successional cheek-teeth. Such independent developments seem, however, in the highest degree improbable.

The fact that in the existing thylacine the epipubic bones do not ossify may perhaps be held to indicate that a similar condition obtained in the Miocene sparassodonts, although such a loss is improbable in these early forms, more especially as one of them is considered to have been partially arboreal. Be this as it may, it is quite clear (unless we again admit a series of independent developments) that the sparassodonts cannot be regarded as belonging to a grade of marsupials in which these bones had not yet been evolved, because we find them fully developed in the Oligocene opossums.

The most important argument of all against the marsupial nature of these Patagonian carnivores is, however, one derived from the nature of the enamel of their teeth, which does not appear to have come under the author's notice. According to the observations of Mr. C. S. Tomes (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1906, p. 45) the enamel of the sparassodont teeth is histologically identical with that of creodonts and modern carnivores, and quite unlike that of all marsupials.

Seeing, then, that sparassodonts, which are later in age than certain undoubted marsupials, differ from existing carnivorous marsupials as a whole in the minute structure of their dental enamel, by the lack of epipubic bones, the absence of unossified spaces in the floor of the skull, and apparently by the larger number of successional premolars, it seems improbable that they are really members of that group. On the other hand, they resemble creodonts in their complete palates, in the absence of epipubic bones, and to a great degree as regards the replacement of the cheek-teeth, while it is highly probable that many of the cranial characters referred to as being marsupial may really be primitive ones. The one essentially marsupial feature is the presence, in some cases, of four pairs of upper incisors.

On the whole, therefore, it seems advisable to regard the Patagonian carnivores as creodonts showing a tendency (it may or may not be parallelism) towards the marsupial type. That creodonts, sparassodonts, and carnivorous marsupials are, however, related groups, and that the former are not improbably the oldest and most primitive of all known mammals (perhaps directly descended in Gondwanaland" from anomodont reptiles), appears almost certain. And it may further be suggested that these early creodonts have developed in one direction towards the sparassodont type, in a second towards the carnivorous marsupials, while in a third line they have developed into the modern Carnivora. Beyond this it seems at present impossible to go.

44

It should be added that the present writer was at one time of opinion that sparassodonts were marsupials.

R. L.

THE GODS OF HEALING OF THE EGYPTIANS

AND GREEKS.

DR. R. CATON recently delivered a short course of lectures on the above subject in connection with the Institute of Archæology at the University of Liverpool. After referring to the works on medicine written by Athosis, the son of Menes, and also by the Pharaohs, Usaphais and Semti in very early times, he described briefly the cults of Isis, Serapis, Thoth, and I-em-hotep, and gave a short account of the temples in which the work of healing took place. Of these, quite the most important was the temple of I-em-hotep at Memphis. All these shrines of healing are destroyed, excepting the small temple of I-em-hotep on the island of Philæ. Dr. Caton referred to the large number of medicinal agents used by the Egyptians, and to the practice of incubation or temple sleep. In the temples of Isis and Serapis, and probably in the more important shrines of I-em-hotep, the sick slept in or adjacent to the temples, in the belief that the god would manifest himself to them or speak to them in dream or vision, and suggest the method of cure. Such dreams or visions were interpreted by the priest, and the treatment adopted was supposed to be founded in accordance

with them. Sometimes no dream was vouchsafed, or no interpretation could be drawn from it bearing on the disease; in that case the priest did the dreaming, The priests of I-em-hotep had also to do with the embalming of the body, and, partly through this, they acquired a considerable knowledge of anatomy, and learned certain facts regarding the circulation of the blood. Some of the medical papyri contain remarkable details as to the bloodvessels and the movement of the blood; probably the Greeks obtained from them all the knowledge they possessed on this subject.

In Greece and Magna Græcia various gods and demigods were supposed to possess medical powers. Men Karon at Laodicea was a health god much in vogue in Asia Minor, and a large medical school was associated with his temple.

