August 9, 1906J 



NA TURE 



race. Stow, in his excellent account of the South African 

 races, has furnished the key to much of Solutrian history, 

 and it is of particular interest to observe that this author 

 was led by independent evidence to conclude that the 

 original home of the Hushmen lay far to the north of the 

 area they occupied at the time we first became acquainted 

 with them. The cranial capacity of the Bushmen was 

 1330 c.c. ; that of the Grinialdi skeletons has not yet been 

 made known. 



The Magdalenian race, or the reindeer hunters, the 

 last of the definitely Palaeolithic tribes, evidently lived 

 under somewhat severe conditions of climate. A study of 

 their implements and mode of life certainly suggests, as 

 Prof. Boyd Dawkins first pointed out, some connection 

 with the Eskimos, but this is a view which has not com- 

 mended itself to the majority of investigators. The so- 

 called " batons de commandement " may be selected as 

 affording the crux of the problem ; these have been com- 

 pared by Prof. Dawkins with the Eskimo arrow 

 straighteners, an explanation rejected by Hoernes and 

 others on the ground that the Magdalenian people were 

 unacquainted with the use of the bow. This, however, 

 is a pure assumption, unsupported by facts. .A stronger 

 objection may be found in the shape of the perforation 

 which characterises the Eskimo straightener as repre- 

 sented by Prof. Dawkins ; this is lozenge-shaped, as it is 

 in all the examples I have seen preserved in our museums ; 

 in the " baton," on the other hand, the form is invariably 

 circular. Some of my archaeological friends have gone so 

 far as to assert that this form is incompatible with use 

 as an arrow straightener, though I have myself made 

 perforated " batons " out of deer's horn which serve to 

 straighten a crooked stick very effectually. But, what is 

 more to the point. Dr. Boas has figured recently an arrow 

 straightener actually used by the Eskimos of JBaffin Bay, 

 which not only resembles many " batons de commande- 

 ment " in general form, but more particularly in the shape 

 of the aperture, since it is drilled with a round hole. 

 These two implements, the arrow straightener of the 

 Eskimos and the " baton " of Magdalenian man, are in 

 this case so nearly identical that no manner of doubt 

 can exist as to the truth of Prof. Dawkins's explanation. 

 .'Additional interest is thus acquired by a curious resem- 

 blance in detail which characterises the arrow straighteners 

 of the two races, otherwise very dilTerent both in form of 

 the perforation and in certain artistic qualities ; this is to 

 be found in the carved end, which sometimes represents 

 two heads placed back to back, an unusual design, re- 

 peated, curiously enough, among a tribe of American 

 Indians in their " topos " or hair-pins, which are similarly 

 terminated by two heads (llamas') adossi. These facts', 

 taken in conjunction with numerous other resemblances in 

 detail between the implements at present used by the 

 Eskimos and those of Magdalenian man, cannot fail to 

 suggest some ethnic connection. 



As regards the skeletal remains of the period, attention 

 may first be directed to those of the Cro-Magnon type, 

 including the skeleton of the seventh interment in the 

 Grotte des Enfants ; the skulls of this type, while resemb- 

 ling those of the Eskimos in some respects, especially in 

 the narrowness of the nose, differ widelv in others, such 

 as the length of the face and the height of the orbits ; 

 the limb bones indicate a race of tall stature (iSoo mm! 

 or igoo mm.), very different in this respect to the short 

 Eskimos (1646 mm.). In the skeleton of La Chancelade 

 these differences disappear ; the skull is remarkably 

 Eskimo-like, the stature deficient (1500 mm.). The 

 osteological evidence would seem to point to the con- 

 temporaneous existence of two allied r.ices during the 

 Magdalenian age, one now represented hv the Eskimos 

 and the other by neighbouring North American tribes, both 

 possibly inhabiting a large part of Europe and '.Asia, 

 whence they overflowed into North America either by the 

 Icelandic or the Alaskan route, perhaps by both. The 

 existing Eskimo cult has to a large extent "been evolved 

 since the race entered North America. The distribution of 

 Magdalenian remains suggests that the occupation of 

 Europe occurred during the closing phases of the last 

 glacial episode. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The committee for the study of speciaV 

