January 12, 1922] 



NATURE 



53 



deficiency was 34°, but in December the excess was 

 47°. The mean temperature for the year was 528°, 

 which is 27° in excess of the yearly normal ; this is 

 the highest mean annual temperature on record since 

 1841, the next highest being 520° in 1868 and igii. 

 In July the mean of the maximum, or highest day 

 tomjjeratures, was 8i-6°; there have been only 

 two years since 1841 with a higher mean maxi- 

 mum in July, 8i-8° in 1859 and 820° in 1868. In 

 January the mean maximum was 500°, and January, 

 ir)r6, with a mean maximum 504°, is the only 

 January with so high a mean maximum since 1841. 

 The mean minimum in January is the highest on 

 record. The mean for October, 57-6°, has never pre- 

 viously been equalled at Greenwich, and the high tem- 

 peratures at the commencement of the month were 

 most abnormal. For the British Isles generallv the 

 mean temi^erature for each month from January to 

 April and in July, September, and October was above 

 the normal in all districts, and in England and Wales 

 there was an excess every month from January to 

 October, except for August, in North-West England, 

 where it was in agreement with the average. The 

 mean excess of temperature for all districts in the 

 British Isles, except the North of Scotland and the 

 English Channel, for the ftn months, January to 

 October, was 2-6° ; in January the excess was 5-2°, 

 ill July 4-3°, and in October 69°. 



The United States National Museum (Proc, vol. 

 59) has published a descriptive catalogue of its col- 

 lection of Buddhist art, compiled by Mr. I. M. Casano- 

 wicz. The collection is large, but it does not seem 

 to possess many objects valuable for their antiquitv 

 or artistic beauty, the best being a Japanese bronze 

 statue of Buddha, dated 1648. There is also a good 

 rollection of rosaries, examples of magical appliances, 

 and objects used in worship. Mr. Casanowicz has 

 uiven an interesting introduction on Buddhism and 

 - developments. The pamphlet deserves the atten- 

 • n of all those who are interested in the subject. 



The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 

 part I, for 192 1, prints the presidential address de- 

 livered by Sir Everard im Thurn, which gives an 

 interesting historical sketch of the relations between 

 Europeans and the natives of the South Sea Islands 

 after they were discovered. The state of savagery in 

 which the natives were found does not imply fierceness : 

 they were wild and uncontrolled in so far as they had 

 not been subjected to what we call "civilisation," but 

 they had developed for themselves a certain degree — in 

 many cases a very high degree — of culture. The 

 writer sums up his conclusions thus : •' The Islanders 

 were, when Europeans first went among them, not a 

 savage, i.e. a fierce race, but were highly cultured, 

 if self-cultured, people, but entirely uncivilised; 

 they were at first puzzled what to make of the 

 civilised, or quasi-civilised, people who went among 

 them, and they only became repellent when they 

 were habitually injured by their visitors." 



The educational work of the Commercial Museum 

 of Philadelphia, as decribed by its curator, Mr. C. R. 



NO. 2724, VOL. log] 



Toothaker, in Bulletin No. 13 (1920) of the United 

 States Bureau of Education, is partly for business 

 men and partly for the rising generation. Aid is 

 given to the former by the foreign trade bureau of 

 the museum, which publishes two journals, one of 

 them in separate Spanish and English editions. 

 Schools are provided for by official guidance to a 

 study of the exhibits, daily lectures to visiting 

 classes on subjects chosen by the school-teachers, 

 lectures to teachers and others, loan lectures with 

 lantern-slides sent to schools outside Philadelphia, and 

 school collections given, not lent, to the schools of 

 Pennsylvania. Full details of these last are given 

 in this well-illustrated pamphlet. 



The recently published annual report of the York- 

 shire Philosophical Society for 1920 reminds us that 

 with 1922 the society reaches its centenary. It sprang 

 from the suggestion that a museum should be founded 

 to receive the bones just discovered in the Kirkdale 

 Cave. Famous men have been connected with the 

 society. It was the parent of the British Association 

 in 1831 and of the Museums Association in 1888, 

 while in local archaeology it has done, and is doing, 

 admirable work. Under the present keeper of the 

 museum. Dr. CoUinge, the zoological collections are 

 being put in good order, and Mr. J. Hetherton has 

 lately placed a wood of considerable area at the dis- 

 posal of the society for use as a bird sanctuary. The 

 geological collections contain many valuable fossils, 

 and the report concludes with " Notes on the Later 

 Tertiary Invertebrata " of these islands by the veteran 

 Mr. Alfred Bell ; most of the species are in the 

 society's museum. 



The last annual report of the National Museum of 

 Wales records some advance in completing the 

 western section of the new building. The reserve 

 galleries and basement are now occupied, and the 

 keepers of art, botany, and zoology, with their staffs, 

 are installed in their new quarters, while the depart- 

 ment of geologv has temporary accommodation. 

 These departments are, however, hindered by lack of 

 museum furniture, for which the available funds are 

 insufficient. The museum worthily acts up to its title 

 of "National," co-operating with all relevant bodies 

 in the Principality, with mine-owners, quarry-owners, 

 and industrial firms, and in particular with the 

 faunistic survey of the County of Glamorgan and the 

 local education authorities. A number of accessions 

 of local interest, as well as many others, are recorded 

 by all the departments. It is not in man to command 

 financial support, but Dr. Hoyle and his able staff 

 undoubtedly deserve it. 



The geological model of the Bristol district which 

 has recently been placed in the Bristol Museum and 

 Art Gallery depicts the relief and the geological out- 

 crops of the district on a horizontal scale of 3 in. 

 to I mile and a vertical scale of i in. to 500 ft. An 

 explanatory guide to this relief map has been prepared 

 by Prof. .S. H. Reynolds. The pamphlet includes a 

 description of the present land surface and a sketch 

 of the geological history designed to explain the 



