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the only instance, so far as we know, in which a number of contiguous societies 'have united into a connected group, though other societies occasionally have excursions in

common.

We regret to say that since our list was published, we have ascertained that two of the Yorkshire Societies named therein, are now defunct, viz. the Halifax Naturalists' Society, once a member of the West Riding Union, and the Leeds Natural History Society. We have been told that the Wigan Field Naturalists' Scientific Society, given in Sir Walter Elliot's list, with 150 members, is also dead. We hope that in reality these are not dead, but only sleeping; and that means may soon be taken to rouse them again into activity.

Altogether, then, including the Lancashire Societies not in our list, and others of which we have heard since our

list was published, one of which was founded at Ballymena, County Antrim, the result, we believe, of some lectures there last winter, there are at the present time in Great Britain and Ireland at least 169 associations established solely or partly for the pursuit of science in one form or another. Of these 104 are professedly field-clubs,

while a considerable number of the remainder do fieldclub work in so far as the publication of lists of the natural productions of their surrounding districts are concerned. Only 22 of these 169 societies were founded previous to 1830, while all the field-clubs were formed after that year, and by far the greater number of them within the last twenty-three years. We do not reckon among these the scientific societies which have been formed in connection with our public schools, to which we shall refer afterwards.

MARSHALL'S TODAS OF SOUTH INDIA
A Phrenologist amongst the Todas; or, the Study of a
Primitive Tribe in South India. By William E.
Marshall, Lieut.-Col. of H.M. Bengal Staff Corps.
(Longmans, 1873.)

THE

HE Todas are a pastoral hill-tribe in the Nilagiri region of Southern India, whose singularly interesting social condition fairly entitled them to be described in a volume by themselves. Colonel Marshall succeeds in communicating to his readers the lively interest he felt in his work, and several points of ethnology will be perceptibly advanced by it, notwithstanding much of the theoretical part of the book which will hardly meet with acceptance.

Especially from the moralist's point of view, the condition of these secluded herdsmen deserved to be put on record while still little changed under influences from without. They show perfectly how the milder virtues naturally prevail among men in an intellectually childlike state, if only society is undisturbed from without, and finds its equilibrium within. "The general type of the Toda character is most unvarying; singularly frank, affable, and self-possessed, cheerful yet staid ;" theft and violence are almost absent among them; their quiet domestic life is "undisturbed by the wrongs of grasping, vindictive, overbearing natures;" their engagements to support their wives and children, though resting on mere promises, are kept through utter guilelessness and want of talent to plot. Toda society is simply held together by the strength of family affection. "It is a quiet, undemonstrative, bu intensely domestic people; domestic in the wider sense of viewing the entire family, to the last cousin, much as one household, in which everyone is everywhere entirely at home; each one assisting, with the steadiness of a caterpillar, in the easy, progressive task of emptying his neighbour's larder; no one exerting himself by one fraction to raise the family. The great feature in Toda organisation, is the all-absorbing power of his domestic attachments, which, like Pharaoh's lean kine, swallow up all other qualities." The points where the moral code of these easy-going folk differs from that of modern intuitive moralists, are especially polyandry and infanticide. Their

nearly approached than those of any other known tribe that promiscuity which several modern ethnologists have supposed to belong to a primitive state of society; "it was formerly their almost universal custom-in the

Of these societies the English ones are mainly grouped in the North of England, along the Welsh border, and in the southern counties, the midland district being but sparsely represented, and Bedfordshire,* Derbyshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire, Rutlandshire, not at all, not to mention the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which would afford opportunities to field-clubs which cannot be attained in the main island at all. Glamorganshire is the only Welsh county represented by a society, while all but three of the Irish counties are unrepresented. Scotland, the birthplace of field-clubs, we have already referred to as being far be-marriage-relations within the family have perhaps more hind England in this respect. Ireland, and even Wales, cannot perhaps at present be blamed for their backwardness in regard to associations of this kind, though each country, in its own way, offers a magnificent field of investigation to local naturalists. With regard to the un-days when women were more scarce than they are now— occupied districts of England and Scotland, we can only hope that the scientific contagion may rapidly spread, as no doubt it will when all the conditions are present for its taking effect. Meanwhile, the rapid spread of scientific societies, and especially field-clubs, and the valuable results that have already followed from the labours of a number of them, must be exceedingly gratifying to all who desire to see the triumph of science, and, indeed, to all who are earnestly seeking after the elevation of their fellow-men. Is it not one more sign that "the old order changeth, yielding place to new?"

