288 



NATURE 



[May 5, 1910 



One variety, known as Kopai balls, are made of burnt 

 gypsum reduced to powder and moulded into a kind of 

 concrete with ashes and sand. These are placed on the 

 grave, and the spirit is supposed to come out and lick 

 them, becoming in this way conciliated and friendly to 

 the survivors. Another type of stone used in their secret 

 rites is ground down into a blunt point at one end, and 

 marks are cut on the surface with a sharp stone, shell, 

 or piece of bone. The object of these markings is obscure, 

 but they certainly convey some religious or symbolical 

 meaning. 



The Peabody Museum, Harvard University, continues 

 in vol. iv., part iii., of its Proceedings for the current year 

 the studies of the Maya Codices, of which two instalments 

 have already appeared, with an attempt by Drs. Tozzer 

 and Allen to identify the conventualised animal forms 

 which appear in these remarkable documents. A detailed 

 examination shows that only a small part of the animal 

 life of the country occupied b)^ the Maya-speaking peoples 

 is represented, and while some drawings are fairlj" 

 accurate, there is much difficulty in identifying other species 

 which the artists intended to represent. Only those forms 

 of animal life ai^e depicted which possessed a mythological 

 significance or were used as offerings to the numerous 

 deities of the Pantheon. The whole scheme is thus purely 

 -eligious, and" the reproduction of this large series of 

 animal figures will throw much light on the obscure 

 religious system of this remarkable race. 



Messrs. Dulau and Co. have issued in the series of 

 "Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs" a memoir, by Mr. 

 David Heron, Galton research fellow, on the influence of 

 defective physique and unfavourable home environment on 

 the intelligence of school children. The memoir is based 

 on a limited survey of children in schools under the London 

 County Council, carried on under the direction of the 

 medical officer of the Education Committee, and the 

 characters noted include the sex, age, height, weight, and 

 condition of the teeth of the child, and, for certain schools, 

 the state of nutrition, the condition of the clothing, the 

 degree of cleanliness, the power of hearing, the condition 

 of the cervical glands and of the tonsils, and adenoids.' 

 The methods used by Mr. Heron are in several respects 

 novel and noteworthy, and the data based on the measured 

 characters are of interest ; but the memoir should serve 

 its most useful purpose in indicating the absolute necessity 

 for clear definition when qualitative characters are to be 

 noted ; the classification of the data in the present survey 

 seems in several cases, owing to variations in the personal 

 equation of the observers, to have been so unsatisfactory 

 that little confidence can be placed in the results. So far 

 as they go, these indicate but very slight correlation 

 between intelligence and the other characters observed ; 

 but this result is in conflict with that given by the investi- 

 gations of Dr. Francis Warner in 1888-91 and 1892-4, to 

 which the author does not refer. Dr. Warner's surveys 

 show a high correlation between dulness and malnutri- 

 tion, and between dulness and development defects, and 

 these conclusions seem the more probable. 



According to the report for 1909, the Rugby School 

 Natural History Society continues to maintain its record 

 for good work, some of the papers being of a high 

 character, while the illustrations of foreign Lepidoptera 

 are beyond praise. Whether the system of annually 

 making trips for the purpose of obtaining large series of 

 the local Lepidoptera, illustrative of variation, and 

 including as many varieties as can be obtained, is 

 altogether desirable, we will leave our readers to decide 

 for themselves. . . 



NO. 2 1 14, VOL. 83] 



" Records of the Western Australian Museum and 

 Art Gallery" is the title of a new scientific journal 

 started by the director of the museum at Perth, Western 

 Australia. The first number is mainly devoted to an 

 account of the so-called Mammoth Cave (a decidedly bad 

 name for Australia), on the Margaret River, and its con- 

 tained mammalian remains. Some of the latter are. de- 

 scribed by Mr. Glauert, and referred in part to existing 

 and in part to extinct species of marsupials and mono- 

 tremes. 



We have received copies of the two volumes of the 

 Actes de la Society Helvetiqtie des Sciences Naturelles 

 for the ninety-second session, 1909. Among the contents 

 of the first volume is a summary of Dr. Fritz Sarasin's 

 " Geschichte der Tierwelt von Ceylon," the full text of 

 which we ha%e received for review in another and later 

 serial. In another article Dr. M. Bikli gives an illus- 

 trated account of the physiography and plant-life of Green- 

 land, a country the name of which the author believes to 

 be derived from the contrast between the barren coast- 

 line and the green carpet frequently clothing the slopes 

 of the more inland fjords. A special feature of the country 

 is, indeed, the abundant dwarf vegetation clothing almost 

 all the elevated ground except the mountains, this being 

 illustrated by a photograph taken a short distance inland 

 on Disco Island, while other photographs show how this 

 plant-growth has in the course of years covered boulders 

 and slabs of rocks. A particularly interesting picture 

 shows the rounded shores and islands of a typical glacier- 

 landscape at the mouth of one of the fjords. 



Discussing the action of light upon the green parts of 

 plants in Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift (April 3). 

 Dr. Th. Lohr directs attention to the investigations of 

 Senn upon the changes in form and position of the 

 chromatophores. According to this observer, the green 

 colouring matter occurs in the shape of drops or grains, 

 the grana, invested by a distinct protoplasmic layer and 

 lying in the general stroma, of protoplasm. Under favour- 

 able conditions of light the chromatophores are polygonal, 

 but when subjected to strong or weak light they contract 

 to a globular fOrm. Reference is also made to the hypo- 

 thesis advanced by Stahl that the colour of the chromato- 

 phores is regulated so as to avoid absorption of heat rays 

 and undue transpiration. The latter part of the article 

 deals with the conclusions of Wiesner regarding the light 

 requirements of plants, and Haberlandt's explanation of 

 light perceptivity. 



The second *' Masters lecture " on the production of 

 horticultural varieties was delivered by Prof. H. de Vries 

 before the Royal Horticultural Society, and occupies the 

 first place in the Journal (vol. xxxv., part iii.). He 

 recognises varieties of two types, those which are constant 

 at their first appearance and others which are continually 

 sporting; the latter can only be fixed by "working up." 

 .'\s an example of his method, he relates his experience in 

 trying to obtain the wholly peloric variety of Linaria 

 vulgaris. For eight years he cultivated the ordinary 

 species, treating it in various ways and excluding always 

 the possibility of crossing with allied forms ; during this 

 period, inflorescences with occasional peloric (hemi-i)eloria) 

 flowers were produced, and eventually plants producing 

 all peloric flowers appeared in the cultures. He notes 

 that seed was obtained from some of these wholly peloric 

 flowers. In his book he states that the seed came only 

 partially true, but by further cultivation and selection he 

 reduced the " reverts " to a small percentage. 



It has not been the custom to issue an annual report on 

 insect pests in the West Indies, but a summary is pub- 



