September i<i. 0918 



X.ITURE 



49 



graduated in medicine (M.I>. Unix.), and was — 1- 

 ciated in her medical work with Dr. Jex-Blake, the 

 pioneer of the "lady medicals" movement in Edin- 

 burgh. Their friendship led iii Dr. Todd's becoming 

 Dr. Jex-Blake 's 1 xecutrix and her biographet . I this 

 latter task Dr. Todd brought a triple qualification, 

 th, colleague's, thi friend's, and the novelist's. Like 

 Mrs. Gaskall's Lif< ol Charlotte Bronte," 

 woman's life of a woman, i- written bj a novelist, 

 and reads with all the interest of a novel. Dr. Jex- 

 Blake'- bii epicts her truthfulK , a strong, 

 not altogether likeable, pi rsooality, strangel) emerg- 

 ing from tin setting of a patrician English country 

 home, in sharp contrast to the roughness and bitti i 

 rancour sin- endured in Edinburgh. There, supported 

 by such men as Prof. Masson and a small band of 

 staunch friends, she waged war against "a dying 

 tyranny," wort the day, and thereby opened 

 for those who came after, tmong thern Dr. Elsie 

 Inglis, and others serving to-day with the Scottish 

 Women's Hospitals. Dr. Margaret Todd's last work 

 is an addition to biographical literature, and will help 

 to 1: id-makers unforgot* 



Dr. Carl Pf.ikr.s, the German African explorer. 

 died last week at the age ol sisty-two. His first 

 , mission to Africa in 1SS4 was unofficial, and, in fact, 

 discouraged bj his Government, but Dr. Peters suc- 

 ceeded in signing a treat] with chiefs on the main- 

 land opposjti Zanzibar and laving the foundations of 

 German East Africa. In 1888-90 he made an ex- 

 pedition up the Tana Rivet 1\ Mount Kenia to 

 Lake Baringo, Victoria Nyanza, and back to Zanzi- 

 bar through Usukuma and 1 goga. Dr. Peters's 

 avowed object was to search for Emin Pasha, but he 

 was more concerned in making treaties with I ganda 

 chiefs. In this, however, he was forestalled bv the 

 British. His expedition covered a great deal of 

 ground, and the waj was marked by terrorism and 

 brutality, where previous explorers had penetrated 

 with little difficult. In 1891 Dr. Peters returned to 

 Africa, and in 1892 was one of the commissioners for 

 delimiting the Anglo-German boundary in East Africa. 

 Soon after In was recalled to Germany. In 1899-1901, 

 and again in 1905, he travelled in the Anglo-Portu- 

 < frontier lands in the Zambesi region, and made 

 many important discoveries. This was probably Dr. 

 Peters's best work, though bis published results were 

 marred by hasty conclusions and ill-founded judgments 

 on the origin of the Zimbabwe ruins and the extent 

 in se work in Africa. Dr. Peters was 

 the author of several works on \frica, including "The 

 Eldorado of the Ancients,' published in 1902. 



The publication of Oh Monthly Register of the 

 American Society for Practical Vstronomy has been 

 suspended for the duration of the war. The society 

 itself has postponed all further activity for the sami 

 period, and no new members are being elected. When 

 tin- work of the society is resumed the organisation 

 will he as at the close of 10 17, the membership con- 

 sisting of those who were upon the books at that time. 



With the issue of the Journal of Anatomy for 

 October, the publication of the periodical, which is 

 tin official organ of the Anatomical Societv of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, is to be transferred to the Cam- 

 bridge University Pass, Fetter Lane, E.C.4. Con- 

 tributions should be sent, as hitherto, to Prof. Keith, 

 acting editor. Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields, W.C.2. We wish the journal, which was 

 bfished in 1S67, continued and increasing si 



the forthcoming fret public lectures to be 



delivered at Gresham College. Basinghall Street, an 

 the following: — Geometry, W. II. Wagstaff, October 

 XO. 2551. VOL. I02] 



1; Astrononr . A R. fiinks, November 5 to s : 

 Physic, Sir K. Armstrong-Jones, November 12 to 15: 

 and Music, sii I- Bt ovenaibei 19 to 22. 



\\ 1 wefcomx ih. establi ol a nevs scii ntiffi 



publication, the American , Physical Anthro- 



pology, with Dr. Al.s Hrdlicka editor, supported 



in-, si. ill of eminent An ithropologists. 



first number, ,issued for Januar I,, [gig, con- 



tains some important contributions. Vlt G. S. Millet- 

 publishes an elaborate studj ,1! thi famous jaw dis- 

 covei id at I'ilalow n in 1 < , 1 _■ . This sp cimci has b 

 the subject of much controversy, some British anthro- 

 pologists maintaining that it formed part of the ad- 

 mittedly human cranium close to which dis- 



■ d, while others regarded it as the jaw 

 chimpanzee accidentally washed into proxinm 

 a human skull. The latter view is supported in this 

 paper. The combined characters of the jaw, molars, 

 ami skull were made the basis of a genus Eoanthn ., 

 of the family Hominda-. But Mr. Miller asserts thai. 

 " while the brain-case is human in structure, the jaw 

 and teeth have not yet been shown to present any 

 character diagnostic of man ; the recognised features 

 in which they resemble human jaws and teeth are 

 merely those which men and apes possess in common. 

 . . . As the result of recent studv the generic features 

 of the jaw and teeth have not been shown to differ 

 from those of living African chimpanzees." The ques- 

 tion 1 has probably not reached its conclusion. But tin- 

 investigation will be assisted bv the comprehensive 

 studv of the facts and a bibliographv of the literature 

 provided by Mr. Miller. 



In the September issue of Man Sir H. C. Read 

 discusses a remarkable carved ivorv object from Benin, 

 which has recently been presented to the British 

 Museum by Mr. Louis Clarke. At first sight this 

 example scarcely suggests African art, but the repre- 

 sentation of a human head wearing a hat connects 

 it with other specimens of Benin art. It is difficult 

 to conceive the precise object of a cover of this pecu- 

 liar shape. It may have been used as the cover of a 

 vessel, and offerings of some kind may have been 

 dropped into a lower receptacle through the hole in 

 the centre. But no exactlv parallel specimen appears 

 to exist in other collections of Benin art, and the 

 object of its construction so far remains a mvstery. 



In Sudan Notes and Records (vol. i., No. 3, July, 

 1918) Mr. W. Nicholls describes a remarkable mar- 

 riage custom in the Sennar province, which is known 

 as "stealing the fire." On the final night of the fes- 

 tivities the bridegroom goes to the bride's house 

 escorted by a band of youths bearing torches. These 

 torches can be lit onlv bv fire taken from the bride's 

 house, and this the relatives of the bride take every 

 possible method to prevent. Some of the bridegroom's 

 friends creep in secretly at night, or a body of them 

 forces its way into the house to carry off the fire. 

 The editor quotes as parallels the custom recorded bv 

 Sir James Frazer ("The Golden Bough," "The Magic 

 Art," vol. ii., pp. 216, 230), in which fire is used as a 

 fertility charm in marriage ritual. But this is not an 

 exact parallel, and, assuming that the charm is in tin- 

 interest of the bride, it does not account for the resist- 

 ance made by her friends when the bridegroom's party 

 1 procure fire from her home In 



The report for 1917 of the inspectors un-i 



rig experiments on animals has iiisi bei i pub- 

 ; it ran be got from H.M. St 1 i' nery Office 

 or through am bookseller, price 2d. Th I number 



of experiments in England and Scotland was 55,542, 

 being 10,501 fewer than in 1916; the total number 

 of experiments in Ireland wa- 832. \bout 97 per 



