September 17, 19 14] 



NATURE 



63 



I at once commenced to make notes on the first dawn 

 of the various expressions which he exhibited, for I 

 felt convinced, even at this early period, that the most 

 complex and fine shades of expression must all have 

 had a gradual and natural origin." These notes pro- 

 vided a natural explanation of phenomena which ap- 

 peared to be a difficulty in the way of the acceptance of 

 organic evolution, and they formed the basis of the 

 volume, " Expression of the Emotions in Man and 

 Animals," published in 1872. 



From Gottingen the news is announced of the death 

 of Prof. Wilhelm Lexis, the economist, whose name 

 is well known to students in connection with the 

 *' Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften." Lexis 

 was born on July 17, 1837; matriculated at Bonn in 

 1855, reading there mathematics and natural science. 

 After graduating he was an assistant master at Bonn 

 until 186 1, when he went to Paris to study French 

 economic conditions. Very soon he became known 

 as an authority on economic problems, and in 1872 

 he was appointed to the chair of political economy at 

 Strassburg. Two years later he was called to Dor- 

 pat ; thence in 1876 he went to Freiburg, where he 

 remained eight years. In 1884 he moved to Breslau, 

 and in 1887 to Gottingen. Here he taught economics 

 for twenty-five years, retiring in 1912 with a reputa- 

 tion that was world-wide. 



SI^•CE the discovery of well-preserved skeletons of 

 ancestral horses in the Eocene formations of North 

 America, palaeontologists have been anxious to compare 

 the skulls of these specimens with one from the Lon- 

 don Clay of Harwich, which was described by Owen 

 .in 1858 under the name of Pliolophus vtdpiceps. This 



jssil, in association with various limb-bones of the 



ame animal, was obtained by the Vicar of Harwich 

 St that time, the Rev. Richard Bull, who gave por- 



ions of the upper and lower jaws and some fragments 

 limb-bones to the British Museum, but retained 



^le greater part of the specimen. Since then it has 

 been lost to science, but it now appears that all the 

 associated remains have been carefully preserved by 

 the widow of the discoverer exactly as he left them, 

 and they have just been presented by Mrs. Richard 

 Bull to the Geological Department of the British 

 Museum (Natural History). The skull of Pliolophus, 

 which still remains unique, is thus again accessible 

 for study and comparison. As pointed out by Mr. R. 

 Lydekker, it is probably referable to a species of Hyra- 

 cotherium. 



The Smithsonian Institution has issued a treatise on 

 atmospheric air and its relation to tuberculosis, by 

 Dr. Guy Hinsdale, one of the prize essays presented 

 in connection with the Washington Tuberculosis Con- 

 gress (Publication No. 2254, Smithsonian Miscel- 

 laneous Collections). The author does not claim that 

 there is any specific climate for tuberculosis. Of first 

 importance are chemically and bacteriologically pure 

 air and sunshine. One thing to be avoided is a 

 climate in which the humidity varies greatly. Prob- 

 ably the best combination is a low humiditj- and a 

 moderately cool temperature. 

 NO. 2342, VOL. 94] 



The Local Government Board has issued a supple- 

 ment containing a third report on infant mortality 

 dealing with infant mortality in Lancashire, by the 

 medical officer of the Board (Dr. Newsholme), and 

 Drs. Copeman, Manby, Farrar, and Lane-Claypon. 

 This county contains nearly one-seventh of the total 

 population of England and Wales, and it suffers from 

 a rate of infant mortality which is equalled in few 

 other parts of the country. The evidence suggests 

 that the most important factors conducing to this are 

 (i) the continuance of unsatisfactory methods of deal- 

 ing with excremental and domestic refuse ; (2) unsatis- 

 factory conditions of housing; (3) the industrial em- 

 ployment of married women during pregnancy and 

 confinement; (4) a relatively low standard of life, 

 especially among the miners. 



To the current number of the Psychological Review 

 Mr. W. S. Hunter contributes a paper on the after- 

 effects of seen movement, in which several new obser- 

 vations are recorded. He finds that if the original 

 movement be observed by one eye, and if a stationary- 

 surface be afterwards viewed by the resting eye, a 

 faint, but distinct, after-movement is noticeable. This 

 after-effect, however, occurs only when the moving 

 field first regarded consists of parallel lines ; it does 

 not occur in the case of a rotating spiral. The writer 

 attributes the illusion in the resting eye to eye-muscle 

 strains arising from inhibition of the reflex tendency 

 to follow moving lines ; in conformity with which 

 view he finds that in the case of parallel lines the 

 after-effects are reduced or abolished when the eyes 

 adopt a position of strain. He also notes that the 

 illusion can, in part, be successfully controlled by the 

 subject, and hence concludes that in the case of 

 parallel lines the after-movement iS determined by 

 "associative factors" and eye-strain, in addition to 

 the retinal changes which, in the case of the rotating 

 spiral, alone play an important part. 



In the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Societ}' (vol. vii., 

 part iii.) the latest theory of the Indian origin of the 

 Gypsies, that of Prof. A. C. Woolner, is discussed. 

 He arrives at the conclusion that the theory of their 

 origin from the Jats is unsupported by philology, and 

 is opf>osed by the fundamental differences between the 

 characters of the typical Gypsy and the t\^pical Jat. 

 Their connection with the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush 

 is equally improbable. The physique of the modern 

 Dom is very different from that of the present Gv'psy, 

 but both types may have been modified by environ- 

 ment and by intermixture with other tribes. Some- 

 thing is to be said for the view of Mr. H. L. Williams 

 (Journal Gypsy Lore Society, vol. v.), who connects 

 them with the Sansiyas and other criminal nomads 

 of Northern India. On the whole. Prof. Woolner's 

 view that the Indian element in Romani is not homo- 

 geneous, and that when this type of speech left 

 Indian soil it already contained elements picked up in 

 different parts of that area. In other words, the 

 Gypsies were originally wanderers, and then, as now, 

 picked up in their wanderings unconsidered trifles in 

 the shape of words and grammatical forms. This 

 seems to be a reasonable view, and the evidence 

 appears to point to a migration of the nucleus of the 



