JANUARY 22, 1914] 
Aires in the middle of this year. His base will be in 
the Weddell Sea, and he has planned sledging expedi- 
tions for three parties.in different directions for the 
exploration of the adjacent parts of the Antarctic 
continent, followed by an advance to the pole. His 
scheme, except in so far as it does not include a 
journey across the continent, as Shackleton’s does, 
certainly resembles the latter closely, but it can scarcely 
be supposed that there is not room for both. — Dr. 
K6nig’s expedition will carry a wireless telegraphic 
installation, and leave another in South Georgia. With 
his experience in the recent German expedition, and 
the advice of Count Wilczek and Capt. Amundsen, Dr. 
Konig is well fitted for success, and between Sir 
Ernest Shackleton’s work and his the great physio- 
graphical problem of the relationship between the 
eastern and western parts of the Antarctic land-area 
should in two or three veavs be on the way toward 
solution. 
Tue collection of the late Dr. Franklin Parsons, 
formerly of the Local Government Board Medical Ser- 
vice, has been left to the Croydon Museum, and con- 
sists of many thousands of geological, zoological, and 
botanical specimens. Unfortunately, the Corporation 
of Croydon has not at present seen its way to accept 
the valuable bequest. A proposal of the Roads Com- 
mittee, which has the care of the park in which the 
Grange Wood Museum is situated, that the gift should 
be declined, was referred back, so that the collection 
might be examined by experts before a final decision 
is arrived at. A great deal of the collection is of 
considerable local interest. Some expense would be 
incurred for arranging and housing the collection, and 
there is a growing feeling that the oversight of the 
museum should now be transferred to the Libraries 
Committee, with a regular annual grant for its up- 
keep. The specimens now bequeathed are for the 
most part in good condition, and accurately labelled, 
and would be acceptable to any !ocal museum. It is 
proposed by experts who are now examining the 
collection that the duplicates should be distributed 
amongst the schools in the borough, and no doubt 
in any case these will be greatly enriched by the 
bequest. An opportunity is now afforded of putting 
the Croydon Museum on a sound basis as regards 
upkeep and development. 
THE question of the systematic teaching of the prin- 
ciples of anthropology raised, not for the first time, 
by Sir R. Temple, at the Birmingham meeting of the 
British Association, has now reached a practical stage. 
The proposal, supported by distinguished adminis- 
trators in India and the Colonies, finds further justifi- 
cation in the recent report of the Commission on 
University Education in London, which states that 
“it is almost as important that officials, and others 
intending to spend their lives in the East or in parts 
of the Empire inhabited by non-European races, should 
have a knowledge of their racial characteristics as 
that they should be acquainted with their speech, and 
we believe that the Colonial Office shares this view.” 
The scheme now prepared by a committee provides for 
the collaboration of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 
NO. 2308, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
591 
tute, the British Association, the universities, the 
Foreign, India, and Colonial Offices, and the Civil 
Service Commissioners, in supporting existing schools 
of anthropology, establishing them where they do not 
exist, and providing laboratories, libraries, and 
museums. In support of these proposals a meeting 
is announced to be held at Drapers’ Hall, on Thursday, 
February 19, with the Earl of Selborne in the chair, 
when a deputation will be appointed to lay the pro- 
posals before the Prime Minister. The matter has 
been more than once brought before the Ministry, but 
never with such well-organised support; and it will 
be little short of a scandal if these representations fail 
to secure the adequate settlement of a question of 
great public importance. 
A RouTE by which it is possible to penetrate to the 
bottom of the Vesuvian crater, more than 1200 ft. 
below its rim, was discovered some time ago by Prof. 
Alessandro Malladra, and has already been utilised 
for the purpose of obtaining a kinematograph film, 
Mr. F. Burlingham, an American operator—who had 
already shown his skill and boldness by getting a 
pictorial record of an ascent of the Matterhorn— 
accompanied by two of the “crystal-hunters ” of Vesu- 
vius, acting as porters, accomplished the difficult 
feat without misadventure either from stone 
avalanches or poisonous gases, and the results of the 
undertaking are now being exhibited in London. 
Although these results are more important from a 
spectacular than from a scientific point of view, yet 
there can be little doubt that Mr. Burlingham, by 
proving that not only can a descent be safely made, 
but that heavy apparatus may be conveyed to the 
crater-floor, has paved the way for scientific work, in 
which temperature observations, the collection of 
gases for analysis, and similar investigations may be 
carried out. In The Times of January 13 Mr. Burl- 
ingham has given, under the title, ‘Inside Vesuvius : 
Lessons from a Descent of the Crater,” a very clear 
and modest account of his remarkable feat. He be- 
lieves that his observations indicate that a new 
eruption of Vesuvius is more imminent than the 
officials at the observatory anticipate, but he at the 
same time admits that the formation of a lateral vent 
and flow of lava on the flanks of the mountain may 
falsify his predictions on the subject. The kinemato- 
graph has already proved its usefulness in many lines 
of scientific research, and may in the future render 
valuable aid in vulcanological studies. 
Dr. E. T. Witson, president of the Cheltenham 
Natural History Society, has published a useful paper 
on the long-barrow men of the Cotswolds. He gives 
a’ good summary of the excavations of a large series 
of barrows, describing their construction, and the 
furniture of the interments. The history of their 
builders, he remarks, ‘‘teems with contradictions and 
puzzles which will require for their solution the addi- 
tional evidence to be obtained by the opening up of 
unexplored barrows in Gloucestershire and Wilts.” 
But as much valuable material has already been lost 
by careless investigations, it may be hoped that future 
excavation will be deferred until it can be systematic- 
ally undertaken by qualified experts. 
