November 4, 19 15] 



NATURE 



269 



almost entirely devoted to an account of the expedition 

 under Dr. Farabee, which has now been nearly two 

 years in the field. His first journey had for its object 

 the exploration of the boundaries of Venezuela and 

 Brazil. He then visited the Macusi tribe in southern 

 British Guiana, a most perilous undertaking. He next 

 started for the upper waters of the Amazon and con- 

 ducted archaeological investigations on the island of 

 Marajo, near the mouth of the river. From there he 

 again proceeded to the Upper Amazon. Large ethno- 

 logical collections have been made, but these cannot 

 be fully examined until the expedition returns to the 

 United States. Meanwhile this preliminary report, 

 illustrated by a fine collection of photographs, is of 

 much interest. 



His Honour Judge J. S. Udal contributes to the 



September issue of Folk-lore an interesting account 



of the practices connected with what is known as the 



Obeah cult in the West Indies. These include the 



worship of the criboe, a large black, non-venomous 



serpent, and some ghastly rites of human sacrifice. 



It has been asserted by some writers that these prac- 



itices have now ceased, but Mr. Udal has collected a 



[large mass of evidence from law proceedings and 



[other authoritative sources to prove that this is not 



[ihe case. He ends by expressing the hope that "now 



t^at the consciences of the public of our West Indian 



)lonies and of the Home Government have begun to 



jalise to what terrible lengths any indulgence 



[towards or weakening in the repressive enactments 



jainst this widespread plague of Obeah may lead, 



that we shall see the rapid disappearance of any 



[.objectionable features in its cult, leaving only, it may 



Ibe, a harmless residuum that may still afford some 



iterest to the student and lover of folk-lore." 



The Psychological Review (vol. xxii., No. 4) con- 

 ttains an interesting summary of an " Experimental 

 I'Investigation of the Subconscious," by Miss L. J. 

 IMartin. In view of the great interest now being 

 [shown in the treatment of mental diseases by psycho- 

 Slogical means, any method which enables the physician 



to penetrate below the threshold of consciousness is at 

 ^ least worthy of consideration. The Freudian tech- 

 'nique of psycho-analysis requires a long training, and 



jven so, is open to various objections. Hypnotic 

 Imethods are not always possible or suitable. Miss 

 [Martin claims that the " image " method has certain 

 [definite advantages over the methods usually adopted 

 [for tapping the subconscious. 



An article on "Variability in Performance during 



[Brief Periods of Work," which appears in the Psycho- 



\logical Review (vol. xxii., No. 5), has some bearing 



)n a problem of great moment at the present time. 



[Investigations into the conditions of, and remedies 



for, industrial fatigue are now occupying the attention 



)f a committee of the British Association, and any 



jntribution to the processes involved in work of any 



lature may be significant. This paper shows that an 



idividual varies in the success of his performance of 



[given tasks even though these last but one minute. 



JThe authors, as a result of their experiments, think 



|it probable that mental fatigue is not as rare as is 



>metimes supposed, but that the repair process is so 



NO. 2401, VOL. 96] 



rapid, compared with muscle repair, that, as work is 

 usually done, the loss may be compensated for during 

 brief intervals of relaxation. 



Those responsible for the care of museums will 

 welcome the " General Guide to the Collections in 

 th^ Manchester Museum," which has just been pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. at the 

 modest price of 3d. It is a model of what such guides 

 should be, and is admirably illustrated. Perhaps its 

 most interesting section is that on Egyptology, which 

 contains a tabular statement of the various periods of 

 Egyptian history from the pre-dynastic to the Roman, 

 with the dates of each according to Petrie and 

 Breasted. 



Dr. J. M. Dewar, in the Zoologist for October, 

 continues his notes on "The Relation of the Oyster- 

 catcher to its Natural Environment," discussing, in 

 this section, the summer environment. Though, 

 during most of the year, a dweller by the seashore, 

 this species shows a marked preference for an inland 

 breeding-place. The area chosen by Dr. Dewar for 

 his observation station is typical of its kind, and his 

 notes should be carefully read in comparison with the 

 accounts which have been given of the reproductive 

 period of individuals which, perhaps for lack of suit- 

 able inland stations, establish their nurseries by the 

 seashore. This number also contains same interest- 

 ing notes by Mr. G. T. Rope on the vagaries of 

 choice displayed by cats in the matter of diet, citing 

 numerous instances where earthworms, fungi, raw 

 potatoes, baked pears, tomatoes, cucumbers, and 

 marrow-seeds were preferred to a meat diet. 



A VALUABLE summary on the " Status, Plumages, 

 and Habits of the Wren of St. Kilda," by Mr. W. 

 Eagle Clarke, appears in the Scottish Naturalist for 

 October. The St. Kilda wren is one of the most 

 interesting of the five-and-twenty endemic species 

 now recognised by the British Ornithologists' Union, 

 and though made known more than thirty years ago, 

 this is the best account yet given of its habits, 

 plumages, and relation to environment. In the same 

 issue Mr. William Taylor records the " History of 

 the Triassic Reptile Scleromochlus taylori." Dr. A. 

 Smith Woodward, it may be remembered, some years 

 ago expressed the opinion that this very fragmentary 

 fossil should be regarded as a diminutive bipedal 

 dinosaur, with a jerboa-like mode of locomotion. 

 Baron von Huene now comes to the conclusion that 

 it was not a crawling, walking, or jumping animal, 

 but that its short, spreading hands and long feet show 

 it to be well suited for climbing trees, and that it 

 may have possessed some kind of flying membrane, 

 recalling the bat in this respect. On the whole, we 

 incline to think Dr. Smith Woodward's view is much 

 the more probable. 



In Bulletin No. 20 of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Ceylon, on "The Effect of Different Intervals 

 between Successive Tappings of Hevea hrasiliensis." 

 the interesting conclusion is reached that after five 

 years' continuous tapping there is no evidence that 

 the yield obtained in a given time by tapping at an 

 interval of five or seven days will ultimately exceed 

 that obtained by more frequent tapping. 



