236 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



(being for January — March 191 9) is entitled " Some Racial 

 Characteristics of the Spleen Weight in Man," and is by Robert 

 B. Bean and Wilmer Baker. The authors deal with the weight 

 of the spleen in white people and the negro race respectively, 

 giving data relating to both sexes, and their figures prove 

 that the spleen is a much larger organ in the white race than 

 in the negro. In the male sex the difference amounts to about 

 25 per cent., and white women would appear to have spleens 

 50 per cent, larger than those of negresses. These differences 

 are to be observed in both normal and pathological spleens. 

 A second paper in the same journal which calls for special 

 mention is one entitled " Inheritance of Eye-colour in Man," 

 by Helene M. Boas. The authoress gives a series of statistics 

 which she claims do not support the theory of the Mendelian 

 inheritance of eye-colour. The arithmetical totals are, how- 

 ever, not large, and it is therefore impossible to base any 

 certain conclusions upon them ; and in regard to the cases 

 in which brown-eyed children have been born of parents both 

 of whom are alleged to have had blue eyes, there is the diffi- 

 culty, as the authoress herself points out, that persons with 

 some brown in their eyes may well have been included among 

 the group of " blue-eyed " parents. A third paper, by L. R. 

 Sullivan, deals with the " Samar " united twins, and gives 

 a photograph of the boys. 



The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 

 xlviii, pt. 2 (July to December 191 8), is given up almost wholly 

 to social anthropology. This number includes the first instal- 

 ment of A. R. Brown's " Notes on the Social Organisation of 

 Australian Tribes." These contributions are to include " notes 

 on the tribes about which the author has collected first-hand 

 information from the natives themselves," and the first instal- 

 ment contains much interesting information about the Yaralde 

 and other tribes. 



The Proceedings of the chief anthropological society of 

 Austria often contain extremely interesting articles, and have 

 done so even during the period of the war. Reference must 

 therefore be made to the Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen 

 Gesellschaft in Wien, band xlviii, heft 6, which is the latest 

 issue of the Society's publication received. Among other 

 contributions, this issue contains two articles of special interest. 

 One of them is by F. Kieszling, and is entitled, " Die Aurignacien- 



