NATURE 



[December 24, 1908 



on " TliL- Rise of Man," were, in 2800 B.C., able to coast 

 round Arabia and up the Red Sea to Suez. Why should 

 they not be able a few hundred years later to coast round 

 Africa and Spain and up the Atlantic to Britain? 



In 2800 B.C., according to the same authority, the 

 Akkadians were acquainted with silver, gold, bronze, and 

 copper. 



One of the most recent theories of the stone circles — 

 that of Sir Norman Lockyer — is that they were astro- 

 nomical observatories, by means of which the ancient 

 priests made observations of the sun and stars, and were 

 thereby able to regulate the calendar, to foretell and pre- 

 pare for the festival seasons of the year, and to tell the 

 time at night. 



This theory is in remarkable agreement with the anthro- 

 pometrical conclusions which I h.nvc just submitted to 

 you, for the Akkadians were apparently the first inventors 

 of astronomy. Gudea, the .Akkadian prince, who lived 

 about 2800 B.C., has left a stepped pyramid with an 

 observatory on the top. The Akkadians were the astro- 

 nomical race at the dawn of civilisation, and apparently 

 the ideas of an astronomical race have been embodied in 

 our British stone circles. 



THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION. 

 T^HE British Ornithologists' Union celebrated its fiftieth 

 anniversary in the rooms of the Zoological Society on 

 Wednesday, December 9. A special meeting was called 

 for the occasion, the president of the union. Dr. F. D. 

 Godman, F.R.S., occupying the chair, and reading an 

 address on the history of the union from its foundation. 

 The idea of forming this society was due, he remarked, 

 to the late Prof. Newton, and was first mooted in his 

 rooms at Cambridge during 1858 ; but it appears finally 

 to have taken shape when, in the following year, at the 

 meeting of the British .'\ssociation at Leeds, the oppor- 

 tunity was seized of calling together a number of the 

 ornithologists there assembled. The details of the con- 

 stitution of the union appear to have been then discussed. 

 and a few months later took their final shape. Limited 

 for the first few years of its existence to twenty members, 

 it was at last found expedient to remove this restriction. 

 To-day more than four hundred members are on the roll. 

 From the first it was decided to start a journal, and the 

 name chosen for this was that of the sacred bird of Egypt, 

 the Ibis. The history of the birth and growth of this 

 now celebrated journal was traced later by Dr. Sclater, 

 its first and present editor. After the addresses by the 

 president and Dr. Sclater, gold medals were presented to 

 the four survivors of the original founders, Dr. Godman, 

 Mr. Percy Godman, Dr. Sclater, and Mr. W. H. 

 Hudleston. This pleasant ceremony was followed by an 

 appeal to the members from Mr. Ogilvie Grant, of the 

 British Museum (Natural History), wherein he urged that 

 the union should commemorate its jubilee by sending an 

 expedition to explore the Charles Louis Mountains of New 

 Guinea, probably one of the richest unexplored zoological 

 regions of the world, and this was unanimously agreed 

 upon. The union, of course, could not find the whole of 

 the money necessary for such an undertaking, but a con- 

 siderable sum has been promised by others interested in 

 this work. The meeting was brought to a conclusion bv 

 a dinner held at the Trocadero Restaurant, after which 

 Mr. Bovd .'\lexandcr gave a lecture on his recent journey 

 across .Africa, and this was followed by a kinematograph 

 exhibition of pictures of bird life. 



.\t a special general meeting, held in the same week, 

 the union considered the report of a committee on 

 a motion brought forward bv Mr. H. F. Witherbv at 

 the last annual meeting. It was then proposed that 

 the taking or killing of certain birds, or the taking 

 of any egg of certain birds, or the purchase of anv 

 such egg knowing it to have been taken in the British 

 Islands by any member of the union, should involve the 

 removal of his name from the list of members. The pro- 

 hibition with regard to birds was to applv all the year 

 round to the bearded-top golden oriole, hoopoe, marsh 

 harrier, hen harrier. Montagu's harrier, common buzzard, 

 golden eagle, white-tailed " eagle, kite, hobby, osprey, 



NO. 2043, VOL. 79] 



common bittern, spoonbill, Kentish plover, avocet, and 

 chough. To the crested tit, snow-bunting, grey-leg goose, 

 dotterel, red-necked phalarope, ruff, whimbrel, black tern. 

