May 15, 1919] 



NATURE 



2JI 



Hitherto folk-lore has been defined as 'the study of 

 survivals, a palaeontology of human culture," whereas 

 the new philosophy treats it, " not as so much dead 

 matter, but as the outcome of an organic process, 

 namely, of an existing or recently existing folk-life." 

 Despite the vast mass of detailed evidence that lies 

 ready to hand, there has never been attempted a com- 

 prehensive description of the mental life of the folk 

 at our doors, much less a general analysis that makes 

 out how and why it is so markedly gregarious in its 

 distinctive manifestations. In other words, tradition 

 must be treated as the live expression of the collective 

 consciousness. And in considering the material we 

 must make due allowance for the fact that lack of 

 meaning may or may not imply loss of meaning. This 

 important paper deserves the attention of all students 

 of popul.ai: beliefs. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney's "Ornithological Notes from 

 Norfolk for 1918," in British Birds for April, make 

 good reading, for, among other things, he tells us 

 that there is good reason to believe that as many as 

 six pairs of bitterns bred in Norfolk during the spring 

 and summer of 1918. At least five out of these six 

 w-ere reared successfully. The great crested grebe, the 

 gadwall, the shoveller^ and the bearded tit are also 

 on the increase as the result of the jealous protection 

 now extended over the area of the Broads district. 



We have received the report of the Director-G^eneral 



of Public Health, New South Wales, for the year 



onded December 31, 1916. It contains a mass of 



statistical and other matter concerning the health of 



h.- State. It is of interest that the minimal legal 



mdard adopted for the fat in milk is 32 per cent., 



IS being only 3 per cent. As regards research 



rk, a record has been kept of the number and 



isonal prevalence of fleas on rats, and an extended 



\ pstigation has been carried out on dengue fever in 



Australia — its transmission by certain mosquitoes, the 



Di.sence of a filterable virus in the disease, and 



uI)servations on immunity, length of the incubation 



period, and other clinical features. 



The land planarians of Ceylon have been the sub- 



i-rt of considerable attention, but those of India have 



Iiitherto been almost entirely neglected, so that records 



of the latter are rare, incomplete, and uncertain. 



Prof. R. H. Whitehouse has published (Records 



Indian Museum, vol. xvi., part i, January, 1919) a 



-^tematic account of Indian land planarians based 



specimens in the Indian Museum. Of the 



■ \enteen species recorded in this paper, ten (five 



1( scribed as new) belong to the well-known genus 



Mipalium, five (four new) to Pelmatoplana, and one 



each of the genera Dolichoplana and Cotyloplana. 



Dr. a. G. Mayor's report on the Department of 

 Marine Biolog.y of the Carnegie Institution of 

 AVashington for the year 1916, which has only 

 ; >'cently reached us, contains a record of much work 

 of interest to marine biologists. During a month's 

 -tay on the Island of Tobago Dr. Th. Mortensen was 

 ibU^ to study the larval development of ten West 

 Indian Echinoderms, the larvae in several cases being 

 vared through the metamorphosis. The physical 

 ndltions at Tobago are described as being unusually 

 '>d for work of this character. Dr. H. Lyman 

 ■ lark also describes the location of the Tobago labora- 

 rnry as being an ideal one for Echinoderm studies. 

 Mr. L. R, Carv gives an account of his studies, on 

 the physiology of the nervous system of Cassiopea, 

 and Dr. A. J. Goldfarb describes experiments on the 

 ageing and death of germ-cells, the eggs and sperm 



NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 



of the sea-urchin, Toxopneustes variegatus, having 

 been used for the experiments. 



Two translations lately received from Sir Robert 

 Hadfield refer to recent developments in Germany. 

 One of these is entitled "The Union of Technical 

 Men," the inaugural meeting of which was held in 

 Berlin fourteen days after the signing of the armistice. 

 Its chief object is to ensure that technologists may 

 bring their influence to bear on the Government, Par- 

 liament, and the economic life of the country. To 

 attain this object an endeavour will be made to bring 

 representatives of all branches of technical practice^ 

 from the foreman to the technical chief, into one com- 

 prehensive organisation. More than two thousand 

 technical men attended the inaugural meeting, and 

 papers were read by Siegfried Hartmann and Engineer 

 Genest. The other document is a translation of ar» 

 address bv Herr Krupp von Bohlen on "Co-operation 

 and Proiit-sharing." In this address the lecturer 

 dealt with a number of problems relating to the co- 

 operation of workers in the undertaking and profit- 

 sharing, and intimated that many changes would have 

 to be made in the firm to keep pace with the present 

 trend of the times with a view to continued develop- 

 ment on sound lines. 



In a paper read before the Washington Academy 

 of Sciences in June, which is reproduced in the 

 Monthly Weather Review of the United States 

 Weather Bureau for October, Prof. W. S. Franklin, 

 of the Massachuse<tts Institute of Technology, directs 

 attention to a much-needed change of emphasis in 

 meteorological research. Hitherto it has mostly been 

 occupied too exclusively in averaging large col- 

 lections of observations, when a more detailed study 

 of the movements of individual storms, and the deter- 

 mination of the correlation between storms of the 

 same type on successive days, would be of much 

 greater service in weather prediction. Prof. Franklin 

 believes that such an intensive study of weather condi- 

 tions would establish the conclusion that at certain 

 critical times in the life-history of a storm the ex- 

 penditure of a very moderate amount of energy would 

 enable the subsequent movement of the storm to be 

 controlled. 



The following books of scientific interest are an- 

 nounced for publication in the near future: — "The 

 School Gardener," J. Norris (Cassell and Co., Ltd.); 

 " Psycho-Analysis and its Place in Life," M. k! 

 Bradby (Henry Frowde and Hoddea- and Stoughton); 

 " Universitatum et Eminentium Scholarum Index 

 Generalis : Annuaire G^n^ral des Universit6s (The 

 Year-book of the Universities)," Prof. R. de Montessus 

 de Ballore (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie); a transla- 

 tion, bv Teixeira de Mattos, of another volume bv 

 Fabre. to be called "The Sacred Beetle" (Hodder 

 and Stoughton); "Bird Behaviour," F. Finn, and 

 " Insect .\rtisans and their Work," E. Step, both in 

 the Nature Library (Hutchinson and Co.); "Tele- 

 phonic Transmission, Theoretical and .Applied," J. G. 

 Hill; "Currency and Credit," R. G. Hawtrev ; and a 

 new edition— the fourth— of "The Principles' of Elec- 

 tric-wave Telegraphy and Telephony," Prof. J. A. 

 Fleming (Longmans and Co.). 



The latest Catalogue (No. 178) of Messrs. W. Heffer 

 and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, possesses a sentimental 

 as well as a scientific value, seeing that it contains 

 selections from the libraries of the late Canon Merle 

 Norman and the late Sir William H. Preece. It 

 should be of especial interest and u.se to readers of 

 Nature, being devoted entirely to books relating to 

 science. Some 1300 works are listed under the 