Apollo, Amynos, Asklepios, Hygeia, Amphiaraus, Trophonios, Aphrodite, and the Chthonic deities Pluto, Demeter, Persephone, and others of lesser importance-were. eminent for their health-giving efficacy in Greece. Of these, the cult of Asklepios was by far the most important. At numerous splendid temples, rich with the finest products of Greek art, the worship of the god and the cure of the sick were carried on for centuries.

Epidaurus was perhaps the most important of these shrines; it was a centre from which the cult was disseminated through other parts of Greece and the colonies. Trained priests, and also the sacred serpents, which were believed to be the incarnation of the god, were sent thence to carry on the work of healing in such places as Athens, Corinth, Delphi, Pergamon, Cnidos, Rhodes, Cos, and many other cities.

In all, incubation was the initial step and the guide! as to treatment. Probably the people would have had no confidence in the methods used but for the belief that the god himself had suggested them; even the priests themselves may in part have been believers. Many of the priests were physicians, who in the course of ages compiled much valuable information; they possessed useful! methods of treatment in regard to rest, to diet, to the remedial use of exercise and of baths, and medicines. The ritual was beautiful and impressive, and their practice seems to have been humane in all respects except one. The god and his priests must have no dealings with death or with birth. If either were impending, the unhappy patient was at once expelled from the holy precinct. Not until the time of the Antonines were the special houses of Birth and of Death " provided, external to the precinct

for these two classes of sufferers.

At Cos the influence of Hippocrates seems to have been directed always towards the effacement of superstition and the founding of medicine on truth and fact alone. His influence seems to have had no effect as regards the prac-i tice of incubation, for it continued through Pagan and into Christian times.

As the East was Christianised the cult of Asklepios was the last to disappear, but the healing went on in the same manner (excepting that the sacred serpents seem to have vanished). The Panagia, or a Christian saint, took the place of Asklepios, and incubation went on unchanged. The practice spread over large parts of Europe, and was even to be found in England during the Dark Ages.

It still exists on many of the islands and on some of the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. Details of the ancient and modern practice of incubation are to be found in the writings of Dr. Rouse and Miss Hamilton, who have both devoted close attention to this curious usage.

An interesting feature of the life of these ancient health resorts was the provision made for the entertainment and amusement of the sick visitors. A great open-air theatre was always at their disposal, where the works of the Greek dramatists would wile away many an hour of weariness and languor.

In later times an Odeon, or music-hall, was sometimes provided. The races of the stadium and the exercises of the gymnasium and palæstra would be good for many of the youthful convalescents to take part in, and amusing for others to witness. The health temples were usually placed in elevated situations, where pure mountain breezes would invigorate the visitant, and pure, fresh water was

The paper as printed supplies information as to the. basis for the determination of the heights of the snowpeaks, fourteen of which were climbed by the Duke. With one exception, they all depend on observations with the mercurial barometer referred to Bujongolo as a lower. station, which again was linked with Fort Portal, and through this with Entebbe, by barometer readings as nearly simultaneous as possible. Some of the heights above Bujongolo were also fixed by Captain Cagni by vertical angles, the results agreeing closely with those of the baro-. meter observations. The Duke's figures are mostly about. 100 feet to 200 feet-in excess of those derived from Captain Behrens's triangulation, and it is possible that when the altitude of Fort Portal above the Victoria lake has been

Moore Gla ier

in the February number of the Geographical Journal, accompanied by a small selection of Signor Sella's striking photographs. One of these, showing the highest summits of the range, we are enabled to reproduce herewith by the courtesy of the editor of that journal. The twin peaks in the background on the left are the culminating points of the whole range, named by the Duke after the queens of Italy and England. They belong to the group of peaks named by him Mount Stanley, while the remaining summits shown in the photograph form together the group to which the name Mount Baker is applied, the highest point of which is King Edward Peak (the most central in the picture). As is well shown, the two massifs (like the whole six' which constitute the snowy portion of the range) are separated by a comparatively deep depression, to which the name Scott Elliot Pass has been given by the Duke.

fixed trigonometrically, a small correction will have to be applied throughout. The general accordance in the heights of the six separate massifs is somewhat striking, none falling below 15,000 feet, while the highest point of all is only 16,816 feet. None of the peaks offers any serious difficulties to the climber, for the Duke says that the obstacles met with during the ascent of the Queen Margherita peak could have been avoided by another route.

