482 



NA TURE 



[September 17, 1896 



stated that the instrument was a self-recording one, the mode of 

 registration being graphical.) A similar aerial commotion was 

 registered at the Tour St. Jacques ; but, instead of marking an 

 increase of pressure, the trace showed a depression of 6 mm. , 

 and of very short duration." 



PREHISTORIC EUROPEAN ART. 

 TT is important to determine how far culture can independently 

 arise in a given district, and how far it is dependent upon 

 other centres of civilisation. For many years M. Salomon 

 Reinach has devoted himself to these problems, especially in 

 reference to the culture of prehistoric Europe. In his essays 

 on " Le Mirage Orientale " he opposed the very prevalent idea 

 that all our culture necessarily came from the East, and during 

 the last three years he has contributed to L' Anthropologic a 

 series of articles on "Sculpture in Europe before the Greco- 

 Roman Influences." This long series of papers is concluded in 

 the current number (No. 2, vol. vii.) of that journal, and it 

 forms a mine of information which cannot but prove of immense 

 value to arch;"eological students, especially as it is illustrated 

 with 441 outline sketches culled from a vast array of authors. 

 His general thesis comprises two arguments — the one negative, 

 the other positive. 



(i) M. Reinach tries to prove that the most primitive Euro- 

 pean artistic remains are far from justifying the view that the 

 first models and tentative efforts came from Egypt or Babylon. 

 One cannot trace any imitation of Assyrian cylinders or of 

 Egyptian funereal figurines. The fauna figured by the rude 

 artists of Europe is purely European ; there is no lion, panther, 

 or camel. An apparently very grave difficulty occurs in the 

 series of figures representing nude females, which authors agree 

 in regarding as imitations of the Babylonian Astarte. M. 

 Reinach argues that this type was indigenous, and so far from 

 owing its existence to Babylonian influence, it, on the contrary, 

 worked its way, in all probability, towards the valleys of the 

 Euphrates and Tigris. He thinks that Europe (i.e. the Balkan 

 Peninsula, the Archipelago, the Caucasus, and the west coast 

 of Asia Minor) only later, and to a restricted degree, became 

 dependent upon the old civilisations of the Orient. In his 

 opinion culture is polygamist. He admits multiple centres of 

 creation for art, and refuses to believe that all illumination has 

 come to us from the Euphrates and the Nile. He thinks that 

 the Danube and the Rhine have some rights which should not 

 be neglected, and that the future barbarians who dwelt along 

 the borders of these rivers were not reduced to receive every- 

 thing from without. 



(2) M. Reinach recognises that it is not sufficient to affirm 

 that art can be born in diverse places, and that the germ has 

 not arisen from two or three privileged centres of the ancient 

 world ; and so he sets himself to show how the rudiment of art 

 has been able to arise, even among peoples whose genius was for 

 a long time in abeyance. To that purpose M. Reinach has 

 "insisted on the evolution of the most simple decorative motives 

 which, at a certain point, quite naturally suggested the idea of 

 the human or animal form. In these not very numerous cases one 

 can follow the transformations of a plastic motive down to the 

 entirely geometric figure from which it arose. But the taste for 

 geometric forms and the tendency to conventionalisation 

 (stylisation), that is to say, to the purely decorative modifica- 

 tion of organic lines, have been, for long centuries, so powerful 

 in Europe, that even foreign types have not escaped their 

 petrifying action. A fortiori, the indigenous types, arisen from 

 geometrical devices, have always been constrained to return 

 back to them again. It is not denied that in Europe, as else- 

 where, the imitation of surrounding nature has given origin to 

 some plastic attempts ; but there is proof that this inspiration 

 drawn from nature has been feeble, even in the imitation of 

 animal forms, which represented only a very small number of 

 the animals known to the people." 



