Oct. 29, 1 874 J 



NATURE 



533 



the impression of Falaonthtci oolitica in the Jermyn Street 

 Museum, by A. G. Butler, including a discussion on its zoologi- 

 cal ]ilace ; (3) The structure of I.amliay Porphyry, by Prof. Hull, a 

 paper read before the Geological Society of Ireland ; (4) Geo- 

 logy of West Galway and South-west Mayo, by S. H. Kinahan, 

 an epitome of a communication made to the British Association ; 

 (5) Note on the Plionolite of the Wolf-rock, by S. Allport. 



■Zeilschri/l dcr (Kslerreichischcn Gcsvlhcliaft fiir Me/corolcgie, 

 Sept. 15. — This number contains a description of the self-acting 

 printing barometer, invented some years ago by Mr. Hough, 

 director of the Observatory at Albany, U.S., but not very well 

 known in liurope. By the employment of electricity, the baro- 

 meter will record movements as slight as '0005 in,, and will 

 print not only curves, but a register as well, at any required in- 

 tervals per hour. The apparatus does not require frequent 

 attention. — Among the Klcinefc MitUh-ilinit^en, we have a 

 notice of M. Goulier's aneroid, provided with a scale of heights 

 beside the scale of millimetres. It is contended against this 

 arrangement that two scales make a correct reading less easy, 

 that the precision of the scale of heights, where the intervals 

 between the lines are not equal, must be doubtful, and that the 

 correction proper to each aneroid would not be easily applied 

 to the scale of heights. — M. Miihry has an article On differences 

 of temperature as a cause of latitudinal oceanic circulation. He 

 maintains that two causes are at work, each of which tends to 

 produce latitudinal circulation, namely, the diminution of the 

 force of gravity towards the equator, and the increase of 

 temperature with consequent expansion and diminished specific 

 gravity. The lower strata of cold water rise at the equator 

 towards the surface, and a corresponding descent of warm upper 

 strata must take place in polar regions. With regard to the 

 debated question on the point of greatest density of sea-water, 

 he holds it to be the same as that of fresh water, and late experi- 

 I menls bear out his argument on this subject, 

 j BuUdtns dchi Sociki'iV AiUJiyopologie de Paris, fasciculevi. tome 

 8, 1S74. — In the closing number of the Society's last year's Re- 

 porls, the remains found at Solutre, near Macon (in August 1873), 

 , formed a large proportion of the tulijects of the papers. The 

 I assumed find at Solulre of a metallic ring, enamelled green, on 

 I one of the phalanges of the skeleton whicli had been uncovered 

 in the presence of MM. de Quatrefages, Broca, and nearly fifty 

 I other persons, has been rejected by the Society as unworthy the 

 , consideration of scientific men ; while M. Broca, in a detailed 

 report of the investigation in which he on that occasion took the 

 ' principal share, has clearly shown the impossibility of such a 

 I ring escaping his notice had it been present. M. Broca in an- 

 I other paper considers at length the characteristics oi the various 

 I crania which have been found at Solutre since the spot was first 

 I examined by MM. de Ferry, Arelin, de Freminville, Lortet, and 

 ' others, and described by the two first-named in their work " Le 

 ; Maconnais Prehisturique " (1870) : and he draws attention to the 

 [ various prehistoric and historic epochs at which interments have 

 been made at Solutre, and by which the question of the true age 

 of these remains has been surrounded with greater difficulties 

 than belong to the palceontological character of any oilier similar 

 spot in France. The prehistoric crania at Solutre are in a very 

 bad condition ; but they present a large capacity of nearly 1,600 

 cubic centimetres, witli an index of only 82 ■S7. Platycnemic 

 tibia:, with the characteristic columnar fcmures, were found, but 

 M. liroca seems on the whole to assume that the earliest dis- 

 covered men of Solutre belonged to a mixed race similar to those 

 of tlie Belgian caves of La Lesse. M. Hamy has demonstrated 

 thai bracliicephalic crania supenene at Solutre on the dolicho- 

 cephalic, as at Cro-Magnon. — M. Topinard read a paper on the 

 systems of craniometry, in which he endeavoured to show by tlie 

 contradictory cranial determinations arrived at in reference to the 

 Solutre and other recent finds, how important it is to show a 

 definite method of cranial measurement. In the discussion 

 which followed, M. Rochet opposed the notion that craniometry 

 in art is based upon individual fancy more than scientific accuracy ; 

 while M. Broca admitted the defects of the present methods. — 

 A note by M. P. Bert, on the twin monster known as tlie doulile- 

 headed nightingale, led to a general discussisa on double or t«in 

 monsters, and to the inquiry whether lliey were produced from 

 two distinct embryos or from one germ endowed ab initio with 

 the property of doubling or reproducing certain parts. It was 

 generally admitted that external circumstances have no power to 

 induce embryonic duality. — Madame C. Koyer, in a very original 

 paper on the origin of different human races, protested against 

 the hypothesis which derives all European races from Asia, and 



endeavoured to show by the geological history of the earth tliat 

 man must have appeared first on the great Austral continent, and 

 radiated tlience to the other continents. Her novel views were 

 received with marked attention, and it was felt that if she should 

 be able to adduce sound geological proof of her statements, her 

 hypothesis of primary human migrations will be as important as 

 it is original. Till she fulfils her promise of clearly expoundmg 

 her theory, her arguments cannot, however, be accepted as more 

 than ingenious speculations. 