The Duke's conclusions as to the geological history of. the range were summarised in our former article, but it may be added here that attention is directed to the probable existence of internal fractures traversing the whole range in a generally north-south direction, which would account for the separation of the several groups of summits. The general hydrographic system can be grasped from the

ゴ

rough sketch accompanying our former report, which shows how the Bujuku derives its supplies from a much larger part of the snowy area than does the stream hitherto considered to be the upper course of the Mobuku. The Duke was not able to define so clearly the drainage on the side of the Semliki, but he says that the streams flowing west from the four main passes leading in that direction all unite to form the Butagu, the valley of which has been the usual Era line of approach to the snows on this side. In the Ice age the whole of the valleys of the Bujuku, Mobuku, and Mahoma (south of, and parallel to, the Mobuku) were filled with glaciers of the first order, which must have united and descended the Mobuku valley for some distance. Similarly, glaciers descending from the three southernmost of the groups must have united to form a great westward-flowing ice-stream. At present the lowest point reached by a glacier (that which feeds the Mobuku) is 13,682 feet. The permanent snows are included in a circle ten miles in diameter.

It should be mentioned that the Royal Geographical Society proposes to apply the Duke's name to the most southerly of the snowy massifs, instead of that. of Thomson, who himself never saw Ruwenzori, important as his work was for the general opening up of this part of East Africa.

farm-lands. The peril became so great in 1906 that a huge dam was constructed on the delta, in order to compel the Colorado River to return to its former route into the Gulf of California. Mr. Davis's account of this titanic struggle the printer makes him speak of "herculanean efforts "-forms very interesting reading. The dam having: been completed last November, it was estimated that the enlarged "Salton Sea" would dry up in about twelve years; but in December the water of the Colorado worked its way round the dam, and resumed its rush into the Imperial Valley.

The great cataract in the New River was in January eating its way backward, that is to say southward, at the rate of a mile in three days, with a width of some 1700 yards and a fall of 100 feet. The farms in the Imperial Valley are unable to avail themselves of the water so copiously

MAN AND SUPERMAN.

MR. ARTHUR J. DAVIS, of the U.S.

Reclamation Service, describes in the National Geographic Magazine for January the startling changes that are now taking. place in the region north of the Gulf of California. For 150 miles from the apex of the gulf, an area of delta and alluvium and old sea-bottom extends to the north-west between the mountains. The upper part of this basin forms the Imperial Valley, and lies in the territory of the United States. Below the Mexican frontier, the Colorado River, emerging from the hills, has built up a huge alluvial barrier above the level of the land to the north of it. This in its growth cut off the head of the ancient gulf, and led to the gradual disappearance of the water by evaporation.

The Imperial Valley thus came into existence, with part of its floor 300 feet below the level of the adjacent sea, and a variable lake without an outlet, the Salton Sink, at its northern end. From time to time the Colorado River, in seasons of flood, has diverted itself from the elevated delta into the Salton Sink, and the lake has grown in consequence. At other times it has banked itself out of this region, has flowed again into the Gulf of California, and has left its temporary northward-running channels, the Alamo and New Rivers, practically dry and sand-filled.

The ease with which the northern lowland could be irrigated led to the formation of a canal about seven years ago. Its mouth, however, became silted up, and a spot was then selected above a steeper slope, where the velocity of the water leaving the Colorado was greater and more effective. In May, 1905, however, the first serious flood-waters deepened this new channel, and supplied far more water northward than was required. The "Salton Sea " rose rapidly, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. along its margin was equally rapidly moved to higher ground. Striking alterations occurred in the old valley-floors as they were invaded, and the cataract of the New River, cutting its way back to the frontier town of Calexico, flowed there in a channel 45 feet below the level of the

