December 13, 1917] 



NATURE 



289 



or three " where Westerns say "three or four "; and 

 so on. If these facts were rearranged so as to ex- 

 hibit the physical as well as the moral differences 

 between Japan and Europe, the result might be of 

 some scientific importance. 



In a lecture delivered at the Calcutta Museum, re- 

 ported in the Pioneer Mail of September i, Mr. Percy 

 Brown discussed Indian artistic metal work. The 

 most valuable specimens were executed in the medieval 

 period of Indian histor\- — that is, from the eighth to 

 the eighteenth centuries .v.D. Mr. Brown directed special 

 attention to the copper colossus of Buddha found at 

 Sultanganj, in the Bhagalpur district, Bihar. This 

 figure is practically unique and almost unknown. It 

 has been traced with some difficulty to a provincial 

 museum in England. This statue of Buddha stands 

 alone, as several centuries separate it from the other 

 statues of the northern school, which are of the Vish- 

 nuvite Hindu type, and belong to the eleventh century 

 A.D. Another admirable piece of work is a little shrine 

 discovered at Dacca, and now in the Indian Museum. 

 It is only 9 in. in height, but for richness of design and 

 finish of workmanship it is the best specimen of this 

 school. It represents Vishnu with the goddesses Saras- 

 vati and Lakshmi, and his symbols, the wheel, mace, 

 conch, and lotus. The figures of the goddesses with 

 their graceful attitudes form an admirable foil to the 

 dignified conventional image of the god. 



The new part of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric 

 Society of East Anglia (vol. ii., part iii.) contains the 

 usual profusion of beautiful drawings of flint imple- 

 ments and several noteworthy papers. Grime's Graves 

 again receive much attention, and there is still a 

 tendency to regard them as Palaeolithic, but Mr. 

 \V. G. Clarke admits " that there is nothing in the 

 knowledge available which actually precludes a Neo- 

 lithic date for the Graves, and that there is a con- 

 siderable amount of data concernLng fauna and 

 implements which supports that view." Mr. Henry 

 Bury describes some interesting flat-faced palaeoiiths 

 from Farnham, and discusses their possible relation- 

 ship to the rostro-carinate implements of earlier date 

 without any conclusive result. Mr. R. H. Chandler 

 and Mr. J. Reid Moir contribute observations on the 

 flaking of flints, and the latter author proposes that 

 "flaking diagrams " of flint implements should be 

 prepared to facilitate comparisons. Mr. R. A. Smith 

 touches geological problems in his elaborate paper on 

 plateau deposits and implements, showing the frequent 

 difficulty of distinguishing between deposits formed 

 bv existing rivers and those due to an earlier distinct 

 system of drainage. For students of man in the Stone 

 age the number is indeed full of interest from all 

 points of view. 



The present condition of the Quichuas of southern 

 liolivia is briefly, but ably, summarised by Mr. L. E. 

 Miller in the American Museum Journal for October. 

 I "hese people represent a part of the wreckage of the 

 iiicient Incan Empire left by the Spanish invaders. 

 Of the physical characters of this tribe nothing, un- 

 fortunately, is said, but to the ethnologist this account 

 will be most welcome. In the upper reaches of the 

 Pilcomayo the Quichuas are still to be found in almost 

 their primitive simplicity, both in the matter of cus- 

 toms and of dress. In the latter particular, indeed, 

 •liey seem to have changed but little since the days of 

 \tahualpa. No jewelry or ornaments of any kind 

 ^eem to be worn, save huge, spoon-shaped pins of 

 copper, used by the women to fasten their shawls. 

 The llama, once their chief source of food and cloth- 

 ing, is now being replaced by sheep and goats. But 

 the llama is still used as a beast of burden, and 

 blankets of superb quality are still made of its wool. 

 NO. 25 1 1, VOL. 100] 



Unfortunately, the yoke of the Spaniard still presses 

 heavily on these wretched people, and the author gives 

 instances of the treatment they have to bear with 

 what equanimity they may, for no redress is theirs. 



The directors of the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, 

 liave initiated a bibliographic service which will prove 

 to be a great saving in time and trouble to all bio- 

 logists. At the present time the leading biological 

 journals of the United States— the Journal of Morpho- 

 logy, Journal of Comparative Neurology, American 

 Journal of Anatomy, Anatomical Record, and Journal 

 of Experimental Zoology — ^are managed and issued bv 

 the Wistar Institute. For the sum of three dollars 

 per annum the directors of that institute undertake to 

 supply index-cards, which, when filed, will serve as 

 a subject index and an author index to all publica- 

 tions appearing in their journals. An outstanding 

 featur^ of the scheme is the abstract of each paf>er, 

 which is printed on the back of the author index- 

 card. 



The first number of the new Journal of Urology 

 (Baltimore, Ind., U.S.A. ; London : Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Press) has reached us. Its object is the pub- 

 lication of original papers on the physiology, pathology, 

 and surgery of the urinary- tract. It is 'published in 

 the United States of America under the editorship of 

 Dr. Hugh Hampton Young. The contents of the 

 number before us are of a high order of excellence, 

 and include such topics as the surgery of the ureters, 

 the cultivation of tumours in vitro, the physiology of 

 the ureter and vas deferens, the effect of the intravenous 

 injection of various substances on the composition of 

 the blood and urine, and on nitrogen metabolism. 

 There can be no question as to its usefulness to those 

 engaged in the special branch of medical practice with 

 which it is concerned; but, at the same time, some 

 doubt may arise as to the wisdom of the publication 

 of papers on more general questions, such as nitrogen 

 metabolism, presumbly because certain products of 

 this chemical activity are excreted in the urine. It 

 would seem that such questions as these belong more 

 appropriately to the less special journals. A useful 

 addition to the Journal of Urology would be a section 

 devoted to the giving of the titles, and perhaps ab- 

 stracts, of papers which bear on the special province 

 of that journal, although they appear in other 

 periodicals. There must be many such papers. The 

 new journal is of attractive appearance and well illus- 

 trated. • 



The Comptes rendus des travaux du Laboratoire de 

 Carlsberg (1917, vol. ii., part 6) contains an important 

 article by Prof. A. Klocker on the preservation of fer- 

 mentation organisms in nutrient media. Hansen's con- 

 clusion that a 10 per cent, solution of cane-sugar forms 

 an excellent medium is confirmed, but beer wort is 

 also very good. The Pasteur flask is undoubtedly the 

 best forrh of vessel for prolonged preservation. The 

 piesent observations were made, during a period of 

 more than thirty years, on 820 cultures of yeasts and 

 moulds. These included Saccharomycetes, Schizo- 

 saccharomycetes, Torulae, Mycoderma, Endomyces, 

 Monilia, Chalara, Oidium, and Mucor. For the most 

 part the nutrient medium employed was a 10 per cent, 

 solution of cane-sugar, in which 461 cultures were 

 grown, but 290 cultures were made on beer wort and 

 sixty-nine on other media. Of the 461 cultures on 

 cane-sugar solution (231 of these being Saccharomyces) 

 403 survived, whilst 58 peiished. In the case of the 

 2QO cultures grown on beer wort (190 Saccharomyces) 

 268 survived and 22 perished. Thus it must be con- 

 cluded that fermentation organisms can be kept alive 

 for upwards of thirty years. The exceptions to this 



