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TUESDAY, April 6,

7 p.m. Sculptors of England.

8 p.m. Civil Engineers. Pathological.

99

WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1 p.m.

3 p.m.

8 p.m. THURSDAY, April 8, 3 p.m.

Smith on "An ancient Assyrian Sword bearing a Cuneiform Inscription;" the Rev. A. H.

in one of the Assyrian Astrological Tablets;" M. D. Pierides on "A Digraphic Inscription in Greek and Cypriote found at Larnaca;" M. E. Lefébure on "The Four Races in the Egyptian Representations of tae Last Judgment." Zoological. Horticultural.

Dr. Bülow's Recital (Chopin), St. James's Hall.

Microscopical. Society of Arts. Royal Institution: Professor

of Flying Animals."

7 p.m. London Institution: Dr. Freeman on "The History and Use of the English Language." 11.

8 p.m. Mathematical. Inventors' Institute.

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8.30 p.m.

FRIDAY, April 9,

7 p.m.

7.30 p.m.

:

Historical.

Royal. Antiquaries. Literary and Artistic.

Anthropological.

Sacred Harmonic Society, Exeter
Hall (Israel in Egypt).

8 p.m. New Shakspere Society:

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Mr.

rected Edition of Richard III." Astronomical. Quekett Club. 9 p.m. Royal Institution: Sir William Thomson on "Tides."

SCIENCE.

bonate of calcium, it is true, is but very
8.30 p.m. Biblical Archaeology: Mr. George slightly soluble in pure water, but pure
water is utterly unknown in the economy of
nature. Rain-water in its mere passage
Sayce on "An obscure Passage through the atmosphere dissolves more or
less of the carbonic acid present in the air,
while the water which flows over the sur-
face of the ground readily takes up still
more of this gas, evolved as it is from
all decaying organic matter as one of the
final products of its decomposition. Such
water, finding its way into the cracks and
crannies which abound in every limestone
Seeley on "The Fossil Forms rock, dissolves the carbonate of calcium to
a very appreciable extent, thus widening the
channels through which it flows, and eating
out for itself new passages along any lines
of weakness. The limestone, however, is
not only eroded by these acid-laden waters,
but is further fretted away by the grinding
and scouring action of the silt and pebbles
carried along by the flowing stream. Thus,
James Spedding on The Cor- partly by chemical and partly by mechanical
action, there are gradually formed those
irregular cavities which often open into
subterranean vaults of considerable extent.
But while the action of running water on
a limestone rock is thus destructive in
one sense, it is constructive in another.
The water having once dissolved the carbo-
nate of calcium, and consequently become,
as we commonly call it, "hard," may readily
yield up the carbonic acid which retains
it in solution, and thus precipitate the
calcareous matter in a solid form. It is in
this way that the walls, the roof, the floor
of a limestone-cavern may become decorated
with those whimsically-shaped masses of
stalactite and stalagmite which give so
marked a character to cavern scenery. If
the deposits be thrown down on the walls
of a fissure or of an expanded cavity, they
will tend to choke up the hollow, and thus
produce a solid mass of mineral matter; for
this kind of action Professor Dawkins sug-
gests the term incretionary as opposed to con-
cretionary. It is clearly desirable to establish
a distinction in describing these two oppo-
site modes of growth; and we would sug-
gest that this may readily be done by bor-
rowing from the botanist the well-known
terms "endogenous" and "exogenous." An
endogenous mineral deposit would there-
fore be one in which the several layers
are thrown down in succession as so many
linings on the inner walls of a cavity; the
growth thus proceeds towards the interior,
or centripetally, and the innermost deposit
must needs be the most recent. On the
other hand, in an exogenous mineral deposit
the growth proceeds from within outwards;
the direction is centrifugal, and the inner-
most layers are the oldest. An agate, in
which the siliceous crusts have been depo-
sited one after another upon the walls of a
cavity, is a mineral endogen; its size being
limited by that of the original hollow.
boss of stalagmitic limestone, in which the
several deposits are wrapped successively
around a central nucleus, is a mineral exogen;
and as layer succeeds layer, the growth in
this case may proceed to an indefinite extent.

Cave-Hunting Researches on the Evidence of
Caves respecting the Early Inhabitants of
Europe. By W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A.,
F.R.S., F.G.S., F.S.A., Curator of the
Museum and Lecturer on Geology in the
Owens College, Manchester. Illustrated
by Coloured Plate and Woodcuts. (Lon-
don: Macmillan & Co., 1874.)
FROM the day when Mr. Boyd Dawkins first
delved into the old hyaena-den of Wookey
Hole, now fifteen years ago, the general
course of his labours, whether with pick or
pen, has swerved but little from the path
which he then struck out. Engaged at times
in the actual exploration of bone-caves, he has
more frequently directed his studies to those
organic remains which represent the old
cave-dwellers and their contemporaries;
while upon occasion he has risen to the
discussion of some of the higher problems
of ethnology and physical geography which
are suggested by such researches. As a
necessary consequence of all this, it follows
that the present work, so far from being a
mere gathering of other men's stuff, is to a
very large extent a record of original re-
search. Bringing his own results into re-
lation with those of other observers in the
field, Mr. Dawkins has given cohesion
to a quantity of scattered materials, and at
the same time has moulded the accumulated
mass into a very comely form. While,
therefore, the present volume will be prized
by the student as the only modern work de-
voted to the subject of cave-exploration, the
attractive style in which it is written suffi-
ciently commends it to any intelligent
reader who may care to hear the Story of

