4/6 NOTE ON THE ANALYSIS OF SODA-SL'LP HUR DIPS 



tiuns. Incidentally the projjortion uf the total sulphur which is 

 present as ineffective thiosulphate is unusually high. 



Sample D cannot be regarded as permissible. The poly- 

 sulphide ratio of I 12.9 suggests admixture with lower, possibly 

 depilatory, sulphides, and, indeed, on comparing zinc titration 

 with acid titration, evidence of the presence of a considerable 

 amount of hydrosulphide was obtained. The tank dilution re- 

 commended also gives only half the strength of polysulphide 

 sulphur regarded as a reliable minimum, and in view of the 

 narrow ])olysulphide ratio, it might not be safe to dip at higher 

 concentrations. The exact extent of damage to skin or fleece, 

 which might result from its use, would be difficult to assess with 

 out an actual dipping trial, but from a manufacturing point of 

 view sample D is an inferior article, and there is no reasonable 

 justihcation for its presence on the market. 



{Read, July 5, 191 7.) 



Bantu Mentality. — In a recent issue of Science 

 Progress* Mr. A. G. Thacker discusses an essay on the mental 

 development of the South African Native, contributed by the 

 Rev. A. T. Bryant to the Eugenics Reviezv.'\ Mr. Bryant thinks 

 that up to the time of puberty the Bantu boy is rather in advance 

 cif the European boy, but that subsequently not only does arrest 

 of mental development occur in the Bantu, but there is even 

 retrogression. In the female Bantu, both youthful and adult, 

 Mr. Bryant could not find any inferiority compared with the 

 European female. In this connection Mr. Thacker makes the 

 following comments: "If the Bantu woman be really the mental 

 equal of the white woman, is she not in advance of her own 

 Uicn? Further, if the average of the Bantu women is equal to 

 the average of European women, it is very possible, though not a 

 necessary consequence, that the range of variation in the females 

 cif the two races is equally great. Now it v/ill not be disputed 

 that the mental powers of a considerable minority of white women 

 — probably about 10 per cent. — are. even in those departments, 

 such as ratiocination, which, as Romanes pointed out long ago, 

 con.stitute the special masculine province, annreciablv superior to 

 the powers of the average white man, whilst a small minority of 

 women soar far above the ordinary man. Are we to believe 

 that the Bantu nations have possessed intellects such as these? 

 It may be so; the intellects mny have existed, and have yet been 

 unable to make themseh-es felt owin-^- to adverse social conditions. 

 The idea must not be scouted merely because to most of us it 

 haDpens to be unexpected."' 



* (igryV 12. 2,^0. 

 ■r (1917). 9 [t]. 



