568^ 



NA TURE 



\AprU 14, 1887 



Dr. Franz Boas, who visited the Indian tribes of British 

 Columbia in the autumn of 1886, has presented in a preliminary 

 Report some of the results of his journey. The large wooden 

 huts of these tribes, their canoes, their fishing-gear, and hunting- 

 methods have often been described, but Dr. Boas points out 

 that their traditions, religious ideas, and social organisation are 

 not equally well known. The principal figure in the mythology 

 of several of them is a raven, who created all things, not for the 

 benefit of mankind, but " in order to revenge himself." Can- 

 nibalism is practised by some tribes in connexion with the 

 winter dances ; and there is a Kwakiutl tradition, to the effect 

 that one of their ancestors descended from heaven, wearing a 

 ring of red-cedar bark, and taught the people the cannibal 

 ceremonies. These ceremonies have been adopted only in part 

 by theQomoks, who content themselves with eating "artificial" 

 bodies, which they prepare "by sewing dried halibut to a 

 human skeleton." Among the Tsimpshian, the Tlingit, and 

 the Haida, children belong to the mother's' gens ; among the 

 Kwakiutl and Selish tribes they belong to the gens of the father. 

 In some tribes there are as many as from fifteen to twenty 

 gentes. Members of the same gens are not allowed to inter- 

 marry. 



A WORK on " Physiological Psychology," by Prot. George 

 T. Ladd, of Yale, will shortly be published. The writer, 

 according to Science, maintains "a philosophical and psycho- 

 logical stand-point, while admitting to their proper place the 

 conclusions reached by physiology respecting the nature and 

 functions of the nervous system." 



The new numbers of "Studies in Microscopical Science," 

 edited by Mr. A. C. Cole, deal with defoliation, spermatozoa 

 in the Invertebrata, acute parenchymatous nephritis, fibrosis of 

 kidney, and microbes. 



The seventh Deutsche Geographentag will be held at Carls- 

 ruhe to-day. The chief papers will relate to the German African 

 colonies. 



Shocks of earthquake were felt at Friedau (Carniola) on 

 March 27, and at Travnik, in Bosnia, on March 31, at 3.30 a.m. 

 In the night of April I there was a severe shock at Forli, in 

 Italy. 



We have received from the Johns Hopkins University a new 

 number (vol. iii. No. 9) of the series of " Studies from the 

 Biological Laboratory." These "Studies," issued from time to 

 time, contain most of the original scientific papers published by 

 members of the Biological Department of the University. The 

 editor and associate-editor are Dr. H. Newell-Martin and Dr. 

 W. K. Brooks. The present number is a paper, by Dr. J. R. 

 Duggan, on the influence of alcohol on the conversion of starch 

 by diastase. 



In a statistical work which is being published, M. E. Levas- 

 seur, of Paris, shows that the chances of living long at any 

 given age are much greater now in France than they were before 

 1789. Of 2000 infants (under one year) 1186 survived in 1789 ; 

 1460 survive at present. In 1789, 738 persons out of 2000 

 reached the age of 40 ; the number now is I no. In 1789, 144 

 persons out of 2000 lived to the age of 75 ; the number now is 

 360. The death-rate of France is much the same as that of 

 England, being rather superior at some ages, and inferior at 

 others. 



Dr. Dudgeon, of Pekin, has at last published in Chinese a 

 complete work on anatomy, at which he has been working for 

 some years past. The printing was done by the press of the 

 Tung- Wen or Foreign Language College, and the whole expense 

 was borne by the Chinese Government. In accordance with 

 Eastern custom, the title-page of the book is written by one of 

 the Chinese Ministers who is celebrated for his beautiful calli- 



graphy, and there are several prefaces by some of the highest 

 officials of the Empire commending the work to the study jf 

 their countrymen. There are in all six volumes, two containing 

 (he illustrations, six hundred being plates. The latter were cut 

 on blocks by native artists. Copies were presented to all ;he 

 Ministers and other high officials. The companion work on 

 physiology is almost ready for the press. 



In an article on " The Phylogeny of the CamelidtC," lately 

 printed in the American Niititralist extra, Mr. E. D. Cope 

 points out that the development of the camel in North America 

 presents a remarkable parallel to that of the horse. The 

 ancestors of both lines appear together in the Wasatch or lowest 

 Eocene, and the successive formi develop side by side in all the 

 succeeding formations. Both lines died oat in North America, 

 and of the two, the camels only have certainly held their own in 

 South America. The history of the succession of horses in 

 Europe, although not so complete as that in America, extends 

 over as wide a period of time. Not so with the camels. There 

 is no evidence of the existence of the camel line in the Old 

 World before the late Miocene epoch ; and so far as the exist- 

 ing evidence goes, the New World furnished the camel to the 

 Old. 



In the American Meteorological Journal, Mr. M. W. Harring- 

 ton is giving a full and very interesting account of the Chinook 

 winds. The "Chinooks" are warm, dry, westerly or northerly 

 winds occurring on the eastern slopes of the mountains of the 

 north-west, beginning at any hour of the day, and continuing 

 from a few hours to several days. Mr. Harrington says they 

 may occur when a cyclone or anticyclone passes on such a 

 course that the air is forced over the mountains from the western 

 to the eastern slope. They are, therefore, winds similar to the 

 " fohn " of Switzerland. In adding them (as Mr. G. M. Dawson, 

 of the Geological Survey of Can.ada, had already done) to the 

 cLiss of winds of which the "fohn" is the type, Mr. Harring 

 ton points out that he is simply adding another to an already 

 extensive list. Dr. Jelinek, in 1867, called attention to the fact 

 that winds on the eastern slopes of the Caucasus were of this 

 character. A similar wind occurs under the lee of the Elburz 

 Mountains. Trebizond is in the lee of a high range of moun- 

 tains, and has similar winds. They are common on the north 

 side of the Pyrenees, and on the south coast of the Bay of 

 Biscay. A similar wind has long been known in West Green- 

 land, and Hoffmeyer proved, some years ago, that it is of the 

 same character as the "fohn." It has been felt as far north 

 as 825" of latitude. Mr. Scott suggests that the hot winds of 

 South Africa and parts of Australia are of the same character, 

 while the analogy is proved complete for the hot "north- 

 westers " of the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand. 



The first number of the American journal The Stevens 

 Indicator, in its new form as a quarterly, contains an article 

 giving a glowing account of the general prosperity of the 

 Stevens Institute. The advance secured is attributed mainly 

 to the wise and energetic leadership of President Morton. 

 "To him," says the Indicator, "belongs the honour of 

 realising, more than twenty years ago, when the Institute 

 was first planned, that it would find its most useful 

 work in the then almost unoccupied field of mechanical engi- 

 neering, and that to this work it should confine, for a series of 

 years at least, all its resources and efforts. How well the plans 

 have succeeded is borne out by the long list of graduates who 

 have been sent forth into positions of honour and trust, of in- 

 fluence and remuneration, by Stevens Institute during the last 

 twelve years." 



Capt. Gates, of the ship L. Schipp, has reported to the U.S. 

 Hydrographic Oflice that on April 19, i886, when he was off 

 Cape Horn, on a voyage from San Francisco to Liverpool, the 



