March 25, 1880] 



NATURE 



493 



From this it will be seen that the amount of conden=ation of 

 the gas, as it passes into the liquid state, becomes less and less as 

 the molecular composition becomes more complex, and moreover, 

 that the difference in amount of condensation of any two adjacent 

 members of the series becomes diminished at the same time ; thus 

 the difference in condensation on passing from butyl hydride to 

 amyl hydride is 39-4 ; from myristyl to benyl only 4-4 c c. 

 If the fact that the >p. gr. of these substances has been taken at 

 a common temperature, instead of at their boiling points be 

 considered, it will be seen that the difference is really less marked 

 than it otherwise would be. 



From the fact that an increase in the number of 'atoms in the 

 molecules is accompanied by a decrease in condensation, it would 

 appear that a substance might be found which should possess 

 the same, or nearly the same, specific gravity in the state of gas 

 and solid, i.e., in which these states should become identical. A 

 large number of atoms would have to enter into ths formation of 

 a molecule to bring about this result, though if there be any 

 truth in the formula for albumin quoted by Herbert Spencer on 

 the authority of Mulder, it must be approached by this substance. 

 This formula— io(C 40 r T g 1 N s O 1 ,) + S,P — gives us an atomic 

 weight of 39125. and if we "assume the specific gravity of 

 albumin to be 2, this will give us — 



— X 11,200 = 5 - S about. 

 3912 



So that ice. of albumin, on this assumption, would be only 

 about five times as heavy in the colloid as in the gaseous stale. 

 This fact may help to throw some light on the peculiar proper- 

 ties of colloids, and taken in conjunction with Herbert Spencer's 

 reflections, on that most curious of all colloids : — protoplasm. 



\Y. J. Sollas 



A Claim for Precedence 



In reference to the notice of Favre in Nature, vol. xxi. 

 p. 417, I shall be obliged if you will kindly allow me space for 

 a few remarks. 



Credit for much valuable work is given justly to Favre, but I 

 must be allowed to protest against having the fen- grains of corn 

 belonging to others added to his well-filled granary. One of 

 the discoveries ascribed to Favre in your notice is " the relative 

 diminution in the heat evolved by the combination of a com- 

 pound body compared with that due to the combustion of its 

 varied constituents," or rather, the cause of it. Now he was 

 not the discoverer of this, but I was. In October, 1S51, I | ub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Magazine a paper proving that decom- 

 position absorbs heat, and exactly to the same extent that the 

 previous combination of the constituents had evolved it. I 

 proved it by pacing a galvanic current through water and finding 

 the increase of temperature. This gave the heat produced by 

 the resistance les-ened by the decomposition of the water. 

 Then, to find the heat of resistance undiminished by decompo- 

 sition, I passed a similar current, as shown by a galvanometer, 

 through a platinum wire offering the same resistance as the 

 water, and sun unded by an equal quantity as in the first experi- 

 ment. The difference of temperature in the two experiments 

 was, of course, the heat absorbed by the decomposition. 



In some twelve months or so after this publication, Favre and 

 Silberman published in vol. xxxvii. of the Annates de Chimie et 

 de Physique, p. 507, the very same experiment to prove the same 

 principle, giving it as their own. 



In 1S52 a paper from me was read at the Belfast meeting of 

 the British Association, and published the same year, in Novem- 

 ber, in the Philosophical Magazine, giving the first experiments 

 made in thermo-chemistry in which decomposition is taken into 

 account, and showing the principle by which the heat of com- 



bination of bodies can be known from that absorbed in their 

 decomposition, and which has since been used in all thermo- 

 chemical researches. 



This principle and my experiments were published six months 

 afterwards by Favre and Silberman (Annates de Chimie el •:'<■ 

 Physique, vol. xxxvii. p. 484) without allusion to me. 



These publications and dates are easily to be referred to. It 

 is no matter of opinion whether I should be looked on as the 

 originator of thermo-chemi-try as it at present stands, but it is a 

 matter of fact that I am, as can be proved by the references I 

 have given ; and I think I should not be acting wisely to allow- 

 the credit of much labour and thought which is due to myself to 

 be given to another, at least without protest. I do not, of course, 

 want to compare myself with Favre, bnt I certainly claim, and 

 prior publication establishes for me, the discovery of the prin- 

 ciple that originated all the thermo-chemistry of the day which is 

 generally given to him ; nor do I expect that I will ever be 

 given as an authority as long as scientific men can quote the 

 names of Favre and Silberman ; but I ask that, in fairness, my 

 claim should be put on record, for although it makes very little 

 difference to the world in general who first works out a discovery, 

 yet to the individual whose only gain is the consciousness of 

 having done it, the matter is quite a different thing. 



Parsonstown, Ireland, March 9 Thomas Woods 



The Origin cf Man 

 Seeing that the doctrine of evolution has gained ground no ■■ 

 almost universally among naturalists, it is surprising that the 

 problem of the origin of man does not raise up an army 

 of investigators, revived to establish it by "demonstrative 

 evidence" on an unassailable foundation. 



It is true that this question has been engaging the attention of 

 naturalists, and that individual explorers have devoted themselves 

 to its solution, but little, if any, united effort has been organised 

 hitherto. Were the matter taken up with as much earnestne- s 

 as has been brought to bear on explorations in Assyria cr 

 Pale.-tine, or in the Rocky Mountains of America, it is hard to 

 believe that this question would long remain unsolved. 



If the organisation of a society for the purpose of prosecuting 

 research of the kind above indicated were widely agitated, there 

 wouM not be wanting, I am convinced, either members or funds 

 to further its success. By a strong united effort — international, 

 if neces-ary— there is no doubt success wculd be achieved. 



We are not utterly without a clue as to the time and place c f 

 man's origin. At least such hints as we possess it is our duty to 

 follow up instead of standing by in idle perplexity as to where 

 research should begin. 



We now know that it is useless to look for the remains of 

 Simian man in deposits later than pliocene, since the remains of 

 man — not Simian man, but man truly so-called — have been four.d 

 in pre-glacial and pliocene deposits in the New World as well r.s 

 in the Old. 



The simple fact of the distribution of man over both eastern 

 and western hemispheres having been accomplished as far back 

 as pliocene time-, compels us to suppose that man had probably 

 originated not later than the latter part of the miocene age. 

 The discovery of anthropomorpha (Pltopilhecus and Dryopithecns) 

 in miocene deposits, while as yet eocene strata have only 

 yielde.l lower members of the primates seems to point to miocene 

 times a mewbat near the date of man's origination. So much 

 for our pre-ent clue as to Time. 



Next as to the Place. Inasmuch as the tertiary formations in 

 the New World have produced hitherto no higher members of 

 the primates than inferior types of monkeys and lemurs, except 

 the recently discovered remains of man himself in pliocenp 

 deposits, the inquiry may be confined to the Old World. 



In the Old World the most northerly position at which the 

 remains of Anthropomorpha have as yet been found is about the 

 forty-fifth parallel of latitude, namely, in Switzerland and in the 

 south of France. 



Now as the higher existing apes are only found in \\ estern 

 Tropical Africa and the Malay Archipelago, while the lower 

 apes (the gibbons) extend into Southern China and Northern 

 India. The migration, since miocene times, of the Anthropo- 

 morpha, has probably pas-ed along a grand Main Line extending 

 from China through Northern India, Baloochistan, Per-ia, Asia 

 Minor into the south and south-west of Europe ; and from this 

 main line by Two Branches : one from Southern China into 

 Malay- ia, the other from the region of the Caucasus through 

 Syria, and perhaps Arabia into Africa. 



