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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 408. 



the rapid development that is taking place 

 in the use of gas-engines for very large 

 powers, and the advantages possessed by 

 the water-tube boilers over the tank boilers, 

 which justify perseverance in trying to 

 remedy their present defects. The Hon. 

 C. A. Parsons attracted a large audience 

 to hear a paper on the recent progress of 

 the steam turbine. Besides the above sub- 

 jects, a very able and judicial paper on 

 the difficult question of competition in 

 telephony was contributed by Mr. J. E. 

 Kingsbury, which deserves to be widely 

 read both on account of the author's inti- 

 mate knowledge of the subject and of the 

 calm temper of his review. He concluded 

 that the telephone service was essentially 

 not a proper field for competition. An 

 account by Professor George Forbes of the 

 practical trials in the South African war 

 of his beautiful range-finder excited great 

 interest. 



So far as Anthropology (Section H) is 

 concerned, the Belfast meeting will rank as 

 one of the most efficient for some years past. 

 The average quality of the communications 

 was high, and the tone of the discussions 

 uniformly business-like and judicial. The 

 president's address, which was devoted to 

 the much-debated question of the nature 

 and origin of 'totemistic' observances 

 among tmcivilized peoples, certainly con- 

 tributed much, by its cautious and learned 

 survey of the evidence, to clear a somewhat 

 thorny field; and its suggestion that many 

 if not all of these customs may be primarily 

 related to the all-important subject of the 

 food supply of primitive man will probably 

 be found to have suggested a profitable field 

 of fresh inquiry. With this encouragement 

 from the chair, it is not surprising that the 

 other papers on points of custom and folk- 

 lore were numerous and of good quality; 

 the most important of them, Mr. Hart- 

 land's discussion of the modes of appoint- 

 ment of Kings by augury, being further 



made appropriate to the season by its ex- 

 amination of the significance of the Stone 

 of Destiny at Tara and our own Corona- 

 tion-stone. Archeological papers were 

 numerous. Some of those of local origin 

 were perhaps hardly up to the general 

 level, but gave indication of intelligent and 

 systematic work on the antiquities of the 

 neighborhood. Mr. Abercromby's classifi- 

 cation, on the other hand, of the earliest 

 pottery of the Bronze Age in these islands, 

 and Mr. Coffey's identification of objects 

 in Ireland analogous to those of 'Hallstatt' 

 and 'La Tene' style on the continent, were 

 pieces of original research of a high order, 

 and each provoked a well-sustained dis- 

 cussion. The Cretan Report brought up to 

 date the record of Mr. Evans's discoveries 

 at Knossos ; and other papers on Mediter- 

 ranean archeology, though not so numerous 

 as of late, showed that efficient work is 

 being carried on by other students also. 

 The Cretan Exploration Committee was 

 reappointed, with enlarged terms of refer- 

 ence and a fresh grant ; and it has instruc- 

 tions to make the examination of the phys- 

 ical type of the ancient and more recent 

 population one of the objects of the forth- 

 coming campaign. The discussions which 

 arose on paleolithic matters, though, as 

 usual, not very conclusive, raised a num- 

 ber of interesting points, and were well 

 illustrated from the collections of Mr. W. J. 

 Knowles and other contributors; and two 

 little reports, on Roman sites at Silchester 

 and at Gellygaer, near Cardiff, showed that 

 the Association regards even 'classical' 

 archeology as lying on the margin of its 

 domain. Papers reporting recent explora- 

 tions abroad were fewer than usual. South 

 Africa claiming still the majority of the 

 men of adventure. But Mr. Henry 's paper 

 on the tribes of the Tun-nan border showed 

 well what opportunities frontier officers 

 have about them, if they will use them ; and 

 its description of the new pygmy folks 



