October 17, 1912] 



NATURE 



195 



of which met the visitors and conducted them by 

 rail or motor-car to factories, laboratories and 

 other places of interest. The shorter of these 

 tours took ten days, during which the party visited 

 Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Niagara, Detroit, 

 Chicago, Cleveland and Boston. The longer tour 

 included a journey to the western and southern 

 States, with visits to Salt Lake City, San Fran- 

 cisco, Los Angeles, Grand Canyon, Arizona, New 

 Orleans, Atlanta and Washington. 



The small band of British chemists who had the 

 good fortune to attend this congress and take 

 part in the excursions are unanimous in their 

 praises of the splendid organisation and cordial 

 generous hospitality experienced at every stage of 

 their visit. American chemists are to be congratu- 

 lated not only on a congress of great scientific 

 interest and importance, but also on the unqualified 

 success which invariably attended their praise- 

 worthy efforts to entertain and instruct their 

 guests. G. T. Morgan. 



PREHISTORIC MURAL DECORATIONS IN 



BACON'S HOLE, SOUTH WALES. 



' I "HE cave of Paviland (Gower, South Wales), 



-•- first investigated by Buckland so long ago 



as 1823, has lately acquired a fresh interest in the 



light of recent discoveries made in France. 



Most of the objects found by Buckland are ex- 

 hibited in the Oxford University Museum, where 

 they fill the greater part of a case devoted to the 

 Aurignacian age. .Among them are cylindrical 

 rods (like lead pencils in size and shape) carved 

 out of mammoth ivory, an ivory lissoir {i.e., 

 smoother), and some other rudely shaped pieces 

 of ivory. Prof. Breuil, the greatest authority on 

 Aurignacian remains, being on a visit to Oxford, 

 made an examination of these objects last week 

 and unhesitatingly referred them all to the Aurigna- 

 cian age. There are also some fragments of a 

 beautifull}' worked ivory ring, about the size and 

 shape of an Indian bangle, or a little smaller ; 

 these also were assigned with equal confidence to 

 the Aurignacian, precisely similar rings having 

 been found in deposits of this age in France. 



As a consequence of these results. Profs. Breuil 

 and Sollas decided to visit the caves of Gower in 

 the hope of finding some painting on the walls. 

 A halt was made on the way at Swansea, in order 

 to examine the rich collection of flint implements 

 from Paviland which are preserved in its museum. 

 These proved unusually interesting, and were for 

 the most part Identified by Prof. Breuil as Upper 

 Aurignacian, a few being Proto-Solutrian. A 

 systematic search was then made of the caves, 

 beginning with Paviland, on the west, and work- 

 ing towards Bacon's Hole, on the east; as cave 

 after cave failed to yield any signs of painting, 

 hope began to wane, but, on entering Bacon's 

 Hole, colour was seen on the right-hand wall. 

 Closer examination revealed the presence of ten 

 bright red bands, approximately horizontal or 

 slightly divergent, fan-like, arranged one above 

 the other in a vertical series, about a yard long, 

 NO. 2242, VOL. 90] 



each band being perhaps a foot in length and one 

 to two inches in breadth, but no exact measure- 

 ments were made. The stalactite which has 

 tapestried the wall is very clean and has completely 

 sealed up the red pigment (iron-ochre), so that it 

 cannot be removed by rubbing. 



It is of interest to note that similar bands, simi- 

 larly arranged, but only eight in number, have 

 been observed at the end of the great gallery in 

 the Font de Gaume of Dordogne. 



It is to be hoped that a general search will now 

 be made in our English caves for other examples 

 of mural decoration ; they may be easily passed 

 over by the casual visitor, and to be seen must be 

 looked for. 



NOTES. 



As already announced in these columns, a meeting 

 is to be held at the Mansion House at 2.30 p.m. on 

 October 23 to take steps to raise a fund for the 

 establishment of a memorial to the late Lord Lister. 

 Among those who will address the meeting are the 

 Prime Minister, the president of the Royal Society (Sir 

 Archibald Geikie, K.C.B.), the president of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons (Sir Rickman J. Godlee), Lord 

 Avebury, F.R.S., and the Hon. W. F. D. Smith. 



The Paris correspondent of The Times announces 

 that the international conference on time reckoning 

 was opened at the Observatory on October 15 by 

 M. Guist'hau, Minister of Education ; and M. Bigour- 

 dan, member of the Institute and of the Bureau des 

 Longitudes, was elected president. The conference 

 has been summoned mainly with the object of dealing 

 with various practical uses of wireless telegraphy in 

 the synchronisation of time signals throughout the 

 world. 



Sir George Darwin, who recently underwent an 

 operation, continues to make such good progress 

 toward recovery that no further bulletins will be 

 issued. 



The death is announced, at the age of fifty-eight, of 

 Mr. F. H. Low, the honorary secretary of the Ront- 

 gen Societv. Mr. Low was the medical officer to the 

 X-ray department of the London Medical Graduates' 

 College and Polyclinic. 



It is announced, through Renter's Agency, that the 

 Nobel prize for medicine for 1912 has been awarded 

 to Dr. Alexis Carrel,- of the Rockefeller Institute for 

 Medical Research in New York, for his works on the 

 suture of vessels and the transplantation of organs. 

 The prize this year is said to amount to about 7800?. 



A course of six lectures on the properties and 

 manufacture of concrete is to be given, by Mr. H. 

 Kempton Dyson, secretary of the Concrete Institute, 

 at the Concrete Institute, Denison House, Vauxhall 

 Bridge Road, Westminster, at 5.30 p.m. on Tuesdays, 

 beginning on November 12. The lectures are free, 

 and tickets of admission may be obtained from the 

 secretary of the institute. 



A MEMORIAL service for the late Mr. H. O. Jones, 

 F.R.S., fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, demon- 



