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NATURE 



[N'OVEMBER 26, I914 



graphic Society of Washington has been drawn on 

 to supply a more vivid and instructive record of the 

 countries engaged in the present war than has hitherto 

 appeared in any British publication. France, Belgium, 

 Germany, Hungary, and England are each in its 

 turn illustrated by admirable views of scenery, archi- 

 tecture, and country life. Prof. R. G. Usher, pro- 

 fessor of history in the University of Washington, 

 dealing with England, " the oldest nation of Europe," 

 gives a survey of its historical progress and industrial 

 resources in relation to the present war. He sums 

 up the situation by remarking: "While no one who 

 is truly candid will deny that England has still much 

 to attain in political and social consciousness and a 

 long road to travel before the national consciousness 

 will become instinctive upon aught but the simplest 

 subjects, he will still be compelled to admit that Eng- 

 land has progressed further in spiritual national con- 

 sciousness than any other community in the world 

 simply because the early attainment of territorial and 

 racial unity enabled the ancestors of the present Eng- 

 lishmen to begin living together long, long before the 

 final elements of other nations had been assembled." 



An interesting phase in the evolution of art is dis- 

 cussed by Mr. F. G. Speck in his monograph on the 

 double-curve motive in north-eastern Algonkian art, 

 published as Memoir 42 by the Department of Mines, 

 Canada. After fully describing, with abundant illus- 

 trations, the development of this form of decoration, 

 he arrives at the conclusion that we find in it an 

 originally non-symbolic decorative element, presum- 

 ably an indefinite plant or floral figure, common to all 

 members of the north-eastern Algonkian group both 

 north and south of the St. Lawrence. Passing from 

 this primary area, the motive has been borrowed by 

 other western tribes, mostly Algonkian, and subjected 

 to local modification. Among the Penobscots and 

 perhaps their eastern neighbours the double curve has 

 acquired, to a certain degree, a symbolic value due to 

 contact with the more politically complex Iroquois. 

 These positions, he admits, may require modification 

 when the study of symbolism among the tribes east 

 of the Penobscots, and the inter-relation between their 

 art as a whole and that of the Iroquois, come to be 

 more carefully investigated. 



The twenty-second report of the Board of Health 

 on leprosy in New South Wales for the year 1912 has 

 been issued. On January i of that year only eighteen 

 persons remained under detention at the lazaret. 

 During the year five persons were reported to the 

 Board as being suspected lepers, of whom four were 

 certified as suffering from leprosy. Details are given 

 of the condition of these new patients and of the 

 methods and results of the treatment of the old cases. 



The National Council for Combating Venereal Dis- 

 eases was inaugurated at the Royal Society of Medi- 

 cine on November 11. The gathering was a distin- 

 guished one, and representative of widely different 

 interests. The aims and objects of the council are the 

 following : — (i) To provide accurate and enlightened 

 information as to the prevalence of these diseases, 

 and as to the necessity for early treatment. (2) To 

 NO. 2352, VOL. 94] 



promote the provision of greater facilities for their 

 treatment. (3) To increase the opportunities of 

 medical students and practitioners for the study of 

 these diseases. (4) To encourage and assist the dis- 

 semination of a sound knowledge of the physiological 

 laws of life in order to raise the standard both of 

 health and conduct. (5) To co-operate with existing 

 associations, to seek their approval and support, and 

 to give advice when desired. (6) To arrange, in con- 

 nection with such organisations, for courses of lec- 

 tures, and to supervise the preparation of suitable 

 literature. (7) To promote such legislative, social, 

 and administrative reforms as are relevant to the fore- 

 going aims and objects. 



Ix the course of a paper on the birds of Costa Rica, 

 published in the September number of Zoologica, Mr. 

 L. S. Crandall remarks that the alleged scarcity and 

 shyness of the brilliantly coloured king-vulture are not 

 borne out by his experience, several of these birds 

 allowing themselves to be approached within a distance 

 of forty yards while feasting on a carcase. In a 

 second article Mr. C. W. Beebe discusses the Hima- 

 layan and Far Eastern kalij-pheasants of the genus 

 Gennoeus, and concludes that the number of species 

 has been much exaggerated. 



At the conclusion of an article on the responses or 

 reactions of animals and plants to stimuli — as 

 exemplified by changes in function, structure, and 

 colour induced, either directly or indirectly, by external 

 conditions — published in the American Naturalist for 

 November, Prof. V. E. Shelford remarks that, in his 

 opinion, the doctrines of purposeful advantageous 

 response, of natural selection, and of the continuity 

 of the germ-plasm cannot be accepted in their entirety. 

 "Each appears to have arisen from a recognition of 

 certain more or less unconsciously selected and un- 

 critically determined phenomena by each of several 

 men who secured different facts and attempted ex- 

 planations." 



In the November number of Wild Life, Mr. Russell 

 Roberts, who, we believe, is now serving with the 

 army, resumes the account of his personal experiences 

 of African big game, dealing in this instance with the 

 black rhinoceros, of which several striking photo- 

 graphs are given. The author totally discredits the 

 alleged excessive ferocity of this species, remarking 

 that reports to this effect are for the most part due 

 to want of sufficient acquaintance with the animal. 

 A wonderful photograph of a sedge-bird, by Mr. 

 Lodge, and a second of waterfowl on the lake in 

 Woburn Park are other features of this issue. An 

 article on the Zoological Gardens is marred by the 

 statement that certain Australasian marsupials range 

 as far east as New Guinea. 



San Francisco has started a new journal, to be 

 published quarterly by the California Fish and Game 

 Commission, under the title of California Fish and 

 Game, the first number of which appeared in October. 

 California, it seems, has not yet fallen into line with 

 the neighbouring States in the matter of the prohibi- 

 tion of the sale of wild ducks and other wild table- 

 birds ; and it has been made a ground of complaint 



