572 



NATURE 



[June 22, 191 1 



sumption of shell-fish. The evidence marshalled by Dr. 

 Bulstrode for this connection must, however, go a long 

 way to dispel any doubt, if such exist, of its reality. Tlie 

 evidence, of course, is largely indirect, and comprises such 

 details as these : the greater incidence of enteric among 

 those who eat shell-fish than among those who do not ; 

 diminished incidence of enteric coinciding with diminu- 

 tion in the amount of sewage emptying into estuaries, &c. ; 

 the " cooliing " of shell-fish diminishing the incidence of 

 disease ; reduction in enteric fever prevalence coinciding 

 with limitation of the consumption of shell-fish ; and 

 (sometimes) seasonal variations in the shell-fish supply 

 coinciding with seasonal variations in disease. 



Finally, one of the most important parts of the sub- 

 ject, the administrative control of contaminated shell-fish, 

 is dealt with. The difficulties in this direction are very 

 great. Ineffective efforts at legislation have been made, 

 and, failing success, the authorities concerned have fallen 

 back on the publicity secured by local posters, &c.. which, 

 of course, affects the sale of wholesome, as well as of 

 unwholesome, shell-fish. The Fishmongers' Company and 

 several corporations have done excellent work, and one or 

 two local Acts have been obtained (e.g. by the Corpora- 

 tion of Blackburn in 1908) to deal with the matter, but 

 otherwise practically no control, in a sanitary sense, has 

 been exercised over the beds, laying, and cleansing and 

 storing places. Probably the local application, as re- 

 quired of the powers contained in the Public Health 

 ^Regulations as to Food) Act, 1907, would generally 

 suffice. 



The whole report is a very valuable one, and should 

 arouse public attention to the necessity for taking definite 

 action to deal with the subject of the contamination of 

 shell-fish. The report is prefaced by a lucid introduction 

 by Dr. Newsholme, the Board's medical officer, from 

 which we have drawn freelv in writing the above. 



R. T. H. 



M 



THE CHEMISTRY OF MUMMIFICATION. 



R. A. LUCAS has rendered a great service to all who 

 are interested in the customs of the ancient 

 Egyptians and in the history of the methods adopted for 

 the preservation of the body by collecting into one con- 

 venient volume the results of his investigations concern- 

 ing the " Preservative Materials used by the Ancient 

 Egyptians in Embalming," which has been issued _ as 

 Survey Department Paper No. 12 (Cairo : National Print- 

 ing Department, 191 1). 



More than seventy years ago Dr. Pettigrew published 

 an exhaustive account of the chemistry of mummies, so 

 far as this was possibfe at that time, and he had the 

 assistance of Michael Faraday in his investigations. Since 

 then the whole subject of mummification had fallen into 

 the hands of archaeologists, who invented a curious 

 alchemy 'of their own for the purpose of interpreting the 

 accounts of Egyptian embalming given by the ancient 

 Greek writers ; but during the last ten years this era of 

 sensationalism has received its quietus, and a serious 

 attempt has been made to elucidate by recognised scientific 

 means the nature of the methods of mummification. 



Recent investigators have had the immense advantage 

 of having many hundreds of mummies of known age and 

 provenance for every unknown mummy that came into 

 Pettigrew's hands ; and the enormous strides in chemical 

 knowledge that the last seventy years have witnessed have 

 made it possible to obtain much more information from 

 the material than was possible before. Most of the 

 embalming materials thus rescued have been analysed by 

 Prof. W. A. Schmidt, of the Cairo School of Medicine, 

 and Mr. Lucas, analyst to the Egyptian Survey Depart- 

 ment, and the results of their work have been published 

 in various scientific journals pubhshed in Egypt and 

 Europe. Mr. Lucas has collected all this scattered in- 

 formation and added to it in this valuable report. He 

 has also given an extensive bibliography, which, though 

 not quite complete, will be of ver>' real service to 

 archaeologists, who in the past have been at a loss to 

 obtain accurate information upon such matters as are 

 di« ussed in this work. 



NO. 2173, VOL. 86"] 



AN IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Y\7 E print below a memorial relating to the formation of 

 an Imperial Bureau of .^nthropology, received from 

 the Royal Anthropological Institute. The memorial wa» 

 sent a few days ago to the secretary of the conference, 

 to Mr. Asquith and each of the other Prime Ministers, an<f 

 to the Colonial Secretary. Though the matter did not 

 appear on the agenda of the Imperial Conference, wr 1* arn 

 that the individual members of the conference are co(^iii--ant 

 of the facts, and one or two are desirous of obtaining mure 

 information. We trust it will be possible for some action 

 to be taken on the lines suggested by the memorial. 



Memorial on the Establishment of an Imperial Bureau of 

 Anthropology presented to the Imperial Conference by 

 the Royal Anthropological Institute. 



The Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute desircft 

 to submit the following facts for your consideration : — 



(i) An important and an integral portion of the problem 

 of Empire is that which is concerned with the relations of 

 the Imperial race with dependent peoples whose history, 

 religion, social structure, and habits of life and thought are 

 far removed from ours. 



(2) The social characteristics of the dependent races are 

 being profoundly modified by contact with our civilisation^ 

 and experience has shown that habits of life and thought^jg 

 the products of lonpf ages, have a tendency to disappear 

 under modern conditions. 



(3) The council urges, also, that on administrative 

 grounds an exact and an intimate knowledge of the mental] 

 attitudes and modes of life of these races is essential 

 those whose duty it is to govern them. 



(4) .As the body representing the premier scientific instituJ 

 tion in Great Britain whose object it is to promote] 

 the organised study of mankind, the council is much, 

 concerned with the inevitable loss to science consequent oit| 

 the extension of our civilisation ; but the manners andS 

 customs of many semi-savage tribes in the Empire stilts 

 survive, and are worth the serious attention of the scientific 

 anthropologist. It urges, therefore, that the resources of 

 modern science should be thoroughly and systematically 

 employed in order to record those customs which are of 

 such value and interest to the student of anthropology. 



(5) Another important problem of Empire is the physical 

 improvement or deterioration of all the races of the Empire. 

 This can only be ascertained by periodic measurement of 

 children and adults. It is obvious that this work must 

 be controlled from a single centre in order to secure 

 uniformity. 



(6) The council desires to point out that the scientific 

 study of anthropolog^y at the universities has made great 

 and marked progress in late years, a gratifying fact which 

 is due in no small measure to the efforts and example of 

 distinguished fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 



(7) The number of trained investigators is steadily in- 

 creasing, and every year sees an advance in the accuracy 

 and thoroughness of the methods of anthropological 

 investigation. 



(8) While it is the duty of the universities to organise 

 the study of anthropology, it is the task of the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute to coordinate all branches of that 

 study by the exercise of functions in regard to it analogous 

 to those performed for science in general by the Royaf 

 Society. 



(g) in these circumstances the Council of the Royal 

 .Anthropological Institute seeks the support, moral and 

 financial, of your Governments for a scheme to establish in 

 London, in associ.ition with the institute, an Imperial 

 Bureau of Anthropoloev. in order to secure the systematic 

 investigation by scientific methods, according to a uniform 

 plan, of the anthropoloery of the dependent and independent 

 races within the British Empire. 



(10) The council recognises that this project can be 

 carried to success only iif local cooperation and support be 

 freelv accorded to it. The methods and procedure of in- 

 vestigation very often must be adapted to local necessities 

 of which the investigator on the spot is alone competent to 

 judge. But it is clearly desirable that within limits there 

 should be uniformitv of method for the sake of the com- 



