494 



NA TURE 



[October 7, 1922 



Research Items. 



The Statue of Sophocles in the Lateran 

 Museum. — The chief glory of the Lateran Museum 

 is the great statue usually supposed to be that of 

 the poet Sophocles. This identification is disputed 

 by Mr. Theodore Reinach (Journal of the Hellenic 

 Society, vol. xlii. Part i), who, after a full discussion 

 of the evidence, identifies it with the famous statue 

 of Solon of Salamis, dating about 391 B.C., the work 

 of the artist Kephisodotus, whose son and pupil 

 seems to have been Praxiteles. This new work by 

 a great master thus stands out as the herald of a 

 new dawn of art, the real link between the divine 

 Phidias and the divine Praxitek is. 



Excavations at the Site of Bethshean. — The 

 town of Bethshean, afterwards, for some unexplained 

 reason, known as Scythopolis, lay between the Little 

 Hermon and Gilboa ranges, on a plain about three 

 miles west of the Jordan. Permission to excavate 

 the site by the University Museum, Philadelphia, 

 having been granted by the Archaeological Depart- 

 ment of Palestine, the work was started in 1921 under 

 the superintendence of Mr. C. S. Fisher. Fortunately 

 no Mahomedan tombs or other buildings on the 

 mound interfere with the work of excavation. The 

 stratification shows a continuous occupation of the 

 site from Arab, Byzantine, and Classical times down 

 to the early Semitic period. The results of the ex- 

 cavations, so far as they have proceeded, are described 

 in the March issue of the Must uw, Journal. The 

 most important discovery made is that of a large 

 basalt stele with an Egyptian inscription of Sety I. 

 (1313-1292 B.C.). When the lowest stratum is 

 reached it is hoped that much light will be thrown 

 on early Semitic life and religion. 



Bantu Throwing-stones and Brass. — In the 

 Report of the South African Museum for 1921, Dr. 

 Peringuey discusses some large rounded stones, 

 perforated in the manner of the Bush Kwe, and 

 weighing about 18 lb. He does not think that they 

 could have been used to weight digging-sticks or as 

 rolling mill-stones. With them were some stones, 

 also perforated, but rather flat, with a sharp edge. 

 These, it is said, were carried on a stick by the Bantu, 

 and used for throwing at the legs of bucks. This 

 explains the use of some heavy brass rings found in 

 Swaziland, and the question arises whether the 

 brass was made in that country or was imported. 

 The Chief Regent of Swaziland says that the former 

 was the case, and adds : " The process of separating 

 was by melting the minerals and certain chemicals 

 known to our ancient blacksmiths and founders. In 

 the making of brass and other metals, copper, lead, 

 and zinc were used for the manufacture of bangles, 

 etc., which were worn onlv by Rovalties. The 

 bangle in this form is known as Itusi ; it is the form 

 in which brass is kept, instead of making it into bars 

 as the Europeans do." Specimens in the museum 

 show that the Bantu had also a bronze industry, but 

 the rarity of such objects is rather remarkable, and 

 Dr. Peringuev suggests as the reason the very early 

 supersession of bronze by iron in South Africa. 



Physical Nature of Verse. — A recent number 

 of the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift reports a 

 lecture at the University of Vienna by Prof. E. W. 

 Scripture, of London and Hamburg, on recent 

 researches in experimental phonetics. Speech is 

 registered by physical means on a recording drum, 

 and the resulting curves are analysed and measured 

 under a microscope. One of the latest problems is 



NO. 2762, VOL. I 10] 



that of the physical nature of verse. Verse is shown 

 to be a continuous vocal gesture. There are no 

 syllables, no feet, no measures, no possibility of such 

 notions as iambus or trochee. The entire system of 

 metre as taught in modern prosody is held to be a 

 fantastic construction that has not the slightest 

 relation to verse as actually spoken. Any attempt 

 to fit it to verse or fit verse to it results in such 

 monstrosities as some of the present corrections to the 

 text of Shakespeare, with apologies for the bad verse 

 he is supposed to have written. Verse, from a physical 

 point of view, is shown to be a flow of speech energy 

 with regularly recurring regions of greater density. 

 The total of this energy can be treated as if condensed 

 at certain points — centroids or centres of gravity. 

 These centroids recur at regular intervals and gi\ e the 

 effect of beats. This regular recurrence of centroids 

 constitutes the whole of the system of verse. An- 

 other topic presented was the recent work on register- 

 ing speech in nervous diseases. Three diseases — 

 epilepsy, disseminated sclerosis, and general paralysis 

 — show specific peculiarities in the records. A 

 diagnosis thus becomes an automatic thing ; the speech 

 is registered, the curves are analysed and measured, 

 and the result appears of itself. 



The Site and Growth of London. — The relation 

 of topography and underlying structure to the growth 

 of London are traced in some detail by Mr. C. 1 \1. 

 Bromehead in a paper in the Geographical Journal for 

 August. After describing the extent of alluvial and 

 river gravels and the course of the Thames tributaries 

 in the area now covered by London, Mr. Bromehead 

 points out that the narrowness of the river and the 

 approach by gravel banks from either side marked the 

 present site of London Bridge as the lowest ford. 

 Around this, especially on the better situated northern 

 bank, the original London grew. The essentials of 

 the site, in addition to the ford, were twin hills capped 

 by water-bearing gravels separated by the valley of 

 the Wall Brook, bounded on the west by the Fleet and 

 on the east by the low ground of the Thames marshes. 

 To the north was the forest area of the London clay, 

 but the river gravels were comparatively bare. The 

 early Roman camp, which was the earliest historic 

 London, was on the east hill ; on the west hill the 

 brick earth was worked until the city grew over it. 

 Mr. Bromehead traces the growth of London through 

 Saxon times and up to the Great Fire in 1666. After 

 that event London rapidly expanded. The limit of 

 the gravels for a long time set a limit to building 

 operations. Wells sunk through the gravel, seldom 

 more than 25 ft. in thickness, were sure to tap water, 

 but it was not realised till recent times that better 

 supplies could be obtained beneath the clay at depths 

 of 150 ft. and more. It was for this reason that the 

 areas of bare London clay remained unoccupied until 

 the advent of steam pumping and iron water mains. 

 Once these difficulties of water supply were overcome, 

 the clay areas were rapidly built over and outlying 

 hamlets became linked up with London. 



Median Prolification of Flowers of Hemero- 

 callis. — We learn from Dr. J. C. Costerus, of Hil- 

 versum, Holland, that he has observed numerous 

 central floral prolifications in Hemerocallis fulva in 

 gardens at Hilversum, in the botanic gardens at 

 Amsterdam and Utrecht, and also at Twickenham in 

 this country, during the past summer. Apparently 

 the prolification resembled closely a " doubled " 

 flower. Median prolification of flowers of Hemero- 

 callis, although apparently rare, has been noted on 



