October 30, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



649 



tor of Music on Prof. E. A. MacDowell, of 

 Columbia University. The LL. D. was con- 

 ferred, in absentatia, on Lord Kelvin, pro- 

 fessor of natural philosophy in the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, Scotland, and Otto 

 Struve, formerly director of the observatory 

 of Pulkowa, Russia, and a congratulatory 

 cablegram from Lord Kelvin was read. 



In the evening a dinner was given to about 

 three hundred guests. There were eight 

 toasts : ' Theology,' responded to by G. P. 

 Fisher; 'Philosophy,' by Andrew Seth; 

 ' Jurisprudence,' by William B. Horn- 

 blower; ' Mathematics,' by F. Klein; ' The 

 Physical Sciences,' by Ira Remsen; 'The 

 !N"atural Sciences,' by A. A. W. Hubrecht; 

 ' History,' by Goldwin Smith, and ' Litera- 

 ture,' by Edward Dowden. 



The pagentry of the celebration was car- 

 ried out with unusual impressiveness. 

 There were processions, concerts and ath- 

 letic contests, taken part in by hundreds of 

 alumni, students and invited guests. Prince- 

 ton University may be congratulated on 

 the enthusiasm of its friends as well as on 

 the admirable arrangements which made 

 the celebration notable as an educational, 

 literary and scientific event. 



GUBBENl NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 THE BLACK RACE OF SUSA. 



One of the most interesting questions in 

 the ethnography of ancient Babylonia is the 

 presence there of a black race. They seem 

 to be referred to in various inscriptions of 

 the first and second millenium B. C. as 

 'black heads;' and some of the human 

 figures carved in relief are negroid, espe- 

 cially those from ancient Susiana. 



Many writers, as Conder, Schurtz and de 

 Quatrefages, have maintained that they 

 were the vestiges of a primitive black race 

 which in prehistoric times occupied most of 

 southern Asia. 



It has been generally stated that the only 



negroid people now west of the Indus are 

 the Brahus, in the Khanate of Celat, whose 

 language allies them to the Dravidas. Dr. 

 Danilofif, however, recently made a com- 

 munication to the Anthropological Society 

 of St. Petersburg on the ethnography of 

 Persia, in which he mentioned these ' Susi- 

 ans ' as still forming an independent group, 

 located among the mountains north of 

 Shiraz. Many of them seek employment at 

 a distance, and they are not rare in Teheran. 

 It would be most interesting to study them 

 carefully, and to obtain the relics of their 

 peculiar language, if it still exists. 



THE EARLIEST RELICS OP MAN IN FRANCE. 



The ' Revue Mensuelle ' of the Paris 

 School of Anthropology for September con- 

 tains a careful article by M. d'Ault du 

 Mesnil on the palaeolithic deposits of Abbe- 

 ville. It is the most exact stratigraphic 

 and palseontologic examination of this cele- 

 brated site which has yet appeared, and is 

 the result of several years close study of 

 the excavations. 



There can be no doubt but that the oldest 

 and rudest forms of implements date back 

 to a period when the Elephas antiquus and 

 Elephas meridionalis were abundant in that 

 area. The artificially chipped stones from 

 that ancient layer are large, almond-shaped, 

 and often dressed on one side only. As 

 the deposit is traced upward, the improve- 

 ment in the artefacts is apparent and their 

 number increases. The primitive forms 

 continue to be present, that is, the tribes 

 did not abandon the older models, but at 

 each epoch new and higher forms and more 

 careful technique appear. The relative age 

 of these deposits can be fixed by the abun- 

 dant remains of the fauna associated with 

 them. 



Whatever doubt may have persisted in 

 the minds of some about the Abbeville 

 relics must disappear after a close reading 

 of this article. 



