450 



NATURE 



[February 7, 19 18. 



explorations describes a large number of prehistoric 

 animals the remains of which have been discovered. 

 The Palaeolithic period is represented at several sites 

 in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, 

 and the periods known' as Mesvinian, Mousterian, 

 Aurignacian, Solutrian, and Magdalenian are all more 

 or less fully illustrated by discoveries. The Neolithic age 

 is abundantly represented by examples from Mount 

 Carmel, the banks of the Jordan, and the neighbour- 

 hood of the Dead Sea. The writer remarks that 

 though the prehistoric age in Syria and Palestine has 

 not been so fully investigated as in Europe, the mate- 

 rials for its study are abundant, and students of the 

 history of ancient man will share with him in the 

 hope that when peace has been re-established the study 

 of the remains in this important region will be under- 

 taken with still greater hopes' of success. 



Dr. R. F. Scharff, in the Irish Naturalist (Decem- 

 ber, 1917), gives a long and useful history of the now 

 extinct Irish " greyhound-pig," which survived until 

 recently in the more isolated parts of Ireland. This 

 he is inclined to believe is not a descendant of the 

 wild boar which roamed over the island, but was 

 introduced possibly so far back as the Bronze age. 

 It would seem to be nearly related to the ancient 

 "turf-pig" of the Swiss Lake dwellings and the Lake 

 dwellings of Glastonbury, in Somerset. From 

 this last fact it would seem more probable that tihe 

 Irish pig was introduced from England rather than 

 from the Continent, as Dr. Scharff is inclined to be- 

 lieve. A great deal of information has been brought 

 together in this short paper, which is further illus- 

 trated by photographs. 



Island faunas afford us valuable data as to the 

 effects of isolation in regard to the evolution of species. 

 Hence we are glad to note the summary of a study 

 of the birds of the Anamba Islands by Mr. Harry C. 

 Oberholser which appears in the Bulletin of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution (No. 98). The material described 

 was collected some years ago by Dr. W. L. Abbott, 

 and includes fifteen subspecies peculiar to these islands. 

 As might be expected, they are all of small species of 

 the Passerine type. It is shown that, so far as their 

 avifauna is concerned, these islands are most closely 

 related to the Malay Peninsula, less so, but about 

 equally, to Sumatra and Borneo, and only slightly to 

 Indo-China. 



A VERY remarkable shrew, Scutisorex congicus, is 

 described by Mr. J. A. Allen in the Bulletin of the 

 American Museum of Natural History (vol. xxxvii., 

 1917). This animal, when originally described by Mr. 

 Oldfield Thomas from a 'skin and skull from 

 Uganda, seemed to differ from the typical shrews 

 chiefly in its long, thick fur and the great develop- 

 ment of the cranial ridges. But a number of specimens 

 have been recently obtained by the American Museum 

 of Natural History Congo Expedition, and among 

 these are several skeletons and specimens in alcohol. 

 The dissection of these has revealed a quite extra- 

 ordinary condition of the vertebral column, un- 

 known in any other mammal. Briefly, all the verte- 

 brae, from the seventh thoracic to the last lumbar, 

 have the latero-ventral borders so enormously pro- 

 duced that this part of the vertebral column, seen from 

 below, is deeply trough-shaped. Nothing that is 

 known of the habits of this creature affords any ex- 

 planation of so singular a modification. But it cer- 

 tainly imparts tremendous strength to the backbone. 

 This is well known to the natives, who take " great 

 delight in showing to the easily fascinated crowd its 

 extraordinary resistance to weight and pressure ... a 

 full-grown man weighing some 160 lb. steps barefooted 



NO. 2519, VOL. 100] 



upon the shrew. Steadily trying to balance himself 

 upon one leg, he continues to vociferate several 

 minutes. The poor creature seems certainly doomed. 

 But as soon as his tormentor steps off, the shrew, after 

 a few shuddering movements, tries to escape, none the 

 worse for this mad experience." Having regard to the 

 fact that fully adult animals do not exceed 243 mm, 

 in length, its weight-carrying possibilities are truly 

 wonderful. The natives hold this animal in great 

 esteem. They are convinced that its charred body, or 

 even its heart, when prepared by their medicine-men, 

 transmits truly invincible qualities. Such precious 

 relics are always worn by those engaging in warfare, 

 or setting out on any equally dangerous enterprise, such 

 as hunting elephants. 



The December number of Terrestrial Magnetism 

 and Atmospheric Electricity contains an article by Mr. 

 J. P. Ault on the meteorological observations taken by 

 the Carnegie during her voyage around the Antarctic 

 continent in the spring of 19 16. With a few excep- 

 tions, the observations were taken between latitudes 

 50° and 60° S., from Lyttelton, New Zealand, to South 

 Georgia, Kerguelen, and Lyttelton. The temperature 

 of the "sea, the pressure, temperature, and humidity of 

 the air, the direction and speed of the wind, and the 

 position of the ship are given for noon each day. The 

 weather was uniformly bad, the humidity 80 to 90 per 

 cent., the sea and air temperatures only a few degrees 

 above freezing point, and the wind high. With de- 

 creasing barometric pressure the wind almost invari- 

 ably shifted from north to west, became a gale, and 

 as the pressure again increased, shifted to the south- 

 west and blew hard. A comparison of the Carnegie 

 observations with those made by the Shackleton ex- 

 pedition during the same period should prove of con- 

 siderable interest. 



The Chemical Trade Journal for December 29 con- 

 tains an interesting article on the perchlorate method 

 of estimating potassium. By the work described the 

 following facts are established : — (i) The perchlorates 

 of sodium, barium, calcium, and magnesium are 

 readily soluble in alcohol containing 0-2 per cent, of 

 perchloric acid, in which potassium perchlorate is 

 almost insoluble. (2) The chlorides of the above 

 metals are completely transformed into perchlorates by 

 evaporating their solutions with excess of perchloric 

 acid. (3) The loss effected by washing one gram of 

 potassium chlorate with 100 c.c. of alcohol containing 

 02 per cent, of perchloric acid and then with 2 c.c. 

 of alcohol amounts to 0-36 per cent. (4) Barium 

 hydroxide is preferable to barium chloride for the pre- 

 liminary precipitation of sulphates, and, when such large 

 quantities as o-8 to i-o gram of perchlorate are dealt 

 with, it is advisable to use the solid hydroxide. The 

 procedure recommended is as follows : — ^The solution 

 of the potassium salt is treated with excess of solid 

 barium hydroxide, and the barium sulphate filtered and 

 washed under pressure on an asbestos filter. The fil- 

 trate and washings are evaporated with a 50 per cent, 

 excess of perchloric acid in a glass basin until white 

 fumes are evolved, then 25 c.c. of water are added, 

 and the product evaporated to dryness. The residue 

 is taken up with 20 c.c. of alcohol containing 0-2 per 

 cent, of perchloric acid, the potassium perchlorate 

 transferred to an asbestos filter, washed with 80 c.c. 

 of the dilute alcoholic solution of perchloric acid, and 

 then with 2 c.c. of pure alcohol. The filter is dried, .5: 

 weighed, washed with boiling water, dried, and again 

 weighed, the difference in the two weights giving the 

 amount of perchlorate. It does not seem to have 

 occurred to the writer to use a Gooch crucible, and 

 thus reduce the weighings to one, nor does he seem to 



