258 



NATURE 



[October 31, 1912 



replaced bv modern man. But anatomical and 

 archffiological evidence agrees in showing that he 

 could not have been transformed into modern man. 

 Work in^ England proves that we must go much 

 further back in the geological record to find our ances- 

 tral form. At least in the middle of the Pleistocene 

 period, long before Mousterian Neanderthal man in 

 France, modern man had appeared in England. The 

 most likely formations from which further clues are 

 possibly to be obtained are the Pliocene and Pleistocene 

 strata of East Anglia. In particular, care must be 

 taken to ensure that every quarry and excavation in 

 that region is watched, and that no remains are dis- 

 carded as lacking scientific interest simply because 

 they resemble those of modern man. 



Mr. T. Sheppard, the energetic curator of the Hull 

 Museum, continues the issue of the series of cheap in- 

 teresting pamphlets descriptive of collections under his 

 charge, or recording new discoveries in the city and 

 its neighbourhood. Most of the relics found in the 

 city itself belong to the latter part of the sixteenth 

 century and the seventeenth, and it is surprising that 

 relics of later periods are comparatively infrequent. 

 Hull ale has been noted for many centuries, and 

 hence tv"-s or loving-cups and Bellarmine jars or 

 "Greybeards " are particularly numerous. Another of 

 Mr. Sheppard's pamphlets discusses, with abundant 

 details, the early Hull tobacco pipes and their makers. 

 Among recent additions to the museum collections 

 may be noted a fine Neolithic celt from the neighbour- 

 hood of Knaresborough, and a remarkably fearsome 

 man-trap, used before the prohibition of such instru- 

 ments of torture by an Act passed in 1827. At Brid- 

 lington a gold half-noble of Edward HI. was recently 

 discovered. 



The marvellous escape of the Danish explorer, 

 Mikkelsen, from Greenland, in July last, after nothing 

 had been heard of him and his companion for nearly 

 two years, will be fresh in the memory, and it will 

 also be recalled that he recovered the journals of the 

 lost explorer Erichsen, which had been left at Den- 

 mark Fiord. The Danish Geografisk Tidskrift 

 (No. 5, 1912), therefore, appropriately publishes maps 

 representing the results of Erichsen's surveys in 

 1906-8, which, among many important features, reveal 

 the extension of Greenland much further east than 

 was previously believed. Working from Denmark 

 Harbour northward to 79°, the surveyors found a 

 much-broken coast with many islands ; north\yard of 

 that latitude the coast-line was found somewhat more 

 regular. The series of maps referred to not only 

 shows the north-east of Greenland generally, but also 

 includes various detailed maps of Denmark Harbour 

 and other small areas in its neighbourhood. 



We are indebted to Messrs. Friedlander, of Berlin, 

 for a sale catalogue of general scientific literature 

 (Naturae Novitates), and a second devoted exclusively 

 to entomological publications (Entomologische Litlera- 

 turhldlier). 



In the report of the Museums of the Brooklyn In- 

 stitute for 1911 acknowledgment is made of the extent 

 to which their present attractiveness is due to the 

 NO. 2244, VOL. go] 



efforts and energy of Dr. F. A. Lucas during the 

 period he held the chief curatorship (1904-11). When 

 he came the collections were little more than hetero- 

 geneous accumulations, whereas they are now a model 

 of orderly, effective, and attractive arrangement. 

 Thev have, however, already outgrown the present 

 accommodation, which is liable to destruction by fire, 

 and the urgent need of the institution is a new and 

 fireproof building, specially designed for the purpose 

 it is intended to fulfil. 



The Museums Journal for October devotes an article 

 to museum guides — that is to say, living guides, in 

 contradistinction to guide-books — in which Mr. J. H. 

 Leonard gives the results of his experiences in that 

 capacity at the Natural History Museum. He insists 

 on the importance of varying the discourse according 

 to the nature of the particular audience, and strongly 

 deprecates the adoption of a standard curriculum for 

 all occasions. In addition to pointing out objects of 

 special interest, it is urged that the elimination of 

 popular errors should be one main object of the guide. 

 Both at Bloomsbury and South Kensington the guides 

 appear to be highly appreciated by a considerable 

 section of the public. 



Evidence of the intimate affinity between the 

 faunas of Central China and North America — and 

 therefore of the essential unity of the so-called Palae- 

 arctic and Nearctic regions — continues to accumulate, 

 the latest instance of this occurring in an article by 

 •Mr. O. Thomas in the October number of The Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History, on certain small 

 mammals collected by Mr. G. Fenwick Owen in 

 Kan-su and Shen-si. Among other new forms are 

 two specimens of a black mole-like insectivore of the 

 size of a large shrewmouse, representing a new genus 

 (Scapanulus) more nearly allied to the American moles, 

 Scalops and Scapanus, than any other Asiatic form. 

 They were obtained among the mossy undergrowth 

 of a pine-forest in Kan-su. Scapanidus oweni, as the 

 species is called, has the fore feet almost as broad, 

 relatively, as in the true moles, with rather slender 

 claws ; those of the hind foot, with the exception of 

 the first, being but little curved. The relatively long 

 tail is thickly haired. The teeth may apparently be 

 classified as 



2133 

 or numerically the same as in the Sze-chuan Neo- 

 tetracus. The lower incisors are, however, very simi- 

 lar to those of the desmans, a feature broadly separat- 

 ing the genus from Scaptonyx, an allied Sze-chuan 

 type. 



Some beautiful photographs of the secondary struc- 

 ture of the diatom valve, taken by Mr. T. F. Smith, 

 are reproduced in Knowledge for October. The struc- 

 tures in question, which are only visible with the 

 finest homogeneous immersion objectives, were first 

 discovered by Messrs. Nelson and Karop. Mr. Smith 

 has conducted his investigations on slightly different 

 lines ; in particular he prefers to photograph the struc- 

 tures at the "white dot" instead of the "black dot" 

 focus. The photographs show a general resemblance 

 between the secondary structures of different species, 