By a misprint in our last article the Woolhope was said to be in Bedfordshire instead of Herefordshire.

mand, having wife, children, and cattle all in common." for a family of near relations to live together in one

Here, indeed, is socialism of an extreme order, prevailing among a low race, in whose general condition its evi and good are alike visible. As need hardly be said, to the Toda mind polyandry seems part of the natural order of things. So it was with infanticide, till about fifty years ago an English officer, Mr. Sullivan, mounted the Nilagiri plateau and visited the homes of the Todas. Since then all the events of Toda history have been dated from the

visit of "Sullivan Dore," as we date from the Christian era, and thenceforward the Government put down infanticide, and its former prevalence is now only to be traced in the census, and learnt from the memory of old people.

An aged Toda gave his account of the practice :-" I don't know whether it was wrong or not to kill them, but we were very poor, and could not support our children. Now every one has a mantle ('putkuli'), but formerly there was only one for the whole family, and he who had to go out took the mantle, the rest remaining naked at home, naked all but the loin-cloth (kuvn'). We did not kill them to please any god, but because it was our custom. The mother never nursed the child-no, never! and the parents did not kill it. How could we do so? Do you think we could kill it ourselves? . . Boys were never killed, only girls; not those who were sickly and deformed—that would be a sin (' papum'); but when we had one girl, or in some families two girls, those that followed were killed."

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Perhaps the ablest part of Colonel Marshall's work is his tracing out of the social forces which brought about this condition of society, the enforced equilibrium between population and means of subsistence, leading a tenderhearted people to systematic female infanticide, and then causing a huddling together of the endogamous polyandrous clans to keep themselves alive. It is no doubt true that the entrance of new conditions, such as a state of war or an advance in the arts, would have altered not only the relation of the sexes but also the moral laws of the people. Colonel Marshall's researches were especially suggested and guided by Mr. M'Lennan's "Primitive Marriage," and if a new edition is brought out of that important treatise (now out of print and scarce), the Todas will supply some items of valuable evidence to it, bearing on ancient social conditions of mankind.

Care must be taken, however, to interpret with proper reservation the word "primitive," as used in these inquiries. Colonel Marshall calls the Todas a "primitive tribe," and argues from their customs to the condition of "primitive races," nor is this objectionable if the word be meant only to signify a comparatively early stage of society. But the Todas are by no means primitive as representing the earliest known grades of civilisation: they are not savages, but a pastoral tribe in a condition much above savagery, belonging to the great Dravidian race of South India. Among them, moreover, may be noticed certain curious customs, to be accounted for on the principle of "survival in culture," and being apparently relics of a former condition of the race different from the present. The Todas are not now hunters, nor do they use bows and arrows. But, at a certain time after marriage, the Toda husband and wife go into the village wood, and kneeling before a lamp at the foot of a tree, the wife receives from the husband a bow and arrow made by him, which she salutes by lowering her forehead to them. Taking up the weapons, she asks, “What is the name of your bow?" each clan apparently having a different name for its bow; he tells her the name, and afterwards she deposits the bow and arrow at the foot of the tree. Colonel Marshall can hardly be wrong in his supposition that this custom has come down from a former period when the Todas actually carried such weapons. This is also confirmed by their funeral rites, where among the articles burnt for the dead man are a flute (an instrument they never use), and a toy bow and arrows, which they get made for the purpose by their neighbours the Kotas. When the author got a man to buy him one, the Kota who made it asked

"Who is dead?" The inference is obvious, that the Todas were hunters before they took to their absolutely pastoral life. Nowadays, their cattle are all in all to them; not only their life but their religion turns on buffalo; the milkman is a divine personage too holy to be touched; the most sacred objects are certain ancient cow-bells, and the dignity of the sacred bell-cows is handed down from mother-cow to daughter-cow. The keeping up of this sacred heritage in the female line leads Col. Marshall to infer, at any rate ingeniously, that he has found here a relic of ancient days when the rule of kinship on the mother's side (which he considers with Mr. M'Lennan to characterise primitive society) still prevailed; it only now holds good of bulls and cows, while among men and women relationship is on the male side, thus following the rule which is considered to belong to a higher stage of society. It is not a new idea that the worship of the cow in Egypt and India had its origin not in myth but in practical expediency, being craftily devised to prevent the lives of such valuable creatures being wasted. But nowhere does this argument look so complete and rational as among those thoroughgoing devotees of the milk-can, the Todas.