supplied, since it lies below their level; a great inland sea is arising, and dispossessing the railroad and the people whom it serves; and the probability of the diversion of the whole Colorado River northward threatens to deprive of water the settlers in Arizona and Mexico from the Grand Cañon down to the Gulf of California. It needs the

philosophic spirit of a Lyell to regard physiographic changes of such magnitude with admiration rather than 'dismay.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATION.IL INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD.-Lord Curzon was elected Chancellor of the University on Thursday, March 14. The votes recorded were:-Lord Curzon, 1101; Lord Rosebery, 440. There are 6576 members of Convocation, so that about onequarter of them came to Oxford to vote. Lord Curzon was a commoner of Balliol, afterwards a fellow of All Souls, and he gained the Lothian and Arnold prizes. He received an hon. D.C.L. in 1904 on the occasion of the late Chancellor's installation.

The statute brought forward in Congregation on May 12 to provide an official residence for the Savilian professor of astronomy adjoining the observatory in the parks was lost by 55 votes to 156. In the course of the debate on the proposal, the Warden of All Souls', one of the Radcliffe trustees, stated that the trustees would welcome a scheme for the cooperation of the University and Radcliffe Observatories.

CAMBRIDGE.-A lecture will be given by Sir Frederick Lely on "The Practical Side of Famines in India" on Wednesday, April 24, at 5.30 p.m., in the museum of archæology. The lecture will be open to members of the University and others who are interested in the Indian Empire.

THE King of Spain has, La Nature reports, created a 'chair of automobilism at l'École des Arts et Sciences at Madrid. The professor will be expected to give all the practical and theoretical instruction young chauffeurs require.

A PARAGRAPH referring to the Indian Institute of Science appeared in the Pioneer Mail a few weeks ago, and was printed in an abridged form in these columns. Dr. Morris W. Travers, F.R.S., director of the institute, writes to say that he has had numerous applications for admission to the institute, so the statement in the Pioneer Mail, that it will be difficult to obtain students, is scarcely correct. As to the standard required for degrees in Indian universities, Dr. Travers remarks:-" It is true that I have expressed disappointment at the standard of the work required for degrees in the Indian universities, and am of the opinion that the practical teaching is quite inadequate. I have met only one research student, and have heard of one other.

A CONFERENCE on the teaching of hygiene and temperance in the universities and schools of the British Empire will be held in London on St. George's Day, April 23. The conference is convened by a committee formed to stimulate general interest in the scientific teaching of hygiene and tenperance as an integral basis of national education, and to bring before the country during the visit of the Colonial Premiers information as to what is being done in various parts of the Empire.. Among the members of the committee are Sir Lauder Brunton, Sir Thomas Batlow, Sir Victor Horsley, Mr. Mayo Robson, Dr. Claude Taylor, and Prof. Sims Woodhead. Further information and tickets of admission to the conference may be obtained from the honorary organising secretary, Miss St. John Wileman, 11 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square.

A RECENT article in the Pioneer of Allahabad deals with the work and usefulness of the Thomason Civil Engineering College at Roorkee, United Provinces, which is the leading engineering college in India. In 1891 the college was transferred from the Public Works Department to the Education Department, affiliated to Allahabad University, and its educational staff strengthened on the purely scientific side. The Government of the United Provinces has decided again to extend the college, and the improvements will call for an expenditure of three and a half lakhs. The important part which a properly organised technical institution may play in industrial development should be borne in mind when the extensions or changes at Roorkee are under consideration. Higher technical education is, of course, costly to provide, but the development of technical institutions on broad scientific lines is an urgent need in India, and in endeavouring to meet it the close relation

between pure and applied science must be remembered. It is to be hoped that further developments at Roorkee will continue along the lines proved to be successful at home, and result in, a,strengthening of Thomason College and other Indian educational institutions.

