Jan. 6, iSSS.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEVV^S. 



17 



apparently strangle it. Either, therefore, the master 

 and crew of the Pauline really saw some huge serpent, 

 or they gratuitously perjured themselves by making 

 affidavit before the stipendiary, that they had witnessed 

 such an encounter. There is here no room for mistake. 

 We have merely the choice between fact or perjury. 



Edinburgh Geological Society. — The Transactions of 

 this Society (Vol. V., Part III.), recently issued, are 

 replete with important matter. The first paper, by 

 Ralph Richardson, F.R.S.E., discusses the antiquity of 

 man, and the discovery of fossil mammalia in Devon- 

 shire and in Scotland. In the celebrated Kent's cavern 

 indications of man have been found, not merely below 

 a bed of stalagmite, f.ve feet in thickness, every inch 

 of which would, it is estimated, require about a thousand 



been discovered at Ambigland in Kirkcudbrightshire, on 

 the north side of the Sol way Frith. By way of showing 

 the structure of these beings we borrow the figures of 

 Lithostroiion basaltiforme (Fig. i), Lithostrotion Dicki 

 (Fig. 2), Lithostrotion Portlocki (Fig. 3), and Litho- 

 strotion clisiodes (Fig. 4), all in transverse section. 

 How different must have been the climate of Scotland 

 when corals could fringe its shores ! 



" The Lake Age in Ohio," by Prof. E. W. Claypole, 

 B.Sc. (Lond.), is a most interesting study of the pheno- 

 mena due to the Ice Age. 



" Button's Views of the Vegetable Soil or Mould, and 

 Vegetable and Animal Life," by James Melvin, 

 will be to many persons a startling revelation. From 

 a MS. work on agriculture, which has fortunately fallen 

 into the hands of Mr. Melvin, it is plain that Hutton made 









Fig. I. — Lithostrotion basaltiforme. 



Fig. 2. — Lithostroiion Dicki 

 Fig. 4. — Lithostrotion clisiodes. 



Fig. 3. — Lithstrotion Portlocki. 



years to form, but in a black band below this sta- 

 lagmite and in breccia still lower down. Mr. Pengelly 

 thinks that the superficial black mould takes us back at 

 least 2,000 years. Older than it was the granular stalag- 

 mite, and older again was the black band. But a still 

 more ancient race of men lived in the days of the 

 breccia, which is divided from the black band by the cave 

 earth and the crystalline stalagmite. But whether this 

 evidence pushes back the existence of man 60,000 years 

 or 300,000 is by no means proven. Mr. Richardson, in 

 summing up, declares that we cannot tell what primeval 

 man was in Scotland by an examination merely of his 

 implements and weapons and sepulchral remains. . . . 

 The intellectual qualities of primeval man must remain, 

 like the date of his existence, an insoluble problem. 



Mr. James Thomson, F.G.S., describes the corals of 

 the carboniferous system belonging to the genus Litho- 

 strotion. Many interesting species of this group have 



important observations as to the origin and formation of 

 the vegetable soil, and the laws which regulate the pro- 

 duction of vegetable and animal life on the earth. 

 He writes : — " It is to me a rational conjecture that a 

 number of plants and animals were originally 

 created and endowed with proper powers of generation, 

 and from these all the plants and animals existing in the 

 world are created." This language is not free from 

 ambiguity. But whoever carefully examines the views of 

 Hutton as here laid down will be inclined to award him 

 no mean rank among the early advocates of Evolution. To 

 this subject we shall endeavour by opportunity to return. 



To Prevent Rust.— Melt together three parts of lard 

 and one part resin in the powder. A very thin coating, 

 applied with a brush, will preserve stoves and grates from 

 rusting during summer, even in damp situations. For this 

 purpose, a portion of blacklead may be mixed with the lard. 



