thropologists point as exhibiting the handiwork of Miocene man, two questions naturally suggested themselves to the sceptical inquirer. In the first place, are they really contemporaneous with the deposits in which they were found? And then, if they be contemporaneous, do they exhibit unequivocal evidence of artificial treatment? But if both these questions be affirmatively answered, Professor Dawkins is not even then ready to accept the flints and bones as witnesses to the existence of man in Miocene Europe. "It they be artificial," says this observer," then I would suggest that they were made by one of the higher apes, then living in France, rather than by man." And in anticipation of the objections which would naturally be urged against this suggestion, on the ground that such stone-chipping and bone-cutting as that in question is generally considered to lie beyond the range of pithecoid intelligence, he does not hesitate to argue that even if the existing apes do not now make stoneimplements or cut bones, it does not follow that the extinct apes were equally ignorant, because some extinct animals are known to have been more highly organized than any of the living members of their class.

Although man may have had no place in Miocene Europe, is it equally probable that he was absent from the fauna of the succeeding Pliocene period? The Pliocene group of strata, which immediately overlies the Miocene, contains numerous fossil shells, of which the larger number belong to recent species. It is in these beds that living species of placental mammals first make their appearance, and consequently it might be supposed that the search for Pliocene man in these deposits would be a hopeful quest. But it must be borne in mind that, so far as our knowledge at present extends, the number of living species of terrestrial mammals in deposits of Pliocene age is extremely small. The Pliocene beds of East Anglia-known as the Coralline, Red, and Norwich Crags -have yielded so fragmentary a collection of mammalian remains, and these so mixed with Miocene fossils, that, instead of basing any conclusions upon the study of such relics, it is desirable to turn to the better-preserved Pliocene

fauna of France and of Italy. Among twenty-one species of fossil mammals, found by Dr. Forsyth Major to have lived in Tuscany during the Pliocene period, only one-the hippopotamusis still living. "It is to my mind,” writes Professor Dawkins, "to the last degree improbable that man, the most highly specialized of the animal kingdom, should have been present in such a fauna as this, composed of so many extinct species.

And thus ends speculation as to the probable existence of "Tertiary Man." For, with the close of the Pliocene stage most geologists bring the Tertiary period to a conclusion, all later-formed strata being regarded as Post- tertiary or Quaternary. Such a classification is, however, objected to by Mr. Dawkins, since a study of the mammalia shows that although a great break does certainly occur between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene period, yet the proportion of Pliocene survivals is so large that it is unreasonable to draw at this stage as strong a line as that which separates the Tertiary from the Secondary formations. He therefore argues in favor of the upward continuity of the Tertiary series, and would embrace in the Tertiary period all the events which have happened from the termination of the Secondary or Mesozoic age down to the present day. The expressions Quaternary and Post-tertiary thus vanish from this system of classification.

Although there may be no violent break in the life-history of the Tertiary period, using that term in its widest sense, there is nevertheless a great difference between the fauna of the Pliocene

It

and that of the overlying Pleistocene formation. In the Pleistocene deposits the living species of placental mammals are abundant, and greatly predominate over the extinct species; while in the Pliocene deposits, as already shown, the extinct species are dominant, and the living forms are extremely scarce. is in the Pleistocene fauna that man makes his earliest indubitable appearance in Western Europe. In the MidPleistocene deposits in the Valley of the Thames, flint flakes have on two or three occasions been discovered, and these flakes are regarded by Professor Dawkins as the very oldest relics of man's handi

work that have yet been obtained under conditions which place their authenticity above suspicion. In the lower brickearths of Crayford in Kent, a worked flint was detected a few years ago by the Rev. Osmond Fisher; and a second implement was afterward found in similar deposits at Erith by Mr. Cheadle and Mr. B. B. Woodward.

