April 7, 192 1] 



NATURE 



179 



educate the children of Viennese professors. Better 

 still, the botanists might look after botanists, the 

 chemists after chemists, and this assistance might be 

 organised through our learned societies. The poverty 

 and want of the Vienna intellectuals are confirmed by 

 reports received through the Emergency and War 

 Victims Relief Committee of the Society of Friends 

 <hon. secretary, Miss Ruth Fry, 27 Chancery Lane, 

 W.C.2) in correspondence with their outpost at Singer, 

 strasse 16, Wien I. There is book-hunger as well as 

 food-hunger, and for the relief of the former an Anglo- 

 American Library for Central Europe has been formed 

 (hon. secretary, B. M. Headicar, London School of 

 Economics, Clare Market, W.C.2). Readers of Nature 

 might offer scientific papers and transactions and 

 short-circuit correspondence by direct communication. 

 The Austrian League of Nations Union (hon. secretary, 

 Herr Arthur MuUer, Oesterreichische Volkerbundliga, 

 Burgring 9, Wien L) is preparing to act as trustees 

 for funds to be devoted to the technical education of 

 the youth of Vienna. 



India at the present moment is in a stage of transi- 

 tion, and the form her institutions will take for the 

 next few generations depends on the success of cer- 

 tain enlightened men who are striving against great 

 odds to combat prejudice, ignorance, and self-interest. 

 A clear lead was given to the industries of the country 

 by the work of the Indian Industrial Commission, artd 

 in the case of the chemical industries by that of the 

 ' Chemical Services Committee which was appointed 

 a=; an outcome of the Commission. Nevertheless, 

 when one reads reports such as that recently published 

 by the Bengal Chamber Committee on the suggestions 

 1 put forward by the Chemical Services Committee it 

 i is difficult to believe that there is any real grasp of 

 ; the needs of the moment, and that inter-provincial 

 jealousies may not, after all; seriously affect the Indus- 

 trial development of the country. In these circum- 

 stances it is pleasant to record the appearance of the 

 first number of the Journal of Indian Industries and 

 Labour (Calcutta, published by order of the Govern- 

 ment of India), which, in accordance with the fore- 

 word written by Sir Thomas Holland, is "one step 

 towards provincial co-operation " and " a medium for 

 communicating to a wider public . . . information 

 that will assist private enterprise." The articles are 

 interesting and well written, a particularly useful 

 feature being the summaries of industrial intelligence 

 bv the Director of Industries of each province. 

 On the whole, there is little call for criticism except- 

 ing perhaps a statement on p. i^ that cellulose can 

 be converted into starch, which is, to say the least 

 of it, premature. Everyone concerned with this useful 

 and admirable production is certainly to be con- 

 gratulated. 



The eleventh annual May lecture of the Institute 

 nf Metals will be delivered at 8 o'clock on Wednesday, 

 May 4, at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 

 bv Prof. T. Turner, who will take as his subject "The 

 Casting of Metals." 



With a portion of the funds at their disposal the 

 trustees of the Captain Scott Memorial Fund have 

 decided to establish a Polar Research Institute in 

 NO. 2684, VOL. 107] 



connection with the new department of geography 

 in the University of Cambridge. In an article entitled 

 "The Future of Polar Exploration" in the Geo- 

 graphical Journal for March Mr. F. Debenham gives 

 some details of the scheme. The object is to have a 

 placQ not only where the results of polar expeditions 

 can be worked out and the manuscripts and log-books 

 deposited, but also where all information in the form 

 of books and samples of equipment can be collected 

 ready for examination. It is hoped eventually to pro- 

 vide a lihrarv, map-room, and museum of polar gear 

 and equipment. The funds allotted by the trustees are 

 sufficient for the foundation, but they will not extend 

 to the purchase of material and collections. An 

 institute of this kind developed on the lines suggested 

 would be of service to polar explorers of the future, 

 and the fact that many members of Capt. Scott's 

 scientific staff, including Dr. E. A. Wilson, were from 

 Cambridge gives that University a special claim to 

 have the institute. At the same time Cambridge will 

 find it difficult even with adequate funds to make col- 

 lections of polar maps and literature equal to those 

 now available in various libraries in London or Edin- 

 burgh. 



Some interesting questions relating to the influence 

 of environment on culture in the Congo area were 

 discussed by Mr. E. Torday in a paper on the Batetela 

 read at a meeting of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute on March 15. The Batetela, having migrated 

 from their original eastern home and penetrated a 

 region of West African culture, exhibit a quaint mix- 

 ture of East and West African, of forest and grass- 

 land culture, mixed with beliefs and customs borrowed 

 from the Akela, the Baluba, the Arab, and even the 

 European. Part settled in the grassland between the 

 Lubefu and the Lomami, while others migrated to the 

 great forests on the banks and north of the Lukenye 

 River. Mr. Torday traced in detail the differences in 

 culture between the grassland dwellers, the Sungu, the 

 forest dwellers, the Bahamba, and a third section, the 

 Olemba, whom lie considered as the nearest to the 

 original type of Batetela. In the discussion which 

 followed the reading of the paper both the president, 

 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, and Prof. Elliot Smith pointed 

 out that Mr. Torday 's evidence was equally important 

 for the question of the diffusion and contact of cul- 

 tures. They instanced the practice of cicatrisation, 

 which showed a combination of two elements, as a 

 result of which the cicatrices were arranged in linear 

 patterns, and had afforded Prof. Elliot Smith the 

 only parallel for an example of cicatrisation on the 

 skin of a woman found in Nubia dating from 

 2000 B.C. 



One more stage in the study of the smaller Oligo- 

 chsets is marked by the publication of a paper by 

 Welch on "The Genera of the Enchytraeidae " (Trans. 

 Amer. Micro. Soc, vol. xxxix., January, 1921, 

 pp. 25-50). The author recognises 16 genera and 

 approximately 325 species, and supplies a useful biblio- 

 graphy. As there is no country in which these "pot- 

 worms " flourish more luxuriantly than in Great 

 Britain, where about a dozen genera are found, with 

 a vast number of species, this guide to classification 

 should prove valuable to systematists in this country. 



