256 



NA TURE 



[January 16, 1902 



natiirforschenden GcselhchafI m Bern for 1900, of which Messrs. 

 Williams and Norgate have forwarded a copy. The essay con- 

 sists in a detailed examination of the treatments of Raabe, 

 Schlomilch, Schiifli and J. W. L. Glaisher, and the author 

 gives tables as well as graphs of the (unctions according to the 

 four corresponding alternative definitions. As a result of the 

 examination, Prof. Renfer decides that L. Schafli's definition is 

 to be preferred on account of (i) its wider limits of convergency, 

 (2) the greater simplicity of form of the formuhe, (3) this form 

 being the most general, and (4) the theory assuming a more 

 compact form on account of the assumed fundamental relation 

 between Bernouillan numbers and functions and the applications 

 of the principle of indeterminate coeflicients. 



The " Antonio Alzate " Society, of Mexico, has published 

 the proceedings and reports of the first national meteorological 

 congress held in that country, and convened under its auspices 

 on November I, 2 and 3, 19CO. The congress was attended 

 by thirty-one members, chiefly directors of observatories and dele- 

 gates of the various States. Many questions of general in- 

 terest, mostly tending to ensure uniformity in the methods 

 employed, were discussed. Some of the reports handed in 

 contain valuable discussions of the rainfall and climate of 

 various localities in Mexico. A paper was also read by a lady 

 member, Sefiorita R. Sanchez Suarez, on the barometer and 

 the prediction of weather. 



On comparing the principal meteorological results of the 

 year 1901 at Greenwich Observatory with those of the last 

 sixty years, the mean temperature (49°'6) is found to be -o°'5 

 below the average ; there was nothing remarkable in the absolute 

 extremes of temperature, the maximum being 87"'9, on July 19, 

 and the minimum, 20°'4, on February 14, giving an absolute 

 range of 67°'5. The rainfall, as in several previous years, was 

 below the mean, the amount of deficiency being 3 '28 inches ; 

 there was a slight excess in March and April, and a large excess, 

 174 inch, in December, while deficiencies exceeding an inch 

 occurred in January and November. The amount of bright sun- 

 shine exceeded the mean of the last twenty years by 290 hours ; 

 the largest amount was recorded in May (237 hours), and the 

 least in February (27 hours). 



In an illustrated article on the boats of the Samoans, in Globus 

 (vol. Ixxx. 1901, p. 167), Prof. Thilenius points out that the 

 remarkable migrations of the Polynesians were accomplished 

 by means of the alia or double canoe. .Some of these canoes 

 can accommodate more than a hundred persons, and the type 

 extends from Hawaii to New Zealand and from Viti to the 

 Marquesas. 



So little is known about the brains of primitive peoples that 

 we welcome with especial pleasure the careful study of the br.iin 

 of an Eskimo man by Dr. h.. Hrdlicka in the American Anthro- 

 pologisl {1901, p. 454). As a whole this brain is heavier and 

 larger than the average brain of white men of similar stature, 

 and the cerebrum rather exceeds that of an average white male 

 in the number, extent and depth of the sulci and in the com- 

 plexity of the gyrations. 



G. Paul-Boncour gives, in the Bulletins de la Socii'li' 

 (TAntliropologie de Paris (v. sc'r. t. ii. 1901), the first of a series 

 of studies on the skeletal modifications consequent on infantile 

 hemiplegia. This detailed study deals with the femur, and the 

 author gives a careful comparison of the healthy femur with that 

 of the paralytic side of a number of subjects. The last of his 

 conclusions is the only one that will interest the general reader ; 

 he .says ; " From the anthropological point of view it has been 

 possible pathologically to establish reasonable and clear transi- 

 tions between human femurs and the femurs of anthropoids." 

 NO. I 68 I, VOL. 65] 



" Notes on the Ancient Model of a Boat and Warrior Crew 

 found at Roos in Holderness," by Mr. Thomas Sheppard, is 

 the title of the fourth uf the Hull Museum Publications. This 

 little brochure, which is illustrated by four figures and two 

 plates, is sold to the public for one penny. The curator is to 

 be congratulated on producing such an interesting little essay 

 on a remarkable model, probably of Scandinavian manufacture, 

 of a wooden boat, the prow of which is carved to represent a 

 snake's head with small quartz eyes. On the boat are four 

 nude male figures, each of which was originally provided with 

 a club and a large and a small round shield ; their eyes also 

 were pieces of quartz. The figures are from 14 to i6 inches in 

 height. 



Arch.'EOLogists have long been accustomed to accept the 

 statement that there is a hiatus between the PaUeolithic and 

 Neolithic stages of culture ; but of late years more detailed re- 

 search has indicated evidence of a transitional culture in the 

 south of France and elsewhere. (,)uite recently A. Laville ha,s 

 investigated sections of certain hills in the valley of the Seine, 

 and he claims {^Bulletins el Memoirs de la Soc. cTAnlhropologie de 

 Paris, V. ser. t. ii. 1901, p. 206) to have discovered two layers 

 which he terms "Infra-Neolithic." These correspond, according 

 to him, with the layers B and C of the famous cave of Mas 

 d'Azil, so admirably worked out by E. Piette, and to which the 

 attention of readers of Nature has been called. There is a 

 second paper (p. 285) by the same author, in which he figures 

 a specimen from a basement zone which he claims to be an 

 implement of the Chellian type, but in which M. Verneau 

 cannot discover any evidence of human workmanship. 



Fire is regarded by the Hopi Indians of .Arizona as a living 

 being, its cultus consisting primarily of rites for germination, 

 and, secondarily, for rain making. The lesser new-fire cere- 

 mony, which is described by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in the 

 American Anthropologist (n.s., vol. iii. p. 438), has these two 

 purposes. The special gods worshipped are the germ-father 

 and the germ-mother ; the former is the fire god and is com- 

 municated with by means of prayer-sticks placed in his shrine, 

 or prayer-fires kindled in the vicinity of the same. The germ- 

 mother, called in this ceremony by the name of her animal 

 personation (spider woman), is communicated with by invoca- 

 tions consisting of archaic monosyllables shouted by the chief. 

 The personators of the ancient priests wear face-shields or 

 masks ; the latter have magic power, and their presence on the 

 altar is a symbolic or mute suggestion of the elaborate ceremony 

 of the ancients. 



We have received specimens of wall maps of Africa and South 

 America, compiled and drawn by Prof. tJuido Cora and pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Paravia and Co. These maps, which are the 

 first of a new series, are on a scale of I : 8,000,000, and show 

 the physical features correctly and clearly. Ethnographic and 

 political maps, on a scale of I : 25,000,000, are shown as insets ; 

 and profiles on a vertical scale of I : 200,000, along the equator 

 in the case of Africa, and the parallel of 19° S. in the case of 

 South .\merica, form useful additions. 



Th e December number of Petermann s Mittheilungen contains 

 several articles of more than average general interest. Prof. 

 Gerland writes on Italian earthquakes and Baratta's seismic 

 map of Italy, Prof. Wieser on the oldest map bearing the name 

 "America," and Dr. Ernest Stromer on Lake Tanganyika. 

 Dr. Vogelgesang concludes the first part of an account of 

 journeys in northern and central China. Dr. Ilenkel con- 

 tributes a note on the distance limit of visibility of land of a 

 certain elevation from the sea, and adds a map of Greece 

 showing the limits for a number of mountain summits. 



The marine submergence of the Gobi during the Secondary 

 period becomes more and more doubtful, in proportion as we 



