ing of the occiput-such as frequently occurs in our Bronze-age invaders as a characteristic feature of the German head. We look in vain for the ancestors of our Bronzeage invaders among the modern peoples who live along the German or Dutch shores of the North Sea. When, however, we turn to the investigations carried out by Danish anthropolgists during the last seventyfive years we find a key to our problem. The classical researches of Nilsson brought to light in the Neolithic graves of Denmark a people with exactly the same rounded form of head as that of our British invaders. It was at first believed that these round-heads were the original inhabitants of Denmark, but later discoveries showed that the long-headed race of the long-barrow or Scandinavian type-which also occurred in Neolithic graves-was the older form. Our Bronze-age ancestors had reached the Danish peninsula in the Neolithic period. Recently Prof. Nielsen has published a very instructive table, showing how the headform has altered at various periods in Denmark. His table is as follows: The table shows that after the Neolithic invasion round-heads became almost as common as long-heads in Denmark. It will be remembered that the roundbarrows have revealed a similar proportion in England. A further parallel between Denmark and England is seen in the fate of the round-heads. By preRoman times the long-head had again asserted its dominance in both countries; in Denmark the roundheads form only 3 per cent. of the pre-Roman grave skulls. But after the Roman period the histories of the two countries diverge; the high proportion of long-heads disappeared from the Danish population, so that now they form only about 12 per cent. There can be little doubt as to the cause of the recrudescence of round-heads in Denmark. Her land-frontier is open to Germany and her population has undergone a change in head-form similar to that which has overtaken the people of Prussian Germany in post-Roman times. In Denmark, then, we may recognise two invading waves of round-heads; but it is the oldest--the Neolithic wave-containing men marked by all the physical characters which we recognise in the English round-barrow men which interests us here. That was the first wave of round-heads to break through the long-headed population in Western Europe and reach the shores of the North Sea. Before the next wave broke, the Danes had apparently become again a long-headed people. Denmark was not the only country to suffer from the first invasion. Our "roundbarrow" race had formed the settlements in the south of Sweden and on the south-western coasts of Nor way. Even now, as in parts of England, the descendants of that early invasion can be traced in the lands in which the round-heads settled. The round-heads also reached the lands at the mouths of the Elbe, Wesser, and Ems. Oldenburg, between the estuaries of the Wesser and the Ems, has yielded Neolithic graves. Out of four skulls from such graves one is similar in form to that of our Bronze-age invaders. Apparently, too, they reached the coast by way of the Rhine. At least the Dutch people living in districts near the mouth of the Rhine show a much higher degree of brachycephaly than their neighbours either to the north or south. We have already traced the entrance of our Bronze-age type into northern France in the Neolithic period. They, too, reached the coast of Normandy. We have made a tour round Europe in search of the native land of our Bronze-age invaders. We have merely found secondary settlements along the eastern shores of the North Sea and the possible points of their embarkation. Their native land we have not discovered. Our predecessors, when in difficulty over the origin of a European race, fell back on Asia; they had an infallible belief in the racial potentiality of that continent. There is now - a distinct change amongst European anthropologists in their attitude towards such problems. They believe that our own continent may have produced its own races. But so far we have searched in vain for the cradle of the European round-headed stock; we have found neither the beginning of the dark-haired true Alpine type nor of the fair-haired northern form from which our round-barrow men sprang. But it is lawful for us to infer that the centre of dispersion is the probable cradle of origin. Now all the evidence at our disposal points to the central mountainous region of Europe as the centre of dispersion. It is therefore in the plains along the northern flanks of the central mountainous region of Europe that we may expect to find the cradle of our round-headed British ancestry. The conquest of Europe by the "round-heads" is one of the most amazing revelations of prehistoric research. The outlook for the future of the fairhaired, long-headed stock does not, at first sight, seem very promising. Prof. Gustav Retzius, when he delivered the Huxley Lecture before this institute in 1909, gave expression to such a view. "There lie," he said, in the circumstances to which I have called attention, a