286 



SCIENCE. 



October 23, and was examined, with the following 

 interesting results : 



ANALYSIS. 

 Temperature. . . . = 58 F. 

 Specific Gravity, = 1. 006819. 



GRAINS PER 

 SOLIDS. GALLON. 



Sodic Carbonate, 4.160 



Calcic Carbonate 23.616 



Magnesic Carbonate .569 



Ferrous Carb nate 081 



Sodic Chlotlde 27.312 



Sodic Sulphate 4-844 



Potassic Sulphnte 9-73Q 



Calcic Sulphate 67.231 



Baric Sulphate trace. 



Magnesic Sulphate 264.505 



Aluminic Oxide .034 



Ammonia trai e. 



Silicic Oxide 038 



Organic Matter? 1 178 



403 298 



CUBIC INCHES 

 GASES. PER GALLON. 



Carbonic Anhydride 23.178 



Nitrogen 4 .330 



Oxygen 1.493 



Hydrogen Sulphide trace. 



29.C01 



Not enough thus far is known of the water to 

 enable me to present any reliable data concerning 

 its therapeutic value ; but physicians here and else- 

 where, who have tried it, pronounce it an exceed- 

 ingly valuable water. 



Missouri School of Mines, 



Rolla, November 26, 1880. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The Anthropological Society, of Washington, met on 

 Tuesday evening, December 7, in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, Professor Otis T. Mason in the chair. The fol- 

 lowing papers were announced : " Superstitions," by Mr. 

 A. S. Gatschet, and " Savage and Civilized Orthoepy," 

 by Professor Lester F. Ward. Mr. Gatschet, after giv- 

 ing the definitions of different authors and finding them 

 too narrow, ascribed to superstition the following mean- 

 ing: A belief in a physical power operating either within 

 or without us, acting miraculously to affect our bodies or 

 our minds, and which can be influenced to grant our re- 

 quests. The word is derived from super stare, to sur- 

 vive. There are two kinds of superstition, the religious, 

 relating to the world of spirits, and that of the physical 

 nature, relating to all the phenomena of sense. It is hard 

 to draw the line where religion ends and superstition be- 

 gins, but the latter most generally represents the forces 

 of nature as deified or anthropomorphic. The existence 

 of superstition is manifested in names of gods, those of 

 the American gods representing the sun, moon, and 

 forces of nature. 



Symbolism plays an important part in this connection, 

 as well as the cultus of dreams, augurytaboo, omens and 

 prognostics ; such as cheiromancy and fortune-telling, 

 hunting and fishing signs, witchcraft, medical jetishes, 

 meteoric showers, comets, amulitism, etc. 



The causes of superstition are mental inertia and ignor- 

 of the real causes of things, coupled with the insa- 

 tiable desire to account for phenomena. Isolation is 

 also a very fruitful source of tins; beliefs. They are 

 valuable to us only when we can trace their origin ; then 

 they lead to a knowledge of savage psychology, and are 

 oi very great use. The author 01 the paper illusti 

 the various points taken up by many myths and super- 

 stitions from our Indians and other SOUH es. 



Mr. Gatschet, having spent several years in personal 

 ct with the aboriginal mind, is va n\ i" 



form an opinion as to the rationale of our Indian super- 

 stitions. 



Dr. Morgan took the ground that superstition is natu- 

 ral to our race, having found in his practice that few of 

 his patients were free from it. 



Mr. Mason drew attention to the worthlessness of 

 these innumerable stories unless they are brought to- 

 gether in classes, so that out of them some clue may be 

 found to their origin. Every intelligent mortal passes 

 his life between two worlds, the known and the unknown. 

 Between these two is a border land, where superstition 

 dwells. Its inhabitants are different for different individ- 

 uals or tribes, and vary with our growing years. For 

 Mr. Haeckel it is peopled with atom-souls, and, for the 

 savage, with the concrete souls of things. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



THE MAN OF THE CAVES. 



By Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., Owens College, 

 England.* 



The questions which we have to put to ourselves are 

 these : At what time in the geological history of the earth 

 did man appear? and what manner of man was he? The 

 answers to these questions are to be found in the recent 

 discoveries, in the deposits of ancient rivers, and in the ac- 

 cumulations in caverns, which have been explored in the 

 Old World during the last 60 years. Inquiry into the anti- 

 quity of man talis within well defined limits in point of time. 

 Since there were no living species of the higher mammalia 

 in the earlier stages of the tertiary period, the Eocene and 

 the Miocene, it is hopeless to look for a highly specialized 

 being such as man, nor in the succeeding Pliocene is it 

 likely that he will be discovered, since but very few of the 

 living, higher mammalian forms were then on the earth. 

 When we examine the next stage, or Pleistocene, a period 

 characterized by the presence of numerous living mamma- 

 lia in both the New and Old Worlds, the field is fairly 

 opened before us for our inquiry. The conditions of life at 

 that time were precisely those in which man would be ex- 

 pected to exist, and it will be my object to put before you 

 the evidence as to the earliest man of which we have any 

 certain knowledge. 



In the Pleistocene period the physical conditions of Eu- 

 rope were wholly unlike those which it now presents. The 

 sea-board of the Atlantic reached to the 100-fathom line, or 

 100 miles to the west of the coast of Ireland. The British 

 Isles formed a part of the Continent of Europe, and the 

 area of the North Sea formed a shallow valley, abounding 

 in mammalia of various kinds. The Mediterranean Sea 

 also was much smaller than it is now, aland barrier extend- 

 ing North into Spain by the way of Gibraltar, and another 

 passing in the direction of Malta, Sicily, and Italy, while 

 what is now the bed of the Adriatic Sea was dry land, and 

 most of the islands in the ^Egean Sea were the tops of 

 ranges of hills overlooking rich and fertile valleys. The 

 living mammals appearing on this tract of land consisted 

 of Southern species — the hippopotamus, spotted hyena and 

 others — which ranged as far north as Yorkshire. 



A second division is composed of the Northern animals, 

 such as the reindeer, the musk sheep, and the like, which 

 ranged as far to the South as the Alps and the Pyrenees, 

 while yet a third division, such as the stag, bison, and horse, 

 ranged over nearly the whole of Middle and Southern Eu- 

 rope. The remains of these animals, lying side by side 

 >vith extinct species, such as the mammoth and the woolly 

 rhinoceros, characterise the Pleistocene deposits of Europe. 

 There were great climatal changes in Europe during the 

 Pleistocene age. The temperature gradually lowered, and 

 in the North huge masses of ice spread over certain regions. 

 When the temperature was lowest the Northern animals ad- 

 vanced furthest to the South, and when the temperature was 

 warmest the Southern animals advanced furthest to the 

 North, and from the intimate association of their remains 

 in ancient rtvei deposits and in caves may be inferred that 

 the Winters wen very cold and the Summers very warm 



* Lei in-. .1. Iivered before tl»' Vcademy, December 6, \i 



