July i, 1922] 



NA TURE 



Research Items. 



Problems of Race and Nationality in South 

 Africa. — The problems of race and nationality are 

 discussed in the presidential address delivered before 

 the South African Association for the Advancement 

 of Science by the president, Dr. J. E. Duerden. He 

 gives an instructive survey of the social condition of 

 the Bantu races and of the European immigrants. 

 The hereditary attributes of all the people of colour 

 are markedly inferior to the white in all that pertains 

 to the requirements of modern civilisation, and there 

 is every reason to expect that they will remain so in 

 the future, " for in considerations of this nature the 

 teachings of zoology are overwhelmingly in favour of 

 the unchangeableness of the germ plasm." He goes 

 on to say that the Nordic race, represented by the 

 English and Dutch, stands at the head of the human 

 genus, and " it is in the daily competition with those 

 that the Bantu, Indian, and Malay are to lead their 

 lives. In the commingling of these races in South 

 Africa there can be no question as to which will be 

 dominant. In his hereditary' endowments the white 

 is far more gifted than the coloured, and must lead. 

 Dominance, however, is not arrogance, nor does 

 superiority necessarily carry with it harshness or 

 unfairness." 



Secret Societies in the Southern Sudan. — The 

 spread of secret societies among the Sudanese is a 

 question of some political importance, and the reports 

 of several correspondents on the subject are sum- 

 marised in Sudan Notes and Records (vol. iv. No. 4). 

 The baneful influence of such associations has at- 

 tracted the attention of the Government, which has 

 recently revised " The Unlawful Societies' Ordinance" 

 in order to bring them under control. The authorities 

 emphasise their evil influence through terrorism, de- 

 bauch, and robbery, and it is suggested that they are 

 mainly the work of unscrupulous persons who exploit 

 the fears of primitive man for their own nefarious 

 ends. But, as is the case with similar organisations 

 among tribes of the lower culture elsewhere, it is 

 believed that the use of " fetish " or other magical 

 objects in their rites implies a religious side to the 

 practices of these societies which deserves to be more 

 closely studied. It would be interesting to learn 

 whether these cults are regarded as supplementary 

 or antagonistic to the traditional beliefs and rites of 

 the uninitiated members of the community, and 

 whether their influence depends on the transitory 

 prestige of some particular leader, or is deeply rooted 

 in the official religion of the tribe. 



Geology of Mesopotamia. — An interesting 

 memoir just issued by the Geological Survey of India 

 (Memoirs, vol. xlviii., 1922) embodies the results of 

 Dr. E. II. Pascoe's reconnaissance of the part of 

 Mesopotamia lying mainly to the east of the Tigris 

 from about the latitude of Baghdad to that of the 

 Great Zab river just below Mosul. Excluding the 

 recent alluvium and the pleistocene conglomerates, 

 the rock groups described are all of Tertiary age 

 and fall naturally into two divisions : — (a) a lower, 

 marine, gypsiferous series corresponding to a part 

 of Dr. Pilgrim's Fars series of the Persian Gulf 

 region : and (b) a younger fluviatile series, which 

 is provisionally named the Kurd series and corresponds 

 generally with the beds distinguished by Dr. Pilgrim 

 as the Bakhtiyari series in Persia. The older, 

 marine, gypsiferous beds were laid down in a relatively 

 shallow gulf, which became silted up and finally 

 gave place to fluviatile conditions after an inter- 

 mediate stage of salt lagoons. Local erosion naturally 

 occurred during this transition stage, but there is 



no general or widespread unconformity dividing the 

 marine from the later freshwater formations by 

 which the former were covered. Folding of the 

 sediments commenced in Fars times and became 

 accentuated during the subsequent Kurd period, 

 persisting into recent times ; this is indicated by the 

 marked steepening of the dips noticeable in passing 

 from the upper to the lower series, while there is in 

 general a marked contrast between the compressed 

 condition of the anticlines and the open disposition 

 of the alternating synclinal folds, which Dr. Pascoe 

 ascribes to the circumstance that the rising anticlinal 

 saddles became eroded and consequently weakened, 

 thus yielding more readily to compressional earth- 

 movements. Petroleum is of outstanding importance 

 among the minerals of economic value, and the 

 conditions for its occurrence are so favourable that 

 Dr. Pascoe regards Mesopotamia as a possible rival 

 of Persia, outclassing Burma altogether in oil re- 

 sources. Associated with the oil are small quantities 

 of pitch and bitumen, while sulphuretted hydrogen 

 is evolved in such large quantities that its recovery 

 as a source of sulphur (or alternatively as sulphuric 

 acid) is recommended as commercially feasible. 



American Cretaceous Dinosaurs. — The first of a 

 series of preliminary notices on the Cretaceous 

 dinosaurs, obtained in Alberta from 1910 to 1915 by 

 parties sent out bv the American Museum of Natural 

 History under Mr. Barnum Brown, has been issued. 

 The article in question, by W. D. Matthew and B. 

 Brown (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xlvi.) 

 treats of "The family Deinodontida?." This family 

 name was introduced by Cope in 1866, under what is 

 now considered the more correct rendering for the 

 Greek, as Dinodontida 1 , but the authors of the 

 present brochure have altered it, presumably because 

 the type genus, when founded by Leidy in 1856, 

 was rendered, as then customary, as Deinodon. But 

 if Leidy 's original is to be scrupulously adhered to, 

 why not Cope's ? The authors discuss the group and 

 give a most valuable " Chronological list of American 

 Cretaceous Deinodonts and Ornithomids." Appended 

 is a description of Dromcsosaurus albertensis, n. gen. 

 et sp., from the Cretaceous of Alberta, and the con- 

 clusion is reached that it should be placed in a distinct 

 subfamily, Dromffiosaurins. 



Entelodonts from the Oligocene of South 

 Dakota. — W. J. Sinclair describes the "Entelodonts 

 from the Big Badlands of South Dakota in the 

 Geological Museum of Princeton University' (Proc. 

 Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. lx.), some of which had been 

 previously inadequately determined, and had even 

 figured in literature under other names. The new 

 forms include two new species of Archaeotherium and 

 Scaplohyus altidsns, n. gen. et sp. The origin of 

 the group as a whole is uncertain. Apart from the 

 digging proclivities of Scaptohyus, one of the most 

 clearly indicated " habits " of the entelodonts, 

 according to the author, judging from lesions in the 

 preserved remains, appears to have been their 

 pugnacity ; but surely the argument is equally allow- 

 able that" the injuries were due to attacks by powerful 

 enemies. 



Petroleum in the Philippines. — In the Philippine 

 Journal of Science of January last, Dr. Warren D. 

 Smith gives a detailed account of his geological 

 reconnaissance of the Pidatan Oilfield, Cotabato 

 Province. Mindanao, the second largest island of the 

 Philippine group. The occurrence of petroleum in 

 the Philippine Islands has been known for some 

 years, surface indications existing in Luzon, Mindoro, 



NO. 2748, VOL. I 10] 



