June 7, 1917] 



NATURE 



291 



_young people in all — marched past the monument of 

 the savant and patriot." 



The importance of ethnobotany, a new field of re- 

 search which, if investigated systematically, will yield 

 results of great value both to the ethnologist and the 

 ^tanist, is now fully recognised, particularly in 

 America. The questions with which the ethno- 

 botanist deals are : the primitive ideas and concep- 

 tions of plant life ; the effects of a given plant en- 

 vironment on the lives, customs, religion, thoughts, 

 and everyday practical affairs of the people studied ; 

 the use of plants for economic, magical, or cere- 

 monial purposes ; how far their knowledge of plant 

 life extends ; the study of plant names as a branch of 

 the local folklore. The methods and results to be 

 gained from this field of investigation are fully ex- 

 plained in Bulletin No. 5;^^ of the American Bureaij of 

 Ethnology, entitled "Ethnobotany of the Tewa In- 

 dians," by Messrs. W. W. Robbins and J. P. Harring- 

 ton and Miss Barbara Freire-Marreco, which supplies 

 a useful introduction to this new field of research. 



The Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, second series, vol. xvi., part iii., is devoted 

 to a report, printed in a style which few societies in 

 this country can rival, compiled by Mr. C. B. Moore, 

 on some aboriginal sites on Green River, Kentucky, 

 and on the Ohio and Mississippi. Some of these 

 implements supplied curious objects made of deer's 

 antlers, hooked at one end, and having a cavity in the 

 other, in which fragments of asphalt were found, 

 apparently intended to fix something introduced into 

 the cavity. There is some doubt as to the object for 

 which these articles were intended. Possibly the 

 hooked implements were used as netting needles, while 

 others of a different form were "sizers," used for 

 spacing the meshes of the nets. The cavity may have 

 held some decorative object. The full collection of 

 photographs appended to this report will doubtless soon 

 lead to a final settlement of the use of these imple- 

 ments. 



Abslracts of Bacteriology is the title of a new 

 publication issued bi-monthly under the editorial direc- 

 tion of the Society of American Bacteriologists, the 

 first number appearing in February. The purpose is, 

 as the name implies, to review current literature on 

 bacteriology in all its various branches, and a journal 

 of this kind will be very welcome now that German 

 periodicals of a similar character are difficult to ob- 

 tain and are tabooed by many. A list of periodicals 

 to be reviewed is given, and comprises some 650 titles. 

 We predict a cordial reception for this new aid to 

 bacteriological research. The British publisher is the 

 Cambridge Universitv Press, Fetter Lane. London, 

 E.C.4. 



We have received a copy of the May issue of the 

 Veterinary Review (vol. i.. No. 2), a new 

 periodical devoted to veterinary science and prac- 

 tice. It contains a review of the present state 

 of knowledge of specific polyarthritis, an infec- 

 tive disease of the joints attacking foals. The 

 remainder of the issue is devoted to abstracts of pub- 

 lications, which seem to be well chosen and will be 

 very useful, and to notes on books and a bibliography 

 of veterinar\' publications (thirty-four pages). The 

 Veterinary Review, which is edited by Dr. Charnock 

 Bradley, is published quarterly by Messrs. W. Green 

 and Son, Edinburgh, at an "annual subscription of 

 105. 6d. 



Though much has been written on the fur-seal of 

 the Pribilof Islands, Prof. G. H. Parker, in the Scien. 



NO. 2484, VOL. 99] 



tific Monthly for May, has contrived, in a most admir- 

 able summary of the life-history of this animal, to add 

 many new and important facts. Not only from the com- 

 mercial, but also from the zoologist's point of view, it 

 is fortunate that the largest existing herd of fur-seals 

 is that which breeds on the Pribilof Islands, for these 

 now belong to the United States, which came into 

 possession of the islands with the purchase of Alaska 

 from Russia in 1867. When in 1910 the lease to the 

 North. American Commercial Company expired, the 

 Government abandoned the leasing system and took 

 over the management of the herd to avert, if possible, 

 the steady decline in its numbers. This decline 

 was due, not to the regular killing on land, but 

 to pelagic sealing resulting in the slaughter of from 

 6j to 80 per cent, of females, the pups of which, as a 

 consequence, were left to starve. To save the herd 

 pelagic sealing was forbidden, and later all killing on 

 the islands was banned, except of such animals as were 

 needed to furnish food for the natives until the end of 

 the 1917 season. This, Prof. Parker considers, was a 

 mistake, since it has encouraged the undue increase 

 of " bachelors," which disturb the harems of the breeding 

 bulls. These " bachelors," he contends, should be thinned 

 by taking toll of three-year-old males, the skins being 

 then at their prime. The average life of the fur-seal 

 appears to be from twelve to fourteen years. But 

 while the bulls do not begin to breed until they are six 

 or seven years old, the females are sexually active for 

 almost twice that period. Hence the advisability of 

 reducing the number of "bachelors." 



The "Book of the Madras Exhibition, 1915-16," 

 contains a report of a lecture by Mr. Jas. Hornell 

 dealing, among other things, with the question of 

 pearl culture in Indian seas. The author believes that 

 a great natural pearl fishery must always be a rare 

 and fortuitous occurrence. There will always be series 

 of bad seasons, and now and then a successful one. 

 The natural factors which produce these good and bad 

 seasons are go powerful that man's interference seems 

 to be unavailing, and further expenditure of money 

 is regarded as useless. There are, however, very en- 

 couraging results with respect to the artificial culture 

 of true pearls, and the production of induced pearls 

 is already a growing industry in Japan. Small 

 spherules of mother-of-pearl are carefully inserted be- 

 tween the mantle lobe and shell of the mother mollusc, 

 and after a period of about two years a marketable 

 pearl has been formed. This is, at best, only a three- 

 quarter pearl, and the imperfect side must be completed 

 by cementing on a convex flake of mother-of-pearl. 

 Therefore the gem cannot be used as a unit for 

 stringing, but it can be utilised wherever there is 

 intricate mounting of some kind. Mr. Hornell refers 

 to a process of his own whereby true pearls, abso- 

 lutely flawless andspnerical, can be produced. So far 

 he has obtained f>earls of microscopic size only, but 

 this is due to the limited time of growth in the con- 

 ditions of his experiments. Indian waters, he points 

 out, are more suitable for such processes than Japanese 

 waters, for in the former there is no winter pause of 

 growth. 



In the Journal of Agricultural Research (vol. vii.. 

 No. 7) A. C. Baker and W. F. Turner give a full 

 accqunt of the rosy apple aphis {A. malifoliae or A. 

 sorbi) in which some new facts of importance may be 

 found. The authors confirm previous statements that 

 plantain is the alternate host of the insect. Another 

 common British aprfiid, Macrosiphum granarium, is 

 described, with excellent figures, by W. J. Phillip* in 

 No, II of the same vo'ume. This latter number .con- 

 tains also an account of Syntomaspis druparum, a 



