December 31, 1908] 



NATURE 



^65 



whole, the conclusion was favourable. Dr. M. C. Schuyten 

 (.•\ntwi-rp) gives some favourable evidence, so does Dr. H. 

 Haur (VVurttemberg), wlio used .Scheiner's experiment as 

 a test of fatigue. The question of suicide at school elicited 

 a very full and detailed paper from Dr. G. W. Chlopin (St. 

 Petersburg). It is obvious that national temperament, as 

 well ;is school pressure, counts for much in the percentages. 

 In Russia the suicide occurs three times as often in the 

 middle schools for boys as among the general population 

 of all ages. In Ihp middle .schools for girls the tendency 

 lo suicide is about three times weaker than at the gym- 

 nasium or real schools, and not more than in the general 

 Russian population. Xo general solution is offered. 



These papers are enough to indicate the large variety of 

 ni.iterial contained in these transactions. One general 

 Nature is obvious — personal hygiene distinctly predomin- 

 ates over environmental hygiene, although the latter 

 is far from neglected. We have no space to note the 

 papers on residential schools, school epidemics, administra- 

 tion questions, medical inspection, special schools, &c. The 



■ ilitors are to be congratulated on the practical nature 



■ •I the volumes. 



It is only right to direct .attention to the elaborate address 

 prepared by Prof. Griesbach on the relations between 

 medicine and psedagogy ; the tables are of groat value. 



f'HEHISrORIC POTTICRV /.V AMERICA. 

 'T'llK Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, has 

 issued as part of the thirteenth volume of its Pro- 

 ceedings another of its groat monographs, finely illus- 

 trated with coloured and process plates, on a group of 

 mounds in Arkansas and Mississippi, prepared by Mr. 



' teapot " variety 



Height 625 i 



C. B. Moore, who has made a speciality of this line of 

 investigation. Thesi' mounds fall into three groups : — 

 those of the Lower Arkansas, the Yazoo and Lower Sun- 

 flower Rivers, and those at Blum. .'\ number ol inter- 

 ments, many of which are of the " bunched " or contracted 

 type, has been examined, and a large collection of objects, 

 such as pottery, bone pins, shell and copper ornaments, 

 has been made. Some bones showing marks of specific 

 disease have been unearthed, but there is. some doubt 

 whether these belong to the pre-Columbian period, and 

 the sites may have been used for interments after I-^uro- 

 poans reached the country. 



The most important examples are those of pottery, 

 which, though inferior to specimens found in other sites, 

 is still highly artistic, w'oll baked, and carefully wrought. 

 It consists of pots, bowls, and bottles, of the last the 

 long-necked or carafe type being comparatively abundant. 

 An interesting variety is the " teapot " class, a vessel 

 with a more or less globular body, a circular opening at 

 the top surrounded by a low neck, with a spout and small 

 knob at opposite sides of the body. This class, for the 

 United States at least, seems to be peculiar to the 

 NO. 2044, VO!.. 79] 



.■\rkansas region. The pigments used are generally clays, 

 white or tinted with iron oxides, of which careful analyses 

 have been made by Dr. 11. F. Keller. In decoration the 

 scroll pattern is predominant ; but in one very beautiful 

 bottle the spaces in the yellow ware are defined on the 

 body in white pigment, the interior being occupied by 

 live-pointed stars and figures resembling an arrow-head, 

 soiTiewhat analogous to the copper pendants found at 

 Moundville, the circular portions of which contain 

 Swastikas or stars. 



On the base of another vessel the Swastika reappears, 

 and the same emblem is common on shells and stamped 

 ware from the southern States. Prof. Holmes, in a con- 

 tribution to this report, interprets this well-known symbol 

 as a representation of the world, the division into four 

 quarters being a convenient mode of marlcing the groups 

 of guardian deities to whom it was necessary to make 

 offerings or appeals. This explanation, however, hardly 

 accounts for the symbol in other parts of the world. On 

 the whole, these discoveries are of the highest value as 

 opening up a comparatively novel chapter in the art 

 development of prehistoric America, while the forms and 

 schemes of ornamentation deserve the attention of designers 

 in our day, who mat find much interesting suggestion 

 in the work of this early school of .'iTtistic pottery. 



INHERITANCE IN SILKWORMS.' 



IT is not surprising that animals which breed so fast 

 and occupy so little room as silkworms should have 

 alTorded the material for the experimental investigation of 

 heredity. The publication before us is the outcome of the 

 third considerable series of breeding experiments with this 

 moth. The first to appear was that of Coutagne (" Re- 

 cherches experimcntales sur I'H^redit^ chez les Vers a 

 Sole "). This work was done without a knowledge of 

 Mendel's observations, a fact which only increases the 

 value of the work in the eyes of those who are not familiar 

 with this author's other writings. The experiments, on 

 the other hand, of Kametaro Toyama were carried out 

 with the full knowledge of Mendelian principles, and were, 

 indeed, set on foot with the object of testing them. 



Mr. Kellogg 's experiments were started a year later 

 than Toyama's — in igoi. Mr. Toyama, who published his 

 results before Mr. Kellogg, obtained results confirmatory 

 of Mendelian hypotheses. But Mr. Kellogg does not find 

 this to be the case with all his characters; in fact, he 

 finds that the characters of the larvae behave in Mendelian 

 fashion in inheritance, whilst those of the cocoon exhibit 

 considerable exceptions to this rule. The author suggests 

 that the cause of this is that the cocoon characters have 

 arisen by the selection of fluctuating variations, whilst 

 those of the larvs have arisen as discontinuous variations. 



Mr. Kellogg's position with regard to the application 

 of Mendelian principles to his results may be stated in 

 his own words: — "Toyama finds the larval variation of 

 colour-pattern and the cocoon differences of colour to follow 

 Mendel's law. I do not. By the use of many repetition 

 or check lots I find the larval characters to e.xhibit a great 

 fidelity to Mendelian principles in their mode of inherit- 

 ance, but with the cocoon colours I find exceptions so 

 numerous, so varied, and so pronounced as to le.ad me 

 to lay great stress on the potency or influence of individual 

 or strain idiosyncrasies." 



The chief criticism we are inclined to make is that far 

 too little numerical evidence is given for the generalisa- 

 tions which are made. In an experiment in which nearly 

 everything turns on the numerical proportion in which 

 individuals with particular characters occur, we look for a 

 far more detailed account of the results obtained. For 

 example, Mr. Kellogg whets our appetite by telling of his 

 experiments with a character of the egg, or rather of the 

 female which lays it. Most races lay eggs which stick 

 to the box in which they are laid, whilst some strains of 

 the Bagdad race lay " non-adhesive " eggs. " The one 

 race in mv possession whose eggs are regularly (this 

 regularity is not absolute) non-adhesive is th;.' Bagdad 



1 " Inheritance in Silkworms." Pjr Vernon L. Kellogg Leland Stanford 

 Junior I'n-versity Publications. Ui.iversily Series, No. i. Pp.89. tCali- 

 fornia : Stanford University, igc8.) 



