Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON.RoyaI Society, February 22.Sir J. J. Thomson. president. in the chair.S. A. Smith: The fossil human skull found at Talgai, Queensland. This is a description of the fossil human skull that was shown by Profs. Edgeworth David and j. T. Wilson at the meeting in Sydney of the British Association. Before the specimen could be studied it was necessary to clear away a hard mineral incrustation of carbonate of lime which was coloured with iron salts. It was then found to be the highly fossilised and much fractured skull of a male youth not moreprobably some years lessthan sixteen years of age. The brain- case, the capacity of which was at least 1300 cc., is well within the range of variation of modern aboriginal Australian skulls, to which it presents a very striking similarity in general conformation, as vell as in respect of the distinctively Australian characteristics. But the facial skeleton reveals an important contrast. The exceptionally large teeththe canines especiallyhave been rcsponsible for a great develop- ment of that portion of the alveolar process which lodges the incisor, canine, and premolar teeth. In respect of this feature the Talgai skull is probably more primitive and ape-like than that of any other known specimen belor ging to the human family, excepting only the Piltdown skull, the dental arcade of which that of the Talgai skull, in spite of its immaturity, nearly approaches, not only in actual size, but also in its relative proportions. The fact that the brain-case had already reached the stage represented in the modern Australian aboriginal, while the face still retained much of the grossness and uncouth- ness of the ape's, is a further confirmation of the view that, in the evolution of man, the brain first acquired the human status and the refinement of the features came afterwards.Dr. C. Chree: The magnetic storm of August 22, 1916. The paper gives an account of a magnetic storm, accompanied by aurora in Scotland, which occurred on August 2223, 1916. A comparison is made of the results derived from the magnetic curves at Kew and Eskdalemuir Observatories. The disturbance was much larger at the latter station than at the former. During, however, the most disturbed period, both places afforded a con-spicuous example of the type of storm in which the direction of the disturbance vector shows a rapid rotation. During this period the disturbance vector diagram in the horizontal plane was described con-tinuously in a counter-clockwise direction, nearly a complete revolution being effected in the course of one hour.Prof. W. H. Young: The ordinary con- vergence of restricted Fourier series.