452 
NATURE 
| dpril 6, 1871 

was then proceeded with, and the following is the list of the 
gentlemen elected :—President : Frankland, E., D.C.L., F.R.S. 
Vice-Presidents, who have filled the office of President : Brodie, 
Sir B. C., F.R.S. ; De la Rue, Warren, Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Hof- 
mann, A. W., D.C.L., F.R.S.; Playfair, Lyon, Ph.D., C.B., 
F.R.S. ; Williamson, A. W., Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Yorke, Col. P., 
F.R.S. Vice-Presidents : Debus, H., Ph.D., F.R.S.; _ ilbert, 
J. H., Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Noad, H. M., Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Odling, 
W., M.B., F.R.S.; Redwood, T., Ph.D. ; Stenhouse, J., 
Ph.D., F.R.S. Secretaries: Harcourt, A. Vernon, M.A., 
F.R.S. ; Perkin, W. IL, F.R.S. Foreign Secretary: Miiller, 
H., Ph.D., F.R.S. Treasurer: Abel, F.A., F.R.S. Atkinson, 
E., Ph.D. ; Bassett, H. ; Bloxam, C. L. ; Dupré, A., Ph.D. ; 
Field, F., F.R.S.; Holzmann, M., Ph.D. ; M‘Leod, H. ; 
Mills, E. J., D.Sc. ; Roscoe, H. E., Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Russell, 
W. J., Ph.D. ; Smith, R. Angus, Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Voelcker 
A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 
Dr. GEoRGE Burrows, F.R.S., Physician Extraordinary to | 
the Queen, has been elected President of the Royal College of 
Physicians, in succession to Sir James Alderson. 
A THIRD (revised) edition is now in the press of Mr, Darwin’s 
“Descent of Man,” 
Mr. JAMES CROLL calls our attention (2 progos of our notice 
of his paper ‘* On the Cause of the Motion of Glaciers,” No. 68, 
p. 309) to the fact that he does not conclude the age of the sedimen- 
tary rocks to be 1,036,800, 000 years, but asszmes the period—for 
reasons stated on a former occasion—to be only 100,000,000 
years. The drift of the paper was to point outa “‘ new method” 
of determining the (mean) thicknes of the sedimentary rocks. 
The method leads to the conclusion that their thickness cannot 
be much over 2,500 feet ! 
Dr. Hooxer has just started on a botanical expedition of 
eight or ten weeks into the interior of Morocco, a hitherto almost 
untried field. He is accompanied by Mr. R. Ball and one of 
the gardeners from Kew to assist in collecting plants. 
WE learn from the Fournal of Botany that Dr. Karl Heinrich 
Schultz-Schultzenstein, of Berlin, one of the most eminent 
botanists in Germany, was found dead in his bed on the morning 
of March 23rd. He had been engaged at his desk till past mid- 
night. The deceased, though in his seventy-third year, was 
remarkably active, and was lecturer on physiology, as well as 
on botany, in the University of Berlin, with which he had been 
connected since 1822. 
T HE Medical Scholarship for Women in Edinburgh University 
of the value of 50/. for three years, offered for competition by 
Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D., and two other ladies, has been 
gained by Miss Annie Barker, daughter of Dr. Barker of Alder- 
hot. It was awarded according to the results of the preliminary 
examination in Arts in the University. 
WE learn from Paris that M. W. De Fonvielle was sentenced 
to death by the insurgents in consequence of an article published 
in the Zimes of March 27. We have however had the satisfac- 
tion of receiving from him this week our usual budget of Paris 
news. The only menof science who have ranked with the insur- 
gents are M. Le Frangais, a former teacher in an elementary public 
school, M. Jules Allix, inventor of a new system of orthography, 
M. Charles Emmanuel, who opposes the theory of the rotation 
of the earth from west to east; Dr, Robault, a homzopathic 
practitioner, and M. Leroy, a foreman employed by Messrs. 
