630 



NATURE 



[July 14, 192 1 



Birchenough, Mr. W. H. Dawson, Mr. G. Douglas, 

 Mr. E. V. Evans, Dr. M. O. Forster, Mr. L. B. 

 HoUiday, Dr. Herbert Levinstein, Prof. G. T. 

 Morgan, Mr. J. Morton, Mr. Max Muspratt, Mr. T. 

 Taylor, Mr. N. Thomas (Admiralty), and Mr. G. S. 

 Witham (War Office). An additional representative 

 of dye-using interests is to be appointed shortly. 



The Royal Asiatic Society has decided to celebrate 

 the centenary of the birth of the late Sir Richard F. 

 Burton by the institution of an annual memorial lec- 

 ture and a medal bearing his effigy. Burton .was a 

 pioneer and an explorer of the first rank who studied 

 his fellow-men profoundly, and by his wonderful 

 knowledge of the literature and life of the Arabs did 

 much to bridge the gulf between East and West. His 

 journeys to the forbidden cities of Mecca and Harer 

 will long be remembered as exploits as full of daring 

 as they were of scientific importance. A fund, to be 

 known as the Burton Memorial Fund, has been 

 opened and a national appeal for subscriptions is being 

 made. The hon. secretaries of the memorial fund 

 committee are Dr. F. Grenfell Baker and Mr. N. M. 

 Penzer, and subscriptions should be dispatched to the 

 Manager, the National Provincial Union Bank of 

 England, Union Bank Branch, Oxford. 



Emphatic corroboration of recent correspondence 

 in our columns upon the supply and cost of German 

 publications is. provided by a letter addressed to the 

 Times signed by the Vice-Chancellors of the Universi- 

 ties of Liverpool, Sheffield, and Manchester and the 

 Principals of Armstrong College, Newcastle, and 

 Birmingham University. At each of these institu- 

 tions the librarians have found it impossible to obtain 

 current German scientific literature by reason of the 

 operation of the Reparations Act. There has been 

 a complete stoppage of delivery through the Customs 

 of books of German origin, while books which have 

 been ordered direct from agents in Germany are 

 delayed for an indefinite period. Even when it has 

 been proved that the order was placed before the 

 present Act came into operation and the 50 per cent. 

 Customs charge has been paid under protest, books 

 are still undelivered. The writers of the letter em- 

 phasise the fact that it cannot be regarded as patriotic 

 to cut off from this country all knowledge of scientific 

 progress in Germany; on the contrary, it is to the 

 advantage of our trade and ultimate prosperity to 

 know without delay every addition to knowledge 

 made in Germany as in other countries. German 

 journals of science and other publications devoted to 

 the advance of knowledge cannot be regarded as 

 entering into competition with British journals and 

 books, and vigorous protest is made against the inter- 

 pretation of the Act by the Board of Trade to include 

 such articles. 



The University of Calcutta has published, as the 

 first of its series of anthropological papers, an essay 

 by Mr. Panchanan Mitra on the prehistoric arts and 

 crafts of India. Beginning with stone implements, 

 Mr. Mitra traces their development in the Palaeolithic 

 and Neolithic types. Then follows a chapter on cave 

 paintings and carvings, containing much information 

 which will be novel to English readers. These are 



NO. 2698, VOL. 107] 



held to indicate an Indo-Australian culture-contact 

 from the late Palaeolithic up to Neolithic times. On 

 the general question of prehistoric arts and crafts the 

 author accepts the view of Dr. Coomarswamy that " to 

 this Mykenean facies belong all the implements of 

 wood-work, weaving, metal-work, pottery, etc., to- 

 gether with a group of designs, including many of a 

 remarkably Mediterranean aspect, others more likely 

 originating in western Asia. The wide extension and 

 consistency of this culture throughout Asia in the 

 second millennium b.c. throw important light on 

 ancient trade intercourse at a time when the eastern 

 Mediterranean formed the western boundary of the 

 civilised world." Thus the veil which has hitherto 

 concealed the origins of ancient Indian culture is 

 being gradually lifted, and the University of Cal- 

 cutta is to be congratulated on its efforts to extend 

 this knowledge by the aid of native scholars like Mr. 

 Panchanan Mitra. 



The second part of Mr. Rhys Jenkins's paper, read 

 before the Newcomen Society, on " The Rise and Fall 

 of the Sussex Iron Industry " deals at some length 

 with the technical aspects of the subject, although the 

 historical material available is somewhat scanty. The 

 ore most commonly used was a clay ironstone 

 occurring in nodules and thin beds towards the bottom 

 of the Wadhurst Clay. It was worked mainly by 

 means of bell pits about 6 ft. in diameter at the 

 top, which widened towards the bottom and were 

 generally shallow, being rarely more than 20 ft. deep. 

 These beds have been worked from Roman times 

 onwards. Mr. Jenkins quotes in full the description 

 of the process of iron-making published by John Ray 

 in 1674. From this it is clear that the ironmasters 

 always mixed together different kinds of ore. The 

 roasting process is first described, and afterwards the 

 method of charging' and operating- the blast-furnace. 

 The period of six days was called the "Founday," 

 and about eight tons of iron were made in this time. 

 The methods of working the iron at the forge or 

 hammer in the Finery and Chafery are also described. 

 Mr. Jenkins concludes that the industry began to 

 decline during the Commonwealth period, and be- 

 came extinct about the end of the eighteenth century. 

 He discusses possible reasons for this decay, and 

 concludes that it was due neither to the competition 

 of mineral fuel nor to a failure in the supply of char- 

 coal. He appears to think that it may have been 

 connected with the question of power used for work- 

 ing the bellows of the blast-furnace and the hammer 

 of the forge. Water-power was used for this purpose 

 throughout the country, and the Weald was inferior 

 to, for instance, Shropshire as regards both rainfall 

 and the head of water which could be utilised. The 

 author also considers that foreign competition was 

 more acutely felt in the Weald than in the northern 

 districts. 



The June issue of the Decimal Educator, a quarterly 

 publication of the Decimal Association, contains much 

 interesting information respecting the progress of the 

 metric system. The introduction of metric weights on 

 the Chinese railways, which is now an accomplished 

 fact, was effected without trouble and has given rise 