These rude implements must have been employed by the primeval hunters who inhabited the valley of the Thames at a time when the climate was, at certain seasons, extremely rigorous. The severity of the cold is proved by the presence of such northern animals as the marmot and the musk-sheep. Yet these northern forms were strangely associated with numerous animals which are now found only in temperate and even in warm climates. There were vast number of horses, stags, bison, and uri; while the great Irish elk was still lingering in the valley. The extinct mammalia which then dwelt in the valley of the lower Thames included two species of elephant and three of rhinoceros: these were the mammoth (Elephas primigenius) and the short- tusked elephant (E. antiquus); the woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus), the bignosed rhinoceros (R. megarhinus), and the small-nosed species (R. leptorhinus). It is remarkable, as Mr. Dawkins has pointed out, that the megarhine rhinoceros has not been found in association with human remains in any other locality. The Mid Pleistocene fauna of the Thames valley also included the hippopotamus, the lion, and the wild cat, the brown bear and the grizzly bear, the spotted hyena and the wolf. Such, in general terms, was the group of animals that shared possession of the valley of the Thames with the earliest human inhabitants of whom science has yet obtained any indisputable record.

Since Professor Dawkins published his work on "Early Man," an interesting discovery of stone implements, in the brick-earths of Crayford, has been announced by Mr. Flaxman Spurrell.*

"On the Discovery of the Place where Palæolithic Implements were made at Crayford." Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Geological Society, No. 390. Also: On the Site of a Paleolithic Implement Manufactory at Crayford, Kent." Paper read before the Geo

44

The "find" comprised a large number of flint flakes, with cores from which the flakes had been struck; some fragments of an unfinished stone-axe, and several stones which had apparently been employed as hammers for dressing the flints. In intimate association with the flakes were found bones of the mammoth, of the woolly rhinoceros, and of the horse-these bones presenting the appearance of having been broken by man, perhaps for food. As the edges of the flints are still sharp and unused, and as the flakes lie in close contact with the finest chippings, it is plausibly inferred that the work of flint-dressing must have been carried on at this locality in palæolithic times, and that, in short, the discoverer has had the good fortune to light upon the site of an old manufactory where chalk-flints were fashioned into weapons by the early palæolithic men who dwelt in the valley of the Thames.

Many years ago the important silkproducing industry of the valley of the Rhone was threatened with ruin. A mysterious disease seized upon the silkworms, and resisted all the efforts at its cure, until at length M. Pasteur, who was even then engaged on those studies upon fungi and fermentation which have since rendered him so famous, demonstrated that the pest was caused by a living parasite, and devised means of stamping it out effectually.

Few modern researches have been more suggestive or more fruitful in practical results than these of Pasteur. Our knowledge of the vast amount of mischief to health and industry caused by the lower fungi, and particularly by Bacteria, has been rapidly increasing, while happily the power of successfully destroying these has increased in scarcely less rapid proportion witness. the improvements in wine-making, the still greater advance in the art of brewing, and, best of all, that revolution in surgery effected by the introduction of antiseptic methods.

Of late years the vine-growing districts of France have been steadily invaded by a serious pest of a widely different kind,

logical Section of the British Association at Swansea.

the Phylloxera vastatrix, an insect belonging to the same family as the common green Aphis of the rose, and endowed with the same power of rapid asexual multiplication. In spite of all remedial measures, the insect is still spreading, and thus constitutes a serious danger to the wine supply of Europe. Soon after the establishment of the Phylloxera Commission of the Academy of Sciences, M. Pasteur threw out a very ingenious suggestion, clearly derived from his early experience of the silkworm disease-to destroy the invader by inoculating it with a parasitic fungus; thus reversing the principle of all the previous applications of our knowledge of these organisms by treating them as allies instead of enemies. Unfortunately no experiments were made, and the subject was forgotten until last year, when Professor Hagen, of Harvard, published an account of his experiments on the destruction of obnoxious insects by the application of the yeast fungus. He concluded that the yeast cells entered the body of the insect, there giving rise to fatal disease, and accordingly recommended the application of yeast to the Phylloxera, Colorado beetle, etc.

Such results as these, on the one hand confirming the old belief in the efficacy of yeast as a means of destroying greenhouse pests, and on the other at variance with all experience as to its mode of life, could not but stimulate inquiry. The subject was soon undertaken by a distinguished Russian biologist, Elias Metschnikoff, who has shown that the disease-producing fungus of Hagen was not the yeast itself, but was merely associated with it as an impurity. He has succeeded in cultivating several species of fungi parasitic upon insects, notably one which he terms green muscardine" (Isaria destructor) and in tracing their entire life-history. By cultivating the green muscardine apart from insects upon a suitable nutritive fluid, he has been able to obtain a considerable quantity of spores, and thus feels justified in recommending the cultivation of such fungi on a large scale, and the dissemination of their germs in places infested by insects. The subject is at present engaging considerable at

