544 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OE SCIENCE. 



tral analyses have, within certain limits, confirmed these hypothetical views. 

 Following the observations of M. Schiaparelli, the surface of Mars has become 

 much modified since three years. Large shady spaces had hitherto been observ- 

 ed, and concluded to be oceans ; now dark surfaces have become bright, and 

 vice versa. These differences in light and shade may imply modifications in the 

 distribution of waters, or variations in vegetation. Stranger still, a number of 

 dark lines traverse the continent of Mars, and connect two distant dark spots. 

 From the mathematical arrangement of the dark lines, imagination conceives them 

 to be canals uniting oceans ; but what is puzzling, these lines at certain epochs be- 

 come double, in the sense of becoming parallel. There are these second canals, 

 alongside one another, that makes us doubt what uses the engineers in Mars can 

 destine them for. More likely the phenomena are due to the geographical con- 

 struction of the planet — the effect of the shadows of ravines. 



Messrs. Chatriau & Jacobs have made the owners of diamonds tranquil; 

 white diamonds sell at about 30,000 f. per ounce; if yellow, at eight times less. 

 A diamond merchant having purchased a white diamond, was surprised on wash- 

 ing his hands in soap-water to find the stone in his ring turn yellow. This, as M. 

 Chevreiul shows, was due to "complementary,'' or associated colors, by which 

 union a diffent shade is produced. But the new color is ephemeral — a little rub- 

 bing will restore the pristine hue. White diamonds will ever retain their purity, 

 but as yellow can also be made temporarily white, caution is necessary in pur- 

 chasing, F. C. 



PHILOSOPHY. 



OUR ORIGIN AS A SPECIES. 



RICHARD OWEN, C.B., F.R.S. 



There seems to be a manifest desire in some quarters to anticipate the looked 

 for and, by some, hoped-for proofs of our descent, or rather ascent, from the a]ie. 



In the September issue of the Fortnightly Review a writer cites, in this rela- 

 tion, the " Neanderthal skull, which possesses large bosses on the forehead, strik- 

 ingly suggestive of those which give the gorilla its peculiarly fierce appearance ; " 

 and he proceeds: " No other human skull presents so utterly bestial a type as 

 the Neanderthal fragment. If one cuts a female gorilla-skuli in the same fashion, 

 the resemblance is truly astonishing, and we may say that the only human feat- 

 ure in the skull is its size."^ 



In testing the question as between Linnaeus and Cuvier of the zoological 



1. Grant Allen, '' On Primitive Man, " p. 314. 



