462 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[June, 1906. 



Aquatic Mice. 



If we except the water-rat, the small mammals that have 

 taken to an aquatic life in Europe and Asia are chiefiv 

 shrews, of which several distinct fjeneric types are known, 

 anions: them our own water-shrew. In .South .America, on 

 «he other hand, accordinij to the researches of Mr. O. 

 Thomas, of the IJritish Nluseum, it is mice that have 

 adapted themselves to this mode of life. .Some years nffo 

 that i^entleman described one of these water-mice, which 

 feeds on small fishes, under the appropriate name of 

 lelifliyninijs ; its home beintf the mountain-streams of Peru. 

 Recently, he described a second, distinpjuished by the 

 absenie of ears, under the equally apposite title of 

 Aiuiliimys. Now, he has had the p;ood fortune to be able 

 to n.inie a third as Hhmmi/x, nearly allied to the second, but 

 dislintjuished by the retention of ears and its plossy fur. 

 I'rcirii both the others, the first-n;uned s^enus differ b\- Hie 

 peculiar structure of its incisor teeth. 



Papers Read. 



,\t Ihe meeting of the Zooloifical Society, on .Xjiril 10 

 (the only one held durinj^ the month), Mr.' C. T. Ret,'.-in 

 communicated a paper on Trinidad fishes ; Messrs. Thonison 

 .and Henderson described alcyonarian zoophytes from 

 Zanzibar; Dr. J. F. Geinmill di.scussed the phenomenon of 

 "cyclopia" in trout-embryos and other fishes; wliile Mr. 

 P. I. Lathy described certain butterflies. 



REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



BOTANY. 



Allen Flora of Britain, by S. T. Dunn, B.A. (West, New- 

 man, ;uid Co. ; 5s. net.) — Most British botanists will 

 probat)ly be somewhat astonished to learn that the author 

 considers 924 species, or practically half the number of 

 British plants, as aliens, or in other words plants that have 

 been introduced either directly or indirectlv through human 

 agency. The crucial test adopted is as follows : If a plant 

 is found growinj^ in perfectly wild and natural surroundings 

 it is deemed indigenous, whereas if a plant only occurs in 

 cultivated areas it is considered as an alien. This test dubs 

 as indigenous all plants growing in elevated regions, or in 

 localities that have for some reason not been disturbed by 

 man, whereas broadly speaking, plants that grow in culti- 

 vated land, hedge-rows, &c., are introduced, or aliens. Now 

 as the great bulk of land, say, below 500 feet elevation, has 

 within the last thousand years been under cultivation at 

 some time or other, and much of it almost continuallv so, it 

 is dilTicult to conceive lowland plants as occupying other 

 than cultivated areas if they succeeded in surviving at all. 

 Many widely distributed plants now thoroughly naturalized, 

 are undoubtedly aliens, having been introduced accidentally 

 along with grain, wool, ballast, &c., and .some of these have 

 been with us for centuries ; but before such a wholesale 

 statement as to numbers can be accepted, stronger and more 

 convincing evidence than is contained in the work under 

 consideration will be required. Apart from the leading 

 question, the book contains much useful information re- 

 specting the habitats and gcogniphical range of the plants 

 dealt with. 



CHEMISTRY. 



Treatise on the Effects of Borax and Boric Acid on the 

 Human System, by Dr. Oscar Liebreich (tr.anslaled from 

 the German. London: J. and A. Churchill ; pp. vii. -f 70. 

 5s. ncl). --.\n interesting series of experiments on living 

 subjects was recently concluded by Dr. Wiley, of the 

 U..S. Department of .Agriculture, who arrived at the con- 

 clusion that borax and boric acid were undoubtedly in- 

 jurious when used as preservatives in food. In this pam- 

 phlet, which is well illustrated with diagrams. Dr. Liebreich 

 subjects Dr. Wiley's results to a critical examination, and 

 cojnes to the opposite conclusion. He considers that any 

 injurious symptoms observed were due to unsuitable 

 hygienic conditions and to the choice of unsuitable persons 

 for the experiments, and not to the effect of the borax. The 

 pamphlet will be read with interest bv those who are in- 

 terested in Ihe subject, but it shows the necessity of much 



more work being done before a definite conclusion can be 

 formed. It may be mentioned that the Parliamentary Com- 

 mittee on Preservatives, in this country, came to the same 

 conclusion of " not proven," as Dr. Liebreich, notwithstand- 

 ing some strong medical evidence in the other direction, and 

 recommended that a small proportion of boric acid should 

 be jjermitted in butter, cream, and hams. The question, 

 however, is still unsettled, and no tradesman who ventures 

 to use l)oric acid cm consider himself safe from prosecution. 

