45: 



NATURE 



[October 13, 1910 



Would it be unreasonable to suppose that in the early 

 experimental stages of the art of embalming — correspond- 

 ing to the epoch with which Prof. Petrie is dealing — similar 

 failures may have occurred, and that such a condition, for 

 example, as Prof. Petrie has described from Deshasheh, 

 where the fibula was upside down (see " Deshasheh," 

 1X98, PI. xxxvii.), would receive a natural explanation? 

 Such cases are so exceedingly rare that it is idle to quote 

 them as representing the " custom " of the country. 



.^part from these rare exceptional cases of secondary 

 burial and embalmers' " faking," all the disturbances of 

 the bones of unplundered graves result from (i) the opera- 

 tion of the force of gravity on bodies falling into decom- 

 position, and {2) the occasional action of rodents moving 

 small bones. That this is so has been conclusively demon- 

 strated by Dr. Reisner in the minute and critical examina- 

 tion of many thousands of burials in Egypt and Nubia. 

 Thus there are very precise and definite reasons for dis- 

 carding Prof. Petrie 's fantastic speculations, and for 

 accepting in their stead the simple and perfectly obvious 

 explanation of the disturbed state of the skeleton in manv 

 graves, which he who runs may read. 



The phrase " the bones even being broken to extract 

 the marrow " (o/>. di.. Nature, p. 401) calls for some 

 further comment. Does it mean that Prof. Petrie is re- 

 affirming his former statement of a belief in the practice 

 of cannibalism (already quoted)? Can he point to one 

 single case where the bones of a prehistoric Egyptian 

 have been broken post-mortem, except by grave-plunderers, 

 excavators, or the natural forces of the' denudation of the 

 soil and the disintegration of organic matter? 



In " Naqada and Ballas," p. 32, Prof. Petrie referred 

 to the forcible scooping out of the marrow as an evidence 

 of cannibalism ; but that statement was clearly inspired 

 by his lack of familiarity with the normal medullary 

 cavity of a human long bone and its relation to the 

 cancellous tissue at the ends. But he added, further, that 

 " there were grooves left by gnawing on the bones " — a 

 sure sign of anthropophagy ! Dr. Fouquet, who examined 

 -M. de Morgan's material of a similar nature, also saw 

 these grooves, but called them " syphilitic ulcers." 



Two years ago [Lancet, August 22, 1908, p. 521) I was 

 able to demonstrate that the bones of manv pre-dvnastic 

 Egyptians were certainly gnawed, but neither by man nor 

 the spirocha?te : the damage was inflicted ' bv small 

 necrophilous beetles. Although Prof. Petrie no longer 

 refers to^ these signs of gnawing, he still speaks of the 

 prehistoric Egyptian breaking human bones " to extract 

 the marrow," i.e. presumably to eat it. The whole 

 evidence afforded by excavations in Egvpt goes to prove 

 that this statement is pure fiction. 



O. Elliot Smith. 



1 he University of Manchester, October i. 



British Marine Zoology. 



'■ The proof of the pudding is in the eating," and surely 

 Prof. MacBride will admit that whether a biologica'l 

 station is or is not suitable for research must be decided, 

 not by the expensiveness of the equipment, but bv observ- 

 ing whether research is being carried on there. 



'I hat one station is ten times as large and expensive 

 as another is no advantage and no credit to it unless it 

 is also ten times as eflicient. That it is only in such an 

 establishment that Prof. MacBride can " bring research 

 to a successful issue " is, of course, an important personal 

 record, but it might be unsafe to generalise from one such 

 observation. 



I am sorry not to be able to agree with Prof. MacBride 

 m the distinctions he draws between the stations equipped 

 for research and others; and I cannot avoid a doubt as 

 to whether he has personal knowledge of the smaller 

 stations of this country. \v. A. Herdjun 



October i . 



1 SH.Ai.L gratify Prof. Herdnian's curiosity so far as 

 to say that I have worked at more than one small station 

 in this country. 



1_ fully agree that " the proof of the pudding is in the 

 eating," and I am content to leave it to the judgment of 

 NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 



my fellow-zoologists whether in reviewing the work done 

 at the various zoological stations in this country Plymouth 

 has not justified its superior equipment by the superiority 

 of the original work, both as to quantity and quality, 

 which has been accomplished there. 



E. W. M.uBride. 



Hormones in Relation to Inheritance. 



With reference to my presidential address to Section D 

 of the British Association, of which a full report appeared 

 in N.-iTURE of September 22, I must rectify an omission by 

 pointing out that the theory of the possible influence of 

 hormones in inheritance was first enunciated by Mr. J. T. 

 Cunningham in a paper in the .irchiv fur Entwickluiigs- 

 mechanik, vol. xxvi., 1908, entitled " The Heredity of 

 Secondary Sexual Characters in Relation to Hormones, a 

 Theory of the Heredity of Somatogenic Characters." It 

 was through inadvertence that the reference to Mr. 

 Cunningham's paper was not printed in the copies of the 

 address distributed at the meeting at Sheffield. 



Gilbert C. Bourne. 



.Savile House, Oxford, October 4. 



Pwdre Ser. 



My friend Mr. Frank Darwin has sent me the follow- 

 ing additional information respecting the Pwdre Ser. 



" The ' Treasury of Botany ' says that Nostoc is called 

 ' Falling Stars, ' and quotes Dryden (no reference) — 

 ' .And lest our leap from the sky prove too far, 

 We slide on the back of a new falling star, 

 .And drop from above 

 In a .jelly of love.' 

 "The note is signed M. J. B. = Berkeley, so it may be 

 trusted ^o far as that it really refers to Nostoc." 



T. McKenny Hughes. 

 Ravensworth, Brooklands .Avenue, Cambridge, 

 September 30. 



Unemployed Laboratory Assistants. 



A NUMBER of lads who have been employed as labora- 

 tory monitors in secondary schools, and w-hom the London 

 County Council are unable to retain in their service beyond 

 the age of sixteen years, have been referred to us by the 

 London County Council with the view of our placing them. 

 Some of them we have already been able to place in suit- 

 able employment, but there are still one or two on our 

 books for whom we seek situations. 



They all have an elementary knowledge of physics and 

 chemistry. Some have learned glass-blowing and bending, 

 and a few of the applicants have already passed the Board 

 of Education examination in Chemistry (Stage I.). If any 

 readers of Nature would like to have further particulars 

 of these boys, I should be glad to supply them with in- 

 formation. Godfrey E. Reiss (Hon. Sec). 



Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Association, 

 36 Denison Hou.se, 296 ^'auxhall Bridge Road, 

 London, S.W., October 5. 



THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR 

 COOPERATION IN SOLAR RESEARCH. 

 n^HIS union held a very successful meeting — the 

 -^ fourth since its foundation — on Mount Wilson 

 Observatory, California, during the last weel-c of 

 .September, \vlien there was an assembly of nearly 

 forty European astronomers and physicists, who had 

 crossed the Atlantic for the meeting, and many more 

 .American men of science. England was represented, 

 among others, by .Sir Joseph Larmor, Profs. Newall, 

 Turner, Eowler, and Mr. Dyson. The gathering, re- 

 presentative as it was of all nations actively engaged 

 in solar work, would have been even more so if a 

 number of those who h;id signified their intention of 

 being present had not at the last moment been pre- 