THE Council of King's College, London, with the assent of its court, has concluded an agreement by which the departments of the college dealing with arts, laws, science, engineering, and medicine (preliminary and intermediate studies) are to be incorporated in the University of London on terms similar to those recently adopted in the case of University College. An indispensable condition to the incorporation of the college is the raising of a sum of 125,000l. Of the sum in question, 22,000l. is needed to pay off the debt on the college, 37,000l. to pay off the debt on King's College School, which will thereafter be placed under separate government, and 66,000l. to form an endowment fund and enable the college to occupy the whole of its premises. An appeal is being made to the public to provide this amount. The appeal has been endorsed by the Senate of the University of London, and already encouraging promises of support have been given. The Goldsmiths' Company and the Clothworkers' Company have each given 5000l. In addition to the 125,000l., the council asks for 20,000l. for the endowment of the theological department. Donations may be given generally to the fund in aid of the incorporation of King's College in the University of London, or else to any of the specific objects above mentioned. No sum will be devoted to the theological department unless specially given for that purpose.

THE eleventh annual distribution of prizes and certificates to the students of the day college and evening classes of the South-Western Polytechnic, Chelsea, took place on March 15. In the unavoidable absence of the Lord Chief

Justice (Lord Alverstone), Sir Owen Roberts presented the awards. The principal, in the course of his report on the session 1905-6, spoke of the satisfactory character of the work carried on, and directed special attention to the large increase of student entries in the natural science department. He referred to the need which existed for more continuous work on the part of the students, and instanced the fact that during last session the average hours worked by each adult student in the day classes was only 234, or the equivalent of eight weeks' full work out of thirty-six weeks possible. The institute's record in respect of examination honours and degrees had been well maintained. The equipment of the various departments had been largely increased, and was being rapidly brought up to the standard of modern requirements. Sir Owen Roberts, in addressing the students, expressed satisfaction at the close relationship between the institute and London University. He urged the desirability, in the case of persons actively engaged, of some study to take them by the scheme of work carried out in the institute. outside their ordinary occupation, and which was provided

THE inaugural lecture of the new Sibthorpian professor in the University of Oxford develops a plea for the reconsideration of agriculture by the University. Although Dr. Somerville has been appointed professor of rural economy, his present duty is to lecture upon forest botany, and he makes it clear that this is not his own interpretation of the term Irural economy. Those who read this lecture will agree that a good case is made out for agriculture as a university subject. Dr. Somerville, as becomes a new professor, 'contents himself with making suggestions. Outsiders interested in the development of agriculture will probably wish that it had been possible to make demands, for it is surely time that Oxford was doing something for agriculture. The first page of this lecture tells us that Sibthorp endowed the chair in 1796; we read further that for a century it was the only university chair of its kind in England; but when, after following Dr. Sonierville's account of the progress of agricultural education' during this century, we pause and ask what Oxford's share has been, we find that it has been practically nil. Occasional lectures have been given, and once or twice attempts have been made to introduce an agricultural course, but the University has rejected the schemes of the advocates of agriculture; and now, 110

www

years after Sibthorp's foundation, Oxford's new professor is pointing out that while sixteen of the twenty-five university graduates recently appointed to the Indian Agri- | cultural Department have been trained in Cambridge and Edinburgh, "Oxford has not supplied a single candidate for these Imperial posts. We should like to urge reconsideration of the subject on other grounds. Agriculture needs the support of the English universities, and in the past it has suffered through their neglect. By her influence on the young landowners who pass through her colleges Oxford might make her teaching felt on many an English

Estate.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
LONDON.

Chemical Society, March 7.-Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-The constitution of chaulmoogric B. and hydnocarpic acids: M. Barrowcliff and F. C Power. A study of the oxidation products of chaulmoogric acid leads to the conclusion that it exists in a state of tautomerism between 1-a-carboxy-n-dodecyl-A1-cyclopentene Hydnoand 1-a-carboxy-n-dodecyl-1 : 4-bicyclopentane. carpic acid, CH2O2. is a homologue of chaulmoogric acid. Its constitution may accordingly be represented by the following formula :—

