October ii, 191 7] 



NATURE 



109 



industries. Insect pests of various kinds and 

 means of destroying^ them were dealt with in a 

 series of papers by Mr. C. W. Mally, and Dr. 

 P. A. van der Byl contributed a valuable mono- 

 graph on a fungus which attacks the Black Iron- 

 wood tree. 



Mention must not be omitted of Prof. H. B. 

 Fantham's excellent account of the intestinal 

 and blood organisms which the war operations in 

 Salonika and Gallipoli had afforded special 

 opportunities for studying. 



Section D was largely taken up with educational 

 questions. Agricultural education in South Africa 

 was dealt with by Dr. A. I. Perold, recently 

 , principal of the Government Agricultural School 

 - at Elsenburg and now professor of oenology at 

 Victoria College, while by way of comparison 

 Dr. C. F. Juritz read a paper on agricultural 

 education in Australia. Entomological education 

 in the United States was the subject of a paper 

 by Dr. E. S. Cogan. Mr. W. J. Home discussed 

 the movement towards a national system of tech- 

 ? nical education, and the Rev. Prof. J, I. Marais 

 completed the symposium with a paper on some 

 \ forgotten factors in education. Section D, too, 

 ' discussed the dearth of paper-making materials, 

 J an account being given by Dr. Juritz of the 

 grasses of the eastern coast belt of the sub-conti- 

 nent available for paper-making : these grasses 

 were mainly species of Andropogon, Erianthus, 

 and Anthistiria. 

 * The results of mental tests applied to Zulu 



students at a mission station in Natal were dis- 

 cussed by Mr. S. G. Rich before Section E. 

 The author urged continuance of the investi- 

 gation with the view of settlingthe question whether 

 the native mind ceases growth at puberty. Dr. 

 C. T. Loram at a later stage contributed '2, paper 

 dealing with the same question, which he answered 

 in the negative, ascribing appearances to the con- 

 trary to the courses of study and methods of 

 teaching adopted in native schools. He reiterated 

 suggestions made at the Maritzburg meeting a 

 year ago by the Rev. J. R. L. Kingon that part 

 at least of the course of study should be conducted 

 in the Kaffir vernacular. The Rev. W. A. Norton 

 read some important papers before Section E : in 

 one of these he urged the need and value of an 

 academic study of native philology and ethno- 

 logy, and in another he emphasised the advan- 

 tages of stenography as an aid to the phonetic 

 analysis and comparison of the Bantu languages. 

 A very interesting paper on native ideas of cos- 

 mology was contributed by the Rev. S. S. Dornan, 

 and equally interesting was one read by Mr. J. 

 McLaren, who illustrated the wisdom and the wit 

 of the Bantu people by numerous quotations of 

 their proverbial sayings. 



Prof. Orr, at the conclusion of his presidential 

 address on the opening evening of the session, 

 presented the South Africa medal and an award 

 of 5o7. to Prof. J. D. F. Gilchrist, professor of 

 zoology at the South African College, in recog- 

 nition of his researches in marine biology. There 

 were two evening discourses of the usual popu- 

 NO. 2502, VOL. 100] 



lar type during the week, one by Prof. Gilchrist 

 on the marine animals of South Africa, and the 

 other by Mr. H. E. Wood, of the Union Obser- 

 vatory, on " Some Unsolved Problems of Astron- 

 omy." 



Next year's meeting will be held at Johannes- 

 burg, with Dr. C. F. Juritz as president. 



THE PHYSIQUE OF RECRUITS. 



IN the summer of 1916 the Board of Scientific 

 Studies was established under the aegis of the 

 Royal Society to serve as a means of placing 

 knowledge in the possession of scientific and tech- 

 nical societies at the disposal of Government de- 

 partments. At the first general meeting of this 

 board in July, 1916, the urgency of a physical 

 survey of the nation, to discover whether or not 

 there existed definite evidence of physical deteri- 

 oration, was discussed. Emphasis was laid by 

 various speakers on the fact that an Interdepart- 

 mental Committee had reported in 1904 that such 

 a survey was necessary. Nothing, however, had 

 l:>een done. The mobilisation of a national Army 

 had provided an opportunity, as well as a need, 

 for such a survey. 



The Board of Scientific Studies requested the 

 Royal Anthropological Institute to report on the 

 desirability and possibility of such a survey. The 

 institute having reported that such a survey was 

 both desirable and possible, the board formed an 

 Anthropological Survey Sub-Committee to con- 

 sider the manner in which such an investigation 

 could best be carried out. This sub-committee 

 has not yet reported to the Board of Scientific 

 Studies, but we understand that it is seeking for 

 the means of carrying out such a survey through 

 the Government departments which have directly 

 to do with the health and physique of the nation : 

 the Recruiting Authority — now the Ministry of 

 National Service — the Local Government Board, 

 and the Board of Education. Representatives of 

 these departments have joined the Anthropological 

 Survey Sub-Committee, and it is hoped that a 

 practical scheme may be formulated at an early 

 date. 



Meanwhile American anthropologists have 

 stolen a march on their British colleagues. When 

 the United States entered the war the National 

 Research Council was at once created to serve the 

 same purpose as our Board of Scientific Studies. 

 Its Anthropological Committee, formed to advise 

 in the selection, standardisation, and examination 

 of recruits, has already issued its report and 

 recommendations. It proposes that six of the six- 

 teen great concentration camps should be selected 

 for an anthropological survey — two in the Eastern, 

 two in the Middle, and two in the Western States 

 — and that special men, who had been trained to 

 use exactly the same anthropometrical methods at 

 the National Museum at Washington, should be 

 dispatched to carry out a survey of the men in the 

 selected camps. The noints for investigation have 

 been reduced to a minimum, namely, standing and 

 sitting heights, three dimensions of the head, two 



