June 14, 1917] 



NATURE 



0^v> 



facturers is assured. The selection and training of 

 the staffs are to be left to the committee already men- 

 tioned. The laboratories will apparently be estab- 

 lished at the technical colleges, and will be devoted 

 especially to physical and ^chemical research. The 

 need for such laboratories is pressing, the committee 

 being firmly convinced that " their efficiency will also 

 depend on the rapidity with which the plan is put into 

 execution, as Italy has every need to have available 

 as soon after the war as possible all the scientific, 

 technical, and industrial resources she can muster 

 with the view of increasing production in the most 

 favourable economic conditions and of improving the 

 quality of her products." The scheme for the creation 

 of the laboratories has formed the subject of a special 

 memorandum, which is not reproduced in the journal 

 mentioned above. 



In Memoir No. 91 of the Canadian Department of 

 Mines Mr. E. \V. Hawkes publishes an exhaustive 

 monograph on the Labrador Eskimo. The author had 

 already lived three years among the tribe in Alaska, 

 and his previous knowledge of the race was useful, 

 because the ethnological divisions of the Eskimo are 

 geographical rather than cultural. The most interest- 

 ing point in the inquiry is the proof that these were 

 the people known as the Skraelings mentioned in the 

 Saga of Eric the Red, who describes how the Vikings 

 "saw a greit number of skin canoes, and staves 

 were brandished from their boats with a noise like 

 flails, and the}' were revolved in the same direction 

 in which the sun moves." This is obviously an 

 attempt of the Norse singer to describe the Eskimo 

 kayaks or skin boats. The noise of the double-bladed 

 paddles might well be likened to that of flails. • Else- 

 where the bard speaks of the Skraeling boats 

 approaching from the south, when ''all their staves 

 waved in a direction contrary to that of the sun." 

 This is explained by the fact that in the former case 

 the boats were coming from the north, in the second 

 from the south, when the apparent motion of the 

 paddles would necessarily be reversed. The mono- 

 graph is a valuable addition to the accounts of the 

 Eskimo by E. W. Nelson in the eighteenth annual 

 report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and by 

 F. Boas in the sixth annual report in the same series. 



The April number of the Journal of the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society (No. 237) contains an article by Drs. 

 Drew and Griffin on the parasitology of pyorrhoea 

 alveolaris. At least six species of spirochaetes, to- 

 gether with numbers of bacteria, were detected. Two 

 species of amoebae also seem invariably to be present, 

 and their life-cycles were worked out. The authors 

 suggest that mechanical injury seems to play an im- 

 portant part in initiating the condition ; once the in- 

 jury has occurred, the spirochaetes probably play the 

 chief part in the disease, causing tissue destruction 

 and the formation of pockets, which then become 

 infected by bacteria. The paper is illustrated with 

 four plates. Two interesting letters written in 1877 

 by Prof. Abbe to the English microscopist, John 

 Ware Stephenson, relating to the design and produc- 

 tion of the first homogeneous immersion microscope 

 objectives, are communicated by Mr. Cheshire to this 

 number. 



In the Psychological Review (vol. xxiv., No. 3) Mr. 

 Daniel Starch gives the results of his experiments on 

 the similarity of brothers and sisters in mental traits. 

 He wished to find out to what extent children of the 

 same parents are alike in mental characteristics, and 

 to determine whether the similarity, if any, was 

 greater in those mental traits which are directly 

 affected by training in school work than it is in those 



NO. 2485, VOL. 99] 



traits which are not so directly affected. He therefore 

 chose tests of both types, e.g. speed and comprehen- 

 sion of reading ability, size of vocabulary, speed and 

 quality of hand-writing, and ability in spelling for one 

 group, and tests of perception, memory, and motor 

 capacity for the other. He found that the resemblance 

 of such children is approximately as great in mental 

 traits as in physical, as found by Prof. Karl Pearson, 

 and that the resemblance was greater in those tests 

 which were less affected by school work. The article 

 seems to corroborate the view that the mental make- 

 up of human beings is as much a matter of heredity as 

 their physical make-up, and that environment plays a 

 relatively small part in producing the resemblance of 

 closely related individuals. 



An important memoir on the baboons of Celebes, 

 by Dr. J. Buttikofer, forms part i. of vol. iii. of 

 Zoologische Mededeelingen. Of these animals the 

 author recognises eight species, which he relegates to 

 the genus Cynopithecus, dividing them into two groups, 

 mainly on cranial characters. Specific characters are 

 based on the general coloration and the shape and 

 coloration of the gluteal callosities. The very complete 

 survey of the literature of this theme, and the numer- 

 ous coloured plates and text-figures, make this a most 

 welcome contribution. 



Mr. Eric B. Dunlop, in British Birds for May, 

 records some remarkable instances of polygamy among 

 rooks. In one case he describes two females sharing 

 one nest, incubati'ng side by side in perfect harmony. 

 Both sitting birds were fed in turn by one male, who 

 was welcomed on his approach with food by much 

 wing-shaking, after the fashion of young birds. Later, 

 when the young appeared, this dutiful husband fed 

 both his wives and the youngsters. The writer re- 

 cords two other cases of a like kind. But in these 

 each female had a separate nest. In the same issue 

 Mr. H. F. Witherby gives a further instalment of his 

 valuable notes on moulting. He deals now with the 

 flycatchers and the warblers, giving a very complete 

 history, probably the most complete yet written, of 

 this very interesting^ and important phase in their life- 

 histor\% which has hitherto been strangely neglected. 

 As might be supposed, a number of new facts are 

 now placed on record. 



Prof. C. Chilton has examined some terrestrial 

 Isopoda from the shore of the Chilka Lake, and his 

 report upon them appears in the Memoirs of the 

 Indian Museum (vol. v.). The name Isopoda, implying 

 resemblance throughout the sevenfold series of legs, 

 suited many, though far from all, of the groups tO' 

 which Latreille applied it a centurv- ago. It fits the 

 terrestrial and semi-terrestrial, or " maritime," genera. 

 Belonging to the latter set is a species described in 

 1828, the Ligia exotica, Roux, which, in its vast dis- 

 tribution, has not neglected Lake Chilka. " On 

 Barkula I. it is enormously abundant. Though indi- 

 viduals may be found running on the shore at all 

 times of the day and night, even on rocks heated by 

 the midday sun, the species is most active in the morn- 

 ing and evening. It may then be seen in great 

 droves, numbering sometimes hundreds of individuals, 

 all of which move in the same direction." Though 

 usually avoiding water, whether fresh or brackish, a 

 drove meeting a pool will not hesitate to swim across 

 it. Of this species Prof. Chilton says :— " Though it 

 is so common and has been known for manv vears, it 

 has received only scanty attention at tlie hands of 

 those who have recorded it, most observers having 

 merely mentioned its occurrence without adding to 

 previous descriptions." No such reproach will be likelv 

 to assail the detailed account and illustrations which 



