August 12, 1920] 



NATURE 



755 



l.-ickson (chairman), Comdr. J. S. C. Salmond (repre- 

 ■ nting the Admiralty), Lt.-Col. A. G. T. Cusins 

 1 epresenting the War Office), Wing Comdr. A. D. 

 Warrington Morris (representing the Air Ministry), 

 Mr. E. H. Shaughnessy (representing the General Post 

 Office), Sir J. E. Petavel (presenting the National 

 I'hysical Laboratory), Sir Ernest Rutherford, and 

 Prof. J. S. E. Townsend. Sub-Committee A on the 

 I'ropagation of Wireless Waves: Dr. E. H. Rayner 

 ((hairman). Prof. ¥.. H. Barton, Major J. R. Erskine- 

 Murray, Prof. H. M. MacDonald, and Prof. J, W. 

 Nicholson. Sub -Committee B on Atmospherics: Col. 

 II. G. Lyons (chairman), Mr. A. A. Campbell Swin- 

 ton, Prof. .S. Chapman, Major H. P. T. Lefroy, Mr. 

 (.. L. Taylor, Mr. R. A. Watson Watt, and Mr. 

 r. T. R. Wilson. Sub-Committee C on Directional 

 Wireless: Mr. F. E. Smith (chairman), Mr. M. P. 

 Hinton, Capt. C. T. Hughes, and Capt. J. Robinson. 

 Sub-Comnu.ttee D on Thermionic Valves : Prof. 

 O. W. Richardson (chairman), Mr. E. V. Appleton, 

 Capt. S. Brydon, Capt. H. L. Crowther, Prof. C. L. 

 Fortescue, Mr. B. Hodgson, Prof. F. Horton, Major 

 A. G. Lee, Mr. H. Morris Airey, Mr. R. L. Smith- 

 Rose, and Prof. R. Whiddington. 



The following appointments have been made in 

 < onnection with the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London : — Dr. F. Parkes Weber, Mitchell lecturer, 

 1921; Dr. G. Graham, Goulstonian lecturer, 192 1 ; 

 Dr. T. Lewis, Oliver Sharpey lecturer, 192 1; Dr. A. 

 Whitfield, Lumleian lecturer, 192 1 ; Dr. R. O. Moon, 

 I'itzPatrick lecturer, 192 1 ; and Dr. G. M. Holmes, 

 <"roonian lecturer, 1922. 



It was resolved in the House of Commons on 

 -\ugust 9 to provide a sum not exceeding ioo,oooi. 

 iis a guarantee against loss resulting from the 

 holding of a British Empire Exhibition in London 

 jiext year. The grant is conditional on the provision 

 ■of a further sum of 500,000/. by the promoters of the 

 enterprise. 



We learn from the tritish Medical Journal that the 

 second International Congress of Comparative Patho- 

 logy will be held at Rome in the spring of 1921 under 

 the presidency of Prof. Perroncito. Communications 

 should be sent to the secretary, Prof. Mario Tevi 

 Delia Vidg, Via Palermo 58, Roma. 



With the view of popularising scientific knowledge 

 in Spain, a weekly periodical bearing the title of 

 Ibdrica has recently made its appearance. The 

 journal contains current notes on scientific matters 

 in Spain and Latin-.\merica, general notes, and 

 abstracts of important foreign scientific papers written 

 in a manner that will appeal to the popular reader 

 of average education. Each number also includes a 

 monograph or an instalment of a monograph on 

 some popular scientific subject written by a leading 

 authority. The contents conclude with a bibliography 

 of current scientific literature and meteorological 

 information. The weekly is published by the Observa- 

 lorio del Ebro, Tortosa. 



We are glad to see that the British Museum 



authorities have begun to issue additions, naturallv 



under present conditions of publication in a less 



NO. 2650, VOL. 105] 



attractive form, to the valuable series of Handbooks, 

 such as those provided before the war for the 

 Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Ethnographic 

 Galleries. The latest is an account by Sir 

 E. A. Wallis Budge of the Egyptian "Book of the 

 Dead." This is a vague title now commonly given 

 to the first collection of funerary texts which the 

 ancient Egyptian scribes composed for the benefit of 

 the dead, consisting of spells and incantations, hymns 

 and litanies, magical formulae and names, words of 

 power and prayers, which are found cut or painted on 

 the walls of pyramids and tombs, and engraved on 

 coffins, sarcophagi, and rolls of papyrus. The 

 pamphlet, which is well supplied with illustrations, 

 provides for the use of students and visitors to the 

 galleries an admirable introduction to the study of 

 the death rites an^ theories of the soul current among 

 the ancient Egyptians. 



Under the title of "The Medical History of Ishi," 

 by Mr. Saxton T. Pope, the University of California 

 has published in its American Archaeological and 

 Ethnological Series a remarkable study of human 

 pathology. The subject of the monograph, Ishi, was 

 the last Yahi Indian, who was brought to the Uni- 

 versity Hospital after his capture in 191 1, and died 

 from tuberculosis in igi6. "We see him first as the 

 gaunt, hunted wild man, his hair burnt short, his 

 body lean and sinewy, but his legs strong and capable « 

 of great endurance. He suggests the coyote in this 

 character." At first civilisation agreed with him, but 

 then came a gradual change. "His energy waned. 

 He no longer was keen to shoot at targets with a 

 bow. His skin became darker." Then he contracted 

 another cold and his malady increased. This mono- 

 graph is supplied with full statistics of his case and 

 excellent photographs and illustrations— most valuable 

 for the study of the life-history of a Californian 

 Indian, the last of his race. 



A REMARKABLE stone bowl now deposited in the 

 Museo Arqueologico, Madrid, is described in the July 

 issue of Man\ by Mr. B. Glanvill Corney. It was 

 obtained in 1775 at Tahiti by Mdximo Rodriguez, a 

 Creole of Lima, and it was brought to that citv in a 

 Spanish ship-of-war, being finally sent to Spain in 

 1788. It is made of the hard, compact, black stone 

 of which adze-blades and pestles for crushing taro and 

 bread-fruit of the Society Islands were formed, and 

 which was quarried only in the remote island called 

 Maurua. It is not quite certain for what purpose 

 this bowl was used. The local chiefs believe it to 

 have been a sacred potion bowl, in which herbal 

 draughts were prepared by trituration and infusion 

 by the medico-sacerdotal functionaries. Others sup- 

 pose that the function of the bowl was to receive 

 viscera of victims sacrificed, and possibly it was used 

 for some form of augury by inspection of the entrails 

 of sacrificial victims. The bowl thus suggests 

 interesting problems which, it may be hoped, further 

 research will enable us to solve. 



The Medical Record for March 27 contains an 

 interesting paper by Dr. C. B. Davenport on the 

 influence of the male on the production of twins. 

 It is well known that twins mav be biovulate or 



