156 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 25, 1873 



The chairman thougbt there could be no difficulty about it ; the 

 Rev. Mr. Cotton had taken bees cut to New Zealand by keeping 

 tliem at a low tem])erature, and consequently in a dormant con- 

 dition, by means of ice. — Mr. McLachlan luriher wished the 

 opinion of the committee with respect to another New Zealand 

 inquiry by Captain Hutton ; Aphides were now becoming very 

 common in New Zealand, but were probably not indigenous. 

 Could the golden-wmged fly ( Chijsopa) be advantageously in- 

 lioduced to check them. The chairman thought that it would 

 lie far better to send out dormant lady-birds (CtitY/«r//.7). Mr. 

 Wilson, F.R.S., pointed out the necessity of caution in these 

 introductions ; sparrows and hares were far from a boon in 

 .\\istralia. — Prof. Thiselton Dyer read a letter from Mr. Scott, 

 KR.S., Director of the Meteorological Office, with respect to a 

 change in the climate of Scotland recently insisted on by Mr. 

 McNab. He stated that it w.is an opinion too general to be 

 lightly disregardel that our winters are warmer and summers 

 cooler, on an average, than in- the last century, but did not know 

 where to find records \ihich could be quoted with confidence in a 

 discussion of the question. — Dr. Voelcker, F.R.S., mentioned 

 tliat there was no doubt that it was quite possible to make wine 

 from grapes ripened in this country ; the often-repeated argu- 

 ment that our summers must be cooler because wine was not 

 now made was manifestly fallacious. — Mr. A. W. Bennett, 

 F.L.S., communicated a paper on pollen-eating flies of the group 

 .yj7y''/;/.7't<-.-— Mr. Baker, F.L. S., sent cipsa\eio{ Li/itim a/imium 

 and L. sjieciosum. 



Anthropolo:l:al Institute, Dec. 9.— Mr. F. G. H. Price, 

 F.G.S., in the i.hair. — Mr. J Park Harrison gave a detailed 

 description of two incised tablets, from Easter Island in the 

 South Pacific, discovered by the French missionaries in one of 

 the stone houses supposed to be formerly occupied by the 

 chiefs. The signs appeared to be principally iconographic and 

 to represent forms of life and incidents connected with islands 

 several thousand miles to the west. — Prof. T. McK. Hughes 

 described the results of his exploration of the rock-shelter 

 known as Cave Ha, near Giggleswick, Settle, Yorkshire. In 

 the upper deposits flakes and ;crapers of chert and flint and 

 other ancient remains in stone and iron were mixed up with 

 the ni'jst recent works of art by the operations of badgers, rab- 

 bits, &c. In these beds the bones were fouiid by Prof. Busk to 

 be all of recent species, still, or till quite lately, common in 

 the district. In the older deposits, which were composed 

 chiefly of angular fragments of limestone, and, therefore, were 

 not disturbed by burrowing animal?, the remains of bear oc- 

 curred associated with ox, goat or sheep, and dog ; but as yet 

 no traces of men. A point to which the author called special 

 attention was the explanation found here of the occurrence in 

 many ossiferous caves of such immense quantities of the bones 

 of mice. The floor was in places strewn with broken up pellets 

 of owls with here and there a few retaining their form, which, 

 when the hair had decomposed away would exactly correspond 

 to the layers and little bunches of the bones of mice in the 

 underlying beds. — Prof. Hughes also read a joint paper by him- 

 self and Rev. D. R. Thomas, " On the occurrence of Felstone 

 implements, of the Le Moustier type, in Pontnewydd Cave 

 near St. Asaph, North Wales," After explaining by reference 

 to sections, the position of the cave and of the deposits in it, the 

 authors desciibeJ a series of implements of felstone as similar to 

 the commo.i f.rms of Le Moustier as would be expected, allow- 

 ing for the dilTerence of material. They exhibited also a collec- 

 tion of bones from the same deposit which were referred by 

 Prof. Eusk to L/rsus spela-ns, U. fcro.x, Nyu-iia spcla-a, Rhi- 

 nocens heinisUxchus, and others, including a human molar which 

 Prof. Busk pointed out was remarkable for its large size. As 

 the rock, of which the implements were manufiictured, occurred 

 in that river basin in the boulder cl.ay only, as the implements 

 seemed to have been made from fragments such as occur in 

 the drift, and are found associated with remanie drift mixed 

 with tumble from the roof of the cave, the authors in- 

 ferred that the deposit was post-glacial, while the forms 

 of the implements, and the animal remains found with 

 them would refer the lids to the earliest cave deposit 

 in which human remains have been found. — A communi- 

 caiion was made by Prof. Busk on a human fibula of unusual 

 formation discovered in Victoria Cave, Settle, Yorkshire. The 

 fragment lay at a considerable depth in the cave and beneath a 

 thick layer of Boulder Clay, and was associated with bones 01 the 

 two large species of cave Bear, Jfycciia, Kliiiiocc'ros lic/ioy/iimis, 

 J-U'on and Ciii'us. trom its position, accomp.iniments, and 



other considerations, the deposit in which the specimen was 

 found, had been regarded as of pre-glacial age. 



