M lil. R 26, [918 



NATURE 



7' 



\\ 1 note with regrel thai the name of Capt. II. A. 

 Renwick has been added to the growing list ol - mg 



linn who have sacrificed their lives in the develoi nl 



of experimental aerodynamics. Capt. Renwick was 

 killed in a Hying ai Vugust 19. Aftei having 



a student of Pembroke, and taking Seconds 

 ill. Mechanical Science Tripos, he entered Messrs. 

 Yarrow 'sasan apprentice. In the first month of the wai 

 Capt. Renwick was gazetted ta a pioneer battalion ol th 

 South Wales Borderers, and served for some time ii 

 France. Having been severelj wounded, he was, earl) 

 in 1916, Attached to the Royal Aircraft Factory. Here 

 he found a congenial opening for his scientific powers, 

 ami was soon placed in charge of the instruments at d 

 apparatus used in 1 xperimental flights. Then, as chief 

 of the corps ol observers engaged in aero-dynamical 

 experiments in the air, he was closelv associated with 

 all the full-scale work carried out at Farnborough, and 

 mad. valuable contributions to this rapidly developing 

 He learned to By, and made a number of 

 solo experimental flights. Capt. Renwick was a keen 

 and . nthusiastic observer, and his incidental observa- 

 tions of physical and meteorological conditions in the 

 air constitute additions of permanen! value to the data 

 now being collected towards a fuller knowledge of the 

 ol the atmosphere. 



An appreciative obituan notice of the late Prof. 

 <.. Archibald Clarke, who died on April 2~ last, 

 appears in Science for August 30. We are glad to 



see thai full justice' has been dune to his memory in 



regard to his work as secretary of the International 

 Fui Seal Commission, the findings and polio of which 

 he profound!) influenced. Prof. Clarke was a man who 

 possessed the faculty to an unusual decree of seizing 



upon essentials and of taking wide views. Hence, as 

 a consequence of his numerous visits to the Pribiloffs 

 on the work of the Commission, he brought togethei 

 an immense store of facts in regard to the life-histon 

 of the fur seal which will form a lasting monument 

 to his memory. Careful of the smallest detail <in 

 aspect of this subject, he ever kept 



before him the fact that his observations were also 

 to be used b\ those who had .1 purely commercial 

 int. i.st in these herds and their preservation. During 

 1913—13 he carried on investigations designed to extend 

 over a period of four or five years for the purpose pf 



arriving at data as to the rale of increase of such 

 herds, then apparent!) rapid!) diminishing. But, un- 

 fortunatelv, changes in method and personnel since [913 

 have made this ideal well-nigh hopeless. Fortunately, 

 Prof. Clarke has left a tine record of his many-sided 

 studies of the fur seal problem in numerous memoirs 

 and articles published in Science and other scientific 

 and popular magazines. In his capacity as academic 

 1 1 \ to Stanford Universit) he displayed business 

 talent of a high order; heme bis services bo the Uni- 

 versity during its early years of existence cannot be 

 mated. 



The March part of the Museum Journal of the 

 Universit) of Philadelphia (vol. ix., Xo. 1. miS) 

 is entirely devoted te the stud) "I American art, the 

 native production untouched b) outside influences. We 

 know little about the mythology of the Mayas repre- 

 sented in their painting, sculpture, and other decorative 

 arts, but a faint notion of some of its traits, if not of 

 contents, maj be gathered from the folk tales 

 still current in remote districts of Central America. 

 \s leading examples of this indigenous art, Mr. 

 (I. B. Gordon describes a remarkable piece of sculp- 

 ture entitled " A King in all his glory," from thi 

 ancient cit\ of Copah, in Honduras, and one of 'The 

 -." found a few years ago on the Usumacinta 

 River. While in motif and method rtiest carvings will 



Ni 1. 2552, vol.. 102 



look strange to arti ts trained under European tradi- 

 ons, the) display a power of charac- 

 terisation and exei i .,11 illustrated by 

 Mr. Cordon's interpretation. Cither noteworthy speci- 

 mens of local American art de 1 d in this pamphlet 



are a fine Maya vase, a p 1 m-poles, and 



beautiful examples of Hi , r |, ;mi i ,,f i|„- 



dl eorali\e arts of the Indi in ■ /on. 



The report foi the year hi, iseums of 



the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and contains 



some striking figures in regard to I e of 



children, for whom, as in all the Am urns, 



special rooms and collections are sel ; ring 



he year 6226 school-children, with 

 visited the museum for special instruction. "One 

 thousand four hundred and fifty>six boys and 

 high-school age consulted scientific and literal v 

 and periodicals, and prepared for debates." 

 juvenile visitors and students are catered for b) 

 special staff, and there can be no doubt that extremelv 

 valuable educational work is achieved by this branch 

 of tile museum's activ it ies. 



The Corporation of Hull has formed a special 

 museum for the illustration of the shipping and fishing 

 industries. An interesting part of the collection is a 

 series of coins and tokens illustrating the evolution of 

 shipping. Typical examples of medieval ships are 

 shown on the seals of Scarborough, Hedon, and 

 many other places. The seventeenth-century tokens, 

 which are so eagerly sought for, show many repre- 

 sentations of shins, anchors, etc. The token of Earl 

 Howe (1705) bears on the reverse, 'The Wooden 

 Walls of Old England," wilh a typical example of 

 a fighting ship with tall masts. The collection is 

 described by Mr. T. Shenpard in vol. ii., part 2, of 

 the Transactions of the Yorkshire Numismatic 

 Society. 



\i 1. who are interested in the anatomy of the 

 ( 'etacea will welcome a memoir on the skull of 

 Cuvier's whale (Ziphius cartir'ostris) which appears in 

 the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 History (vol. xxxviii., p. 149). The author bases his 

 study on two skulls — one of a young adult female, the 

 other of a ripe foetus which had been disarticulated. 

 These he describes in detail, and his descriptions will 

 prove of great value to fulure workers, as well as to 

 those who desire to use his results in comparative 

 work. In the course of his memoir he advances some 

 interesting speculations as to the factors which have 

 brought about the verv remarkable changes which 

 have taken place in the morphology of the cetacean 

 skull, and these are worthy of careful consideration. 



I x .Sudan Notes and Records (vol i., No. 3, July, 101N1 

 a plea is made on behalf of the white ant, which has 

 naturally acquired a bad reputation among European 

 residents. The characteristic feature of the climate 

 of the Sudan is the rapid growth of vegetation pro- 

 moted bv seasonal rains or artificial irrigation, fol- 

 lowed by a period of drought and desiccation. The 

 white ant attacl - vegetation onlv when it is weakened 

 bv drought or disease, and in that case the sooner 

 it is destroyed thi better. Rut for the activitv of the 

 white ant the whole of the fertile parts of the Sudan 

 would, in a ver) few years, be covered with an 

 penetrable layer of dead vegetation; and the onlv 

 alternative method to clear it off would h. bv the 

 1 ' lire, the dangers of which are ol 



A SECOND edition of vol. v. of " Spi rts on 



the Mineral Resources of Great Brita .■ with 



potash-felspar, phosphate of lime, tl -. plum- 



ti igo or graphite, molybdehiti talc and 



