seum). At another place near Caddington, he had found associated with drift blades and in place a horde of two hundred of the bead-like fossils (Cocinopora globularis), with holes artificially enlarged, though at none of the sites were drawings on bone, bone needles or lance heads discovered. One of the most interesting features of the work at Caddington consists in what Mr. Smith calls "replacement," a process previously invented by Mr. F. G. Spurrell, and never before, to my knowledge, applied to drift specimens found in situ.

The two thousand two hundred and fifty-nine flakes unearthed at Caddington were grouped according to color an small trays easily shifted from table to table, and a laborious experimental study of them, lasting for three years, demonstrated the interesting fact that many sets of them fitted together, sometimes reconstructing the original nodule on which the blade maker had worked, sometimes hedging about hollows which, on pouring in plaster of Paris, reproduced the form of the resultant and missing blade.

"I examined and re-examined the stones," says Mr. Smith, "almost daily. I looked at them as a relief from other work and at times when I was tired.

"Not only did I keep my selected stones on the tables for this length of time, but I kept a vast number of blocks, rude pieces and flakes, on certain undisturbed grassy places in the brick-fields for the same three years. Whilst working upon my tables, I sometimes suddenly remembered one or more like examples on the. grass, and at an early opportunity, fetched them from Caddington. In making up some of the blocks of conjoined flakes, it often happened that one or more interior pieces would be missing. In some cases, these missing pieces were never found, but in other instances, after the lapse of months, or even more than a year, a missing piece would come to light on the paleolithic floor. It is certain that I have not replaced all the flakes in my collection that are capable of replacement-one reason for this is that many flakes are very different in color and markings on one side from what they are on the other, and it is difficult to remember the markings on both sides. Another reason is that the time at my disposal has not been unlimited."

All this demonstrates in a manner, as conclusive as it is novel, that the Caddington site is an undisturbed workshop, while the analyses of Mr. Smith and the facts described in his work-Man, the Primæval Savage-take precedence over all recent evidence upon the subject, and throw a new light upon the more ancient subdivision of the Stone Age in Europe.

He who has spent earnest hours upon the problems of Plistocene humanity would gladly have seen a department of a museum specially devoted to these unique discoveries and demonstrations, but in a visit to Caddington in 1894, I learned with regret that the series, highly important from its entirety, and not jealously guarded as a whole, had been dissipated for the sake of collectors who wished to illustrate certain phases of Paleolithic blade manufacture with "fine specimens."

Theory, and with it the desire to propound formulæ for the blademaking process in general, yield respectfully to these toilsome investigations and to the persistent ransacking of quarries by a faithful observer whose work alone answers many of the doubts of the American student, and counteracts the questionable impression left upon the mind of the visitors to European museums by rows of typical specimens bought from workmen or gathered upon the surface.

H. C. MERCER.

Recent Explorations of Captain Theobert Maler in Yucatan.-[Extract from a letter received by the editor, December 9th, 1895]. After your departure from Yucatan, I undertook an expedition to the Peten' Itza region (Guatemala), crossing the entire pensinula, whose interior or southern part is nearly unknown.

After examining the country around the great Laguna of Peten' Itza, I embarked on a small canoe on the Rio Dela Pasión (" which, farther down, is named Usumutsintla [Land of Apes, Usumatli with reverence, Usumatsin = Ape; tla there is, there are, place of ]). Arriving, finally, after many difficulties at Tenosique (State of Tabasco), from whence the traveler finds at his disposition small steamers plying to Laguna del Carmen, and thence by sea to Progresso. On this jour ney I had the luck to discover and photograph several highly interesting and unknown cities, with remarkable monuments and splendid sculptures, some in the neighborhood of Laguna del Peten, others on the right and left shores of the Rio Pasión (Usumatsintla).

On my return to Ticul, I found your letters and also one from Mr. Ashmead, which latter I answered, referring him on the subject of aboriginal Syphilis and Lupus to some passages in the ancient Spanish authors.

As to pottery-making, I have observed that it is the work of women solely, who exercise the art, in my opinion, in the ancient manner serving themselves nearly exclusively with the hands and feet and without special instruments. Here at Ticul, it is easy to see them at work, as the industry is a common one in the suburbs.

My collection of ancient earthen vessels is quite interesting, but as you left Ticul in such a hurry I could not show them to you. Several

of my vases have quadrangular inscriptions, of which I have not yet had time to make photographs. Lately the Globus published accounts of several of my smaller expeditions, accompanied by some twenty photographical illustrations which you may perhaps see in the Globus, Nos. 16 and 18, for 1895.