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teresting observations on the growth of stalagmite, with the view of setting up some rude kind of geological chronometer. A geologist is rarely able to express the age of a given deposit in terms of our ordinary units of time: his idea of time is, indeed, relative rather than absolute; he knows that a certain stratum is older than one and younger than another, but how much older or how much younger he is generally unable to guess. If, however, he knew the rate at which a calcareous deposit was being regularly formed in a given locality, it is obvious that its thickness would give an approximate date to any relics which might happen to lie sealed up beneath the stalagmitic crust. Professor Dawkins's observations go to show that the rate of formation may be comparatively rapid, at least in this locality, and that the Jockey Cap, after all, may not date back beyond a century. "It may be fairly concluded," he remarks, "that the thickness of layers of stalagmite cannot be used as an argument in support of the remote age of the strata below.' But if no argument can be founded on these calcareous deposits, the cave-hunter fortunately has at hand a dozen other kinds of evidence capable of proving beyond question the vast antiquity of some of the deposits in our bone-bearing caves. Yet it is

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à curious fact, that, with a single exception, none of the caverns hitherto explored have yielded remains older than the Pleistocene period.

"Pleistocene" is a term that was originally suggested by Sir Charles Lyell, on palaeontological grounds, to designate those beds which are more modern than the uppermost Tertiary strata, but older than the deposits accumulated within the "Recent" period. In this Pleistocene, or, as it is otherwise called, Post-pleiocene or Quaternary age, the physical configuration of Europe differed considerably from its present form; at one time much of the land must have stood high above its present level, so that what is now Ireland was joined to Britain, and Britain to the mainland of Europe, while the Continent in turn communicated with Africa by way of Spain and Italy. Important differences, too, are traceable in the fauna, especially in the mammalia, the Pleistocene mammals including a number of species now known only by their fossil remains. Our knowledge of the Pleistocene mammalia-a subject on which few men are entitled to speak with a higher authority than Professor Dawkins-has been largely derived from studying the remains. which have been brought to light from time to time, during the investigation of the bone-bearing deposits in caves.

As far back as the sixteenth century some of the German caves were ransacked in quest of "unicorn's horn," which under the name of ebur fossile held a high place in the materia medica of those days. Yet it was not until the latter part of the last century that any of these caverns were scientifically explored. In 1816 Dr. Buckland visited the celebrated cave of Gailenreuth, in Franconia—a cave which had yielded a great number of mammalian remains-and, profiting by the experience of this visit, he was enabled a few years afterwards to apply his knowledge with good effect to the exploration

of a newly-discovered cave at Kirkdale, in the Vale of Pickering, in Yorkshire. His researches proved that the organic remains found in this cave were those of animals which had once roamed through the Yorkshire valleys; that the cave had, in fact, been inhabited by hyaenas, and that these creatures had dragged in the carcases of the animals upon which they preyed, such as the mammoth, the rhinoceros and the bison. The Kirkdale researches were followed up by the exploration of other caves, and the year 1823 witnessed the publication of the famous Reliquiae Diluvianae. Although many of the phenomena observed by Dr. Buckland were interpreted with singular sagacity, it is to be regretted that on other points his judgment was warped by the prejudices of his day, and the bias of his opinions tended for a long time to check freedom of thought on many of the subjects connected with cavern researches. Even when it was announced more than twenty years afterwards, by highly competent observers, that some of the deposits bore evidence of the co-existence of man with the old cave-mammals, the announcement met the usual fate of every new truth which threatens to disturb established opinion, and was received even by geologists with an incredulity which seems difficult to account for when looked back upon by the lights which we now enjoy. Gradually, however, the force of prejudice gave way before the cumulative evidence, and the truth at length asserted itself that the antiquity of man must be carried back to the period of the extinct Pleistocene mammalia-a conclusion abundantly confirmed by researches in the Brixham Cave, the Wookey Hole hyaena-den, Kent's Cavern, and elsewhere; not to mention the evidence of the implements and bones from the old river-drifts.

The earliest relics of Pleistocene man consist of rudely-chipped unpolished flint implements, representing that primitive phase of human existence known as the Older Stone Age, or the Palaeolithic period. The cave-men of Pleistocene times who used these palaeolithic implements in hunting and fishing, are supposed by Professor Dawkins, and some other ethnologists, to have left their representatives in the Eskimos-a people who use at the present day a set of implements similar in type to those found in some of the old French caves, and who live in association with a fauna containing some of the same animals, such as the reindeer and the musk-sheep. Indeed, it appears that towards the close of the Pleistocene period palaeolithic man retreated northwards, in company with some of the Arctic mammalia. But, while these northern forms indicate a severe climate in these latitudes, another factor entered into the composition of the old fauna, in the shape of a southern group of animals which point to a milder temperature. In fact, the Pleistocene fauna was made up of a curious intermixture of northern and southern types, and Professor Dawkins believes that this association may be best accounted for on the supposition of seasonal migrations; that is to say, the southern forms migrated northwards in the summer, and the northern forms wandered southwards in the winter, so that the same area thus

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became the common feeding-ground, although at different seasons, of boreal and austral species, just as is known to be the case to some extent at the present day in parts of Siberia and North America. From Professor Dawkins's profound study of the Pleistocene mammalia he has been led to suggest a classification of the Quaternary deposits into three groups, each characterised by a distinctive fauna. The relics in most of the bone-caves of England, France, and Germany, and in the river-drifts of NorthWestern Europe, may be assigned to the latest of these three stages.