very real danger of the north European long-headed race not being able to hold its own. Just as it has been ousted during the past thousand years from Germany and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe by the dark-haired, small-statured round-heads, it will probably have to yield in Britain too, and be reduced in numbers, perhaps by degrees disappear entirely out of the fatherland of their ancestors and of themselves, by reason of the everincreasing might and power of industrialism with which they seem ill-fitted to cope successfully in the long run. The prospect is depressing, it cannot be denied, but the development of things in the world is not seldom harsh and unmerciful." Prof. Retzius's statement is that of a man who commands the respect and esteem of all anthropologists; he speaks of the fate of his own-the Scandinavian-racial stock, and is therefore predisposed to take the most hopeful outlook possible. It is beyond denial that in France, Austria, Russia, and in the greater parts of Germany and Italy a roundheaded stock has ousted a long-headed one. Scandinavia, England, and Spain have escaped this domination by reason of their comparative isolation. Yet I dare think the future of the big-bodied, fairhaired, long-headed European stock may be more prosperous than Prof. Retzius is inclined to think. In the first place we have clear proof that at one time-some 4000 or 5000 years ago-the round-headed stock did break through and reach the western shores of Europe. It leavened England, but became submerged; it met a similar fate in western Germany and in Holland. In the earlier centuries of the present era the long-heads in north-western Europe must have undergone a recrudescence in numbers and in power. They broke eastwards on the plains of the Vistula and Danube; they imposed their speech on the conquered peoples, but the vanquished imposed on them their features of face, head, and body. They broke westwards into France, and lost both their tongue and their head-form; they crossed the North Sea and kept both their tongue and their shape of head. Sea power is also a potent factor in anthropology, and so far such power in Europe has been in the hands of long-headed stocks. What the longhead has lost in Europe he has gained in countries which lie beyond the seas, by virtue of his command of the sea. It is too soon to speculate on what the head-form of these new trans-oceanic settlements is to be but all the signs point rather to a victory of the long-heads. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL in LONDON.-The following advanced courses of lecnow being tures, to which admission is free, are delivered :-A course, with practical work, dynamical meteorology, at the Meteorological Office, South Kensington, S.W., by Dr. W. N. Shaw; a course on the Protozoa, at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, Chelsea, S.W., by Prof. E. A. on metabolism in infancy, at Minchin; a course Guy's Hospital, Borough, S.E., by Dr. M. S. Pembrey and Mr. J. H. Ryffel; a course on certain aspects of British ecology, at University College, Gower Street, W.C. The remaining lectures of the last-named course are by Prof. R. H. Yapp (fen vegetation), Prof. G. S. West (the occurrence and distribution of fresh-water alga), and Mr. A. D. Cotton (the algal vegetation of the salt-marsh and seashore). MANCHESTER. The Council of the University, with the approval of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, has appointed Mr. W. Percy Middleton Stock Officer for the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. Mr. Middleton will be attached to the Department of Agriculture, and will be given an office in the University buildings as well as an office in a central position in each of the two counties. OXFORD. The annual report of the Committee for Geography, just published, gives a full account of the work done in the geographical department during the past year. The number of students working at geography was forty-one (twenty-three men and eighteen women). Lectures to the number of 124 were delivered by the professor (Dr. A. J. Herbertson, Wadham College) and his assistants, the subjects including natural regions of the British Empire, economic geography, Central Europe, the geographical distribution of man, climate and vegetation regions, topography of Europe, the Oceans, the British Isles, meteorology, influence of the geography of Greece on its political history, and the art of geographical description. Besides these, special lectures were given by Prof. T. Edgeworth David, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and others. Many field excursions were undertaken, and the report includes a long list of gifts to the library and collecheld in tions. A successful vacation course was August, which was attended by 160 pupils (54 men and 106 women). SHEFFIELD. Dr. A. J. Hall has been appointed to the post of lecturer in medicine. Patriotic THE Central Committee for National Organisations, 62 Charing Cross, W.C., has issued, at the