August 19, 1922] 



NA TURE 



261 



Research Items. 



Colour Symbolism. — In the June issue of Folk- 

 lore (vol. xxxiii. No. 2) Mr. D. A. Mackenzie contributes 

 a paper on colour symbolism, which contains a mass 

 of interesting facts. Egyptian colour symbolism 

 was already old at the dawn of the Dynastic period. 

 In ancient Europe it was restricted by the conventions 

 of Cave art, and the range of colours used by the 

 Cro-Magnon artists was limited and confined to earth 

 colours only. There is clear evidence, however, that 

 people in Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian 

 times attached a symbolic value to certain, if not 

 to all, colours. Small green stones were placed 

 between the teeth of some of the Cro-Magnon dead 

 interred in the Grimaldi caves near Mentone — an 

 interesting fact in connexion with the ancient 

 Egyptian belief in the magico-religious value of green 

 stones. The writer is, however, mistaken in extend- 

 ing the analogy to China, where, it is said, green jade 

 was placed in the mouths of the dead ; on the 

 contrary, the use of green jade for this purpose was 

 exceptional. 



Jurassic Birds. — Dr. Branislav Petronievics, who 

 has published several papers on fossil vertebrates in 

 the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, now 

 states the results of his examination of the original 

 specimen of Archceopteryx macrura preserved in the 

 British Museum (Natural History) in a paper (" Uber 

 das Becken, den Schultergurtel und einige andere 

 Teile der Londoner Archaeopteryx ") published separ- 

 ately by Georg and Co. of Geneva. His most 

 important conclusion is stated so modestly on p. 10 

 that it might easily escape recognition. He feels 

 that the differences between the Berlin and London 

 specimens referred to Archaeopteryx, which caused 

 Dames to separate the Berlin bird as A. Siemensii, 

 are sufficiently increased by his recent researches to 

 allow of the formation of two genera. He proposes 

 therefore to include in the established order Archae- 

 ornithes, Archaeornis, the Berlin specimen, and 

 Archasoptervx, the London specimen. The latter 

 (p. 18) is held to be the more primitive type, and the 

 shoulder-girdle (p. 24) even suggests that the two 

 genera should fall into different families. The author 

 perceives an early carinate type in Archasornis and 

 an early ratite type in Archaeopteryx, and indicates 

 that a convergence of the two important divisions of 

 birds should be found farther back in some descend- 

 ant of the Lacertilia. The dinosaurs lie on a separ- 

 ate branch, converging with the bird - branch in 

 some ancestral reptile. We should like to have 

 Dr. Petronievics's views on Compsognathus and 

 Podokesaurus (Nature, vol. 109, p. 757). 



Mosquito Control. — Apart from certain war- 

 time measures in the neighbourhood of a few military 

 camps, scarcely anything has been attempted in this 

 country in the way of the reduction of mosquitoes, 

 but an example has recently been set by the Hayling 

 Mosquito Control, which, under the direction of Mr. 

 John F. Marshall, is doing very useful work, both 

 practically and experimentally. The Report just 

 issued by this body summarises what has been done 

 since its foundation in the autumn of 1920. It was 

 found that in Hayling Island the two common 

 domestic species (Culex pipiens and Theobaldia 

 annnlata) were almost negligible as pests, by far the 

 greater part of the annoyance being caused by the 

 salt-marsh species (Ochlerotatus detritus). So numerous 

 was this species that it was roughly calculated that 

 two million larvae were destroyed by paraffining in a 

 single afternoon. Although last year's drought did 

 not seriously restrict the breeding-places of O. detritus, 



no. 2755, VOL. no] 



the control measures adopted proved very effective, 

 as was shown by comparison with other places along 

 the south coast. The very successful use of soluble 

 cresol in small quantities as a larvicide has already 

 been described in Nature by Mr. Marshall (June 10, 

 1922, p. 746). Important experiments are now being 

 carried out to ascertain if possible the range of flight 

 of O. detritus. Some kinds of salt-marsh mosquitoes, 

 especially in North America, have been shown to 

 make large migrations for distances of many miles. 

 If O. detritus shares these habits local control work 

 may be rendered largely unavailing, though the com- 

 parative immunity already obtained by the control 

 goes far to show that this is not the case. 



Philippine Foraminifera. — Mr. J. A. Cushman 

 has published (Bull. 100, Smithsonian Institution, 

 U.S. Nat. Mus.) a monograph on the Foraminifera 

 of the Philippine and adjacent seas, based on material 

 from shallow water and from nearly 600 dredgings. 

 The shallow water examples — from less than 30 

 fathoms — are characteristically tropical, most of the 

 genera being those of similar areas in the general 

 Indo - Pacific region, many of the species being, 

 however, distinct. In the deeper water, 100-300 

 fathoms, there is an exceptional development of the 

 Lagenidae, and in the colder deeper parts of the 

 region a great development of arenaceous forms, 

 especially Astrorhizidae and Lituolidae — many of the 

 characteristic genera and species of cold waters in 

 high latitudes being represented. This supports the 

 view that the wide distribution of these arenaceous 

 forms in cold waters is dependent more on temperature 

 than on depth. The largest of the living calcareous 

 Foraminifera, Cycloclypeus carpenteri, of which speci- 

 mens about 2 J inches in diameter were obtained, was 

 dredged in quantity in parts of the area. The 

 systematic part of the work records 568 species and 

 gives notes on their characters and distribution ; 

 figures of the more important species are given in 

 100 plates. 



The Microscopic Determination of the Non- 

 opaque Minerals. — The method of identifying 

 minerals by determining their indices of refraction by 

 immersing or embedding their powders in media of 

 known refractive index receives immense extension 

 through Esper S. Larsen's memoir bearing the above 

 title (U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 679, 1921). The tables 

 given contain data for about 950 mineral species, 

 and the methods of determination are adequately 

 described. 



Pre-Devonian Geology of Great Britain. — The 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. 

 lxxviii. pt. 2, 1922, shows how much work has re- 

 mained to be done on the stratigraphy of our older 

 British areas. Mr. E. B. Bailey develops his theory 

 of nappes in the south-west highlands of Scotland, 

 arousing thereby a healthy and critical discussion. 

 Dr. Gertrude L. Elles gives in detail the results of her 

 zoning of the rock-succession in the Bala district ; and 

 Dr. J. Wills and Mr. Bernard Smith have greatly 

 extended our knowledge of the country round 

 Llangollen. 



New Radiolites and a New Crinoid from the 

 Upper Cretaceous of Mexico. — Examples of those 

 strange aberrant bivalves the Radiolitidae from the 

 Upper Cretaceous of Tamaulipas, Mexico, where they 

 appear to be scarce, have been described and figured 

 by L. W. Stephenson (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., lxi. art.r), 

 who, however, favours Lamarck's later name in his 

 title and refers to them as belonging to the " Rudistid 

 Group." A new genus, Tampsia, with two new 



