278 



NATURE 



[April 28, 192 1 



Three Chadwick public lectures on " Fevers in 

 England : Their Prevention and Control " will be 

 delivered by Dr. William Hunter at the lecture-room 

 of the Medical Society of London, ii Chandos Street, 

 Cavendish Square, W. i, on May 5, 12, and 19 at 

 5.15 p.m. The lectures are intended as a review of 

 the progress made in the science of public health 

 during the past century, special attention being given 

 to the Public Health Acts (1848-1918). The first lec 

 ture will deal with sanitary reforms achieved during 

 the period 180C-70 ; in the second the effects of the 

 establishment of fever hospitals and the recognition 

 of the value of antiseptic measures and protective 

 inoculation during the period 1871-90 will be dis- 

 cussed ; and in the third lecture, covering the period 

 1891-1920, the effects 'of compulsory notification and 

 isolation will be described and some account given of 

 the present position of medical knowledge on the sub- 

 jects of typhus and relapsing fevers, measles, whoop- 

 ing cough,- and influenza. Admission to the lectures 

 is free in all cases. 



The presentation of the first award of the Kelvin 

 medal will be made by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour 

 in the hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers to 

 Dr. W, C. Unwin on Wednesday, May 4, at 

 4 o'clock. The medal was founded in 1914, principally 

 by British and American engineers, to commemorate 

 the achievements of Lord Kelvin in those branches of 

 science which are especially applicable to engineering. 

 The award is dealt with by a committee of the presi- 

 dents of the representative British engineering institu. 

 tions after their consideration of recommendations 

 received from similaf bodies in all parts of the world, 

 and, in accordance with the terms of the trust, it is 

 made to the person whom the committee finds to be 

 most worthy to receive this recognition of pre- 

 eminence in the branches of engineering with which 

 Lord Kelvin's scientific work and researches were 

 identified. 



The council of the Institution of Mining and Metal- 

 lurgy presented the thirtieth annual report (for the 

 year ending December 31, 1920) at the annual general 

 meeting held on April 21. During the year a joint 

 conference was held with representatives of the 

 Institution of Mining Engineers with the vi^w of 

 promoting co-operation between the two bodies. The 

 recommendations of the conference were adopted, 

 with the result that the Institution of Mining En- 

 gineers will in future be accommodated in the house 

 of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy ; each 

 body will retain its identity, but they will be adminis- 

 tered by one secretariat. The important question of 

 the registration of engineers came into prominence 

 during the year, when the council of the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers decided to promote a Bill in Parlia- 

 ment for the registration of civil engineers. While 

 accepting the principle of registration, the council of 

 the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy deprecated 

 the control over all branches of the profession of 

 engineering which this Bill would confer, and, in 

 company with other bodies representing various 

 branches of the profession, protested to the council 

 of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The latter has 

 NO. 2687, VOL. 107] 



since decided not to proceed with the Bill, but to 

 apply for a supplemental Royal Charter to authorise 

 the use of "Chartered Civil Engineer" by its mem- 

 bers. V Two Awards have been made by the Institution 

 of Mining and Metallurgy during the past year ; the 

 institution's gold medal has been awarded to Sir 

 Thomas Kirke Rose, in recognition of his services in 

 the advancement of metallurgical science, with special 

 reference to the metallurgy of gold, and the New 

 Consolidated Gold Fields, Ltd., gold medal and 

 premium of 40 guineas to Mr. H. Livingstone Sulman, 

 for his paper " A Contribution to the Study of Flota- 

 tion." Mr. F. W. Harbord has been elected presi- 

 dent for the year 1921-22 in succession to Mr. F. 

 Merricks. 



The Peabody Museum, Harvard University, issues 

 in vol. viii., No. i, of its Proceedings an account of 

 the excavation of an Indian village site and cemetery 

 near Madisonville, Ohio, which has furnished much 

 interesting archaeological material. In all, 1236 bodies 

 were exhumed, probably belonging to the Shawnee 

 tribe, and occupied prior to 1672. Three forms of 

 burial — horizontal, contracted, and in a sitting posture 

 — were observed ; they indicate a grouping resulting 

 from numerous simultaneous interments or a species 

 of division into family Idts. There was no consistent 

 rule of orientation, but the south, east, and south- 

 east were generally selected. Full details of the 

 skeletons, with the objects associated with them, are 

 given. 



In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute (vol. 1., January-June, 1920) Mr. J. H. Hutton 

 gives a curious account of a form of lycanthropy 

 current in Assam among the Naga tribes. All these 

 people regard the ultimate ancestry of man and the 

 tiger or leopard as very intimately associated. Man 

 and the tiger are still regarded as brothers, and if an 

 Angami kills a tiger he says, 'The gods have killed 

 a tiger in the jungle," never "I have killed a tiger "; 

 while the village priest proclaims a day of abstention 

 from work " on account of the death of an elder 

 brother." Though the Angamis suppose that lycan- 

 thropy exists and can be acquired, they do not indulge 

 in it themselves, but believe in the existence of a 

 village far to the east peopled by lycanthropists — a 

 belief perhaps based on the claim of the Changs to 

 possess the faculty of taking tiger or other animal 

 forms. The soul usually enters the leopard during 

 sleep and returns to the human body with day- 

 light, but it may remain in the leopard for several 

 days at a time, in which case the human body, though 

 conscious, is lethargic. The soul, however, is more 

 or less conscious of its experiences in leopard form, 

 and can to some extent remember and relate them 

 when it has returned to its human consciousness. J 



We have received Bulletin No. 2 of the Bureau of 

 Bio-Technology (January, 192 1), a newly established 

 quarterly publication issued from the biological 

 department of Messrs. Murphy and Son, of Leeds. 

 Although it runs to only 25 pages, it contains two 

 articles of considerable interest. One concerns the 

 destruction of stored malt by the agency of a 

 Dermestid beetle, Trogoderma khapra. Arrow. This, 



