482 



NATURE 



[February 21, 1918 



THE ETHNOLOGICAL VALUE OF SHELLS. 

 Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early 



Culture. By J, Wilfrid Jackson. Pp. xxviii + 

 ^ 216. (Manchester: At the University Press; 

 . London: Long-mans, Green, and Co., 1917.) 



Price 6s. net. 

 'T' HOSE who are interested in recent develop- 

 J- ments in ethnological studies are aware that 

 a very active school has arisen within the last two 

 or three years in Manchester under the influence of 

 Prof. G. Elliot Smith, who in 191 1 directed atten- 

 tion to the widespread influence of Ancient Eg-ypt 

 in his little book, " The Ancient Egyptians and 

 their Influence upon the Civilisation of Europe." 

 Since that date he has made investig-ations over a 

 wider sphere, and formulated the theory that a 

 large number of apparently associated customs 

 and objects mark the progress of a complex cul- 

 ture throughout a considerable portion of the 

 earth's surface. 



Working on these lines, Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson, 

 the conchologist and assistant-keeper of the Man- 

 chester Museum, has published a series of five 

 papers dealing with the geog-raphlcal distribution 

 of certain shells employed by man and their cul- 

 tural significance, four of which he has reprinted 

 with new plates and additional information. These 

 eix^: " The Geographical Distribution of the Shell- 

 Piurple Industry," " Shell-Trumpets and their 

 Distribution," " The Geographical Distribution of 

 the Use of Pearls and Pearl-shell," and "The 

 Use of Cowry-shells for the Purposes of Currency, 

 Arhulets, and Charms." 



••- Mr. ^ Jackson has amassed a large number of 

 most interesting- and suggestive data in a field 

 that, with the exception of shells used in currency, 

 has been very little studied by ethnologists ; from 

 this point of view alone Mr. Jackson has done 

 g.bod service. _ The employment of the pigment 

 found in certain marine shells for dyeing fabrics 

 was known in the Mediterranean area and West 

 Britain, was practised in prehistoric Japan and still 

 h in China, and also by pre-Columbian Incas, and 

 in Central America, where its use has not yet died 

 out. The distribution is thus discontinuous. Three 

 ahernatives suggest themselves : (i) That the in- 

 dustry arose independently in these three areas ; 

 (2) that it occurred in the intermediate areas and 

 has since disappeared without leaving any trace ; 

 or (3) that it was carried by streams of migration, 

 the carriers of which did not necessarily introduce 

 it wherever they went. This technique implies 

 that the individuals adept in the process actually 

 visited South and Central America : objects (or 

 copies of them) may be carried by a cultural drift 

 alone, but not a special technique, as this implies 

 personal knowledge, which must either be con- 

 veyed by individuals directly, or, if transmitted 

 indirectly, it must have been employed during- the 

 progress of its migration, and of this there is at 

 {present no evidence, so far as the purple dye is 

 concerned. 



The same argument applies to the association of 

 the moon-god cult and the shell-trumpet in India 

 i NO. 2521, VOL. 100] 



and Mexico, and many other associations. The 

 cumulative evidence of ethno-conchology is too 

 great to be ignored, and affords additional demon- 

 stration of the spread of a complex culture from 

 the culture centres of the Old World to South and 

 Central America. A. C. Haddon. 



MARINE BIOLOGY AND FISH CULTURE. 



(i) Biologia Marina. Forme e Fenomeni della Vita 



nel Mare. By Raffaele Issel. Pp. xx + 607. 



(Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1918.) Price 10.50 lire. 

 (2) Piscicoltura Pratica. Legislazione sulla Pesca 



d'Acqua Dolce. By Prof. Felice Supino. Pp. 



viii + 327. (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1917.) Price 



5.50 lire, 

 (i) "T^HIS manual follows the lines of the course 

 J- of lectures on marine biology delivered 

 by the author in the University of Genoa to first- 

 year students, and the subject is treated in a 

 manner suitable to their stage of training. The 

 account deals so far as possible with local con- 

 ditions and with marine organisms as they may 

 be seen by the observant student on the Liguriam 

 Riviera, and especially in the neighbourhood of 

 the small marine laboratory established in 1912 at 

 Quarto dei Mille (some three miles east of Genoa), 

 of which the author is director. After giving an 

 account of the more important features of aquatic 

 animals in general, and of the physical conditions 

 under which marine animals live, the author 

 sketches the general characteristics and biology 

 of the animals of the plankton, and describes 

 briefly a number of selected vertebrate and in- 

 vertebrate examples. In the following chapters 

 abyssal forms and the littoral fauna are con- 

 sidered, and in the account of the latter the author 

 has included interesting observations on the be- 

 haviour of the flagellate protozoa Carteria sub- 

 cordiformis and Cryptomonas sp. and of the cope- 

 pod Harpacticus fulvus in shore-pools under 

 evaporation. By the time the water in the pools 

 has become strongly saline (density about i'i25), 

 these animals have come to rest and show no sign 

 of life. They have entered upon a "latent" con- 

 dition, and may survive in that state for two or 

 three weeks, recovering on the salinity of the 

 water being reduced again to the normal. 



The animals of the various littoral zones and 

 those found among the algae, especially the fauna 

 of the extensive Posidonia meadows of that region, 

 are treated in a clear and interesting manner, and 

 there is a well-written chapter on the coloration 

 of marine animals. Two chapters deal with fish 

 and fisheries, and a final chapter is devoted to an 

 account of the apparatus and methods used in 

 collecting and studying marine animals. The 

 author has given a stimulating account of marine 

 organisms and their environment, and by means 

 of the well-chosen bibliography at the end of each 

 chapter — an excellent feature of the manual — has 

 directed the serious student to the more important 

 recent literature on the subjects considered. There 

 are 211 illustrations in the text, many of them 

 nriginal. 



