Maech 13, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



439 



an anthropologist. It necessarily includes 

 several departments, but in a period of 

 three years a diligent student could be 

 qualified for original research. 



PLIOCENE MAN IN BRITAIN. 



Geological readers are aware that the 

 Cromer Forest Beds of eastern England are 

 to be assigned to either the latest Pliocene 

 or oldest Pleistocene. They are distinctly 

 preglacial and contain remains of a sub- 

 tropical fauna. 



From an article in Natural Science, for 

 January, it appears that Mr. W. J. Lewis 

 Abbott has collected from these beds a series 

 of chipped flints bearing ' a striking resem- 

 blance to the work of man,' and have been 

 pronounced to be such hj competent ex- 

 perts. One showed a plain ' bulb of per- 

 cussion.' 



As there seems no doubt about their de- 

 position with the original strata, the only 

 question remaining is their production, 

 whether by the hand of man or natural 

 agencies. There still remains some doubt 

 even as to the flints from the plateau of 

 Kent on this vital point. 



D. G. Brinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHESIISTBY. 

 On January 11th Professor Clemens 

 Winkler, of Freiberg, delivered an address 

 before the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft 

 on The Discovery of New Elements during 

 the last twenty-five years and problems 

 connected therewith. He first considered 

 the quantitative distribution of the ele- 

 ments, showing by Professor F. W. Clarke's 

 tables that as far as concerns the outer ten 

 miles of the earth, together with the atmos- 

 phere, one-half of all the material is oxj^gen, 

 and one-quarter is silicon, and that these 

 two elements, with aluminum, iron, cal- 

 cium, magnesium, sodium and potassium 

 make up over 7.5 per cent. None of the 



remaining elements occur in as great abun- 

 dance as one per cent. In the process of 

 cooling of the earth, and subsequent geo- 

 logic action, many of the less abundant ele- 

 ments have become somewhat localized or 

 concentrated ; as, for example, chlorin in 

 the sea and in salt deposits, the heavy 

 metals in veins and lodes. Were this not 

 the case many of the rarer elements must 

 have escaped detection. An instance of 

 this is scandium, discovered by Nilson in 

 1879, of whose oxid but a few grams exist. 

 This element, and gallium, discovered by 

 Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, and germa- 

 nium (discovered by Prof. Winkler himself in 

 1886, possess a peculiar interest, in that the 

 properties of each had been quite accurately 

 predicted by Mendeleef in 1871. Their dis- 

 covery was a complete confirmation of the 

 principles of the periodic law. The mineral 

 gadolinite, with others closely kin, has been 

 a fertile source of investigation, and the 

 list of ' rare earths ' that have been discov- 

 ered in it is apparently hy no means com- 

 plete. Erbium, holmium, thulium, dyspro- 

 sium, terbium, gadolinum, samarium, decip- 

 ium and ytterbium have been discov- 

 ered by various observers, but the independ- 

 ent existence of several of these is far from 

 certain. Of several supposed new elements 

 the non-existence is more sure ; such are 

 metaceriura, russium, jargonium, austrium, 

 norwegium, actinium, idumium and mas- 

 rium. The same may, perhaps, be said of the 

 recently jjatented lucium, kosmium and 

 neokosmium. (These last do not derive 

 their appellation from kosmos, but from Kos- 

 mann, their discoverer and patentee !). 

 Work by Auer von Welsbach on his incan- 

 descent light led him to the decomposition 

 of didymium into neodymium and praseo- 

 dymium, whose beautiful red and green 

 salts were well shown at the Chicago Ex- 

 position. The last elements considered by 

 Professor Winkler were argon and helium. 

 These apparently do not as yet fall into 



