452 



NATURE 



[August 8, 191 8 



lighted to welcome the descendants of his only 

 daughter. In 1914 the German invasion obliged hirn 

 to leave his home, and he moved to Saint-Servan, 

 where he died. M. Wolf was elected a member of 

 the Paris Academy <if Sciences in 1883, and was its 

 president in 1898. He was elected an associate of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society in 1874. 



Mr. J. Reid Moir describes in Man for July a 

 floor recently discovered at Ipswich containing some 

 implements of the Early Mousterian period. A full 

 account of the stratification of the site is given, with 

 drawings of the implements discovered in the course 

 of the excavation. It is at present somewhat difficult 

 to correlate this discovery with that of the Aurignacian 

 floors previousl}'^ examined in the same neighbour- 

 hood, but further research may render this possible. 

 The bones found are identified by Prof. A Keith as 

 those of an elephant, reindeer, ox {Bos primigenius), 

 and goose, many of them showing splitting for the 

 extraction of the marrow 



In the current issue of Folklore (vol. xxix., No. 2) 

 Mr. W. Crooke contributes a papyer on "The Home 

 in India from the Point of View of Sociology and 

 Folklore." The evolution of the form of the house, 

 which in Western societies is often obscure, can be 

 effectively examined among the castes and races of 

 the Indian Empire, more or less completely isolated 

 by distinctions of race and belief. The various forms 

 assumed by the houses in India are fully described. 

 One of the most primitive is that of the round house, 

 of which there are some survivals, often in the form 

 of churches in Europe, derived from the habit of 

 bendirlg down the pliant branches of some tree like 

 the bamboo to form a temporary shelter. This also 

 accounts for the curvilinear form of the Buddhist 

 stupa, or receptacle for relics. The great pillared 

 halls of the Mogul palaces are similarly derived from 

 the reception pavilions of Central Asia. The occupa-. 

 tion of a house marking a crisis in social life, a rite 

 de passage, as Continental anthropologists describe 

 it, gives rise to numerous taboos and precautions in 

 order to disperse the evil spirits which occupy the 

 site. The site selection, the laying of the foundation- 

 stone, and the erection of the roof-beams are in the 

 same way regulated by elaborate ceremonies. One 

 curious phase is when a man, acting as a "scape- 

 goat," is sent into the house before the owners occupv 

 it, in order to take on himself the dangers to which 

 they would otherwise be exposed. 



The question of the preservation of paper in India 

 has recently been discussed at the All-India Confer- 

 ence of Librarians at' Lahore. Mr. W. Railt, the 

 cellulose expert, who read a paper on the subject, 

 remarked that the problem was not new in England, 

 America, or Germany. But these investigations have 

 little applicability to the problem in tropical climates. 

 Sir Aurel Stein found paper produced from linen or 

 cotton rags in Central Asia in the fifth or sixth cen- 

 tury A.D. still fresh and crisp. Complaints of the 

 deterioriation of paper in India date from the intro- 

 duction of rag substitutes after i860. Within the 

 next fifty years most of the report; and documents 

 for which such paper was used will, he believes, be 

 unreadable, while those of an earlier era will be quite 

 sound. This is a very serious statement, and the 

 conference passed a resolution advising the Govern- 

 ment to undertake an inquiry into the whole subject, 

 and impressing on them the urgent necessity of 

 securing a supply of paper capable of permanent pre- 

 servation for alt records of permanent value. Mr. 

 Chapman, of the Imperial Library, Calcutta, remarked 

 in the course of the discussion that he had made a list 

 NO. 2545, VOL. lOl] 



i of books in that institution published between about 

 I 1790 and 1870 the paper of which had perished badly. 

 This list was sent to the British Museum, and the 

 authorities reported that their copies of these books 

 were in perfect condition. The factor of climate is 

 therefore of great importance in the case of books 

 I printed on paper made of rags and forms of cellulose. 



i In the Revue- Scientifique for June 8 MM. Sartory 

 and Blaque review the bacteriology of war-wounds. 

 ' A large proportion of these are infected with various 

 ' species of bacteria, because the fragments of the pro- 

 '■ jectiles, principally shrapnel, are soiled with earth,, 

 ' and may also carry into the wound fragments of 

 I clothing likewise soiled with earth. From about the 

 I ninth hour after infliction the microbes that have 

 gained access begin to multiply in the wound, in 

 particular certain .anaerobes, such as the Bacillus per- 

 fringens group and the organism of malignant 

 oedema, which are concerned in the production of gas- 

 gangrene. Then the Bacillus coli begins to grow, 

 and by about the twentieth hour streptococci and 

 staphylococci appear, associated with numbers of sapro- 

 phytic bacteria. Supposing that the patient survives 

 and gas-gangrene does not occur, the wound becomes 

 an ordinary suppurating one from the seventh to the 

 twentieth day. At this stage the anaerobes disappear 

 and the pus-producing organisms become paramount- 

 cocci. Bacillus coli, B. proteus, and B. pyocyaneus. 



Dr. James. Ritchie, in the Scottish Naturalist for 

 June, records the occurrence of a giant squid 

 (Architeuthis) stranded in the neighbourhood of Skate- 

 raw, on the eastern coast of Haddingtonshire, on 

 November 2, 19 17. The body had suffered mutilation 

 at the hands of the curious before Dr. Ritchie arrived 

 on the scene, but he was enabled to obtain important 

 notes and measurements, which he records at length 

 in his communication. The body, from the tip of the 

 tail to the base of the tentacles, measured 5 ft. 9 in. ; 

 while the stalked arms measured 14 ft. Unfortunately 

 the beak had beexi removed, as also had the pen, 

 though portions of this were found on the beach. The 

 eyes also were missing, a fact which is the more regret- 

 table, since these afford valuable specific characters. 

 From a careful study of these remains the author is 

 of opinion that this squid may be identified as Archi- 

 teuthis harveyi of Verrill, and marks the only definite 

 occurrence of a giant squid on the coast of Great 

 Britain. 



Two valuable papers, on the morphology of the 

 vertebrae of the Temnospondyli and Stegocephalia, 

 and on the osteology of some American vertebrates, by 

 Mr. S. Williston " appear in Contributions from the 

 Walker Museum, Chicago (vol. ii.. No. 4). The author 

 remarks that while no material differences are appa- 

 rent between the skulls of Edaphosaurus and _ Nao- 

 saurus, or between the parts of the appendicular 

 skeleton, yet there exist well-marked differences in the 

 spines of the cervical vertebrae, since in Naosaurus 

 these are broadly dilated and thickened at the ex- 

 tremity, while in Edaphosaurus they are slender and 

 pointed. The author is fortunate in being able, for 

 the first time, to describe and figure the complete 

 skull of Naosaurus, inasmuch as this has enabled him 

 to set at rest some doubtful points in reg-ard to this 

 g-enus and its allies. Finally, the authcw describes a 

 new genus and species of the Diplocaulidae. The 

 remains on which the new genus is founded were 

 obtained in the Craddock bone-bed, near Seymour, 

 Texas. 



The recently issued Bulletin of the Imperial Insti- 

 tute (vol. XV., No. 4) contains several papers of 



