April 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



289 



to an explanation of the epidemic in Manchuria. No 

 adequate reason has yet been found for the wide dissemina- 

 tion of the disease, at a season when few fleas of any kind 

 are to be encountered. The appearance of the disease in 

 a pneumonic form of exceptionally high virulence affords 

 also a problem which still requires an answer. Although 

 the Chinese epidemic has attracted so much attention, it 

 becomes almost insignificant when compared with the 

 ravages of the disease in India. Prof. Simpson, in a 

 letter to The Times of April 17, directs attention to the 

 enormous plague mortality in the United Provinces of 

 Agra and Oudh, districts of which the joint population is 

 little greater than that of the British Isles. Upwards of 

 72,000 persons died of plague in these provinces during 

 March, and in the week ending March 25 the number of 

 I' aths reached the appalling figure of 22,000. 



The number of Easter vacation workers at the Port 

 1-rin Biological Station has this year, for the first time, 

 xceeded fifty. The universities and university colleges 

 f Birmingham, Cambridge, Cork, Liverpool, Manchester, 

 nd Reading are represented by members of their biological 

 raff or by senior students; and the researchers include: — 

 I'rof. B. Moore and Mr. E. Whitley (bio-chemistry), Mr. 

 Walter Tattersall, and Mr. E. W. Shann from Manchester, 

 I'rof. Cole from Reading, Mr. Douglas Laurie from Liver- 

 pool, a group of botanists — Prof. Harvey Gibson (Liver- 

 pool), Mr. J. C. Johnson (Cork), and Mr. R. H. Compton 

 and Mr. S. Mangham (Cambridge) — working at algae, a 

 i^roup of planktologists from Liverpool, including Mr. W. 

 Riddell, Dr. W. J. Dakin, Prof. Herdman, and others. 

 riie new wing of the Biological Station, which was 

 • rected last winter, is now fully occupied by the re- 

 archers, and the larger laboratory is crowded with senior 

 students. If numbers continue to increase, a further 

 extension in the near future will certainly be required. 

 The fish hatching is proceeding as usual. The first 

 fertilised eggs of the plaice appeared in the spawning pond 

 this year on February 13, but after that the cold, 

 tempestuous weather seemed to delay the spawning, as the 

 total numbers passed through the hatching-boxes up to 

 date (April 20) are behind those of last year. The number 

 of visitors to the aquarium of the institution is, however, 

 considerably in advance of last year. Periodic observa- 

 tions on the plankton at sea are being taken from Prof. 

 Herdman 's yacht Runa, and the outstanding fact in this 

 season's work, so far, is that the diatoms are unusually 

 scarce and late. The vernal phytoplankton maximum has 

 not yet arrived. 



In the Australian monthly. The Lone Hand, for 

 February, Prof. J. Macmillan Brown discusses the question 

 of the White Gods of Ancient America. He points to the 

 singular fact that among the races of the Isthmus there is 

 a large sprinkling of blonde-haired, blue-eyed, European- 

 like men and women, whose origin is not to be explained 

 bv the theory of descent from the white emigrants of later 

 historical times, this more recent European type being 

 ipidly modified by environment and miscegenation, and 

 iiickly disappearing. He also refers to legends of the 

 rrival in America of bearded white strangers, like Manco 

 ' ipac. These stories, like the stone culture, arc mainly 

 (onfincd to the Pacific littoral and the neighbouring 

 mountain ranges. To explain these facts Prof. Brown 

 ostulates a Polynesian, that is to say, ultimately a 

 ' .uicasian, immigration which passed northwards from 

 I'lfii, from which direction he assumes that the culture 

 presented by the Palenque ruins and that of the Astecs 

 had its origin. It can scarcely be said that the fails which 



NO. 2165, VOL. 86] 



he has collected prove his theory ; but the problems of the 

 origin of Central American civilisation are so perplexing- 

 that this suggestion deserves consideration. 



Hitherto it has been generally believed that the paper 

 read before the Society of Antiquaries in February, 1785, 

 by W. Marsden, entitled " Observations on the Language 

 of the People commonly called Gypsies," in which, from 

 materials collected in 1783-4, he announced the similarity 

 of Romani to some Indian dialects, was the first publication 

 of the fact in this country, though it had been anticipated 

 on the Continent by Rudiger and Grillman. In The Gypsy- 

 Lore Journal for January, Mr. J. Sampson advocates the 

 prior claims to this discovery of Jacob Bryant, the author 

 of that fantastic and now wholly useless treatise on 

 mythology, " The New System, or an Analysis of Ancient 

 Mythology." At the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries 

 in the April following the receipt of Marsden's communica- 

 tion, that of Bryant, " Collections on the Zingara Gypsey 

 Language," was read. The glossary of Bryant has now 

 little value, and abounds in curious mistakes ; but Mr. 

 Sampson proves that the material was collected at least 

 as early as 1776 ; and, if this be so, Bryant has the honour 

 of having anticipated not only Marsden, but also the 

 Continental philologists in this remarkable discovery. 



In the January number of The Gypsy-Lore Journal. Mr. 

 D. F. de I'Hoste Ranking begins a useful analysis of the 

 account of the beliefs and sociology of the Gypsies of 

 Central Russia recently collected by Mr. V. N. Dobrovolski. 

 This branch of the Gypsy race strongly insists on its 

 Effvptian origin, and even assigns to Pharaoh the useful 

 invention of the "jemmy," which enables them to tackle 

 modern locks. They are on a much higher plane, as 

 regards intelligence and culture, than the peasantry among 

 whom they live. They possess, for instance, an elaborate 

 system of defining time by the motions of the stars, a 

 survival of their primitive nomadic life. Their most 

 cherished possession is the whip, and the association of it 

 with the marriage customs of the tribe, which Mr. 

 Ranking sqggcsts to be connected with marriage by 

 capture, is more probably intended to expel the evil spirits 

 which beset the bride and bridegroom at this crisis of 

 their lives. The use of the doll in the betrothal rites seems 

 to be based on a mimetic fertility charm. Their polytheism 

 has now widely absorbed the national reverence for the 

 ikons ; and another form of magic includes the use by 

 thieves of a candle made of a dead man's fat, the " Hand 

 of Glory " of the " Ingoldsby Legends." Mr. Ranking 

 suggests that the provenance of this last superstition may 

 form an important link in the chain of evidence which may 

 solve the problem of Gypsy origins, and he pleads for 

 spi rial inquiries regarding this belief. 



Messrs. E. Leitz have issued a very useful pamphlet 

 on the microscope and how to use it. The path of the 

 rays, the meaning of aperture, resolving power, illumina> 

 tion, eye-pieces, and focussing are all briefly but fully ex- 

 plained, the text being illustrated with many excellent 

 diagrams. 



The Eugenics Review for April (iii., No. i) contains an 

 interesting and suggestive article, by J. H. Kohlbrugge 

 (translated from the German by J. H. Koeppern), on the 

 influence of a tropical climate on Europeans. It is pointed 

 out that no white race has been able to survive in the 

 tropics unless race-mixture has taken place, and as the 

 white races cannot become really acclimatised, and as it is 

 doubtful whether we can achieve satisfactory results by 

 race blending, it is concluded that we can neither take the 

 place of the native nor do without him 