 Sandwich tern, roseate tern, great skua, black-throated 

 diver, red-throated diver, and greenshank it was only to 

 apply for the breeding season, but it was to be in force 

 for the eggs of any of the species named. -After dis- 

 cussion, it was agreed that if in the opinion of the com- 

 mittee any member shall have personally assisted in or 

 connived at the capture or destruction of any bird, nest, 

 or eggs in the British Isles, by purchase or otherwise, 

 likely in the opinion of the committee to lead to the 

 eKtermination or serious diminution of that species as a 

 British bird, steps shall be taken, after due inquiry, to 

 reinove the offender's name from the list of members. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATION. \L 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 The Most Rev. Dr. ^\"alsh, Roman Catholic .Archbishop 

 of Dublin, has been elected Chancellor of the new National 

 University of Ireland. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Dat7y Chronicle 

 announces that Prof. Ernst Haeckel, professor of zoology 

 at the University of Jena, is about to retire into private 

 life after forty-eight years' professorial activity. He will 

 be succeeded by Prof. L. Plate, professor of zoology in the 

 Berlin Agricultural High School. 



LIniversity College, Reading, has issued a special list 

 of courses in poultry keeping to be given there, with prac- 

 tical training at the college poultry farm, Theale, in- 

 clusive of theoretical and practical teaching in this sub- 

 ject. Additional lectures are given by members of the 

 staff on zoology, soils, manures and pastures, chemistry of 

 foods, and bookkeeping. 



The current number of the Empire Review includes an 

 article on the Imperial College of Science and Technology 

 by Dr. Henry T. Bovey, F.R.S., the rector of the 

 college. After giving a brief historical risiime of the 

 growth of the Royal College of Science, the Royal School 

 of Mines, and the Central Technical College, Dr. Bovey 

 explains the work of the Departmental Committee 

 appointed by the Board of Education in 1904, the issue of 

 the charter of July 8, 1907, creating the Imperial College, 

 and the constitution of the governing body. The aims 

 and objects of the new college are then dealt with, and in 

 this part of his article the rector follows very closely the 

 able address he delivered to the students at the opening 

 of the session last October, which was published in full 

 in our issue for October 15 last (vol. Ixxviii., p. 613). 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland has arrived at an agreement with the 

 Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for pro- 

 viding means for the training of national-school teachers 

 in elementary experimental science and domestic economy 

 as part of local schemes of technical instruction. The 

 Commissioners are prepared to recognise teachers, who 

 hold certificates of satisfactory attendance at classes 

 approved by the Department, as qualified to give instruc- 

 tion in the subjects named. The Department has circu- 

 lated copies of the regulations which will govern the 

 classes to be inaugurated and syllabuses of courses of in- 

 struction in both subjects. Each course extends over 

 three years, is well graduated, and skilfully adapted to 

 the needs of teachers in elementary schools. The third 

 year's course in clcinentary experimental science provides 

 instruction in rural economy, and it is so framed that in 

 a few years' time Ireland should possess elementary- 

 school teachers able and desirous of basing the science 

 teaching of country schools upon the everyday surround- 

 ings and experiences of the children. 



The annual prize distribution at the Sir John Cass 

 Technical Institute was held on Wednesday, Decemb? 

 when the chair was taken by Sir Owen Roberts, chaij 

 of the governing bodv. The prizes were distributed b} 

 Mr. Lewis F. Day, after delivering an address, in which 

 he dealt with the mutual dependence of design in art and 

 craft work and their relation to trade, and concluded with 



