374 



NA TURE 



[February i6, 1893 



ethnography of Borneo. The first and last of these papers are 

 admirably illustrated. A valuable paper on the Ainos, by David 

 MacRitchie, of Edinburgh, has been published as a supplement 

 to the fourth volume of the Archiv. This paper is accompanied 

 by, and contains full descriptions of, a series of coloured repro- 

 ductions of most interesting pictures of Aino life by Japanese 

 artists, who have naturally a keener perception of the character- 

 istics of their savage neighbours than can be attained by Western 

 visitors. Mr. MacRitchie seeks to show that the Ainos display 

 "unmistakable traces of a near descent, by at least one line 

 of their ancestry, from the most crude form of humanity." 



Messrs. Samson and Wallin, StoQkholm, are about to 

 issue what promises to be an important and interesting work, by 

 F. R. Martin, on the Siberian Antiquities of the Bronze Age, 

 preserved in the museum of Minousinsk. Nearly 900 objects 

 in copper and bronze will be represented in the plates, which, 

 according to the prospectus, are being prepared with the greatest 

 care. The antiquities of which these objects are selected 

 specimens were collected in 1874 by M. Nicolai Martianow 

 from mounds in the steppes of the Upper Yenisei. They are 

 the finest provincial collection in the Russian Empire, and M. 

 Martin found much to interest him in classifying and photo- 

 graphing them. The present volume will be the first of a series 

 of works on the ethnography and archaeology of Western 

 Siberia by the same writer. 



The third volume of " A Journal of American Ethnology and 

 Archaeology," edited by J. Walter Fewkes, has been issued. It 

 contains an interesting " outline of the documentary history of 

 the Zuni tribe," by A. F. Bandelier, and " somatological 

 observations on Indians of the south-west," by Dr. H. F. C. 

 Ten Kate. It is worth while to note that in Dr. Ten Kate's 

 opinion the study of physical anthropology among the North 

 American Indians does not tend to demonstrate that their types 

 are exclusively American. It rather shows, he thinks, that they 

 present only the characteristics of "the Mongolian or so-called 

 yellow races." " I do not mean," he says, "that the American 

 aborigines are Mongolians in the strict sense of the word, or that 

 America has been populated from Asia. Where the Indians 

 came from I do not know, but my position is as follows : — The 

 American race is, somatologically speaking, not a type, but has 

 characteristics which can only be called Mongoloid." 



Probably no living sportsman has shot more big game in 

 South Africa than Mr. F. C. Selous, who for years was more at 

 home in a waggon or a tent somewhere in the far countries of 

 Africanderland than in the towns and settlements of the Cape 

 Colony or the Transvaal. He has nearly completed an account 

 of eleven years' sport and travel, which will be shortly published 

 by Messrs. Rowland, Ward and Co., of Piccadilly. It will be 

 fully illustrated, and will include a variety of general informa- 

 tion on subjects of interest in connection with the latest develop- 

 ments of South African exploration. 



Mr. Elliot Stock has published the third volume of " The 

 Field Club," a magazine of general natural history for scien- 

 tific and unscientific readers, edited by the Rev. Theodore 

 Wood. The volume contains many articles which are well fitted 

 to awaken interest in various aspects of natural science. 



We referred lately to Dr. D. G. Brinton's opinion as to the 

 relation between nervous diseases and civilisation. As his view 

 has been called in question by Dr. Rockwell, he returns to the 

 subject in Science, supporting his own conclusions by a reference 

 to a paper contributed by Dr. I. C. Rosse, professor of nervous 

 diseases at the Georgia Medical College, to the Journal of 

 Nervous and Mental Disease for July, 1891. In this paper Dr 

 Rosse cites many authorities to prove that there i? as much 

 nervous disease at low as at higher stages of civilisation, and 

 NO. I 2 16, VOL. 47] 



perhaps more. In the district of Columbia, for example, the 

 decedents among the coloured people from nervous diseases 

 often exceed those of the white population by thirty-three per 

 cent. Dr. Rosse is inclined to believe that a sudden change in 

 the social habits and condition of any race, at any stage of ad- 

 vancement, will result in a prompt development of neurotic 

 disease. A high civilisation, which is stable, excites such a con- 

 dition less than instability in lower grades. 



At the meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria in 

 November a paper presenting a list of species of Victorian 

 butterflies was communicated. It had been prepared by 

 Messrs. F. Spry and Ernest Anderson, and embodied the 

 results of work carried on during many years. The Victorian 

 Naturalist says the paper was " received with great satisfaction, 

 and will prove of extreme value to the Victorian lepidopterist." 



Mr. H, L. Clark records in Science what he calls " a bit of 

 satisfactory evidence " as to the rate of speed in the flight of 

 certain birds. He thinks that this is often greatly exaggerated. 

 He was travelling lately on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, up 

 the valley of the Potomac, when he saw a great many wild ducks, 

 which are admitted to be among the strongest flyers in America. 

 It so happened that, on rounding a sharp curve, the train flushed 

 a pair of buffle-heads, which started up stream at full speed. On 

 watching them he found that, instead of their leaving the train 

 behind, the train was actually beating them, and he is confident 

 that their rate of speed was not equal to that of the train. " We 

 kept alongside of them," he says, " for nearly a minute before 

 they turned back down-stream. Careful calculation showed that 

 the train was running at about thirty- seven miles per hour, so- 

 that the rate of speed for those wild ducks would be about 

 thirty-six. I hope that others may have some evidence on this 

 question of speed in flight which will throw more light on the 

 subject." 



An interesting illustration of the tendency of inorganic matter 

 to simulate the forms seen in organic is afforded by some speci- 

 mens of haematite from a mine in Lake Superior district. It is 

 described in the American Geologist as a fibrous red 

 hsematite, compact and tough-looking, and the radiating fila- 

 ments or fibres towards their summits are seen to spread out like 

 some frondescent vegetable growths. It would seem that in, 

 process of increase these fibres, starting from different but 

 slightly distant points, and having a tendency to expand, soon 

 began to interfere with one another. The line of contact, 

 which became a plane as growth continued, is marked by a 

 more or less distinct plane of separation. This frondescent 

 haematite, in addition, is pierced by a number of peculiar chan- 

 nels which seem to date from the time of development of the 

 crystals. It is noticed that these run, in general, perpendicular 

 to the fibrous structure, and lie in or across the planes of contact 

 of two oppositely spreading frondescent growths. These appear 

 to mark in the first instance the vacancies left by the first con- 

 tacts of overarching growths from opposite directions. These 

 branches then interfered with the free circulation of air, and 

 interrupted and permanently stopped the development of these 

 fibres beneath the overspreading canopy. 



It was shown by Ferraris some time ago (and the fact was of 

 great practical importance) that by means of two simple alter- 

 nating currents acting in fixed spirals, a rotating magnetic field 

 could be produced, which by inductive action set in rotation a 

 copper cylinder or other conducting body brought into the field. 

 Also an iron cyclinder, cut through so that the Foucault induc- 

 tion currents could not be formed, was rotated by virtue of so- 

 called magnetic hysteresis. Further studies in this direction 

 have been made by Signor Arno, using electric instead of 

 magnetic forces, and a dielectric body instead of a magnetic. 



