April lo, 1884] 



]NA TURE 



557 



Ambulance " {illustrated), by Surgeon-Major Evatt, M.D., 

 A.M.D. ; " The Influence of Schools of Art on Manufacturing 

 Industry," by John Sparkes ; "The Homes of the Poor," 

 (author not yet settled). 



Lady Siemens has placed at the disposal of the Council of 

 the Society of Arts a sum of 20/., to provide a prize, to be called 

 the Siemens Prize, to be offered for the best application of gas 

 to heating and cooking in dwellings (Class 24 in the International 

 Health Exhibition). The prize will consist of a gold medal or 

 20/., and will be awarded under the same conditions as the prizes 

 announced in the Journal of the Society of Arts of the 14th inst. 



The Senkenberg Natural History Society at Frankfort has 

 had a legacy of 40,000/. left to it by the late Countess Bose. 



A HUMAN skull has ju-t been discovered in a bed of clay near 

 Podbaba in the neighbourhood of Prjgue. A few days previously 

 a mammoth tusk was found in the ^ame locali y. The colour of 

 the skull proves that it was lying in yellow diluvial loam. It is 

 remarkable on account of its very flat forehead and the thickened 

 eyebrow bones, thus closely approaching the well-known Nean- 

 derthal skui;. Its facial angle seems to be even smaller than 

 that of the latter, although an exact measurement is impossible 

 on account of the absence of part of the jaw-bones. Further 

 details on the subject'will be publi hed in the Tranactions of the 

 Bohemian Academy of Sciences. 



The first number has ju-t been is.-ued of a new Italian 

 quarterly, entitled La Nurva Scienza, Rivista dill' Islruzione 

 Superiore, edited by Prof. Enrico r-_,orali of Todi, Umbria. 

 As implied by the title, the aim of tnis periodical is to popularise 

 scientific subjects, and to chronicle the progress of discovery in 

 Italy and abroad. The editor invites communications in the 

 chief European languages, and declares that his efforts w ill be 

 mainly directed to promoting the u itication of the sciences with 

 a view to the ultimate constitution of an exact philosophy. To 

 the present number he contributes two spirited and learned 

 papers on " Modern Thought in Italy," and on "The Pytha- 

 gorical Formula of Cosmic Evolution." The ap]_earance of such 

 a publication in a small provincial town is itself a striking illus- 

 tration of the general revival of serious studies since the esta- 

 blishmei.t of poli ical unity in Italy. 



The much discussed question as to the purification of water in 

 rivers "by itself," that is, by the mere fact of its motion, seems 

 to have entered into a new phase. Dr. Pehl, at St. Petersburg, 

 has recently made a scries of bacterioscopic measurements on the 

 waters of the capital, which are summed up in the last issue of 

 ihe Journal of the Russian Chemical Society. The water of the 

 Neva itself appears to be very poor in bacteria, namely, 300 

 germs in a cubic centimetre. After heavy rains this number 

 rises to 4500, and to 6500 during the thawing of the river. The 

 canals of St. Petersburg, on the contrary, are infected with 

 bacteria, their number reaching 110,000 in a cubic centimetre, 

 even during good weather. The same is true with regard 

 to the conduits of water for the supply of the city. While its 

 chemical composition hardly differs from that of the Neva (by 

 which they are supplied), the number of bacteria reaches 70,000, 

 against 300 in the water freely taken from the river ; and the 

 worst water was found in the chief conduit, although all details 

 of its construction are the same as in the secondary conduits. 

 Dr. Pehl explains this anomaly by the rapidity of the motion of 

 water, and he has made direct experiments in order to ascertain 

 that. In fact, when water was brought into rapid motion for an 

 hour, by means of a centrifugal machine, the number of deve- 

 loping germs was reduced by 90 per cent. Further experiments 

 will show if this destruction of germs is ilue to the motion of 

 the mass of water, or to molecular motion. The germs, among 



which Dr. Pehl distinguishes eight species, are not killed by im- 

 mersion into snow. As the snow begins to fall it brings down a 

 great number of germs, which number rapidly diminishes (from 

 312 to 52 after a three hours' fall of snow, on January 21, 1884), 

 while their number on the surface of the snow increases, perhaps in 

 consequence of the evaporation of snow or of the condensation 

 of vapour on its surface. 