price of 2d., a list of publications bearing on the war. It comprises the titles of works likely to be useful to those persons anxious to understand the immediate causes and remote origins of the war, of volumes dealing with the war itself or with naval and military matters generally, and of pamphlets on these year. Ir was announced to the students of Stevens Institute of Technology at their annual dinner in the Hotel Astor on January 23 that their ten-day campaign to raise 272,000l. had yielded 232,854l., and that an extension of time had been granted in which the Science says that Dr. remainder might be collected. A. C. Humphreys, president of the institute, made the confident prediction that the whole amount would From the same be raised by the end of the week. source we learn that the Harvard University corporation has set aside 20,000l. to pay Belgian professors who have been driven from their land by the war and may give courses at Harvard University next Mr. J. R. Magee has left 4000l. and a certain further residuary portion of his estate to Haverford College, to be added to the general endowment fund. THE Association of Teachers of Domestic Subjects During the has issued its annual report for 1914. year important work was accomplished by the association. Miss Ailsa Yoxall's book on the "History of was completed the Teaching of Domestic Economy for the association; it was reviewed in the issue of NATURE for November 19 last (vol. xciv., p. 308). A long-considered salary scale received its final form, and suggested a rate of pay which, if adopted by education authorities, would bring domestic subjects teachers into line financially with those of general subjects. We understand the suggested scale is receiving sympathetic consideration by various education authorities. The report contains detailed accounts of the activities of the different branches of the association throughout the country, and these provide satisfactory evidence of a widespread desire to improve the teaching of the important practical subjects with which the members are particularly concerned. an SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Royal Society, February 4.-Sir William Crookes, associated with line spectra, and can be represented by the usual formulæ involving the Rydberg constant. Nine bands of the main series, and four of the second fainter series, have been identified. (2) The two series may be likened to the principal and diffuse series in the case of line spectra, but the usual relation between such series is not certainly indicated, and no equivalent of the sharp series has yet been traced. (3) The doublet separations are not in accordance with those associated with line spectra; they diminish in passing along the series, but do not vanish at the limit. No regularity in the arrangement of the single bands has been recognised.T. R. Merton: The spectra of ordinary lead and lead of radio-active origin. Wave-length measurements have been made of some of the principal spectrum lines of ordinary lead and the lead in pitchblende residues. It might reasonably 'be expected that small differences in the wave-lengths would be found, more especially in the case of any lines which belong to doublet or triplet series, since, according to the views of Prof. Hicks, an atomic weight term enters exactly into the separations of such doublets or triplets. No series have yet been discovered in the spectrum of lead, but it is probable that they exist, and an estimate of the order of the differences of wave-length to be expected, according to Prof. Hicks's views, is given. No differences of this order have been observed, the spectra taken in juxtaposition showing no differences of wave-length, whilst the wave-length measurements of seven of the most prominent lines in the two leads agree to 0-03 Å.U. A special comparison of the line λ=4058 A.U. with the interferometer shows that the wave-lengths of this line in the ordinary and radio-active lead are identical to within 0.003 A.U.-A. O. Rankine: The viscosity of the vapour of iodine. The paper records the method used by the author for measuring the viscosity of iodine vapour at four different temperatures ranging from 124° C. to 247° C. The basis of the method is the distillation of iodine from one vessel to another through a narrow capillary tube, the temperature of which could be varied. One of the vessels contains solid iodine, and is raised to 100° C., thereby establishing the driving pressure. The other vessel is immersed in a freezing mixture, so that the iodine which is transpired as superheated vapour is condensed there, the mass so transpired being determined by weighing the vessel, which is removable. The method gives, in repeated experiments, very consistent results, and the values obtained may be taken as accurate to about per cent. The range of temperature variation is not large enough to make the results suitable for testing the validity of Sutherland's formula, but it is found that they are, at any rate, not inconsistent with that formula. Physical Society, January 22.