Advancing from the late Pleistocene or Palaeolithic period to the succeeding Neolithic age, the evidence of the caves shows that they were then extensively used by man, in some cases for shelter and habitation, in others for sepulture. In all likelihood the neolithic cave-men were not the descendants of the preceding palaeolithic folk, but were a distinct race, who invaded Europe from the East, bringing with them domestic animals, such as the dog, the goat, the sheep, and the long-faced ox (Bos longifrons). To judge from their remains, they must have been men of small stature, with long heads; and it is curious to note-though it is pretty well established that this characteristic has no great ethnological significance-that in many cases the tibiae or shinbones present a peculiar flattening known as platyenemism. On the whole the Neolithic men seem to have been a non-Aryan race of Iberian stock. It appears, however, that these people were not allowed to enjoy undivided possession of North-Western Europe in Neolithic times; since the broad skulls occasionally found in caves and tumuli of this period point to a different race-it may be an Aryan people allied to the Celts -who pressed upon the earlier inhabitants, and shared with them the occupancy of Graul and Britain in this and the succeeding ages.

There are but few cave-remains that can be safely referred to those epochs of civilisation which followed the stone-using periods, and are generally known as the ages of Bronze and Iron. Indeed, man had then arrived at too high a state of culture to be content with the half-savage life of a troglodyte. Professor Dawkins groups together the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages under the general term of "pre-historic" time; whilst, unlike most writers, he excludes from this term the Palaeolithic age.

Crossing the threshold of history, we find ourselves in possession of facts pointing to the occasional occupation of caves, even down to comparatively recent times. One of the most interesting examples is furnished by the Victoria Cave, near Settle, in Yorkshire; a cave which has been carefully explored by a committee of the British Association, under Professor Dawkins and Mr. Tiddeman, and which is notable for exhibiting clear proof of successive occupations at widely-separated intervals. A deposit of clay, believed by some authorities to be of pre-glacial age, has yielded a bone which Professor Busk has identified as a human fibula, and it is thus one of the earliest relics of man which cave-exploration has yet brought to light. The Pleistocene cave

earth contains abundant remains of the cavehyaena and other Quaternary mammals, while the presence of man in Neolithic times is sufficiently proved by the occurrence of characteristic objects in stone and bone, associated with a Neolithic fanna. But the more recent tenants of this cave have left behind them the clearest traces of their tenancy in the shape of bronze fibula and other personal ornaments, beautifully wrought, and enriched with enamelling. These enamelled bronzes, associated with objects in bone, jet, and glass, together with Roman coins, form a group of relics fixing the date of their owners somewhere between the first half of the fifth and the early part of the seventh century. Taking all the characteristics of these memorials into consideration, the conclusion is forced upon us that some Romano-Celtic or Brit-Welsh families, not unaccustomed to the luxuries of life, must have fled for refuge to this cave on the wild scars of Craven at some time during that unsettled period which intervened between the departure of the Roman legions and the English invasion of Strathclyde.

Although we have been led in this notice to pass from the oldest to the most recent caves, it should be remarked that Professor Dawkins commences with the historic caves, and works backwards to those of prehistoric and Pleistocene age. In an appendix he offers some practical suggestions as to the best method of cave exploration; suggestions which are of much value, since they are the fruit of his own experience as a cave-hunter. This appendix also contains a description of the method of systematic cave-working, as conducted at Kent's Hole by Mr. Pengelly, who is a very Nimrod at this kind of sport. May these practical hints be turned to good account by those who, having read Professor Dawkins's volume, shall feel themselves bestirred to take part, honestly and patiently, in the good work of cave-exploration!

F. W. RUDLER.

Der Paulinismus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der urchristlichen Theologie. Von Otto Pfleiderer. (Leipzig: 1873.) THE second part of this work, of which a notice was promised in the ACADEMY for July 25, 1874 (p. 103), begins with a description of the original relation of Pauline to Jewish Christianity, in which three phases are to be distinguished:-1. The contest regarding the continued validity of the Law Galatians); 2. That regarding Paul's apostolic authority (1 and 2 Corinthians); and 3. An irenic tendency which Pfleiderer finds in the epistle to the Romans, and also in that to the Philippians. It is in the epistle to the Hebrews, he holds, that Paulinism first comes under the influence of the Alexandrian philosophy, and this epistle, with that to the Colossians, and the epistle of Barnabas, accordingly form the subject of his next chapter. Here we have a more advanced Christology than that of Paul; the object of the two former epistles at least being to establish the headship of Christ and the sufficiency of his salvation, in opposition to the adherents of a speculative and ascetic Judaism, while Paul's doctrine of atonement

