434 
Correspondence. 
[July, 
THE STUDY OF PRB-HISTORIC MAN, 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
Sir, — The law of England is fruitful in ways and means for the 
discouragement of scientific research. With the Anti-Vivisedlion 
Adt we are all only too well acquainted : the dangers of conducing 
a post mortem examination without a consent which it is not easy 
to obtain from the ignorant have been recently brought under 
public notice, and now there appears a third difficulty which is 
strongly felt by ethnologists and palaeontologists. If any human 
— or I suppose anthropoid — remains are found in the earth, no 
matter of what apparent age, even if they should be fossilised, 
the law requires that a coroner’s inquest should be held upon 
them, and that they should then receive “ Christian burial.” In 
this manner evidence of priceless value concerning the pre- 
historic inhabitants of these islands may be withdrawn entirely 
from scientific examination. If I am not very much mistaken 
some skulls (if not entire skeletons) in France have been lost. 
The local Maire — who, sad to say, was a medical man — ordered 
their re-interment in consecrated ground, and when at last the 
higher authorities consented to their transfer to a museum it was 
discovered, or at least alleged, that the place where they had 
been deposited was forgotten ; and thus the specimens have 
been lost. Surely some alteration of the law is here needful, 
though it will doubtless be obstinately resisted by the “ Anti ” 
party. — I am, &c., 
Archeologist. 
THE PROPAGATION OF SPLENIC FEVER. 
To the Editor of The Journal of Science. 
Sir, — Certain fadts connected with the propagation of “charbon,” 
as it is called in France, seem to have not merely a profound 
scientific interest, but throw a strong light upon one of the 
burning questions of the day. The temperature most favourable 
to the development of this disease is that of mammalian blood, 
say from 98° to ioo° F. Birds, and especially the common fowl, 
whose blood has a temperature of 107° F., do not contradl the 
disease under ordinary conditions. But M. Pasteur has shown 