It is to be feared that the title of Col. Marshall's volume may prevent its having all the popularity it deserves. Not that this title is misleading, for he accepts and uses confidently the now discredited phrenological system of bumps and organs, and tabulates his series of Toda skulls according to their Concentrativeness, Amativeness, Veneration, &c. On this classification by phrenological organs he founds a theory as to the relation between civilisation and the shape of the skull. It appears, from his description, that the Todas are a uniformly longskulled race, though, among his dimensions, I fail to find anywhere the actual measurements of cranial length and breadth, and can only guess from the portraits (which, by the way, are beautiful autotypes), that the proportions of these two diameters may perhaps be something like 100: 72 or 75 Now these dolichocephalic Todas being a kindly, harmless, indolent, unprogressive race, Col. Marshall proceeds to connect their narrowness of skull with their want of active energetic qualities, the phrenological organs of which are placed at the side of the head. Thus he comes to the conclusion that it is the brachycephalic tribes, with their skulls broadened by the fierce conquering and progressive organs, which come to the front in the march of civilisation. Well, no doubt there are various dolichocephalic tribes who have remained at low stages of culture, but how is it in the northern half of Asia, the abode of the broadest-headed tribes of man, whom nevertheless the comparatively long-headed Russians have for ages been beating with one hand and civilising with the other. Prof. Carl Vogt's treatment of the question is on a far broader basis, where in a few lines of one of his lectures he shows that both the extreme dolichocephalic and brachycephalic tribes are savages or barbarians, while the main work of civilisation has been done by people who are neither the one nor the other, the mesaticephalic or intermediate-headed races, such as ourselves. This is one of the points which make the reader regret that Col. Marshall did not keep his book waiting till he could bring his opinions under discussion at the Anthropological Institute or the Asiatic Society, which might have

led him to modify his views in several ways. As it is, his preface is dated from Faizabad, and in it he describes himself as "a solitary Indian, far away from contact with men of science, but fresh from the actual and impressive presence of Nature's children.'" These words account for the freshness and vigour of his style, but they must not be taken to imply that his examination was made without want of knowledge of anthropology. So far from this, one of the great excellencies of the volume lies in showing how much more deeply an observer sees into the life of an uncivilised people, when he is engaged in examining evidence for and against current ethnological theories, than when he goes as a mere traveller, setting down at random anything that takes his attention. EDWARD B. TYLOR

OUR BOOK SHELF

An Elementary Treatise on Geometrical Conic Sections. By G. Richardson, M.A. (Rivington, 1873.) THIS is one of the volumes of the publisher's Mathematical Series, is very well printed, and has, if we are not mistaken, only three trivial misprints. There is quite a run at the present time on this subject, if we may judge by the number of treatises which have recently made their appearance, and this we are not altogether surprised at, as it is one of great interest; its theorems have great intrinsic beauty and almost boundless applications. The ordinary propositions are discussed not altogether in the usual order of consecution from the locus-point of view (the last chapter of four pages being devoted to the cone); the demonstrations are neat, and two or three are exceedingly concise as well. The only or chief novelty is the simultaneous treatment of the ellipse and the hyperbola, the corresponding propositions facing one another on the even and odd pages respectively. The discussion of the asymptotic properties of the latter curve pairs off against a series of propositions on projections. The book is a good working one for beginners, and embraces sufficient for the preliminary examination for mathematical honours at Cambridge, without having too much for school use. There is an extensive selection of exercises. R. T.

Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances. A Synopsis of progress made in their economic utilisation during the last quarter of a century, at home and abroad. By P. L. Simmonds. (London: Hardwicke, 1873.)

MR. SIMMONDS's book is seasonable in these days, when so much has been done in the utilisation of waste, as showing how very much yet remains to do.

In nearly 500 pages of close print he has drawn attention to a mass of matter almost bewildering in its vastness, and extending to nearly every kind of material in use in civilised communities. We cannot help noticing that Mr. Simmonds has been affected by the mass of subjects he has attempted, for the book very frequently displays a considerable lack of arrangement.

The author should look to this in a future edition, in which also the book might be easily and advantageously condensed to a considerable extent.

We must, however, thank the author for the service he does in calling the attention of civilisation to the extravagant, and we might say, "riotous" living with which its substance is wasted.

