568 
NATURE 
[ March 31, 1870 
Madagascar, but not of Mauritius or Bourbon 3 one species, at 
least, is altogether new. The four Ophidians are all undescribed, 
no authentic evidence being known of any such having at any 
time been indigenous to the Mauritius group. No Batrachians 
were discovered,’and the time was too short to collect the Fish 
which’abounded in the freshwater pools. Only one Gasteropod was 
collected, probably Cyclostoma hemistoma. Of Arachnida, the 
spiders are numerous and interesting, of four kinds, belonging 
to as many different families, two common to Mauritius and 
two not; also three scorpions, one measuring five inches, 
none of them Mauritian. Only one Myriapod was captured, 
a centipede six inches in length, belonging to India, but 
found also in Rodriguez. There were six Coleoptera, none of 
them Mauritian, though not very dissimilar. Of Orthoptera, one 
Plasma, peculiar to the island, and a grasshopper, also thought 
to be new. The Neuroptera included only one specimen 
of adragon fly, and the Hymenoptera only a single bee. Gene- 
rally speaking, the Fauna was of the type of the Malayan archi- 
pelago, with greater resemblance to that of Madagascar than of 
Mauritius or Bourbon. The reptiles have been sent to Mr. 
Gunther of the British Museum for examination and description, 
and specimens of the plants to the Kew Herbarium. Thus it will be 
seen that this little islet, not a mile in diameter, and only thirteen 
distant from the great island of Mauritius, is unique in respect 
of the peculiarity of both its animal and vegetable productions. 
In the matter of Ophidians it is especially so ; the absence of 
them in other oceanic islets throughout the globe being one of 
the most remarkable features of their history. 
Royal Geographical Society, March 14.—Sir R. I. 
Murchison, Bart., president, in the chair. The following 
new Fellows were elected :—Charles Ashton; William J. 
Anderson; Louis Alford; Charles Fairbridge; Charles W. 
Gray ; Edward Gellatly ; J. G. Gibson; T. D. Murray; Rey. 
W. R. Tilson Marsh, M.A.; M. the Chevalier de Overbeck ; 
Robert T. Pigott; Albert Walker ; Thomas Watson; Peter T. 
Wills. The President, Sir Roderick Murchison, read an official 
letter he had that day received from Lord Clarendon, stating that 
a severe outbreak of cholera had occurred in East Africa, at 
Zanzibar, and on the neighbouring mainland, which it was feared 
would delay the progress of Dr. Livingstone, inasmuch as the 
native carriers who were taking supplies to him had been attacked 
by the epidemic. Sir Roderick stated that there was little 
probability of the disease reaching the remote interior district 
where Livingstone remained waiting for the Zanzibar caravan. 
The following paper was read: ‘‘On Morrell’s Antarctic Voyage, 
and on the advantages of steam navigation in future Antarctic 
Explorations,” by Captain R. V. Hamilton, R.N. According 
to the author, a remarkable narrative of a voyage in high southern 
latitudes by Benjamin Morrell, in the /Vasp sealing schooner, pub- 
lished at New York in 1832, had been hitherto overlooked by all 
concerned in Antarctic exploration. Even Morrell’s celebrated 
countryman, Commodore Wilkes, seemed not to have been aware 
of this publication, which appeared before he sailed on his voyage 
of discovery. Captain Hamilton had laid down Morrell’s route ona 
South Polar chart, and found that it intersected several timesthe land 
said afterwards to have been discovered by Wilkes. The portion of 
the Antarctic Ocean navigated was between 66° and 70° 14’ lat.,and 
between 105° E. long. and the meridian of Greenwich. South of 
64° he found less ice, and in 69° 11’ there was no field-ice visible. 
Captain Hamilton concluded that the Antarctic lands seen by 
Wilkes and others were mostly islands, and that one or other of 
them would offer a suitable site for the observation of the ap- 
proaching Transit of Venus. The employment of steam-vessels, 
he contended, would add very greatly to the safety of the expedi- 
tion as well as the facility of reaching the high southern latitudes. 
The great barrier of ice surrounding the South Polar lands, he 
believed, was not glacier ice, but an enormous floe. In the dis- 
cussion which followed, Commander J. E. Davis (of Sir James 
Ross’s Expedition) dissected many of Morrell’s statements about 
well-known places in high southern latitudes, and showed that 
they were almost all pure fiction: he considered his work to be, 
therefore, of no authority, and denied that it had been overlooked; 
it had been examined by cartographers and writers, and set 
aside as unreliable. Mr. Enderby expressed similar opinions, 
from personal knowledge of Morrell, and Mr. F. Galton also 
exposed Morrell’s inaccuracy with regard to the interior of South- 
west Africa. Captain Sherard Osborn differed in opinion from 
Captain Hamilton regarding the formation of the Antarctic icy 
barrier, and believed it to be the seaward edge of an enormous 
continental glacier. 
Admiral Ommaney also took part in the 
discussion. 
