234 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 17, 1923) 

Research Items. 
THE SIKHS OF THE PunjJAB.—The present agitation 
among the Sikhs of the Punjab is critically discussed 
by a well-informed writer in the February issue of the 
Fortnightly Review. He points out that numerically 
the Sikhs constitute only 12 per cent. of the population 
of the Province, as compared with 51 per cent. Muslims 
and 36 per cent. Hindus, and that the revival of Sikh- 
ism in the period before the war was largely due to its 
encouragement by the British officers in Sikh regi- 
ments. The Sikh, by his aptitude for emigration, is 
much more open to foreign influences than the stay-at- 
home Hindu, and after the war he has suffered from 
a “‘ swelled head.’’ The recent agitation has centred 
round the management of the Gurudwaras or religious 
foundations, some of which fell into the hands of ill- 
conducted Mahants or Abbots, and has been favoured 
by the influence of outside agitation. We cannot enter 
into a discussion of the proposals the writer suggests 
for the control of the agitation and the redress of 
legitimate grievances. But as an episode in the 
history of one of the leading fighting races of India 
we may direct attention to this comprehensive review 
of a situation which, if not dealt with in a statesman- 
like way, may have serious consequences. 
THE PLUNDERING OF Royat EGyptian TomBs.— 
While the recent wonderful discoveries in Egypt are 
engrossing public attention two writers in the 
February issue of Discovery have thrown welcome 
light on the subject. In the first article Prof. T. E. 
Peet tells us the little that is known of the history of 
King Tutankhamen, really a series of inferences from 
archeological remains. In the second article Dr. A. 
M. Blackman tells the strange tale of the plundering 
of the Royal Tombs at Thebes in the XXth and XXIst 
dynasties, as recorded in the Abbott Papyrus pre- 
served in the British Museum, with sidelights from 
two Meyer Papyri, now at Liverpool, recently pub- 
lished with a translation and notes by Prof. Peet. In 
spite of the tragical course of the inquiry which fol- 
lowed the outrage and the horrible examination of the 
criminals by torture, the tale of the rivalry of the two 
Mayors, Peser and Pewer’6, governors respectively of 
eastern and western Thebes, is graphic and character- 
istic: Peser acquired information of the robbery and 
thought it a good opportunity to pay off old scores 
against his hated rival, who was responsible for the 
protection of the royal sepulchres. Pewer’d ulti- 
mately was discharged, but we may reasonably 
suspect that the charges were anything but groundless, 
and that the truth of them was being gradually forced 
on the Vizier Khamwesé who conducted the inquiry. 
In fact, it would seem that the maladministration of 
the necropolis had become so notorious that even 
heavy bribes could no longer make it worth the 
Vizier’s while to continue his policy of hush. The 
tale, as a whole, shows that human nature in Egypt 
is now much the same as it was three thousand years 
ago. 
SARSEN STONES.—The origin of the name given to 
these stones in the central region of the English Chalk 
seems stillin doubt, but Sarsden village, near Andover, 
has been suggested as a possibility. The grey sand- 
stone of which sarsens are composed is widely known 
through its use at Stonehenge ; but the original bed 
in the Eocene series-seems to have been completely 
broken up by denudation. The sarsens lie as relics 
on the surface, with detrital deposits worn from the 
Eocene strata and the Chalk, and an instructive 
photograph has now appeared in the Geological 
Survey Memoir on-the country around Beaconsfield 
NO. 2781, VOLe 111] 
(Ordnance Survey, 1922, price 2s.). Here we are 
shown great blocks lying in the “ clay-with-flints ” 
of Buckinghamshire, and we learn that the stones 
are sought for by boring in the hope that the tool 
will strike on one. Following prehistoric practice, 
the builders of Windsor Castlé gathered sarsens, 
and they are still the only useful stone to be found 
in the Beaconsfield district. 
CitRUS FRuIT FROM SouTH AFRICA.—Investigations 
on waste in export citrus fruit were carried out by 
Miss Thomson, and Messrs. Putterill and Hobson, 
during 1920 and were continued during 1921, and 
the results are embodied in a report, Bull. No. 1, 
1922, Union of S. Africa, Dep. of Agriculture, Pretoria, 
1922. Care in handling is perhaps the principal 
factor upon which elimination of waste depends. 
The slightest damage in packing or in the subsequent 
handling of the cases tends to induce discoloration 
and the development of moulds which spoil the fruit. 
Cargoes can be successfully shipped to this country 
not only in cold storage, but also in holds without 
cold storage provided they be properly ventilated 
and the fruit undamaged. Proper wrapping of the 
fruit in special wax tissue wrappers reduces wilting 
considerably. The best cold storage temperature 
lies between 43° and 50° F. Change in flavour is 
particularly induced by a temperature below 40° F., 
probably by killing the cells, thus allowing the acrid- 
tasting constituents of the skin to penetrate to the 
juicy part of the fruit. 
British Mycotocy.—Volume 8, Parts I. and II. 
of the Transactions of the British Mycological Society 
contains Mr. Carleton Rea’s presidential address ; 
the views expressed by Mr. Rea as to the value of 
certain continental revisions of the systematic 
arrangement of the larger fungi will carry very great 
weight and, in the future, the microscope will certainly 
figure more prominently in the work of British 
mycologists. J. Line shows good reasons for regard- 
ing with suspicion the advent of the well-known 
“coral spot’ fungus, Nectria cinnabarina, among 
a plantation of pruned red currants; the fungus 
apparently spreads slowly from dead spurs into the 
healthy tissues with disastrous effects ultimately. 
The paper by J. Ramsbottom upon orchid mycorhiza 
is reprinted in full’ from Messrs. Charlesworth and 
Co.’s catalogue; it is a scientific contribution of 
very general interest and at the same time a tribute 
to the memory of a remarkable orchid grower, the 
late Mr. Joseph Charlesworth. Among other papers 
should be noted Dr. M. C. Rayner’s critical analysis 
of the claim recently made by Christoph to have 
raised healthy Colluna seedlings free from mycorhizal 
infection. W. B. Crow’s account of that curious 
bacterial organism Leuconostoc mesenteroides is an 
interesting example of the significance that may 
attach in classification to the chemical constitution 
of a plant membrane: another step towards the 
distant day when chemical knowledge may be freely 
used to underpin the elaborate framework erected 
by the systematist. 
Brown Bast DIsEASE OF RUBBER TREES.—A, 
Sharples has recently published (Malayan Agri- 
cultural Journal, vol. x. No. 6, June 1922) a résumé 
of recent experimental work in Malaya upon this 
problem, which is perhaps less urgent for the moment — 
as the industrial depression has decreased the demand 
for rubber, and the one fact that seems firmly estab- 
