289 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



MANCHESTER MUSEUM. 



In the ' Report of the Manchester Museum, Owens Colleg-e,' 

 just to hand, we are surprised to find the following- : — In 

 presenting- this annual report it has been usual to defer the 

 consideration of finance to the end, but the present position of 

 the Museum in this respect demands that attention be called to 

 the matter at the outset. . . . The present financial posi- 

 tion of the Museum is exceedingly unsatisfactory. The year 

 opened with an adverse balance of over ;^75, which has 

 increased to nearly ;^200, and this in spite of strict economy 

 and the postponement of many purchases which are necessary, 

 if progress is to be made. . . . Attention has year by year 

 been called to the inadequacy of the income.' The excellent 

 work being- accomplished by Dr. Hoyle and his staff is well 

 known, and it is a matter for surprise that in a city like Man- 

 chester a Museum should be crippled for the sake of a small 

 increase in its income. It is sincerely to be hoped that the 

 public of Manchester — either collectively or individually— will 

 respond to the appeal made in the report referred to, and thus 

 enable the Manchester Museum to maintain its present position 

 amongst the Museums of Britain. 



MACHINE-MADE EOLITHS. 



From a note appearing- in 'Man' for August, it would almost 

 appear that at least one type of pre-historic implement, the 

 'eolith,' is in danger of being put aside as evidence of human 

 handiwork, as a result of some machine-made examples reported 

 from Mantes. ' By its natural constitution the local [Mantes] 

 chalk contains numerous unbroken flint nodules, which have to 

 be removed before it can be used for cement. In order to effect 

 this separation the blocks of chalk are placed in a receiver full 

 of water, to which a rotary motion is communicated. After 

 29 hours the chalk is completely refined, and the flint is left 

 deposited on the bottom of the vessel like a bank of gravel. 

 But during the operation of this artificial whirlpool the nodules 

 have been rolled one over the other and exposed to every con- 

 ceivable kind of pressure and shock. At the conclusion of this 

 process . . . the great majority presented examples of all the 

 eolithic forms. The similarity of the specimens to the prevalent 

 eolithic types was so close that they could not possibly have 



1905 October 2. T 



