THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE 



VOLUME LVII. 



No. VI.— JUNE, 1920. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



/?< EOLOGISTS will note with satisfaction that the University of 

 ^ Cambridge on May 19 conferred the honorary degree of Doctor 

 of Letters on the Abbe Henri Breuil, Professor of the Institute of 

 Human Palaeontology at Paris. The following speech was delivered 

 by the Public Orator in presenting the Abbe for his degree : " De 

 gentis humane originibus multi antiquitus disputaverunt nee adhuc 

 compositae sunt controversise. Utrum simiis oriundi simus an angelis, 

 ingens fuit rixa. Ossibus nonnuUis inventis pithecanthropum 

 quidam finxerunt, 



monstrum horrendum, inform e, ingens, 



cui lumen non datum. Ex contrario hospes noster cavernas 

 speluncasque Gallicas et Hispanas exploravit, proavorurn domos 

 nostrorum et picturis plenas invenit, ex quibus jDatefactum est ante 

 multa annorum millia vel humanissimos fuisse. Ita linea usi sunt 

 et colore, ita vitae studuerunt, ut cervi depicti vel animuni cerneres, 

 dum respectat inhians, et crura movet defatigata. Elephanti 

 primigenii dentes et capillos, equi nasuni retusum, rhinocerotis 

 lanam, et noverunt et pinxerunt, Abbatem ergo, qui gentem 

 nostram in humanitatem vindicaverit, laeti salutamus. 



" Duco ad vos virum admodum reverendum Henricum Edwardum 

 Prosperum Breuil." 



We hear that Abbe Breuil has spent several weeks in visiting the 

 more interesting British localities that have furnished information 

 concerning prehistoric man, and we hope that he may publish an 

 account of his observations in our Islands. 



* * H: * * 



On February 20, 1920, Mr. P. Bullen Newton retired from the 

 post of Assistant in the Geological Department of the British 

 Museum, after forty years' service. For twelve years, from 1868 to 

 1880, Mr. Newton was Assistant Naturalist on the Geological 

 Survey, and in the latter year, owing to special qualifications in the 

 curating of fossils, he was transferred to the British Museum as an 

 Assistant in the Geological Department, then under the keepership 

 of Dr. Henry Woodward. He has therefore completed a period 

 of fifty-two years spent in palaeontological work. Owing to pressure 



VOL. LVII. — NO. VI. 16 



