November 4, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



261 



Now the alarming discovery has been made that a great many 

 of what we have heretofore called " palseolithic implements " dis- 

 play with fatal clearness the peculier earmarks of these "quarry- 

 rejects," hmting, therefore, that they never were real implements 

 at all. What is worse, like the rejects, they show no signs of 

 use, and clearly never could have been employed as implements, 

 and consequently do not in any way illustrate the industry of 

 the chippers, no matter of what age they are. If found in gravels, 

 the gravel-bed was the quarry, and they the refuse. It has even 

 been hinted that the famed gravels of the Somme and the 

 "palaeolithic floors'' of the Thames and the "Trenton gravels" 

 of our own land, may have to lose their laurels in the light of this 

 discovery. 



The Builders of the Southern Mounds. 



Those who have looked at the archceological collections of the 

 Smithsonian with any attention, cannot fail to remember the ex- 

 traordinary specimens of copper work from the Etowah valley 

 mounds, in northern Georgia. The figures they delineate have 

 an unquestionable family resemblance with those inscribed on 

 shells obtained on the lower Mississippi, so accurately pre- 

 sented in Mr. Holmes's essay in the Report of the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology, 1880-81. Both present curious araalogies to Mexican and 

 Maya art, and I have been almost constrained to believe in a con- 

 nection, either ethnic or commercial, between these peoples. 



Dr. Eduard Seler, however, who is a most competent authority 

 on these questions, expresses a different opinion in a recent article 

 in Globus, Bd. LXII., No. 11. He analyzes with care the mode 

 of wearing the hair, the headdress, the clothing, and the weapons 

 of the figures, and shows that in several of these points they cor- 

 respond with the descriptions of the early voyagers of the natives 

 they found in these localities. He also compares the same fea- 

 tures with similar relics from ancient mounds in the Ohio valley. 

 The conclusions he reaches are, that the builders of the Etowah 

 mounds and the artists of the inscribed shells were probably re- 

 lated to the builders of the Ohio mounds ; that they were not the 

 direct ancestors of the tribes found in Georgia at the discovery ; 

 that there is not sufiBcient reason to suppose connection with 

 Mexico or Yucatan ; that probably the mound-building and copper- 

 working tribes were destroyed or driven to the remote sea-coast 

 by invasions from the north and west at a period not very re- 

 mote from that of the discovery of the continent. 



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 of the journal. 



"Ancient Mexican Heraldry." 



Permit me to place before the readers of Science an interesting 

 fact kindly communicated to me on Oct. 17 by the Rev John 

 Woodward, LL.D., F.S.A., the learned author of "A Treatise on 

 Heraldry, British and Foreign," referred to in my article on 

 " Ancient Mexican Heraldry " in Science, No. 503, Sept 23. That 

 gentleman has just informed me "that the late Mr. Ellis, in his 

 book on ' The Antiquities of Heraldry,' ISBO, made reference to 

 the Armory of the Ancient Mexicans and gave a plate (iv.) of the 

 symbols from the works of Lord Kings borough and Mr. Stephens." 

 " There is not, however," my courteous correspondent adds, " any 

 evidence that the use of such devices was hereditary ; they were, 

 so far as we know, merely personal distinctions " This agrees 

 with the general conclusions, based on special investigations, of 

 Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, who was doubtless, hke myself, unaware of 

 the publication of Mr. William Smith-Ellis's views on Mexican 

 heraldic emblems nearly a quarter of a century ago. I endeavored 

 in vain to consult a copy of his work when studying the subject 

 of my communication to Science ; and, as other students may ex- 

 perience the same difficulty, I will reproduce the Rev. J. Wood- 

 ward's observations respecting ancient heraldry on page 26 of 

 the Introduction to Vol. I. of his recent Treatise on Heraldry in 

 general. 



