592 



NATURE 



[June 29, 191 1 



(111 Dr. Mochi sur le pal^oanthropolof^ie Argentine," tho 

 second, " L'Agc dcs formations s^dimentaires tertiares dc 

 I 'Argentine en relation avec I 'antiquity dc I'homme." In 

 the first, while admitting Dr. Mochi 's services to the cause 

 of prehistoric nrchrcology, tho writer, whose paper is fully 

 illustrated by drawings of skulls, conducts a lively criticism 

 of Dr. Mochi 's views. This is renewed in the second 

 paper, in which he arrives at the conclusion that the 

 presence of Archtothorium in the quaternary deposits of 

 North America furnishes an additional proof of the immense 

 antiquity of the Pampean and other ancient formations in 

 .Argentina, which contain tho di'lris of animals of the same 

 group. 



In the study of the native languages of the American 

 continent, Mr. A. L. Kroeber, in a paper entitled" Phonetic 

 Constituents of the Native Languages of California," 

 contributed to vol. x. of the publications on American 

 arch.TCoIogy and ethnology of the University of California, 

 has opened up new ground. Hitherto some of the most 

 valuable grammatical study of these tongues has been con- 

 ducted by ethnologists untrained in phonology. Recently, 

 however, the principles and methods of phonetic research 

 established by European scholars have been applied to the 

 languages of the .American Indians, and in this paper the 

 results, already promising, are discussed. This investiga- 

 tion will, it is hoped, not only assist in the study of those 

 Californian dialects which have not been as yet examined, 

 but will help to solve the fundamental problem, whether 

 the linguistic families of America possess any underlying or 

 general features peculiar to themselves as a class. 



The Somerset Archaeological and Natural Historv Society 

 has resumed work on the Meare Lake village, under the 

 control of Messrs. A. Bulleid and H. St. George Gray. 

 Besides various late-Celtic relics similar to those already 

 discovered. Mound 7 has produced a class of objects hitherto 

 not found elsewhere, including a number of worked and 

 polished shoulder-bones of animals, the blade-bones being 

 in some cases ornamented in the dot-and-circle pattern. 

 Kimmeridge shale is rather plentiful for a substance im- 

 ported from Dorset. Little bronze has so far been found, 

 the objects including finger-rings, an awl, and a rivet. 

 .Some much-corroded iron objects, such as a knife and 

 chisel, have been unearthed. Human remains are scarce, 

 only two pieces of skull-bone having been found. Potterv 

 is plentiful, and of a type differing in design from that 

 liuind .It the Glastonbury Lake village. As is evident from 

 the number of bones of various kinds, the people occupying 

 this site lived largely on moat. They possessed an ox and 

 horse of a small type, a large variety of^dog, and remains 

 of the beaver and otter have been discovered. The relics 

 which have been up to this time found arc open tfl inspec- 

 tion at a temporary museum on the site, whence later on 

 they will be removed to the County Musiuni at Taunton 

 Castle. 



The Edinburgh Medical Journal for June (vi., No. 6) is 

 a centenary number dedicated to the memory of Sir James 

 Y. Simpson, " to whose genius and benevolence the world 

 owes the blessings derived from the use of chloroform for 

 the relief of suffering." It includes a number of portraits 

 and other illustrations, and articles on his life and work 

 by his daughter, Miss Eve Simpson, Sir Alexander Simp- 

 son, Sir Halliday Croom, Dr. Berry Hart, and others. 

 Not only did he introduce chloroform, but in addition the 

 uterine sound, mechanical dilatation of the cervix uteri, 

 and various obstetric and gynaecological operations. He 

 was a great and lovable man, and also engaged in the 

 pursuit of many archaeological problems. 

 NO. 2174, VOL. 86] 



Livingstone College, Leyton, E., was founded in order 

 to give elementary medical training to missionary workers, 

 and judging by the matter contained in the Coronation 

 number of its year-book, just issued, appears to be admir- 

 ably fulfilling its functions. Among the achievements of 

 old students may be noted the action of the Rev. E. W. T. 

 Greenshield, who rescued the entire shipwrecked crew of 

 a Dutch whaler in which he was sailing, and for this he 

 has been decorated by the Queen of Holland ; whilst in 

 .Assam an old student, a missionary of the Baptist 

 Missionary Society, has discovered a new mosquito, hence- 

 forth to be known as the Culex petligrewii. 



Hides and skins coming from some parts of the world, 

 e.g. Siberia, China, Persia, and .Asia Minor, are liable to 

 be infected with anthrax, and those handling them are 

 liable to infection. Many methods have been suggested for 

 treating the skins so as to destroy th^anthrax spores with- 

 out damaging the material, but flips satisfactory. In 

 a valuable report to the Leath^^ffiers' Company, Dr. 

 Constant Ponder discusses the incidence of anthrax 

 amongst those engaged in the hide, skin, and leather 

 I industries, and has investigated various processes proposed 

 for the sterilisation of anthrax spores. .Among these, a 

 process recently introduced by Mr. Seymour-Jones has been 

 tested. It consists in soaking the skins for twenty-four 

 hours in a solution containing i per cent, of formic acid 

 and I in 5000 of mercuric chloride, after which the skins 

 are treated with a strong brine solution. The method has 

 no deleterious action, the skins can be perfectly tanned 

 afterwards, and it is generally efficient in destroying 

 anthrax spores. Probably a slightly increased amount of 

 mercuric chloride would be an advantage. 



After a long period of quiescence, plague has once more 

 appeared among the rats in the Port of London. As men- 

 tioned in a note in Nature of June 22 (p. 562), plague- 

 infected rats have been found for three years in succession 

 in the port, viz. in the West India, the South-West India, 

 and the Royal Albert, Docks. The present site of the 

 infection is a wharf on the banks of the Thames at 

 Wapping, less than a mile from the Tower Bridge. 

 Twelve dead rats were found at this wharf, of which four 

 at least were plague-infected. The existence of plague 

 in wharves and warehouses, which are not inhabited at 

 night, may be regarded with comparative equanimity so 

 long as it does not spread to the rats in the plexus of 

 mean streets which lie behind. The real cause for anxiety 

 is the steadily widening area over which plague-infected 

 rats have now been found. The fact that no cases of 

 human plague have lately been recorded in England is not 

 of much significance, because the period for human infec- 

 tion is only now commencing, coinciding as it does with 

 the increase of the rat-fleas. .A writer in The Times of 

 June 17 in an able article thus summarises the occur- 

 rence : — " While the recurrence in the Port of London of 

 an infection which has been already noted in three 

 successive years can be regarded without excitement, it has 

 its serious aspects. It cannot be too strongly urged that 

 the mere presence of plague in England among rats, in 

 however limited a form, may become a matter of sinister 

 importance. If the Wapping outbreak marks a slowly 

 widening circle of infection, it would be in exact accord 

 with Indian e.xperience, for plague has sometimes taken 

 months, or even years, to pass through the rats of a single 

 village. So long as the rats are infected, there must 

 always be some danger to mankind." 



The second number of vol. iv. of the Journal of the 

 Federated Malay States Museums contains four papers, by 



