152 



NA TURE 



[June 15, 1905 



and H, combine to form NHj under the influence of the 

 silent electric discharge, while at the temperature of the 

 sparlv-discharge NH^ is again split up into N, and H,. 

 The running down also of HNO. through the whole series 

 of oxides into ammonia in the Grove cell is full of interest 

 from this point of view, and the subject, with its mani- 

 fold ramifications, is a fascinating theme for a thesis. 

 Bishop's Stortford, May 30. " A. Irving. 



An Inverted Slab in a Cromlech. 



fiiE remarkable articles on .Stonehenge and other monu- 

 ments by Sir Norman Lockyer have naturally stimulated 

 reflection upon all that concerns megalithic remains, and 

 therefore, perhaps, the following curious circumstances may 

 be of some interest. 



At Henblas, in Anglesey, is a cromlech, or rather, I 

 .suppose, a dolmen, of remarkably rude and massive aspect. 

 Two uprights remain, the larger of which is about 15 feet 

 high by 9 feet thick, and both are very rough and irregular 

 in shape. Resting against these, at an angle of about 

 20° or rather less from the horizontal, is a thinner stone, 

 about 3 feet thick and some 13 feet square, presumably 

 a top-stone. All are of a hard quartzite, which occurs 

 among the .schistose rocks of the district. No good ex- 

 posure of this is known within a mile or so of the crom- 

 lech (a fact which Captain Evans, of Henblas, informs 

 me was pointed out to him long ago by Sir Andrew 

 Ramsay). But at the base of the uprights are some 

 obscure exposures that appear to me to be in situ, and 

 I am inclined to think, therefore, that the matqrials were 

 obtained on the spot. 



Now the supposed top-stone i^ rough, like the uprights, 

 on its upper surface, but its undcr-sTdc is beautifully and 

 finely ice-worn ! It is clear, therefore (for it is certainly 

 not^ a boulder), that it has been turned upside down. 



Further, not only is it ice-worn, but the direction of 

 the ice-movement can be made out, there being distinct 

 lee-sides to its finely striated bosses, and these lee-sides 

 look to N.N.E. But the natural direction of glaciation 

 in the district is to S.S.W. Therefore, the stone has not 

 only been turned upside down, but turned round as well. 



If the materials were brought from some distance, these 

 facts are, of course, of less interest. But if, as l' think 

 much more probable, they were obtained on the spot, it 

 IS clear that they throw a little light upon the proceedings 

 of the builders in their work of lifting these great stones. 



Achnashean, near Bangor. Edward Greenly. 



The Cleavage of Slates. 



I USD that I owe Mr. Fisher some apology for a care- 

 lessly worded allusion in my notice of Dr. Becker's memoir 

 (p. 20, May 4). In pointing out that the theory which I 

 criticised had been anticipated bv Mr. Fisher,' I ought, 

 perhaps, to have mentioned that the latter had' somewhat 

 qualified his original hypothesis, though the postscript 

 notifying this qualification was, I believe, only privately 

 printed. 



Mr. Fisher's further contribution to the question (pp. 55 

 56, May 18) is of interest. If it be granted that the 

 cleavage of the Westmorland slates coincides with the 

 plane of greatest distortion, it becomes less necessary to 

 urge the case of the colour-spots in the Llanberis slates ; 

 but the suggestion that these have been formed sub- 

 sequently to the cleavage seems to raise some difficulty. 

 I have seen examples in which the ellipsoidal green spots 

 are shifted by small faults, which are quite obsolete as 

 planes of weakness. This seems to imply that the faults, 

 and n fortiori the spots, are older than the cleavage- 

 structure. Am-reu Harker^ 



St. John's College, Cambridge, June 7. 



The Inheritance of Acquired Characters. 

 Is the following an instance of such inheritance? 

 Lately I heard a missionary at a May meeting tell of the 

 marvellous facility with which Chinese children memorise 

 whole books of the Bible ; the four Gospels, and some- 

 times the Acts also, being an easy feat for children of ten 

 or twelve years. Having carefully sought information 

 NO. 1859, VOL. 72I 



from other authorities, I find these facts confirmed, and 

 that the same applies to Mohammedan children. \Vc are 

 aware that for ages their ancestors have been compelled 

 to memorise long portions of their sacred books, and 

 although occasionally we meet with a child of any nation 

 with a gigantic memory, that differs widely from the case 

 of a people where it has become a general characteristic. 

 June 7. W. Woods Smyth. 



THE UTILITY OF AN ANTHROPOMETRIC 

 SURVEY.' 



THE Government which has shown so scientific a 

 spirit as to create a Council of Defence, a 

 constant spirit of intelligence to safeguard the Empire 

 amid the development of armaments of other nations, 

 might surely devote attention to that recommendation 

 which stands first in the report of the interdepart- 

 mental committee on physical deterioration : — " With 

 a view to the collection of definite data bearing upon 

 the physical condition of the population, the com- 

 mittee think that a permanent anthropometric survey 

 should be organised as speedily as possible. ..." 



What are the results to be expected from such a 

 survey as was sketched out at the Cambridge meet- 

 ing of the British Association last summer? An 

 improvement in the education of the people will surely 

 follow. 



At the time of the Elementary Education .Act, 1870, 

 the re-distribution of the populace, that progressive 

 change by which the increasing majority become 

 citizens and cease to be country folk, was not realised. 

 The increasing demands of intellectual exercises 

 upon the time of the children and loss of domestic 

 education were not foreseen, or their effect in making 

 the requirement most urgent that the physical side 

 of education should be brought under educational 

 authority or otherwise definitely provided for. Hence 

 a generation passes and there is an outcry for physical 

 education. Let us hope a coming generation mav 

 not be crying in turn that the moral side of education 

 suffers from want of due attention. 



The effect of registration — the national survey of 

 deaths — has been a clear guide and a very great safe- 

 guard to the public health. One may quote some of 

 the words of Dr. Farr which are to be found in his 

 first letter to the first annual report : — " Diseases are 

 more easily prevented than cured, and the first step 

 to their prevention is the discovery of their exciting 

 causes "; again, " indirect influence (of these reports) 

 upon practical medicine must have been very great. 

 The constant endeavour after exactness of diagnosis 

 and precision of nomenclature is itself a wholesome 

 discipline, which reacts inevitably upon treatment." 

 Who at that time could prophesy the value, topo- 

 graphical and historical, we now find in these reports? 



The anthropometric survey will have upon tlie 

 sphere of education an equally large and discrimin- 

 ating, if often indirect, influence; it will react upon 

 medicine as well as upon education; it will detect 

 any deterioration of the young adult that is due to 

 the factory and workshop; it will determine the in- 

 fluence of environment upon physique, and, as Mr. 

 John Gray says, " without an anthropometric survey, 

 we are in this iinportant question of sound national 

 physique 'like a log drifting nowhere'; with a 

 survey, we should be like a ship, steering by chart 

 and compass to its destination." 



Tn the influence of bodv and mind upon one another, 

 it is to anthropometry we must look for certainty of 

 judgment. Mr. H. G. Beyer pointed out to the 



1 Physical Deterioration ; being the Report of Papers and Discus'inns at 

 the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association, TQ04, on the Alleged 

 Physical Deterioration of the People and the Utility of an Anthropometric 

 Survey. (Occasional Papers of the Anthropological Institute, No. 2.) 



