Apeil 6, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



263 



about the middle or latter half of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury. 11. The Ahau, or Katun, was a period of 

 twenty-four years; and the great cycle, of three hun- 

 dred and twelve years; also the series commenced 

 with a Cauac instead of a Kau year. 12. Brasseur 

 was right in supposing that the work originated in 

 Peten. In a future issue we hope to present a review 

 of this work. — J. w. P. [578 



Craniometry for general use. — Confusion of 

 the worst kind exists among the craniologists in the 

 following jjarticulars, — the base line or orienting of 

 the skull, what marks or characters have anthropo- 

 logic significance, and the comparative value of the 

 various parts. We have even a French school and a 

 German school. Both of these have been simpli- 

 fying their methods of late. The Germans hel-d a 

 craniometric conference at Munich in 1S77 {Corr.- 

 ■ blatt., 1878, No. 7), one in Berlin in 1880 (Corr.-blatt., 

 1880, 104-106), and finally came to an agreement at 

 Franlcfort in 188U. The result of the last meeting 

 now appears {Corr.-blatt, No. 1, 1883), signed by the 

 most distinguished craniologists in Germany. A 

 model-chart in blank accompanies the report, with 

 spaces for number, source, sex, age, skull, counte- 

 nance, and indices. The number of measurements 

 required are very reasonable, and they are not diffi- 

 cult to make. — {Corr.-blatt. deutsch. ges. anthrop., 

 xiv.. No. 1.) J. w. p. [579 



EGYPTOLOGY. 



Art in Egypt. — In a discriminating review of Per- 

 rot's great work, Miss A. B. Edwards says, M. Perrot 

 "has so thoroughly entered into the spirit of ancient 

 Egyptian culture, so firmly grasped the central idea 

 of ancient Egyptian belief, that he has been enabled, 

 not only to trace those influences through every rami- 

 fication of Egyptian art, but, from a purely philo- 

 sophic stand-point, to survey and treat his subject as 

 a co-ordinate whole. This it is which gives pre-emi- 

 nent value to the present work. This it is which we 

 here find attempted and achieved for the first time. 

 And, in truth, it is only within the last few years 

 that such a work has become possible." — {Academy, 

 Feb. 17.) H. o. [580 



Pithom-Succoth. — The Egyptian exploration 

 fund of England has signalized its advent to Egyptian 

 soil by a discovery promising great results. M. Na- 

 ville, on the suggestion of Maspero, director of the 

 Boolak museum, began exploration at Tel-el-Maschu- 



ta, — aheap of ruins beside the Sweet-water Canal, 

 south of the railway, east of and near Mahsamah, 

 and about fifteen miles west of Ismailia. He writes, 

 Feb. 12, 1883, "I have a piece of good news to begin 

 with. Tell-el-Maschuta is Pithom, or, in other woids, 

 the tem^jle of Tum, in the city or region of Thuku, 

 which Dr. Brugsch has identified with Succoth. . . . 

 I can give it for certain from the inscription of a 

 statue belonging to a priest of the temple." M. Na- 

 ville also found a Koman milestone with the inscrip- 

 tion, — 



BD NN TICTOKIETS 

 MAXIMIANO ET SEVERO 

 IMPEKATORIBVS ET 

 MAXIMINO ET CONSTAMTI . 

 NOBILISSIMIS OAESAKIBV. 

 AB ERO IN CLVSMA 

 MI Villi P. 



' Ero ' would be the transcription of Ar ( Ari or Aru), 

 which means the storehouse, and which is found on 

 the statue of the priest. His titles are " the chief of 

 the storehouse of the temple of Tem [Tum] of Theku 

 [Thuku]." Eeginald Stuart Poole and Miss A. B. 

 Edwards regard this as a momentous discovery. — 

 {Academy, Feb. 24, March 3.) H. o. [581 



Love-songs. — How the ancient Egyptian young 

 men and maidens confessed their love, and rejoiced 

 or mourned, may be learned from Maspero's transla- 

 tion of the hieratic papyrus of Turin, published in 

 facsimile by Pleyte and de Rossi, pi. 79-82. This had 

 been translated by Fr. Chabas (Bee. of past, vi. 

 156) ; but a rearrangement of the broken parts of the 

 papyrus has enabled Maspero to gain a clearer view 

 of the whole. Maspero sees a clear resemblance be- 

 tween the Hebrew and the Egyptian conception of 

 love, and suggests that a comparison of the Hebrew 

 with the Egyptian language of love would explain 

 some points now obscure. — {Journ. asiatique, Jan.) 

 H. o. [582 



Geographical lists of Karnak. — The only text 

 of these lists open to students is the very faulty one 

 in Les listes g^ogr. des pylones de Karnak, etc., edited 

 by Mariette in 187.5. In an open letter to Brugsch, 

 which is accompanied by two pages of facsimiles, 

 Golenischeff offers many corrections of these lists. 

 He says, "While these lists are of the greatest im- 

 portance, the study of them in the faulty copies in 

 Mariette's Karnak is not to be recommended." — 

 {Zeitsch. drjyp. sprache, 3 heft, 1882. ) H. o. [583 



INTELLIGENQE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 



GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 

 Bureau of ethnology. 



Explorations in the Mississippi valley. — Mr. P. W. 

 Norris, on behalf of the bureau, devoted last summer 

 to the examination of mounds and other antiquities 

 of the valley of the Mississippi. His explorations 

 were confined chiefly to eastern Iowa and south-west- 

 ern Missouri, though trips were made to Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and Mississippi. Among the results of 

 the work, we mention the following: — , 



Several somewhat extensive groups of eflBgy- 

 mounds were discovered in north-western Iowa. 

 One of the groups bears a strong resemblance to one 

 referred to in William Pigeon's singular volume. 



In the same region ancient earth-works were found 

 in which the enclosing wall is of the form given in 

 De Bry's figures of the Palisades. 



From a mound opened in Wisconsin, a copper ket- 

 tle, silver bracelet, silver rings, and a silver locket 

 were taken, indicating its modern origin. Two new 

 localities of Indian pictographs were found, and the 

 drawings copied. 



Besides stone implements, pottery, pipes, and other 

 evidences of aboriginal art usually found in mounds, 

 two very nicely carved statuettes were obtained in 

 Mississippi. Mr. Norris's collection consists of nearly 

 a thousand specimens. 



Professor Cyrus W. Thomas is in immediate charge 

 of these mound-explorations; and the work of the 

 past season is represented by a collection of nearly 

 three thousand five hundred specimens. 



Department of agriculture. 



Besults of field experiments loith various fertilizers. 



— Professor Atwater has given the results of a large 



