86 



NATURE 



[January 19, 1922 



have written strongly of late. Miss F. A. Yeldham's 

 paper on "The Dalton Plan and the Teaching of 

 Mathematics" aroused considerable interest; an 

 animated discussion followed, with many Inquiries as 

 to the details of her experiences of the plan as at work 

 in the Streatham schools. Prof. G. H. Hardy gave a 

 most interesting address on the life and work of that 

 Indian genius, the late Srinlvasa Ramanujan, which 

 was full of personal recollections. He set forth with 

 consummate skill the nature of Ramanujan 's re- 

 searches, his successes, and his failures. He also made 

 an eloquent appeal for a wide extension of educa- 

 tion in India, assuring his audience that with such 

 opportunities for the great peninsula as we enjoy here 

 in the West there would soon be an Indian school of 

 mathematics at least equal to anything that can be 

 shown in Europe or America. Incidentally he con- 

 demned the folly of those who have decried the Ger- 

 mans as lacking in originality. The next paper was 

 by Mr. A. Dakin, who pleaded with much effect that 

 pure and applied mathematics should be taught and 

 developed /)ari ^assu in boys' secondary schools. The 

 meeting was brought to a close with a discussion 

 opened by the Rev. E. M. Radford on the best ways 

 of keeping teachers of mathematics in touch with 

 modern developments and methods — a most important 

 problem, and one for which a solution must be found 

 in the near future. 



In an interesting paper contributed to the Journal 

 of the Royal Anthropological Institute (vol. 51, part i) 

 Prof. F. G. Parsons arrives at conclusions, which 

 may be quoted in his own words, in connection with 

 the Long Barrow race, and its relationship to the 

 modern 'inhabitants of London. He believes that 

 " the shaoe of the skull is the result of vital or physio- 

 logical forces, some of which we grasp feebly, and 

 others which we do not understand at all as yet, act- 

 ing on it for a very long time ; but that shape, once 

 established, is very permanent, and most of its 

 characteristics remain for thousands of years after 

 the race bearing them has changed its habitat. Even 

 when the race has been practically bred out by com- 

 peting races, better adapted to the changed conditions, 

 all the old characters reappear from time to time, 

 sometimes singly, but occasionally all together." For 

 example, the skull of Jonathan Wild reproduces all 

 the characters of the Long Barrow race. " Finally, 

 I must admit that the skull of the modern twentieth- 

 century Londoner hasi changed from that of the 

 eighteenth, but it is in the direction of increased 

 breadth and shortness, and the change is due, I be- 

 lieve, to admixture with the Central European or 

 Alpine race, which in the last two centuries lias been 

 pouring into this country in ever-increasing quan- 

 tities." 



As stated in Nature of December 30, 1920 (vol. 106, 

 p. 583), the first Pan-Pacific Scientific Conference 

 resolved that fuller knowledge of the history and 

 culture of the Polynesian race was essential to the 

 solution of the ethnographic problems of the Pacific. 

 The Report of the Director of the Bishop Museum, 

 NO. 2725, VOL. 109] 



Honolulu, for 1920, just received, informs us that Mr. 

 Bayard Dominick, of New York, is financing an 

 expedition for the study of Polynesian origin and 

 migration. This is organised by the Bishop Museum 

 in conjunction with authorities from countries bordering 

 on the Pacific. During 1920-21 parties have been 

 stationed on the Marquesas, Austral, Tongan, and 

 Hawaian Islands to establish standards of physical 

 form, material culture, traditions, and language of the 

 Polynesians. During 1921-22 a boat with a scientific 

 staff is making observations in selected localities along 

 the route Honolulu, Wake, Marshall, Eastern Caro- 

 lines, Gilbert, Ellice, Samoa, Tonga, Friendly, Cook, 

 and Society Islands, returning to Honolulu via Ton- 

 gareva. Maiden, Christmas, and Fanning Islands. 

 The Bishop Museum acts as permanent representative 

 of the first conference. Its director. Prof. H. E. 

 Gregory, is chairman of a committee to arrange for 

 future conferences, and associated with him are E. C. 

 Andrews (Australia), C. M. Eraser (Canada), F. Omori 

 (Japan), Charles Chilton (New Zealand), and T. Way- 

 land Vaughan (United States). 



The latest issue of the Archiv filr Kriminologie 

 (Bd. 72, Heft 3-4) contains an important article by 

 Prof. W. Ostwald, of Leipzig, entitled " Das System 

 der Kriminologie," in which he attempts a classifica- 

 tion of the subject-matter of criminology. He starts 

 from a classification of science as a whole under 

 three main headings : (i) Mathetlcs, subdivided into 

 logic, mathematics, geometry, and kinematics ; 

 (2) energetics, subdivided into mechanics, physics, 

 and chemistry ; and (3) biotics, subdivided into physio- 

 logy, psychology, and sociology. Applying this 

 classification to criminological studies, he arrives at 

 a schedule in which criminology in the more restricted 

 sense falls under sociology, while the contributions of 

 sciences auxiliary to criminology proper, such as 

 criminal anthropology and criminal psychology, fall 

 under the earlier and more general headings. Prof. 

 Ostwald gives an example of the working of his 

 scheme as applied to a large number of titles taken 

 from criminological literature. As an attempt to 

 introduce some sort of order on a logical basis in a 

 subject with a wide scope and a vast literature, this 

 classification will be welcome to students. Its ter- 

 minology, however, If only for the sake of clearness, 

 needs revision and amplification. As it stands at 

 present the titles of the divisions of the schedule are 

 not sufficiently Indicative of their content to be of 

 much practical utility as guides. In addition to Prof. 

 Ostwald's paper, this Issue of the Archiv contains a 

 number of Interesting contributions by prominent 

 criminologists, among the more noteworthy being a 

 long account by J. P. L. Hulst, of Leyden, of a 

 number of cases of necrophilia, an examination by 

 Prof. Allfeld and Prof, von Beling of a proposal put 

 forward by Dr. R. Hindi for the treatment of habitual 

 criminals, and a valuable note by Mr. Arthur Mac- 

 donald, of Washington, on the possibility of using 

 police records, particularly records for identification 

 purposes, for the anthropological study of the 

 1 population. 