has been so far weakened that "justification through the blood of Christ" is now replaced by the "forgiveness of sins" (in Colossians and Barnabas), not, however, so much in the sense of a Divine act as of a human condition. Pfleiderer, it may be noticed, follows Holtzmann in assuming a genuine Pauline fragment as the basis of our present epistle to the Colossians; but does not agree with him that the interpolator is identical with the author of the epistle to the Ephesians, which, on the contrary, he classes with Clement's first epistle to the Corinthians, and 1st Peter, as marking the transition from Paulinism to Catholicism. Here the sharp opposition between Pauline and Jewish Christianity, which had reached the extremest point in the epistle of Barnabas, has finally disappeared, and Paulinism, which, in union with Alexandrianism, had already lost much of its original character, is still further changed. Christianity, under pressure of the demand for an ethical code, has come to be regarded chiefly as the new law. The ground of salvation is no longer the sacrifice on the cross, but repentance. The conception of Faith, as well as its object, is entirely changed, and looking chiefly to a future glory-the appearance of Christ as Judge of the world-rather than to an event completed in the past, it has come to be essentially the same with 'Hope. Pfleiderer will not see any trace of the Pauline doctrine of the atoning efficacy of Christ's blood in the references, certainly of a general kind, of Clement's epistle (V. cap. xii. and xxi.), nor even in such passages as 1 Peter i. 18, 19, ii. 24, or iii. 18. How language could be much stronger than in these last it is not easy to

see; and if the writer was, as Pfleiderer with much reason supposes, a Hellenistic Jew, dependent on Paul, it is probable that he would retain the leading thought as well as the phraseology of the apostle of the Gentiles. It is true, however, that we have nothing here of the "wrath of God," or the "curse of the law," and so far, therefore, there is undoubtedly a modification of the original Pauline doctrine. The epistle of Clement has been claimed both as a Pauline and a Jewish Christian work, and this circumstance is not unreasonably urged as an indication that in fact it was neither. Jewish Christian it certainly is not; and had it been Panline, argues Pfleiderer, and written with the view of conciliating adversaries, the expressions characteristic of Paul and the praise of that apostle would have been omitted, and his ideas retained, whereas the contrary is the case. "What would have been" on certain assumptions, it must be owned, is always rather precarious ground to take, though it cannot always be avoided by the critic. There can, however, I apprehend, be little difficulty in accepting Pfleiderer's general conclusion regarding both those epistles, that they were simply what they claim to be-paraenetic composi tions, called forth by the exigencies of the time, and only incidentally betraying their doctrinal or party tendencies. The writers, he holds, were in their own view Pauline Christians, but had insensibly departed from the Pauline stand-point. The pastoral epistles, of which, on strong internal grounds,

the true order is assumed to be-2 Tim., Tit., 1 Tim., and the Ignatian epistles form the subject of another chapter, exhibiting ecclesiastical Paulinism in conflict with the heretical Gnosis; and the work concludes with a short but important section on the Acts of the Apostles, in which the main results of the Tübingen criticism are sought to be reconciled with a view more favourable to the bona fide character of the history. On this last topic a word may be added. The writer's point of view, it is admitted, was that of Catholic Christianity, from which he assumed the essential agreement of the Jewish-Christian and heathen-Christian parties in the primitive Church. This assumption naturally regulated the choice and arrangement of his materials; but it does not follow that it induced him to create materials which never existed, or intentionally to pervert those he had. The speeches, indeed, Pfleiderer contends, were the free composition of the author, as much as those of Thucydides or Livy, but he sees no difficulty in the inconsistencies chargeable on Paul, on the supposition that the narrative in Acts is substantially correct, the degree in which matters of form should be made matters of principle admitting of such a variety of equally honest opinions. No doubt, when Paul declared that he was made "all things to all men," he had in mind other passages in his life than his stern resistance to the false brethren in the case of Titus. Some such middle view as this, it has long seemed to me, is more satisfactory than either that which accepts the narrative as a perfectly correct and unbiassed representation of the facts, or the other, equally extreme in the opposite direction, which rejects the whole as purely fictitious. ROBERT B. DRUMMOND.

SCIENCE NOTES.

METEOROLOGY.

Weather Telegraphy in France. M. Le Verrier has recommenced since March 1 the issue of his announcements of probable weather for the ports of France. These had been a prominent feature of the French arrangements in former years, but had been suspended by M. Le Verrier when he resumed office at the Observatory about two years

ago.

The present system does not include the use of any signals to give warning of storms, but simply consists in the transmission of telegrams, containing the forecasts, twice daily. These telegrams are posted up in some public place, and in addi

tion to them the weather chart contained in the

Bulletin International is exhibited as soon as it arrives by post.

Theory of Cyclones. In the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes for this year, M. Faye, before the public, has taken up the vexed question whose papers on solar physics have long been of the origin and form of storms. His attention has been apparently drawn to the discrepancy

between the views of M. Bridet and Mr. Meldrum

as to the form of the Mauritius hurricanes; the former upholding the truth of the old circular theory, while the latter asserts that many ships have been lost by adhering too closely to it, and that in certain parts of a cyclone the wind blows directly towards the centre, instead of taking a circular course round it. Strictly speaking, however, M. Faye's work must be taken as a counterblast to Professor Reye's Wirbelstürme, which book, however, he does not once mention. Both

authors treat of the cyclones in the sun's envelope, and compare them with those observed on the earth; both seek for the proofs of their theories in the movements of waterspouts, and apply their conclusions sions; but they explain the phenomena on printo the behaviour of storms of the largest dimenciples diametrically opposed to each other.

Reye assumes an upward motion as the first cause of a whirlwind, approving of Belt's explanation of the production of a whirl when a mass of heated air forces its way upwards through cooler strata above it. Faye, however, considers that all such phenomena are descending currents of air of a conical shape, like the whirlpools and eddies which form in water. He considers the motion of translation of the storms to be due to the fact of its upper portion being dragged along by the upper current in which it takes its rise.