 In fact, .so chaotic is the law that quite recently a shop- 

 keeper, sunniioned for selling preserved food in one 

 borough, called the Medical Officer of Health from .an ad- 

 joining county as a witness for the defence, and won his 

 case. This prmiphlet of Dr. Liebreich is also likely to ap- 

 pear frequently as a witness for the defence in' similar 

 cases, which will continue until such time as we have the 

 malic]- proprrlv Ihrashrd out and Ihe use of preserv;itives 

 eilli. r Irg.-ilised or m.ade illegal. 



ETHNOLOQY. 



Mexican and Central American Antiquities, Calendar 

 Systems, and History. Twenty-four papers. By E. Seler, E. 

 I"(ii st( niann, P. .Schellh.as, C. Sapper, and E. P. Dieseldorff, 

 .Sniillisonian Institution, Bureau of .American Ethnology. 

 Bulletin 28, Washington, 1904. The late Director of the 

 Bureau of .American Ethnology was very well advised when 

 he determined to publish translations of a number of foreign 

 [jnpers on the archeology and glyphic writing of the semi- 

 civilised peoples of middle .America. These have now been 

 |)ublished under the supervision of Charles P. Bowditch, and 

 lliey afford to the ethnologist a mine of information on 

 subjects to which otherwise he could obtain access only 

 with the greatest difficulty. One has only to glance at 

 this well illustrated book to see that it is of interest not 

 merely to the .Americanist or archaeologist, but also to the 

 general ethnologist. The latter, however, will have to 

 search for his material, as most of it is .scattered all over 

 the volume, and pick out what he requires from papers of 

 diverse kinds, but in some cases, as in the articles on the 

 priesthood, ceremonials, deities, and religious conceptions 

 of the Zapotees, he will find it pretty fair sailing. In a 

 new subject, such as this, and dealing with interpretations 

 based on glyphs which have no " Rosetta Stone " to guide 

 them, authorities are apt to differ from each other, and to 

 modify their own previously expressed opinions, thus the 

 reader must be continually on the watch for these pitfalls. 

 M.atliematicians and those who like number puzzles will find 

 full scope for their ingenuity in the consideration of the 

 Ma\a Calendar. .According to a widespread tradition, the 

 Toltec nation was the originator of all arts and sciences, and 

 among other things the invention of the calendar is ascribed 

 to them, and we are told that they carried their books with 

 them on their migrations. The calendar is the alpha and 

 omega of the Central .American sacerdotal wisdom, and the 

 great mass of Mexican and Maya manuscripts is nothing 

 more than an elaboration of this calendric system in respect 

 of its numerical theory, its chronology, and its system of 

 divination. The nature of this calendar, consisting^ in the 

 fact that it originated from the fundamental number 20 

 in combination with the number 13, is well known. A 

 simple calculation shows us that the peculiar period of 52 

 years in use among the Mexican races proceeds directly 

 from the application of this fundamental system to a .solar 

 year of 36-5 days. There is still a diversity of opinion as to 

 how far the iSIexicans themselves were able to harmonise 

 this system with actual time, the solar )'ear, and the revolu- 

 tion of the various heavenly bodies. .Among the Maya 

 races the system seems to have been brought to perfection 

 on the numeric-theoretic side in particular. It seems cer- 

 tain that not only the movement of the sun, but also the 

 movements of the large planets were noted, and that these 

 people were capable of connecting the period of revolulion 

 of these bodies with the solar year of 3^15 days, and with 

 the period ot 20 x 13 days, the true basis of the .system. 

 The apparent period of revolution of Venus may be set 

 down with tolerable accuracy as 584 days. Five such re- 

 volutions give us the figures of 2,920, or eight solar years 

 of 365 days. This precise number is plainly the basis of 

 (he computations on certain pages of the Dresden manu- 

 scri])l. But 65 such periods give us the number of 37,960, 



