562 



NATURE 



[June 22, 191 1 



Mr. R. Torii, under the title of " fetudcs anthropo- 

 'ogiques, Les Aborigines de Formose," contributes to the 

 lournal of Science issued by the Imperial University of 

 Tokyo nn introductory account of the primitive races of 

 ho island. The present portion consists of a list of the 

 1 ihes with their geographical distribution, and it is 

 ucompanied by a large collection of photographs illus- 

 trating their physical appearance, environment, and occupa- 

 tions. .Anthropologists will await with interest the publi- 

 cation in the journal of further instalments of the results 

 of Mr. Torii 's careful survey of these little known races. 



Mlcii has been written about the North-West Frontier 

 Trovinco, once an integral part of the Punjab, and specially 

 interesting in connection with the restless Pathan tribes 

 ind the diversity of its physical characteristics. The 

 ; roblems which face the ofTicers who control the relations 

 of the British Government with the races within and 

 beyond our border are discussed by a distinguished political 

 officer, Mr. W. R. H. Merk, in a paper read before the 

 Royal Society of Arts on May 25, and published in the 

 society's journal. The conclusion of the writer, supported 

 by Lord Minto and generally concurred in by Sir Mortimer 

 Durand, Sir T. Holdich, and other authorities who joined 

 in the discussion, is that, though we may expect occasional 

 trouble from these tribes, our frontier policy is gradually 

 attaining its object, and that it is possible that in the 

 future this belt of rugged mountain territory will be, not 

 a source of anxiety, but a barrier against aggression and 

 a substantial addition to the security of India. 



The report of the Otago University Museum for 1910 

 records the gift to that institution of the valuable collec- 

 tion of Maori ethnology made by the late Dr. Hocken, 

 who died on May 17, 19 lo. 



In the May number of T/ie Otfawa Naturalist Mr. 

 Lambe describes the skull of a new species of the bear- 

 like genus Arctotherium from the Pleistocene of the 

 Yukon. The genus, which is in some degree intermediate 

 between Ursus and the extinct Old World Hyaenarctus, has 

 not hitherto been known north of California, and has 

 accordingly been regarded as a southern type. The dis- 

 covery of A. yukonense is therefore of considerable import- 

 ance, as indicative of the northern origin of these huge, 

 big-headed bears, and thus of the probable genetic connec- 

 tion with Hyaenarctus. 



We have received the first section of a work to be pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Friendlander, of Berlin, under the title 

 of " Nomenclator animalium generum et subgenerum," in 

 two volumes, at the price of 5Z. The section received is 

 devoted to the Primates. The various names are arranged 

 in generic order, without any reference to the species by 

 which they are typified. When names have been mis- 

 spelt, they are frequently quoted as if they were new 

 terms proposed by those responsible for such errors, with- 

 out any clue as to their real origin, as, for instance, in 

 the case of Aulaxinus for Aulaxinuus. 



The discovery in the autumn of 1907 of mummified 

 carcases of mammoths and rhinoceroses in the ozokerit 

 deposits of the Starunia district of eastern Galicia gave 

 rise to considerable interest at the time. The specimens 

 were transferred to the museum at Lemberg, where the 

 skin of the rhinoceros has been set up, and an illustrated 

 account of both specimens, by Mr. E. L. Niezabitowski, 

 has been published in the April number of the Anzeiger d. 

 Akad. d. Wissenschaften in Krakau. The rhinoceros 

 NO. 2173, VOL. 86] 



belongs to the woolly species [Rhinoceros antiquitatis), and 

 so well is the head preserved, that the author has been 

 enabled to compare it in detail with that of its nearest 

 relative, the existing white rhinoceros of Africa. The 

 species presenting the next nearest relationship appears tc 

 be the European Pleistocene /?. mercki. The hair of the 

 Starunia rhinoceros had disappeared. 



In The British Medical Journal for June 3 (p. 1310) Dr. 

 Leonard Hill and Mr. Martin Flack publish a second noti- 

 on the comparative nutritive value of white, standard, and 

 whole-meal bread when used as food for rats. The experi- 

 ments show still more conclusively than in their first note 

 (see Nature, May 11, p. 355) the deficiency of white bread 

 as a food, and the better nutritive qualities of standard and 

 whole-meal breads. The germ seems to contain adjuvant 

 bodies whereby the tryptophane-containing portions of the 

 proteins are split off in larger amount and more easily 

 when it is present in the flour. 



In his annual report for the year 1910, recently issued. 

 Dr. Herbert Williams, medical officer of health for the 

 Port of London, describes the incidence of plague among 

 the rats and the measures taken for plague destruction in 

 the port. Plague has now appeared among the rats for 

 three years in succession : in 1908 in the West India Dock 

 during five weeks in August and September ; in 1909 seven 

 dead rats which were proved to have died of plague were 

 found in the South-West India Dock; and in 1910 three 

 dead plague rats were picked up in the Royal Albert Dock. 

 Of 199 rats captured and examined last year, only three 

 were plague-infected. Dr. Williams remarks that this 

 occurrence of plague among the rats three years in 

 succession indicates the need for special vigilance. 



The rhythmic character of the movement exhibited by 

 the Plasmodia of Myxomycetes is discussed by Dr. V. 

 Vouk in the SUzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie 

 der Wissenschaften, Vienna (vol. cxix., part viii.). The 

 progressive and regressive flow^s together constitute a 

 rhythmic period, which is found to be tolerably constant 

 for the main streams of any given plasmodium. The 

 period increases up to a certain point with the age and 

 size of the plasmodium. Obviously mechanical stimuli 

 upset the rhythmic flow. 



The frequent occurrence of localised hailstorms, gener- 

 ally of very short duration, as a typical phenomenon 

 during late spring and summer in Missouri and Nebraska, 

 prompted an investigation into the injury caused to forest 

 trees, the results of which are communicated by Mr. F. J. 

 Phillips in the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences 

 (vol. xix., No. 3). Catalpa, sycamore, and mulberry 

 suffered most both in the matter of defoliation and bark 

 wounds. The soft nature of the bark on cotton wood 

 and box elder was also apparent in the damage sustained. 

 It is suggested that hail injury increases the development 

 of Polystictus versicolor on Catalpa. 



A NOTE on fungi collected in clay mines is communi- 

 cated by Mr. P. Spaulding to the report of the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden (1910). The greater number of the 

 specimens were growing on the oak timbers used as sup- 

 ports. Polystictus versicolor and Merulius lachrymans 

 were generally common, and Merulius rubellus was 

 abundant in one mine. Stalked pendant forms of Hydnum 

 erinaceus and Schizophyllum commune were also found. 

 Only one fungus, Fomes annosus, was observed on the pine 

 timbers, and Coprinus atramcntarius was growing on the 

 clay. 



