May 27, 1920] 



NATURE 



407 



Du^ald of the limits of thermal efficiency of gas and 

 oil engines shows that 45 f>er cent, b.h.p. may be 

 obtained in the near future. Sir Charles Parsons at 

 the same time prepared an estimate of the limiting 

 efficiency of the steam turbine as 28 per cent. Steam, 

 internal-combusion, and gas engineers welcome the 

 free competition with electricity supply, but consider 

 that any attempt to crush out the smaller power units 

 by a great Government scheme will act against the 

 best interests of the country as to both coal conserva- 

 tion and economy in cost. 



Sir Dugald also referred to the principle of heating 

 towns by utilising the exhaust steam from steam tur- 

 bines in central stations, and to Lord Kelvin's proposal 

 to heat rooms by means of reversed Carnot cycle 

 engines. By making full use of our water-power, 

 three million horse-power could be added to the work 

 of the country without consuming any additional coal 



Buddhism in the Pacific. 



AT a meeting of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute on Tuesday, >iay 18, Sir Everard im 

 Thurn, president, in the chair. Sir Henry Howorth 

 read a paper on "Buddhism in the Pacific." The 

 paper discussed the disintegrated distribution of the 

 Polynesian race, and the occurrence, especially in the 

 Hawaian archipelago and that of New Zealand, of 

 two of its factors which are separated by the whole 

 length of the Pacific Ocean, one occurring in the 

 extreme north and the other in the extreme south, 

 and separated by an intervening area occupied largely 

 by Melanesians. The two factors in question agree 

 very closely in language, while they differ materially 

 in the art and form of the objects which they use. 

 Inasmuch as the Maoris almost certainly migrated to 

 their present quarters at the beginning of the 

 fifteenth century, this is the only way to account for 

 the virtual identity of their speech with that of the 

 Hawaians, and the general character of their orna- 

 mental work with that of the Melanesians. The 

 Hawaians, on the other hand, present us with a ser/es 

 of objects, i.e. helmets and cloaks, made of feathers 

 which, in their form and colour, differ entirely from 

 those made by other members of the Polynesian race. 

 They agree in an extraordinary way in colour and 

 form with those of the Reformed Lamaists of Tibet, 

 who, like other Buddhists, were great travellers and 

 evangelists at a time when Chinese and Japanese 

 vessels, as has been so completely proved in recent 

 years, were traversing the Indian Ocean and visiting 

 the whole of the eastern archipelago at least as far 

 as New Guinea, and apparently even reaching New 

 Zealand, where many vears ago a very interesting 

 bronze figure was found. 



Sir Henrv Howorth auoted instances of the drift- 

 ing and wreckage of Chinese and Japanese vessels 

 on the central and eastern Pacific during the time 

 which has elapsed since Europeans first visited that 

 ocean, and also the tradition of the Sandwich 

 Islanders that several Japanese and Chinese ships 

 had been wrecked, among them in early times. 

 It was not wonderful, therefore, that we should 

 find their kings and gods adopting the stately dress 

 used bv the Lamas, the colours of which they imi- 

 tated in feathers. All the details of the helmets 

 exactlv equate, while the cloaks are ornamented with 

 patches of red on yellow or yellow on red, just as 

 the Lamaist cloaks are. in the latter case in pursuance 

 of the injunction of their founder that their cloaks 

 must be ragged and patched. 



In the interesting discussion which followed the 

 readins? of the paper. Dr. Glanvill Corney cited 

 examples, some of which had come under his own 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



observation, of the drifting of boats with native 

 crews for long distances in the Pacific, and pointed 

 out that the Polynesians were always ready to put 

 out to sea. The Chinese had it 'on record that 

 Buddhists visited Mexico at a very early date. The 

 similarity shown by the helmets and cloaks of Hawaii 

 and Tibet was very striking, and the explanation 

 offered by Sir Henry Howorth was most probable. 



Mr. Ray said that he himself for some years had 

 been of the opinion that certain elements had been 

 carried into Polynesia at least from Malava, if not 

 from farther— possibly Japan. The characteristic of the 

 Polynesian was that he was very prone to imitate 

 anything which took his fancy, as,' for instance, Euro- 

 pean hats had been imitated. The Cambridge Ex- 

 pedition to the Torres Straits had found a club which 

 was clearly an imitation of a Loyaltv Islands club. 



Mr. Hocart said that in dealing w'ith the wander- 

 ings of the Polynesians too much stress had been laid 

 on drifting, but deliberate purpose should be more 

 emphasised. There was among the Polvnesians a 

 distinct passion for finding out new lands." 



Dr. Forbes adduced as evidence of early movement 

 Chinese objects which he had seen taken" from Peru- 

 vian graves which were certainly pre-Inca in date. 



Sir Everard im Thurn, in bringing the discussion 

 to a close, said that Buddhist monks might well have 

 accompanied the early voyagers in the Pacific. His 

 attention had recently been directed to the question 

 of the Hawaian helmets, and he wished to point 

 out that the native peoples of the Pacific were verv 

 fond of making head-coverings for use on ceremonial 

 occasions. They oaid great attention to the orna- 

 mental dressing of their hair, and if their hair were 

 not suitable for this purpose they made artificial hair 

 out of grass seed. "He himself had brought back 

 from Fiji an example of a native wig used in a cere- 

 monial dance, which was now in the Pitt Rivers 

 Museum at Oxford. It was probable, therefore, in 

 view of this particular tendency, that the Hawaians 

 would take readily to copying the head-dress of the 

 Buddhists. This particular form of head-dress or 

 helmet was not confined to Hawaii ; objects orna- 

 mented with men's heads wearing head-dresses like 

 those of Hawaii occurred in Hermit Island, near 

 New Ireland. 



W 



Astronomy at Oxford during the War. 



E have recently received from Prof. H. H. 

 Turner, of the Oxford University Observatory, 

 a collection of papers published during the years 

 1914-19. These for the most part are reprints from 

 the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, and represent researches carried out during 

 this period by Prof. Turner and various members of 

 his staff, including several volunteer workers who 

 have rendered some valuable assistance. It is, of 

 course, impossible adequately to discuss a miscel- 

 laneous collection of papers such as this in any detail, 

 but there are several outstanding features of interest 

 w^hich call for special remark. 



In the 1irst place, a considerable number of the 

 papers is devoted to an important research of Prof. 

 Turner's on "A Proposal for the Comparison of the 

 Stellar Magnitude Scales of the Different Observa- 

 tories taking Part in the Astrographic Catalogue." 

 This was first outlined at Paris in 1909, the proposal 

 being: "That the number of images recorded under 

 each unit of the magnitude scale be counted and 

 tabulated." The chief objects in view were to detect 

 systematic errors of scale at the various collaborating 

 observatories, and to test Prof. Kapteyn's con- 

 clusion that the Galaxy is relatively richer in faint 



