NATURE 



\_May (i, 1880 



paper is apparently the dentary part of the left mandibular 

 ramus, with the crowns of a canine, an incisor, and ten of the 

 molars. The author describes the characteristics of these and 

 the mode of implantation in the jaw, which accords with that 

 described by Prof Owen in Tilanomchus fc> ox , The characters 

 of this specimen resemble those of the genus Rhopalodon ; but 

 as there are some marked differences, the author \ roposes to 

 name it Clioiidzcidon orciihiirgiiisis.—'Y)!^ classification of the 

 Tertiary period by means of the mammalia, by Prof. W. Boyd 

 Dawkin% F.R.S., Professor of Geology in Owens College. The 

 author, after some introductory remarks on the value of verte- 

 brata and invertebrata in classification, pointed out that the 

 mammalia become of especial value in the Tertiary period as 

 imdergoing more rapid change than the other classes, from their 

 being, as it is happily termed, en plcine evolution. He discussed 

 the characteristics of each of the great periods, as defined and 

 limited by their mammalia, pointing out that throughout the 

 Eocene these frequently exhibit relations more or less marsupial. 

 Indeed it is not till the close of the Lower Miocene that the 

 traces of this relationship are lost. In the Middle -Miocene, Siu, 

 Ciritus, Antilopc, Fdis, I.utra, and Castor appear for the first 

 time, and the higher apes were present in European forests. In 

 the Upper Miocene, Camelopanialis, Cau-lla, Hyana, and 

 Hyslri.x appear. During the Pliocene several important genera 

 disappear from the world or from Europe — among the latter the 

 apes, at the close of the Upper Pliocene. Oxen, horses, bears, 

 and elephants appear. Great changes took place in the Pleisto- 

 cene ; seven species survived into it which are now extinct, and of 

 new-comers there were fourteen living and .'even extinct species. 

 Cen'us megaceros is the sole survivor from the Pleistocene to the 

 prehistoric period which has since become extinct. The paper 

 concluded with some remarks on the latter part of the first and 

 the second period, which, however, as forming the subject of 

 previous notice?, was treated more briefly. The author remarked 

 that a study of the development of the mammalia renders it 

 hopeless to expect to find man in the Eocene or Miocene, and 

 improbalje in the Pliocene. 



Anthropological Institute, April 13.— Major-General A. 

 yj Lane Fox, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — The director 

 read a paper on Fijian Burial Customs, by the Rev. Lorimer 

 Fison. There is no uniformity of custom in Fiji, so that no 

 description of what is done by any one tribe can be taken as 

 applicable to all the others. The strangling of widows, 

 however, that they might be buried with their dead husbands, 

 seems to have been everywhere practised. The widovv's brother 

 performs the operation, and is thenceforward treated with 

 marked respect by his brother-in-law's kinsfolk, who present 

 him with a piece of land over wdiich the strangling-cord is hung 

 up. Should he, however, fail to strangle his .sister, he is despised 

 and ashamed to show his face. When a woman is about to be 

 : trangled she is made to kneel down, and the cord (a strip of 

 native cloth) is put round her neck. She is then told to expel 

 her breath as long as possible, and when she can er.dure no 

 longer to stretch out her hand as a signal, whereupon the cord is 

 tightened, and soon all is over. It is believed tliat, if this 

 direction be followed insensibility en':ues immediately on the 

 tightening of the cord ; whereas if inhalation has taken place, 

 there is an interval of sufterhig. An excuse for the practice of 

 Midow-strangling may be found in the fact that according to 

 Fijian belief, it is a needful precautionary measure, for at a 

 certain place on the road to Mbulu (Hades) there lies in wait a 

 terrible god, called Nangganangga, who is utterly implacable 

 towards the ghosts of the unmarried. He is especially ruthless 

 towards bachelors, among whom he persists in classing all male 

 ghosts who come to him unaccompanied by their wives. Turning 

 a deaf ear to their protestations, he seizes them, lifts them above 

 liis head, and breaks them in two by dashing them down on a 

 projecting rock. Women are let oft" more easily. If the wife 

 ilie before her husband, the widower cuts off his beard and puts 

 it under her left armpit. This serves as her certificate of 

 marriage ; and, on her producing it to Nangga-nangga, he allows 

 her to pass. On the island of Vanua Levu a noted " brave" 

