October 29, 1908] 



NA TURE 



683 



for example, the comb, serpent, crescent, and radiated sun- 

 disc, are also found on the early Christian monuments of 

 Scotland, and seem to point to direct communication 

 between Scotland and western Europe about 700 a.d. A 

 sculptured stone from Tu, in Jaederen, with a runic in- 

 scription of the peculiar character found on the Norwegian 

 crosses in the Isle of Man, possibly points to an influence 

 from that island. 



On non-European archaeology four papers were presented. 

 Mr. C. T. Currelly, in a sequence of Egyptian stone imple- 

 ments, considered that the development of the Thebaid 

 palrEoliths could be traced from the depth of the patina 

 and from the scratchings. The Neolithic implements of 

 the Thebaid, on the other hand, show little patination, 

 though the length of the Neolithic period may be traced 

 from the fact that unpatinated neoliths have been made by 

 re-working patinated ones. 



The Rev. W. \. Adams, in a paper on some ancient 

 stone implement sites in South Africa, recorded the dis- 

 covery of implements of Palseolithic type from five dis- 

 tricts, the hill slope near Bosman's Crossing, Stellenbosch, 

 the Karoo and the Vaal River terraces, near Kimberley, 

 the Rhodesian uplands near Bulawayo, and the headlands 

 of the Victoria Falls. 



.An interesting paper on prehistoric archaeology in Japan 

 was presented by Dr. Gordon Munro, in which consider- 

 able light was thrown on the question of the immigrations 

 to the country from the mainland. Many Japanese 

 archsologists deny the fact that the primitive inhabitants 

 of Japan were of the same stock as the existing Ainu, but 

 the discovery of .Mnu remains in the shell-heaps proves that 

 this people played a part in the Neolithic culture, and the 

 excavations have revealed a connection between the pottery 

 of this phase and that of the iron culture which accom- 

 panied the agricultural invaders from Asia. The progress 

 of these invaders towards the east and north was slow, 

 and may have begun about five centuries B.C., or even 

 earlier. No undoubted Pala2oIithic remains were found, 

 but the resemblance of the culture to that of other lands 

 agrees with the general verdict of prehistoric inter- 

 communication. 



Finally, the Rev. Dr. Bryce, of Winnipeg, read a paper 

 on the mound builders of North America, which was of 

 peculiar interest in view of the association meeting in 

 Winnipeg next year. .An examination of a large number 

 of these mounds led the authpr to conclude that they were 

 built by the Toltecs, and that they mark the course of a 

 Toltec immigration from the south along the Mississippi 

 and Ohio to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence : along 

 the Missouri : and along the Mississippi proper to the Rainv 

 and Red rivers. This would make the earliest mound date 

 from about iioo a.d. 



Tn conclusion, it should be mentioned that the success 

 which attended the meeting was in a verv great measure 

 due to the kindness and energy of Mr. Laurence Steele, 

 the section's local secretary. 



LOCAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AT THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 

 T~\URTNG the Dublin meeting of the British .Associa- 

 tion the conference of delegates held two meetings 

 under the chairmanship of Prof. H. A. Miers, F.R.S. At 

 the opening meeting, held on September 3, the chairman 

 read an address on the educational opportunities of local 

 scientific societies. In this he reviewed the growth of 

 such bodies, some of which dated back nearly a hundred 

 years. In these cases they did pioneer work, and helped 

 to create a general scientific atmosphere. With tlie birth 

 of the British Association, which, he said, might be re- 

 garded as a magnified society of the same character 

 changing its yearly habitat, a great stimulus was sup- 

 plied, as at that time scientific work was supplemented 

 in a very inadequate manner by the publishers and the 

 Press. After this date the growth of local scientific 

 societies and cheap elementary text-books, which stimu- 

 lated a desire for sound knowledge, was very rapid. 

