5o8 



NATURE 



{March 31, 1881 



It may be pertinent to the subject of this paper to remarl^ on 

 the general appearance of the region around Hankow. A vast 

 alluvial plain extends to the horizon in all dn-ections ; whilst 

 dotted over its surface are several shallow lakes, which are lost 

 in the general flood of waters when the Yang-tse overflows Us 

 banks in the summer months. Rising abruptly out of this 

 alluvial formation are a few isolated groups of low hilN, which 

 in the time of flood stand out like islands from the surrounding 

 waste of waters. 



It would be interesting to asertain whetTier the banks of the 

 Yang tse possess this lamination whenever the river winds its 

 way through an alluvial plain. I noticed the same appearance 

 in the low banks of the estuary near the village of Wusung ; tlie 

 ■horizontal layers varying in this instance from one-tenth to one- 

 fourteenth of an inch in thickness. Shells of both fresh-water 

 and salt-" ater genera — " Paludina " and "Mactra" — were em- 

 bedded in the bank. H. B. GuppY 



An Experiment on Inherited Memory 



When I was a boy I had an electrical machine and Leyden 

 jar ; there was also a dog in the family. As a matter of course 

 I "electrified" the dog, and ever afternards during the re- 

 mainder of his natural lite he ran away in extreme terror when a 

 bottle was pre->ented to him. 



The recollection of this has recently suggested an experiment 

 that may be made by some of the readers of Nature. By 

 means of a small Leyden jar moderately charged startle both tin 

 father and the nto'.lier of an intended forthcojjing generation of 

 puppies. When these are full grown and away from their 

 parents observe whether they are at all disturbed by the sight 

 of a bottle or a Leyden jar, care being taken that the bottle is 

 never shown to the parents in the preser.ce of the offspring. 



A single experiment will not be sufficient. It should be tried 

 by several ; for which reason I su;^geit it here. There is no 

 more cruelty involved than in an ordmary practical joke. It is 

 not the pain of the shock, but its startling my-tery that frightens 

 the animal, especially if the shock is given by placing the jar on 

 a piece of tinfoil or sheet metal, and allowing the dog sponta- 

 neously to investigate by smelling the knob of the jar while his 

 fore-feet are in communication with the outer coating. Under 

 ordinary circumstances the dog obtains through his nose much 

 information concerning the projjerties of things before he actually 

 touches them, but in this case his whole life expi;rience is con- 

 tradicted by the mysterious, inodorous, diabolical vitality of the 

 vitreous fiend. A bottle thenceforth makes upon the intellect 

 of the dog a similar impression to that which a sheeted broom- 

 stick in a churchyard makes upon the similar intellect of a 

 superstitious rustic. W. Mattieu Williams 



Stonebridge Park, Willesden 



Meteors 



Three very bright meteors were observed here during the 

 month of December, iSSo. and arc, I think, worthy of record. 



1. December 2, ih. 14m. 50s. a.m. A meteor blighter than 

 Jupiter descended towards the west point of the h jrizon, passing 

 about 1° N. of Saturn, and somevvhjt farther from Jupiter, and 

 in a line therefire nearly parallel to that j nning those two 

 planets. The train was visible about three seconds. 



2. December 8, loh. 55m. 30s. p.m. A meteor as bright as 

 Jupiter desC' nded toviards the north point of the horizon, about 

 1° below ») Ursse Majoris, its path being inclined at an angle of 

 about 35° to the horizon. The train was brilliant, but vanished 

 speedily. 



3. December 24, loh. 4m. p.m. A very bright meteor, seen 

 through (or below) the clouds in the south-south-east, shot down 

 towards the south->outh-west point of the horizon, at an angle of 

 about 30°. No stars were visible in that part of the heavens at 

 the lime. J. ParNELL 



Upper Clapton, March 17 



Classification of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races 



Ln yonr issue of December 20 (p. 199), just to hand (February 

 12), I notice a contribution by Mr. A. H. Keane on the classi- 

 fication of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic races. 