Hachette and Co. for reading for the press. A false rumour was 
circulated in the Quartier Latin that they were to send a delegate 
to take possession of the Observatory, the Ecole de Médecine, 
the Ecole de Droit, College de France, Institute, and Jardin des 
Plantes. All these establishments have, however, been left un- 
disturbed in the hands of the scientific authorities, 


Last week the ¥ournal Offciel of the insurgents printed the 
account of the sitting of the Institute. But ‘‘reactionary ” 
papers having sharply commented on the piracy, the Offciel ab- 
stained from mentioning the sittings of that assembly. The 
students have to a man ranked amongst the defenders of order, 
Almost every educational establishment is closed during ‘‘ the 
revenge of science” proclaimed by the Commune. Pupils of 
the Polytechnic School were sent home, lectures at the Sorbonne, 
College de France, and Conservatoire des Arts have been stopped. - 
Libraries are closed, and no books are being published or selling 
in Paris. There is no question of reform as long as the rebels 
enjoy their rule, and the Garde Nationale their thirty sous a day. 
Tue Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the 
Royal College of Surgeons concluded his course on the Characters 
and Modifications of the Teeth of Mammalia on Wednesday, the 
29th ult. In the last lecture the methods of drawing inferences as 
to the affinities and habits of extinct animals from dental 
characters were illustrated by the much controverted case of 
Thylacoleo carnifex of Owen, an extinct Australian marsupial, 
known at present only by its skull and teeth. ‘The animal is - 
supposed by its original describer to have been one of the fellest 
and most destructive of predatory beasts, and to exemplify the 
simplest and most effective dental machinery for predatory life and 
carnivorous diet known in the Mammalian class, a proposition 
which Prof. Flower contested, showing by comparison with all 
the recent marsupials, that its affinities are with the existing di- 
protodont species (kangaroos, potaroos, and phalangers), none of 
which are purely predaceous and carnivorous, and that, therefore, 
there can be no reason for inferring that 7/y/acoleo had such 
habits, unless any special modifications of its teeth towards the 
carnivorous type could beindicated. This was, however, shown 
not to be the case, by comparison with all the various known 
truly predaceous carnivores, whether belonging to the placental 
or to the marsupial type of mammals. There are, therefore, no 
grounds for the assumption on which the name of the animal is 
based. But, on the other hand, neither can it, according to 
Prof. Flower, be classed among herbivores in the ordinary sense 
of the word ; and all arguments against its ‘‘herbivority ” de- 
rived from the structure of its molar teeth have no bearing on 
the proof that it was lion-like in its habits, as there are numerous 
alternative suppositions. Indeed, the teeth of this remarkable 
animal are so highly specialised and unlike those of any actually 
existing species, that it is impossible from analogy with recent forms 
to deduce its mode of life with any certainty, its organisation 
having in all probability been in conformity with some surround- 
ing conditions which have now passed away. 
AT a meeting of the American Ethnological Society of New 
York, held in October 1869, a com.nittee was appointed for the 
purpose of organising a new body upon the basis of the society 
just mentioned, to be entitled the Anthropological Institute of 
New York. This committee lately issued invitations to the 
members of the Ethnological Society, and others interested, to 
attend at the house of Mr. E. G. Squier on the 19th of March, 
in order to complete the proposed arrangements by adopting a 
constitution and by-laws, to be formally presented to the meeting. 
In the present interest which attaches to studies relating to the 
past and present history of mankind and the development of 
civilisation, it is much to be hoped that this new society will 
establish itself on a firm foundation in New York, and carry out 
the mission projected for it by its founders. 
For some years Dr, Burmeister, an eminent German naturalist 
and physicist, from Halle, has resided in Buenos Ayres, 
in charge of the National Museum in that city, and by his 
nyestigations and publications concerning specimens belonging 
to the Museum has given to it a great reputation. Quite 
recently, as we learn from arfers Weekly, a murderous 