M. Faye is, however, not the first who has suggested that the upper currents give rise to cyclones, for Dove's explanation of the origin of the West India hurricanes is that they are gene

rated by the interference of a portion of the upper

Antitrade with the true Trade-wind.

With reference to the velocity of the air in storms and its relation to the differences of pressure, we shall hope shortly to give our readers a notice of a careful digest of the theories recently propounded by Colding and Ferrel, which has been prepared by Dr. Hann, and of which the first portion has appeared in the last number of the Austrian Journal for Meteorology.

Upper Currents of the Air.-Professor Hildebrandsson has published, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Upsala, a paper on the upper currents of the atmosphere. He has investigated the motion of the cirrus cloud by means of observations made at twenty Swedish and four Danish stations, as well as by M. Renou at Paris. The results are plotted down on charts of the weather of the North of Europe for thirtytwo days. The general outcome is that the air flows away from the centres of minima, and flows towards the centres of maxima in the upper regions of the atmosphere. This is exactly the opposite to what occurs at the earth's surface, and, as will be seen, is in distinct contradiction to the views of M. Faye, while it accords with those of Buchan and Ley.

The Conference for Maritime Meteorology.The report of this meeting, which was held here last September, has just appeared. The actual resolutions passed were published in the Times in October last, but the full report contains some matter of considerable interest in the statements received from the several countries which took steps which had been taken in each country to part in the Brussels Conference in 1852, as to the carry out the proposals of that meeting.

The result may be fairly described as poor enough, for with the exception of the United nations attending that conference has ever pubStates, Holland and this country, not one of the lished any charts or papers as the outcome of the arrangements then made.

It

The general tenour of the report is to the effect that the twenty-five gentlemen present, representing every maritime country of importance in Europe, expressed their opinion that the decisions taken at Brussels were on the whole good, and that no material alteration of them was advisable. remains however to be proved whether or not we are to expect more copious results for foreign nations from the private conference of 1874, than from the official one of 1853, which latter, however, was of paramount importance to this country, as it led to the foundation of Admiral FitzRoy's Meteorological Department. The United States took no part in the late meeting, as it was explained that their Hydrographical Office wished to confine its operations to the completion and revision of Maury's charts. The report contains the instructions proposed to be issued to the maritime observers of the Meteorological Office.

Climate of Senegal.-At the time of the Ashantee war we were abruptly brought to acknowledge our nearly total ignorance of the climate of our possessions on the west coast of Africa, Dr. Horton's work, though a good one, being not sufficiently detailed to give the information required. There is, therefore, much reason to welcome a new book by Dr. Borius, Recherches sur le Climat de Sénégal, based on the experience of his own five years' residence, and of a mass of observations accumulated during twenty years by various observers. The data are almost entirely furnished from the registers kept at Goree and St. Louis. In one particular the present work excels most other books on tropical meteorology, viz., that it gives minute particulars as to the exposure of the thermometers, &c., a matter of even more importance in hot climates than here. Dr. Borius takes pains to prove that the climate of the colony does not exhibit so excessive variations of temperature as had previously been alleged. In his observations at St. Louis he employed the thermomètre fronde for the determination of the temperature, alongside of the fixed thermometers, and he gives some interesting statements as to the relative value of the two methods of observation.

Proportion of Oxygen in the Air.-In the third and fifth numbers of the Austrian Journal for Meteorology for this year, Dr. Ucke, of Samara, has discussed this question in relation to the sanitary efficiency of various climates. Samara is in 34° N. lat. on the Tigris, and although it is on the open steppe, and exposed to great vicissitudes of temperature, it is a place much frequented by invalids, and consumption is hardly known there. Dr. Ucke thinks this may be due to the greater amount of oxygen inhaled in a given time at Samara as compared with that available at other stations. He finds great difficulty in obtaining materials for comparing this climate with that of other health resorts, owing to the deficiency of published observations for such places, but finally he takes seventeen stations, situated for the most part in Europe and Asiatic Russia. The amount, in pounds, of oxygen passing through the lungs in a week, varies from 200 lb. at Barnaul, to 167 lb. at Seringapatam. London does not come very badly off, giving us 192 lb., while the central European stations and those at a high level give lower figures.

Excluding the three Indian stations, Sitka, and the mountain station Peissenberg, in Bavaria, the remaining twelve places are divided into four groups which give the following results as to the yearly amount of oxygen in pounds :-Siberia, 2,385; Eastern Europe, 2,326; Western Europe (Brussels and London), 2,305; Central Europe, 2,272. Practically, therefore, rather more than a ton of oxygen is inhaled by everyone in a year. The amount of oxygen is increased by high barometrical pressure, and reduced by high temperature and humidity. When we compare the results for the several months with the average of the year, we find that London shows a slight excess in the summer, evidently owing to its moderate temperature; while the Siberian stations exhibit a strong positive variation in the winter in consequence of their low temperature and high pressure.

GEOLOGY.

AT the last meeting of the Geological Society it was announced that Sir Charles Lyell had bequeathed the sum of 2,000l. to be invested by the society, the proceeds of which are to be applied to the encouragement of geological research, and to be accompanied by a bronze medal struck in memory of the founder. Sir Charles has expressly provided that the award is to be made without respect either to nationality or to sex. The bequest was duly acknowledged in appropriate speeches by Professor Prestwich and Mr. Warington Smyth. The Geological Society has now in its gift three medals and the proceeds of three donation funds, bearing the names of Wolaston, Murchison, and Lyell.

