NATURE 
[May 30, 19r2 
account of Mendel’s laws is illustrated by coloured 
diagrams, Proceeding to the consideration of 
eugenics in particular, the author maintains that at 
the present time the chief task of the eugenist is the 
collection of accurate family histories, more especi- 
ally the results of consanguineous marriage. The 
possibilities in this direction are illustrated by good 
genealogical charts of the Habsburg dynasty, show- 
ing the occurrence of the famous lip and the remark- 
able amount of consanguineous marriage. In con- 
clusion, the author gives a tabular summary of types | 
of inheritance. With regard to the practical aspect, 
he considers that the science of eugenics is still in a | 
very elementary stage; its task is rather investiga- 
tion than drastic action, for which our knowledge is 
not yet ripe. 
Tue Research Department of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society brought its worthy career to a 
close on Thursday, May 23, with a valedictory address 
by the chairman, Prof. J. L. Myres. It is not to 
be supposed that the society’s efforts at encouraging 
research in geographical subjects have been tried 
and found wanting; rather they have been attended 
with such success that it is in future intended to add 
to their efficacy by making the afternoon meetings | 
at which research subjects have hitherto been dis- 
cussed no longer departmental meetings, but meet- 
ings of the society as a whole. Prof. Myres pointed 
out in his address some of the important branches of 
study that have come under the purview of the depart- 
ment—branches which fully justify a wider view 
being taken of them. They include new methods of 
surveying, problems of geomorphology (especially 
those affecting rivers and coasts), of hydrography and 
of climatology, various regional and _ synthetical 
studies and investigations from the point of view of 
distribution, physical changes within historic times, 
and the exploration or investigation of particular 
territories with special regard to conditions affect- 
ing their settlement and economic development. The 
list -is nearly, if not quite, as comprehensive as the 
term “ geography ’’ itself. 
On May 6 the Aéro Club of Washington held a 
field day in commemoration of the anniversary of Dr. | 
S. P. Langley’s first successful flight with his model 
steam ‘‘aérodrome”’ on May 6, 1896, when the prac- 
ticability of mechanical flight was demonstrated. The 
successful model was a steam-driven, double-propeller | 
tandem biplane, having a total sustaining surface, 
without the tail, of 68 square feet, and a total flying | 
weight of 26 Ib. Its engine was rated at about one | 
horse-power. In the initial flight the machine re- 
mained in the air for one minute and thirty seconds, 
and traversed a distance of about 3000 ft., a little more 
than half a mile. It landed safely in the Potomac | 
River, as had been planned, was taken out, immedi- 
ately put on the track, and relaunched. In the second | 
flight a repetition of the former success followed. In 
a subsequent report on the subject Dr. Langley 
said :—''A flying machine, so long a type for ridicule, 
has really flown; it has demonstrated its practicability 
in the only satisfactory way—by actually flying, and 
by doing this again and again under conditions which | 
NO. 2222, VOL. 89] 
| settled 
leave no doubt.” Later experiments: with a man- 
carrying machine were terminated by two trials in 
1903, which were discouraging after the labour and 
effort put upon the machine itself and the auxiliary 
apparatus. The aéroplane was precipitated into the 
water before it was fairly launched into the air, due 
to a slight defect in the launching apparatus. Dr. 
Langley admitted no failure in his machine, which 
all students. of modern aviation agree was correctly 
built; and undoubtedly would have flown if it had been 
properly launched. Not realising that the launching 
was an accident and not a failure, and not understand- 
ing that the proceedings were in the nature of a 
Government secret, the Press and the public ridiculed 
Dr. Langley and his machine, and the War Depart- 
ment decided not to renew the grant for further ex- 
periments. 
THROUGH arrangements made with the Metro- 
politan Museum of New York, the Smithsonian 
Institution and the U.S. National Museum have been 
investigating the physical characteristics of the 
natives of the Kharga Oasis, in the Libyan Desert, 
lying about 130 miles west from Luxor. Dr. 
Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropology, 
U.S. National Museum, spent some fifteen weeks in 
the field carrying out the work, and the results of his 
studies have just been issued by the Smithsonian 
Institution under the title “‘The Natives of the 
Kharga Oasis, Egypt.’’ Owing to their isolation, the 
natives of the oasis may be regarded as representing 
the old inhabitants of the region, who probably 
there about 2000 B.c. In_ selecting  in- 
dividuals for examination and measurement, Dr. 
Hrdlicka chose only those showing normal develop- 
ment, who were apparently free from negro admix- 
ture. The total population of the oasis is about 
10,000, including some Bedouins, but out of this 
number Dr. Hrdlicka found only r1s0 individuals avail- 
able for study. The type of the Kharga natives is 
radically distinct from that of the negro. It appears 
to be fundamentally the same as that of the non- 
negroid Egyptians of the Nile Valley, and is a com- 
posite of closely related north-eastern African and 
south-western Asiatic, or ‘‘ Hamitic’’ and ‘‘ Semitic,” 
ethnic elements, and is to be classed as part of the 
southern extension of the Mediterranean subdivision 
of the white race. 
Mr. R. Tort publishes in vol. xxxii. of the Journal 
of the College of Science, Imperial University of 
| Tokyo, the second part of an elaborate anthropo- 
logical monograph on the aborigines of Formosa. 
The present instalment is confined to the Yami tribe 
of Kotosho or Botel Tobago Island. They are a 
small race, averaging only 5 ft. 2 in. in height, and 
seem to be formed of two distinct types, one with 
the small nose and non-protruding lips of the Malay, 
the other with projecting eyebrows, deeply sunk 
orbits, short noses, and large nostrils, with the large 
mouth and thick lips of the pure Papuan, but having 
lost his special feature—the frizzled hair. The mono- 
graph is furnished with an elaborate series of 
| measurements and a number of good photographs of 
this little-known race. 
