Marcu 4, 1897 | 
WA TURE 
417 
After all, Miss Kingsley’s little jokes are lively reading, | 
and they will afford jaded examiners many a laugh years 
hence, when they appear as solemn assertions taught by 
the intelligent teacher who “read them in a book of 
travels.” The collection of eighteen species of reptiles 
and sixty-five species of fishes, brought home from the 
Ogowé and other rarely visited regions, form a solid con- 
tribution to science, no less than sixteen of the fishes 
being new. These are described in an appendix by Dr. 
Ginther, reprinted from the Avnals and Magazine of 
Natural History. Mr. W. F. Kirby also describes eight 
new species of insects, and catalogues a considerable | 
number. 
The narrative touches lightly on the voyage out, gives 
lively notes of the condition of nature and man in Sierra 
Leone, the Gold Coast, Lagos and Fernando Po, and 
then proceeds to give a detailed account of two expedi- 
tions which are perhaps the most remarkable ever made 
by a white woman in equatorial Africa. The first of 
these includes a description of French Congo, a voyage 
up the Ogowé in river-steamer and canoe to the borders 
of Ashongo-land, made famous thirty-five years ago by 
Paul du Chaillu, where Miss Kingsley was fortunate 
enough to see gorillas in their natural surroundings. 
From the Ogowé she made a daring, in fact, considering 
her report, a reckless journey through the country of the | 
cannibal Fans, accompanied only by natives, and occa- | 
“ 
sionally wading swamps “up to the chin in water” until 
she emerged on the Gabun estuary. Next came a short 
but interesting visit to Corisco Island, a Spanish pos- | 
session ; and the last exploit recorded was the climbing 
of Great Cameroons Peak (13,760 feet) in the German 
Protectorate, a feat which Miss Kingsley says she was 
“the third Englishman” to accomplish. The description 
-of the climb is full of interest. 
The chapters on fetish, and the long appendix on trade | 
and labour in West Africa are of real value, and, being 
more serious in their style than the narrative, details 
may be accepted with some confidence. The literature of 
fetish lore on the West Coast of Africa is already by no 
means inconsiderable ; and Miss Kingsley applied herself 
diligently to the task of extending it. She acknowledges 
great assistance from white residents on the coast, 
especially from the veteran missionary, Dr. Nassau, who 
has lived in West Africa since 1851; but she also got 
much information directly from the natives. 
The doctrine of the multiple soul among the Calabar 
negroes is very well described. These souls are four— 
the soul that survives death, the shadow on the path, 
the dream soul, and the bush soul. The bush soul is 
detachable from the body, but if damaged or killed on 
its wanderings the body suffers the same fate. Hence 
old people are held in respect, even if known to be 
wicked, because their bush souls must be particularly | 
powerful and astute. The soul that survives death is 
liable to reincarnation either in a higher or lower form. 
The dream soul is the particular care of witches, who 
lay traps for it, and return it to the owner on payment. 
Miss Kingsley believes that common-sense underlies 
many even of the most revolting fetish customs ; for 
example, the custom of killing the wives of a chief on 
his death is a safeguard against poison being mixed 
in his food while he is alive. No trace of sun-worship 
was detected, nor did tree-worship: appear to explain 
many of the fetish beliefs. An instructive contrast is 
‘drawn between the beliefs and customs of the pure 
negroes of Upper Guinea, and the people of Bantu 
affinities in the Congo and Ogowé Basins. 
The relation of the African native to civilising in- 
fluences is fully considered. Miss Kingsley, in spite of 
her frank admiration of the noble characters of the 
missionaries she met, believes that they are working in an 
-entirely wrong direction, and are responsible for producing 
many of the evils they try to cure. She considers that 
NO. 1427, VOL. 55 | 
missionary teaching develops the emotional parts of a 
black man’s character, which were originally in excess, 
and does nothing for his industrial powers, which are 
naturally very feeble. She approves of teaching the 
natives to work in plantations and at trades actually 
useful to them in their present style of life, rather than 
teaching them to read and to become printers, book- 
binders, and the like. She would not interfere with 
polygamy or domestic slavery, both these institutions 
being in many ways necessary to the negro, and not 
necessarily retarding his progress in civilisation. With 
regard to the drink traffic, she shares the official view 
that the West Coast African is not particularly intem- 
perate, a large part of the imported liquor being sent far 
into the interior as payment for trade-goods, and a 
certain proportion being poured away as fetish offerings. 
Alcohol she holds to be necessary for the preservation 
of health in the swamps during the rainy season, and 
trade-gin appeared to be far less deleterious than the 
native palm-wine. 
NOTES 
M. VIOLLE has been elected a member of the Section de 
Physique of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in succession to 
the late M. Fizeau. 
Pror, W. Ramsay has been elected a corresponding member 
of the Royal Academy of Bohemia, and also of the Academy of 
Sciences of Turin. 
On April 21, Sir Archibald Geikie will commence the course 
of six lectures which he has been invited to deliver at the Johns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore, on the principles of geology. 
THE desirability of holding an International Congress of 
Mathematicians has been for some time past widely felt, and 
we are glad to announce that the project is now about to be 
realised. A Committee has been formed for the purpose of 
organising a Congress, to be held in Ziirich on August 9, Io, 
and 11, 1897, in which mathematicians from all parts of the 
world are invited to participate. The Committee includes the 
following names :—H. Bleuler and H. Burkhardt (Ziirich), L. 
Cremona (Rome), G. Dumas, J. Franel, and C. F. Geiser 
(Ziirich), A. G. Greenhill (Woolwich), A. Hertzog (Ziirich), 
G. W. Hill (West Nyack, U.S.A.), A. Hurwitz (Ziirich), F. 
Klein (Gottingen), A. Markoff (St. Petersburg), F. Mertens 
(Vienna), H. Minkowski (Ziirich), G. Mittag-Leffler (Stock- 
holm), G. Oltramare (Geneva), H. Poincaré (Paris), J. Reb- 
stein and F. Rudio (Ziirich), K. Vondermiihl (Basle), and 
F. H. Weber (Ziirich). All communications or inquiries rela- 
tive to the Congress are to be addressed to Prof. Geiser, 
Kiisnacht-Ziirich. It is confidently expected that a large 
number of mathematicians will attend the Conference. 
Pror. LOEFFLER, of Greifswald, and Dr. Frosch, assistant 
at the Koch Institute, have, says the Aritish Medical Journal, 
been entrusted with the inquiry into the foot and mouth disease, 
for which asum of 20,000 marks (1000/.) has been voted by the 
German Government. 
WE regret to have to record the following deaths :—Mr. 
Henry Charles Forde, a member of the Council of the Institu- 
tion of Electrical Engineers, and connected for many years with 
the construction and laying of submarine cables ; Major Charles 
E. Bendire, honorary curator of the Department of Oology in 
the U.S. National Museum ; Dr. Bernhard Lundgren, Professor 
of Geology in the University of Lund. 
IN consequence of the growing importance of carbide of 
calcium, and the fact that the mere contact of moisture with this 