La Botanique de la Bible. Étude scientifique, historique, litteraire et exégétique des plantes mentionnées dans la Sainte-Ecriture. Par Frédéric Hamilton. 8vo. pp. 220, 25 photographs. (Nice: Eugène Fleurdelys, 1871.) THIS interesting volume will possibly be unknown to the

majority of our readers, and yet we venture to think that, from the beauty of its illustrations and the pleasantness of its style, it may to some of them prove a welcome addition to their knowledge of the subject on which it treats. Not stopping to discuss the nature of those mysterious trees said to have existed in the Garden of Eden, the author divides his subject into two parts. The first treating of the genera and species of which there can be little doubt, such as the pomegranate, almond, cedar, fig, &c.; and the second of those plants or portions of plants about which it is difficult to decide to what genus even they may belong, such as shittim-wood, hyssop, &c. In the first portion of the volume not only are the scientific characters of the plants given, but there is also added a series of references to them from the classics. The photographs are taken from living specimens growing chiefly in the neighbourhood of Nice and Mentone.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Effects of Temperature on Reflex Action

I Do not know if I quite understand Mr. Lewes's objections to my little article in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. He attributes the absence of movements in the case in question to a loss of sensibility to temperature. At first his statement reads as if the loss of sensibility to temperature were But he cannot mean this, due to the removal of the brain. because the whole of my paper starts from the fact that when the toes alone are exposed to gradually heated water, the leg alone is destroyed or depressed by the exposure of the whole is withdrawn. If he means that the sensibility to temperature body to the gradually heated water, and the other "sensibilities" left intact, I do not see how my argument touching the difference between the entire and the brainless frog is affected at all by a limitation of the stimulus to one particular kind. Moreover, in the last observation recorded in my paper it is expressly stated that in the later stages of heating the absence or diminution of reaction towards chemical as well as thermal stimuli was observed. Gradually heated water acts as a very slight stimulus, sulphuric acid (even dilute) is a very strong stimulus; and that the latter suddenly applied, as in the experiment of Goltz referred to by Mr. Lewes, should call forth a reflex action at a time when the former is unable to do so, in no way contradicts my explanation of the absence of movements. A red-hot iron might have been substituted for the sulphuric acid with identical results.

The paper in question had for its object simply the solution of the difficulty why the brainless frog allowed himself to be boiled without moving. In it I carefully avoided entering upon any discussion concerning Sensation (or Consciousness) in the spinal cord. The words movement of volition, that is, a movement carried out by the encephalon,”—“ordinary reflex action, that is, a movement carried out by the spinal cord alone," were purposely chosen. I went so far as to speak of an "intelligent frog" and an "unintelligent reflex action," because we have means of measuring intelligence, and we can speak of a body as being conscious and yet not intelligent. I imagine that if Mr. Lewes and myself were to talk over the matter quietly, he would find that I am not so much at variance with him as he imagines. I feel with him the difficulty of refusing to the protoplasm of a white blood corpuscle, a something which may be ties are not a little increased if, as Mr. Darwin seems to suggest, evolved into (not out of) consciousness. That and like difficulwe regard inherited voluntary acts as the chief instead of the occasional source of reflex actions. Without entering into any long discussion, perhaps I may be permitted to say that in such matters as the movements of a brainless frog, it seems to me there are two things which ought to be kept separate: the investigation into the laws according to which those movements take place, i.., the study of the various nervous mechanisms of the spinal cord, and the question whether those movements, whether the working of those mechanisms, is or is not accompanied by consciousness. As a physiologist I am prepared to busy myself with the first, as I see prospects of success. With regard to the second, I am not prepared to say anything until we have ob

tained some better tokens of consciousness than the greater or
less resemblance of the movements in question to such move-
ments as our conscious selves are in the habit of executing.
M. FOSTER

Meyer's Exploration of New Guinea

he calls the one which he describes a "simple expedient.** I an not aware of any just claim on the part of Mr. Casella to the principle of the invention.

I consider that the practice of instrument makers designating by their names instruments which they have not intentai, is mis reprehensible. ROBERT H. SCOTI

London, Dec. 9

[We have received a letter on this subject also from Mr Casella, but as there is nothing in it bearing on the real point = issue, we do not print it. The above letter from Mr. Sc renders it clear to us, and it will doubtless be also clear to oz Messrs. Negretti and Zambra. We quite agree also with Mi readers, that the whole credit of the double bulb belongs to Scott's closing remarks. This correspondence must now cease -ED.]

