24P 



MATURE 



[April 22, 1920 



Notes. 



News of Capt. Roald Amundsen's Arctic Expedition 

 has unexpectedly been received from Siberia via 

 Alaska. The Maud left Norway in June, 19 18, and 

 was last heard of some months later from Dickson 

 Island, at the mouth of the Yenisei. According to the 

 telegram published in the Times, two men left the 

 ship in October, 1918, in the vicinity of Cape 

 Chelyuskin. Nothing has been heard of these men, 

 although they presumably made for the fishing settle- 

 ments of the Lower Yenisei, a distance of some six 

 or seven hundred miles across the barren tundra. 

 There seems to be little hope that the two men are 

 alive. The Maud appears to have spent last winter in 

 the neighbourhood of Aion Island, at the mouth of 

 Chaun Bay, in north-eastern Siberia, within six 

 hundred miles of Bering Strait. Aion Island is noted 

 for its reindeer pasture. The coast in the vicinity is 

 visited by native and occasional American traders in 

 summer. The distance to the nearest wireless station 

 at the mouth of the Anadir is about 450 miles across 

 rough country. Until further news arrives it would 

 be rash to suppose that Amundsen has abandoned his 

 trans-polar drift. It is quite possible that he intends 

 to push into the Arctic basin north of Bering Strait in 

 order to ensure the drift taking him to a high latitude. 

 On the other hand, the loss of two men, even sup- 

 posing his messengers to the Anadir return, will 

 ser-iousfy weaken his expedition. Capt. Amundsen 

 always maintained that his aims were scientific, and 

 that he had no desire merely to reach the North Pole. 

 It is not, therefore, probable that he will return this 

 year, since the coast of Siberia along which the Maud 

 has sailed has been explored in recent years by Rus- 

 sian expeditions. The Maud is provisioned for another 

 three years. 



The United States National Research Council has 

 appointed a committee on eugenics, under the Division 

 of Biology and Agriculture, consisting of the following 

 members :— L. F. Barker, A. G. Bell, E. A. Hooton, 

 Daniel W. LaRue, Stewart Paton, Raymond Pearl, 

 R. M. Yerkes, H. S. Jennings, and C. B. Davenport 

 (chairman). The committee met on Saturday, 

 March 20, and decided to hold the second International 

 Eugenics Congress in New York City on Septem- 

 ber 22-28, 192 1, inclusive. Dr. Alexander Graham 

 Bell was elected honorary president. Dr. Henry F. 

 Osborn president, Mr. Madison Grant treasurer, and 

 Mrs. Sybil Gotto, secretary of the Eugenics 

 Education Society, in view of her activity in organis- 

 ing the first Eugenics Congress, was nominated 

 honorary secretary of the second Eugenics Congress. 

 The national consultative eugenics bodies in the 

 various countries will be informed of the action of 

 the eugenics committee of the National Research 

 Council and invited to send representatives. A general 

 invitation will be sent to universities in different 

 American countries and in the countries of Europe. 



The president, vice-pr«sident, and council of the 



Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have elected 



P'rof. G. Elliot Smith to the Mary Louisa Prentice 



Montgomery lectureship in ophthalmology. The sub- 



NO. 2634, VOL. 105] 



ject of Prof. Smith's first lecture will be "The 

 Influence of Stereoscopic Vision on the Evolution of 

 Man." The lecture will be delivered in October next. 



An extraordinary general meeting of the fellows of 

 the Chemical Society will be held at Burlington 

 House on Thursday, April 29, at 5 p.m., to consider 

 the alterations in the by-laws proposed by the council. 



The reorganisation and co-operation of research 

 departments contemplated at the Middlesex Hospital 

 promise to be of great value. In particular the co- 

 operation of such distinguished investigators as Profs. 

 Swale Vincent and Mcintosh with Prof. Russ and 

 Dr. Lazarus-Barlow may be expected to direct the 

 investigations of cancer on the broad and general lines 

 so necessary at the present time in this subject. We 

 wish the new arrangements every success. 



The Report of the Salisbury Public Library for 

 1919-20 describes the arrangements for advancing 

 adult education by means of a series of public lectures. 

 A course of eight lectures was delivered by Mr. F. 

 Stevens on the history of the neighbourhood at 

 various periods. The lectures fell into two groups of 

 four each, prehistoric and early historic, and were 

 illustrated from the collections in the city museum by 

 an inspection of the actual objects and by some five 

 hundred photographs. The course, of which a syllabus 

 is appended, attracted good audiences, and was so 

 financially successful that a substaintial balance 

 remains, which is being expended in strengthening 

 the existing collection in the library of books on Wilt- 

 shire. The committee may be congratulated on this 

 result, and other public libraries throughout the 

 country may use the report as a suggestion for 

 similar arrangements. 



Dr. Felix Oswald and Mr. T. D. Price announce 

 for publication at an early date a book entitled "An 

 Introduction to the Study of Terra Sigillata, Treated 

 from a Chronological Standpoint." During their 

 excavations at the Roman station of Margidunum, in 

 Nottinghamshire, the authors were impressed by the 

 difficulties inherent in the study of Terra Sigillata, the 

 so-called Samian ware, and especially by the necessity 

 for collecting the many scattered references to the sub- 

 ject in many languages besides English. The import- 

 ance of the study lies in the historical evidence fur- 

 nished by this ware, for, apart from inscriptions, no 

 relic of the Imperial age is more important for 

 chronological purposes. Ample materials for the 

 investigation are provided at sites such as Haltern, 

 Hofheim, Newstead, and Niederbieber, which can be 

 dated by historical evidence and from the names of 

 the potters inscribed on their work. As the Gaulish 

 Sigillata is a development of the Italian or Arretine 

 fabric, a short account of this is supplied. The book 

 promises to be valuable for the study of the Roman 

 period in Western Europe. 



In an account of the Apalaii Indians of the Amazon 

 (Museum Journal, vol. x.. No. 3, September, 1919) 

 Mr. W. C. Farabee describes a remarkable form of 

 puberty ordeal. A frame in the shape of a jaguar, 

 possibly an indication of totemism, is made of wicker- 



