June 4, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



871 



■way of contrast with the external air, and 

 not at all indicative of actual temperatures. 

 Caves are coldest in winter, but if no water 

 then enters, the formation of ice is delayed 

 until milder weather outside thaws the 

 surface ice or snow. The fact that ice caves 

 are unknown in regions where the ordinary 

 winter temperatures is not below freezing is 

 taken to prove that their true cause is the 

 most manifest one, and tliat the ice is not 

 due to reduction of temperature by evapora- 

 tion, and especially that it has nothing 

 whatever to do with a lingering of the 

 glacial period underground. Further de- 

 tails are promised in a later publication. 

 W. M. Davis. 

 Harvard University. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTEBOPOLOGY. 

 ETHNOGEAPHY OF MADAGASCAE. 



Two interesting articles on the above 

 subject may be compared, with special 

 reference to the ethnic position of the 

 Hovas. 



The one is by Mr. W. L. H. Duckworth 

 and appears in the Journal Anthropological In- 

 stitute, Februarj', 1897, on some skulls from 

 Madagascar in the Museum of Cambridge 

 TJniversitj'. His conclusion from his very 

 careful measurements is that the Hova 

 skull finds its counterpart in the Borneo, 

 therefore Malay type, while those from the 

 Betsileo and Betsimisaraka tribes have 

 marked African traits. 



This is in accordance with the general 

 opinion that the Hovas are of Malayan ori- 

 gin. Yet Professor Letourneau, in the Bul- 

 letin of the Paris Anthropological Society, 

 throws overboard all the evidence, linguis- 

 tic and ph3'sical, which attaches the Hovas 

 to the Malayan stock, and claims them as 

 purelj' African, along with the other na- 

 tives of the island. His arguments are too 

 hasty to carry conviction, and it cannot be 

 said that he has seriously shaken the pre- 

 vailing opinion. 



STUDIES IN MAYAN HIEEOGLY'PHS. 



Two short but valuable articles have re- 

 cently been published by Dr. Forstemann ; 

 the one, the sixth number of his series 

 ' Zur Entziiferung der Mayahandschriften;' 

 the other a paper in Globus, Bd. LXXI., 

 No. 5. The latter takes up eight glyphs, 

 and sets forth their relations in the Dresden 

 Codex, and suggests what they mean, or, 

 what they cannot mean, for the logical pro- 

 cess of exclusion is here of great use. 



In the former article he examines the 

 passage of the Dresden Codex which covers 

 the upper thirds of pages 31 and 32. There 

 is evidence, which he mentions, that to the 

 writer of the Codex this was an important 

 paragraph. It deals with large numbers, 

 and not with past or present, but future 

 time. It can, therefore, be nothing else 

 than a prophecy or forecast. What was 

 connected with such a calculation can now 

 be only surmised, as this portion of the 

 literature was transmitted orally. Inci- 

 dentally (p. 4) it is shown that the calcu- 

 lations of the Dresden Codex date from an 

 epoch anterior to those found on the latest 

 sculptures of Copan . 



PSYCHICS IN THE STUDY OP MAN. 



Nothing could be more proper than to 

 include in an anthropological library the 

 ' Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 

 Kesearch,' although it has a queer repute 

 for ghost hunting, etc. The address of its 

 President, William Crookes, F.E.S., is a 

 pamphlet well worth reading and thinking 

 about by the most physical anthropologist. 

 It is a study of the effects of environment 

 on man, considering how the world would 

 look to him if he was the size of a mite, or, 

 on the other hand, as tall as a tree ; how he 

 could be influenced by an increase or de- 

 crease in the power of gravity, and what 

 might happen to him if he could manage 

 to perceive the millions of vibrations which 



