428 



SCIEN'CE. 



LVOL. IX , No. 222 



province of Namur. The remains have been ex- 

 amined by Professor Fraipont, who discusses the 

 subject in the Bulletin of the Royal Belgian 

 academy. As we have not seen a full account of 

 the finding of the remains, we confine ourselves 

 to giving the report in Nature by A. H. Keane, 

 who says that they were found in undisturbed 

 strata, together with remains of Rhinoceros ticho- 

 rhinus, Elephas primigenius, Ursus spelaeus, Hy- 

 aena spelaea, Felis spelaea, the horse, wolf, sheep, 

 and other now extinct and surviving pleistocene 

 animals. This fauna, and the character of the 

 coarse flints occurring in the same strata, would 

 seem to indicate that these men must have lived 

 during the early period of the mammoth, and 

 long before the beginning of the reindeer age. 



numerous stone implements have been found in 

 deposits of that period. The discovery of human 

 skeletons belonging to this age 'would be a very 

 important addition to our knowledge. 



"M. Fraipont's study of these remains," says 

 Nature, "makes it thus abundantly evident that 

 they belong to the Neanderthal type. The two 

 skulls even serve as a sort of missing link between 

 the Neanderthal and the others usually referred to 

 the same race. This race, whose presence in Eu- 

 rope during the early mammoth age has now been 

 clearly traced from Staengenaes in Scandinavia 

 to 01 mo in Italy, seems in a way to have been 

 resuscitated by the fortunate discovery in the 

 limestone cave on the banks of the Orneau. Their 

 dry bones again assume flesh and blood, and sci- 

 ence is enabled confidently to describe the men of 

 Spy as a short but far from ' feeble folk,' thick- 

 set, robust, walking knees foremost, and with a 

 figure somewhat analogous to that of the modern 

 Lapps. Their broad shoulders supported a long, 

 narrow, and depressed head (different, therefore, 

 from that of the true Papuan, which is long, nar- 

 row, and high), with very prominent superciliary 

 arches, enormous orbits, low and retreating brow, 

 high and massive cheek-bones, and recedin g chin." 



It will be remembered that B. Dawkins's critical 

 researches on human remains of the lower quater- 

 nary resulted in the discovery of the fact that 

 their exact age cannot be proved, and that they 

 are probably of far younger origin. Besides this, 

 we call to mind Virchow's researches on the famous 

 Neanderthal man, whom he found to have been 

 very old and crippled, probably unable to support 

 himself, and therefore not a type of his race. For 

 these reasons we defer a fuller report until the 

 facts shall be better known. The existence of man 

 in the lower quaternary cannot be doubted, as 



The re-issuing of the famous ' Vestiges of the 

 natural history of creation ' in Mr. Morley's uni- 

 versal library, makes one realize the enormous 

 step that modern biology has taken. This work, 

 it is hardly necessary to say, was published anony- 

 mously, but the authorship was afterwards ac- 

 knowledged by Robert Chambers. It is a popular 

 statement of evolution fifteen years before the 

 ' Origin of species,' and is sometimes spoken of as 

 a very remarkable anticipation of Darwinism. 

 But it failed to show any proof of a motive power, 

 and does little to lessen the originality of Dar- 

 win's work. Chambers is very deeply concerned 

 in showing that his views are not opposed to re- 

 ligion, and devotes much space in this cause. Yet 

 this book was received with a storm of denuncia- 

 tion which it is difficult now to appreciate. This 

 the author bore very philosophically ; for, as he 

 explained, his design in not putting his name to 

 the book was " not only to be personally removed 

 from all praise or censure which it might evoke, 

 but to write no more on the subject." 



The latest copy of the 'Pilot chart,' a month- 

 ly publication for the guidance of mariners, shows 

 that there are to-day eleven dangerous wrecks 

 right in the path of vessels in the coasting trade 

 along the eastern coast of the United States. In 

 any other country on the civilized globe a man-of- 

 war or a government vessel of some description 

 would have been despatched to destroy these 

 wrecks as soon as reported. There is nothing, 

 not even an iceberg, more dangerous to naviga- 

 tion than a water-logged ' derelict.' Yet up to 

 the present time there is no one in the United 

 States with the necessary autliority to order a 

 vessel out to remove these dangers from the path- 

 way of our merchant marine. Time after time 

 the attention of congress has been called to this 

 subject, and the officers in charge of the ' Pilot 

 chart ' have repeatedly urged that a small appro- 

 priation be made to enable the navy to maintain 

 a small ship for the purpose of removing floating 

 dangers as soon as they are reported. But there 

 is no one so directly interested as to spend time 

 and money in hanging about the doors of congress 

 to see that this recommendation is considered. In 



