454 



NA TURE 



[Sei'tember io, 1896 



the pathological changes in the tissues of the same, can be of 

 great value to the physician, much more has yet to be done. 

 The serious investigator is more impressed with what has 

 yet to be done, than elated with what has already been accom- 

 plished. It is with great pleasure that I read in the columns of 

 Nature of the continued advances of those well fitted to en- 

 gage in the study of the properties of Riintgen rays in the 

 physical laboratory ; and while we have reason to be pleased that 

 the rays have been clearly proved to be of great value in the 

 diagnosis of certain affections, every part of the apparatus must 

 be investigated and improved upon before we obtain thoroughly 

 satisfactory results. John Macintyre. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



pROF. li. F. OSBORN, curator of vertebrate palaeontology 

 ■'■ in the American University of Natural History, New York, 

 contributes to the Ceiiliiry Magazine a popular account of pre- 

 historic quadrupeds found in the Rockies during the past few 

 years, and to be exhibited to the public at that museum in October. 

 Interest in his description is greatly increased by nine remark- 

 ably fine illustrations (reproduced from water-colour drawings 

 by Mr. Charles Knight), designed to give an idea of the animals 

 as they probably appeared in life in their natural surroundings. 

 Another interesting article in the Century is made up of extracts 

 from the journals of the late Mr. E. J. Ulave, whose journey to 

 the Livingstone Tree had such a melancholy termination. On 

 July S, 1894, Mr. Glave reached the tree beneath which Dr. 

 "Livingstone's heart is buried. Jacob Wainwright, the Nassick 

 boy who read the burial service, cut on the tree the words : 

 "Dr. Livingstone, May 4, 1873. Yazuza, Mniasere, Vchopere." 

 The body was roughly embalmed and carried to Bagamoyo, on 

 the coast opposite Zanzibar, afterwards to be taken to England and 

 buried in Westminster Abbey. As to the tree, Mr. Glave wrote 

 in his journal : " Although done twenty years ago, the inscription 

 is in a splendid state of preservation. The tree shows no dis- 

 figurement, and, moreover, the carving is not on the bark but 

 on the grain of the tree itself. It is a hardwood tree, three feet 

 in diameter at the base ; at thirty feet it throws out large 

 branches ; its top is a thick mass of foliage. When Livingstone 

 died the heart and other viscera were buried beneath this tree, 

 and the bark was cleared off for a space of two and a half feet 

 square ; in this space Jacob Wainwright (whose account my dis- 

 covery verifies to the letter) carved the inscription with no 

 dunce's hand, the letters being well-shaped and bold. The tree 

 is situated at the edge of the grass plain, and is very conspicuous, 

 being the largest tree in the neighbourhood. It is about five 

 miles south south-west from the present site of the village of 

 Karonga Nzofu, an important Bisa chief, whose father was a 

 friend of Livingstone. Chitambo's is now ten miles away. It 

 was originally near the tree ; in fact, Livingstone died a few 

 minutes' walk from the old village of Chitambo." The tablet 

 which Mrs. Bruce — the daughter of Livingstone — sent out 

 by Captain Bia and Lieut. Franqui to commemorate the 

 explorer's death, was put up by them eight miles from the spot 

 where he died, and was afterwards carried off by the chief of a 

 slave caravan. 



"There is scarcely a modern skull preserved in our great 

 anatomical museum beside those of abnormal malefactors. 

 There is no fairly representative collection of the variations of 

 our race ; and there is no means of learning the characteristics 

 of it in contrast to those of other races. This is far more the 

 case in other directions ; any solid comparative study of man's 

 framework is as yet utterly impossible. Of many races not a 

 single skeleton is preserved ; and those of which we know a little 

 are only shown by a few scanty specimens, of which the history 

 and details are scarcely ever recorded. Of both past and 

 present races a collection of at least a few dozen specimens of 

 each race, precisely dated and localised, are the smallest amount 

 of material which would enable us to begin a scientific treatment 

 of the varieties of man." So writes Prof. Flinders Petrie in the 

 National Review ; and he suggests that, to systematise the 

 study of man, a large museum should be established where 

 examples of every object of human workmanship can be 

 preserved. He is sanguine enough to think that this great 

 repository of the works of man will be realised in the course of 

 a few years. Such an institution would undoubtedly be of 

 service to science. From this proposal of Prof. Petrie's, 

 ethnologists may profitably turn their attention to a paper on 



NO. 1402. VOL. 54] 



"African Folk-Lore," contributed by A. Werner to the 

 Contemporary. While staying for some months in East Central 

 Africa, the authoress collected a number of traditional tales of 

 the Manganja, and she now relates them. Many of these stories 

 deal exclusively with animals ; and all of them proceed on the 

 assumption that animals, human beings, and inanimate objects 

 feel and act in much the same manner. There is a striking 

 similarity between these myth-stories and the stories of " Uncle 

 Remus" — a fact which goes to confirm the opinion that the latter 

 originated with the African. 



