September 22, 192 1] 



NATURE 



139 



now established that certain organs, such as the 

 thyroid gland and the pituitary body at the base of 

 the brain, had vast potentialities and great value. 

 Giganticism was due to the over-activitj- of the 

 pituitary body from birth, or sometimes before it ; 

 but it occasionally happened that this over-activity 

 came into play after the increase of height was no 

 longer possible, and this was evidenced in an over- 

 growth of the extremities, which was technically 

 called acro-megaly. It was very striking that por- 

 tions of a man's brain could be removed, as was done 

 in the recent war, but this tin\- thyroid gland was 

 of prime importance ; its entire removal was fol- 

 lowed by death within a very short time, and its 

 over-activit\- or under-activity determined whether 

 men were big or small. 



At tlw Edinburgh meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion Sir \V. Ridgeway extended to totemism the theory 

 of ancestral worship which he has applied, in his 

 ** Origin of Tragedy, " to the investigation of the 

 drama. A prominent part in its development has 

 been played by transmigration, as in the case of 

 the ancient Egyptians. Some Indonesians venerate 

 the crocodile as a beneficent being, and look forward 

 to becoming crocodiles after death, while tribes in 

 Sumatra venerate tigers, supposing them to be their 

 cestors. Thus the reverence for certain trees, 

 imals, etc., depends on the primary belief in the 

 mc«-tality of the soul. There can be no doubt, as 

 some authorities stated in the course of the dis- 

 cussion which followed the reading of Sir W. Ridge- 

 way's paper, that totemism is often found in con- 

 nection with the cult of ancestors. But the difficulty 

 remains that transmigration or the immortalit}- of the 

 soul does not seem to be one of the earliest and funda- 

 1 mental beliefs that arose in the human mind, and that 

 totemism displays itself in manv parts of the world 

 as a complex form of belief, the varieties of which 

 cannot easily be explained by any single theorv of 

 its origin. 



Ix the September issue of "Slan Messrs. Buxton and 

 Hort give an interesting account of the potterA* in- 

 dustry of Malta, the facts having been collected 

 during the visit of the Oxford Anthropological Expedi- 

 ticHn. Two methods, the old and the new, are in use. 

 In the former method we have a baked clay support 

 holding a wooden disc set spinning bv the hand in a 

 clockwise direction — a method occasionally used for 

 making ollas, or large water-pots, but now falling 

 into disuse. In the new method an iron spindle, with 

 the point in the native rock-floor, is used, the lower 

 disc being turned anti-clockwise with the foot, and 

 the clay worked on the upper turn-table. This 

 method has been in use only for about ten years, 

 and one woman did not know how to work the 

 modern wheel. 



Is the current issue (vol. 22, part 2) of the Records 

 of the Indian Museum two entomological discoveries 

 of unusual importance are put on record. The first 

 is that of a dragon-fly of the genus Epiophlebia in 

 the Himalayas. This genus, which appears to com- 

 bine the characters of the Zygoptera and the 

 -\>isoptera, is an exceedingly archaic form, and has 

 NO. 2708, VOL. 108] 



hitherto been known frotn a single Japanese species. 

 A larva sufficiently advanced in development to be 

 identified with certainty was found, in a small col- 

 lection from the Darjeeling district by Dr. F. F. 

 Laidlaw, who, recc^nising its importance, has per- 

 suaded Dr. R. J. Tillyard to describe it in detail. 

 The larva of this remarkable genus was hitherto un- 

 known, and the extension of the geograjAical range 

 from Japan to the Himalayas is a matter of great 

 interest. The second disco\*ry is that of a species of 

 the tenmitophilous hemipterous genus Termitap^is 

 on the east coast of India. The genus consists of 

 curious flattened, wingless insects superficially re- 

 sembling Coccidae or Aphidae, but conforming in 

 structure to the Heteroptera. Species have hitherto 

 been found in the warmer parts of N'cwth America, in 

 South America, Australia, and West Africa, but not 

 in the Oriental region. Prof. F. Silvestri, who de- 

 scribes the Indian form from a nest of Coptotermes 

 Heimi, regards the genus as representing a distinct 

 family, which he calls Termitocoridae. 



We have received the General Report of the Survey 

 of India for the year 1919-20. Field-work still suf- 

 fered from a shortage of officers, but this difficulty 

 was being overcome. Topographical surveys during 

 the vear covered 30,464 square miles, including large 

 areas in Upper Burma and Tenasserim. Among the 

 new sheets published were 104 i-in. sheets, 39 5-in. 

 sheets, and 8 "degree"' sheets. Two new sheets of 

 the million map were produced, and practically the 

 whole of India, .Afghanistan, Persia, and parts of 

 Burma are now published on this scale. No additions 

 were made to the two-million series. The report in- 

 cludes indices to the maps of various scales. 



Three papers in the Records of the Geological 

 Sur\ey of India (vol. 53, part i, 1921) bear on the 

 development of minerals of economic interest, but 

 are in no case of a verv hopeful nature. Dr. A. M. 

 Heron describes lodes of antimonite 20 ft- wide south 

 of Moulmein, Burma, in a district where labourers 

 may be described as evanescent. Mr. H. C. Jones notes 

 numerous occurrences of the same ore in the southern 

 Shan States, none being of marked importance. Mr. 

 G. H. Tipper gives a summary, from a recent journey, 

 of "The Geology and Mineral Resources of Eastern 

 Persia." Here the continuous destruction of forests 

 has left no fuel for smelting ore. An interesting 

 account is given of the long underground tunnels, 

 often lined with glazed pipes, which convey water from 

 the gravels for irrigating land lower down the slopes. 



An important study of the origin of banded gneisses 

 and amphibolites occurs in Mr. C. E. Tilley's paper 

 on "The Granite-gneisses of Southern E\Te Penin- 

 sula, S. Australia " (Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. London, 

 vol. 77, p. 75, 192 1 ). The production of the charac- 

 teristic granular garnets and secondary pyroxenes of 

 amphibolites from primary' pyroxene, in a basic 

 igneous rock invaded by granite, is excellently 

 described. We may note again that in discussions 

 of the banding of composite gneiss justice is rarely 

 done to the work of Levy, Lacroix, and Callaway 

 (in Co. Galway), which dates back at least to 1887. 



