360 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 739 



expect to find here implements made by early man 

 or his predecessor, but the question is if his 

 predecessor already belongs to the genus Homo or 

 to the anthropoid apes. When we discover that 

 the recently extinct natives of Tasmania manu- 

 factured eoliths of the same kind as those found 

 in the old Pleistocene gravels of Belgium and 

 England, in the upper Miocene of central France 

 and the upper Oligocene of Belgium, we feel in- 

 clined to believe that those implements may not 

 be regarded as human artefacts but as having 

 been made by a predecessor of man. Indeed those 

 oldest eoliths occur in a group of anthropoid 

 mammals the genera of which are totally extinct, 

 and it would be very surprising to find that only 

 the genus Homo remained unchanged while all 

 other genera developed." 



Dr. Merriam remarked upon the Moust&ien 

 skull, suggesting that it appeared to be the skull 

 of a child; and called attention to the remarkable 

 differences between the Heidelberg jaw and that of 

 man to-day, a difference so great as to indicate 

 that the Heidelberg jaw may not belong to the 

 genus Homo. 



Mr. Willis inquired for the evidence that the 

 eoliths found in Tertiary formations were actu- 

 ally shaped by hand and Professor Penck re- 

 sponded by pointing out their peculiar form, one 

 part being shaped as if to hold in the hand and 

 the other part a sharp edge or series of points 

 for cutting. Such eoliths have been found dulled, 

 as if used by man or his ancestor. 



Dr. Hough remarked that as man is the only 

 animal that has ever used fire, he desired to know 

 whether or not traces of fire had been found at 

 the various European localities with the other 

 evidences of man, and Dr. Penck replied that 

 traces of fire were found constantly with other 

 evidences as far back as theMousterien skeleton. 

 No trace of fire was found with the Chelleen im- 

 plements because they are alluvial and none could 

 be preserved in such deposits. 



Dr. Frank Baker called attention to the con- 

 troversy that had arisen regarding certain prehis- 

 toric remains, particularly the jaw of La Nau- 

 lette. It had been held that the eminences for 

 attachment of the muscles of the tongue upon 

 that jaw were so slight as to indicate that the 

 animal to which the jaw belonged resembled apes 

 in lacking the faculty of speech. Judging from 

 the figures of the Heidelberg jaw displayed on the 

 screen, these eminences were particularly well 

 marked in that specimen, which would argue a 

 special use of the tongue either for speech or for 

 some allied function. 



Mr. Spillman referred to the teeth of the Mous- 

 t&ien skull as being like those of a child. 



J. S. DlIXER, 



Recording Secretary 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 NEW YOEK SECTION 



The fifth regular meeting of the session of 

 1908-9 was held at the Chemists' Club on Feb- 

 ruary 5. 



The chairman, Dr. L. H. Baekeland, presented 

 the results of an investigation which has occupied 

 his attention for some years under the title, 

 '' Bakelite : its Synthesis, Constitution and Indus- 

 trial Application." 



Bakelite is a polymer of an oxybenzoyl-alcohol- 

 methylene-glycol-anhydride having the formula 

 ^(CmHjsOy). It is produced by the condensation 

 of seven molecules of a phenolic body with one of 

 formaldehyde. The pure substance is a hard, 

 odorless, transparent mass resembling amber. It 

 is insoluble in all solvents and extremely inert, 

 resisting the action of strong chemicals and high 

 temperatures. In its final form, Bakelite is not a 

 plastic and would have few uses had it not been 

 found possible to control the reaction by which it 

 is formed and prepare intermediate condensation 

 products. These may be incorporated with filling 

 materials such as asbestos and wood pulp, molded 

 into useful forms and finally hardened by the com- 

 bined action of heat and pressure. The uses of 

 Bakelite are being studied in more than forty dif- 

 ferent industries with excellent results; for ex- 

 ample, in electricity it may be used for insulating 

 devices and impregnating the coils of dynamos; 

 in mechanics for bearings; in chemistry for lining 

 wooden and metal tanks and protecting appa- 

 ratus; in manufactures for making pool balls, 

 pipe bits and buttons. 



. Dr. Baekeland's paper will appear later in full 

 in the Journal of Industrial and Engineering 

 Chemistry. 



The other papers presented were : 

 M. A. Rosanoff, A. B. Lamb and V. E. Breithut: 

 " A New Method of Determining the Partial 

 Vapor Pressure of Binary Mixtures." 



D. D. Jackson and W. A. Horton: "Experi- 

 ments on the Putrescibility Test for Sewage and 

 Sewage Effluents." 



S. A. Tucker, W. A. Alexander and H. K. Hud- 

 son : " The Relative Efficiency of the Arc and 

 Resistance Furnace for the Manufacture of Cal- 

 cium Carbide." C. M. Joyce, 



