August 24, 1916] 



NATURE 



525 



observes : — •' In adapting Indian motives the primitive 

 spirit must be retained or the resuh will be a disap- 

 pointment ; but a reversion to the simplicit}- and free 

 expression of Indian art is what modern craftsmen 

 most need to counteract the tendency to over-decora- 

 tion, mechanical technique, and lack of individuality." 



The question of the origin of the dolmen is a sub- 

 ject of active controversy into which we have at pre- 

 sent no desire to enter. But for the benefit of those 

 who are interested in the problem we may note the 

 latest theory presented by Mr. Harold Peake in the 

 .A.ugust issue of Man. He suggests that prior to 

 2200 B.C. some traders from the north of the itgean, 

 familiar with the use of copper, and probably possessing 

 the secret of bronze-making, set out from their home, 

 which may have been Lemnos, in search of copper 

 and tin. He notes in this connection the cult of the 

 Dactyls or Cabiri, mysterious divine or heroic 

 beings, at some centre in the south-east i^gean, and 

 of Hephaistos at Lemnos, both connected with metal- 

 working. These traders were also in touch with the 

 Morbihan, possibly through the mediation of western 

 merchants engaged in commerce on the Atlantic sea- 

 board. At home they may have had relations with 

 Crete, the Cyclades, and Hissarlik, and through the 

 last with Cyprus. They were accustomed to erect 

 Cyclopean walls, and learnt the use of cists from the 

 people of the Cyclades. This combined knowledge they 

 carried with them to the western people with whom 

 they traded. The result w-as the evolution of the dol- 

 men as we find it in the western Mediterranean and 

 along the Atlantic seaboard. 



The Zoologist for July contains a most interesting 

 account of the prevalent beliefs concerning animals, 

 their uses, and the rSle they play in the m\-thology 

 of South India, by Prof. Rae Sherriflfs. At first sight 

 this contribution might seem to represent no more 

 than a collection of curious beliefs, founded for the 

 most part on ver}' slendejr knowledge. More 

 closely examined, it will be found to afford a 

 valuable insight into the habit of mind of the 

 less educated portion of the papulation, which should 

 be thoroughly understood by all Europeans who are 

 engaged in administrative work in India. Having 

 regard to the fact that there is still a great mortality 

 from snake-bite in India, it is strange that the people 

 "as a rule have not acquired a more exact knowledge 

 of these scourges. But the belief is still common 

 that the cobra, the best-known snake of India and 

 widely worshipped, is the female, and the rat-snake 

 the male, of a common species. We look forward to 

 the promised continuation of this theme. 



Under the title of "The Free-living Nematodes of 

 the Gulf of Sevastopol " an important monograph by 

 I. Filipjev has recently been published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Sevastopol Biological Station and of the 

 Zoological Laboratory' of the Imp. Acad. Sci.. Petro- 

 grpd. This work is of special interest in that it gives 

 for the first time a description of the Nematode fauna 

 of the Black Sea, a group of Vermidea which presents 

 ' great difficulties from a systematic point of view, and 

 has therefore been less investigated than other groups 

 of Vermidea. Filipjev's work is in three parts : — 

 (i) Systematic, including the description of about a 

 hundred species of Nematodes, of which some eightv 

 are new, and a few new genera. (2) Morphological, 

 containing many new anatomical data. (3) General. 

 giving the topographical distribution and synoptical 

 cables of genera and species. 



Report No. 108 of the U.S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture consists of an admirable summan.' by Nathan 

 Banks of the Acarina or mites " for the use of economic 



NO. 2443, VOL. 97] 



entomologists." This booklet of 153 pages contains a 

 general introduction to the structure and life-history 

 of mites and a synopsis of the families and principal 

 genera of the order, illustrated by nearly 300 figures, 

 and concluding with a bibliography and index. 

 Though primarily intended for use in America, Mr. 

 Banks's work cannot fail to be of service to British 

 students who, not having special knowledge of the 

 Acarina, are called on to classify members of this 

 difficult order. Under the heading " Uncertain 

 Acari " reference is made to the Ling^atulida and the 

 Tardigrada; it is somewhat surprising to find the 

 Pycnogonida — which axe surely further from mites 

 than any other order referable to the Arachnida — in 

 the same assemblage. 



The current number of the Quarterly Journal of 

 Experimeyital Physiology contains a long and valuable 

 paper by Dr. E. G. Boring on the return of sensation 

 after the division of cutaneous nerves. l"he author 

 lays great stress on the importance of statistical 

 methods and of the standardisation of the experimental 

 conditions in investigations of this nature. He further 

 points out that the analysis of the nature of the 

 cutaneous sensations, as they return during regenera- 

 tion of a divided nerve, calls for psychological 

 as well as physiological training. As a result 

 of his own observations, the author has failed 

 to confirm some of Head's observations, and he 

 entirely disagrees with the hypothesis of the existence 

 of " protopathic " and "epicritic" sensibilit}' which 

 was advanced by Head and his co-workers. Dr. 

 Boring considers that the results are best explained 

 on the assumption that single sensor)- spots are in- 

 nen'ated by more than one ner\'e-fibre and that the 

 multiple innervation is projected upon the central 

 nervous system as multiple excitations; he concludes 

 that the sensory phenomena occurring during the 

 return of cutaneous sensation can be accounted for 

 on this hypothesis. 



In the Psychological Review (vol. xxiii.. No. 4) 

 Harvey Carr revives the problem of cutaneous sen- 

 sitivity, as formulated by Rivers and Head in their 

 well-known article of some years ago entitled "A 

 Human Experiment in Nerve Division." The writer 

 challenges the correctness of Head's theor>', both from 

 the point of view of the facts and of the inter- 

 pretation of those facts. The nerve section, he main- 

 tains, produced an extremely abnormal condition of 

 the cutaneous tissues, so that peculiarities of sensi- 

 tivity were to be expected ; hence it is not surprising 

 that other investigators have failed to discover what 

 Head calls the protopathic sensibility mediating four 

 functions, and the epicritic mediating three. So far 

 they have only been able to get evidence of the four 

 sensory functions as formulated by earlier writers. 

 Even, however, granting Head's evidence, Harvey 

 Carr submits that the facts do not bear out the inter- 

 pretation put upon them. He thinks that there is a 

 too general tendency to accept enthusiastically and un- 

 critically Head's theory. The article will prove inter- 

 esting to many men of science, but particularly to 

 physiologists and psychologists. 



In the Proceedings of the Physiological Society 

 for July, Dr. Edridge-Green records the subjective 

 phenomena produced by gazing steadily with one eye 

 at a rotating cylinder of paper, half of which is black 

 and half white. He finds that the centre of the field 

 of vision appears to be in violent motion of a whirl- 

 pool character, and that the white part of the cylinder 

 may appear green or rose-coloured according to the 

 rate at which it is rotated. Dr. Edridge-Green explains 

 these phenomena by supposing that the rods have the 



