June 29, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



615 



peculiar twisls a screw movement tending upwards, 

 or at any rate in a direction tbat is perpendicular to 

 the plane of rotation. This last stage of improve- 

 ment, so far as we at present know, was effected in 

 Australia only, and not in those countries into which, 

 in its simpler form, it had been previously distrib- 

 uted by the migration of tribes. The Egyptian, 

 African, and Dravidian boomerangs may not have 

 been independent inventions, therefore. The boom- 

 erang being a weapon of very primitive construction, 

 and its present distribution being coincident with the 

 distribution of some of the black races of man, it 

 may with great probability be regarded as one of 

 those weapons which primeval men carried with 

 them into distant parts from the home of their 

 ancestors, wherever it was. In speaking of the 

 distribution of this weapon, writers should be care- 

 ful to note that the Egyptian boomerang, the trom- 

 bush of the blacks of Abyssinia, and that of the 

 blacks of HIndostan, correspond only to one class of 

 the Australian boomerang, — viz., that used by them 

 for war, and considered to be the most useful weapon 

 they employ, — and that this differs from the returning 

 boomerang, which has a lateral twist by means of 

 which it is caused to rise in the air, screwing itself 

 up precisely in the same manner as a boy's flying- 

 top, which rises and spins against the ceiling. — 

 (Journ. anthrop. inst., xii. 454.) J. w. P. [1181 



Hittite inscriptions. — So many attempts to 

 decipher the Maya hieroglyphs have been based upon 

 the processes tbat have led to brilliant results in 

 Egyptian and Mesopotamian inscriptions, that we are 

 not surprised to find an author deciphering Hittite 

 by means of Aztec phonetic values. Prof. John 

 Campbell of Montreal has in press a volume on the 

 history of the Hittites, their migrations, antiquities, 

 and language, in which will appear translations of 

 some of the inscriptions first discovered by Mr. 

 Drake in 1871. A pamphlet of sixteen pages, how- 

 ever, precedes the volume, giving the translations. 

 Briefly, the author believes tbat the Hittite empire, 

 overthrown in 717 B.C., was re-established succes- 

 sively in India, north of the Altai, north-east of 

 China, in Khitan, Mantchuria, Saghalin, Corea, and 

 Japan, and finally as Aztec, Peruvian, and Chibcha, 

 on the American continent. Mr. Campbell, there- 

 fore, has only to give to the characters of Hamath 

 resembling those of Mexico their Aztec phonetic 

 values, and the thing is done. — J. w. P. [1182 



EGYPTOLOGY. 



Geography. — The vast field of ancient geography 

 yet to be explored is indicated by the fact that two 

 thousand names of places outside of Egypt, mentioned 

 in the geographical lists, still await identification. 

 Brugsch points out some necessary cautions. 1°. The 

 different sy.-tems of orientation. The Egyptian always 

 imagined himself as standing face to the south : the 

 east was on the left hand, the west on the right 

 hand, and the north behind him. The African made 

 a point, between the Nile and the Red Sea, east of 

 Ethiopia, the place from which he judged of the re- 

 lations of countries : hence to him Ethiopia was in 

 the west, etc. The Asiatic faced the east, and spoke 

 of it as before him, the west as behind him. And 

 the Egyptian monuments represent, sometimes one, 

 sometimes another, of the systems in giving the re- 

 lations of the same place. 2°. The Egyptians very 

 frequently translated and did not transcribe foreign 

 names. It has often been remarked that the names 

 of nations well known in pre-classic antiquity, and 

 with whom the Egyptians were well acquainted, are 

 not found on the monuments. These names must 



be sought in the Egyptian translations. 3°. The 

 Egyptian geographical lists, in their enumeration 

 of African peoples, proceed from south to north : 

 among Asiatic nations they proceed from north to 

 south; i.e., in both cases they follow the downward 

 course of the great rivers. 



Brugsch believes that Punt was a southern land, 

 not in Arabia (where most place it), but in Africa, 

 and that the Egyptians sent expeditions thither at a 

 very early period in their history. Hommel ( Vorsemi- 

 tiscken kulturen, 1883, p. 108, 421) thinks these expe- 

 ditions began about 2450 B.C. — (Revue egyptol., iv. ) 

 H. o. [1183 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The remains of the late Professor Charles Frederic 

 Hartt, who is well remembered for his extensive scien- 

 tific researches in Brazil, arrived at New York from 

 Rio de Janeiro on .June 7 last, by the steamer Finance. 

 They will be carried to Buffalo, N.T., the home of 

 Mrs. Hartt, for interment. Over five years have now 

 elapsed since the death of this distinguished natural- 

 ist and linguist, whose life was so faithfully dedicated 

 to the cause of Brazilian science. Completely worn 

 out by the drudgery of official cares in trying to 

 perfect the organization of which he was the chief, 

 against the jealousies of a foreign and unappreciative 

 people, he fell an easy victim to that most dreaded 

 of all Brazilian scourges, yellow-fever, which afflicted 

 so many Americans during the early spring of 1878. 

 His grave in the protestant section of one of the 

 larger Rio cemeteries has borne no other mark than 

 the customary number by which it could be identified. 

 While Brazil has neglected the memory of one who 

 more than any other gave character and purity of 

 purpose to its scientific undertakings, his own coun- 

 try will not fail to do him homage. 



— The Report of the chief of ordnance, U.S.A., 

 1882, contains some important matter relating to the 

 science and practice of gunnery. Col. Crispin makes 

 a long and valuable report on European ordnance. 

 The methods of construction of British and French 

 ordnance are described, and the advantages of mal- 

 leable over cast irons are exhibited. The now 

 familiar effects of tempering in oil, as practised in 

 British gun-making establishments, are described. 

 Soft steels having a tenacity, untempered, of thirty- 

 one tons per square inch are given a strength of 

 forty-seven tons by oil-tempering, their elongation 

 being, meantime, reduced somewhat by the i^rocess. 

 The reporting officer concludes that the direction of 

 change is toward the introduction of built-up forged 

 guns, or built guns of cast steel, and that the future 

 is to see the introduction of this principle carried to 

 its limit in guns made of coiled wire, as proposed by 

 Treadwell of Cambridge, and recently by Wood- 

 bridge, — a conclusion manifestly at variance with 

 the results described in his report as attained by 

 Whitworth with solid guns of compressed steel. 

 The principles upon which Whitworth is working 