 is distinguished from the common herd after death by being 

 buried with his right arm sticking out above the grave-mound° 

 and passers-by exclaim with admiration as they look upon the 

 fleshless arm, " O the hand that was the slayer of men ! " For 

 some days after the decease of a ruling chief, if his death be 

 known to the people, the wildest anarchy prevails. The idea 

 seems to be that not until decomposition may be supposed to have 

 made considerable progress is the dead man fairly done with, 



and his authority handed over to his successor. Hence the 

 death of a ruling chief is studiously concealed for a period 

 varying from four to ten days. By many tribes the burial-place 

 of their chief is kept a profound secret, lest those whom he 

 injured during his lifetime should revenge themselves by digginf 

 up and instating, or even eating, his body. Hence the surface 

 sods are raised « ith extreme care, in order that they may be 

 replaced with as little derangement as possible. Cave burial is 

 common in^ Fiji, although by no means universal ; in some 

 ca^es artificial caves are made, either in the side of a hill, or by 

 sinking a perpendicular shaft, and then putting in a "side 

 drive," as the Australian gold-diggers call it ; this forms the 

 grave, and here the chief lies with his strangled women under 

 him. A stone closes the entrance of the chamber and excludes 

 the earth when the shaft is filled up. On the death of the king 

 of the Nakelo tribe three old men come, with fans in their 

 hands, and conduct the spirit to the banks of the river. Here they 

 call upon Themba— the Nakelo Charon— to' bring over his canoe, 

 and wait until they see a wave rolling in towards the shore, which 

 they say is caused by the approach of the invisible canoe; they then 

 avert their faces, point their fans suddenly to the river, cry alond, 

 "Go on board, sir," and forthwith run for their lives, for no 

 eye of living man may look upon the embark.ation. The grave 

 is dug about hip deep, the body laid in it, and an old cocoa- 

 nut is broken by a blow v ith a stone, being so held that the milk 

 runs down upon the head of the corpse. The meat of the nut is 

 then eaten by the three elders, and the grave is filled up.— A 

 paper on the Polyne.-ian Race, by C. Staniland Wake, M.A.I., 

 was read. The author proposed to show, fir.-t, that the Poly- 

 nesian Islanders must be described as a bearded rather than a 

 non-bearded race, and secondly, that, as a rule, they are well 

 acquainted with the use of the bow and arrow, and quoted the 

 observations of numerous travellers in support of his view. — 

 Major-General A. Lane Fox, F.R.S., exhibited some paintings 

 and bead mats, the work of Bushmen. 



Physical Society, April 24.— Prof. W. G. Adams in the 

 chair.— New members : — The Marquis of Elandford, Mr. T. 

 Marshall.— Prof. G. C. Foster read a note by Prof. Rowland, 

 of Bakimore, U.S., on the discovery of Mr. Hall that a 

 magnet exercises an electromotive on a current in a conductor 

 crossing its field, as well as a force on the conductor itself. 

 This fact will render it necessary to apply a correction to equa- 

 tions which assume that only the latter force acts. The electro- 

 motive force in question is at right angles to the directi >n of the 

 current and to the lines of magnetic force. Prof. Rowland 

 expresses it mathematically in this note, and bases a new methcxl 

 of determining the value of v, the ratio of the electrostatic to 

 the electromagnetic unit of electricity, which gives v almost 

 identical with the velocity of light, thus confirming Clerk- 

 Maxwell's theory of the nature of light. Dr. J. Hopkinson, 

 F.R.S., suggested an expression for one of Prof. Rowland's 

 results.— Prof. Foster also read a note by Prof. Wild, of the 

 Central Rus-ian Meteorological Observator)-, on a mode of 

 correcting the bifilar magnetometer for torsion of its fibres, &c., 

 and a method for finding the horizontal component of the earth's 

 magneti-m by its aid.— Mr. Ridout, F.C.S., described an 

 improved thermo electric apparatus of his construction. The 

 author has followed the idea of combining the thermopile and 

 galvanometer in one instrument on the same base-board. The 

 defects of the apparatus as ordinarily made are a too great 

 disparity between the resistance in the pile and in the galvano- 

 meter ; the junctions of the pile are too deep, and short-circuit 

 the current ; the bars too long and resisting, as well as too 

 numerous ; the junctions too slender ; the mass of matter to be 

 heated too great. These defects are remedied by placing the 

 bars in glass tubes connected with these plates of copper ; making 

 the bars half the usual length, and using only a single pair. 

 The defects in the galvanometer are that the wire does not come 

 near the needle ; the needles are not of the,, best form, and the 

 suspension is troublesome. Mr. Ridout makes the wire a flat 

 ribbon mounted on one bobbin; the needles are flat oblong 

 plates from the same piece of steel, and magnetised in one 

 piece; they are mounted on a pivot turning in an agate cup. 

 The several parts of the apparatus are mutually adapted to each 

 other ; and in using it the galvanometer is not joined tothe pile till 

 the latter has been exposed to the heat, so as to prevent the current 

 generated abstracting heat from the hot side. As made by ilr. 

 Browning, the pile consists of a pair of elements \ in. long, the 

 copper connections being circular plates ^\^ in. thick and j in. 

 diameter. The pile is supported by thick coj per terminals 



