27; 



NATURE 



[June 6, 1918 



vide a number of annual scholarships of loo/. each. 

 The organising committee invites contributions towards 

 an endowment fund, which has been started with gifts 

 of loooi. each from Mr. Walter Morrison and Mr. 

 Robert Mond. It is hoped that a minimum of 20,oooL 

 will be raised. Mr. Robert Mond will act as treasurer 

 of the fund, and contributions should be made payable 

 to him, crossed "a/c British School of .Xrchaology 

 at Jerusalem." All communications should be ad- 

 dressed to the honorary secretary, Prof. 1. Gollancz, 

 British Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W. 



Early in 1914 Mr. J. Reid Moir began to make a 

 detailed study of two ancient levels formerly occupied 

 by man, now buried in a brickfield near Ipswich. He 

 has just completed the work, which is the most exhaus- 

 tive research of the kind hitherto undertaken in this 

 country, and the results are published in the last part 

 of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 

 (vol. xlvii.). With the aid of several specialists, whose 

 reports are included, Mr. Moir deals wjth the subject 

 from every point of view. The flint implements are 

 illustrated in many beautiful drawings by Mr. E. T. 

 Lingwood, those of the lower level being clearly 

 late Mousterian, while those of the upper level are 

 Aurignacian. Two specimens found in the hill-wash 

 overlying the upper level are Solutrean, and an arrow- 

 head from the surface soil is Neolithic. These imple- 

 ments were examined by the late Prof. V. Gommont, 

 who noted that they represented the same succession 

 of types as he had discovered in the loams and alluvium 

 of Northern France and Belgium. Some fragments 

 of human bones found on the lower level are con- 

 sidered by Prof. Keith to be essentially identical with 

 those of modern man. Some pieces of pottery from 

 the same level are also interesting. 



Thirty-five years ago a committee of the British 

 Association conrpiled a table to represent the average 

 heights and weights of British children at each year 

 of growth. Experience has shown that the standards 

 laid down by the committee are not satisfactory. In 

 recent numbers of School Hygiene (December, 19 17, 

 April, 1918) Major James Kerr seeks to Igy down 

 what may be described as an ideal British standard. 

 He assumes that the average Briton, if reared under 

 healthy conditions, should reach the height of 

 1-770 m. (5 ft. 10 in.), some two inches above our 

 present average. " By selection of the children to be 

 measured, excluding the deformed and diseased, the 

 backward mentally, and starved, ill-clothed, and city- 

 dwarfed children, it should be possible to lay down 

 standards for height considerably above the measure- 

 ments at present considered satisfactory." Indeed, 

 the standards laid down by Major Kerr are consider- 

 ably above the measurements yielded by the best 

 samples of British children- We "believe that such an 

 ideal standard will not prove satisfactory, because the 

 admission or rejection of children considered healthy 

 will depend on the individual judgment of the medical 

 officer concerned. Nevertheless, Major Kerr's papers 

 form a valuable contribution towards the solution of 

 a difficult problem. 



In association with the article in our issue of 

 May 16 on "The Co-ordination of Scientific Publica- 

 tion," it is of interest to note that at the Congress of 

 Archaeological Societies held in November last Mr. 

 H. St. George Gray pointed out the desirabilitv of 

 more co-ordination in the exchange of archaeological 

 publications so as to secure for each society a full 

 record of published work. The difficulty "in com- 

 pleting sets of Proceedings arose generally from the 

 fact that most societies had their scarce volumes due, 

 NO. 2536, VOL. lOl] 



amongst other causes, to the publication of important 

 contributions of more than local interest, which letl 

 to an abnormal demand on the number of copies 

 printed. As a result, odd volumes required to com- 

 plete library sets had to be sought in second-hand 

 book lists, as the cost of reprinting scarce issues was 

 usually prohibitive. Special publications, volumes 

 issued for members only, and loose-leaf publications 

 were often omitted from exchanges, and in the absence 

 of carefully compiled indices important contributions 

 were often either overlooked or seriously delayed. 

 Adequate index volumes are of especial value in 

 archaeological publications, and should be issued anti 

 exchanged by all societies concerned with the subject. 

 An additional consideration arose from the fact that 

 indices were often published as extra volumes, and 

 were not included in exchanges. Although the 

 value of exchanges between societies was regarded 

 from the scientific rather than from the commercial 

 point of view, any difficulties connected with special 

 issues of this character should be capable of equit- 

 able adjustment by proportional payments. 



Little is yet known in regard to the reproductive 

 organs of the Cetacea. A paper on this subject, which 

 appears in the Journal of Anatomy, vol. iii., part 2» 

 by Prof. Meek is therefore welcome. Prof. Meek 

 deals with the modifications these organs present 

 in relation to function rather than with their general 

 disposition. Both sexes of the common porpoise 

 {Phocaena communis) and the male organs of the 

 white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) are 

 described at length, and some valuable notes on the 

 male organs of other species of Delphinidae and on 

 the remarkable spermathecal recess of female Cetacea 

 are also given. 



The March issue of the American Museum Journal 

 (vol. xvii.. No. 3) contains among several admirably 

 illustrated articles one by Mr. D. B. Macmillan on 

 " The Food Supply of the Smith Sound Eskimo." 

 After surveying the abundant food supplies during 

 the polar summer, Mr. Macmillan shows how the 

 Eskimo, who is perforce entirely carnivorous, con- 

 sumes about 1000 lb. of meat a year, about half of 

 which is eaten raw and frozen. A high proportion of 

 this generous diet is consumed during summer and 

 autumn. Winter is often a period of want. Mr. 

 Macmillan points out that probably already the war 

 has affected the w'ell-being of these far northern 

 people. For many years they had depended on Danish 

 trading ships not only for tobacco, matches, thread, 

 needles, etc., but, more important, for firearms, knives, 

 steel traps, and other implements of the chase. The 

 non-arrival of the trading ship in 1917 forced the 

 Eskimo largely to fall back on the hunting methods 

 of a century ago — to bone arrows, ivory harpoon-shafts, 

 flint knives, and so forth. Another vear of these 

 conditions, Mr. Macmillan believes, will result in so 

 great a falling off in food supplies that the tribe will 

 dwindle to a pitiful few. 



M. Leroy described before the Soci^t^ des Experts 

 Chimistes de France recently a new process of 

 examining eggs by photography. The opacity of the 

 shell is got over by using intense illumination, a 

 luminous objective, extra-sensitive plates, and other 

 suitable devices. M. Leroy uses a graduated trans, 

 parent scale, which is reproduced photographically at 

 the same time as the egg. The method described 

 has the advantage over the "shadow" method that it 

 reproduces the internal condition of the egg. The 

 eggs are tested in the way that steel rails, shells, etc., 

 are — i.e. by selecting a certain percentage for test 

 from each batch. 



