APRIL 11, 1884.] 
pounds. Three prizes, of one hundred and fifty 
pounds each, are to be given, either separately or to 
the writer of the larger essay, for the best treatment 
of the engineering, the architectural, and the sanitary 
considerations involved in the scheme. Mr. West- 
garth’s views as regards the prizes, and his hopes as 
to the value of the essays, may be fairly understood 
from a paper read by him at the Society of arts on 
Feb. 6, which embodied his own ideas on the ques- 
tion. The prize will be adjudged on Dee. 31, 1884. 
— The researches of Dr. Angus Smith, one of the 
English inspectors under the Rivers pollution preven- 
tion act, have led him to the discovery that in all 
natural waters sugar ferments, and hydrogen gas is 
given off. The proportion of hydrogen given off 
varies with the organic impurity of the water, from 
the mountain stream to the worst sewage, so that the 
proportion of hydrogen evolved appears likely to 
prove a quantitative test of the activity or virulence 
of the microbes present in the water. Dr. Angus 
Smith’s researches will probably be embodied in his 
next report. The importance of his discovery will 
be plain to every one familiar with recent micro-bio- 
logical research, and suggests a test of the miasmatic 
condition of particular soils, and, of course, localities. 
—A new French work by Dr. Bordier of the 
Paris School of anthropology, called ‘ Géographie 
médicale,’ gives an account of the geographical distri- 
bution of diseases, including a mass of information 
bearing on the relations between particular maladies, 
and climate, topography, and even race. 
— We learn from the Observatory (March), that, in 
consequence of M. Houzeau’s resignation of the di- 
rectorship of the Royal observatory at Brussels, a 
committee, consisting of MM. Liagre, Mailly, and 
Stas, has been appointed to preside over that insti- 
tution, and the following appointments have been 
made: M. Niesten has been appointed chief of the 
department of mathematical astronomy; M. C. Fievez 
is temporarily intrusted with the direction of the 
physical department, and, with M. Lagrange, has 
been promoted from the rank of assistant to that of 
astronomer; and M. Vincent has been promoted to 
the rank of meteorologist. Vol. iv. of the new 
series of annals has just been published, and contains, 
in addition to the meridian observations for 1879-81, 
drawings of the moon, observations of Jupiter’s satel- 
lites, physical observations of Jupiter and of comets 
(6) and (c) 1881, and a study of the solar spectrum. 
— The hydraulic method of mining has lately been 
used to remove some bluffs at the opening of the 
Dutch Gap canal. There had been trouble from cav- 
ing in, obstructing the entrance. At the suggestion 
of Mr. C. P. E. Burgwyn, a powerful stream of water 
was directed against the banks, while a strong enough 
current was running to carry off the material as it fell, 
with a result highly satisfactory, as reported. 
— It is said that a recent cold blizzard in southern 
Oregon killed thousands of robins and blue-jays, 
which usually winter in this latitude with safety. 
The birds have had no such experience since 1862. 
SCIENCE. 
465 
— The bulletins of the Paris society of anthropology 
are always especially full on the subject of anatomy 
in its bearings on the natural history of man. Part 
ili. of vol. xvi. contains some very interesting papers 
of this description. M. C. Ikow, in discussing the 
color of the skin, eyes, and hair, says that a sufficient 
number of individuals in most ethnic groups will dis- 
play a regular gamut of shades. Our knowledge of 
pigment itself is very imperfect. We do not know 
whether there is one pigment or whether there are 
several. It would be very useful to anthropology to 
know the chemistry of these pigments, the conditions 
of their occurrence, the influence of external and inter- 
nal circumstances in modifying them. Domestication 
in animals produces great variability. It is therefore 
allowable to suppose that the endless variety in the 
environment of man occasioned by his occupying 
nearly all the earth, the endless variety of functional 
activities occasioned by the great range of food, etc., 
act similarly to domestication in animals. It may not 
be the sun immediately that turns the negro’s skin 
black, and the Russian’s hair white; but, mediately, 
the myriad physical movements consequent upon the 
sun’s action act together to bring about the changes 
under discussion. Heredity must not be overlooked 
among the conservative powers. Mr. Ikow considers 
that there are fundamental eye-colors, just as there 
are fundamental race-forms. In opposition to Bro- 
ca’s brown, green, blue, and gray fundamental shades, 
he maintains that gray and blue eyes have no pigment 
whatever, their color being due to the structure of the 
iris. He further claims that Broca’s colors correspond 
to no natural groups of humanity. The classifications 
of colors in the eyes, hair, and skin, are given in tabu- 
lar form. 
The most elaborate paper in the number is by Dr. 
Réné Collignon (pp. 463-526), upon the anthropomet- 
ric elements of the principal races in France. It is 
well known that an effort is now making to replace 
the slow and unsatisfactory measurement of skele- 
tons, of whose racial identity there must always be 
some doubt, with the much more convenient examina- 
tion of the living. The Paris school of anthropology 
has two sets of observations, called the full and the 
abridged scheme; and the latter of these has been 
taken on a hundred Celts, a hundred Cymrians, 
fifty Lorrains, and thirty Mediterraneans (Catalans). 
These two hundred and eighty individuals are com- 
pared in every way which Collignon’s genius could 
devise to give a scientific result. The variations im- 
putable to height are the following: when the height 
increases, it is due to the augmentation of the length 
of the legs; all other parts diminish proportionally. 
So that the people are not far from wrong when they 
say of a tall man, ‘He is all legs.” The only part of 
the body (except the special measures of the head and 
face) sensibly affected in its proportions by race is the 
trunk: it is long in the Catalans, short in the Celts, 
medium in the Cymri. 
— The council of the Academy of natural sciences 
of Philadelphia announces that Prof. H. Carvill 
Lewis will deliver a course of twenty lectures upon 
the geology and mineralogy of eastern Pennsylvania, 
