January ii, 1894] 



NATURE 



24.9 



large, with thick, firm lips, and the underlip well 

 developed. The space from the nose to the mouth is 

 extremely long, while the chin, which is rather round, is 

 comparatively short and not very prominent. Thus the 

 face has the shape of a short oval. The profile is con- 

 cave, and the mouth and eyebrows are prominent .... 

 In the supraorbital region the central boss is extremely 

 well marked ; also the brow ridges, which, however, are 

 slightly less conspicuous than the central boss. The ears 

 are usually large, flat, and simply-developed." Mr. Landor 

 shows, by a series of detailed contrasts, that the pure 

 Ainu has no similarity whatever to the Mongolian type. 

 The colour of the skin he found to be light reddish brown. 

 The eye is particularly contrasted to the Mongolian eye, 

 having a similar form and setting to that of North Euro- 

 peans, while the iris is light brown or dark grey — rarely 

 black or dark brown, except in the case of half-breeds. 

 The eyes are very expressive, and show the emotions in 

 an interesting way. In adults the hair is black, wavy, 

 and inclined to form large curls ; children have lighter 

 hair, and in the north-east of Yezo several men were seen 

 with reddish hair and beard. Mr. Landor never saw the 



pure Ainu laugh, though on one occasion he induced a 

 man to "roar"' with surprise and delight. The various 

 emotions are expressed by slight changes of posture or 

 gesture, but the Ainu do not care to show their feelings ; 

 they have no sense of shame, and even fear. appears 

 hardly to be known. 



The women do most of the hard work, but the men 

 when hunting can walk forty miles a day without fatigue, 

 although they usually prefer to ride, ponies being plenti- 

 ful and of a good breed. In moving a load or heavy 

 object the Ainu neverpush, but always pull towards them. 

 They appear to use the feet and toes very freely to help 

 their hands and fingers, and they readily employ their 

 teeth, preferring to pull with the teeth than the hand when 

 an unusually heavy haul is necessary. The whole ap- 

 pearance struck Mr. Landor as exactly like the recon- 

 structions of the primitive man of northern Europe, and 

 many of their movements recalled those of the anthro- 

 poid apes. 



In sexual matters the Ainu appear to have no definite 

 rules, but a form of endogamy is common, which scarcely 

 differs from promiscuity. The people are extremely 

 filthy, both in their persons and in their huts, the pre- 



NO. 1263, VOL. 49] 



valence of insect parasites being remarkable. They seem 

 to have an acute sense of smell, distinguishing between 

 the odour of an Englishman and a Japanese, but oblivious 

 to their own very marked perfume— an intensified form 

 of the "peculiar odour of an uncleaned monkey's cage." 

 The sense of touch is singularly defective, and even when 

 the extremes are painful, they cannot distinguish the 

 sensation of heat from that of cold. Their hearing is 

 very acute. 



Mr. Landor is severe on those writers whose imperfect 

 acquaintance with the Japanese half-castes on the 

 southern coast has led them to theorise on Ainu religion. 

 He acknowledges only " a rudimentary kind of totemism " 

 in connection with the bear festivals, and '' a certain 

 amount of fear and respect for anything that supports 

 their life or can destroy it." 



In every respect the new observations now published 

 make the Ainu appear to be the most primitive of 

 primitive races in the northern hemisphere. The author 

 larings forward reasons which led him to believe that the 

 Ainu, coming from the north of Asia, and possibly of 

 the same stock as the North Europeans, conquered and 

 dispossessed the Koro-pok-kuru who had come to Yezo 

 from the Aleutian Islands and were akin to the Eskimo. 



H. R. M. 



THE PURIFICATION OF 

 BACTERIA} 



SEWAGE BY 



'T^HE diffusion of bacteriological knowledge amongst 

 -■- the general public is already beginning to affect 

 the patent list, and numerous inventions which the world 

 is at present asked to take advantage of claim to have 

 some special efficacy in regard to micro-organisms. The 

 pamphlet before us is intended to introduce to public 

 notice one of these bacteriological inventions in a field 

 which has already exercised the ingenuity of many 

 inventors — both professional and amateur — viz., the 

 purification of sewage. In this case the invention is 

 called the " cultivation filter-bed," and the inventor is Mr. 

 Scott Moncrieff, whilst the investigation of its efficiency 

 has been made by Dr. A. C. Houston. The new process 

 of treatment consists essentially in passing the sewage up- 

 wards through a filtering medium 14 inches in depth, and 

 composed of successive layers of flint, coke, and gravel. 

 To quote the words of the report, "the rationale of this 

 system of sewage disposal seems to depend on the fol- 

 lowing well-recognised truths : — 



" I. That bacteria under favourable conditions are 

 capable of indefinite multiplication. 



" 2. That bacteria exist in sewage which are capable 

 of peptonising solid organic matter, or, in other words, of 

 preparing it, by a process comparable to that of digestion, 

 for its final disintegration. 



" 3. That in nature the purification of the refuse of the 

 organic world is effected by the life-history of these or 

 similar micro-organisms." 



Having thus learnt what the nature of the method of 

 treatment is — viz. upward filtration without aeration, or, 

 in other words, putrefaction, we turn in the next instance 

 for information as to the effect of this treatment. The 

 report contains a number of analytical tables, but not 

 one of the analyses shows us the composition of the crude 

 sewage, and consequently the numerous analyses of the 

 effluent furnish no data whatsoever as to the purifica- 

 tion effected. Turning to the analyses of the effluent, 

 however, we are not surprised to learn that it has 

 generally an unpleasant odour, whilst the albuminoid 

 ammonia in an average sample was i"i part per 100,000 ; 

 but why this should be regarded as " very sm.all," we are 



1 "Report upon the Scott JNIoncriefF Sifstem for the B icteriolo^ical 

 Purification of Sewage." By Alex. C. Houston, M.B., D Sc. Edin. 

 (London : Waterlow Bros., 1S03.) 



