H 



NATURE 



[March 2, 1916 



sections generally, has been taken up since the meeting 

 by the council, which appointed a committee to deal 

 with the matter, and, on its recommendation, called 

 upon the organising committees of the sections to 

 submit questions, in their various departments of 

 science, which might profitably be investigated. We 

 are informed that a number of important subjects for 

 investigation have already been suggested, and no 

 doubt some of these will find a place in the programme 

 of the next annual meeting, but others are being dealt 

 with in the meantime. There is good reason to hope 

 that this extension of the work of the association will 

 have valuable and far-reaching results. 



In Ancient Egypt, part i. for 1916, Miss Alice 

 Grenfell publishes a catalogue of the fine collection of 

 scarabs formed by Field-Marshal Lord Grenfell while 

 commanding in Egypt. These are illustrated by a 

 long series of photographs and drawings. It is sug- 

 gested that the sj'^mbols of the double and single spiral 

 signify "life," and that the fish, which originally 

 symbolised Isis and fertility, was utilised by early 

 Christian converts who had no objection to use pagan 

 symbols. Prof. Flinders Petrie adds a note fixing the 

 date of these scarabs. The collection, as a whole, is 

 of the highest value to students of Egyptian religion. 



In the January issue of Man, Prof. Ashby and his 

 colleagues, MM. Themistocles Zammit and Giuseppe 

 Despott, describe the excavations maae in Malta 

 during 19 14. The megalithic building, on a site known 

 as Id-debdieba, "the place of the Echo," has been 

 fully examined. The object of this remarkable struc- 

 ture is still uncertain. Among the more remarkable 

 objects unearthed in the course of the excavations are 

 six pillars of limestone or sandstone, cylindrical in 

 shape, but some tapering at one end, of the type 

 usual in Maltese megalithic ruins. Flint implements 

 were rare, but potsherds were abundant, mostly from 

 vessels of Neolithic times, that is to say, contemporary 

 with the original building, and fragments of dark red 

 bricks with a very rough texture, some of which were 

 evidently parts of floors or walls of ovens. 



The supplement to the forty-fourth annual report 

 of the Local Cirovernment Board, containing the report 

 of the Medica' Officer (Dr. Newsholme) for 19 14-15, 

 has just been issued. Dr. Newsholme surveys the 

 measures taken on account of the war for co-operation 

 between the civil and military sanitary services, and 

 reviews the incidence of infectious diseases in England 

 and Wales and the development of tuberculosis work 

 over the country. Dr. Bruce Low furnishes a report 

 on the epidemiology of typhus fever in recent years, 

 which deals mainly with the distribution of this disease 

 in the various countries of the globe. Dr. Twort 

 makes a preliminary report on the bacteriology of 

 infantile diarrhoea. Various micro-organisms were 

 isolated by means of a special medium and examined, 

 but so far no evidence has been obtained of the 

 existence of any specific bacterium for this disease. 

 Owing to war conditions, the report is much shorter 

 than usual. 



The report just issued by the Medical Research 

 Committee, under the National Health Insurance Act, 

 NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



on " Cerebro-Spinal Fever during the Epidemic of 

 i9i5»" brings together, in a clear and concise form, 

 a great mass of very careful and well-planned bac- 

 teriological work, done by many observers. The 

 authors of the report are Prof. F. W. Andrewes, Prof. 

 Bullock, and Prof. Hewlett; one could scarcely find 

 three names of higher authority. The work done is, 

 of course, scarcely intelligible to those who are not 

 bacteriologists ; but the chief conclusions are important 

 to all. That the "meningococcus" is indeed the 

 specific germ of the disease, remains the sure founda- 

 tion of the work. It is a true species, "as species 

 go amongst bacteria." There are subspecies of it; 

 but these ought none the less to be called meningo- 

 coccus, not para- or pseudo-meningococcus. From 

 this " specificity " of meningococcus, it follows that 

 bacteriological examination is the necessary method 

 for a positive diagnosis of the case. The whole sub- 

 ject of the detection and treatment of "carriers" is 

 very carefully considered. It appears that even the 

 most vigorous and varied treatments of the back of 

 the throats of carriers may fail to rid them of the 

 germs; the report is more hopeful of good results 

 from "an open-air life and the provision of as much 

 fresh air as possible." For the treatment of the 

 declared disease, the specific antitoxin did not, in the 

 adverse conditions of last winter, fulfil men's expecta- 

 tions : it did not achieve so much as it achieved in the 

 Belfast epidemic of 1907, and in some American 

 epidemics. It remains the only "rational" treatment; 

 but we cannot put it anywhere near diphtheria anti- 

 toxin in the records of the art of healing. That is 

 the fault of the disease, not of the bacteriologists. 



Miss Maud Haviland, in British Birds for 

 February, makes some welcome additions to our 

 records of the life-history of the Lapland bunting. 

 Her notes are based on observations during her stay 

 on the Yenisei. Though she obtained some beautiful 

 photographs of the nest and of nestlings, she failed 

 to obtain pictures of the adults, which refused even 

 to approach the nest while the tent containing the 

 camera was in the neighbourhood. She succeeded, 

 however, in obtaining some valuable notes on the 

 habits of the adults, and the feeding of the young, as 

 well as on the migratory habits of this species. The 

 many peculiarities of this bunting are skilfully brought 

 out by contrasting it with the snow bunting and other 

 species haunting the same area. 



Ornithologists, for some inscrutable reason, have 

 paid but little attention hitherto to the many problems 

 presented by the study of the renewal of plumage by 

 moulting. Yet this is a theme of far wider importance 

 than is commonly supposed. Recently, however, our 

 knowledge of this subject has been materially in- 

 creased by several important papers, and not the least 

 of these is that which appears in the Scottish Natural- 

 ist for February by Dr. C. B. Ticehurst. His sum- 

 mary of his work, however, is very inadequate, and 

 it is at times difficult to be sure of the precise value 

 he attaches to his observations, which are further 

 marred by the inexcusable use of the term, "tertials," 

 though he is not the only offender in this matter. 



