144 
NATURE 
[APRIL 11, 1912 
Tue alleged traces of primitive man in Argentina, 
the tierras cocidas of Monte Hermoso, have been 
often referred to in these pages. The views of the 
late Florentino Ameghino have found a supporter in 
Colonel A. A. Romero (Anales del Mus. Nac. de 
Buenos Aires, vol. xxii., 1911, p. 11). It is argued 
that we know little of man’s precursors, that they 
may go back to a high antiquity, and that the group- 
ing of the ‘‘scoria’’ sometimes suggests a united 
camp-fire. The petrographic arguments now adduced, 
and the very defective photographs of thin slices, do 
not add much to the discussion. The scoriaceous 
earths containing vegetable remains, as shown in 
plate viii., are much more to the point, as opposing 
a volcanic origin. 
In the Journal of the College of Agriculture, Impe- 
rial University of Tokyo, vol. ii., No. 7, Mr. Kama- 
Ikichi Kishinouye describes an interesting collection 
illustrating prehistoric fishing in Japan. This collec- 
tion was made from a large series of shell-mounds 
of the Neolithic period, associated with numerous 
flint implements, pottery, the hard parts of molluscs, 
fish, turtle, birds, marine, and land mammals. The 
fishing implements are of the most varied description, 
including stone arrow and harpoon heads, others of 
bone or horn, sinkers, &c. In their form they closely 
resemble implements of the same period found in 
these islands. The fishing-hooks have usually barbs 
on the outer side of the stem. One fine landing-hook 
or gaff, the only example found, is made of horn, 
about 130 mm. in length, and bent in the middle at 
an angle of about 90°. This prehistoric race seems 
to have possessed little of the artistic capacity of their 
successors, but some clay dishes bear representations 
of haliotis or anodonta shells, and on another appears 
a design which may represent the head of a shark. 
This valuable paper is accompanied by excellent illus- 
trations of typical specimens. 
Parts ili. and iv. of vol. viii. of Biometrika have 
been issued together as a double number. Of the 
principal articles three—on Egyptian, negro, and 
pygmy crania respectively—deal with craniology; the 
two former are from the pen of Miss H. Dorothy 
Smith, the latter edited by Prof. Pearson from the 
work of the late Dr. Crewdson-Benington. Mr. Carr 
Saunders discusses the relation between pigmentation 
and disease on the basis of data derived from the 
medical survey of school children at Birmingham, 
but, unlike earlier workers in the same field, such as 
Shrubsall and Macdonald, fails to find any appreciable 
relation. Of the remaining articles we may specially 
direct attention to three, by Dr. Maynard and Prof. 
Pearson, bearing on the interpretation of data relat- | 
ing to the appearance of multiple cases of disease in 
the same house. The supplementary tables calculated 
by Mr. Everitt for facilitating the determination of 
Prof. Pearson’s coefficient for a fourfold table should 
also be mentioned. 
A NEW “quarterly review of scientific thought,” 
with the somewhat imposing title of Bedyvock, has 
number, several are distinctly noteworthy. Prof. 
Welton discusses the value, to the teacher and to the 
scientific worker, of a logic of method, and his com- 
ments on teaching should prove useful and stimulat- 
ing. The good teacher, says Prof. Welton, shows his 
pupil how to go along the high road; the old- 
fashioned bad teacher plumped him down at_ his 
destination, as if he had been transported there on a 
magic carpet; the bad new-fashioned teacher turns 
him adrift, giving him no indication of the way. Dr. 
Archdall Reid contributes a characteristic discussion 
of recent researches in alcoholism, and the reader will 
find it interesting to follow this by a perusal of Dr. 
Gossage’s article on ‘‘ Human Evidence of Evolution.” 
Prof. Poulton’s examination of the facts of mimicry 
as a crucial test between the theories of Darwin and 
of Bergson is both admirable and timely, but would 
have been more easy to follow if the publishers could 
have seen their way to give the illustrative plates 
in colour instead of in black and white. The articles 
on ‘Interaction between Passing Ships,’ by Prof. 
Gibson, and on ‘‘The Stars in their Courses’ (sub- 
stantially the Halley lecture) by Prof. Turner, take 
the reader into different fields of thought, and are 
both written in a simple and attractive style. Alto- 
gether the new quarterly opens well. 
Tue report of the Rugby School Natural Hig 
Society for 191r records the retirement of its late 
president, Mr. Henderson, one of whose last official 
acts was the inauguration of the successful exhibition 
held in March of the year under review. The astro- 
| nomical section, which lapsed a few years ago, has 
been revived, and is doing well, but in the zoological 
section (which appears to be restricted to ornithology, 
entomology forming a section by itself) the secretary 
deplores the lack of enthusiasm displayed by the 
members. 
Two unusually interesting new mammals from 
Tonkin were described at the meeting of the 
Zoological Society on March 19. The first was a 
| civet resembling the banded Hemigale hardwickei of 
| the Malay countries in colouring, but distinguished 
by the spatulate crowns of its milk-incisor teeth—a 
difference which its describer, Mr. Thomas, regards 
as of generic value. The second, described by Mr. 
Dollman, was a snub-nosed monkey of the genus 
Rhinopithecus, of which three species, from western 
and central China and the Mekon valley, were pre- 
viously known. 
THE insects causing damage to the chir pine (Pinus 
longifolia) in the north-west Himalaya form the sub- 
ject of vol ii., part 2, of the Indian Forest Memoirs. 
| The timber of the chir is much used for a variety of 
been launched on its career this month by Messrs. | 
ea the articles 
215, VOL. 89] 
Constable. included in 
NO 
the first 
purposes in India, owing to the ease with which it 
is worked, and the tree is also tapped for resin, as a 
source of turpentine. The long list of insect pests by 
which this tree attacked given by E. P. Steb- 
bing shows how sorely it stands in need of protection, 
one of the worst of these being the beetle Platypus 
wilmoti, the larvz of which bore into the very heart 
of the timber. Special attention is directed to the 
insects parasitic on, or preying upon, the mischievous 
species. 
is 