UNDER the title of The Past and Future of Geology, Professor Prestwich has published the inaugural lecture which he recently delivered at Oxford. After a brief tribute to the memory of his predecessor, Professor Phillips, he discusses the nebular hypothesis, and speculates on the origin and early history of our globe. He then points to the vast progress made in palaeontology since the year 1822, when Phillips and Conybeare published their Geology of England and Wales. At that date the organic remains in Great Britain, which had been described, numbered only 752 species, while at the present time we are acquainted with no fewer than 13,276 species of British fossils. Taking a census of past life, he appends a table by Mr. Etheridge showing the number and distribution of the fossil fauna and flora in 1874. Quitting palaeontology, Professor Prestwich addresses himself to the discussion of some of the great principles of physical geology, and exhibits a decided leaning towards the socalled cataclysmic theory. As he believes that the elevatory forces, acting on the crust of the earth, were formerly much more powerful, he enquires how the crust has come to attain its present comparatively stable and quiescent condition. Rejecting the hypotheses of Mr. Hopkins and Sir ficient cause may be found in the intense reW. Thomson, the author suggests that a suffrigeration of the earth's crust during the glacial period; and on this supposition he is led to a curious argument with reference to the preparation of the earth for the advent of man.

Or late years the officers of the Geological Survey have been instructed to observe the characters of the surface-soil in order that special maps showing the superficial geology may be published. As the drift-survey of the Lower Thames valley and of South Lancashire has been completed, Mr. de Rance was enabled to read, at a recent meeting of the Geologists' Association, a paper "On the Post-Glacial Deposits of some Valleys of the North and South of England, and their relation to the Antiquity of Man." The gorge of the Ribble, near Preston, is entirely excavated in glacial drift, and is therefore of postglacial age. Old terrace-gravels, with flint implements, occur in the valley of the Ouse, at Bedford, which has been cut through boulder-clay, and is consequently, like the Lancashire valleys, postglacial. These terrace-gravels were compared with the implement-bearing gravels of the Thames, the Seine, and the Somme, which the author concluded were deposited either since the glacial epoch, or at a very late episode in that period.

FOR the last two years Mr. W. M. Gabb has been engaged in the exploration of the district of Talamanca, in the south-eastern corner of the Republic of Costa Rica, which forms one of the least known parts of Central or Isthmian America. The high mountains of Talamanca are composed principally of granitic rocks, which appear to be strictly intrusive, and not of metamorphic origin. The granite range culminates in Pico Blanco, which has been described as a volcano, although no sign of a crater could be discovered by the exploring party. The sedimentary rocks appear to be of Miocene age; indeed, Mr. Gabb concludes that the whole Atlantic slope of Costa Rica may be safely regarded as Miocene. Some of the shales are associated with beds of inferior coal, while the metamorphosed miocene rocks occasionally contain gold; but although traditions of valuable gold-mines have long existed, and indeed led to the present exploration, it appears that the occurrence of the precious metal is of scientific rather than commercial interest. Mr. Gabb's paper will be found in the March number of the American Journal of Science and Arts.

To the March number of Silliman's Journal Professor O. C. Marsh contributes descriptions of some new forms of Eocene and Miocene quadru

mana.

Under the name of Lemuravus he describes a new genus allied to Hyopsodus, Leidy, and suggests that both may represent a distinct family

called Lemuravidae. The present species, L. distans, was about the size of a large squirrel, and has left its remains in the lower Eocene of Wyoming. During a recent expedition to the "Bad Lands," in Nebraska, the fower jaw of a monkey was found in Miocene rocks; its molars resemble those of certain South American monkeys, and come still closer to those of the Eocene Limnotheridae. The present species is regarded as the representative of a new genus, and has received the name of Laopithecus robustus. Professor Marsh also describes some horned rhinoceroses, which are the first that have been found in America. He forms for them a new genus, Diceratherium. One species, D. armatum, about two-thirds the size of the Indian rhinoceros, was found in the Miocene of Eastern Oregon. Other species are described under the names of D. nanum and D. advenum.

A PAPER on the fossil Lemmings and Arvicolae büttel, in Prussia, has been contributed by Dr. from the pleistocene beds of Theide, near WolfenNehring to a recent number of the Zeitschrift für die gesammten Naturwissenschaften. Since the days of Leibnitz, the gypsum quarry near Theide has been known as a rich locality for mammalian remains. The pleistocene loam overlying the gypsum is in places twenty to thirty feet in thickness, and is apparently a fresh-water deposit. In addition to the larger mammals it is rich in the remains of small rodents; but these have hitherto received but little attention. Dr. Nehring has, however, found and described a large number of bones and teeth, including two perfect skulls, with the lower jaws. These remains are referred to Myodus lemmus, M. torquatus, and Arvicola gregalis. The author enters into a

critical examination of the dentition of the various species of lemmings and voles.

With the exception of the extinct order Labyrinthodonta, none of the true Amphibians are known to occur in rocks older than the tertiary formations. It is, therefore, interesting to note that M. A. Gaudry has recently laid before the French Academy of Sciences a note, "Sur la découverte de Batraciens proprement dits dans le terrain primaire." The specimens described in

this communication were obtained from bituminous schists of Permian age at Igornay and Millery, in the Department of the Saône-et-Loire, where they are associated with numerous remains of plants and with fish of the genus Palaeomises. The new amphibians, which are extremely small, closely resemble the existing land-salamanders, and have received the name of Salamandrella petrolei.