As the Oran^ Setnan,; of the Malay Peninsula is only just 

 referred to, I conclude that the author has not seen Maclay's 



papers on the wild tribes of the Malayan Peninsula in the 

 second number of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royai 

 Asiatic Society and a memoir by the same writer in the Journal 

 of Eastern Asia, of which unfortunately only one number 

 appeared. On the Jakuns, Maclay, who has probably seen more 

 of their inner life and habits than any other ethnologist, writes 

 as follows of the Semang and Lakai tribes : — " Logan " (Journal 

 of the Indian Archipelago, vol. vii. p. 31, 32), "though differing 

 from some others, says that the Orang Semang are certainly 

 Negritos, but he calls them a mixed race. According to my 

 experience I must declare this also to be incorrect. 



" From my own experience and observations I have come to the 

 conclusion that the Orang Lakai and the Orang Semang are 

 tribes of the same stock, that further, in their physical habitus 

 and in respect of language they are closely connected with each 

 other, and represent a pure unmixed branch of the Melanesian 

 race ; anthropologically therefore they absolutely differ from the 

 Malays. The Melanesian tribes of the Malay Peninsula, chiefly 

 because of the form ofi their skull, which has a tendency to be 

 brachycephalic, approach the Negritos of the Philippines, and, 

 like the latter, they do not differ very widely from the Papuan 

 tribes of New Guinea." 



In the fifth number of the Journal of the Straits Branch of 

 the R.A.S., Mr. Swettenham, the Assistant Colonial Secretary 

 for the Native States S.S., thus describes the Semangs of 

 Ijoh :— 



" These people are short in stature, dark in colour, and their 

 hair is close and woolly like that of negroes, with this differ- 

 ence, that all the men wear four or five short tufts or corkscrews 

 of hair growing on the back of their heads, called yVim/J/." 



During my botanical excursion through Perak in 1877 I 

 had two Semangs as guides, answering to Mr. Swettenliam's 

 description. 



The Straits Branch of the R.A.S. is as yet in its infancy, 

 having been established only in 1877, and its Journal has pro- 

 bably not yet secured a very wide circulation, although the five 

 numbers that have been published contain probably more 

 authentic information about the Malayan Peninsula than can be 

 found elsewhere. 



The characters Mr. Keane has employed to indicate the word 

 " papiiwah " are certainly not Malayan ; at any rate it would be 

 a matter of impos4bility to secure the services of a Malay in 

 Singapore who would be capable of deciphering them. The 

 word, which is a corruption of the Malayan or Javanese adjec- 



tive puwah-puwah, is usually spelt thus — v' 



Writing about New Guinea, Crawfurd ("A Descriptive Dic- 

 tionary of the Indian Islands," p. 300) thus expresses himself 

 about the word Papua: — "Some recent geographers have 

 thought proper to give the great island the name of Papua, but 

 an innovation which is correct neither in sound, sense nor ortho- 

 graphy seems to possess no advantage over one which it has 

 borne now for nearly three centuries and a half." 



It may not be out of place here to remark that Messrs, 

 Triibner and Co. are the London agents of the Straits R.A.S. 



Singapore S.S., February 12 " II. J. MuRTON 



Fascinarion 



In the interior of the province Valdivia, South Chili, a species 

 of wood-snipe (Paipayen inc.) is often caught by the natives in 

 the following manner; — When the bird flies into one of the low 

 bushes, which in sj-ots of abiiUt three to six meties diameter are 

 found frequently in the wood meadows there, two men on horse- 

 back go round it in the same direcli.m, swinging their lazos over 

 the bash. After ten or more rounds one man slips down from 

 his horse, w hilst the other continues, leading his companion's 

 horse behind. Carefully then the first man creeps on to the point, 

 where the paipayen is sitting nearly motionless or stupefied with 

 the rider's circular movements, and kills it by a quick blow of a 

 stick. 



When I first was told so I would not believe it ; but in 1853 

 or 1854 I took part myself in this kind of capture in the hacienda 

 San Juan, in Valdivia, belonging to my chief. Dr. Philippii, 

 now professor in the University and director of the museum in 

 Santiago. I had left the house without gun, accompanied by a 

 native servant, when, in a part of the wood called Quemas, I 

 observed a paipayen fjUing into a dense but low bush of the 



