October 27, 1923] 



NA TURE 





Research Items. 



Disease Codlings in Eastern Bengal. — Man 

 in India, a periodical edited by that active anthro- 

 pologist, Rai Bahadur Sarat Chandra Roy, has 

 steadily improved in value as it has now reached 

 its third volume. Perhaps the most interesting 

 article in an excellent number is that on " The Cult 

 of the Codlings of Disease in Eastern Bengal," by 

 IMr. Sarat Chandra Mitra. He gives further evidence 

 to show that the cults of the higher gods — Brahma, 

 Vishnu, and Siva — retain little influence on the rural 

 populations, which is devoted to the propitiation and 

 control of a mob of malignant demons, who cause 

 disease among men and animals, failure of crops, 

 and other evils which menace the villages. 



Tattooing and Lip Distortion. — Two valuable 

 ethnographical articles, both illustrated by drawings 

 and photographs, appear in L'Anthropologie (vol. 

 xxxii. Nos. 1-3, August 1923). The first, by Dr. 

 J. Herber, entitled " Les Tatouages du pied au 

 Maroc," describes a remarkable series of foot tattoo- 

 ing in Morocco, the markings taking in some instances 

 an imitation of jewellery, such as anklets, and other 

 decorations of the calf. The second paper, by 

 M. Caston Muraz and IMaddh, Sophie Getsowa, 

 entitled, " Les Leures des Femmes Djinges, dites 

 Femmes-a-Plateaux," describes the extraordinary 

 types of the labrets used by the Saras-Djinge, im- 

 properly called the Saras-Kabas, a tribe of fetish- 

 worshippers in the neighbourhood of Lake Tchad, 

 between the right bank of the Chari and the Arab 

 district of Salamat. The French officers now in 

 charge of this region have taken active measures to 

 prevent this barbaric form of decoration of the female 

 face. 



Fatigue Research in Factories. — The Journal 

 of the Roj^al Statistical Society (July, 1923) contains 

 a paper by Dr. D. R. Wilson on " Some Recfent 

 Contributions to the Study of Fatigue." The writer, 

 after giving a short historical outline of the activities 

 of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board, gathers 

 together the conclusions, usually expressed in a tenta- 

 tive way, furnished by several different investigations 

 in different industries. He points out that con- 

 clusions, even though they are perforce based on a 

 study of a few individual cases, when confirmed in 

 several widely differing industries, are probably sound. 

 Industrial research as yet is in its infancy, and condi- 

 tions for carrying it on in a factory bear no resem- 

 blance to those of a laboratory. A particular factory 

 may employ only a few individuals on a given process, 

 but, owing to the constitution of the factory, these 

 individuals are typical of any likely to be employed 

 for that process. It therefore seems a likely hypo- 

 thesis that what is true of these particular individuals 

 with regard to such general problems as the length 

 of the working day, rest pauses, ventilation, etc., will 

 be true of others. It is pointed out that factory 

 research is of the nature of applied science and that 

 the conclusions and methods of several sciences not 

 only have to be utilised, but also adapted, for the parti- 

 cular conditions of factory life. 



Mendelian Inheritance in a Fern. — The varia- 

 tions of the hart's-tonguc fern, Scolopendrium vulgare, 

 are well known and have often been illustrated by 

 Druery and others. Prof. W. H. Lang {Journ. 

 Genetics, vol. 13, No. 2) has studied the offspring 

 produced by sowing the spores of a plant which was 

 apparently normal except that one leaf was incised 

 on one side though normal on the otiier. The 

 prothalli so produced gave rise to young plants 

 75 per cent, of which were normal (entire leaved) 



NO. 2817, VOL. 112] 



and 25 per cent, incised. The latter, when reproduced 

 by spores, bred true like extracted recessives, while 

 the two entire-leaved offspring both proved to be 

 again heterozygous. The original plant was evidently 

 heterozygous, the normal condition being completely 

 dominant to incised leaf. When spores were sown 

 singly, thus producing isolated prothalli, such pro- 

 thalli gave rise either to all entire-leaved or to all 

 incised -leaved plants, showing that, in accordance 

 with theory, the segregation of factors had taken 

 place in the spore formation. 



Revision of the Catillocrinid/E. — The family of 

 Devonian and Carboniferous crinoids known as 

 Catillocrinidae is peculiar in combining marked 

 asymmetry in the composition of the cup with but 

 slight asymmetry in its shape ; while a large anal 

 tube does not prevent a tendency to symmetry in the 

 fringe of unbranched arms, 11 to 58 in number, 

 which spring directly from the edge of the cup. 

 Mr. Frank Springer's study of this assemblage 

 (Smithson. Misc. Coll., Ixxvi. No. 3, Aug. 1923) not 

 only adds new facts to our knowledge of it as well 

 as of the Symbathocrinidae, but also raises questions of 

 far-reaching importance. These families as well as 

 their allies and admitted ancestors have always been 

 credited with a monocyclic base ; in other words 

 no infrabasals have been detected or even supposed 

 to exist in the cup. Mr. Springer now describes and 

 illustrates by photography three small plates hidden 

 within the basals of Caiillocrinus tennesseeae, the 

 oldest species of the genus. He does not consider 

 that such plates occur in any later members of the 

 family, a fact which may be explained as due to 

 atrophy ; but neither does he claim that they may 

 have existed in the predecessors of Catillocrinus. 

 He does, none the less, conclude that these plates 

 are true infrabasals and that " in this species there 

 is a dicyclic base." We hesitate to accept so revolu- 

 tionary a decision on the evidence of three specimens 

 of one highly modified species. On the other hand, 

 we welcome the support of this distinguished worker 

 for the suggestion that the faunas from Timor which 

 Wanner refers to the Permian are in part of Lower 

 Carboniferous age. 



Control of Bunt and Smut. — In Bull. C. No. 3 of 

 the Welsh Plant Breedmg Station, K. Sampson 

 describes how satisfactory control of bunt of wheat 

 and covered smut of barley can be obtained by the 

 use of dry copper carbonate, as well as by solutions of 

 copper sulphate and formalin. The dry treatment 

 proved to be good from all points of view save that 

 of cost, but an equally efficacious and less expensive 

 dressing is found in anhydrous copper sulphate and 

 calcium carbonate. 



The Gorge of the Arun. — Capt. C. J. Morris on 

 his way back from the last Mount Everest expedition 

 visited the little-known gorge of the Arun in Nepal. 

 He contributes a paper on the subject to the Geo- 

 graphical Journal for September. It was known that 

 below the village of Teng the river falls some 4000 

 feet in 20 miles, and the object of the expedition was 

 to examine this stretch of tlie river. Tliis drop was 

 found to be due to a steady fall in the bed of the river, 

 which passes through narrow defiles in which the 

 cliffs rise in places to 10,000 feet above the water 

 level. Capt. Morris's paper contains a sketch map 

 of the gorge of the Arun. 



Scale for Ska Disturbance and Swell. — On the 

 North Atlantic meteorological chart for October a 

 new scale for sea and swell disturbance is tentatively 



