496 
NATURE 
[FesBruary 22, 1917 
good health of the Army to good food, in addition to 
careful sanitation. The health of the Army at all our 
fronts to-day is better than the ordinary health of the 
Army in peace-time. } 
Tue Amsterdam correspondent of the Times, in the 
issue for February 15, directs attention to the declin- 
ing birth-rate in Germany. In the week ending De- 
cember 30 the number of births in Berlin was 376, and 
in Amsterdam 331, although the population of the 
former city is only 80,000 short of three times that of 
Amsterdam. In Leipzig, with a population 50,000 
more than that of Amsterdam, the births are less than 
half those in the latter city. The marriage-rate in’ 
Berlin has also been declining, while the death-rate 
has increased. 
In 1813 Dr. Matthew Baillie and Sir Everard Home, 
“being desirous of showing a lasting mark of respect 
to the memory of the late John Hunter,” endowed an 
oration, to be called ‘‘the Hunterian oration,’ now 
given biennially, on the anniversary of Hunter’s birth- 
day, February 13. The orator for the present year, 
Surgeon-General Sir George H. Makins, took as his 
subject ‘‘ The Influence Exerted by the Military Expe- 
rience of John Hunter on Himself and the Military 
Surgeon of To-day.”’ In 1760 Hunter went as surgeon 
on the staff to Belleisle and Portugal, and was on 
active service for two years. At a later date he re- 
corded his experience in two lectures on “The Treat- 
ment of Gunshot Wounds.”” The orator contrasted 
the surgical practices there recorded with the methods 
which surgeons have been led to adopt in the present 
war, concluding that modern experience had, in the 
main, justified the principles adopted by the great 
surgeon. Hunter recognised that there was in every 
wound a strong natural tendency to heal, and that the 
surgeon’s attitude must be expectant. In the present 
war, however, experience had justified the operative, 
not the expectant, treatment of gunshot injuries of the 
abdomen and of the skull. In concluding, the orator 
drew an interesting comparison between Hunter and 
his great successor—Joseph Lister. 
Frew races are more influenced by the belief that 
they are surrounded, by numbers of malignant spirits 
than the people of Korea. To their influence they 
attribute every ill, all bad luck, official malevolence, 
loss of power or position, and especially sickness. 
According to a bulletin of the Smithsonian Institution 
recently published, these spirits are divided into two 
classes: demons, self-existent malcontent spirits of 
departed impoverished people. who died in distress; 
and spirits whose natures are partly kindly, which 
include the ghosts of prosperous and good people; 
but even the latter appear to be easily offended 
and are extraordinarily capricious. To cope with 
these demons and spirits two classes of sorcerers are 
employed—fortune-tellers, known as Pansu, and the 
Mutang, usually a woman, who claims the power of 
being possessed by, and of controlling, the spirits. 
Many of the Pansu are blind men, perhaps owing to 
the common belief among primitive peoples that those 
who have been deprived of physical sight possess an 
inner spiritual vision. The paper concludes with a 
full account of the methods employed by these two 
classes of officiants. 
Tue Congress of Archzeological Societies issues_ the 
report for 1916 of the Committee on Ancient Earth- 
works and Fortified Enclosures. Vandalism, due to 
carelessness or ignorance, is always to be feared and 
must constantly be guarded against. By the vigil- 
ance of local archxologists the danger to earthworks 
and other remains in the neighbourhood of Stone- 
NO. 2469, VOL. 98] 
henge, due to military operations, has been averted. 
A more serious problem arose regarding the protection 
of Cannington Park Camp in Somerset, owing to 
mining operations. ‘This case,” the committee ob- 
serves, “brings out forcibly a weak point in the 
Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment 
Act, viz. that there exists no power to give com- 
pensation, or to acquire a site, where the destruction 
of an earthwork or other ancient monument would be 
to the pecuniary advantage of its owner or tenant. 
It remains to be seen how far the Legislature will be 
willing in such a case to put in force the compulsory 
power of preservation that now exists.” 
Tue Smithsonian Institution has recently issued a 
bulletin describing the collection of Sioux songs by 
Miss Frances Densmore. ‘‘ The Indians,” she writes, 
“do not keep a regular rhythm throughout a song, 
but frequently alternate double and triple measures 
in a way that appears absolutely erratic, yet the song 
as a whole will have rhythmic completeness: in other 
words, the rhythm makes sense.’ Some of the most 
interesting songs recorded by her have this irregularity 
of measure-lengths, and she has found, by analysing 
the structure of about 600 songs, that the melodic 
form was connected with the idea. This she has 
followed with a test of the rhythm, by which it has 
been found that the peculiar alternating of the double 
and triple measures, into which the songs are divided, 
expresses the idea of the song. In developing this 
theory Miss Densmore has been assisted by Signor 
Alberto Bimboni, an Italian composer and conductor, - 
with whose aid about 1100 Indian songs have been 
recorded on the specially constructed phonograph which 
she takes into the field. ) 
‘ALL who were privileged to claim the friendship of 
the late Capt. F. C. Selous will applaud the fine 
appreciation of his achievements as a naturalist and 
Empire-builder, by Mr. Abel Chapman in British Birds 
for February, than whom none knew, or understood, 
him better. Mr. Chapman reviews both Selous’s work 
in Africa and his hunting expeditions in various parts 
of Europe, Asia Minor, and North America, in all of 
which he added materially not merely to our know- 
ledge of the birds and beasts of the country, but also 
to its geographical features, a fact which has been 
generally missed by those who have contributed 
obituary notices to the Press. ; 
In our issue of January 11, on p. 376, it was 
stated that the Bill for the introduction of protective 
measures designed to save some of the more interest- 
ing birds of Malta from extermination had been, at 
least temporarily, shelved. We are glad to be able 
to say that in making this announcement our corre- 
spondent was mistaken. A letter has just reached us 
from the Lieutenant-Governor’s Office pointing out 
that the regulations issued in October last by the 
Government, designed to protect birds against wanton 
and senseless destruction, are. actually in force. What 
was shelved was a motion for the appointment of a 
Commission to study and suggest amendments to the 
regulations. Since the object of the motion was to 
undo what the Government had done, the defeat of 
the scheme will cause the greatest satisfaction to all 
interested in the protection of birds, 
Tue report of the Department of Fisheries of the 
Province of Bengal and Bihar and Orissa deals, among 
other matters, with the scientific investigation of the 
fishes of these parts of India. The deputy-director, 
Mr. Southwell, points out that ‘the real development 
of the fisheries of the province depends almost wholly 
upon scientific research.’’ Reference is made to a 