The author admits that several statuettes figured in this memoir 

 reflect outside influences, particularly of Italy, where Ionian 

 art early took root. But these influences were not exercised in 

 an immediate manner, and the indigenous style appears to have 

 always been predominant even when brought face to face with 

 foreign objects. A similar phenomenon is noticeable in Italy 

 itself, which was Hellenised very slowly, and was only partially 

 Orientalised under the Roman empire. 



Such is an outline of M. Reinach's position. There is no 



NO. 1403, VOL. 54] 



doubt that it will open up a wide discussion, as he covers a great 

 deal of ground, and deals with some matters which admit of 

 diver.sity of opinion. 



M. Reinach, in an earlier section of his memoir (L'Aiilh. v., 

 1894, p. 305), definitely states that "in the primitive art of 

 Central Europe the geometric form (a triangle) has suggested 

 the anthropomorphic form, and it is not the anthropomorphic 

 figure which is degenerated into the geometric." Possibly 

 some, at all events, of these flat jilates had indications of 

 features painted on their .surface, and thus they may have been 

 more realistic than now appears, and later they were made 

 more human-like as the fabricators became more skilled, or as 

 they valued greater realism. 



The investigations of quite a number of men of science .show that 

 so-called " geometric " designs are oflen really highly conven- 

 tionalised representations of natural objects, mainly of animals ; 

 others are suggestions of textiles, or other handicrafts. Probably 

 relatively few "geometric" designs are purely meaningless 

 decorations. So far as available evidence goes, there are not 

 many (if any) examples of the evolution of human or animal 

 forms by "suggestion" from purely geometric designs, but the 

 reverse process is extremely common. Doubtless some of the 

 problems involved in this memoir will be fully discussed at the 

 forthcoming meeting of the British Association at Liverpool 

 during the great discussion, which has been arranged for. on the 

 culture and origins of the Mediterranean race. We understand 

 that M. Reinach intends to be present on this occasion, when he 

 will be able to state his views and reply to his critics. 



NOTES. 



The seventh annual general meeting of the Federated Insti- 

 tution of Mining Engineers began, with a good attendance, at 

 Cardiff on Tuesday last, under the presidency of Mr. G. A. 

 Mitchell. The report of the Council showed satisfactory pro- 

 gress. It was announced that Mr. Lindsay Wood has been 

 elected President of the Institution. 



The third annual congress of Sunday Societies is announced 

 to take place at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on October 10 and two 

 following days. Copies of the programme of proceedings may 

 be had of the . Honorary Secretary, Mr. Mark H. Judge, 7 Pall 

 Mall, S.W. 



A Reuter dispatch from Naples says the death is announced 

 of Senator Palmieri, Director of the Vesuvius Observatory. 

 Luigi Palmieri was born in 1807. He was successively 

 Professor of Mathematics at Salerno, Campobasso, and Avellino, 

 Professor of Physics at the Royal Naval School at Naples, and 

 Professor at the University in the same town. In 1854 he was 

 appointed Director of the Vesuvius Meteorological Observatory. 

 He was inventor of several instruments for the observation of 

 natural phenomena, including an electrometer for ascertaining 

 the amount of electricity in the atmosphere, a rain gauge, and 

 a seismometer. 



Proi'. J. C. Bose, of the Presidency College, Calcutta, is 

 at present in this country, having been deputed by the Indian 

 Government to visit the various laboratories in Great Britain 

 and on the continent, with a view to the extension of the 

 Calcutta Presidency College Laboratory, and the establish- 

 ment of a new magnetic observatory in connection with that 

 College. Prof. Bose is the holder of a Royal Society grant for 

 researches in regard to electricity. He is a D. Sc. of London 

 University. 



It was announced at a banquet given to Dr. Nansen at 

 Christiania, on Thursday last, that a Nansen fund had been 

 formed for the advancement of science. Subscriptions to the 

 amount of 210,000 kroners had already been received. 



The Russian Geographical Society has been asked by the 

 Governor-General of Turkestan to send some men of science to 

 Shignan and Roshan next summer, for the purpose of making a 

 thorough exploration of those regions. 