FROM the outcrop of some limestone-rocks in the neighbourhood of Pernambuco, in Brazil, a large collection of fossils was made by Messrs, of 1870, under Professor Hartt. The mollusca Derby and Wilmot, during the Morgan Expedition have been placed in the hands of Mr. R. Rathbun, of the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, who has published in the Society's Proceedings a report on the more important lamellibranchs. With two exceptions they are all referred to new species.

EVERY petrologist knows the great difficulty of distinguishing between the four triclinic felspars albite, oligoclase, labradorite, and anorthite. Whilst they are sharply separated as a group from the orthoclastic or monoclinic felspars, they are so closely related inter se that they are generally associated under the common name of plagioclase; the petrologist, and even the mineralogist, finding it by no means easy to diagnose the several species when they occur as rock-constituents. M. des Cloizeaux has therefore redered good service by closely studying the optical characters of these felspars, with the view of establishing some method of differentiating them. He has succeeded beyond expectation, but the means of diagnosis are so technical that the student must be referred to the original paper

recently published in the Comptes Rendus. Suffice it to say that these studies lend no support to Tschermak's theory, which regards all the triclinic felspars as isomorphous mixtures of albite and anorthite. Moreover, by studying the position of the optic axes, and the character of the dispersion, M. des Cloizeaux shows that the "moonstone" of Mineral Hill, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, is an albite and not an oligoclase; and that Von Kobell's so-called new species Tschermakite is also an albitic felspar.

(Xenophon, Diodorus, Philostratus, Julian), Treu
on the Parrhasian codex of Quintus Smyrnaeus,
Förster on Libanius. Bardt replies to Lange on
the Lex Caecilia Didia.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Monday, March 15).
SIR SIDNEY SMITH SAUNDERS, President, in the
Mr. Sealy exhibited specimens of an
Ornithoptera bred from larvae taken in Malabar on
Aristolochia indica.

Chair.

merous insect.

THE Zeitschrift für die Oesterreichischen Gymna-
Professor Westwood exhibited drawings of
sen for January and February contains an article
several undescribed Coleoptera of remarkable
by O. Benndorf on various unexplained points con-
nected with the arrangements of the Attic forms, of which he intended to communicate the
theatre, notably the manner in which the great descriptions. Among them was an insect from
the collection of M. Mniszech, which bore a strong
public was admitted and distributed. The con-
clusion of the writer's long and ingenious argu-Rhysodina Mniszechii, but was really a Hetero-
resemblance to a Rhysodes, and which he had named
ment is, that they were divided according to
tribes (pa), as in the Ecclesia. The second
part of the January number is taken up with
reviews of no great importance; the third part
contains a very interesting account by Tomaschek
of the chief results arrived at by the Commission
appointed to discuss educational questions at
Berlin in 1873. Among other points we may
notice that there seems to have been a tendency
to disparage the continuance of Latin as a subject
proper for the Realschulen, and that the system of
bifurcation was not, on the whole, regarded with
favour. It was nearly unanimously agreed that
Natural Science ought to be taught in the Gym-

nasia to all classes for two hours a week. Other questions of detail discussed at the conference are mentioned in this article, which deserves to be read by friends of education. Besides the

article by Benndorf mentioned above, the February number has reviews of Cron's studies on Euripides, Curtius's Greek Verb, Wilmanns' Latin Inscriptions, and Quicherat's Nonius, all more or less favourable. Wülcker's Altenglisches Lesebuch is criticised less favourably by J. Zupitza. K. Werner, in the third part, discusses the educational statute of Bavaria, complaining, among other things, that no place is given to Natural History in the list of subjects enumerated as necessary for a liberal education, and that Physics are but barely provided for in the programme of the Bavarian gymnasia.

THE most immediately interesting article in the last number of the Hermes (vol. ix. part 3) is by C. Henning, who publishes for the first time a letter of the Emperor Julian from the Harleian MS. No. 5610. The letter refers to a certain Pegasius, a pretended convert to Christianity, who acted as the guide of Julian when on a visit to Ilium, and is lauded by the Emperor for his care of the religious monuments of the city, in which he was acting as Christian bishop. Several interesting points started by the letter are ably discussed by the writer of the article. Theodor Mommsen contributes two articles, one on the list of magistrates in the Capitol, the other on the decree of the Senate quoted in Josephus Ant. xiv. 8. 5. The points raised in the first are too minute for mention here, but are handled with Mommsen's usual mastery of his materials; the second article is an interesting argument to show that the date given by Josephus (B.C. 47) is the right one, and that Scaliger was wrong in assigning the decree to the year 124; Ewald, Ludwig Grimm, Ritschl, and Mendelssohn wrong in assigning it to the year 139. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff has a spirited and ingenious paper on the Megarian comedy, the point of which is that the Megarian origin of the Attic comedy is a delusion, and that a "Megarian joke" meant nothing more than a bad or coarse joke, just as the Atellana was localised as Oscan by the Romans. H. Jordan discusses a number of difficulties arising on the question of the temple erected to Julius Caesar. The critical matter contributed to this number comprises articles by Partsch on the Johannis of Corippus, Hertlein on some Greek prose authors

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Mr. M'Lachlan remarked that the species of Lepisma, exhibited at the last meeting by Mr. F. H. Ward, did not correspond with the description of L. domestica of the United States, nor with the description of any species with which he was acquainted.

