2o6 



NA TURE 



[Dkci-mber 29, 1898 



it is calcined, ground, and treated under pressure with' caustic 

 soda solution, whereby sodium aluminate is foimed. The 

 clear solution of aluminate is then agitated, and at the end of 

 thirty-six hours deposits 70 per cent, of its burden of alumina. 

 This alumina is dehydrated and heated until it becomes crystal- 

 line and non-hygroscopic. In this state it is shipped to Foyers, 

 where it is electrolysed in a bath of cryolite. The total fall 

 of water available at Foyers is 350 feel, and an ample supply 

 at all .seasons has been secured by the conversion of two lochs 

 into a reservoir of 4000 million gallons storage capacity — a 

 large engineering enterprise. Seven turbines are at present in 

 action, each capable of developing 700 h. p. when running at 

 140 revolutions per minute. The dynamos are of large size, 

 the commutators being six feet in diameter, and having 216 

 segments. Each dynamo has 120 brushes. The carbon elec- 

 trodes are made by the company at a factory in Greenock. 

 The aluminium turned out at Foyers is not pure enough for i 

 all purposes. The refining works are at Milton, in Stafford- 

 shire, where plant is provided for an output of four tons daily. 

 Aluminium now at is. yl. per lb. is bulk for bulk cheaper than 

 copper, brass or tin. The works at Foyers have called into 

 existence a small village, which appears to be well looked after 

 by the directors of the company. It already boasts a club, which 

 provides recreation and instruction for the workmen. 



Letters have Utely appeared in the Lancel wtth reference 

 to the colours of newly- born negro children. Several medical 

 men have given the result of their experience, and the evidence 

 shows that at birth the children are of the colour of a light 

 quadroon. In a paper on the natives of the Warri district of 

 the Niger Coast Protectorate, published in the new Journal of 

 the Anthropological Institute, it is recorded that '■ pure negroes 

 when born are pink, like young rats ; at the end of about three or 

 four months they become black." Atmospheric conditions thus 

 seem to be necessary to produce the full black colour of the 

 negro. 



The Anthropological Institute has just published the first 

 number of a new series of its /oiirnal. Since the foundation 

 of the Institute an illustrated journal has been issued in 

 quarterly numbers, forming, during the twenty-seven years of 

 its existence, a series of as many volumes, containing numerous 

 papers of great scientific value and interest. The old journal 

 was a demy octavo (5A x 84 inches), but the new series is 

 larger, being imperial octavo (II x 7J inches, nearly). The 

 object of increasing the size is to include ample plates and 

 tables, and bring the journal in general uniformity with the 

 important publications of some of the continental anthro- 

 pological societies. A number of very interesting papers appear 

 in the first part of the new series, among the subjects dealt 

 with being the ethnography of the Murray Islands, Torres 

 Straits, Australian folk-lore stories, the pigmies of the Upper 

 Welle district of the Belgian Congo, A-bantu and Ashanti 

 skulls and crania, the natives of Tanna, and totemism. 



An interesting paper by Dr. Brinton, on " The Linguistic 

 Cartography of theChaco Region," has just been reprinted from 

 the Proteedini^s of the American Philosophical Society. The 

 region known as El Gran Chaco, or the Great Hunting Ground, 

 with which the paper is concerned, has always been peculiarly 

 perplexing to students of American aboriginal languages. It 

 lies in northern Argentina and eastern Bolivia, between latitude 

 18 and 32" South, and longitude 58° and 66' West of Green- 

 wich. Except by the water-ways it is almost impossible to 

 traverse the country, and for that reason extensive tracts of it 

 are still unexplored. Dr. Brinton states that the native tribes 

 wlio inhabited this region have always been in the lowest stages 

 of culture, depending on hunting and fishing for their subsist- 

 1 cicc, without settled abodes, migratory and in ceaseless warfare 

 NO. 1522, VOL. 59] 



with each other. The self-sacrificing efforts of the Jesuit and 

 Franciscan missionaries have at times succeeded in gathering 

 a few hundred together about some mission, only to be dispersed 

 again on some slight cause. Thus, some years ago, in the 

 middle of the night, the whole of the tribe of Penoquiquias, 

 which had been converted and induced to take up a fixed abode, 

 suddenly disappeared, and were never seen again. Dr. Brinton 

 discusses recent contributions to the linguistic ethnography o 

 the Chaco region, and ofTers some suggestions for the correct 

 classification of tribes of still uncertain affinities. 



On September 20 and 21, 1897, two strong earthquakes were 

 felt in the island of Labuan, near Borneo, the pulsations of 

 which were registered by magnetographs at Batavia, Bombay 

 and Potsdam, and by various pendulums at Nicolaiew, Catania, 

 Ischia, Rome, Edinburgh and the Isle of Wight. The detailed 

 records are given by Dr. .Vgamennone in the Boilillino (vol. iv. 

 No. 4) of the Italian Seismological Society, and the same writer 

 has investigated the velocity of the earth-waves in a pai^er read 

 before the R. Accademia dei Lincei (Rend., vol. vii. pp. 155- 

 162). If the initial limes be calculated from that given by the 

 Batavia magnetograms, the velocities for both earthquakes 

 would be 28 or 29 km. per sec, but there can be little doubt 

 that the earlier vibrations are not shown on these curves, and 

 that these estimates are consequently too great. Assuming, 

 however, as is probable, that the magnetographs were not 

 disturbed until the arrival of the long-period pulsations, 

 Dr. Agamennone concludes that the first pulsations travelled 

 with a velocity of 4^-6^ km. per sec, and those which 

 constituted the maximum phase with a velocity of 24-3 km. 

 per sec. 



The Zoological Society have just issued the thirty-fourth 

 volume of the Zioloi^ical A'crord, which contains a full account of 

 the zoological literature of 1897, arranged in eighteen sections 

 according to the usual plan of the work. The general editor 

 of this most helpful publication is Dr. IXivid Sharp, P'.R.S. 

 The various subjects have been undertaken by Mr. J. A. Thom- 

 son, Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, Mr. 

 G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., Mr. E. R. Sykes, Mr. E. .\. Smith, 

 Mr. G. C. Crick, Miss Florence Buchanan, Mr. A. W. Brown, 

 Mr. F. A. Bather, and Dr. R. von Lendenfeld ; while the 

 general editor himself assumes the labour of the section relating 

 to the Insecta, which occupies no less than 300 pages. The 

 volume is prefaced by an alphabetical list of the abbreviations of 

 the titles of publications used in the Kcioni, which thus becomes 

 a list of all the journals, Transactions, and other periodicals 

 issued at the present time in which zoological papers are pub- 

 lished. The number of these periodicals may be judged from 

 the fact that the list contains 52 closely-printed pages. In this 

 list the principal English libraries which contain copies of these 

 periodicals are mentioned after every title. The volume con- 

 cludes with an index to the names of nesv genera and sub- 

 genera proposed in 1897 and recorded in it, altogether 1574 '■* 

 number. The corresponding total last year was 1541. No more 

 useful piece of work could be done by the Zoological Society of 

 London to facilitate the labours of working zoologists, and it is 

 much to be regretted that all branches of science have not 

 similar publications to assist the scientific " working man." 



Several interesting papers on lutural history topics appear 

 in the Transadions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists' and 

 Microscopical Society (vol. iii. Part vii., 1898). Miss Sprague 

 describes some common objects for microscopic study; Mr. 

 W. Blacklock also deals with microscopy and some of its uses. 

 The Rev. J. II. Liwrie gives an account of coral and coral- 

 islands, with special reference to the New Hebrides group; 

 and Mr. A. Murray contributes scmie interesting notes on the 



