286 



NATURE 



[June i, 1916 



with charge of the Victoria Memorial Museum at 

 Ottawa as the centre of research, and it has already 

 published a series of papers of exceptional value. 

 Canada possesses at the present time no fewer than 

 thirty museums equipped with anthropological depart- 

 ments, the most important being that at Ottawa, In 

 this the complete Labrador Eskimo ethnological ■ and 

 archaeological departments are of special interest. 

 Toronto possesses the cranial collection of the late 

 Sir D. Wilson, and a fine series of skeletons from 

 mounds in Ontario and Manitoba, brought together 

 by Prof. Montgomery. In the Provincial Museum in 

 the same city are stored collections of Ontario skulls 

 and a mass of stone implements brought from ancient 

 sites in the province by the late Dr. David Boyle. 

 A good example of a local museum is that of the 

 Rocky Mountains Park at Banff, where Mr. Harlan 

 Smith is in charge of fine collections from the tribes 

 of that region. The Dominion Government deserves 

 warm congratulations for the active interest it has 

 shown in developing the study of the ethnology and 

 archaeology of the country. 



The Annals oj Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, 

 vol. X,, No. I, April, contains six papers. Dr. H. H. 

 Scott deals with the vomiting sickness of Jamaica; 

 Dr. G. Duncan Whyte with simplified diagnosis and 

 treatment of ancylostomiasis ; Dr. E. R. Armstrong 

 with differential blood counts in malaria; Mr. H. F. 

 Carter with three new African midges ; Sir Leonard 

 Rogers with the reduction of the alkalinity of the 

 blood in cholera; and Dr. H. R. Carter, of U.S.A., 

 with immunity to yellow fever. Dr. Scott, who is 

 Government bacteriologist in Jamaica, after a long 

 and careful study, concludes that vomiting sickness, so 

 prevalent in that island, is due to poisoning by ackee 

 fruit, Blighia sapida. There has been much difference 

 of opinion as to the causation of this vomiting sick- 

 ness, yellow fever and cerebro-spinal meningitis 

 having been considered to be the cause of death in 

 many of the cases in the past. Dr. Scott found in 

 19 14-15 that ackees formed part of the last meal taken 

 in health before the onset of the disease. Persons 

 taking the "soup," or "pot-water," made with apkees 

 in certain conditions, showed the most acute symptoms ; 

 the onset occurred in two hours, and death nearly 

 always resulted. Unopened ackees, those picked from 

 a decayed, bruised, or broken branch, those forced 

 open unnaturally, and those with a soft spot are 

 poisonous. Much of the poison is extracted by boil- 

 ing with water. The affection is largely one of child- 

 hood. By experiment it was determined that intra- 

 gastric administration of an extract, made by boiling 

 unopened ackees with water, produced in thne kittens 

 and one pup the symptoms and pathological changes 

 seen in cases of vomiting sickness. The pathological 

 changes in man and experimental animals are de- 

 scribed, and are well illustrated in two plates. 



In the American Naturalist for April Prof. T. 

 Waterman discusses the evolution of the human chin. 

 His main object is to demonstrate the fallacy of the 

 contention of Dr. Robinson that the human " chin " 

 has evolved as a consequence of the habit of articulate 

 speech. Prof. Waterman's task is not difTicult, but his 

 essay serves a very useful purpose, and his facts are 

 admirably marshalled. It might, however, have been 

 pointed out that the evolution of the chin is due as 

 much to the shortening of the facial portion of the 

 skull as to the reduction of the teeth. 



The Museum Journal of Philadelphia for December 

 has just reached us. Among other .items of interest, 

 it contains a very readable account of the Eskimo 

 of Coronation Gulf, known also as the "Copper" 

 Eskimo, from the fact that these people are largely 



NO. 2431, VOL. 97] 



dependent on this metal for their implements. It is 

 among them that Stefansson found his "blond 

 Eskimo." The clothing, weapons, and. methods of 

 hunting are described at length, but no description of 

 the physical characters of these people is given. 

 Copper appears to be the only native metal they 

 possess, but they also use iron and brass, though only 

 to a very limited extent. How, and whence, they 

 obtain these is not stated. 



Mr. Halsey Bagg, in the American Naturalist for 

 April, records the results of his recent attempts to 

 measure individual differences in behaviour in white 

 mice, and therefrom to determine the degree to which 

 kinds of conduct can be established in family lines by 

 selection. His choice of white mice, in preference to 

 man, he explains, was determined by the fact that in 

 man the experimental method cannot be used. Mr. 

 Bagg's test of alertness and educability was made 

 through the medium of a maze ending in a food com- 

 partment. Altogether ninety mice were used, and 

 each individual was passed through the maze seven- 

 teen times. There were no marked differences be- 

 tween the sexes in regard to this test of ability, but 

 yellow mice proved inferior to white in this ordeal. 

 The author found marked individual differences in be- 

 haviour, and discovers an apparent resemblance among 

 individuals of the same litter. 



An interesting point in relation to the geographical 

 distribution of British MoUusca will be found in the 

 Scottish Naturalist for May. Therein Mr. Denison 

 Roebuck reviews the history of a slug, Limax 

 tenellus, found by the Rev. R. Godfrey, in the Rothie- 

 murchus Forest in 1904, after it had been lost sight of 

 for fifty-six years. Some were obtained from under 

 stones, but the majority were taken from old pine 

 branches covered with decayed pine needles and other 

 rotten vegetation. This discovery of the nature of 

 the habitat at once threw a flood of light upon the 

 occurrence of the species, and showed that the reason 

 it had so long escaped notice was due to this prefer- 

 ence for aboriginal pine forests, an area conchologists 

 had never thought of searching, from a belief that 

 pine was inimical to moUuscan life. The clue ob- 

 tained, search was at once made on an extended 

 scale, with the result that it has since been found in 

 no fewer than six Scottish and eleven English counties, 

 five of these forming a ring encircling London. But, 

 more than this, it occurs in abundance in the pine 

 forests of Switzerland, and it now remains to discover 

 the intermediate stations on the mainland of Europe. 



Messrs. Sherratt and Hughes, Manchester, have 

 published a further account, by Mr. J. Arthur Hutton, 

 of investigations into the salmon fisheries of the River 

 Wye. Good statistics of the fish caught by rods and 

 nets, and measurements and determinations of age are 

 given, and the author deduces some very interesting 

 results. The scarcity in very large spring and summer 

 salmon (five and a half to six years old) indicates an 

 apparent failure of the 19 10 hatch, and this appears 

 to be traceable to two causes : — (i) The exceptional 

 drought and high temperature in the rivers in the 

 summer of 191 1, which probably encouraged coarse 

 fish in competition with the early stages of salmon ; 

 (2) the marine conditions in 1912, the year when the 

 parr hatched in 1910 would migrate to the sea. This 

 was a season of high salinity in the sea, and of low 

 autumn temperature. A further point brought out 

 by Mr. Hutton is that Wye salmon have for some 

 years been migrating and spawning earlier than usual. 

 This is possibly an integrative effect of a series of 

 exceptionally mild winters. The change is probably 

 only temporary. 