It is proposed. Science states, to establish a monthly American 

 Meteorological Journal. It will begin with from twenty-four to 

 thirty-two octavo pages, and will be enlarged as rapidly as is 

 justified by the support given it. The first number will probably 

 appear about May i. It will be published in Detroit by Dr. 

 W. II. Burr, and edited by Prof. M. W. Harrington of Ann 

 Arbor. 



It is stated that the earthquakes of March 25 in Southern 

 Hungary were also severely felt at Essegg, at Winkowze, and at 

 Fiinfkirchen. At Djakovar many houses were injured. Another 

 earthquake was remarked at Ischia on Marcli 28. The shock 

 was but a slight one and of short duration. 



From the Report for 1SS3 of the (Glasgow Museum we see 

 that it had 223,129 visitors during the year. There were large 

 additions to the Natural History Department during the year. 



We have already noticed M. Erkert's anthropological mea- 

 surements in the Caucasus. He publishes now in the Izvestia of 

 the Tiflis Geographical Society (vol. viii. ) his further measurements 

 and conclusions. The different nationalities appear as follows 

 with regard to their cephalic indexes : — Only the Aderbaijan 

 Tartars are mesocephalic (79'4), all others being brachycephalic, 

 the indexes being 8o'9 with the Kalmucks, 81 '4 with the Ossets^ 

 81 '9 with the Adighe and Chechenes, 83"2 with the Little- 

 Russians, 837 with the Georgians, and 85 '6 with the Ai-menians. 

 A high index was found for the Lezghines, but the number of 

 measurements was only three. As to the height of the skull the 

 Aderbaijan Tartars have the highest and longest heads ; the 

 Armenians the shortest and highest (7I'I); the Kalmucks the 

 longest but lowest (62'o) ; while the Little-Russians, the Adighe, 

 and the Georgians afford intermediate types, the heights of their 

 skulls varying from 67 "6 to 66 "7. All the above nationalities 

 have relatively low and broad or chamaprosopous faces, there 

 being, however, a number of !ndi\nduals with long or lepto" 

 prosopous faces, especially among the Tartars. In connection 

 with the above it may be worth noticing the measurements of M. 

 Chantre of Lyons, published in the Bu'lctin ile la SocUte 

 d'Anihrofologic de Lyon for 18S3. It results from his measure- 

 ments made on 137 Kurd men and 21 women, that their cephalic 

 index is 8 1 '4; they are thus brachycephalous, and sometimes 

 mesaticephalous. The index increases with those Kurds who 

 live close by Armenians, and decreases with those who live cloSe 

 by Bedouins. Altogether the memoir of M. Chantre (" Apercju 

 sur les caracteres ethniques des Ansharies et des Kourdes ") is 

 an important addition to our knowledge of Kurdistan, as well as 

 his second memoir, published in the same serial, on the Stone 

 and Bronze Ages in Western Asia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, 

 and the Caucasus. 



It appears from the Caucasian Izvestia that tlie Russian Amu- 

 daria Expedition has arrived at the following conclusions : — The 

 I ban branch of the delta of the Amu could be ea ily made 

 navigable ; as to the pos'-ibility of bringing the water of the 

 Amu to the Caspian, General Glukhovsky's Commission does 

 not yet give a definite answer, but it considers it most probable. 

 The immense and deep depression of Sary-kamy-h could be 

 turned by the canal ; the necessary inclination of level exists ; 

 and the immense desert west of Khiva could he irrigated without 

 ^•ifficulty and without loss to the oa-is of Khiva. 



