Notes and Comments. 
267 
FURTHER PILTDOWN FINDS. 
We learn from The Antiquary that ‘ Among the Piltdown 
specimens exhibited by Mr. Charles Dawson at the Royal 
Society conversazione on June 16th was a large bone implement 
discovered on the previous Saturday in excavations by him and 
Dr. Smith Woodward of the British Museum. The implement 
is fashioned from a thigh-bone of a fossil elephant, and measures 
16 inches long by 4 inches wide and if inches thick, and is 
roughly trimmed at both ends. One end — presumably the 
“ Business end ” — is cut to a point like a stake ; the other end 
is roughly rounded for the hand. It is quite mineralized and 
stained with iron. It is the largest and probably the earliest 
bone implement yet discovered, and may be the work of the 
primitive human form called Eoanthropns dawsoni. Part of a 
tooth of an early rhinoceros has lately been discovered in the 
gravel. The excavators look forward to a promising season.’ 
THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION. 
The Forty-third Congress of the French Association for 
the Advancement of Science was held at Le Havre from July 
27th to August 2nd, and to this the members of the British 
Association not in Australia were invited, and a meeting of 
the delegates of the Corresponding Societies of the British 
Association was also held during the Congress. The President 
of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union was invited to be the guest 
of the Corporation of Havre, and with a few others was enter- 
tained at the Hotel Frascati. The French Association, however, 
enthusiastic though the members were, and of course, proverbi- 
ally polite and attentive, seems to fall a long way behind the 
British Association in its methods and arrangements. For 
one thing the attendance was comparatively poor, and the 
enormous number of sections into which the French Association 
is divided made many of the meetings appear to be sparsely 
represented. The excursions were very pleasant, but the 
declaration of war rather abruptly terminated the proceedings, 
and curtailed the long excursions, and the English delegates 
had to return home as quickly as possible, with varying excite- 
ments and experiences. The delegate of the Yorkshire Natural- 
ists’ Union shared these, but eventually reached home with his 
luggage, and a very little cash, which is more than some did. 
D YTISCUS MARGINALIS. 
In Knowledge for June is a very fully illustrated account 
of the Water Beetle ( Dytiscus marginalis) by W. H. S. Cheavin. 
The life history is described and structural details of both 
larva and adults are illustrated by a series of photo-micro- 
graphs. These depict the head and mouth-organs, tracheae 
and spiracles of the larva, and the main nerve ganglion, eye- 
1914 Sept. 1. 