-Sir J. J. Thomson, president, in the chair.-Dr. A. Russell: Practical harmonic analysis. Making the assumption that the graph of a periodic function is given, the problem of the best way of determining the Fourier constants in the series equation which represents it is considered. The ordinary method of procedure is to neglect all the harmonics above a certain order and determine the coefficients of the harmonic terms by making the curve represented by this equation pass through a number of arbitrarily selected points on the given curve. This is the method used, for instance, by Runge and Grover. A serious defect in this solution is that the values found for the amplitudes of the harmonics, more especially for the higher harmonics, may be very different from their true Fourier values. The method gives no indication of the magnitude of these errors. Gauss pointed out many years ago that the solution of this limited problem could be written down at once mathematically, and that it was of importance in certain interpolation problems in astronomy. Another method has been suggested recently by Silvanus Thompson. He uses certain series formulæ for finding the Fourier constants. The author suggests other series formulæ of a similar kind, and gives numerical examples to illustrate the accuracy attainable by the use of infinite series formulæ. T. Smith: Measuring the focal length of a photographic lens. The focal length of a compound lens is obtained solely by focussing on the camera screen the image of a distant object on the lens axis by the complete lens and by each of its components separately. One additional focussing of the same object when the separation of the components is altered determines the focal lengths of each component. The method is both accurate and quick, and requires only a camera and the lens. was Challenger Society, January 27.-Dr. G. H. Fowler in the chair.-D. J. Matthews: Hydrographical observations on the ice patrol Scotia in the North Atlantic, 1913. The Scotia cruised in the ice-area from April 9 to August 3, 1913, and crossed the Labrador current fourteen times between the latitude of Hamilton Inlet in 54° N., and the southern part of the Newfoundland Banks in 44° N. Observations of salinity and temperature were made down to a depth of 550 fathoms, including seven complete sections across the current. The Labrador current had a temperature generally below o°, except at the surface, and a salinity of 32.5 to 33.5 per thousand, while the Atlantic water to the eastwards reached 34.5 per thousand or more. The boundary between the two water-masses marked by the isohaline of 34·00 in the region northward of the Banks; further south the conditions were more confused. The characteristic temperature minimum was found in all water of polar origin except on the Banks, where it was disturbed by the shallows. Measurements of currents and of the drift of bergs were made by means of mark buoys, either anchored to a sinker on the bottom or to a drag working at a depth of 1000 fathoms. The velocities observed were all low, generally less than half a mile an hour, and calculations by Bjerknes's method from differences of density gave similar results. Off Cape Race a slow northerly set was observed instead of one of about one mile per hour to the south and west, as is usually experienced here. On the Banks measurements were made with the Ekman current-meter at depths of five and twenty-five fathoms at two stations; the observations were repeated at frequent intervals during thirteen hours, and showed that the current is almost entirely tidal with a very small easterly resultant. Prof. Barnes's observation that the proximity of an iceberg can be detected by a slight rise in the temperature of the water could not be confirmed, as similar rises were recorded when no ice was near.-C. Tate Regan Colour-changes in a flat-fish, Platophrys podas. Linnean Society, February 4.-Prof. E. B. Poulton, president, in the chair.-Ruth C. Bamber: Report on fishes collected by Dr. Crossland from the Sudanese coast of the Red Sea. This collection consists of ninety-one species, of which two are new to science and two others require re-description. Most of the others are typical Red Sea coastal fishes, and were obtained by Dr. Crossland at various localities on the Sudanese coast between Suez and Suakim.-Dr. Marie C. Stopes: A fossil of doubtful affinity. The fossil was found in situ in the Lower Greensand at Luccomb Chine, in a horizon in which a number of new plants as well as the famous Bennettites Gib FEBRUARY 11, 1915] sonianus have been discovered. NATURE The specimen in an transverse section of an area of 20 x 35 cm. shows a MANCHESTER. The pro Literary and Philosophical Society, January 12.—Mr. F. Nicholson, president, in the chair.