October 31, 1912] 



NATURE 



!57 



fragment of the painted surface from a projecting 

 corner. This affords an excellent section through the 

 deposits, revealing a layer of the red paint, which 

 covers an older layer of stalactite, and is itself covered 

 by a later layer, in some places as much as two milli- 

 metres thick. There can be no doubt that Prof. Breuil 

 and Prof. Sollas were scrupulously exact in their ob- 

 servations, and as the marks resemble in general 

 character the accepted paintings of Upper Palseolithic 

 age, and in particular some red bands at the extremity 

 of the great gallery in Foul de Gaume, they were 

 amply justified — whatever the final verdict may be — 

 in assigning the paintings of Bacon Hole to an ancient 

 period." 



The next meeting of the Geologists' Association 

 will be devoted to a conversazione, which will be held 

 to-morrow (November i), in the library of University 

 College, Gower Street, W.C. 



The Royal .Academy of Sciences of Naples is offer- 

 ing a prize of 20/. for researches on the algae of the 

 Bav of Naples preferably from the biological point of 

 view. The essays, which are to be sent in by June 30, 

 1913, are not returned to the authors. 



The death is announced of Prof. Paul Segond, 

 professor of surgery in the Paris Faculty of Medicine, 

 at the age of sixty-one years. Prof. Segond was 

 formerly chief surgeon at the Salpgtri^re Hospital, 

 and assisted in the preparation of the " Dictionary of 

 Medicine and Practical Surgery." 



The Kew Bulletin announces that Mr. I. H. Burkill, 

 Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of 

 India, and curator of the Industrial Section of the 

 India Museum, Calcutta, has been appointed by the 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies director of the 

 Botanic Gardens, Singapore, in succession to Mr. 

 H. X. Ridley, C.M.G.," F.R.S., retired. 



It is reported in the Revue Scientifique that, out 

 of the fund raised for the recent centenary celebration 

 of the establishment of .^vogadro's law, the Turin 

 Academy of Sciences will found a prize of 1500 lire 

 and a gold medal for the best critical, historical, or 

 experimental work on the discoveries resulting from 

 the law. The prize will be awarded on December 31, 

 1914. 



The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is 

 arranging to send an expedition to Jamaica and the 

 West Indies. The Colonial Office is cooperating with the 

 school in this expedition, which, it is interesting to note, 

 is the twentj'-ninth made by the Liverpool authorities. 

 The various expeditions have cost some 30,0001., but 

 on its work as a whole the school has spent more 

 than 100,000?., nearly all of which has been raised by 

 voluntary effort. 



At the annual meeting of the Cambridge Philo- 

 sophical Society, held on October 28, the following 

 were elected for the session 1912-13 : — President, the 

 Master of Christ's (Dr. A. E. Shipley); Vice-Presi- 

 dents, Prof. Hopkinson, Prof. Wood, and Prof. Pope; 

 Treasurer, Prof. Hobson ; Secretaries, Mr. A. Wood, 

 Mr. F. A. Potts, and Mr. G. H. Hardy; New Members 

 NO. 2244, VOL. go] 



of the Council, Dr. Marshall, Mr. G. R. Mines, Rev. 

 Dr. Barnes, and Mr. F. J. M. Stratton. 



At the statutory meeting of the Ro5'al Society of 

 Edinburgh, held on October 28, the office-bearers for 

 the ensuing year were elected, as follows : — President. 

 Sir William Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents. 

 Dr. J. Home, F.R.S., Dr. J. Burgess, Prof. T. Hudson 

 Beare, Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S. , Sir Thomas R. 

 Fraser, F.R.S., and Dr. B. N. Peach, F.R.S.; General 

 Secretary, Dr. C. G. Knott; Secretaries to Ordinary 

 Meetings, Dr. R. Kidston, F.R.S., and Prof. A. 

 Robinson; Treasurer, Mr. J. Currie ; Curator of 

 Library and Mr4sejim. Dr.]. S. Black; Councillors, Dr. 

 R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., Prof. J. Walker, F.R.S.. 

 Sir W. S. M'Cormick, Prof. Crum Brown, F.R.S., Prof. 

 T. H. Bryce, Mr. W. A. Carter, Mr. A. Watt, Dr. 

 J. H. Ashworth, Prof. George A. Gibson, Prof. R. A. 

 Sampson, F.R.S., Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, C.B.. 

 and Prof. E. T. Whittaker, F.R.S. It will be noticed 

 that Dr. Knott has been elected general secretary to 

 the society in succession to the late Prof. Chrystal. 

 Dr. Knott served on the council of the society for the 

 periods 1894-97, 1898-1901, 1902-05, and was appointed 

 one of the secretaries to ordinary meetings in 1905, 

 which office he held until his election as general 

 secretary. 



The annual dinner of the London School of Tropical 

 Medicine was held at Prince's Restaurant on October 

 23. General Sir Reginald Talbot presided, and among 

 others present were Lord Sheffield, Sir John Anderson, 

 Sir Francis Lpvell, Colonel .'\lcock. Dr. Frank Heath, 

 Mr. H. J. Read, and Prof. Simpson. Sir Ronald Ross 

 proposed the toast of "The School," and commented 

 on the importance of tropical sanitation and on the 

 debt which the Empire owed to the discoveries in 

 tropical medicine and to the work of the doctors in 

 this connection. Sir Patrick Manson, who responded, 

 alluded to the efforts of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, Mr. 

 Harcourt, and Mr. Austen Chamberlain in the cause of 

 tropical medicine. He reviewed the work of the 

 school, and announced that next year a research 

 scholarship, endowed by the bequest of Lord Wands- 

 worth, would be available. In the course of the even- 

 ing the Chairman referred to the donation of 100/. 

 by his Majesty the King to the funds of the school 

 announced that morning. 



In the second part of his usual series, " Visvak- 

 arma," devoted to the collection of examples of Indian 

 art. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy gives several illustra- 

 tions of statues of the god Siva, chiefly from the 

 southern part of the peninsula. The statues of 

 Krishnaraya and his queen from North Arcot are 

 particularly interesting. The photographs are fairlv 

 well reproduced, but scarcely possess that delicacy 

 which appears in similar pictures in Mr. V. Smith's 

 " History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon." 



In Bedrock, the new quarterly review of scientific 

 thought, for October, Prof. A. Keith gives a careful 

 account of our present knowledge of prehistoric man. 

 The recent discoveries in the region of the Dordogne 

 have shown that Neanderthal man is confined to a 

 restricted and comparatively late date in the Pleisto- 

 cene epoch, appearing for a period, and then being 



