 24, at 8 p.m., at University College, and the 

 second, on scientific method in the leaching of geography, 

 by Prof. R. A. Gregory, on February 14 at the same place 

 and time. The remaining lectures will be delivered on 

 alternate Fridays upon the following subjects : — Physical 

 geography as_ an essential part of school geography,' Mr. 

 T. Alford Smith ; how to teach the geography of a country, 

 Prof. U. W. Lyde ; orographical maps as the basis of the 

 geography lesson. Dr. A. J. Herbertson ; and geographical 

 laboratories. Mr. A. T. Simmons. Particulars , 

 obtained from Mr. J. F. Unslead, =; Wivertoii 

 ijydenbam. 



NO. 1994, VOL 77I 



he 

 Road, 



The issue of Science for December 20, 1907, contains 

 the annual opening address delivered last October by Prol. 

 F. F. Wesbrook, of the University of Minnesota, befon- 

 llie faculty of science of the University of Manitoba at 

 Winnipeg. Discussing the needs of the Canadian uni- 

 versity. Prof. Wesbrook instituted an interesting com- 

 parison between what is required in the direction of higher 

 education in Manitoba and the similar needs of the 

 University of Minnesota, which was founded nine years 

 earlier than the Canadian institution. Although Manitoba 

 has had a university since 1877, it cannot be said as yet 

 to have made provision for it which is at all adequate. 

 Manitoba has now a population of about 380,000, and with 

 all the demand on her for increased university facilities 

 has only been able to expend approximately ib,oooi. for 

 building and permanent improvement, and for mainten- 

 ance 3000/. per annum (which until last year was only 

 i20o!.), with an addition of 5000!. from land grant and 

 other sources, making a total current expenditure of 8000/. 

 per annum. In the case of Minnesota University, there 

 were in 1887 only 412 students registered out of a State 

 population of 1,180,000, and there was available 7000/. 

 from State funds and a total of practically 14,000/. from 

 all sources, with a total student attendance per ten 

 thousand population of 3-49. In 1906 the population of 

 the State had nearly doubled, the University attendame 

 had increased to 3956, the total funds derived from the 

 .State to 50,300/. per annum, the total annual current ex- 

 pense of the University, exclusive of buildings and per- 

 manent improvements, was 108,400/. per annum, and the 

 attendance at the University for each ten thousand of 

 State population was twenty students. The total expendi- 

 ture for maintenance, exclusive of State grants for hospital 

 maintenance, special investigations, library e.xpenses. re- 

 pairs, and so on, will this year be above 132,600/. Well 

 may Prof. Wesbrook urge the people of Manitoba to 

 emulate the American example he cites. It is to be hoped 

 that the approaching visit of the British Association to 

 Winnipeg will assist the Canadian authorities in developing 

 the University. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 14, IC07. — " On Ihe Cranial and 

 Facial Characters of the Neandertal Race." By Prof. 

 W. J. Sollas. 



.As a result of a comparison of the calvarium of the 

 Neandertal race with that of the aborigines of South 

 -Australia, it is shown that a much closer resemblance 

 exists than some authorities have supposed, especially as 

 regards the calottal height, Schwalbe's (" bregma ") 

 angle, and the bregma index. The chief differences are 

 to be found in the cephalic index, the continuity of the 

 frontal torus, and the deeply impressed character of the 

 frontal fossa. 



Comparisons based on the glabella-inion line are mis- 

 leading, owing to the inconstancy in position of the inion. 



The exterior foramino-basal angle owes its perplexing 

 anomalies to the fact that its magnitude is determined by 

 five variables, one of which is connected with the cranial 

 height, so that in depressed forms of skull it acquires a 

 higher value than might otherwise be expected. 



The Gibraltar skull is the only example of the 

 Neandertal race which presents the bones of the face and 

 the basi-cranial axis in undisturbed connection with the 

 calvarium. Its characters, apart from the cranial vault, 

 are unique ; no other known skull possesses so long a face 

 or such a large and broad nasal aperture. In profile, the 

 nasal curve flows into that of the glabella, without an\ 

 sudden change of flexure, that is, there is no nasal notch, 

 such as occurs in the .Australians. 



The orbit, as in all skulls of the Neandertal race, is 

 distinguished by its excessive height above a line drawrt 

 from the nasion to the middle of the fronto-zygomatic 

 suture. 



The sphenethmoidal angle has been measured from the 

 limbus sphenoidalis by a line drawn to the crista galli on 

 the one hand and the basion on the other ; it exceeds the 

 corresponding angle of the lowest known South .Australian 

 skull, similarly measured, by 16° 30'. 