-Prof. W. H. Lang Studies in the morphology of Isoëtes. Part 2, the analysis of the stele of the shoot of Isoëtes lacustris in the light of mature structure and apical development. The author gives the results of a reexamination of the stele of Isoëtes lacustris, special attention being paid to points disputed or left obscure by previous investigators. From within outwards the following tissues can be distinguished: (1) central column of primary xylem; (2) peripheral zone of xylem, including the bases of the leaf-traces abutting on the central column of xylem; (3) parenchymatous xylem-sheath; (4) primary phloem, continuous with phloem of leaf-trace; (5) secondary prismatic tissue; (6) meristem of the anomalous secondary tissue; (7) cortical tissue. In some stems the meristem and the secondary tissue are completely wanting. cambial tissue immediately behind the growing point gives rise to the central column of primary xylem. The other primary tissues of the stele are differentiated in the inner portion of the radiating rows of procambial cells surrounding the central region; the cortex is derived from the outer portion of this radiating tissue. There is thus a radial seriation of the elements from the outer xylem to the cortex quite The inner independent of any secondary growth. xylem is regarded as centripetal in relation to the poles of the leaf-traces applied to it, these being the only equivalents of protoxylem. The outer xylem lies between and outside the protoxylem poles. It is thus comparable, on the one hand, with the outer primary xylem of the Filicales, and, on the other, corresponds in position to the normal secondary xylem of the Lepidodendreæ. On this view a stele of Isoëtes would contain tissues corresponding to the centripetal primary xylem, the normal secondary xylem, and the anomalous secondary xylem (found in species) of Lepidodendreæ. PARIS. some Academy of Sciences, February 1.-M. Ed. Perrier in the chair.-Armand Gautier: The soldier's ration in The work of Atwater on the heat time of war. actually evolved in the human body by the constituents of food, proteids, fats, and carbohydrates, is This is supplemade the basis of the discussion. mented by data derived from the study of two peasant families carried out over a period of twelve months, of railway workers, and of Belgian agriculturists. The average, in calories, for the daily food ration BOOKS RECEIVED. Series A. Memoirs of the Colombo Museum. Notes on Practical Physics for Junior Students. By Prof. C. G. Barkla and Dr. G. A. Carse. Pp. xii+118. (London: Gurney and Jackson.) 3s. 6d. net. Manual del Entomologo. By P. L. Navas. Pp. 79. (Barcelona: Tipografia Catolica.) Dew-Ponds: History, Observation, and Experiment. By E. A. Martin. Pp. 208. (London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd.) 6s. net. Physical Geography. By P. Lake. Pp. xx+324. (Cambridge University Press.) 7s. 6d. net. and Disposal. By G. B. Sewage Purification x + 340. (Cambridge University Kershaw. Pp. Press.) 12s. net. Mathematical Papers for Admission into the Royal Military Academy and the Royal Military College, September-November, 1914. Edited by R. M. Milne. Pp. 28. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) net. IS. Dynamometers. By Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith. Edited and amplified by C. V. Boys. Pp. xvi+267. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd.) 14s. net. Masonry as Applied to Civil Engineering. By F. Noel Taylor. Pp. xi+230. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd.) 6s. net. Foundations of Plant-Breeding. By Dr. J. M. Coulter. Pp. xiv+347. (New York and Chicago: D. Appleton and Co.) 6s. net. A Guide to the Fossil Remains of Man in the Department of Geology and Palæontology in the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, S.W. Pp. 30. (London: British Museum (Natural History). 4d. University College of North Wales. Calendar for the Session 1914-15. Pp. 404. (Manchester: J. E. Cornish, Ltd.) ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY, at 5.15.-The Magnitude of the Population of England and Wales Available for Emigration: Dr. E. C. Snow. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17. ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 8. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18. ROYAL SOCIETY, at 4.30.-Probable Papers: Gaseous Combustion at High INSTITUTION OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS, at 8.-The "Cracking" Pheasants and Gun-Firing.-Rev. H. Cotton Smith Notes on Stellar Classification.-III. (With Diagrams.) By Sir Norman Lockyer, K. C.B., F.R.S. The Manufacture of Dyestuffs. (Illustrated.) Metals and War. . 643 644 646 647 647 Notes DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY IT. ROYAL SOCIETY, at 4.30.-Lepidostrobus Kentuckiensis, formerly Lepi ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 3.-Nations as Species: Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell. ROVAL SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 4.30.-Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley: ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 3.-Muscle in the Service of Nerve: Prof. C. S. Sherrington. 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