Atig. 13. 1874] 



NA TURE 



293 



stand on uncultivated plots of ground, are surrounded by 

 cultivated lands which are inclosed by loose stone walls. 

 Again, numbers of chambered mounds have been wholly 

 swept away and the materials utilised within the memory 

 of man. Others have been partially removed, and the 

 stone chambers reduced to ruinous heaps ; and in some 

 cases, as is well known, deep holes have been dug, and 

 the obstructing blocks buried. And this work of destruc- 

 tion, which is still going on in spite of the prohibitions of 

 the French Government and the legal penalties threat- 

 ened, has been in operation for centuries. Ought not the 

 knowledge of tliese facts to have been acquired by the 

 authors, and have made them hesitate before attempting to 

 classify monuments according to their present aspects, 

 without carefully taking into account every possible cir- 

 cumstance connected with the past history of the locali- 

 ties in which they are situated .'' 



Another Continental writer* has fallen into the like 

 errors through the objectionable practice of following in 

 the track of other authors, and seeing with others' eyes. 

 M. da Costa, following the lead of Baron de Bonstetten, 

 has adopted the classification of these monuments into 

 (l) "dolmins apparcntes," (2) " dolmins occultos," and 

 (3) " dolmins construidos sobre um monticulo artificial," 

 against which last class we shall raise a vehement pro- 

 test by and by. 



It results from what has been said, that what is really 

 needed when treating of rude stone monuments is perfect 

 accuracy of description and no omission of any detail or 

 feature which may reasonably be supposed to be connected 

 with the structures. Important omissions of this nature 

 frequently occur, not intentionally, but because of the 

 defective archaeological education of the writers, and 

 their want of experience. It is very damaging to the 

 cause of scientific truth when such a theory as the one 

 here exposed is asserted to be supported by examples 

 which really tell against it. Our antiquarian ancestors, 

 who knew very little respecting these monuments, and 

 had few opportunities of comparing them with others in 

 distant localities, who did not know what their true con- 

 struction and destination were, and mistook the weather- 

 ing effects on the capstones for channels artificially made, 

 called these structures Druids' Altars, and invented hor- 

 rible stories of human sacrifices. Assuredly, if it be once 

 admitted that there were " free-standing '' monuments 

 which were never inclosed in mounds, then their views 

 may not have been so very far wrong, and some of these 

 buildings may, after all, have been erected for altars of 

 sacrifice. There would be very little proof that they were 

 intended for burial-places. The difference between them 

 (especially those which one author describes as resem- 

 bling " three-legged milking stools," and another calls 

 " tripod dolmens ") and the carefully covered ones, out of 

 whose vaults the earth of the mounds is thoroughly ex- 

 cluded by means of walls of dry masonry, is so great 

 and so striking that the exposed ones could scarcely be 

 with any certainty declared to have been tombs. There 

 is abundant evidence betokening what the covered ones 

 were destined for, and hardly more than a mere assump- 

 tion as regards the others. 



W. C. LUKis 

 {To be continued.) 



NOTES 

 As usual at this season, scientific congresses are coming thick 

 upon us. The British Association commences its sittings next 

 Wednesday at Belfast, when Prof. Tyndall will give his presi- 

 dential address. The French Association, as we have said in 

 another column, holds its session at Lilie contemporaneously 

 with our own. The British Medical Association commenced its 



* '• Descripcao de algun 

 reira da Costa. (Lisboa, 1! 



Dolmins c 

 i8.) 