The Dutch Photographs of the Eclipse of 1871

ABOUT a year ago Dr. Schellen kindly sent me two paper copies of the Java photograph, one of them was stated to be of the size of the original negative and the other was an enlargement of about ten and a half diameters, with a delicately soft outline and much detail in the corona. On comparing this with the Indian photographs I found that though the outline of the coron corresponded depression for depression with the two Indian series, yet there was great difference in the detail of the lower parts. The question therefore arose, Was such difference to be regarded as proof of enormous change in the corona in the course of about an hour, during the passage of the totality shadow trom India to Java?

FEW persons can have read Dr. Meyer's account of his recent adventurous and very successful journey with more interest than myself; but I confess I was surprised to find that the translator of my book should have misunderstood what I had stated, and so create a difference between us where none exists. He says (speaking of Dorey) that I "have not given a correct impression of the natives of the surrounding hills and mountains, separating them in some way from the inhabitants of the coast, as smaller, uglier, not mop-headed," &c.; and that he finds on the other hand, that "there is no generic difference at all between the Papooas of the mountain and the Papooas of the coast, except such differences as we find everywhere between the highlanders and coast inhabitants of the same race." Now I say exactly the same thing: "From these (sketches) and the captain's description, it appeared that the people of Arfak were similar to those of Dorey." ("Malay Archipelago," 3rd Ed. p. 505.) Dr. Meyer however, probably refers to what I say of the people of one hill village, close to Dorey: "The inhabitants seemed rather uglier than those at Dorey village. They are, no doubt, the true indigenes of this part of New Guinea, living in the interior, and subsisting by cultivation and hunting. The Dorey-men, on the other hand, are shore dwellers, fishers, and traders in a small way, and have thus the character of a colony who have migrated from another district. These hillmen, or Arfaks, differed much in physical features. They were generally black, but some were brown like Malays. Their hair, though always more or less frizzly, was sometimes short and matted," &c. (p. 499). I can only suppose that the word "differed" in the above passage was taken to mean "differed from the Dorey people," whereas the context shows that it means "differed among themselves," or varied, which would have been a better word. In the preceding page I have stated of the inhabitants of Dorey: "The majority have short woolly hair;" so that there is no difference from them in that respect. In all I have written about the Papuans I have maintained that the people of New Guinea and of all the immediately surrounding islands are of one race, with very unimportant local differences; and I do not think my remark, that the people of one village were "rather uglier" than those of another, three miles off, justifies the idea that I supposed there was any "difference," in an ethnological sense, between them. I cannot find that I have said a word about differ-sharp and definite. We had only one course left, and that was ence of stature.

The great success of both Messrs. D'Albertis and Meyer in penetrating inland in New Guinea will, it is to be hoped, induce other travellers to attempt the exploration of the far larger and less known southern portion. Two Europeans, with a small steam launch and a Malay crew, would, no doubt, be able to penetrate a long way up some of the larger rivers, and establish a station from which exploration of the central mountains might be effected. There is now no portion of the globe so completely unknown as this, or which promises such great results for every branch of Natural History. ALFRED R. WALLACE

Deep-sea Sounding and Deep-sea Thermometers WITH reference to the discussion which has recently been carried on in NATURE as to the deep-sea thermometers, I hope that perhaps the following statement may tend to put the

matter at rest.

One of Negretti's thermometers was exhibited at the Royal United Service Institution at a lecture, March 11, 1859, by Admiral FitzRoy, who then spoke of them "as thermometers peculiarly constructed, self-registering," &c. The construction of these thermometers had been fully described in the "First number of Meteorological Papers, 1857," and was subsequently given in a "Treatise on Meteorological Instruments," published by Negretti and Zambra in 1864. The peculiarity of these thermometers was mentioned in the Hydrographic Instructions to Captain Dayman of the Cyclops Sounding Expedition, dated May 29, 1857. These facts are sufficient to show the ample publication of the device in question for protecting the bulbs against pressure.

I know from Dr. Miller himself that he did not know of Negretti's plan. In his paper in the Royal Society Proceedings,

Mr.