The meeting was then adjourned to March 28. 
Anthropological Society, March 15.—Dr. Charnock, V.P. 
in the chair. Mr. William Stephens Haywood, Long Witten- 
ham, near Abingdon, Berks; and Mr. P. Henderson, her 
Majesty’s Vice-Consul at Benghazi, North Africa, and No. 1 
Stafford Place, Buckingham Gate, were elected Fellows. Dr. 
Daniel Earl Burdett was elected a local secretary for Belleville, 
Ontario, Canada. The following paper, by Dr. Isidore Koper- 
nicky and Dr. J. Barnard Davis, F.R.S., was read: ‘‘ On the 
strange peculiarities observed by a religious sect of Moscovites, 
called Scoptsi.” This curious Christian sect of a well-defined 
race was fully described in the paper by Dr. Barnard Davis from 
data supplied him by Dr. Kopernicky of Bucharest, and it was 
accompanied by an anatomical preparation which clearly demon- 
strated the character and amount of mutilation practised by the 
Scoptsi. That practice is based upon the twelfth verse of the 
nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew, and it has been carried out 
with such resolution and to so large an extent, that the Russian 
Government has been compelled to interfere and to punish with 
extreme severity all members proved to belong to that com- 
munity. Hence, the Scoptsi are forced to conduct their worship 
and to carry out their peculiar rites in the most secret manner ; 
nevertheless, they contrive to amass great wealth, and as a 
consequence they possess considerable influence in districts 
in which they reside. Accident alone brought under the 
notice of Dr. Kopernicky the case of the individual whose 
body furnished the preparation laid before the society. 
Fhe paper, after entering at length into the modes of conducting 
the religious worship of the Scoptsi, their estimated numbers, 
their physical characteristics and other details, viewed the sub- 
ject in its psychical aspect. Dr. Kopernicky was of opinion that 
this aberration in Christianity could not be explained otherwise 
than by the psychological peculiarity of the race of Moscovites 
in which it prevails. He endorsed the well-known views of the 
Rey. Dunbar Heath upon the difference which exists between 
the Semitic and ‘‘ Aryan” races in their appreciation of the 
doctrines of Christianity, and held it to be an anthropological 
fact that the ideas and religious creeds, sound or absurd, moral or 
immoral,which are produced, or which develope themselves among 
a certain race, depend greatly upon the character of the psycho- 
logical sentiments natural to that race. That was the reason 
why Christianity was so readily accepted, and has taken such 
root among the Aryan peoples, and why, on the contrary, the 
Koran has had most success and most persistence among the 
Semites. An animated discussion ensued, in which the Rey, 
Dunbar Heath, Mr. Moncure Conway, Mr. Ralston, Dr. Spen- 
cer Cobbold, and others, took part. 
Institution of Civil Engineers, February 22.—The follow- 
ing papers were read :—‘‘ On the New Mhow-ke-Mullee Viaduct, 
Great Indian Peninsula Railway,” by Mr. A. R. Terry; ‘‘On 
the Pennair Bridge, Madras Railway,” by Mr. C. W. Stoney. 
March 1.—‘‘The Wolf-Rock Lighthouse.” By James N. 
Douglass. 
March 8.—* Description of the Line and Works of the San 
Paolo Railway in the Empire of Brazil.” By D. M. Fox. 
March 22.—‘‘ On the conditions and the limits which govern 
the proportions of Rotary Fans.” By R. Briggs, of Phila- 
delphia. 
DUBLIN 
Royal Irish Academy, March 16.—The Rey. John H. 
Jellett, M.A., was elected president, and the following gentle- 
men were elected council and officers for the current year :— 
Dr. W. K. Sullivan, Secretary of Academy ; Dr. H. Hennessy, 
Dr. W. Stokes, Dr. A. Searle Hart, Dr. James Apjohn, Rev. 
Humphrey Lloyd, D.D., Rey. S. Haughton, M.D., Rey. J. A. 
Galbraith, Dr. MacDonnell, Dr. E. Perceval Wright, Mr. R. 
S. Ball; John T. Gilbert, Librarian; William H. Hardinge, 
Treasurer ; Dr. John Kells Ingram, Secretary of Council; Sir 
W. R. Wilde, Secretary of Foreign Correspondence; Rey. 
George Longfield, D.D., Dr. Samuel Ferguson, Dr. W. J. 
O’Donnavan, Dr. Alexander G. Richey, Colonel Meadows 
Taylor, John R. Garstin. Heinrich Ewald, of Gottingen, was 
elected an honorary member in the department of Polite 
Literature. The following grants of money were voted :— 
20/. to Dr. John Barker, in aid of his experiments on ‘‘ Micro- 
scopic Illumination.” 157. to Mr. E. Reynolds, to enable him 
to carry out his researches on the ‘Spectrum Analysis of 
Chlorine,” &c, 152 to Mr.’N, Furlong, to enable him to 
