276 



NATURE 



[Au^. 6, 1874 



precautions were taken with the observations, and from them is 

 drawn the following conclusions: — (i) The spectrum of the 

 zodiacal light is continuous and is' sensibly the same as that ol 

 faint sunlight or twilight. (2) No bright line or band can be 

 recognised as belonging to this spectrum. (3) There is no evi- 

 dence of any connection between the zodiacal light and the polar 

 aurora. The deduction, drawn from the fact of its polarisation, that 

 the zodiacal light is derived from the sun and is reflected from 

 solid matter, is thus strengthened and confirmed by the identity 

 of its spectrum with that of solar light. A discussion of the 

 distribution of the reflecting matter in space is resei-ved for 

 another article. — On the age of the copper-bearing rocks of Lake 

 Superior ; and on the westward continuation of the Lake Supe- 

 rior synclinal, by Roland Irving, with map and section. — On 

 the parallelism of coal seams, by E. B. Andrews. This refers 

 to the difference of opinion already expressed between Dr. New- 

 berry and Mr. Andrews. Their question is whether the ancient 

 shore lines with their coal marshes subsided in an even and 

 uniform way, or very unevenly. 



yotirnal of the Fran/din Institute^ May and June. — Section : 

 Chemistry, Physics, Technology. — Prof. H. Wurtz's report On 

 the water supply of the cities of Newark and Jersey City is con- 

 tinued, as is also Prof. Thurston's communication On investiga- 

 tions of the resistance of materials. — Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger 

 contributes a paper On baryta : its manifold uses in the arts. 

 • — Dr. C. Cooley describes a new connection thermoscope, by 

 which the sensibility is increased, and its adaptation to a wider 

 range of experiments secured. — Mr. Isherwood reports on Russian 

 coals from the basin of the Don. He states they will doubtless 

 soon be substituted for English coal along the shores of the Black 

 and Mediterranean seas. 



Neue Dcnkschriflcn dcr Allganeinm ScJnvehcrisclien Gesell- 

 schaft fiir die Gesaimntcn Natiirwissaischaftcii, Band xxv. 

 Zurich, 1873. — M. Mousson has made a general revision of 

 the terrestrial malacological fauna of the Canary Islands, 

 discussing and defining, as far as possible, all the species 

 hitherto mentioned ; and the results of this inquiry are here 

 detailed in a comprehensive memoir on the subject. It 

 appears that, according to the present stale of our knowledge, 

 the Canaries altogether contain I S3 certain species of terrestrial 

 and fluviatile molluscs ; the largest numbers being presented by 

 Tenerifife (90) and Palma (43) ; which may, in part, be explained 

 by greater extent and richness of soil, and fuller exploration. 

 The small proportion of fluviatile species is striking (there are 

 only ten) ; it is probably due to the irregular character of most 

 of the water courses, at times quite torrential, at others 

 attenuated to a mere thread, or wholly dried up. Deposits of 

 terrestrial shells are found at various points of the Canaries ; and 

 some lists which the author constructs from M. de Friisch's 

 inquiries on the subject appear to indicate three different degrees 

 of antiquity in these itniains. The deposits of Gomera and 

 Fuerteventura, containing a series of species which have no 

 present analogues, are older than those of Gran Canaria, which 

 do present actual species tliough modified in the form of varie- 

 ties ; and the latter again are older than those of Tenerrffe, the 

 debris of which correspond entirely to extant forms. M. 

 Mousson's observations in comparison of the Canarian fauna 

 with those of neighbouring continents and islands are specially 

 interesting. He concludes that the essential part of the malaco- 

 logical fauna of the Canaries is not reducible to any other fauna, 

 and appears to have been developed irr a manner perfectly auto- 

 nomous. The particular features characterising the Canariair 

 fauna consist of the predominance of certain sections of species, 

 or of certain types, which elsewhere do not appear in the same 

 manner, and the elimination of entire genera that occupy an 

 important place in neighbouring fauna. "The only satisfactory 

 explanation of this fact," says M. Mousson, "is that these islands, 

 the objects in which, though often .distmct from one another, 

 yet range for the most part about common centres, have 

 formed, since the origin of the present epoch (that is, since the 

 great overturns which have separated the Tertiary epoch from 

 the Quaternary, and opened the era iNliich still continues), an 

 independent whole sejiarated by uncrossable barriers, by the sea, 

 doubtless, from the African and European continents, as also 



rom the Madeira and Cape \'erde Islands ; which, themselves 

 also, were independent." The differences between the old and 

 recent fauna are attributable (on tliis view) rather to local over- 

 turns connected witli tire variable and volcanic nature of the 

 ground than to geological and general climateric conditions ; for 



most of the types have remained nearly the same, and have tra- 

 versed the different sub-fossil fauna that are distinguish.ible. The 

 diversity of neighbouring forms in the different islands denotes a 

 separation of distant date, but proves nothing as regards the pos- 

 sibility of these islands having once formed a small compact 

 continent, afterwards broken up. — The second and only remain- 

 ing memoir in this volume is by Prof. Riitimeyer, and has for its 

 subject the fossil tortoises of Solothurn and the rest of the Jura 

 formation. The author's investigation is of a thorough and ex- 

 haustive character, and the paper (with its 1 7 beautifully executed 

 lithograph plates), will be found a valuable contribution to this 

 branch of palaeontology. 