2

28

-lydrolysis of amygdalin by acids: R. J. Caldwell and S. L. Courtauld. The authors have studied the action of that of enzymes on acids in comparison with

of

this

on

of

In another form

bioside," and the results show that though amygdalin is ultimately resolved by acids into hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde, and two molecular proportions of glucose, the By separation of the glucose is effected in two stages. carefully hydrolysing amygdalin by means of a normal solution of hydrogen chloride at 60°, the authors have prepared mandelonitrile glucoside.-Mandelonitrile glucosides. Prulaurasin: R. J. Caldwell and S. L. Courtauld. Fischer's glucoside bears the same relation to prulaurasin as amygdalin bears to the isoamygdalin described by Dakin, which is to be regarded as the derivative of inactive mandelonitrile, amygdalin and Fischer's glucoside being derived from i-mandelonitrile. Sambunigrin must be regarded d-mandelonitrile. The the B-glucoside as The hydrolysis of amygdalin by emulsin: S. J. M. Auld. hydrolysis of amygdalin by emulsin may proceed in three ways, depending on the mode of attachment of the emulsin. The experiments so far carried out by the author indicate that benzaldehydecyanohydrin and the aß-disaccharide are formed, and the latter then resolves into two molecules of dextrose. Electrolytic reduction, part iii.: H. D. Law. The products of electrolytic reduction of the aromatic aldehydes in alkaline solution are compounds of the hydrobenzoin type, but this reaction is completely altered when a methyl group is substituted in the ortho or meta position of the benzene nucleus. Compounds of a resinous nature are obtained in the latter case.--New cerium salts: G. T. Morgan and E. Cahen. The aromatic sulphonates of this element are usually soluble, crystalline compounds resembling the thorium sulphonates previously described by one of the authors.-Volume changes, which accompany transformations in the system Na,S,O: 5H.O: H. M. Dawson and C. G. Jackson. The changes, which take place in the system Na,S203: 5H2O when subjected to certain temperature variations, have been investigated by the dilatometric method.-Depression of the freezing point of aqueous solutions of hydrogen peroxide by potassium, persulphate and other compounds: T. S. Price. Potassium persulphate causes a less molecular depression of the freezing point of aqueous solutions of hydrogen peroxide than it does of water, and the conclusion is drawn that an unstable compound is formed in solution:-The formation and reactions of imino-compounds, part iii., the

Deslandres.

The

PARIS. Academy of Sciences, Maren 11.M. Herri Becquerel in the chair. Some details of the spectroheliograph: H.. Remarks on a recent paper by M. Millochau in the Comptes rendus. Many of the details described by M. Millochau as new have been used by the author for years, and further details of working are now added.—A new contribution to the study of the stinging flies of intertropical Africa: A. Laveran. A detailed account of the various species found in the districts of Senegal, Mauritania, the Upper Senegal and Niger, French Guinea, the Congo Free State, and Mozambique. The direct dehydration of dimethyl-isopropyl carbinol: Louis Henry. dehydration of this alcohol might be expected to give rise to pure tetramethylethylene, and it was with this objecti in view that the experiments were carried out. The re-.. action proved to be not quite so simple, the fractionation of the hydrocarbons obtained by the action of acetic anhydride upon the alcohol giving tetramethylethylene and methyl-isopropylethylene, the former hydrocarbon being about three-quarters of the total product. Some new results obtained in the detection and estimation of methane: Nestor Gréhant. an An improvement of apparatus previously described.-The perpetual secretary announced the death of François Joseph Herrgott, correspondant for the section of medicine and surgery. A new comet: M. Giacobini (see p. 498). The elastic deformations which leave invariable the lengths of a tripleinfinity of right lines: G. Konigs.-Waves of shock and combustion. The stability of the explosive wave: MM. Crussard and Jouguet. It is assumed that the combus-.. tion is incomplete in the wave, but is completed behind adiabatically and reversibly according to the law of dissociation, and the consequences of this assumption are worked out. The conditions of formation of electrified centres of feeble mobility in gases: Maurice de Broglie. Experiments on carbon monoxide flames and flames containing hydrogen lead to the conclusion that the presence of centres of feeble mobility in the gases issuing. from flames appears to be related to the production in the flame of solid or liquid products, or to the presence of some centres previously existing in the normal state in the atmo,