624 

urging upon the University the importance of his 
subject, whether from the scientific or the historical 
point of view. He secured the services of able col- 
leagues, and by his own powers of organisation and 
the unceasing labour which he brought to bear upon 
his work, he succeeded in vindicating for geography 
something like its proper place in the studies of the 
University. Prof. Herbertson had done good service 
as a member of the Royal Commission on Canals and 
Waterways, and in 1910 he was president of the Sec- 
tion of Geography of the British Association. His 
numerous publications are well known to all geo- 
graphers, two of particular scientific importance. being 
an ‘Atlas of Meteorology” (with Mr. J. G. Bartholo- 
mew) and “The Distribution of Rainfall over the 
Land.” His death took place on July 31, at fifty years 
of age, after a somewhat protracted period of ill- 
health. 
UnpbeER the title of ‘‘ War, Wounds, and Disease,” 
Sir William Osler has published a very useful little 
article in the July number of the Quarterly Review. 
He takes for his text a dismal old saying, that 
“Disease, not battle, digs the soldier’s grave.’’ It 
dug that grave deep for the Walcheren Expedition : 
23,000 deaths from disease, against 217 killed in 
action. Again, in the Russo-Turkish war of 1820, 
there were 40,000 Russians in the hospitals. Sir 
William Osler reproduces here a very notable diagram, 
from an article by Kozlovski, showing the losses from 
disease, and the losses of killed and wounded, in the 
Crimean and other wars. We are often told that the 
Japanese, in the Russo-Japanese war, were notably 
free from disease; but it appears, from Capt. Cul- 
mann’s paper in the Journal of the R.A.M.C., vol. 
xiii., that they had no fewer than 51-4 of their strength 
on the sick list. In the present war, we are justly 
proud and thankful that the incidence of disease has 
been light, thanks to the splendid work of the Army 
Medical Department and the Army Transport Service. 
Sir William Osler directs attention to the very large 
proportion of our wounded who are able to return to 
their arduous duty; it is no fewer than 60 per cent. 
Then, after noting the unhappy frequency of illnesses 
from exposure—pneumonia, bronchitis, rheumatism— 
he reviews the diseases of infection, most of which, in 
other wars, have been so terrible: wound-infection, 
tetanus, gas-gangrene, typhus, cerebro-spinal fever, 
typhoid, cholera, and venereal disease; and to these 
he adds a note on cases of over-strained and over- 
borne ‘‘nerves.’’ Happily, he is able to give a very 
good report of the general health of the Army; but 
he warns us that the danger is not yet past. ‘‘On 
the whole, the country may be congratulated on the 
comparatively small part disease has so far played in 
the great war. There has been no epidemic on a 
large scale; and with effective measures it may 
be hoped that we shall escape the terrible experiences 
of South Africa and the Crimea.” 
Tue United States Government in the Philippine 
Islands has displayed laudable zeal-in collecting in- 
formation on the ethnography of the native races. In 
1g11-the Governor-General_ directed. that. each; provin- 
cial governor should call together the old men of each 
NO. 2388, VOL. 95] 
NATURE 


[AUGUST 5, I9I5 

tribe and collect all available information about the 
community in his charge. In reply to this circular 
about 600 reports of varying interest and value have 
been received. As a first instalment, Mr. J. A. Robert- 
son, librarian, Philippine Library, Manila, has com- 
piled a monograph on the Igorots of Lepanto, pub- 
lished in the Philippine Journal of Science for Novem- 
ber, 1914, giving a number of interesting facts on the 
social life, manners and customs, magic and religion 
of this tribe. The report is provided with a biblio- 
graphy and some useful photographs, and may be 
recommended to ethnologists. 
Tue Pioneer Mail of June 18 reports an interesting 
lecture delivered at Simla,jby Capt. Acton, health 
officer, on snakes and snake-charmers. Many snake- 
charmers pretend that they owe their immunity to 
graduated doses of venom, but examination of several 
individuals failed to verify this statement. The snake- 
charmer atthe Calcutta Zoological Gardens rubs 
venom into any cut he receives, but he uses per- 
manganate and anti-venene whenever he is bitten. 
Unless graduated injections could be carried on for a 
year, or at least six months, they would not be suffi- 
cient to resist the huge dose of venom from a cobra’s 
bite. Many of them often carry about the non- 
poisonous John’s earth snake, which is shown to the 
credulous as double-headed. As a matter of fact, 
immunity is secured by careful handling of the reptiles, 
the charmers being taught the art from early youth. 
Their remedies fall into three classes: snake-stones ; 
drugs and herbs like arsenic, antimony, arislotochia, 
and opium; invocations and magical formule. “It 
is,’ he observed, ‘ta well-recognised principle in medi- 
cal science that any disease which has a host of 
reputed cures means only one thing—that there is no 
cure, and that the disease has a small death-rate. 
About 90 per cent. of the cases survive whatever 
remedy is employed, and this large percentage gives 
sufficient excuse for reputed cures.” 
SoME interesting notes on the habits of the four- 
horned spider-crab (Pisa tetraodon) appear in the 
Zoologist for July, by Mr. H. N. Milligan. The author’s 
observations were made upon captive specimens in the 
aquaria in the Horniman Museum, where this species 
appears to thrive. The facts recorded refer mainly 
to the behaviour under the stimulus of fear, the 
manner of attaching seaweed and other foreign 
bodies to the shell, and the apparently abnormal relish 
which the females exhibit for their own eggs, which 
are devoured almost as soon as laid. Since these are 
of a bright vermilion colour, and very conspicuous, 
they would seem to be warningly coloured in so far 
as other egg-eating animals are concerned. Whether 
Pisa tetraodon habitually devours its own eggs when 
at large there is at present no means of discovering. 
Two admirable essays, the one on the ‘‘ Home Life 
of the Kestrel,’ by Mr. Oswald Wilkinson, the other 
on ** Hobbies in the Vale of White Horse,” by the Rev. 
J..G. Cornish, appear in Wild Life for July. In each 
case a most careful study of the nesting habits and 
care of the young is given, and these notes are supple- 
mented by a series of very beautiful photographs. 
