14 



NA TURE 



[July i, 1922 



by MM. Le Rover and Blondel. It has recently been 

 completed (April 1922). Among the conclusions which 

 emerge, it is now clear that the inhabitants of the lake- 

 dwellings in the polished stone age had constructed 

 stockades facing the open water, for protection 

 against the waves raised by the prevailing northerly 

 wind. These breakwaters must have afforded the 

 dwellings relatively smooth water. From these in- 

 vestigations it may also be concluded that the lake- 

 dwelling sites of Geneva were of considerable size. 

 Unfortunately of these there remain to-day only some 

 thousands of piles implanted in the bed of the lake. 



Geneva is thus one of the most ancient cities of the 

 world, since man has lived on this site continuously 

 ever since the neolithic period. 



The stratigraphical investigations undertaken by 

 M. Vouga enable us to establish with certainty the 

 succession of the types of industrial objects throughout 

 the neolithic period of the lake-dwellings. Several 

 of our a priori conceptions based on typology must 

 be abandoned. Thus the pottery of the earliest period 

 is more refined, more beautiful, more highly burnished 

 than that of later periods. In technique it approaches 

 more nearly the pottery of the bronze age than that 

 of the middle and upper neolithic. 



Thanks to a careful study of the stratification of 

 objects found at Auvernier, M. Vouga has been able 

 to plot out the progressive modification of several 

 objects in daily use, such as the axe-hafting sockets 

 of stag horn, flint arrow-heads, and the like. 1 



In many cases, however, stratigraphical study has 

 only slightly modified classifications, such as those of 

 Ischer, based upon the typology of lake-dwelling sites 

 which have been investigated with minute care. 



Other observations of importance for the history 

 of culture have also been made by M. Vouga : — 



The lowest stratum (IV.) has not yet yielded any 

 of the spindle whorls which are necessary for weaving. 

 The art of drilling stone would appear to begin in 

 Stratum III., but only in the triangular axe hammer- 

 head. The true perforated axe hammer-head appears 

 much later — in Stratum I. 



In Stratum I. — the latest — appear flint flakes of 

 Grand-Pressigny type. Relations between Switzerland 

 and western France are thus clearly established. 



For the first time all bones found in the excavation 

 of a lake-dwelling site have been preserved. My 



1 I would refer the reader to the reports published by M. Vouga in 

 " Indications d'Antiquites suisses " in the Arch, suisscs d'Anthrop. G6n. t 

 Geneva, 1921 and T922. 



assistant, Dr. Reverdin, and myself have examined 

 more than 4000 mammalian bones from the station 

 of St. Aubin. Our conclusions, which are valid only 

 in respect of the material obtained and for this site, 

 may be summarised as follows : — In the neolithic 

 period corresponding with the earliest lacustrine sites, 

 the horse was not domesticated. It was not even 

 hunted, or, if it was an object of the chase, its flesh 

 was not brought back to the lake-dwelling. If this 

 were the case, would it not be permissible to suggest 

 a taboo as the reason ? The five domesticated animals 

 of the neolithic period were represented in the lake- 

 dwellings from the earliest times. Accordingly, the 

 suggestion that domestic animals appear at different 

 stages cannot be accepted. It is true that these five 

 animals are not represented in equal abundance. At 

 the beginning of the period of domestication, the goat 

 and the sheep are much more rare than the ox, the 

 dog, and the pig. 



For a considerable time man continued to rely for 

 his food-supply on wild animals, especially the stag ; 

 but the proportion of domestic animals rapidly becomes 

 preponderant. 



As regards their culinary tastes, the neolithic lake- 

 dwellers seem to show a preference for certain of the 

 domestic animals. The species of which they ate 

 most abundantly were the ox and the pig ; next come 

 the dog (though it is not certain that the dog was 

 eaten), the sheep, and the goat. What is the reason 

 for this order of preference ? Does it depend upon a 

 special taste for any particular meat ? Would they 

 not in that case rear in large numbers only those 

 species which they appreciated most ? 



The lake-dwellers in the stone age ate the domestic 

 animals when they were full grown, except in the 

 case of the pig. This animal was frequently eaten 

 while it was young, and even when it was still a sucking 

 pig. The ox and the goat were never eaten when quite 

 young. The distinction was dictated, without doubt, 

 by the desire to use the milk-giving qualities of the 

 cow and the goat, and also, perhaps, the sheep, as long 

 as possible, but this explanation does not affect the 

 males of these species. 



It thus appears that the exceptionally low water in 

 the Swiss lakes in 1921 has not been without interest to 

 science. Thanks to this phenomenon, some new and im- 

 portant facts have been recorded in the history of the 

 culture of the neolithic lake-dwellers and. at the same 

 time, of all the neolithic peoples. 



Vitamin Problems. 1 



By Prof. A. I 



THE existence of three vitamins, termed A, B, 

 and C, has now been firmly established and 

 a general idea has been obtained of their distribution 

 among animal and vegetable organisms. Hitherto, 

 comparatively little quantitative work has been done 

 in this direction, and further progress must depend on 

 a more general adoption of quantitative methods. 

 These are at present tedious and not very accurate. 

 In the case of each of the vitamins the requirements 

 of the special animal employed serve as the unit of 



delivered at the Royal Ins 



NO. 2748, VOL. I IO] 



" > Abridged from a D 

 Friday, April 28. 



Iarden, F.R.S. 



comparison and these vary considerably from in- 

 dividual to individual, so that many observations are 

 necessary if any, even moderate, degree of accuracy 

 is to be attained. Thus in the estimation of the 

 antiscorbutic potency of food materials, by the method 

 worked out by Miss Chick and her colleagues at the 

 Lister Institute, it has seldom been possible to achieve 

 a greater accuracy than about 25-50 per cent. This 

 obviously imposes a very serious limitation on any 

 attempts to study variations in potency unless these 

 are of a very gross order. Another great difficulty 

 inherent in this kind of observation is that when the 



