Feb. lo, 1887] 



NA TURE 



55 7 



enlarge the meagre flora of the island are scarcely encouraging. 

 Thus, although hopes are entertained that some kinds of maples 

 may thrive in sheltered spots, conifers, from whose introduction 

 ■"■!! expectations were entertained, have not given promise of 

 ^s, wliile poplars, oaks, apple and pear trees have without 

 |jtion died. Common red- and black-currant bushes thrive 

 l.ir as to set fruit, but this does not ripen except in the 

 warmer summers. Potatoes, which would be invaluable to the 

 islanders, have not yet been successfully cultivated, but 

 turnips, rhubarb plants, an \ several of the hardier cabbages, 

 together with lettuce and chamomile, do well. The great 

 question, whi-tlier cereals ran be cultivated, as would appear to 

 have been the cuse in the times of the Sagas, does not seem to 

 admit of a s.atisfactory solution, and, according to the writer, 

 the present regular supply of corn from the mother-country by 

 means of rapid steamers, no longer makes the attempt necessary 

 or desirable from an economic point of view. An interesting 

 list of the various plants introduced, with the times of sprouting, 

 budding, &c., adds to the value of llerr Schierbeck's paper. 



Ri'ijuc a'Aiitliropolo^(, troisieme serie, 'tome ii., Paris. — 

 Kecap'.tulation, by M. Topinard, of the Society's instructions 

 for noting the colour of the eyes and hair in France, wiXhfac- 

 similfs of the printed papers distributed to intending observers, 

 and directions how they should be filled up. — On a quinary 

 nomenclature for the na al index in the living subject, by Dr. 

 Coliignon. The writer, who considers a correct and systematic- 

 ally 'determined nasal index as the most important anthropo- 

 metric determination, not excepting even the cephalic index, 

 proposes lo divide the ordinarily .accepted n.isal groups into 

 hyper-leptorhinian, leptorhinian, mesorhinian, plalyrhinian, and 

 hyper-platyrhinian, including under the platyrhinian section all 

 the black race*, under the mesorhinian the yellow races generally, 

 and under the leptorhinian most of the white races. The 

 paper gives a clear and concise description of the instruments in 

 general use, and of those best adapted for making the required 

 measurements, which he regards as of paramount value in 

 determining racial characteristic*. — Contributions to thesociology 

 of the Australian races, by Elie Reclus. This paper, which is 

 principally concerned with the system of clanships and cousin- 

 ships existing among these p oples, has comparatively little 

 interest for English readers, who have long been familiar with 

 the curious questions involved in the principles of intertribal 

 relationship. Indec'l, M. Reclus has drawn so largely from the 

 writings of Br ugh- Smyth, Eyre, Howitt, Taplin, Morgan, 

 McLennan, and other British writers, that this first pari of his 

 paper is a mere ri'sunu' of soms of the more sensational details 

 of information c mtained in their several works. — Anthropo- 

 logical observalions in Guiana and Venezuela, by Dr. Ten Kate. 

 These observations chiefly refer to the differences between the 

 native Caribs, the so called "wood Negroes," and half-castes. 

