Notes and Comments. 149 



described had been hitherto neglected, owing partly to a 

 tendency to select for study the fresher-looking material. 

 It would appear that in Lower Carboniferous times the British 

 area included two petrographical provinces, both characterised 

 by rock-types rich in sodic felspars, but having different 

 histories. The southern or Cornish province was an old- 

 established one, and was spilitic. The Somerset lavas must 

 be included here. The northern province represented a 

 reaction from the very different Caledonian regime, and was 

 marked by the prominence of olivine-basalts and mugearites, 

 with some soda-trachytes. Here belong the Scottish and 

 Irish districts with the Isle of Man. In Derbyshire, occupying 

 geographically an intermediate situation, the volcanic rocks 

 seem to be mainly of Scottish types, but with spilitic affinities 

 indicated in some of the occurrences. 



THE OLDEST FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



Mr. J. Reid Moir has a paper in Science Progress on ' The 

 Oldest Flint Implements,' in a little section to himself, with the 

 heading ' Popular Science.' He refers to the well-known eoliths 

 found in Kent over fifty years ago by Mr. Benjamin Harrison. 

 These were described at the time by the late Sir Joseph 

 Prestwich, as of human workmanship, an opinion which has 

 been shared by dozens of other workers during the past half- 

 century. After somewhat naively stating ' without troubling 

 the reader with the somewhat complex geological facts which 

 demonstrate the great antiquity of these primitive flaked 

 flints,' Mr. Moir is of opinion that his examination of the 

 specimens ' has indicated with some amount of certainty,' 

 that they are of human origin, and modestly refers to ' tangible 

 evidence such as has been set forth in this paper.' 



' POPULAR ' SCIENTIFIC TERMS. 



It seems a pity that Sir Joseph Prestwich has been dead 

 so many years, as it is possible he may have received some 

 encouragement in his work from the fact that Mr. Moir (who 

 was not born when Sir Joseph's papers were written) adds 

 his seal of authority to the correctness of Sir Joseph's views. 

 We have some evidence of Mr. Moir's youth in his choice of 

 adjectives in writing this ' Popular ' science article. The flint 

 implements he describes are chocolate-brown, or of a cafe-au-lait 

 shade ; some are light chestnut brown ; others are toffee-coloured 

 (a very ' popular ' scientific description). We have failed to 

 find any reference to brandy-balls or humbugs. 



A PREHISTORIC WAR WOUND. 



Lieut. L. F. West describes ' A Prehistoric War Wound ' 

 in The British Medical Journal. While excavating on the 

 site of a prehistoric fort on the Wiltshire Downs, a human 

 skull was found, which bore evidence of rough treatment. 



1917 May 1. 