I had carefully compared and catalogued the details visible upon the original negatives of the two Indian series, and hal found no structure in the one that could not be traced in the other, but the details of the new Java photograph were quite of a different character, lumpy, and in more definite masses. On mentioning this to Lord Lindsay he informed me that he had other copies of the Java negatives which he had received directly from Prof. Oudemans and which were almost structureless, Davis undertook a critical comparison of the two Java photographs, and pointed out that in spite of the striking dis similarity of the paper prints, they were evidently both taken from the same original, for they each showed a faint scratch and three minute photographic flaws in the same re lative positions. It was impossible to assert that the one was a good print and the other a very bad one, for in the photograph with the delicate corona the moon's limb was suit and hazy, while with the poor corona the limb was perfectly

to infer that the softening and details had been produced artificially. Having detected manipulation in the corona, we naturally suspected it in the moon's limb, and thus arose my remark at the meeting of the Astronomical Society, that the sharp edges of the irradiation under the prominences might have been artificially produced by stopping out the moon, or rather by stopping out the hazy irradiation which presents so marked a feature, especially under the prominences in the Indian photographs, as well as in those taken in 1870.

There is still a little mystery which requires clearing up about the hazy irradiation. No trace of it is to be found in the copies of the Shelbyville photograph taken by Mr. Whipple in 1869, nor (as we now learn) in the Java photographs, although the action of the light has been greater in these than in some of the Indian and 1870 negatives, which show it as a very marked feature. We know that under ordinary circumstances hazy irradiation is produced by reflection at the hinder surface of the glass on which the photograph is taken, and that its amount may be greatly reduced by backing the plate, during its exposure, with wet paper, so as to produce a film of water instead of a film of air immediately behind the plate, thus causing nearly all the light to be transmitted instead of reflected at its back surface. Yet the Baikul photographs (and I understand also the Cadiz photograph of 1870) were backed with wet paper, and still show the irradiation very markedly.

The cause of the ellipticity of the dark moon touched upon by Prof. Oudemans seems to me to involve some very interesting questions. It is remarkable that the ellipticity does not occur in all eclipse photographs. After making allowance for the moon's motion during 40 seconds in the enlargement from the Cadiz ne gative, I may say that I have not been able to detect any dif ference between the polar and equatorial diameters in any of the 1870 photographs.

In No. 2 of the glass copies from the Ottumwa photographs, 1869, the moon is also apparently quite circular; but in No. 4, where the bright depths of the chromosphere are just appearing, the polar diameter is distinctly the longest. I have been led to conclude that the ellipticity is caused by an unequal eating over or irradiation at the polar and equatorial portions of the limb, and that in this lies proof that at the sun's equatorial regions the brighter layers of the chromosphere extend to a greater height than near the poles. We know from other sources that the corona generally, and probably also its lower portions, were not so bright in 1870 as in 1869 and 1871; hence the eating over between the prominences has been comparatively slight, and no detectable difference has been caused between the polar and equatorial diameters. A. COWPER RANYARD

The British Museum

Ir is strange that such a statement as that advanced by Mr. W. Stanley Jevons in NATURE, Nov. 13, has so long remained unchallenged, viz. "that the British Museum exists not so much for the momentary amusement of gaping crowds of country people, who do not understand a single object on which they gaze, as for the promotion of scientific discovery, and the advancement of literary and historical inquiry." No one will dispute the truth of these statements, but substitute the word "instruction" for "momentary amusement," and I very much doubt if his views would meet with public approval. I have always looked upon the British Museum as the National Museum, and pre-eminently the Museum of the people, and, as such, the arrangement and labelling of the specimens should be of the most simple and instructive nature: nor is such an object opposed to, but perfectly coincident with, the highest interests of science. No wonder the Museum is filled with "gaping crowds" when

nothing is done to instruct them as to the nature of objects of

which Mr. Stanley Jevons himself admits they are ignorant, nor to provide them with a suitable and educational guide-book, without which they are as sheep without a shepherd When the Trustees of this Museum can spare time, they may, perhaps, be able to direct attention to the fuller development of its scientific and educational functions; as regards the former, by the establishment of one exclusively British Department; and, as regards the latter, by carrying out the very obvious suggestions which I have advanced. The view that science, or rather scientific men, should have a monopoly of the benefits to be derived from this Institution is astoundingly selfish and narrowminded. If such are the views of the Trustees, the British Museum had better be closed to the public. S. G. P.

Moraines

I HAVE recently been visiting some of those spots which, according to Prof. Ramsay and other geologists, are marked by moraines of the ancient glaciers of North Wales, and several of which are supposed to form the retaining walls of lakes or tarns: and a question has arisen in my mind to which neither my own consideration nor any of the few books here at my command has afforded any answer.