 diseases announces (hat Dr. R. C. Brown, of Preston, 

 Lancashire, has promised the sum of 150/. per annum for 

 two years for a pathological scholarship in connection with 

 the investigations being carried out by the committee on 

 rheumatoid arthritis and allied diseases. This scholarship 

 will be known as the R. C. Brown Scholarship in Special 

 Pathology, and will be open to all recently qualified men. 

 The scholar will be required lo work under the direction 

 of the Iluddersfield lecturer in special pathology at Cam- 

 bridge, and to assist in the research the committee have 

 undertaken on the pathology and bacteriology of the above 

 diseases. 



The Frank Smart studentship in botany will be 

 awarded during the present month. The studentship 

 (the yearly value of which is about lool.) is ordinarily 

 tenable for two years, and the student is in special cases 

 eligible for reappointment for a third year. The successful 

 candidate must devote himself to research in botany under 

 the direction of the professor of botany, who shall deter- 

 mine the {'onditions under which the research is to be 

 conducted and the place or places in which it is to be 

 carried on. Applications must reach the Vice-Chancellor, 

 Trinity Hall Lodge, on or before Saturday, August 25. 



NO. 1 919, VOL. 74] 



Prof. Uiilemiutii, of Greifswald, has been appointed 

 director of the newly established department of bacteriology 

 in connection with the Imperial Bureau of Health, Berlin. 



Dr. G. D. H.4RRIS, of Cornell University, has been 

 appointed to the chair of geology in the Louisiana State 

 University ; he will also direct the Geological Survey of 

 Louisiana. 



Prof. E. A. Mincmin, professor of protozoology to the 

 University of London, will deliver his inaugural lecture on 

 " The Scope and Problems of Protozoology " on 

 November 15. 



Miss Ethel Hurleatt, principal of Bedford College for 

 Women, London, has accepted the post of warden of the 

 Royal Victoria College, McGill University, Montreal. 

 Her successor will shortly be appointed, and will, it is 

 hoped, go into residence at the beginning of the Lent 

 term. 



Mr. R. L. Wills has been appointed by the Kent 

 Education Committee director of technical instruction in 

 the Chatham, Rochester, and Gillingham district, and Mr. 

 J. Quick has been appointed by the same committee director 

 of technical instruction in the Folkestone, Ashford, and 

 Hythe district. 



On Saturday last Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., and 

 Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., had the degree of D.Sc. con- 

 ferred upon them by the University of Leeds ; the degrees 

 in connection with the British Association meeting and the 

 celebration of the jubilee of the coal-tar industry, to which 

 attention was directed in our last number, were also 

 conferred. 



Thanks to the aid afforded by the Drapers' Company, 

 the work of the statistical laboratory at University College, 

 London, under Prof. Karl Pearson, has been considerably 

 extended. The laboratory, which possesses a large collec- 

 tion of statistical models and diagrams and of mechanical 

 integrators and calculators, provides a complete course of 

 training in the theory and practice of statistics, and in- 

 struction is given in exhibition calculation (mechanical and 

 arithmetical) and the use of statistical quantities. 



The Senate of the University of London has accepted 

 from Mr. Martin White two further donations, one to 

 provide a salary of 2ool. a year for Dr. Edward Wester- 

 marck, university lecturer in sociology, for a further 

 period of five years, the other an additional sum of 700/. 

 for the establishment for five years of two scholarships 

 a year each of the annual value of 35/. and tenable for 

 two years. In connection with Mr. White's benefaction, 

 special courses will be delivered during the session 1006-7 

 on ethnology, by Dr. A. C. Haddon. F.R.S.. and on 

 psychology, by Dr. J. W. Slaughter. 



