\pRiL 4, 19 1 8] 



NATURE 



91 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of 

 Mr. G. M. Seabroke, director of the Temple Observa- 

 tory, Rugby. 



The annual oration of the Medical Society of London 

 will be delivered by Dr. T. S. Hyslop on May 13, upon 

 the subject of " Degeneration in Art, Science, and 

 Alfdicine." 



We learn from the Times that at the annual meet- 

 ing of the Association of Chambers of Commerce to 

 be held in London on Tuesday and Wednesday next a 

 Bill for providing a c'ecimar system of coinage will be 

 submitted for approval. The terms of the Bill have 

 been agreed on by the Executive Council of the asso- 

 ciation, the Bankers' Institute, and the Decimal Asso- 

 ciation. Arrangements are being made for its imme- 

 diate introduction in the House of Lords. 



In the Museum Journal (vol. viii., No. 2, June, 1917) 

 there is a remarkable account of human sacrifice 

 among the Mundurucu Indians on the Tapajos River, 

 a tributary of the Amazon. Disease is believed to be 

 caused by a Bokaidpot, or evil genius, in the village. 

 This person is identified by the mediqine man, and he 

 is slain if many deaths or much sickness occur. The 

 victim is strangled by means of a cord pulled tightly 

 round his neck, and next morning, after the chief has 

 seen it, the body is cremated. The accused knows he 

 is to be killed and oflfcrs little resistance. Two men 

 are appointed to do the deed at the first opportunity; 

 thcv may select their time, but cannot escape the duty. 



Mr. T. Sheppard, in the Naturalist for February, 

 describes a collection of implements of the Bronze age 

 in the Whitby Museum. There are in all twelve 

 specimens, of which two are evidently of Irish origin, 

 and some are imperfect. One rare type of implement, 

 a socketed dagger, is unfortunately imperfect, the blade 

 being broken, and a crude attempt having been made 

 to sharpen the broken part for use as a chisel. Two 

 specimens are obviously forgeries, and seem to be 

 rather clumsy attempts to imitate genuine weapons. 

 These are clearly the work of "Flint Jack," who was 

 a native of the Whitby district, and spent some time 

 there in his later years doing his best to satisfy the 

 demands of collectors. 



The Hon. J. W. P. Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of 

 P.ipua, has forwarded to Mr. S. H. Ray a vocabulary 

 of the people between the Fly and Strickland Rivers, 

 Papua, which is published in the March issue of Man. 

 These ipeople live about Lake Murray, a large, swampy 

 tract which lies in the angle formed by the junction of 

 the Fly and Strickland Rivers, discovered by Messrs. 

 Massy-Baker and Burrows in 19 13. The language of 

 these people seems to be closely connected with that of 

 'the Merauke or Tugeri tribe, and the tribes connecting 

 the races of these two areas must be sought in the 

 still little-known interior of the island rather than 

 along the coast. In one village stuffed heads, like 

 those found on the Strickland, and described by 

 D'Albertis, were noticed. But the latter was mistaken 

 in believing that the skull was removed through a long 

 cut on the neck; as a matter of fact, the flesh is 

 replaced by clay or fibre ; the skull is not removed. 



The volume of Scientific Reports of the Agricultural 

 Research Institute, Pusa, for 1916-17 continues the 

 record of valuable services rendered to Indian agricul- 

 ture by this insititution. The report of the director is 

 accompanied by the reports of the heads of the various 

 scientific divisions, and the matters dealt with are so 

 varied as to preclude any effective summary within the 

 compass of a brief note. A few subjects chosen at 

 random include starch production, soil aeration, wheat- 

 breeding, indigo, paddy diseases, disease-carrying in- 



NO. 2527, VOL. lOl] 



sects, and green manuring. Detailed reports on some 

 of these subjects have been published during the year 

 and noted in these columns. 



A bacterial disease of wheat in the Punjab is de- 

 scribed by Mr. C. M. Hutchinson in the Memoirs of 

 the Department of Agriculture in India (vol. i.. No. 7). 

 In the affected wheat the inflorescence and parts of the 

 stem are covered with a bright primrose-yellow slime, 

 and the growth of the plant may be interfered with and 

 the stem distorted. The appearances are well depicted ' 

 in a coloured plate. The yellow slime is crowded with 

 bacilli, which can be readily cultivated on a variety 

 of culture media, yielding yellow growths on many. 

 Inoculation of wheat plants with cultures successfully 

 reproduced the disease provided that the plants were 

 kept in an abnormally moist atmosphere. The bac- 

 terium is named Pseudomonas tritici. 



Prophylactic inoculation against pneumococcal infec- 

 tions is the subject of a research by Mr. F. S. Lister 

 (Publications of the South African Institute for Medical 

 Research, No. x.). He shows that from 63 to 77 per 

 cent, of ail cases of pneumonia among the Trans- 

 vaal native miners are caused by one or other of three 

 races or groups of the pneumococcus designated A, 



B, and C. By prophylactic inoculation, pneumonia has 

 been completely abolished on the Crown Mines. The 

 method is to administer three subcutaneous inocula- 

 tions of one cubic centimetre each of a vaccine con- 

 taining representatives of the three groups. A, B, and 



C, of pneumococci in equal proportion, and containing 

 seven thousand million cocci f)er c.c. Details are given 

 for the preparation of "the vaccine, and statistical data 

 of the results obtained by its use are tabulated. 



The cessation of the trade in tinned articles of food 

 during the war has forced India to rely on its own 

 resources. .'\n exhibition of such local productions 

 held at Calcutta early in January last shows how much 

 progress has already been made. The sun-drying of 

 vegetables has been undertaken ; dried and made into 

 bricks, the weekly supply for a thousand men on 

 active service can be carried in twelve kerosene tins, 

 an easy load for two mules. Biscuits are being largely 

 made of the flour of Pusa wheat; macaroni, vermicelli, 

 and ground rice are made. Hams and bacon come 

 from the Balaclava farm at Ghoom, the produce being 

 sold at little more than half the price of the imported 

 article. Cured and tinned fish and a large selection 

 of condiments are another branch which has proved 

 very successful. The exhibition will do much to en- 

 courage this new trade in food for Europeans in India. 



The migrations of the king-fish, or opah (Lampris 

 luna), and of the sun-fish {Orthagoriscus mola) in 

 British waters are briefly summarised in the Scottish 

 Naturalist for February by Prof. D'Arcy Thompson. 

 His analysis of recorded captures of the first-named, 

 all of which were secured with a hook, seem to show 

 that the northern movements of this fish lie in a sort 

 of belt along the edge of the deep water from the 

 eastern side of the North Sea round the Shetlands to 

 the outer side of the Hebrides. This migration un- 

 mistakably attains its maximum during the summer 

 months, though there are many records of specimens 

 taken during winter. But these are all inshore 

 records, suggesting that such individuals must be re- 

 garded as stragglers which have lost their way. The 

 migrations of the sun-fish show a double maximum, 

 one in early summer for our southern and western 

 coasts, and one in autumn for the east and north. It 

 has been suggested that the sun-fish is, so to speak, 

 a passive migrant, carried along by ocean currents 

 with no "'proper motion" of its own. Prof. D'Arcy 

 Thompson is by no means inclined to accept this view. 

 Though he agrees that the great Atlantic "Gulf 



