!5o 



NATURE 



[October 21, 1920 



which may be comparable with those offered by com- 

 mercial undertakings. A resolution was also passed 

 advocating that efforts should be made to keep the 

 public fully informed of the progress of science and 

 of its bearings on the affairs of the world. Resolu- 

 tions which concerned more nearly the institutes and 

 universities of the Pacific countries dealt with the 

 training of teachers and lecturers, with the provision 

 of fellowships, and with the migration of research 

 students to institutions providing the best facilities 

 for their own class of work. The conference recom- 

 mended that the exchange of teachers between insti- 

 tutes in different countries should be encouraged with 

 the object of widening the outlook of these instructors. 

 Fellowships to which adequate stipends were attached 

 ought to be regarded as rewards for scientific work, 

 and substantial prizes given as rewards for young 

 investigators who achieve notable results. It was also 

 agreed that a clearing-house of information relative 

 to opportunities for scientific study and research in 

 the Pacific area should be established. 



Sir W. H. Bragg delivered a public lecture at 

 University College, London, on October 7, as a 

 general introduction to the courses on the history 

 of science to be delivered there. After referring to 

 the origin of these courses, the lecturer said there 

 must be something innate in mankind to prompt an 

 interest in Nature and to foster a belief in cosmic 

 order in spite of apparent chaos. Already in the 

 earliest civilisations, in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, 

 we see the beginnings of that close study of Nature 

 which has continued with varying success throughout 

 the ages. It is in the nature of things for old views 

 to be superseded. There has, however, been more of 

 evolution than of revolution in the history of scientific 

 ideas. Each generation tries to correlate all the facts 

 known to it, and it can do no more. Newton cor- 

 related all his facts ; Einstein has to take into account 

 facts unknown to Newton. There is no finality in 

 science. A belief in finality would lead to stagnation. 

 The history of science is interesting in many ways. 

 It reveals the steps that have led up to our present 

 orientation ; it traces the evolution of the great 

 scientific conceptions — like the atomic theory, for 

 example ; it shows the developmenf of potent scientific 

 instruments like the thermometer, etc. ; it tells the 

 story of the fruitful application of scientific dis- 

 coveries — wireless telegraphy, for instance ; it has the 

 great human interest of showing how workers drawn 

 from all sorts and conditions have co-operated in 

 the building up of science ; and it narrates many an 

 inspiring epic of heroic struggle and perseverance, of 

 triumph and tragedy, in the disinterested pursuit of 

 noble ends. No wonder, then, that throughout the 

 country there is awakening a new interest in the 

 history of science. The subject offers a valuable 

 educational opportunity- It merits the serious atten- 

 tion of teachers and journalists and all whose business 

 it is to teach how things have come to be what they 

 are ; and it is well adapted to serve all those who seek 

 to improve their education by non-vocational studies 

 that will add to the interest and joy of life. 



NO. 2660, VOL. 106] 



American philologists have long been occupied in 

 elucidating the complex of dialects spoken by the 

 Indian tribes. The more important languages have 

 been fully investigated, but there still remain some 

 minor linguistic groups which are gradually coming 

 under inquiry. The Tunica, Chitimaclia, and 

 Atakapa languages, spoken within historical times 

 in territory now incorporated with the States of 

 Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, form the subject 

 of a monograph by Mr. J. R. Swanton, published as 

 Bulletin 68 by the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

 The first, the Tunica, is now spoken by only some 

 half a dozen persons in a small reservation. For 

 our knowledge of these languages, now practically 

 extinct, we are indebted to Dr. A. S. Gatscher, whose 

 collections were made in 1886, and further researches 

 among the scanty survivors by Mr. Swanton have 

 added little new information. This scholarly mono- 

 graph gives a grammar and comparative vocabulary 

 of these three closely allied forms of speech. 



The native tribes which occupied the vast region 

 extending eastward from the Mississippi to the 

 Atlantic are now understood to belong to at least 

 seven linguistic stocks. Of these groups the 

 Algonquian was the most numerous, followed by the 

 Muskhogean, Iroquoin, Siouan, Timucuan, Uchean, 

 and Tunican, all differing to such a degree that one 

 would not have been intelligible to the other, and 

 often within the same linguistic family the various 

 tribes spoke different dialects. Thus such a diver- 

 sity of languages and a great range of climatic 

 conditions, mountains, prairies, swamps, and lakes 

 produced a variety of customs influenced by natural 

 conditions and environment. In perhaps no way are 

 these variations more pronounced than in the forms 

 of the dwellings of the various tribes. This subject is 

 fully illustrated in the monograph (Bulletin 69) by 

 Mr. D. I. Bushnell, jun., issued by the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. In this we have an investiga- 

 tion of ancient village sites occupied by the various 

 tribes, and the nature of the buildings erected by 

 peoples in various stages of culture, which is full of 

 interest. 



In the September issue of the Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine, Mr. F. W. Edwards deals with 

 the habit of certain midges (Ceratopoginae) of sucking 

 the juices of other insects. This propensity has long 

 been known, but Mr. Edwards's exact observations 

 appear to be the first connected series conducted in 

 this country. The blood-sucking habit among the 

 females of this group of insects possibly first arose 

 from the partiality of its members for attacking other 

 insects. Few people who have used their gardens 

 towards dusk have escaped the irritating punctures 

 caused by these minute flies. 



In the Transactions of the Entomological Society 

 of London (July, 1920) is a paper by Dr. G. D. Hale 

 Carpenter on the forms and Acraeine models of the 

 Nymphaline butterfly, Pseudacraea eurytus Hobleyi, 

 on the islands of Lake Victoria. Contained therein 

 are some observations bearing upon the explanation 

 of the theory of mimicry by natural selection. The 



