566 
NATURE 
[JuLy 30, 1914 
sents, in actual proportions, the cleavage products 
(bausteine) obtained by Prof. Abderhalden from several 
proteins such as caseinogen, gliadin, globulin, etc. 
It was lent by Prof. Abderhalden, of Halle, to Prof. 
W. H. Thompson, who is in charge of the food section 
of the Exhibition. It has never been out of Germany 
before, and is of such value that it is scarcely likely 
to visit this country again. The Exhibition will close 
at the end of August. 
An exhibition of gyroscopic mechanism is being 
organised at the Science Museum, South Kensington, 
and a private view was given on Tuesday last. 
AccorDINnG to Science, the American Ornithologists’ 
Union has appointed a committee on the classification 
and nomenclature of North American birds. The 
members of the committee are Messrs. Allen, Brewster, 
Chapman, Dwight, Grinnell, Merriam, Nelson, Ober- 
holser, Palmer, Richmond, Ridgway, and Stone. 
Tue new Sir Alfred Jones ward of the Liverpool 
School of Tropical Medicine at the Liverpool Royal 
Infirmary was opened by. Lady Derby on Thursday 
last, and was followed by a luncheon at which Sir 
Thomas Barlow spoke highly of Sir Alfred Jones. 
He said the numerous expeditions of the school, 
carried to the very homes of death and disease, had 
afforded records full of real actual romance. ‘Those 
expeditions, and protracted researches in the school, 
had been justified up to the hilt by actual improve- 
ment in the health conditions of the districts concerned 
from carrying out the lessons enforced by research. 
One great achievement of the school had been its 
instruction given in tropical medicine and hygiene to 
post-graduates. 
man how he could profitably begin and make pro- 
visional improvements while the larger schemes were 
getting under way. They had the first stage of re- 
search which happily went on, and the second stage 
of post-graduate teaching which would continue, and 
they were to take on a third function—that of bringing 
the study of tropical disease within the curriculum 
of the medical undergraduate within the school itself. 
The association of the study of tropical diseases with 
that of general medicine could not be too close and 
intimate. The real justification of this step was the 
bringing of the laboratories and the sick man close 
together, so that there might be the readiest possible 
facilities for identifying the real cause of the disease 
and preparing the quickest and most trustworthy 
methods of cure. There was no higher scientific task 
than to cure a sick man. 
THE Special Electricity Committee of the London 
County Council has presented a report to the Council 
based upon the report prepared by Messrs. Merz and 
McLellan (see Nature, April 23, 1914, p. 198). The 
committee recommend the promotion by the Council 
of a Bill in the next session of Parliament to establish 
a new undertaking and a new authority for the 
purpose of controlling its operations, which would 
actually be carried out by a private company, the 
present means of supplying electricity in and around 
London having been found unsatisfactory. According 
NO!,/2235; Vor: 93) 
Instruction in tropical hygiene told a | 
| 4 2 
| to the Times the details of the scheme are, in brief, 
| of India. 
as follow :—A new electricity authority is recom- 
mended consisting of thirty-one members, of whom 
the majority would represent the London County 
Council and the rest the surrounding county councils 
and county boroughs. The new authority will be 
empowered by Parliament to set up a new undertaking 
with a two-fold object : (1) The gradual establishment 
of large generating stations down the river from 
which supplies in bulk will be given to such existing 
undertakings as wish it. (2) The new authority 
will have the right to acquire by agreement existing 
undertakings, whether municipal or company, and 
combine them so as gradually to bring about one 
unified scheme. The area covered is 964 square miles, 
with a population of 73 millions. It contains 7o 
existing undertakings, and about 80 electric gen- 
erating stations; 60 per cent. of the electricity sold in 
this area is at present produced within the county of 
London. 
oe 
Many instances are on record of so-called ‘‘ wolf- 
children,’’? said to have been found in the jungles 
A strange story is now reported from 
Naini Tal, the summer capital of the United Provinces 
of Agra and Oudh, of a female child about nine years 
old found in this neighbourhood, and unable to eat 
anything except grass and chapatis or native griddle 
cakes. She has a great mat of head hair and a thick 
growth on the sides of her face and spine. She bears 
marks of vaccination and is clearly a child who had, 
years ago, been abandoned or strayed into the jungle. 
Her capture is attributed to the fact that she was 
suffering from an ulcerated foot, and she had also 
deep scars on her head and knees. The case has 
attracted much attention, and it will be interesting to 
learn the result of the physical examination of the 
girl which is now being made. 
In the Journal of Egyptian Archzology (vol. i., 
part iii.), Prof. G. Elliot Smith discusses the question 
of Egyptian mummies. It has been generally sup- 
posed that the history of mummification was as old as 
Egypt itself, and many examples of prehistoric remains 
were believed to have been embalmed. But when 
| Prof. Elliot Smith found that the Cairo Museum con- 
tained no mummy earlier than the period of the seven- 
teenth dynasty, the problem attracted his attention. 
There were indications from the discoveries of the so- 
called ‘‘canopic’’ jars, that the practice was very 
ancient; and recent discoveries confirm this supposi- 
tion. We now possess examples of embalming of the 
tenth and twelfth dynasties, and a specimen in the 
museum of the Royal College of Surgeons is proved 
to date from the fifth dynasty, or possibly even earlier. 
The custom, in spite of Christian teaching, lasted 
until the coming of the Mohammedans in the seventh 
century of our era. The methods used and the 
gradual degeneration of the art are described in this 
interesting contribution. 
In the issue of Man for July Mr. Elsdon Best 
examines the occurrence of cremation among the 
Maori tribes of New Zealand. It was never practised 
| as a general custom to the exclusion of other methods 
ares 4 
