582 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURXAL 



stances may mean a correspondingly great 

 deficiency in necessary body-building ma- 

 terials. The results of a study of 102 typi- 

 cal city dietaries, published by Professor 

 H. C. Sherman and Miss Lucy A. Gillett, 

 bring this fact out clearly. The food pur- 

 chased by each family for the period of a 

 week was weighed and analyzed. The fami- 

 lies were then divided into four groups ac- 

 cording to the proportion of their total food 

 energy derived from fats and sugars. In the 

 first group 26.7 per cent of all food energy 

 came from these two sources, in the fourth 

 group only 16.7. It was found that the 

 amount of iron furnished by the diet varied 

 inversely with the proportions of sugars and 

 fats, and that in the first group, which used 

 most fat and sugar in proportion, the amount 

 of iron obtained was less than the minimum 

 needed for health. If, therefore, we use less 

 sugar, and more vegetables and fruits, in 

 the present crisis we shall help to win the 

 war and form health habits for the future. 



The library of the American Museum is 

 indebted to the generosity of Mr. Ogden 

 Mills for a rare and valuable first edition in 

 Latin of the De Bry Peregrinationes. This 

 work includes, in two handsomely bound vol- 

 umes, nine parts, covering travels in the 

 Orient and extending into Africa. Many 

 illustrations add to the beauty and useful- 

 ness of this unique edition, which was com- 

 piled by Theodorus De Bry, a German en- 

 graver and publisher of Trankfort-on-Main, 

 wath the assistance of the geographer, Eich- 

 ard Ilakluyt. These travels were published 

 in London, Part I bearing the date 1598. 

 The extreme value of a work of this charac- 

 ter cannot be emphasized too strongly. Ee- 

 searehes in geography, anthropology, zoology, 

 and kindred sciences are all dependent upon 

 such sources of information, while the rarity 

 of the book makes it a prize which only a 

 few institutions possess. 



Mr. Marshall C. Lefferts has presented 

 to the American Museum four complete 

 suits of Japanese armor mounted on effigies 

 and accompanied by helmets and weapons. 

 The suits are of fine handwork, inlaid with 

 gold and silver, and decorated with the 

 crests of Avell-known feudal lords and fam- 

 ilies of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 

 turies. One piece of armor, bearing the 



TokugaAva crest, is of the style "Murasaki 

 Odoshi," or imperial purple cord, and is 

 signed by a famous maker of armor, "Mio- 

 chin Shikibu Ki Menesuke, tenth year of 

 Genrokn, twelfth month" (1697). Other 

 pieces are signed "Sotome lyetada" (six- 

 teenth century), "Unkai Toshinao" (early 

 seventeenth century), and "Kashiu ju Mune- 

 hide Saku" (sixteenth century). The gift is 

 valuable as a Avell-preserved reminder of the 

 feudal times and customs so rapidly rele- 

 gated to the background when Japan came 

 into contact with modern European arma- 

 ment. 



The trip made by Mr. N. C. Nelson 

 to the Indian Eiver country of Florida in 

 the early summer of 1917 brought out 

 some interesting facts regarding the an- 

 cient culture of that region. The trip 

 was undertaken in response to a letter from 

 Dr. E. H. Sellards, state geologist of Flor- 

 ida, regarding some shellniounds which were 

 being cut into for road building material, 

 thus affording excellent opportunity for in- 

 spection of the refuse contents. Mr. Nelson 

 called first on Dr. Sellards, and the tAVO in 

 company visited a group of interesting sand 

 mounds of Indian origin on the shores of 

 Lake Jackson, not far from the capital city. 

 Later Mr. Nelson spent a brief time Avorking 

 in the fossil and artifact-bearing deposits 

 at the much discussed archaeological station 

 near Vero, on the east coast. A number of 

 shellmounds along the Indian Eiver Avere also 

 examined and at one of these, near Oak 

 Hill, three days Avere employed in making 

 observations on the composition and struc- 

 ture of the mound, and in picking from the 

 exposed section broken pottery and other 

 artifacts. The folloAving is the point of 

 chief interest brought out by the examina- 

 tion: — that the earliest inhabitants of this 

 site apparently did not make pottery at all, 

 while those of the long middle period of its 

 growth made only undecorated pottery, and 

 those Avho lived on the mound during the last 

 days of its occupation made ornamented pot- 

 tery. The ornamentation consisted solely of 

 a stamped checker pattern impressed on the 

 ware. The possible implication is that we 

 have here a center of origin for a particular 

 tA^pe of pottery decoration which occurs 

 sporadically as far away as Alabama, Ten- 

 nessee, and North Carolina. 



