March 31, 1910] 



NA TURE 



^2>7 



Europe. The English Waits fall into the same class. 

 The French Dimanche des Brandons is connected by its 

 fire rites with the ancient Pagan ceremonies at the vernal 

 equinox. The paper is remarkable for a very elaborate 

 collection of references to English and Continental folk- 

 lore. 



Infantilism and idiocy, and gigantism and idiocy, are 

 the subjects of two papers by Dr. A. Marie in the Bulletins 

 et Mdmoires de la Soc. Anth. de Paris (5th S^r.), x., pp. 

 10 1, 113. He gives a classification of the various forms 

 of dwarfing (nanism and infantilism). He believes that 

 the nanism of the degenerate is nothing else than the per- 

 manence of an infantile stage through which all normal 

 persons pass. One may consider the unprofitable age 

 (I'&ge ingrat) of transition between infancy and the final 

 sprouting of growth at puberty as a kind of transitory 

 normal acromegaly. Gigantism is only the acromegaly of 

 infancy, the unprofitable age prolonged. Giants as well as 

 dwarfs occur in families of degenerates. 



The Touareg, who have been exhibited at Paris, have 

 been investigated by Dr. Atgier (Bull, et Mim. de la Soc. 

 Anth. de Paris, 5th S^r., p. 222). The individuals studied 

 were extremely limited in number, and necessarily belonged 

 to the servile classes, as the upper-class Touareg would be 

 too proud to exhibit themselves ; consequently they represent 

 a mixed group. On this slender foundation the following 

 results have been arrived at. Excluding the Semitic 

 element (Arabs, Jews, &c.) and the negro element (which 

 is evident in those investigated), one finds the same ethnic 

 groups as those which have peopled Europe — Indo- 

 Europeans or Ar>-as — that is to say, blonds, brown brachy- 

 cephals, and brown dolichocephals. Thus the expression 

 " Berber " does not denote a race or variety of the human 

 race, but a conventional term simply signifying those 

 peoples of North Africa who are neither Semitic nor 

 Negroid. According to Dr. Atgier, North Africa, like 

 Europe, has Iberian, Celtic, Basque, and Kymric types, to 

 which the term Aryas of Africa may be applied. 



We have received from the publishers (Bowes and 

 Bowes, Cambridge) a copy of a lecture recently delivered 

 by Mr. W. C. D. W'hetham, F.R.S., in Trinity College, 

 entitled " Eugenics and Unemploj'ment." From his book 

 on "The Family and the Nation," the lecturer cites 

 evidence " that, with a few exceptions, the successful 

 families in all classes are voluntarily restricting the 

 number of their children, that their birth-rate has halved 

 since 1876, and that the average number of children to 

 the fertile marriage is now about three. About four 

 children to the fertile marriage is the least number that 

 will maintain a population wnchanged. . . . But the popu- 

 lation of the country as a whole is still expanding. Hence 

 it follows that the unsuccessful families must still be 

 multiplying rapidly. . . . We ... are breeding fastest 

 from our less efficient or definitely diseased strains." 

 Having reached this conclusion, the lecturer begs his 

 audience to dismiss any preconceptions and prejudices they 

 may have as to pauperism and unemployment, and to look 

 with him at the facts. He shows a curve based on the 

 annual percentage of the unemployed members of trade 

 unions, but points out that it "is roughly coincident with 

 the cycles of good and bad trade," and "bears very little 

 relation to the curve of general pauperism " or to " the 

 total amount of distress in the country." He shows next 

 how the curve based on the average number of paupers 

 relieved per 1000 of the English and Welsh population has 

 been declining " with natural fluctuations " from 1851 

 onwards. Since 1900 " there has been a slight increase, 

 NO. 2109, VOL. 83] 



so slight that it is difficult to be sure that it is more than' 

 a temporary fluctuation on a curve which shows yearly 

 changes." Despite this warning, Mr. Whetham subse- 

 quently suggests that " our failure to go on diminishing 

 pauperism of late years may be due to a slight lowering 

 of the average character and efficiency value of our 

 population," arising from an artificial reduction of birth- 

 rate among " the thrifty, the prudent and the far-seeing, 

 quite as much as by the selfish and pleasure-loving." 



Evidence is steadily accumulating to show that most of 

 the forest mammals formerly supposed to be restricted to 

 the west coast of Africa extend eastwards into Uganda. 

 The latest instance of this is afforded by the lemuroid 

 pottos, of which Mr. O. Thomas described an East African 

 species of the genus Perodicticus at a recent meeting of 

 the Zoological Society. Sir H. H. Johnston had long since 

 announced the existence of a Uganda potto, but no speci- 

 men was forthcoming. 



In No. 4 of the first volume of the Queensland Naturalist 

 Mr. G. F. Bennett relates some of his early experiences 

 in hunting and observing monotremes. On one occasion, 

 after digging out the burrow for a distance of about 

 20 feet, he came upon a nest containing two young duck- 

 bills, probably about a month old, each rolled up into a 

 ball with the tail lying flat on the beak. In other instances 

 the tail covered the head, and the beak rested on the 

 stomach. All young ones of about a month old are plump 

 with a greyish, bare skin. 



At the close of an article on the courtship of spiders, 

 contributed by Prof. T. H. Montgomery, jun., to the March 

 number of the American Naturalist, it is argued that Dr. 

 Wallace's theory that the generally less conspicuous colour 

 of female birds (as compared with their partners) is due 

 to their need for greater protection will hold good also 

 in the case of the Arachnida. " For the males do not 

 develop their ornamentation until maturity, and they have 

 much less need of protection than the females because 

 they live usually not much longer than a few weeks after 

 maturing, and take no part in the care of the young. The 

 males have fulfilled their main function after impregnating 

 the females, and they are of no use to the species there- 

 after. But the females live at least several months after 

 maturing, in some cases several years, and they have the 

 whole charge of the eggs and young." 



The March number of Naturen opens with an obituary, 

 illustrated by a portrait, of Hans Christian Printz, 

 Norway's oldest savant, who was born on April 13, 1817, 

 and died, from an attack of influenza, on January 15 of 

 this year in the ninety-third year of his age. On com- 

 pleting his education. Prof. Printz devoted much of his 

 time to botany, and in 1864 made an important collecting 

 tour ; but about 1870 his attention was largely directed to 

 meteorology, to which science he devoted much of his 

 time in subsequent years. In addition to this, he was an 

 enthusiastic egg-collector, and at one time possessed 

 between 4000 and 5000 specimens, mainly, it would appear, 

 Scandinavian, among which his greatest treasure was an 

 egg of Garrulus infaustus. About 1871 this collection was 

 acquired by the Bergen Museum. 



The nature and arrangement of the bony armour of the 

 dinosaur Stegosaurus are discussed by Dr. R, S. Lull in 

 the March issue of the American Journal of Science. In 

 the specimen restored by Marsh a number of small ossicles 

 were found adhering to the under surface of the lower jaw, 

 and these, in the opinion of Dr. Lull, not only formed a 

 gular shield, but also extended over a considerable part 