Revue d' Anthropologic, tome iii. No., 3. — M. Paul Broca 

 supplies us in this number of the review," of which he is sole 

 editor, with a comprehensive history of the course of observations 

 which have led to^tlie enunciation of the theory propounded by 

 him (in the Bulletins de la Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris for January 

 and F'ebruary 1874) in regard to the hygrometric properties of 

 fossil crania. After considering the important but inadequately 

 appreciated experiments made in 1S59 by M. Welcker in refer- 

 ence to this point, he enters at great length into the consideration 

 of the numerous carefully conducted series of observations and 

 measurements by which he was led to the conclusions which he 

 has adopted, and his paper constitutes, therefore, a most valuable 

 resuiue oi the physical as well as the jjak-contological bearings of 

 the subject. — M. Berenger-Feraud, surgeon in the French navy, 

 gives, as the result of personal investigation, an account of the 

 different tribes who occupy the shores of the Casamanca in Inter- 

 tropical Africa. This stream, on which the Portuguese and 

 French have a few scattered trading stations, is one of the 

 numerous rivers of Western Africa which take their source on 

 the western slope of the Fonta-Djaloii mountain-ranges. The 

 author considers the Casamanca peoples under the three heads 

 of primary or autochthonic, invading, and immigrating races; the 

 first including the Feloups and Bagnouns, the second the 

 Belantes, Mandingues, and Peuls, and the last the Onolofs, 

 Saracolais, Machouins, Taumas, &c. ; and passing each in review, 

 he describes their habits, the form of fetichism followed by eaclj, 

 and their general social condition. Among the Balantes he notes 

 the singular custom of making the duration of marriage respon- 

 sibilities dependent on the conservation of the "pagua" or festive 

 garment given to the wife by the husband on the occasion of their 

 wedding. The woman who wishes to secure a divorce has merely 

 to wear out her pagua as last as she can, and then present it in 

 a tattered condition to her family, on which she obtains her 

 release from the power of her husband. Among the same people 

 a charge of sorcery, which is very common with them, can only 

 be met by a public appeal to the ordeal of the " maiifone " or 

 " ago broumedion," which is said to be a decoction from the 

 bark of a poisonous tree, and which it would appear is always 

 fatal unless rich gifts have secured the copious watering of the 

 draught by those to whom its preparation is confided. — MM. 

 Daleau and Gassies give a report of the appearances presented by 

 a cavern at Jolias, in the canton of Bourg (Gironde), which, on 

 its recent exploration, yielded in a stratum of red diluvium below 

 a solid calcareous bed, a rich deposit of bones, many of which 

 had been cleft, but none of which belonged to extinct specie-, 

 numerous flint implements similar to those found at Moustier anii 

 Solutre, but no remains of pottery, except in the upper part of 

 the cavern, where they had probably been hrown aside long after 

 the disuse of the cavern. 



Zcitschvijt Jiir Ethnologie, heft vi. 1S73. -The fifst article 

 in this number gives some interesting details in regard to 

 the almost unknown Red Indian tribe of the Tulus of 

 Panama, believed to be the descendants of the Chur- 

 chures, who successfully resisted the attempts made by the 

 Spanish Conquistadores for their subjection. Representatives 

 of these people appeared last year at Bogota with the object of 

 making'complaints against the collectors of caoutchouc, cacao, ard 

 elephant nuts, \s'ho had come to their woods and been guilty of 

 violence against the tribe, and it was from his examination of 

 these men that the author drew up his report. — In a suggestive 

 article by Prof. Bastian on the nature of ethnology and its rela- 

 tions to geography, the author points out how essential the 

 knowledge of physical laws is to the right comprehension of 

 ethnology, which is in itself less a zoological history of man thj.n 

 a history of the geographical distribution of man considered in 

 relation to physical habits, which, like the physical charac- 

 teristics of different faunas and floras, depend primarily upon 

 geographical position, and secondarily on climatic, geognostij, 

 and other analogous conditions. — Herr Virchow laid before the 

 society several skulls of the Goldi, a hitherto almost unknown 

 tribe, who occupy the shores of the Amoor at the point where 



