286 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ciatdl minerals are rock-salt in beautifully 

 transparent masses, sparingly disseminated ; 

 the anhydrous sulphate of lime and soda 

 (glauh, rib | ; and " pseudomorphs," in which- 

 the glauberite having disappeared, its place 

 is supplied by amorphous carbonate of lime 

 exactly filling the matrices of its crystals. 



Iloly Things and Toys from Torres 

 Strait. — Prof. A. C. Haddon has fitted up 

 in the British Museum a collection of objects 

 from Torres Strait, which illustrates the 

 customs and superstitions of the people of 

 that still savage quarter. Among the ob- 

 jects are some forty native skulls, some of 

 which had been strung in bunches as trophy 

 decorations of the hut of a warrior, while 

 others had been used for ceremonies and 

 divination. The great eccentric masks em- 

 ployed in semi-religious and secular dances 

 are represented by specimens which the col- 

 lector believes to be the last of their kind. 

 One of them, a crocodile mask, had such 

 striking powers that the native from whom 

 it was obtained refused to put it on for fear 

 that death would be the consequence, be- 

 cause it was not the season of the year when 

 it might be legitimately worn. Of the 

 charms, those in stone and wood shaped like 

 dugongs are very interesting. There are 

 charms to protect against poisoning, love- 

 charms, rain-making charms, charms to make 

 the tobacco-plant grow ; female figures, some 

 in coral to keep the fire in when the house- 

 wife is absent ; and taboo figures and signs 

 of various kinds. The musical instruments 

 include some ingenious drums, "bull-roar- 

 ers," and a new kind of simple construction. 

 Of toys there are tops of considerable weight, 

 of which the Papuan spins several on his 

 toes at the same time, and arrangements of 

 string used as a sort of cat's cradle. The 

 implements and articles of clothing and those 

 for personal adornment are varied. An or- 

 nament worn by a betrothed girl appears 

 to be derived from two fish-hooks placed 

 back to back. Several specimens grimly 

 illustrate the old savage customs. A hard- 

 wood weapon is marked with eleven notches, 

 to indicate as many heads which the owner 

 has cut off. A double cassowary head-dress 

 that belonged to a late king of the island 

 Tud was handed over by his son to Prof. 

 Haddon, together with the boar-tusks which 



he wore in his mouth on war expeditions, on 

 the understanding that they were to go to 

 the British Museum, where "plenty men" 

 wanted to see them. When drawings or 

 photographs of some of the natives were be- 

 ing taken they would ask, " Queen Victoria, 

 he see picture along we fellow ? " — that is, 

 Will Queen Victoria see our picture ? — to 

 which the professor replied in the same 

 strain, " S'pose he want> he see ; I no savee. 

 Plenty men along England want to savee 

 about you fellow." Some of these photo- 

 graphs may now be seen in this collection, 

 recording features and decorations which, 

 in a few years, will have died out. 



NOTES. 



Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia, 

 recently received from a woman-patient the 

 singular present of a cord of white-oak wood, 

 chopped down and sawed up by her own 

 hands. He had recommended to her an act- 

 ive, outdoor life in the woods for nervous 

 invalidism. She had followed his directions, 

 with results of which the cord of sawed 

 wood was one of the evidences. 



Dr. E. N. Sneath, lecturer on the His- 

 tory of Philosophy at Yale, has been inspir- 

 ing the preparation of a series of small vol- 

 umes of selections from the leading philoso- 

 phers from Descartes down, so arranged as 

 to present an outline of their systems. Each 

 volume will contain a biographical sketch of 

 the author, a statement of the historical po- 

 sition of the system, and a bibliography. 

 Those so far arranged for are Descartes, by 

 Prof. Ladd, of Yale ; Spinoza, by Prof. Fuller- 

 ton, of the University of Pennsylvania ; 

 Locke, by Prof. Russell, of Williams ; Berke- 

 ley, by ex-President Porter, of Yale ; Hume, 

 by Dr. Sneath, of Yale ; and Hegel, by Prof. 

 Royce, of Harvard. Kant, Comte, and Spen- 

 cer will certainly be added to the series, and 

 others if encouragement is received. The 

 publishers will be Henry Holt & Co. 



The American Academy of Political and 

 Social Science, of which Prof. Edmund J. 

 James is president, was founded in December, 

 1 889, for promoting the study of the polit- 

 ical and social sciences, particularly of those 

 which are omitted from the programmes 

 of other societies, or which do not at present 

 receive the attention they deserve. Among 

 them are sociology, comparative constitu- 

 tional and administrative law, philosophy of 

 the state, and portions of the field of politics. 

 It will attend to the publication of material 

 that will be of use to students which does 

 not now reach the public in any systematic 

 way. The plan of the academy includes 

 meetings for the presentation of papers and 



