SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



D/ 



Neolithic Hut-Circles near Hayes and 

 Keston. For tlif lasl twelve years Mr. George 

 Clinch, F.G-.S., has been engaged in bracing re- 

 mains of Neolithic man in the neighbourhood of 

 Hayes, West Wickham,and the Shirley Hills, mi 

 the borders of Ninth Ken1 and Surrey. The results 

 obtained have now been printed in the Journal of 

 the Anthropological Institute. In the course of 

 his investigations he caused to be excavated over 

 L50 Neolithic hut-circles, principally near Hayes 

 and Keston, with the result that some hundreds of 

 implements of eighteen different types have been 

 discovered. Wesl Wickham has alone yielded 

 926 flakes, 141 scrapers, with saws, arrow-heads, 

 spear-heads, etc. At Millfield, Keston, Mr. Clinch 

 found, besides til ordinary Hakes, loo Hakes from 

 which the pointed ends had been broken, this 

 place having possibly been a factory for arrow- 

 tips or sickle-teeth. The numerous hut-circles 

 examined all show a similarity in method of con- 

 struction. A ground-space was excavated from 

 5 m. to 10 m. in diameter, circular in form, and 

 about 1 m. in greatest depth. The removed earth 

 may then have been carefully arranged as a con- 

 tinuous mound around the pit, and in this mound" 

 a number of long branches of trees were probably 

 planted, the ends of which met over the middle of 

 the hut. A roof consisting of a thatch of heath or 

 reeds completed the means of protection from the 

 external elements, whilst the encircling mound 

 would help to throw off superfluous rainfall, and 

 afford some degree of warmth and shelter. In 

 some of the larger huts there was a raised mound 

 in the centre, on the sides of which the inhabitants 

 may have reclined when rest was required. Some- 

 times, however, tha mound seems to have been 

 placed in the hut in order to support or steady the 

 lower end of the trunk of a tree upon which the 

 rafters of the roof rested. Owing to the highly 

 inflammable character of the structure it would not 

 have been safe to have a fire within the hut during 

 very dry or windy weather ; the cooking fire, there- 

 fore, would be made at a short distance from the 

 dwelling. The smaller depressions, from 1*25 m. 

 to 3 m. in diameter, have already been identified as 

 the hearths. Within the Surrey border Mr. Clinch 

 turned his attention to Croham Hurst, and he con- 

 siders that he has there discovered good evidence 

 of Neolithic times in similar circular mounds, 

 associated flakes and chips of flint, and the form of 

 the interior depressions. 



A Carboniferous Crustacean.— I have lately 

 found a well-preserved fossil, the abdomen of a 

 crustacean, in the Middle Coal Measures at Poynton, 

 Cheshire. I sent it to the South Kensington 

 Natural History Museum, where Dr. Woodward 

 was kind enough to identify it for me. It was 

 described by him in the " Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." 

 vol. xxxv., 1879 (p. 551, pi. xxvi.) and was named 

 XcrroKciUn wihoiu H. Woodward. — ,/. McDonald, 

 2 Co-operative Street, Hazel Shove, Stocluport ; 

 July tth, 1900. 



Evolution of Geology. — In his presidential 

 address before the Geological Section of the British 

 Association at Bradford, Professor W. J. Sollas, 

 D.Sc, LL.D., F.K.S., took Evolutional Geology as 

 his text. Commencing at the very beginnings of 

 this earth, he invited the physicists to more fre- 

 quently come to the aid of the geologists, and 

 pointed out that when they were studying even the 

 earliest conditions of our planet they were, in fact, 

 geologists. 



m p 



» rf Q«.n 



CHEMISTRY 



CONDUCTED I'.V HAROLD M. READ, I '.( - 



Practical Inorganic Chemistry. — "The 



Modi in System of teaching Practical Inorganic 

 Chemistry and its Development " was the subject 

 selected by Professor W. H. Perkin, .inn., for the 

 presidential address to the Chemistrj Section at 

 the recent British Association meeting al Bradford. 

 The president took as his keynote the question as to 

 whether the modern method of teaching chemistry 

 had kept pace with the enormous strides made in 

 science during recent years. He questioned whether 

 the introduction of chemistry into the syllabus of 

 so many schools had so far resulted in the making 

 of a student capable of grasping the underlying 

 principles, or of showing that originality of thought, 

 the absence of which is fatal to the final success 

 of everyone. So much of the present-day teaching 

 consists of filling a student's mind with bare facts, 

 to be utilised in the examination-room, that the 

 time for laboratory work and the possibilities of 

 sound deductions are reduced to a minimum. The 

 student may, during the later part of his training, 

 acquire a sound knowledge of his subject, but he 

 has been so handicapped previously that he has 

 not the time to make use of the opportunities 

 which come too late. The result is that, though 

 the student may acquit himself to the satisfaction 

 both of his teacher and of himself, yet when he 

 attempts to venture beyond the cut-and-dried facts 

 with which his knowledge has been "bolstered 

 up" he is helpless. Xo doubt originality of 

 thought is not bestowed with any too lavish a 

 hand ; but none the less, a methodical laboratory 

 training, supplemented by the text-book and 

 fostered by the teacher, would help to make up 

 that which Nature has omitted. In endeavouring 

 to cover the examination held a fearful amount 

 of valuable time is wasted, and therefor, 

 specialisation is inevitable, owing to the vastness 

 of the general subject, Professor Perkin would have 

 it begun as soon as the broad facts of the science 

 have been assimilated. He suggests that the 

 written examination should be curtailed, while 

 more time is given to practical work, so that tin- 

 latter may be made profitable, instead of being 

 wasted, as it now is, to a great extent. The ad- 

 vantages of making students take the attitude of 

 discoverers are so manifest, and the results already 

 obtained by the substitution of this new method 

 for the old system of qualitative analysis are 

 striking, that we look to the address of Professor 

 Perkin to mark the new era. the commencement 

 of which has been so long delayed. We are 

 pleased that our remarks of last month about the 

 disgraceful system of "spotting" salts should 

 have been so borne out by Prof essor Perkin's •■ 

 mentson present-day teaching. We cannot deny 

 the dangers inherent to any drastic change in a 

 system which has so long held sway, but no one w ill 

 doubt its advisabilitv. 