"Mr. W. G. (sic) Ellis, in his ' Antiquities;[of Heraldry,' has 

 collected a mass of interesting matter relating to what he calls 

 the heraldry of ancient times and of all nations of the world, and 

 he certainly succeeds in showing to how great an extent pictorial 

 symbols, which had originally a meaning, have been in use among 

 all nations of mankind, civilized and savage. His plates are 

 curious as showing the occasional occurrence among these mani- 

 fold devices of some resembling modern 6gures of blazon. The 

 crescent, the mullet, the lozenge, the quatrefoil, and the fleur de 

 lis are traced by him to counterparts existing among Egyptian, 

 Chinese, Indian, and Japanese emblems; and among the figures 

 on Etruscan vases he shows us what, in heraldic language, would 

 be called a bull's head caboshed and a not unheraldic-looking 

 demi-boar." 



Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the Rev. John Woodward 

 considers "there is some reason to believe that the use of the 

 hereditary badge must have long preceded hereditary heraldry" 

 (p. 589). Additional instances of their use as military distinctions 

 rewarding the capture of prisoners in European warfare may be 

 cited from his interesting work. Two fleur de lis with other 

 "augmentations " were granted to Sir John Gierke because he took 

 captive Louis Duke de Longueville on the field of Therouenne, 

 better known as the battle of the Spurs, and fought a month be- 

 fore the eventful fight of Flodden. A still more interesting case 

 is that of the "Crampet," or metal termination of the scabbard 

 of the sword, sometimes borne as a device. One was assigned to 

 Sir Roger La Warr about the same time as the buckle was granted 

 to Sir John Pelham in recognition of his aid in the capture of 

 King John of France. It is somewhat remarkable that the de- 

 scendants of these gallant knights, who fought side by side at 

 Poictiers, still hold lands and earldoms in the same County of 

 Sussex. Some members of the ancient house of De la Warr passed 

 over to America in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, hence the 

 more familiar name of Delaware. Agnes Crane. 



Brighton, England, Oct. 81. 



Reticulated Protoplasm of Pelomyxa. 



Since the publication of Dr. Stokes's article myself and col- 

 league, Mr, W. F. Pentland, have had several opportunities of 

 examining Pelomyxa Palustris. The difficulties of the investiga- 

 tion are so great that at his suggestion I tabulate the methods and 

 their results. 



1. Examination of unstained preparations (50 slides). Utterly 

 useless as far as the detection of reticulation is concerned. 2. 

 After treatment with osmic acid, usually 1 per cent solution, one 

 organism was found destitute to a great extent of ingested mate- 

 rial. An i Powell and Lelaud water-immersion and Zeiss 13 

 compensating occular failed even with critical light, with an im- 

 mersion condenser, and ammonia sulphate of copper solution as 

 modifier, to detect the slightest trace of reticulation. 3. In the 

 same preparation we found some Amoebce resembling Proteus. 

 The coarseness of the enclosure in these specimens we found 

 would lead a neophyte astray, as it frequently re.sembled reticu- 

 lation. 4. Determined to leave no stone unturned, we tried the 

 usual aniline and carmine dyes, with no result. 5. One-half per 

 cent solution of chloride of gold (no osmic acid) was tried on over 

 twelve slides. I must certainly confess I glimpsed reticulation in 

 two specimens, but owing to the protracted investigation was 

 compelled to desist. 



So far with regard to amoebic organisms. It is in the field of 

 pathology that reticulation of protoplasm is most frequently ob- 

 served, as far as my experience goes. The more rapid the morbid 

 process the greater certainty of reticulation. Fifteen years ago I 

 was working with my lamented colleague. Dr. Bookey of Dublin, 

 on the effects of bichloride of mercury on blood corpuscles; but 

 fortunately we did not follow out Dr. Klein's suggestions to the 

 letter, as we found epithelium cells beautifully reticulated as 

 described by Dr. Stokes. We found the nucleus in the blood 

 discs, but, as usual in scientific investigations, forgot to look for 

 reticulation. However, on a future occasion the late Sir Robert 

 Macdonald submitted to us for examination a portion of tumor 

 of then unknown nature. The portion was placed in Muller's 



