328 



NATURE 



[July 31, 1890 



holds, must be studied with their differences in physical 

 characteristics, in arts, and in languages. " From a com- 

 mingling of all," he says, "with greater or less predominance 

 of one over the other, uniting here and subdividing there, 

 through many thousand years, there has finaily resulted an 

 American people having many characteristics in common, not- 

 withstanding their great diversity in physical characteristics, in 

 arts, in customs, and in languages. To this heterogeneous 

 people the name Indian was given, in misconception, nearly 

 four hundred years ago, and now stands as a stumbling-block in 

 the way of anthropological research ; for under the name re- 

 semblances are looked for and found, while differences of as 

 great importance in the investigation are counted as mere 

 variations from the type. " 



The Royal Society of Victoria has issued the second part of 

 the first volume of its Transactions. Baron von Mueller begins 

 this collection of papers with important "records of observa- 

 tions on Sir William Macgregor's highland plants from New 

 Guinea." Mr. Arthur Dendy writes on the anatomy of an 

 Australian land planarian ; Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer on the 

 anatomy oi Amphiptyches urna (Grube and Wagner). A paper 

 on the preparation of alkyl-sulphine, selenine, and phosphonium 

 salts is by Prof. Orme Masson. Mr. A. W. Howitt, in a well- 

 arranged and instructive paper, deals with the organization of 

 Australian tribes. The following are among Mr. Howitt's 

 conclusions: — (i) The group is the sole unit. The individual 

 is subordinate in the more primitive form of society, but be- 

 comes more and more predominant in the advancing social 

 stages. Thus group marriage becomes at length completely 

 subordinate to individual marriage, or even practically extinct 

 and forgotten where descent has been changed from the female 

 to the male line. (2) An Australian tribe is not a number of 

 individuals associated together by reason of relationship and 

 propinquity merely. It is an organized society governed by 

 strict customary laws, which are administered by the elder men, 

 who in very many, if not in all, tribes exercise their inherited 

 authority after secret consultation. (3) There are probably in 

 all tribes men who are recognized as the headmen of class 

 divisions, totems, or of local divisions, and to whom more or 

 less of obedience is freely given. There are more than traces 

 of the inheritance by sons (own or tribal) of the authority of 

 these headmen, and there is thus more than a mere foreshadow- 

 ing of a chieftainship of the tribe in a hereditary form. (4) 

 Relationship is of group to group, and the individual takes the 

 relationship of his group, and shares with it the collective and 

 individual rights and liabilities. The gene/al result arrived at 

 is that the Australian savages have a social organization which 

 has been developed from a state when two groups of people 

 were living together with almost all things in common, and 

 when within the group there was a regulated sexual promiscuity. 

 The existence of two exogamous intermarrying groups seems to 

 Mr. Howitt to almost require the previous existence of an 

 undivided commune from the segmentation of which they arose. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania on May 20, 

 Mr. Morton drew attention to a recent dredging trip in the 

 harbour. The result of the dredging trip was of important 

 interest, as the forms obtained resembled the marine fauna of 

 Port Jackson. Among the specimens dredged were a large 

 number of mussels, and each contained a small crab, which on 

 examination appeared to belong to the genus Fabia. It was 

 rather curious to learn from some of the old residents that many 

 years back, when mussels were numerous as at present, in the 

 majority of cases every mussel contained a crab similar to those 

 exhibited, and that the oysters, while mussels were in large 

 quantities, were few. Some time afterwards the mussel became 

 nearly extinct, while the oyster multiplied. Whether that was 

 NO. 1083, VOL. 42] 



due to this parasitical crab or not he was unable to say, but the 

 fact was singular that while the crab was now noticeable in the 

 mussel the oyster was increasing in numbers. Whether history 

 would repeat itself it would be difficult to say, but it would be 

 interesting to observe the result. 



The trustees of the State Museum of Natural History, New 

 York, have issued their forty-first Annual Report. It is accom- 

 panied by the reports of the director, the State botanist, the State 

 entomologist, and the State geologist. The directors call 

 attention especially to the important and beautiful collection of 

 minerals and gems bought for the Museum from Mr. George 

 F. Kunz. They describe this collection as "one of the most 

 perfect to be found in any American museum." 



In the seventh volume of the "Bulletin of the U.S. Fish 

 Commission," lately issued. Dr. W. R. Hamilton has an inter- 

 esting note on the croaking or grunting noise made by the 

 "Perch" {Haploidonotus grunniens). This fish is furnished 

 with a masticatory apparatus in the gullet, and the lower 

 division of this has its upper surface flat and triangular in out- 

 line, and studded all over with spheroidal " teeth," if they may 

 be called genuine teeth. The upper division is composed of 

 two parts united by a ligament ; their lower surfaces are also 

 supplied with similar teeth. The divisions of this apparatus 

 have powerful muscles attached to them by which they can be 

 pressed together and moved laterally on each other. By this 

 process the fish masticates the crustaceans on which it feeds. 

 When this action takes place, the croaking is produced by the 

 teeth coming in contact and gliding over each other. About 

 twenty years ago, being interested in this subject, Dr. Hamilton 

 procured from an Ohio River fisherman a perch weighing 18^ 

 pounds, which he declared was the largest perch he had ever 

 caught. Dr. Hamilton divided the head on one side, and thus 

 exposed its masticatory apparatus ; and while he moved its 

 grinders as he supposed the fish had done during life when 

 crushing a crawfish, an exact imitation of the croaking sound 

 was produced. 



The Committee of the Felsted School Natural History 

 Society, in issuing their eighth annual report, are able to 

 congratulate the Society on a large increase of members during 

 the past year. The members seem to give a good deal of 

 attention to scientific study, but the Committee " continue to 

 lament the very serious diminution of the old collecting spirit 

 once so rife in the school, and to hope for its return." They 

 attribute this defect to " compulsory games." 



Messrs. Dean and Son announce for publication " Berge's 

 Complete Natural History of the Animal, Vegetable, and 

 Mineral Kingdoms." It will be edited by R. F. Crawfurd, 

 and illustrated with about 400 coloured plates and woodcuts. 



Part 22 of Cassell's valuable "New Popular Educator" 

 has been issued. The number is accompanied by a map of 

 Africa, and there are, as usual, many illustrations. 



The new number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England (third series, vol. i. part 2) begins with an 

 article, by Mr. D. Pidgeon, on the development of agricultural 

 machinery. This is followed by articles on the agricultural 

 lessons of ' ' the eighties, " by Prof. Wrightson ; the Report of 

 the Royal Commission on Horse-breeding, by Lord Ribblesdale ; 

 tuberculosis in animals, and its relation to consumption in man, 

 by Mr. W. Duguid ; fifty years of hop-farming, by Mr. Charles 

 Whitehead ; the best means of increasing the home-production 

 of beef, by Mr, G. Murray ; and the herbage of pastures, by 

 Dr. W. Fream. 



The Meteorological Office of Calcutta has just issued Part II. 

 of "Cyclone Memoirs," containing a full description of a very 

 violent cyclonic storm which passed through Bengal from August 



