228 



NA TURE 



[August i 2, 1922 



Research Items. 



The Origin- of the Swastika Symbol. — The 

 subject of the origin of the Swastika symbol has 

 given rise to protracted controversy. The latest con- 

 tribution to the question is that of Harit Krishna Deb 

 in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, 1921, No. 

 3. He suggests that it is a modification of the mode of 

 expressing the ancient Hindu syllable Om, which is 

 used in religious rites. This, a pothook with square 

 em In, was duplicated, one across the other, to form 

 the Swastika, meaning " bringer of blessings," which 

 goes back in India to the seventh century, when it 

 was used as a cattle-mark. Another reference is well 

 before 528 b.c. ft is found on gold leaf on a vase 

 with relics of Buddha, and it appears on the Edicts of 

 Asoka (273-232 b.c). The earliest example known 

 is on a spindle whorl from the third city of Trov, 

 about 1800 b.c, and it is frequent in Greek vases 

 about 600 b.c. 



Indian Painting and Mohammedan Culture. — 

 The subject of Indian painting has recently attracted 

 increasing attention, and its relation to Culture was 

 discussed by Sir T. W. Arnold in the Sir George 

 Birdwood Memorial Lecture recently delivered before 

 the Royal Society of Arts. He illustrated its relation 

 to Hinduism and Islam in the drawings of Musalman 

 saints and Hindu ascetics ; the etiquette of the 

 Mughal Court and of social life, mainly derived from 

 Persia ; in the pictures of singers and dancers ; of 

 drinking bouts and feasts, and in the short-lived 

 renaissance of Indian painting at the time when 

 the Empire was breaking up. The importance of 

 study of the subject, which would need a series of 

 monographs, was emphasised by Lord Peel, the 

 Secretary of State for India, and by Lord Ronald - 

 shay, late Governor of Bengal. 



Spain and Ireland. — In a lecture recently de- 

 livered before the Celtic section of the Societe Inter- 

 nationale de Philologie, Sciences, et Beaux-Arts, 

 London, Dr. W. Edmington Scott discussed the pre- 

 historic relations between Spain and Ireland. He 

 pointed out that the history of Iberian names for 

 iron, lead, copper, tin, silver, mercury, gold, and 

 several technical mining and metallurgical terms 

 supplied evidence of long-standing trade communica- 

 tions between Spain and the Minoan and iEgean 

 nations. Their presence in Old Irish pointed to 

 Spanish intercourse with that island. . The Phoenician 

 exploitation of the Spanish mines lasted for nearlv 

 a thousand years, and it is possible that through 

 these traders and colonists the Andalusian Basque 

 names of the ores were introduced into Assyrian, 

 Aramaic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. 

 Tin ore was a necessity for the manufacture of bronze, 

 and this undoubtedly came from the Cassiterides. 

 The analysis of prehistoric Mycenaean, Cretan, and 

 Trojan bronzes proved that they contained a high 

 percentage of tin, whereas Homeric bronze was much 

 weaker. This was due to the scarcity of tin, resulting 

 from the cutting by the Phoenicians of the ancient 

 trade route between Greece and Spain, and the con- 

 sequent diversion of the mineral resources of the 

 Peninsula to Western Asia. 



Health and Weight Tables. — Two charts have 

 been prepared by the director of the Galton Labora- 

 tory, Prof. Karl Pearson, which should prove of great 

 value to those in < harge of infant welfare centre 

 clinics (" Health and Weight Probabilities," Cambridge 

 University Press, 75. 6d.). The purpose of the charts 

 is to compare the weight of an individual baby with 

 the average a1 its age and to give a rough estimate of 

 its chance of surviving the first year of life. Tims, 

 suppose a female baby weighs 10 lbs. at the end of 



NO. 2754 VOL. I 10] 



36 weeks ; according to the chart, 97 per cent, of 

 females aged 36 weeks weigh more than 10 lbs. (the 

 1 li.nl lias been constructed from numerous data of 

 working-class infants), and at the end of the vear 74 

 per cent, of all babies will be healthier than tins 

 one. Of course, as Prof. Pearson has pointed out, 

 predictions based upon a single character such as 

 weight are not of a high order of accuracv. but 

 these charts will be very useful. It will be easy to 

 see whether an infant is maintaining or improving 

 its grade of weight and health. 



Turbinoid Bones of Nototherium Mitchell/. — 

 H. H. Scott and C. Lord have succeeded in recovering 

 about one-half of the maxillo turbinate of Nototherium 

 mitchelli (Studies in Tasmanian Mammals, No. vii., 

 Papers Roy. Soc. Tasmania, 1922). Their general 

 structure is akin to that of the turbinal of a wombat, 

 but their coarseness of texture is about twice that 

 which obtains in the living kangaroos. In being 

 straighter, and more cuneiform in shape, the maxillo 

 turbinate of the Nototherium approach those of the 

 kangaroos and depart from those of the wombats. 

 By reason of their more extensive vertical plates, 

 they approach those of the wombats and depart 

 from those of the kangaroos. Bv being preceded by 

 a bony platform, the Nototherium turbinate manifest 

 characters of their own, although such states are 

 dimly suggested in the skulls of native bears. The 

 authors conclude that there was a similarity in the 

 lip muscles of Nototherium to those of Rhinoceros. 



Flagellates. — Mr. E. Penard gives (Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Philad., 1921) the results of studies on several 

 flagellates. He describes in Pteridomonas the " fla- 

 gellopodia," which may at one moment be flagella 

 ainl at: another form pseudopodia used in the capture 

 of food — a rare condition in flagellates. Dimorpha 

 tetramastix is, in the resting condition, a Heliozoon 

 with fine radiate pseudopodia supported by axial 

 filaments, and feeds on a minute ciliate which it 

 captures with its pseudopodia. Arising from an 

 anterior median depressed area are four very fine 

 flagella, and by sudden retraction of the pseudopodia 

 Dimorpha becomes a flagellate within the bodv of 

 which traces of the axial threads of the former 

 pseudopodia are visible. The organism swims by 

 means of the flagella, but only for a short time, and 

 on coming to rest reverts to the heliozoan form. 

 Another new species of Dimorpha with only one 

 flagellum is described, and this may also assume 

 either the heliozoan or the flagellate form. The 

 author has observed a flagellate stage of Chrysamoeba 

 and of Chrysopyxis ; in each case the pseudopodia 

 are retracted and a single flagellum is formed. 



Birds and some Invertebrates of Ceylon. — The 

 outstanding contribution to the latest part of Spolia 

 Zeylanica (vol. 12, part 45) is Mr. W. E. Wait's 

 account of the passerine birds of Ceylon — a pre- 

 liminary draft of a section for a proposed handbook 

 on the birds of the island. In Ceylon the proportion 

 of passerines in the avifauna is unusually small, for 

 only about 120 species, about one-third of the total 

 bird population, belong to this section, whereas in 

 India fully half the species are passerines. The 

 species are characterised in concise descriptions, 

 followed by short accounts of distribution and habits, 

 and keys are given to the distinctive characters of 

 families and species. Two papers included in the 

 part describe Ceylon Coleoptera — a new species of 

 Luciola, and a collection of Lamellicornia ; another 

 continues a description of. new species of Ceylon 

 Diptera. Dr. Annandale has contributed a short 



