6.^o 



NATURE 



[February 6, 191, 



are able to seek out their food, and are not dependent 

 only upon what they may filter from the sea-water, j 

 The investigation has also brought to light a notable 

 change in the reactions of sea-water at different 

 seasons of the vear, no doubt in correlation with the \ 

 development of vast quantities of plankton-organisms. 



60i?o 5^f*» 



I 



Fig. 2. — .Absorption b.^ndsvof pigments. 



In spring (April) th? water, not only near the shore 

 Due in the open sea, is acid to phenolphthalein, while 

 in summer (August) it is distinctly alkaline to the 

 same indicator, a change which signifies an enormous 

 conversion of carbon in the inorganic into carbon in 

 the organic form. 



Prof. Moore, Dr. .Adams, and others 

 have studied the chemical changes taking 

 place in the reproductive organs of the 

 sea-urchin. They have found that, under 

 normal conditions of nutrition, the amount 

 of food consumed by a sea-urchin is many 

 times that required for the ordinary meta- 

 bolic uses of the animal. The excess is 

 converted into storage products — glycogen, 

 lecithides, and fats — which, throughout 

 the non-breeding period, accumulate in 

 the reproductive organs in quantities as 

 great as are usually found in the liver or 

 hepato-pancreas of other animals, and 

 form a reserve for use during the breed- 

 ing season. 



Prof. Herdman has continued his ob- 

 servations on the occurrence of the dino- 

 flagellate Amphidinium on the beach at 

 Port Erin, and records certain variations 

 in the form of this organism, and the 

 alternate appearance in the same area, 

 during the early part of the year, of 

 .Amphidinium and of diatoms (c/. Nature, 

 November 28, 1912, p. 371). 



Prof. Herdman and his assistants have 

 collected and examined, during igi2, 

 about 400 samples of plankton from Port 

 Erin and the neighbourhood. These show 

 that diatoms, dinoflagellatcs, and cope- 

 pods succeed each other in the summer 

 plankton of the Irish Sea. The autumnal 

 phyto-plankton increase was greater than 

 usual in 1912, immense numbers of 

 diatoms, chiefly Chaetoceras, being pre- 

 sent in the latter part of September. 

 Plankton gatherings were also made along 

 the chain of the Outer Hebrides, and pro\ 1 d to be 

 oceanic in character. 



During this Hebridean cruise, specimens of the 

 ascidian Syntethys hebridictis were dredged. They 

 were pale green when alive, but when placed in spirit 

 became mauve or violet in colour. The colour is due 

 to a new pigment, syntethinc, the absorption-bands of 

 which differ from those of chlorophyll and bonelleinc 

 (see Fig. 2). 



NO. 2258, VOL. 90] 



NOTES ON THE CEREMONIES OF 

 THE HO PI A 



MR. H. R. VOTH is known to all students of 

 North American ethnology for his researches^ 

 into the sociology and religion of various Pueblo 

 groups, and now, owing to the resources of the Stanley 

 -McCormick benefaction, they are indebted to him for 

 further studies on the Hopi of Arizona. The descrip- 

 tion of the Oraibi winter and summer Marau cere- 

 monies is the result of several partial observations in 

 different years; as the ceremonies are sometimes going 

 on day and night, it is a physical impossibility for one 

 man to make an exhaustive study of a nine-day (and 

 night) ceremony at one time, but a protracted study of 

 the same ceremony, on different occasions, has several 

 compensations, and it is evident that Mr. Voth has 

 done all that was possible to render his account 

 accurate and as complete as circumstances would 

 permit. 



.As an instance of Mr. Voth's method, it may be 

 mentioned that he gives the names of those who take 

 important parts in the ceremonies. Even these 

 isolated villages are subject t^c the social and religious 

 influence of the white mar, lese careful investiga- 



tions are of especial value, in addition, "Strife and 

 contentions between the different factions have driven 

 a large part of the inhabitants from the village [of 



Oraibi]. These have started new villages. This fact 

 makes it highly probable that the Marau ceremony, 

 as well as the others, will, in the future, never be 

 the elaborate affairs that they used to be in the 

 past." 



1 Field Museum of Natural Historj . Anthropological series, vol. xl.. 

 No. I, Publiration No. is6. "The Oraibi Mirau Ceremony." By H. R. 

 Voth. Pp. 8li + plales. Vol. xi . No. 2. Publi.ation 157. " Brief Miscel- 

 laneous Hopi Papers." liy H. R. Voth. Pp. V+99-149. (Chic.igo, 1912). 