 Gradually, however, the early manuals, containing perhaps 

 a whole science, have been supplanted by the educational 

 text-book used in schools and the specialist treatise for 

 the advanced student. Thus the amateur nowadays is 



NO. 2035, VOL. 78] 



almost in danger of being placed in the position of his 

 predecessor of sixty-five years ago. He has no time to 

 go through a course of special reading in text-books of 

 various grades, and without that, although perhaps quite 

 learned in one branch of science, can get no adequate 

 insight into modern advances through needless technicali- 

 ties and their expression in a language which he cannot 

 understand. 



The same is the case with the greater scientific societies 

 — they are becoming every day more highly specialised, 

 both in their publications and in their membership. Here 

 is the o[>ening for the local scientific society, but only if 

 it really attempts to meet the wants of the intelligent 

 amateur. It is all very well to make arrangements for 

 sections to take up the local flora and fauna, but what 

 is wanted in addition is some common ground by which 

 all the members can be united by their general interest 

 in science, combined with some educational help to those 

 to whom science is chiefly a hobby and a rela.xation. 

 One of the most useful functions of a body like a local 

 society is to encourage a habit of expressing scientific 

 result in simple and intelligible language that will appeal 

 to the whole society. Indeed, nothing can be better or 

 more useful for the scientific specialist himself than to 

 attempt to explain his own work in simple language to 

 a mixed audience. The set lecture is not so much needed, 

 but the description by a speaker of what he has done 

 or seen himself. In a local society no better material for 

 educational improvement should exist where the members 

 have joined it voluntarily, and, in the first instance, 

 because they really wished to learn. In addition to this 

 nothing is more wanted at the present day than books 

 giving simple, untechnical accounts of the living work by 

 the worker himself, and this should be done, not only in 

 the newest fields of science, the popularisation of which 

 is liable to be overdone, but in the more ordinary work 

 of everyday science, which results in discoveries perhaps 

 equally momentous, but at present buried beyond the 

 reach of the amateur. 



The educational work that the local societies can best 

 perform through its members, who, though not children, 

 have unprepared minds, is the encouragement of original 

 research. This could be done, first, by inviting the 

 trained and experienced workers to make known to them, 

 through the medium of untechnical language, the beauty 

 and interest of scientific work in the course of its pro- 

 gress, and of scientific discovery in the making ; and, 

 secondly, by providing them with followers who will con- 

 tinue to prosecute under their guidance original observa- 

 tion and even experimental research. Enthusiasm has 

 been instilled and sincere students produced by the uni- 

 versity extension movements ; let the local societies initiate 

 a new science extension movement by which the barrier 

 between the professional man of science and the amateur, 

 between the expert and the layman, will be broken down. 



.After discussion and votes of thanks, Sir Edward 

 Brabrook proposed that " the conference desires to re- 

 present to the committee of recommendations that when- 

 ever a committee of the British Association enters upon a 

 local investigation, notice should be given to any local 

 scientific or archaeological society so as to enable that 

 society to offer any cooperation that may be desirable." 

 This, having been seconded by the Rev. J. O. Bevan, 

 was carried unanimously. 



Mrs. Mary Hobson then read a paper on sanctuaries 

 for our native flora and fauna, in which she discussed 

 various schemes for obtaining, or getting public bodies 

 to set aside, waste land as sanctuaries, instancing that in 

 Ireland already such places existed as Lambay Island, 

 protected by the Hon. Cecil Baring ; at Glencar, co. 

 Sligo, on land owned by the Wynne family ; at Knocknarae 

 Glen, in the same county, where the hartstongue ferns 

 have the longest fronds in Britain, upwards of a yard in 

 length ; and, finally, at Clonbrock Forest, in Galway, 

 where Lord Clonbrock has a sanctuary which has been 

 undisturbed since Elizabethan times. She also anim- 

 adverted especially on the destructive spirit of collecting 

 rare birds and chance migrants, not to speak of other 

 things. That was not the way to advance knowledge, 

 which was, however, fostered by the study of birds in 

 their native haunts. 