Revue d'Anlltropohgie, t. iii. No. I, 1874. — M. Gustave 

 Lagneau, in the first paper, considers the grounds on which a 

 purely Celtic origin may be ascribed to the primitive inhabitants 

 of the Basin of the Saone and of the Rhone valley and its de- 

 pendencies ; and after sifting the evidence afforded by ancient 

 and moJern authorities he is led to ascribe a mixed origin to 

 these peoples. — M. G. de Rialle devotes a long and very compre- 

 hensive paper to the history of the peoples of Central Asia. — M. F. 

 Moreno's account of his discovery of some Prehistoric burying- 

 grounds and paredos, or ancient Indian habitations, on the shores 

 ol the Rio Negro (Patagonia) forms a valuable contribution to 

 our knowledge of the anthropological characters of the primitive 

 inhabitants. M. Moreno's paper is enriched with a table of 

 cranial measurements, comprising a series of results obtained 

 from forty-five skulls. — M. T. Chudzinski gives the result of 

 his observations on the muscular system of the negro, de- 

 rived from the autopsy of three subjects at the Paris School 

 of Anthropology, reserving for a future number the general 

 considerations to which the facts observed seem to point. — The 

 recent discovery in one of the Canaries of a Libyan inscription, 

 such as Ii.as hitherto been found only in Numidia, has called forth 

 some remarks from M. Faidherbe on the ethnology of the Canarian 

 group. The writer believes that the population of the Canaries may 

 be referred toOuolofs, orWest African blacks, to African Libyans, 

 and probably to Phoenicians, besides a later intermingling with 

 Europeans ; and it is to the agency of Phcenician traders that 

 he ascribes the knowledge of the Libyan characters and the 

 practice — whose prevalence is amply proved — of embalming the 

 dead, and reducing them to the state of mummies, in which condi- 

 tion they have been found among the natives of these islands. — In 

 No. 2of thisyear'sseriesM. Topinard discusses at length the accu- 

 racy of Camper's facial angle, and thejcorrectness and sufficiency of 

 the data on which it was based. As the first attempt to establish a 

 system of human craniometry. Camper's definition of the faci.al 

 angle deserves the greatest respect, and M. Topinard shows that 

 the subsequent depreciation of the value of his method is chiefly 

 due to the vague and variable modes of its application, 

 which originated with Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier. 

 M. Topinard is of opinion that even when used with the great- 

 est attention to the rules which Camper himself prescribed, his 

 method can scarcely be employed with perfectly identical results 

 by different observers, and hence he thinks it would be advis- 

 able to adopt some less variable process of determining the 

 maxima and minima for the facial angle. The science of crani- 

 ology is beginning to assume a more reliable character, and we 

 may therefore hope that craniologistswill soon find themselves in 

 a position to adopt some definite and universally applicable 

 method. This, however, can scarcely be attained till the fact is 

 recognised that in craniometric measurements it is the means and 

 not tire extremes which we ought to aim at obtaining ; the former 

 are alone safe, the latter tend to error. — French geologists are 

 still devoting a large amount of attention to that richest of all 

 palcoontological sources, the limestone districts of the Dordogne, 

 In an additional note on the cave of the church .at Excideuil, M. 

 Parrot gives us the results of one of the most recent explorations 

 of that region. A careful examination of this cave or crypt has 

 revealed the fact that below the floor, at various depths, lie buried 

 the debris of the Quaternary fauna intermingled with tlie remains 

 of products of industry, belonging evidently to men contempo- 

 raneous with the animal deposits with which they are mixed. 

 Reindeer, l)eavers, bears, are here all represented, and the indus- 

 trial objects found are similar in character to those of the other 

 caverns, but there are also numerous remains of jasjier not met 

 with elsewhere, and the bones have undergone a softening process 

 hitherto unobserved. In other respects the cave of Excideuil 

 offers no novel interest. — M. Hovelacque discusses the ethno- 

 logical characters [of seven genuine Tsigane skulls in the Paris 

 Museum, 



