DR. R. S. CHARNOCK, Vice-President, in the Chair. THE minutes of the last ordinary meeting were read and confirmed. W. J. JEAFFRESON, Esq., M.A., of Clifton Gardens, Folkestone, was elected a Member. H. H. HOWORTH, Esq., M.A., was elected a Local Secretary for South Lancashire. The following presents were announced, and the thanks of the meeting voted to the respective donors : FOR THE LIBRARY. From JAMES BURNS, Esq.-Human Nature for January and February, 1872. From the AUTHOR.-The Food Journal for January and February, 1872. From Messrs. CASSELL, PETTER, and GALPIN.—Illustrated Album for 1871. From the WAR DEPARTMENT, U.S.-Report of Surgical Cases in the United States Army, Circular No. 3, 1871. From the SOCIETY.-Proceedings of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archæological Society, No. 58. From the AUTHOR.--Ueber die Methode der Vorgeschichtlichen Forschung, by Professor H. Schaafhausen. From the EDITOR.-La Revue Scientifique for January, 1872. From the SOCIETY.-Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, June and July, 1870. From the EDITOR.-The Mining Magazine and Review, No. 1, January, 1872. From the SOCIETY.-Archives of Science and Transactions of the Orleans County Society of Natural Science, 3 Nos., vol i. From the MUSEUM.-Annual Report of the Trustees of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, U.S., for 1870. VOL. II. B 218425 From the ASSOCIATION.-Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, From the SOCIETY.-Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, From the SOCIETY.-Jahrbuch der K. K. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, July, August, and September, 1871; Verhandlungen, ditto, No. 11, 1871. From Professor A. ECKER.-Archiv fur Anthropologie, 1871. From the EDITOR.-Correspondenz-Blatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Anthro. Ethno. und Urgeschichte, No. 1, 1872. From the SOCIETY.-Schriften der Königlichen Physikalisch-ökonomischen Gesellschaft zu Königsberg, 2 Nos., 1870. From the EDITOR.-Nature, to date. Lieut.-Colonel GEORGE GRANT FRANCIS, F.S.A., exhibited a series of Bone, Flint and other Stone Implements from Paviland, Gower; and contributed the following remarks thereon, which were read by the Director. Stone Implements, etc., from Paviland, Gower.-Specimens of flint and other stone implements more or less perfect:-Bone implements; human bones; concreted portions of the cave deposit, Samian ware, a fragment of which last was found with a third brass of Constantinus, above the floor of stalagmite. The bones and implements were all found intermixed beneath an irregular thick floor of stalagmite in a stiff redish loamy soil, from which they were carefully cleansed by myself at Swansea, and soaked in liquid gelatine to prevent exfoliation, and indeed entire destruction, and many of them have since been dipped in boiled oil with the same intention. Dr. Buckland has particularly distinguished the Cave of Paviland in his “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ,"* and "the Gower Caves" form an interesting chapter in the paleontological Memoirs of Dr. H. Falconer.† The former could not and the latter author did not give Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys and myself any credit for the discovery and preservation of these valuable relics of a bygone period. They were excavated by us in the autumn of 1835, and having been placed in the Swansea Museum, are noticed in the "Institution Reports"(copies in library of Society of Antiquaries) for 1835 and 1836, and were labelled in the usual way. * 4to. 1823. Pp. 82, 164, 167. + Roy. 8vo 18. Pp. 521, 538. The following is the extract from the Memoirs relating to the find:-"In May, 1862, Lieutenant-Colonel Wood and myself (Dr. Falconer) had found numerous wrought flints and some bone weapons in Paviland, but the deposits there had been so disturbed by previous excavations of an old date that none of the instances were free from the taint of suspicious occurrence." If the learned palæontologist or his friends had made a proper search in the Swansea Museum (to which he makes frequent reference) he would have found the collection now forwarded with the names of the finders, and reference to Mr. Jeffreys or myself would have placed the question of disturbance on its true basis, viz., that the flints, &c., found in "1860" were the rejected of our work in 1835. DISCUSSION. Mr. HUGHES said that, although there might be quite sufficient evidence of the agency of man in the manner of occurrence of the flints exhibited, as it would be shown that they occurred in the cave under such circumstances that they could not have been selected and carried to the position in which they were found by the ordinary operations of nature, still he would point out that there was no evidence of human workmanship on the specimens themselves, all the forms being such as commonly resulted from the natural fracture of flint, which, however, when found serviceable, were selected, and often imitated by man. The following paper was read: On the HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION of ENDOWMENTS and QUALITIES of DIFFERENT KINDS. BY GEORGE HARRIS, Esq., F.S.A., Vice-President of the Anthropological Institute. It is my desire on the present occasion to institute an inquiry, and to call attention to the mode of transmission in various ways, not only of actual talent or genius, the hereditary descent of which has been discussed in a very able and interesting work by Mr. Galton,* but also of endowments and qualities of different kinds, physical and moral as well as intellectual, and the observation of each of which appears to me calculated to throw light on the other. Mr. Galton's work is especially valuable as regards the mass of well-authenticated facts which he has brought together, however we may differ from some of the conclusions at which he has arrived. It is my intention, however, in the present paper not so much to follow Mr. Galton in his track as to take up the subject where he has left off, and to attempt to effect researches beyond the line to which he has limited his inquiries. * "c Hereditary (enius: an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences. By Francis Galton, F.R.S., etc. London: Macmillan and Co. B2 |