Mr. Butler communicated some critical remarks on the recently published work on the Sphingidae, by Dr. Boisduval.

The Rev. R. P. Murray read some remarks on the species of Terias, forming the Hecabe group, which tended to show that the insects which had hitherto been considered distinct species under the names of Aesiope, Mén., Brenda, Doubl. and Hew. and Sari, Horsf., were mostly, if not all, referable to but one species, T. Hecabe, Linn. Professor Westwood suggested that the case might be analogous to certain English species of Pieris, P. Sabellicae, Steph., now universally recognised where certain forms-e. g., P. napaeae, Esp., and as varieties of P. napi, Linn., had long been considered as specifically distinct. Professor Westwood also suggested that attention should be paid to the times of appearance of the various forms, and the period noted during which they remained in the pupa stage. Mr. Butler remarked that the latter circumstance had an important bearing in the case of Papilio Ajax, Linn.

Mr. J. S. Baly communicated "Descriptions of new Genera and Species of Phytophagous Coleoptera.

Mr. C. O. Waterhouse communicated a paper on the Lamellicorn Coleoptera of Japan.

Mr. F. Smith read "Descriptions of new Species of Indian Aculeate Hymenoptera collected by Mr. G. R. James Rothney," and also "Descriptions of new Species of Bees of the genus Nomia,

Latreille.

Part V. of the Transactions for 1874, containining the title-page and index, with five plates, was on the table.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY (Monday,
March 22).

Ar the usual fortnightly meeting of the Society,
Mr. Coryton, late Recorder at Moulmein, read an
interesting paper on the routes from Burmah into
South-western China. During his residence in
British Burmah, Mr. Coryton devoted much pains
to the collection of all available information at the
hands of Shan traders respecting the routes and
nature of the country traversed by them, the
people and tribes through whose territories they
passed, and other particulars. Although Mr.
Coryton in his paper did not, strictly speaking,
convey any new information, he presented with
much clearness a summary of the different at-
tempts which had been made to explore particu-
lar routes as well as of the various projects for
"tapping" the wealth of Yunnan, and diverting
it in the direction of the ports of British India.
Mr. T. T. Cooper's two attempts, made from the
side of China and from that of Assam respectively,
Major Sladen's ascent of the Irrawaddy to Bamo

and Momein, the expeditions of Williams,
Macleod, and Richardson, and of the French up
the Mekong and Songkoi, all were carefully
reviewed, while Captain Sprye's scheme for com-
munication between Rangoon and Esmok was also
touched upon. The lecturer appeared to favour
the route via the Irrawaddy to Bamo and Talifu,
both on account of its antiquity and the excep-
Irrawaddy we possess over all the other rival
tional advantages which in the navigability of the
streams. Mr. Coryton then referred to the recent
disaster which had befallen Colonel Browne's
of the late Mr. Margary's perseverance and pro-
expedition, and after speaking in terms of praise
mise, concluded in the words used by the Secretary
to the Society in a recent letter on the subject,
noble legacy in his example."
Young Margary is dead, but he has left us a

66

Mr. T. T. Cooper said he did not pretend to be an advocate of one particular route, but simply a pioneer. He expressed an opinion that the Shans

were more civilized than Mr. Coryton gave them credit for being.

that affairs were quieter than formerly, a considerSir George Campbell was of opinion that now able trade might spring up between British Burmah and China, while from the side of Assam much might be done in the way of encouragement of trade by the fostering and developing of

frontier fairs.

Sir Rutherford Alcock laid stress on the necessity of a great Asiatic power like England showing firmness and dignity after an outrage such as had been passed upon her. Prompt action was of vital importance so as to secure us due respect from our neighbours and subjects. The jealous frontier policy of the Chinese had no doubt prompted the attack on the expedition, but the lesson ought not to be thrown away on us, and we tions, and with what caution we should enter on ought to learn how hazardous are these explora

such undertakings.

Sir Henry Rawlinson, in a speech that was much cheered, said that no sort of rashness could fairly be imputed to us, for the Government of Peking had given us the fullest permission for the prosecution of the expedition, while he, for his part, knowing that risk must be encountered in all such international dealings, preferred to see such dangers boldly met than with a display of over-caution. He read, in conclusion, some interesting and touching extracts from Mr. Margary's most recent letter, written a few days before his death.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE (Wednesday,
March 24).

SIR CHARLES NICHOLSON, Bart., in the Chair.
Sir Gardner Wilkinson communicated a paper on
"The Listening Slave and Slaying of Marsyas,"
in which he gave an account of a curious relief
which he had seen and drawn so long ago as 1820,
on a sarcophagus in the church of "San Paolo
fuori le Mure," near Rome. This church, as is
well known, was burned in 1823, and it is not cer-
tain whether this sarcophagus was wholly de-
stroyed at the time, or is still partially preserved.
Sir Gardner Wilkinson pointed out that the main
subject was clearly the same as that the Italians
call "L'Assotino," an excellent specimen of which
he noticed and copied at Arles in 1829; and
added that other representations of this myth may
be found on ancient vases, and on various works
of art.

FINE ART.

THE STUDIOS.-VII.

MR. WOOLNER, R.A., sends no work of importance to the Academy this year. He had intended to exhibit the cast of his recently executed statue of Lord Lawrence, from which the bronze has been taken; but it was so seriously injured in the process, that the necessary repairs could not be executed in time for the Exhibition. He is at

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