i8o 



NATURE 



[October 15, 1914 



Dr. Hiram Bingham, director of the Yale Peruvian 

 Expedition, has issued two pamphlets reprinted from 

 the bulletin of the American Geographical Society 

 (vol. xlvi) and Harper's Magazine (August, 1914), 

 describing his discovery of a mass of Inca ruins at 

 Espiritu Pampa, Pampaconas Valley, lat. 12° 55' 

 long. 73° 24'. The district in which this city stood is 

 at present occupied by a very primitive race, the 

 Campa Indians, of whom some account with photo- 

 graphs is given. No other Inca ruins have hitherto 

 been found so low down on the jungles of the 

 Amazon valley. In the Relacion of Diego Rodriguez 

 de Figueroa he describes meeting the Inca Titu Cusi 

 Yupanqui in this neighbourhood, where possibly this 

 was one of his royal cities. While the pottery and 

 architecture are unquestionably of the Inca period it 

 is curious to note that some Spanish roofing tiles were 

 found. It is supposed that these may have been made 

 experimentally by recent Peruvian occupants of the 

 site, or possibly by some early Spanish missionaries 

 who may have come here some three centuries ago. 



The Secretary of the Franklin Institute of the State 

 of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic 

 Arts, in a letter from Philadelphia, informs us that a 

 member of the institute, Mr. Samuel Insull, president 



Reverse. 



The Franklin Medal. Two-thirds natural size. 



of the Chicago Commonwealth Edison Company, has 

 founded a medal for the institute, to be known as the 

 Franklin medal. The medal is to be awarded from 

 time to time to workers in physical science or tech- 

 nology, without regard to country, whose efforts, in 

 the opinion of the board of management of the Frank- 

 lin Institute, have done most to advance our know- 

 ledge of physical science or its application. Mr. 

 Insull provided the sum of 1200Z. for the execution of 

 the scheme, and about 200I. has been applied for the 

 purpose of paying for the design of the medal and the 

 necessary dies and diploma plates. The medal is of 

 gold, and has an intrinsic value of about 15Z. Should 

 the income derived from the fund be more than 

 sufficient to provide such medals, the institute may 

 award the surplus as premiums to accompany the 

 medals. The medal has been designed by Dr. R. Tait 

 McKenzie, of the University of Pennsylvania, and the 

 accompanying illustration gives an idea of its general 

 character. 



The Mtiseinn Journal (vol. v., No. 2) describes an 

 interesting collection of objects of Buddhist and Indian 

 art, formed at Darjeeling, during a long residence, by 

 NO. 2346, VOL. 94] 



Mr. A. Scott, which has been recently acquired b\ i 

 the Philadelphia Museum. Mr. Scott established 

 close relations with the Tibetan Lamas, and the svm- 

 bolism of the objects collected by him have been inter- 

 preted by Lama Dousand Up, of Darjeeling. Many 

 of them are of Indian origin and display considerable 

 artistic skill. The most valuable specimen is an ivory 

 tablet representing the chief episodes in the life of 

 Buddha. This Is believed to be Assamese work of the 

 fifth or sixth centuries a.d., and represents an early 

 type of Buddhist iconography. Even more remarkable 

 is, so far as can at present be ascertained, the only 

 crystal statuette of Buddha known to collectors, that 

 at Kandy, in Ceylon, being of Chinese manufacture, 

 and comparatively modern. The collection also In- 

 cludes fine Images of Dolma or Tara, the tutelary 

 Tibetan goddess, of the eleven-headed Avalokltesvara, 

 and of the Diamond Sow goddess, with some lamps 

 and other examples of modern NIpalese art. The col- 

 lection, while far from rivalling those of the British 

 and India Museums, is of some importance, and its 

 acquisition illustrates the interest in Indian art now 

 shown In America. 



The chief Items In the October number of British 

 Birds are a report, by Mr. M. Vaughan, on last year's 

 inquiry into the relative numbers of summer migrants 

 to this country, and notes, by the editor, on the 

 recapture of marked birds. 



The effects of the war are being so severely felt by 

 the Selborne Society that in the October number of 

 the Selborne Magazine an appeal is issued by the 

 council urging all members to endeavour to increase 

 the membership roll and to promote the Interest of the 

 society by such other means as lie In their power. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of an article 

 by Mr. R. R. Parker, from vol. xxv. of the Proc. 

 Boston Nat. Hist. Soc, on the New England flies of 

 the family Sarcophagidae, and of a second, by Mr. 

 T. Southwell, from vol. x. of the Journ. and Proc. 

 Asiat. Soc. Bengal, on the tape-worms of India and 

 Ceylon. 



It appears from the autumn number of Bird Notes 

 and News that the nesting-boxes supplied to its con- 

 stituents by the Royal Society for the Protection of 

 Birds have hitherto been made in Germany; the in- 

 dustry is now, perforce, to be transferred to this 

 country. The bird-sanctuary at Brean Down is re- 

 ported to have been very successful during the past 

 breeding-season ; and it Is also mentioned that perches 

 and rests for birds have been fitted by Trinity House 

 workmen, under the auspices of the society, to the 

 South Bishop Lighthouse, Pembrokeshire. 



Part il. of vol. x. of Annals of the South African 

 Museum Is almost exclusively Interesting to 

 specialists, the contents including two papers by Mr. 

 K. H. Barnard on the crustacean fauna of 

 South Africa, with descriptions of many new 

 species, and one by Miss G. Ricardo on the i 

 South African gadflies of the family Tabanidae, ! 

 also with diagnoses of new forms. Of somewhat , 

 wider interest is an account, by Mr. A. RafTray, of a ; 

 strange-looking beetle taken in a termite-nest at Kim- t 