*Zool. Anseiger, 1880, p. 44..

tention in France, and experiments are being made of which we shall doubtless know the result in the course of next season. In the mean time it is impossible not to await with interest and hope this application of a new method.*

Two years ago a description of the researches which completed our knowledge of the morphology of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium of the splenic fever of sheep and cattle (anthrax), was given in these pages. We have now to summarize our recently gained knowledge as to the means of dealing with this formidable scourge, which is widely disseminated throughout Europe, in some districts-as, for instance, the department of Eure-et-Loire-inflicting damage to the extent of millions of francs annually. And here again we are mainly indebted to Pasteur and the germ theory.

He shows that the disease is produced by feeding sheep on fodder known to contain germs of anthrax, the more readily if barley or thistles, of which the sharp points make tiny lesions on the walls of the alimentary canal, and thus open a way for the entrance of the spores into the blood, be present. It was formerly believed that the Bacilli and their germs were killed by the putrefaction which rapidly follows the death of the poisoned animals, and this is so far true. Some blood, however, is sure to be mixed with the earth in which the animal is buried, and thus a certain number of germs find themselves in conditions which insure their survival even for years. But how are they enabled again to reach the surface? How do they escape the fate which seems natural to particles of such extreme minuteness to be carried deeper and deeper into the ground by the rain? This would indeed take place but for the earthworm, which is constantly bringing up to the surface new myriads of germs of the parasite. The worm-casts from places where diseased animals had been buried even two years before, were invariably found to contain an abundance of spores capable of activity, and it is easy to understand how these casts, broken up by rain and drought, yield to the wind, and spread * See also Nature, 1880, p. 447.

See numerous papers in the Comptes Rendus, July to September, 1880.

over the surface of the adjacent ground; thus scattering abundant germs which soon give rise to fresh outbreaks of disease. M. Pasteur is hence led to speculate on the possible influence of the earthworm in the etiology of disease; on the dangers which may lie hidden in the earth of cemeteries, and on the utility of cremation; and then goes on strongly to recommend the interment of animals which have died of anthrax in poor sandy or calcareous soils, unfrequented by earthworms and never used as pasture. By attention to this simple precaution he is confident that the malady would disappear in a few years; for inquiries into the relation of the prevalence of anthrax in any given district to the quality of the soil show that the disease is unknown on the poorer lands, even while abounding on rich clayey land in the immediate neighborhood.

In a somewhat later communication he gives a complete demonstration of the justice of these views. In a small village of the Jura, where a solitary outbreak took place two years ago, the places in which the victims were buried are still easily recognizable by the increased rankness of the vegetation. At these spots he found germs in every worm-cast he examined, as well as on the surface of the ground, although, a few yards off, none could be discovered. Two small enclosures of equal size were then made, the one containing the spots in which the diseased animals had been buried, the other at a few yards' distance, and an equal number of sheep were placed in each. In the latter enclosure the sheep remained healthy; while, in the former, the disease broke out in a week.

The method of vaccination is also being applied, and with considerable success. Mr. Chauveau has succeeded in reinforcing the resisting power of the Algerian sheep, which is naturally very considerable, and in proving that the lambs borne by previously inoculated ewes are completely safe. M. Toussaint, on the other hand, selecting sheep of the very breed most liable to anthrax, and inoculating them with plasma taken from animals which had died of the disease, appears to have rendered them proof against it, at least after the second inoculation; while Pasteur, in the

course of his successful efforts to secure fowls from an allied disease (choléra des poules) by the inoculation, finds that he has at the same time insured them against anthrax - a result which has wide theoretical bearings.

Since the researches of Wyville Thomson and Carpenter on the fauna of the deep sea, much attention has been paid to the subject not only by British, but also by American and Scandinavian naturalists; and a well-equipped French commission, including MM. Henri and Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Folin, Marion, and several other eminent French zoologists, accompanied by two of our most experienced dredgers, Messrs. Gwyn Jeffreys and Merle Norman, has recently been exploring that deep and almost unknown region of the Bay of Biscay which lies off the northern coast of Spain, between Cape Breton and Cape Pénas. A steamer of 1000 tons burden, the Travailleur, well equipped with dredging and sounding apparatus, was provided by the Minister of Marine, and the cruise lasted during the greater part of July. The weather being favorable, as many as twenty-four dredgings were made during the last fortnight, at depths varying from 300 to 2700 metres. At the greater depths, the bottom was covered with a thick bed of greenishgray mud which rapidly choked the dredges. The best results were therefore obtained by trailing bundles of net and hempen tangle. The collection, which has been divided among the various specialists composing the expedition, is of great importance, including not only the majority of the deep-sea forms already described by British and Scandinavian naturalists, but also many new species.

