484 



NATURE 



[September 29, 1923 



hundred housen 

 dence <>f V>x. I 

 Berkel' 



including the resi- 



■ ^idciit-envcritus of 



, but all thr LuiMiugs of the 



..ere saved. J he damage is esti- 



.it 2,200,000/. 



I III 111 -tit iition of I'ctri>i<iiiii Technologists is now 



iii-.t.ii!'< ! in ii- iii-\\ oiin'- ,!; M. line House, Bedford 



111 iiiiilitidii to a 



. ,, ,.:. . , ■ 11 ,,,.„.;..t,.,] 



Ill ir;ir\'. ,1 hii'LT I'oi iiti 



1 1 '■ ' .1 Ikuisc \\ .iriiiiiiL; inr tin- new (iIIhc-., llic 



!■:' •\'\ (ouiicil will rccci\c incinhi'is and their 



iin ; ;. on Wcdi ' "in.i(, October 3, from 8 to 



I" 1 M. Diirinij hil; scientific apparatus will 



Ik- cxliil'itcil aiiii (Ifinonstrated. Admission is by 

 ticket only. 



The lectures on recent excavations given during 

 the summer by .Mis < .audet will be repeated 



this winter on 'riuir- mmencing October 4, at 



the British Museum. The subject, as before, will 

 begin with the earliest known civilisation p*^ vI^m. p 

 by the discoveries made within the last I 

 in Mesopotamia, and will include the cxca\aiioiis 

 at Ur and this year's work at Kish, now known to 

 have been the capital of the first Empire in the world's 

 history, and said to date from about 5000 B.C. The 

 evolution of architecture from these early times 

 until the Roman and early Christian periods, showing 

 the cla.ssical influence on all subsequent art up to 

 the present day, will form the basis of the lectures, 

 including whenever possible the arts and crafts of 

 the people. Further particulars may be obtained 

 from the Hon. Secretary, 120 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 



Sir Arthur Keith, in his annual report on the 

 museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, refers to 

 the completion of the series of exhibits illustrating the 

 principles of pathology. In 1910, Prof. Shattock and 

 Mr. Cecil Beadles commenced to select, arrange, and 

 catalogue specimens. The War interfered with this 

 work ; but six further stands were interpolated this 

 year with the noteworthy result that, for the first 

 time, " a complete and systematic treatise on disease 

 has been written, not in words, but in illustrative 

 specimens," and the scope of the pathological section 

 is regarded as fixed. Mr. Cecil Beadles is now in 

 charge of the National W'ar Collection, which will 

 soon be arranged in accordance with an approved 

 scheme. The president of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of Edinburgh has been given leave to make 

 a selection from War specimens left in store, for the 

 museum of his college. Among notable additions 

 made to the Museum during the past year are a cast 

 of the tooth held by Dr. H. F. Osborn to indicate the 

 existence' of a human genus, Hesperopithecus, in 

 N. America during the Pliocene period ; a skeleton, 

 probably of Anglo-Saxon date, showing evidence of 

 infantile paralysis, " the earliest trace of this disorder 

 in England " ; and the late Celtic remains found at 

 Wortley, Hants, presented by Mr. R. W\ Hooley. 



Porto Santo, the northern island of the Madeira 

 Archipelago, has a population of nearly tliree thou- 



NO. 2813, VOL. 112] 



sand, and the inhabitants have the reputation of being 

 free from dcnt.d ( arics. Dr. M. C. r.rabh.irn visited 

 the islan undred 



natives, t\' ..;... i.> i>c cases 



of well-est t seven of these 



people, howc\ • !ioni M iMi ira, and only two 



of the seven fil sit'ii whu li ( h.iracterises the 



Porto I with im- 



munii ' - of the 



island develop t hi 



sliL'ht \cllow l),:!l ' » 1 



present, a sound set of teeth 



.1 , ., . ... ..lie or '^•'"'' ""'•"■'^ ^nd develops 



with a ri-,L;ula,rit\- whi' h :.^i\' ; he permea- 



tion o! the Mood thuds r ' *he 



cohininar {•nanicl ,'ind is a^- ice 



prot(Hti\c aL'aiiist the access of canes, liutli the 

 stain and the protective influence appear to be 

 derived from the iuL;hl\' niincrahsed water of the 

 island, the Springs of uhieh are ri. h i;: ■ Iilorides, 

 carbonates and snl()h,i!i-., in < o; et 



waters of Madeira. ' "r. ( .r,il)h,i,.; ,-,.... • vy 



on the i-laiid, Iml in.iiu' ( a--i-. (.f pnlmona; --r. 



Diarrhtt'a and aUmcntar\- ailments were ^nij^.i.irlv 

 absent, and the mineralised waters seemed inimical 

 to intestinal parasites. There was no existing in- 

 stance of malignant disease. Traditionally some 

 cases have occurred, but no form of cancer has taken 

 root at Porto Santo, and Dr. Grabham is inclined to 

 associate 1 jition with the simple feeding of 



the people .'.i : ^^ith the absence o* -^"".i ^-..ts, 

 except lard, from the food, and lard l>e 



deficient in the vitamin necessary to promote growth 

 and prevent rickets. Food is taken cold ; there is no 

 milk or green vegetables, and nothing to involve 

 grinding mastication. The main sustenance is de- 

 rived from maize boiled with a modicum of lard, 

 with the occasional addition of fish and an onion or 

 two. At the Tiverpool meeting of the British 

 Association, where Dr. Grabham described the re- 

 sults of his inquiry, he showed a skull (since de- 

 posited in the Hunterian Museum') of a Porto 

 Santo man of about sixty years of ne<\ taken pro- 

 miscuously from an exposed gra\ teeth were 

 all .sound : and also exhibited . ecimcns of 

 the soil, the vegetation, and the mineral h 

 analyses. 



Among the forthcoming books announced by the 



Old ^^'estminste^ Press is the 3rd edition of " Popular 

 F"allacies " by A. S. E. Ackermanii. which contains 

 696 pp. of new matter, and deals with 1330 fallacies, 

 including the 400 of tlie 2nd edition. 



The Oxford Inixer^nv Press will publish shortly 

 an original n\ Mr. R. T. Gunther, on the 



instruments u.-^w tv wirly men of science, under the 

 title " Early Science in Oxford.*' The work will be 

 issued in two volumes — one on chemistry, mathe- 

 matics, physics and surveWng, and the other on 

 astronomy. No university is richer in the apparatus 

 and records of bygone men of science than Oxford. 

 Mr. Gunther 's illustrated account of her early science 

 is the outcome of a first attempt to direct attention 



