126 



NATURE 



[September 26, 1912 



we marvel at the apparent dulness of early man in 

 being content to use tlie most roughly chipped flints 

 for many thousands of years before he learned to polish 

 them, and eventually to employ materials better suited 

 for the manufacture of implements and weapons. But 

 when we consider how slowly and laboriously primitive 

 man acquired new ideas, and how such ideas — even 

 those which seem childishly simple and obvious to us— 

 were treasured as priceless possessions and handed on 

 from tribe to tribe, it becomes increasingly difficult to 

 believe in the possibility of the independent evolution 

 of similar customs and inventions of anv degree of 

 complexity. 



The hvpothesis of the " fundamental similaritv of 

 the working of the human mind " is no more potent 

 to explain the identity of customs in widely different 

 parts of the world, ' the distribution of megalithic 

 monuments, or the first appearance of metals in 

 America, than it is to destroy our belief that one 

 man, and one only, originally conceived the idea of 

 the mechanical use to which steam could be applied, 

 or that the electric battery was not independently 

 evolved in each of the countries where it is now 

 in use. 



In these discursive remarks I have attempted to 

 deal with old problems in the light of newly acquired 

 evidence ; to emphasise the undoubted fact that the 

 evolution of the primates and the emergence of the 

 distinctively human type of intelligence are to be 

 explained primarily by a steady growth and 

 specialisation of certain parts of the brain ; that such 

 a development could have occurred only in the 

 mamrnalia, because they are the only plastic class 

 of animals with a true organ of intelligence; that 

 an arboreal mode of life started man's ancestors on 

 the way to pre-eminence, for it gave them the agility, 

 and the specialisation of the higher parts of the 

 brain incidental to such a life gave them the seeing 

 eye, and in course of time afso the understanding 

 ear; and that all the rest followed in the train ol 

 this high development of vision working on a brain 

 which_ controlled ever-increasingly agile limbs. 



If, in pursuing these objects, I mav have seemed 

 to wander far from the beaten paths of anthropologv, 

 as it is usually understood in this section, and perhaps 

 encroached upon the domains of the Zoological Sec- 

 tion, _ my aim has been to demonstrate that the 

 solution of these problems of human origins, which 

 have frequently engaged the attention of the Anthro- 

 pological Section, is not to be sought merely in com- 

 parisons of man and the anthropoid apes. "Man has 

 emerged not bv the sudden intrusion of some new 

 element into the ape's physical structure or the 

 fabric of his mind, but by the culmination of those 

 processes which have been'operating in the same w^^y 

 in a long line of ancestors ever since the beginning 

 of the Tertiar)' period. 



If I have made this general conception clear to you, 

 however clumsily I have marshalled the evidence and 

 with whatever crudities of psychological statement 

 it mav be marred, I shall feel 'that this address has 

 served some useful purpose. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Among the honorary degrees to be conferred by the 

 University of Leeds on October 3, in connection with 

 the visit of the Iron and Steel Institute, are :— LL.D. 

 on the president of the institute, Mr. Arthur Cooper, 

 and degrees of D.Sc. on Sir Robert Hadfield, past- 

 president, Mr. J. E. Stead, and M. Adolph Greiner, 

 vice-presidents, and the president of the Society of 

 German Ironmasters. 



NO. 2239, VOL. 90] 



Among the public lectures to be delivered in con- 

 nection with the opening of the new session at Uni- 

 versity College, London, we notice the following : — 

 Faculty of Arts. — October 3, amulets. Prof. Flinders 

 Petrie ; October 4, the philosophy of Shadworth Hodg- 

 son, Prof. G. Dawes Hicks; October 5, general 

 phonetics, D. Jones ; October 9, introduction to com- 

 parative psychology, Carveth Read. Faculty of 

 Science. — October 4, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Prof. 

 F. W. Oliver. Faculty of Engineering. — October 9, 

 the sources of energy available to man. Prof. J. A. 

 Fleming. 



In connection with the Faculty of Engineering of 

 the East London College, one of the constituent col- 

 leges of the University of London, a special course 

 of lectures on the management of public electric 

 supply undertakings has been arranged. The lec- 

 tures will be given by Mr. A. Hugh Seabrook, and 

 will commence on Monday evening, October 14. It is 

 hoped by this means to arouse the interest of electrical 

 engineers and others in the practical working of 

 modern electrical undertakings. The principal of the 

 college will be pleased to provide particulars of the 

 fees for these lectures, and also of other special 

 courses in connection with the engineering faculty of 

 the college. 



It is unusual to find astronomy and meteorology 

 among the subjects of courses of lectures arranged by 

 a local education committee. We are glad to see that 

 the Manchester Education Committee is an exceptioa 

 to the rule, and that such lectures are being given at 

 the Municipal School of Technology. Mr. W. C. 

 Jenkins is delivering a course of twenty-six lectures 

 on descriptive astronomy in the Godlee Observatory, of 

 which he is curator, dealing with the descriptive and 

 popular aspect of astronomy ; a course of twelve lec- 

 tures on elementary meteorology, supplementary to- 

 those on descriptive astronomy, demonstrations to be 

 given at the Meteorological Station, established in the 

 garden adjacent to the Municipal Secondary School ; 

 and a course of twenty-six lectures on astronomical 

 observations and the use of the Nautical Almanack 

 for students familiar with the el';ments of astronomy. 



The Newcastle Section, the Society of Chemical In- 

 dustry, and the Armstrong College are this winter 

 arranging courses of evening lectures on special' 

 chapters in applied chemistry, which, it is anticipated, 

 will prove specially interesting to those chemists and 

 engineers already engaged in the industries. To in- 

 augurate the scheme a special fund is being raised, 

 which has already received liberal support from the 

 principal manufacturers in the district. Two courses 

 of five lectures each have been arranged for this 

 winter, for which the committee has secured the ser- 

 vices of well-known specialists. The first course is 

 one on coal-gas manufacture and the carbonisation of 

 coal, by Dr. Harold G. Colman, of London, and the 

 second on metallography, by Dr. Desch, of Glasgow 

 University. The first course will commence on 

 October 16, and continue at fortnightly intervals ; the 

 second course is to commence on January 28, 1913. 



The East Ham Technical College begins its seventh 

 session this month. Being situated in a district largely 

 devoted to chemical industries, it endeavours to provide 

 instruction suitable to the locality. The chemical de- 

 partment, which has been reconstructed during the 

 vacation, comprises two lecture rooms, an inorganic 

 laboratory, \yith bench accommodation for sixty- four 

 students, an organic laboratory of similar dimensions, 

 specially arranged for technological work, two smaller 

 organic laboratories, and a research laboratory. A 

 metallurgical subdepartment has been recently 