1 Ant.is dc Portugal," pov F. A Pe- 



yearly meeting at Norwich on Tuesday, when Dr. Copeman, 

 the president, gave his address ; and the British Pharma- 

 ceutical Conference brought its eleventh annual meeting to a 

 close in London on Saturday last. The tone of the presidential 

 address by Mr. T. B. Groves, F. C.S., at the last-mentioned 

 meeting, as well as that of Mr. F. J. Bramwell, F.R..S., on the 

 4di inst. at Cardiff, to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 

 was, we are glad to see, decidedly in favour of a more thorough 

 education of those who desire to enter upon these callings in the 

 scientific principles which underlie Pharmacy and Mechanical 

 Engineering. The British Arch;x;oIogical Association at Bristol 

 have been working hard and well in their own interesting 

 department. It has become the fashion in certain quarters to 

 speak slightingly of these annual meetings as being meetings 

 for mere talk and enjoyment ; they may be so, but it seems to us 

 that, on the whole, the proceedings prove that much really good 

 hard work is being done ye.ir after year in all scientific depart- 

 ments ; and it is surely something gained that scientific con- 

 gresses should have come to be regarded as "popular," and 

 should have all the important cities in the kingdom eager for the 

 honour of their presence. 



The following are the titles of the Evening Discourses to be 

 given at the Belfast meeting of the British Association ; — Friday, 

 Aug.2i, by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., " On common Wild 

 Flowers considered in relation to Insects ; " Monday, Aug. 24, 

 by Prof. Huxley, Sec. R.S., " On the hypothesis that Animals 

 are Automata ; and its history. " 



The following foreigners and members of the British Associa- 

 tion, among others, have signified their intention of being present 

 at the meeting in Belfast : — Dr. Schweinfurth, Prof Knoblauch, 

 Prof. Gluge, M. Khanikof, Prof Delifs, M. Breguet, Prof. 

 Stoletoff, M. Mannoir, Dr. Williamson, Dr. Hooker, Prof 

 Stokes, Prof. Adams, Dr. Tyndall, Lord Rosse, Prof. Tait, 

 Prof. Clerk Maxwell, Prof. F. Fuller, Lord Enniskillen, Lord 

 O'PIagan, Prof Jellett, Mr. Huggins, Dr. Balfour, Dr. Car- 

 penter, Prof Huxley, Dr. Crum Brown, Prof llerschel. Prof 

 W. G. Adams, Mr. Stoney, Dr. Roscoe, Dr. Maxwell Simpson, 

 Prof G. Foster, Mr. Young, Prof Hull, Prof Geikie, Prof. 

 Harkness, Major Wilson, Dr. Odling, Sir John Lubbock, Mr. 

 Bramwell, Prof James Thomson, Mr. Crookes, Dr. Gwjn 

 Jeffreys, Admiral Ommaney, General Strachey, General Sraythe, 

 Col. Strange, Capt. Galton, Mr. Spottiswoode, Prof Michael 

 Foster, Mr. Ray Lankester, Prof Clifford, Mr. T. W. Glaisher, 

 Mr. F. Galton, Dr. Pye Smith, Mr. Rodwell, Mr. Chandler 

 Roberts, Prof Rowney, Prof Corfield, Dr. W. Farr, Col. Grant, 

 General Alexander, Col. Home, General Jenkins, Capt. Jenkins, 

 Lieut. Coirdei', Major St. John, Dr. Debus, Mr. Paxton, Mr. 

 Seeley, Prof Thorpe, Prof Thiselton Dyer, Mr. Miall, Mr. 

 Symes, Mr. Corbett, Mr. Shoolbred, Mr. Thomas, &c. 



Dr. Copeman, in his presidential address at the Norwich 

 meeting of the British Medical Association, spoke of the im- 

 possibility of regular practitioners being able to engage in pure 

 scientific research. " All persons engaged in physiological re- 

 search," he said, "ought to be provided with suffrcient means to 

 enable them to devote their whole time and attention to their 

 work, without the cares and troubles of practice ; while, on the 

 other hand, those who were engaged in the great and paramount 

 object of curing disease could not possibly spare the necessary 

 time for minute physiological investigations. Each, however, 

 could materially assist the other ; the practitioner could furnish 

 frets and observations which might greatly assist the physiologist 

 in his experiments, and the latter could enlighten the former by 

 giving reasons for the facts presented to his notice. The majority 

 of medical men must be practitioners and earn their living by 

 practice ; but he hoped that in a society like the British Medical 

 Association means would before long be found to supply the 