Prof. Ray Lankester reviews Mr. .•\rchdall Reid's speculations 

 on "The Present Evolution of .Man" in the I-'orlnightiy. 

 " Mr. Reid," he says, " seems to be under the impression that 

 the lines, or rather two of the lines of the present evolution of 

 man have been definitely and satisfactorily indicated by hi.s 

 sjieculations. I am far from admitting that he has done more 

 than demonstrate and draw attention to some tendencies of that 

 evolution. ... I am by no means convinced that the present 

 and future evolution of man is being determined exclusively o» 

 even mainly in the simple way and by the obvious factors 

 which he has placed before us." 



Two editorial notes in Scribner deserve mention. In one a 

 plea is made for the adoption of the metric system throughout 

 the United States. The Bill introduced last session, and 

 which will again be brought before Congress in the coming 

 session, provides for the substitution of the metric system 

 immediately in practically all the departments of the Clovern- 

 ment of the United States, and the adoption of the metric 

 system of weights and measures as the only legal system to be 

 recognised after the first day of January, 1901. The second 

 note referred to is on Summer Schools, or vacation courses. It 

 appears from a report of the U.S. Bureau of Education, that 

 more than three hundred vacation courses, dealing with all 

 branches of knowledge, are now held at various educational 

 centres throughout the world. 



In the Strand Magazine., Sir Robert Ball, continuing his series 

 of astronomical articles, describes the discovery of Neptune, 

 his treatment of that well-worn subject being illustrated with 

 several interesting pictures. A number of reproductions from 

 curious photo-micrographs form the chief feature of Mr. W. G. 

 FltzGerald's article on " Some Wonders of the Microscope " in 

 the same magazine. There is also a story dignified as an 

 " Adventure of a Man of Science," which has for its scientific 

 foundation the cure of madness by mysterious capsules. Even 

 this flimsy basis is better than the description, in last month's 

 .Strand, of the use of a camera to obtain a photograph, by means 

 of Rcintgen rays, of a stolen diamond inside the thief s body. 

 We should have thought it was known by this time that cameras 

 are not used in Rbntgen photography. Sir C. H. T. Crosthwaite 

 shows a little better acquaintance with the subject in a story 

 entitled " Riintgen's Curse," contributed by him to Longman's. 

 The central figure of the story concocted a liquid which, when 

 painted on the insides of his eyelids, made him as perspicaceous 

 as a platino-cyanide screen excited by Riintgen rays. The 

 capacity thus gained proved anything but a source of enjoyment 

 to the experimenter. The idea may be good enough for a story, 

 but a cautious man of science would have tried his wonderful 

 liquid on one eye, and not on both. 



In the Sunday Magazine there are two popular articles of 

 interest to naturalists : one describes and illustrates sculptures 

 of animals adorning a number of ecclesiastical buildings ; and in 

 the other Mr. C. J. Cornish writes on nightingales' nests, his 

 account being illustrated by photographs from life. 



C/tainbers's Journal \\a%, AS usual, several popular articles on 

 science. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Mr. H. R. Norris, Mathematical and Science Master of 

 Ipswich Grammar School, has been appointed Head-master of 

 Barry Intermediate and Technical School, (Uamorganshire. 



The Finance Sub-Committee of the Bradford Corporation 

 recently held a special meeting and decided to allocate the fol- 

 lowing grants under the Technical Instruction Act : — Bradford 

 Technical College, ^2875 ; Free Library, ^300 ; Boys' Gram- 

 mar School, i^SOO : Girls' Grammar Schoul, i,"ioo 5 Mechanics' 

 Institute, ^,"300 ; School Board, ^1000 ; Church Institute, ^ 100 ; 

 Blind Institute, £so. 