A glacier which has retreated from its terminal moraine, is always the source of a stream of water, and this stream always cuts through the terminal moraine, and makes in it a gap often wide, and always reaching down to the level of the original soil. A terminal moraine from which a glacier has retreated is the rim of a saucer with a cleft in it, extending to the bottom of the saucer. It consequently cannot and does not act as a retaining wall, and the water from the glacier does not form a lake, but flows out as a stream. No better illustration of this fact occurs to me than the Rhone glacier, with its long series of terminal moraines, all intersected and cut through to the ground by the infant Khone. How then can a terminal moraine ever form a lake? But if a terminal moraine alone cannot form a lake, a terminal moraine with a stopper put into its hole might. But how is the stopper to get there? Why should debris or stones or any other stopper stay in the one place in the whole line where there is no resistance?

Where the basin of the lake is supposed to be constituted by a rock basin and a moraine on its rim, what I have said has, of course, no application to the rock basin, but seems to me to apply to show that the moraine cannot constitute any part of the retaining barrier.

And again, where the retaining barrier is supposed to be constituted by a marine terminal moraine, .e. by a moraine deposited under the sea, the observations I have inade seem not to apply.

My questions apply to ordinary terrestrial terminal moraines. They are so simple and go so to the root of the whole notion that such moraines can form lakes that I presume they have been answered long ago by geologists. Can any of your readers tell me where such answers are given or what they ought to be? Bryn Gwyn, Penmaenmawr, Oct. 13 EDW. FRY

The Elevation of Mountains and the Internal Condition of the Earth

I HAVE just read in NATURE, vol. ix. p. 62, Captain Hutton's letter to the Rev. Osmond Fisher on the "Elevation of Mountains and Volcanic Theories." I was also indebted some time since to the courtesy of Captain Hutton for a copy of his lecture on the Formation of Mountains, delivered at Wellington, New Zealand, November, 1872. Without entering at present into a discussion upon the particular theory which finds favour with him, I may be permitted to call attention to the fact that Sir William Thomson's views as to the rigidity of the earth have been distinctly called in question in a former number of this journal, which has probably not reached Captain Hutton. I refer to my communication entitled "The Rigidity of the Earth," printed in NATURE, vol. vii. p. 288. Captain Hutton expresses his belief that the theory of internal rigidity has probably a weak point somewhere. I venture to think that its weak points are so many as to make it a theory too brittle to form a support to any geological superstructure. Dublin, November 28. H. HENNESSY

METEOROLOGIC SECTIONS OF THE

ATMOSPHERE

THE `HE primary object of meteorology is to record the pressure, the temperature, the moisture, the electricity, and the movements of the atmosphere. It is desirable, however, that observations on these subjects should be combined with the elements of time and distance. At the general meeting of the Scottish Meteorological Society on June 26, 1867, I proposed the method, since generally adopted, of reducing the intensity of storms to a numerical value by the calculation of barometric-gradients, or in other words by dividing the difference of reading of any two barometers by the distances between the stations where such barometers are placed, thus introducing a nomenclature of universal application, by which the movements of any aërial current, and particularly the wind force of storms, may in every part of the world be reduced to one standard of comparison; and the calculation of thermometric, hygrometric, and electric gradients was subsequently proposed. Since then I suggested to the same society the extension of this system by the establishment of a series of barometers placed at short distances from each other in one or more than one direction in azimuth, so as to give horizontal atmospheric sections for pressure. By means of such lines of section the maximum gradient during storms might, from the nearness of the stations to each other, be ascertained, and thus the phenomena of local storms and other local atmospheric disturbances investigated with some hope of success; and since then a horizontal section extending landwards from the sea-shore has been proposed for temperature and moisture, chiefly with the view of determining the extension inland of the influence of the sea on climate. It would be important were the system of meteorological sections extended to the vertical as well as the horizontal plane. If a string of stations were placed at short horizontal distances from each other and extending from the bottom to the top of a high hill or mountain, the section thus obtained would show the relative distribution at different times, of pressure, temperature, humidity, &c., in the vert cal plane. In Scotland, the existing station of Drumlanrig is 191 feet, and that at Wanlockhead 1,334 feet above the sea, so that the difference in elevation is 1,143 feet. The horizontal distance between them is 9 miles, and in all probability the necessary number of intermediate stations could be established. In Hong Kong the town of Victoria is 1,666 feet below that of Blockhouse Victoria Peak, while in Switzerland

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