588 
NATURE 
[Oct, 15, 1885 
drying corn before sending it to the mill. The kiln was conical 
in shape, joists called cabers twere !aid across, some distance 
from the ground, and above these were roughly-hewn sapplings 
called simmers ; on the top of these was spread straw, and on 
the straw was laid the corn. A fire was kindled on the ground, 
and the heat therefrom dried the corn. <A stone called a 
sparker was placed above the fire to catch the sparks, but in 
spite of this precaution the kiln sometimes took fire. At an 
early period corn was ground between two ‘millstones, with an 
iron rod by way of a handle; this primitive mill was called a 
quern, and was generally turned by two women, as in Eastern 
lands. In later times querns were used for grinding malt. 
Mr. A. J. Evans contributed a paper on The Flint-Knappers’ 
Art in Albania, and exhibited some beautifully-worked gun- 
flints and strike-a-lights, partially cased in ornamented lead 
sheaths studded with glass gems. 
Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie read a paper on Zhe Discovery of 
Naukratis, the remains of which city had been brought to light 
during the work of the Egypt Evploration Fund in the first half 
of this year. 
Mr. Thomas Wilson read a paper on A New Man of Mentone, 
in which he described the discovery, in March, 1884, in one of 
the famous caverns at Mentone, of a skeleton, believed to 
belong to the Palzolithic age. The excavations were made 
during the winter of 1883-4 by M. Louis Julien, of Marseilles, 
and at his expense, aided by the advice of M. Bonfils, Curator 
of the Museum at Mentone. This cavern had been searched 
many times before, and about 9 or to feet in depth had been 
removed from the original surface, which, however, was plainly 
marked by a large piece of éréche which still adhered to the 
perpendicular side wall. The formation of the floor of the 
cavern and the process of its filling up presented all the usual 
evidences of human occupation and industry: charcoal, burnt 
earth and ashes, hearthstones, split and broken bones of animals 
(estimated to the number of 15,000 pieces), flint instruments, 
chips, nuclei, &c., &c., were found in sufficient number, quan- 
tity, and distribution to indicate an indefinitely long occupation. 
No morsel of pottery was found, nor were any of the stone 
implements polished. At the depth (from the original surface) 
of 8 metres 40 centimetres was found the skeleton of this ‘‘new 
man of Mentone.” He was laid on his back with his limbs 
extended, and had for funeral equipments three large chips of 
flint (éc/ats de silex), 6 or 7 inches long and 24 inches broad, in 
the form of the largest scrapers, placed one on each shoulder like 
epaulettes, and one on the brow. It was evidently an interment. 
This became more evident when it was found that the body was 
placed in a sort of natural vault or tomb, formed on one side by 
the wall of the cavern, and on the other by an immense block 
of stone with an overhanging edge, which reached to a line per- 
pendicularly over the centre of the skeleton. This placing of 
the body required an excavation between these rocks of 3 or 4 
feetin depth. The skull was broken into sixty fragments by the 
pick of the workman; it was carefully taken up and put 
together by M. Bonfils, and is now exposed in the Museum 
at Mentone. 
rest of the skeleton was being exhumed a quarrel broke 
out as to ownership, which ended in the theft and utter 
destruction of all that remained. Mr. Wilson maintained 
that the new discovery of the skeleton dissipated all idea 
of disturbance, for while disturbance might exist for one or two, 
or even five or six feet, to the depth of twenty or thirty feet it 
would be impossible. It must be conceded that the human 
industry as manifested by the objects found in these caverns, 
indicated their occupation during the palzolithic age, for of the 
thousands found, all bear the impress of that age, while none 
denote particularly the age of polished stone. Mr. Pengelly said 
that he had visited the cavern where M. Riviére’s new man of 
Mentone was found, and he was of opinion that the man found 
by M. Riviére had not been interred at all, but had died where 
the body was found, and had been buried by the sand blown 
into the cavern, and the waste of the walls of the cavern. He 
had measured the place himself where the body was found, and 
found that it was only eight feet below the surface. The skull 
of the man was so good that he should have been glad to have 
possessed such a skull. It was a large skull, ard the measure- 
ments he made of the bone showed that the man must have been 
of great stature. The bones of animals found in .he cavern 
were partly those of animals now extinct, and partly those of 
existing species. With reference to the age in which the man 
found by Riviére lived, his impression was that it was the 
This was a fortunate accident, for while the | 
palolithic age. He would not say so positively, however, and 
from the information they possessed he did not think that the 
man would be of any value whatever for or against the doctrine 
of human antiquity. 