Fishes are rare, but crustaceans and molluscs are abundant. The crustacea, which are wholly different from those found on the adjacent coasts, are of great interest, including a number of curious crabs, some blind, others with large phosphorescent eyes. The doctrine of uniformity of the deep-sea fauna over vast areas is confirmed by the study of the mollusca, the known species having been for the most part discovered off the coasts of Shetland, Greenland, and Norway. Some, too, are Mediterranean, while others had

previously been obtained only as fossils in Sicily, and in the Pliocene deposits of Northern Italy. The collection of cœlenterate animals is extremely rich, and most other groups are tolerably well represented.

metres.

The 103 soundings taken between Cape Breton and Cape Pénas give a clear account of the configuration of the sea-bottom, which seems the continuation of the slope of the Pyrenees. At a short distance from the coast there are depths of nearly 3000 metres; and steep slopes, and almost vertical precipices, which very often interfered with dredging operations, are frequently met with, especially to the north of Santander. Further west, however, between Tina Mayor and Cape Pénas, a large plateau has been discovered at a depth of 170 It has been named the "Plateau du Travailleur. The Sea of Galilee, which now lies 212 metres below the level of the Mediterranean, and of which the waters are slightly brackish, appears to have been undergoing a gradual process of freshening since the comparatively recent period when it began to discharge its waters into the Dead Sea. In the hope of discovering a fauna and flora showing signs of adaptation to these altered conditions, M. Lortett has carefully dredged the lake, which he finds to have a depth of 250 metres, with a bottom of fine volcanic mud mixed with diatoms and foraminifera. Save for the diatoms, there is an entire and unaccountable absence of vegetable life. He finds,

however, twelve species of fishes, of which four are new. The majority belong to the genus Chromis, with which the lake is swarming, and which has the curious habit of hatching its eggs and sheltering its young within the cavity of the mouth. There are also ten species of molluscs, of which three are of thoroughly marine type, thus confirming the hypothesis of the freshening of the lake derived from geological considerations.

While all these searchings after new forms of life at great depths or in distant seas have been in progress, an animal no less remarkable than any thus found has been discovered without going so far afield, indeed in the most unexpected of places the very heart of London. London. At the beginning of summer, Mr. Sowerby, of the Regent's Park Botanic Garden, was surprised to find the Victoria regia tank swarming with a beautiful little jellyñsh. He supplied specimens to Professors Allman* and Lankaster, who have succeeded in making out the structure and affinities of the medusoid, which they term Limnocodium Sowerbii, and place among the Trachymedusa, which develope directly from the egg instead of budding off from a fixed zoophyte. Its main interest lies in the fact that it is the only known. fresh water medusoid, the two other freshwater Colenterates, Hydra and Cordylophora, being fixed forms, not producing swimming bells. It is supposed to have been introduced from the West Indies.-The Nineteenth Century.

It was my good fortune last summer to make a tour of the world through Siberia. I traversed this enormous country, moreover, by a new way. Two English travellers, Captain Cochrane and Mr. Hill, have recorded their journeys across Northern Asia, but they crossed the Barabinsky Steppe, and from Irkutsk followed the course of the Lena, and, turning eastward, reached the

*Comptes Rendus, August 9 and 16, 1880. Ibid., Sept. 13, 1880.

Pacific at the Sea of Okhotsk. I avoided the Barabinsky Steppe by travelling on the Irtish and Obi from Tobolsk to Tomsk, and then from Irkutsk I crossed Lake Baikal and descended the Amur, first to its mouth at Nikolaefsk, and then, returning, ascended the Ussuri to the Vladivostock.

The object, therefore, of this paper

*Journ. Linn. Soc., July, 1880.

+ Nature, June 24, 1880, and Quart. Journ. Micro. Sci., July, 1880.