The London Anthropological Society, Dec. 2. — Dr. R. 

 S. Charnock, president, in the chair. — Causes which determine 

 the Rise and Fall of Nations, by T. Inmau, M. D. The paper em- 

 braced the whole liistorical range. — Western Anthropo'ogists and 

 Extra Western Communities, by J. Kaines, D.Sc. The p.aper 

 shows what should IjC the moral attitude of the more civilised to 

 the less civilised — what the latttr has to teach the former — and 

 the evUs of western contact with the backward races. 



Photographic Society, Dec. g. — J. Spiller, F.C.S., V.P., in 

 the chair. — On photo-collotype printing, by Capt. J. Vv aterhousc. 

 The author recommended the use of citric acid as a clearing 

 agent. — Lieut. Chermside, R.E., read a paper on photography iu 

 the Arctic IxL-gions. Mr. Chermside accompanied Mr. Leigh Smith 

 in his Arctic expedition last summer. The temperature at which 

 pictures were actually taken was rarely less than 32° Fahr., but 

 much difficulty was experienced in maintaining the solutions in 

 proper order during excessive cold. The author gave some prac- 

 tical advice on the suljject of overcoming actual difficulties inhe- 

 rent to photographic manipulations in high latitudes. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, Dec. 15. — M. de Quatrefages, 

 president, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On 

 the laws 'of the magnetisation of steel by currents, by M. 

 Jamin, — An answer to a note read by JM. Trecul at the meeting 

 of the Dec. 8, by M. Pasteur. This was a reply to M. Trecul's 

 criticism on the author's note on beer and displayed considerable 

 acrimony, M. Pasteur of course sustained his well-known views 

 of the nature of ferments. — M. Berthelot presented some new 

 remarks on the nature of the chemical elements, which however 

 could not be read on account of want of time. The author, it 

 may be stated, admits the possibility of the elements being modifi- 

 cations of a fundamental substance, and stated that nothing 

 renders it improbable that a discovery like that of the voltaic 

 current might not give us power to still further simplify matter. 

 His paper concluded thus :— We shall only be too happy if Mr. 

 Lockyer, guided by stellar spectral analysis, can shed a new light 

 upon these questions, and continue to investigate problems raised 

 now forty years ago by M. Dumas in a work (Lccoits tie PIiilo- 

 saphie Chimique) wliich has contributed so much to our scientific 

 education. — Researches on new butyl derivatives by M. A. 

 Cahours. The author dealt with the aluminium silicon tin and 

 mercury compounds of butyl. — On the propagation of the 

 Phylloxera, by M. H. Mares. — Report on Mr. Douglas Gallon's 

 paper " On the Construction of Hospitals," by M. Larrey, and 

 General Morin: — Valuation in mechanical units of the quantity 

 of electricity produced by an element in a battery, by M. 

 Branly. — Hybernation of the Phylloxera on the branches and 

 leaves of the vine, by M. Max. Comu. — Action of the volcanic 

 earth of the solfatara of Pouzzoles on the diseases of the vine, by 

 M. S. De Luca. — On certain morphological changes observed in 

 the genus Cypripedium, by M. R. Guerin. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



American.— Catalogue 01 Stars observed in the Ucited St.ates Observa- 

 tory, 1845-71 ; Rear-Admua! Sands (Washington).— Daily Bulletin of Weather 

 Reports lor September 1872 ; War Department (Wasliington).— Annual Record 

 of Science and Industry: Dr. Spencer F. Baird (Harper, New York;.— 

 Elements of Logarithms : Pierce (Ginn Eros.). 



Foreign.— Annalen d6r Sternwarte in Leiden : Dr. F. Kaiser (Nijkoff). 

 — Somarlo delle Lezioni di Fisica: Prof. Mombello (Foligno). — Zoologische 

 Studicn auf Capri : Dr. Theodore Eimer (Engelmann, Leipzig). 



CONTENTS Pace 



Quaternions 137 



Markham's "Unknown Region 138 



Our Book Shelf 140 



Letters to the Editor ; — 



Proposed -Alterations in the Medical Curriculum. — Prof. John 



Struthers 141 



The Distribution of Volcanoes. — H. H. Howorth 141 



Spectra of Shooting Stars.— A. S. Herschei, F.R..'\.S 142 



Meteor Shower.— J. E.Clark 143 



The Late PitoFassoR De La Rive 143 



Vivisection. By (i. H. Lewes and E.R.L 144 



The Thirtv-Ton Steam Hammer at the Royal Arsenal, Wool- 

 wich ( With IU:istration) 145 



The Common Frog, VII. By St. George Mivart. F.R.S. {With 



Illustrations) i47 



Soundings IN THE North Pacific .... 150 



Notes i5» 



.^OClKTIFS AND ACADEMIES 153 



Books R-.ckived ij* 