Dr. R. Munro read a paper on Zhe Archeological Importance 
of Ancient British Lake-Dwellings and their Relation to 
Analogous Remains in Europe. Dr. Munro commenced by 
giving a shortintroductory notice of the discovery and investiga- 
tion of the crannogs of Ireland and the lake-dwellings of Central 
Europe. He then gave a r¢szméof the more recent explorations 
made among the crannogs of Scotland and the remarkable 
objects recovered from them. From a comparative examination 
of these relics with other collateral antiquities of the Celts, he 
arrived at the conclusion that the lake-dwellings of Scotland 
were essentially the product of Celtic genius, that they were 
constructed for defensive purposes, and that those in the south- 
west parts of the country attained their greatest development in 
post-Roman times, after Roman protection was withdrawn from 
the provincial inhabitants, and they were left single-handed to 
contend against the Angles on the east and the Picts and Scots 
on the north. Having established the Celtic origin of the 
crannogs of Ireland and Scotland, Dr. Munro proceeded to 
inquire if there is any ancestral relationship between them and 
the lake-dwellings of Central Europe. Taking into account the 
recent discovery of lacustrine abodes in the Holderness and the 
few previous records of their existence in Wales and other parts 
of England, together with the statement of Cesar that the 
Britons were in the habit of making use of wooden piles and 
marshes in their defensive works, he thought that such indica- 
tions are not merely solitary instances, but the outliers of a 
widely distributed custom which prevailed in the southern parts 
of Britain at an earlier date than that assigned to the crannogs 
of Scotland. Hence he suggested the theory that the British 
Celts were an offshoot of the founders of the Swiss lake- 
dwellings, who emigrated into Britain when these lacustrine 
abodes were in full vogue, and so retained a knowledge of the 
custom long after it had fallen into desuetude in Europe. On 
this hypothesis it would follow that subsequent immigrants into 
Britain, such as the Belge, Angles, &c., being no longer 
acquainted with the subject, would cultivate new and perhaps 
improved methods of defensive warfare ; whilst the first Celtic 
invaders, still retaining their primary notions of civilisation, 
when obliged to act on the defensive would naturally have 
recourse to their inherited system of protection. In support of 
this hypothesis the author pointed out that the geographical dis- 
tribution of lake-dwellings, so far as they are known in Europe, 
closely corresponds with the area formerly occupied by the 
| Celts; that no lake-dwellings have been yet found either in the 
northern or southern parts of Europe, though the topographical 
and hydrographical conditions of these regions are not unfavour- 
able for such structures ; that the fasc?ze dwellings in Europe 
were identical in structure with the crannogs ; and that, though 
the pile-dwellings were not largely used in the British Isles, 
the principles on which they were built were not unknown, their 
disuse being due to topographical and other considerations. 
Finally, he argued that the wideness in the chronological gap 
which is supposed to separate the crannogs from the lake- 
dwellings of Europe is more apparent than real, as the latter 
existed during the Roman occupation of Gaul, and in one 
instance at least the custom survived to about the tenth 
century. 
Prof. D. J. Cunningham exhibited a large coloured plate of 
sections of a young chimpanzee, illustrative of some important 
points of comparison between the chimpanzee and man. Prof. 
Cunningham said that he had purchased a male chimpanzee, 
which was said to have died in the process of second dentition, 
and which he believed to be about six years of age. The body 
of the chimpanzee was frozen for two days, and he now ex- 
hibited the sections of the chimpanzee for the purpose of showing 
one or two points of comparison between the chimpanzee and 
man. Any one looking at the plate would be attracted to the 
region of the face, where the protrusion was shown which was 
so well seen in the living animal. If they compared it with the 
corresponding section of man they would find brought out very 
forcibly the elongated brute-like tongue of the chimpanzee. 
An anatomist looking at the section now exhibited would fix his 
attention at once upon the spine. In man the spinal form was 
beautifully curved. It showed an alternation of curves in the 
different regions of the body, and to these curves in the spine of 
man in a great measure was due in his erect attitude. It was 