 The first of these present two distinct types, reminding 

 the anthropologist of the Red Indians in some respects, 

 and of the Mongolian races in others ; the second 

 are a specially vigorous black tribe, the descendants of 

 runaway slaves domiciled in the forests of Surinam. Most of 

 these men are of herculean strength and stature. Numerous 

 anthropometric and other tables illustrate the paper. — On the 

 depopulation of France, by M. de Lapouge. This subject, 

 which has lately been attracting renewed attention throu.;h the 

 appearance of the second edition of M. de Nadaillac's interesting 

 pamphlet "On the Decline of the BiithRatein France," is con- 

 sidered by the author from an anthropological as well as a social 

 and moral point of view. After drawing attention to the fact 

 that while between 1770 and 1780 there were 380 births for 

 every 10,000 of the population, this number has gradually fallen 

 10 235 for the present decade, and is thus lower than that of 

 Switzerl.ind, which had licen assumed to have the lo v est birth- 

 rate in Europe, and less than half that of Russia. According to 

 the writer, the population of France has reached a stationai^ 

 point, its annu.al increase of 80,000 admitting of no comparison 

 with the hundreds of thousands, and even millions, annually 

 added to the populations of Germany, Russia, the United States, 

 and the British Empire, while, moreover, this slight increase is 

 solely to be referred to the constantly increased immigration into 

 France of foreigners, who now constitute one million of the 

 population, and who predominate so largely at some points as to 

 have reduced the French language to a secondary place in such 

 districts. The writer discusses the various causes, such as the 

 adoption of Malthusian principles, alcoholism, Catholicisn, im- 

 morality, want of patriotism, self-interest, &c., to which the 



present low birth-rate has been referred. And rejecting these as 

 inadequate, he insists that the main source of the increasing 

 depopulation in P'rance is the gradual obliteration since the great 

 revolution of the blond dolichocephalic type, to which he con- 

 siders most of the distinguished Frenchmen of earlier times 

 belonged, while the representatives of the brachycephalic races, 

 who have never distinguished themselves in science, art, or 

 letters, have been able to 'ake the lead through superiority of 

 numbers. By their cupidity, narrow range of interests, and 

 indifference to the traditions of family and national glory, 

 he holds Ihem responsible for the anomalous condition of the 

 country, in which an unprecedented accumulation of wealth and 

 great prosperity are associated with physic I degeneration and 

 diminished births. In the re introduction of the dolichocephalic 

 element through immigration the author sees the surest means of 

 effecting a substitution of national type and the best prospects of 

 securing renewed vitality to the French race. 



Rcndiconii del Reale Istituto Lombardo, December 1886. — 

 Obituary notice of the late honorary member of the Institute, 

 Signor Marco Minghetti, by the Editor. Reference is made 

 more especially to the illustrious statesman's great merits as a 

 political economist and art critic. — On the liquors employed in 

 the artificial cultiv.ation of Bacteria and other minute organisms, 

 by E. L. Maggi. The various gelatinous, albuminous, and other 

 solutions now in general use are described, with remarks on the 

 best means of preparing and rendering them sterile. — On the 

 geometry of linear spaces in a space of n dimensions, by Prof. 

 E. Bertini. The author's theorem for ordinary space of three 

 dimensions — " A necessary and sufficient condiiion for three 

 straight lines to exist in a plane is that all straight lines meeting 

 two of them at arbitrary points shall also meet the third " — is 

 here gener.ilised for a linear spice ^S' of any num''er n dimen- 

 sions. — Meteorological observations made at the Brera Observa- 

 tory, Milan, during the months of October, November, and 

 December, 1886. 



Rivista Scientifuo-Induslriale, December 1886. — Determina- 

 tion of the weight of the mercury contained in a thermometer, 

 by Dr. G. Gerosa. Clayden having recently determined the 

 volume of the mercury contained in a thermometer (Proceedings 

 of the Physical Society of London, vol. vii. p. 367, 1886), Dr. 

 Gerosa here gives a determination of its weight, which he had 

 already worked out in the Rendiconti of the R. Academia dei 

 Lincei, vol. x., 1 88 1. — On the electric transmission of force, by 

 Dr. Gerosa. The paper gives a critical appreciation of the 

 work done by M. Marcel Deprez at Creil and by M. Fontaine 

 in the Atelier Gramme. He considers the latter experiments 

 the m.ire successful of the two, M. Fontaine showing that with 

 more economic means the same results may be realised as were 

 obtained in the experiments at Creil. — On the development of 

 electricity in the condensation of aqueous vapour, by Dr. Franco 

 Magrini. In reply to Prof. Coslantino Rovelli the author 

 again shows that there is no perceptible development of elec- 

 tricity during the condensation of the vapour of water. A 

 description follows of M. A. Nodon's hygrometer, already 

 reported in the Journal de Physique for October 1886. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, January 13. — " Supplementary Note on 

 Remains of Polacanthus foxii." By J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. 



In a paper published in the Phil. Trans. 18S1 the author 

 described some remains of a large Dinosaur, remarkable chiefly 

 for its dermal armour, discovered some fifteen years previously 

 in Brixton Bay by the late Rev. W. Fox, and then in his collec- 

 tim. These have since become national property ; and the large 

 shield, which, for facility of transport, had been broken up by 

 its discoverer into innumerable small pieces, having been 

 recently reconstructed in the workshop of the liatish Museum, 

 the author now describes this singular armature, and also some 

 parts of the pelvis formerly obscured by rock. The pieces, 

 which, in their very fragmentary condition, had been thought 

 scutes, are now seen to be parts of a continuous osseous shield 

 which protected the rump and Inins, having its anterior surface 

 ornamented with closely-set tubercles, and in each lateral half 

 four longitudinal rows of keeled eminences. The ischium has its 

 long axis directed transversely to that of the trunk, and not 

 roughly parallel to it as in the Iguanodonts. 