Some days ago, an earthen vessel, full of little implements of worked stone, was found at a hacienda near Ticul. I have been promised the specimens, and will communicate with you in case they turn out to be of interest. From the cave of Loltun, I have several very good photographs Lol Bejuco, the Haytian name for hanging plants (the name Vana is not used in Mexico); tun stone; Loltun stalactites = hanging stones or stones like hanging plants.

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I shall be glad to publish, from time to time, in American scientific or popular journals, small articles describing my Yucateckan discoveries, and when my present work of enlarging photographic negatives is finished, shall be ready to prepare for you a series of accounts of my work, accompanied by the necessary celluloid positives from which it. easy to make reversed negatives for the photolithographic process. Next year I shall return to the States of Tabasco and Chiapas, where I have still to explore several entirely unknown ruins hidden in the wilderness occupied by the Lacandones Indians.

Ticul, November 20, 1895.

-THEOBERT Maler.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

The Biological Station of the University of Illinois is first to issue its circular for the summer of 1896. The station staff is composed of Professor S. A. Forbes, Director; Dr. C. A. Kofoid, Superintendent; Frank Smith and Adolph Hempell, Zoological Assistants; Dr. A. W. Palmer and C. V. Millar, Chemists; C. A. Hart, Entomologist and B. M. Duggar, Botanist. The station is situated upon the Illinois River near Havana, Ill., and is equipped with every facility for collection and study. There is a floating laboratory sixty feet long and twenty wide, a steam launch, licensed to carry 17 persons, and all the necessary supplies of tables, microscopes, aquaria, nets, chemicals, etc., as well as a specially selected library. As there are accommodations for only 16 in addition to the station staff, applications for the coming summer will be received only from those who have had sufficient experience to place them beyond the need of continuous supervision in their investigations, and, other things being equal, instructors in biology in colleges and high schools will receive the preference. The station will be open

during June, July and August. An incidental fee of $5.00 a month will be charged, and no application for tables should be made for less than two weeks. Board and rooms can be had in Havana at from $4.00 to $5.00 a week. All applications should be addressed to the Director, Professor S. A. Forbes, Urbana, Ill.

The announcement is made that Professor Marshall Ward has been elected to the Chair of Botany in the University of Cambridge, England, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death (July 22, 1895) of the venerable Professor C. C. Babington.

The University of Cambridge receives the botanical collection of the late Professor Babington.

Mr. F. B. Stead, of Cambridge, England, has been appointed to carry on the investigations of the fisheries at the Plymouth Laboratory, and Mr. T. V. Hodgson as Director's Assistant in the same institution.

After an interregnum of several years, Washburn University, Topeka, Kan., has appointed Dr. G. P. Grimsby, of Columbus, Ohio, to the Chair of Geology and Natural History.

Drs. Walter B. Rankin and C. F. W. McClure, of Princeton, have been advanced to Professorships in Biology in the College of New Jersey.

The Government of the Cape of Good Hope has recently established a geological commission to carry on a survey of that region.

Dr. R. H. True has been appointed Instructor in Pharmacognostical Botany in the University of Wisconsin.

Dr. W. S. Strong, of Colorado, is called to the Chair of Geology in Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.

Bernard H. Woodward has been appointed Curator of the Museum at Perth, W. Australia.

Dr. R. Metzner has been elected Professor of Physiology in the University of Barcelona.

Dr. Dalle-Torre is now Assistant Professor of Zoology in the University of Innsbruck.

Dr. Hans Lenk has been appointed Professor of Geology in Erlangen.

Dr. Ducleaux has been elected President of the Pasteur Institute.

III. A COMPARISON OF LARVA AND EMBRYO.8

It has long been known that animals develop according to two types, appearing in their younger stages, either as larvæ or as embryos. The larvæ lead a free life and must obtain their own food. Embryos, on the contrary, do not lead a free life and are nourished by the yolk accumulated in the parent ovum. There is, of course, no absolute demarcation between the two classes; nevertheless, a general comparison between them establishes several conclusions which throw valuable light upon some recent biological hypothesis.

First of all, it must be remarked that the larval development is primitive, and that the embryonic development has been evolved later. Geologists are able to present two principal supports for this assertion: 1. In the lower animals we encounter only larvæ, never embryos; sponges, colenterates, echinoderms and worms, all pass through the early stages of Read before the Amer. Soc. of Morphologists, December, 1893.