July 17, 1890] 



NATURE 



269 



the faultiness of the original design or pattern is not 

 glossed over by an engraver. It is a great pity that the 

 magnificent collections in the British Museum cannot be 

 rendered available for home study by the publication of 

 similar photographs. 



It is to be regretted that Dr. Meyer confined his account 

 of the masks to those contained in the Dresden Museum, 

 and has not compared these with the specimens which 

 are to be found in other museums. 



A good opportunity for a thorough treatment of the 

 subject has thus been lost. For example, allusion is 

 made to the occurrence of masks in the Elema district of 

 the Papuan Gulf, but no description or figure is given of 

 them, although numerous specimens of these have found 

 their way into museums. Of the eight masks which are 

 figured from Torres Straits, one of the most characteristic 

 varieties is unrepresented — that one which represents a 

 crocodile's head surmounted by a human face. A fret 

 pattern occurs on a mask from Jervis Island. This is 

 alluded to by Dr. Meyer, and is compared with somewhat 

 similar patterns, of which woodcuts are given, on two 

 masks from German New Guinea, and with two patterns 

 on arrows from Dutch New Guinea. The Torres Straits 

 pattern, unlike the others, is precisely similar to the 

 common form of the pattern, and as it does not occur on 

 other objects from that district we can only conclude, 

 contrary to Dr. Meyer, that it was directly copied from 

 some introduced object ; the same mask is further orna- 

 mented with some imported red woven material. Dr. 

 Meyer suggests that the helmet masks from New Ireland, 

 and the feather helmets and masks from the Sandwich 

 Islands, are reminiscences of the helmets of the Spanish 

 voyagers of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. He 

 also considers it probable that the use of masks in this 

 part of the world originated in New Ireland, and extended 

 through New Hebrides to the northern portion of the 

 German territory of New Guinea, and thence by an over- 

 land route to the head of the Papuan Gulf and Torres 

 Straits. Other routes were northward to the Caroline 

 Island, Mortlock, and south-east to New Caledonia, Dr. 

 Meyer has been able to discover very little concerning 

 the uses of masks ; all that he can say is that they are 

 used in " masquerades, festivals, general feasts, secular, 

 religious, and war dances." It is, however, very probable 

 that particular kinds of masks are used for definite occa- 

 sions, and that the masks which are worn say during 

 initiation ceremonies could not be put on at a seasonal 

 festival. There is no evidence, so far as British New 

 Guinea is concerned, that masks are ever worn at the 

 festive or secular dance, or at the war dance ; they 

 appear to have a definite sacred or religious significance. 



This valuable memoir concludes with an interesting 

 quotation from Weisser's paper on masks from New 

 Ireland. Early in May the men of one village repair to 

 another village with which they have a feud. Each man 

 then puts on the mask which he has been secretly pre- 

 paring during the previous year, and the men of the one 

 village dance opposite to those from the other. After 

 •this they have a feast, and exchange sago cakes, which 

 they eat with caution, fearing poison ; criticism of the 

 masks of the opposite faction affords ample opportunity 

 for the continuance of the animosity. 



A. C. H. 

 NO. 108 1, VOL. 42] 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Larva Collecting and Breeding. By the Rev. J.Seymour 

 St. John, B.A. (London : William Wesley and Son, 

 1890.) 



The alternative title of this little volume, which is of 

 convenient size for the pocket, is "a hand-book to the 

 larvae of the British Macro-Lepidoptera and their food 

 plants ; both in nature and in confinement, with authori- 

 ties," and is sufficiently explanatory of its scope and 

 objects. The arrangement of the first portion of the book 

 is entomological, of the second and concluding portion 

 botanical. In the former the larvae are arranged and 

 named according to " The Entomologist Synonymic List 

 of British Lepidoptera," and the food plants are enumer- 

 ated as subsidiary to these. In the second half the food 

 plants are specified in the order of the " London Catalogue 

 of British Plants " (eighth edition). The book is therefore 

 susceptible of a twofold use ; it will induce the ento- 

 mologist to become a field botanist, and conversely it 

 will greatly aid the student who has some knowledge of 

 the native flora in his efforts to become practically 

 acquainted with the lepidopterous larvae. So much energy 

 is misdirected, particularly by young people, in making 

 collections of butterflies and moths for the mere sake of 

 collecting, that the intelligent use of this Httle book is 

 calculated to effect a salutary change. It will, at least, 

 direct greater attention to the life-histories of the Lepido- 

 ptera, and if it should be instrumental in inducing the 

 collector to preserve and mount the larva alongside the 

 male and female specimens of the mature butterfly or 

 moth, so much the better. It is too common a practice 

 to ignore the " grub " as unlovely and despicable ; though 

 from an economic point of view it possesses a higher 

 interest than the winged insect, and is certainly not 

 inferior to it in importance from a scientific standpoint. 

 Nearly all the Lepidoptera which are familiar in this 

 country as crop-pests are actively injurious qnly in the 

 larval stage. 



As the author intimates, such a work as this is 

 necessarily a compilation, and, from its very nature, it is 

 hardly possible to make it exhaustive. All who use it in 

 the field will find opportunities to annotate and amplify 

 it, and possibly to suggest emendations. The common 

 names as well as the systematic names of the plants are 

 given, and it might be useful if in a future edition the 

 common names of the insects were, as far as possible, 

 also enumerated. A few misprints have escaped notice, 

 as Galium sexatile (p. 103), ^.nd Rynchospora alba (p. 137). 



Mr. St. John's book represents a good idea well carried 

 out, and it should have the effect of stimulating the study 

 of natural history in the field. 



Practical Chemistry for Medical Students. By Samuel 

 Rideal, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.I.C., F.C.S., F.G.S. (London : 

 H. K. Lewis, 1890.) 



This book is intended by the author to embody the tests 

 for those substances which a medical student is required 

 to identify at the first examination of the Conjoint 

 Examining Board in England. The attempt to compress 

 this information into 53 small pages has resulted, as 

 might have been expected under the circumstances, in a 

 cram-book. Indeed, the only justification, if such it can 

 be called, for the addition of another to the many works 

 on qualitative analysis is that the book contains in the 

 minimum space the knowledge required for a special ex- 

 amination. This knowledge is, however, frequently of a 

 questionable nature. Thus, " calcium sulphate, CaS04 

 {gyPsum)^' is described as a " white amorphous poivder ; " 

 '"sodium carbonate, Na.2C03,"asa "white solid, crystalline 

 or amorphous ; " " ferric chloride, FcoClo, a yellow amor- 

 phous /oTf/^^/ifr," and so forth : statements of a kind which, 

 although they constitute a large portion of the book, are 

 both fragmentary and inaccurate. The endeavour to 



