September 17, 1891 



NATURE 



477 



it was not clear that the phenomenon could be traced to the 

 cause assigned. Mr. Lister replied that, although the Tongans 

 use canoes, canoe work is not so essential a part of their lives as 

 it is in the case of the natives of Fakaofu. The natives of the 

 island of Tongafabu have many avocations quite apart from the 

 sea, for they live on an island twenty-two miles long, and many 

 villages are situated some distance from the water. The natives 

 of Fakaofu, on the other hand, live crowded together on a small 

 islet situated on a ring of reefs, and to meet almost every need 

 of their lives they must do more or less paddling. 



Mr. Ivan Petroff, the United States special census agent, 

 has been engaged in taking the census of the natives of Nuni- 

 vak Island, in Behring Sea, in 60° N. lat. He found the popu- 

 lation to consist of over 600 natives. It was previously supposed 

 that over 300 people occupied the island. There are no white 

 men there, and the natives live in a most primitive style. Their 

 only food is the flesh of the walrus, and their only wealth con- 

 sists of ivory obtained from the tusks of that animal. There 

 are few land otter, but, apart from these, the natives catch no 

 fur-bearing animals. 



Dr. L. Webster Fox is of opinion that savage races possess 

 the perception of colour to a greater degree than do civilized 

 races. In a lecture lately delivered before the Franklin Insti- 

 tute, Philadelphia, he stated that he had just concluded an 

 examination of 250 Indian children, of whom 100 were boys. 

 Had he selected 100 white boys from various parts of the United 

 States, he would have found at least five of them colour-blind : 

 among the Indian boys he did not discover a single case of 

 colour-blindness. Some years ago he examined 250 Indian 

 boys, and found two colour-blind, a very low percentage when 

 compared with the whites. Among the Indian girls he did not 

 find any. Considering that only two females in every 1000 

 among whites are colour-blind, he does not think it surprising 

 that he did not find any examples among the Indian girls. 



Dr. J. Frank lately reported to the Chicago Medical Society 

 the case of a man who periodically sheds his skin. The shed- 

 ding began in his first year, and has since then occurred regularly 

 es'ery July. He is taken with feverish tremors, increasing almost 

 to paroxysms. He undresses, lies down, and within a few 

 minutes the skin of the chest begins to turn red. The redness 

 rapidly extends over the en'ire skin, and the feverish tremors 

 continue uninterrupted for about twelve hours. Then he rises, 

 dresses, and walks about in perfect health. The skin now begins 

 to peel, and ten hours later it comes off in great patches. From 

 the arms and legs it can be peeled off exactly like gloves or 

 stockings. As the old skin comes away, a new epidermis, as 

 soft and pink as a baby's, is revealed. This new skin is very 

 sensitive ; the patient has to wear softened gloves and moccasins 

 for about a week. After the old cuticle has been entirely re- 

 moved, the finger and toe nail-; begin to drop off — new nails 

 literally crowding them out. Finally, the change is complete, 

 the man has a new skin and a new outfit of nails, and is ready 

 to return to the mines. A lady in Washington County, Ne- 

 braska, who is thirty-nine years old, has written to Dr. Frank 

 that since 1876 she has had a like experience every second or 

 third year. 



The Orcutt Seed and Plant Company, San Diego, California, 

 have issued an interesting descriptive list of Californian trees 

 and flowers. The writer thinks that there is perhaps no country 

 in the world where the early spring flowers so change the face of 

 the earth from a desolate waste to a beautiful garden as on the 

 Pacific coast — hills, mesas, mountains and valleys, and the arid 

 plains of the de ert, alike quickly responding to the vivifying 

 rain. "California," he say-, "has probably already furnished 

 NO. I 142, VOL. 44] 



to the horticulturist a greater variety of beautiful flowers and 

 stately trees than any other State in the Union. Yet many 

 others are awaiting the appreciation of man, or wasting their 

 sweetness on the desert air." 



A PAPER on malformations of the bill in birds, by Mr. W. P. 

 Pycraft, has been reprinted from the Transactions of the 

 Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. The most 

 common kinds of malformation are those resulting from over- 

 growth of the horny sheath, and those arising from injury. Mr. 

 Pycraft discusses these first, and then considers malformation 

 due to embryonic disturbance. 



" Symons's British Rainfall, 1890," which has lately been 

 published, contains, we need scarcely say, an enormous mass of 

 information as to the distribution of rain over the British Isles 

 during the year to which the volume relates. Mr. Symons 

 points out that the only important alteration in this issue is that 

 due to the completion of the decade 1880-89, which has en- 

 abled him to use the average for that period as a basis of com- 

 parison. He also calls attention to an article on the evaporation 

 from soil, and to the details given as to the great rain of July 1 7. 



The operatives' lecture delivered at the Cardiff meeting of 

 the British Association by Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson has been 

 published by Messrs. E. and F. N. Spon. The subject is 

 "Electricity in fining." 



"The Hand-book of Jamaica for 1891-92" has just been 

 issued. This is the eleventh year of publication. Mr. S. P. 

 Musson and Mr. T. Laurence Roxburgh have done their best to 

 present the fullest and latest information obtainable ; and every- 

 one who has occasion to consult the book will appreciate the 

 care and thoroughness with which their task has been fulfilled. 



A NEW edition, revised and enlarged, of the " Alkali Makers' 

 Pocket-book," by Prof. Dr. Lunge and Dr. Hurler, will be 

 issued in a few days in Messrs. Whittaker's Specialists' Series. 

 As the size of the page has been somewhat increased, the 

 designation "Hand-book" has been substituted for " Pocket- 

 book." The same publishers are about to issue "A Practical 

 Hand-book on the Telephone," dealing specially with telephonic 

 exchanges, by Mr. Joseph Poole. 



Messrs. Raithby, Lawrence, and Co. have issued a 

 second edition, revised and enlarged, of "Simple Recipes for 

 Sick-room Cookery," by Mrs. Buck. The writer produces an 

 excellent impression at once by the sensible tone of the preface, 

 in which she gives some general counsels as to the proper way 

 of dealing with the food of the sick. 



The new number of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society contains, besides extracts of proceedings, a number 

 of interesting papers. Mr. W. Warren writes on Persian 

 cyclamen ; the Rev. W. Wilks on hardy cyclamen ; Dr. 

 M. T. Masters, F.R.S., on germination of cyclamen. Snow- 

 drops form the subject of papers by Mr. J. Allen, Mr. 

 D, Melville, and Mr. F. W. Burbidge. There are also 

 papers on the cultivation of hardy bulbs and plants, by 

 Herr Max Leichtlin ; Lachenalias, by Mr. F. W. Moore ; Cape 

 bulbs, by Mr. J, O'Brien ; and hybrid Rhododendrons, by Prof. 

 Henslow. 



The volume containing the Proceedings and Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of Canada for 1890 includes papers on the 

 American bison, by Charles Mair ; the Vinland of the North- 

 men, by Sir Daniel Wilson ; unit measure of time, by Sandford 

 Fleming ; a peculiar form of metallic iron found in Huronian 

 quartzite on the north shore of St. Joseph Island, Lake Huron, 



