JuLy 25y Saal 
NATURE 
Secondly, if he had studied with attention works 
of authority, such as the writings of Sir E. Tylor, 
Professor Frazer, Messrs. Hartland and Lang, 
he would have understood much which in its pre- 
sentment is obscure; and the absence of reference 
to the work of other writers on the popular be- 
liefs in other provinces diminishes the value of 
this contribution to the subject. On the vital 
subject of agricultural feasts and rites the informa- 
tion is scrappy and inadequate. 
Even with these reservations, the book contains 
One moral to be drawn 
specious uniformity of 
much valuable material. 
from it is that beneath 
Fic 2.—Vettuvans wearing leafy garinents. 
culture there is a vast substratum of savagery 
which is now repressed by the steady pressure of 
a strong administration. The accounts of some 
forms of animal sacrifice and the abominable Odi 
system of magic are extremely repulsive, and in- 
stances are given of quite modern recrudescence 
of human sacrifice when official control was tem- 
porarily relaxed. , 
-While the presentment cf this collection of useful 
material leaves something to be desired, the book 
will probably. for some -time remain .the standard 
authority on the -beliefs and superstitions of the 
South Indian races. 
89| 
NO. 2230, VOL. 
From ‘* Omens and Superstitions of Southern India. 
IMPERIAL CANCER RESEARCH FUND. 
Blas 11th annual meeting of the Imperial 
Cancer Research Fund was held on 
Wednesday, the 17th inst., at the Royal College 
of Surgeons, under the presidency of the Duke of 
Bedford. 
Irom the report of Dr. Bashford it appears that 
the investigations of the year had suffered partial 
interruption by the transference to new and more 
commodious laboratories. The Fourth Scientific 
Report was published in November, 1911, and the 
Fifth Report was now ready to be issued, both 
having absorbed much of the 
time and energies of the scientific 
staff. The contents of the 
scientific reports are highly tech- 
nical and have necessitated 
numerous elaborate and careful 
illustrations. The statistical in- 
vestigation of the incidence of 
cancer in various human races 
was being continued with the 
collaboration of | Government 
departments and private indivi- 
duals; of 2014 fresh cases re- 
ported from India, for 477 specific 
reference to diet was not made, 
1074 were stated to live on mixed 
diet, and 463 occurred in vege- 
tarian Indian castes. 
The breeding experiments on 
the influence of heredity on the 
development of cancer of the 
mamma in mice continued to be 
an important part of the investi- 
gations, having taken on a per- 
manent form necessitating a 
statistical survey of the material 
once a year. This survey last 
year confirmed in every respect 
the conclusions drawn from the 
analysis undertaken in October, 
1910, published in the Fourth 
Scientific Report. There were 706 
female mice available for study as 
compared with 562 in 1910. In 
those of remote cancerous ances- 
try, 1.e., where the mother or 
erandmothers had not developed 
cancer of the mamma, 25 carcino- 
mata of the mamma _ developed 
in 283 mice, a proportion of 8'8 per cent. In those 
of recent cancerous ancestry 7I carcinomata 
occurred in 423 mice, or 16°8 per cent. The results 
at the end of this year will have so increased in 
volume as to permit of a further scrutiny elucida- 
ting features of the transmission of hereditary 
predisposition which still require investigation. 
The breeding experiments were also a valuable 
source of other interesting tumours, as well as 
of mice of known age and of differing susceptibility 
suitable for other investigations. 
While the Fourth Scientific Report dealt mainly 
with the nature of cancer and an explanation ot 
