644 



NA TURE 



[November ii, 1922 



researches on the migration routes of the Eskimo, 

 and in order to become acquainted with the local 

 dialect stayed several months in a small Igdlulik 

 settlement at Cape Elisabeth. At the end of March 

 Mr. Rasmussen, with two companions, left for 

 Chesterfield Inlet on his way to the Aivilik and 

 Netjilik tribes. Baker Lake was reached early in 

 May and Yathkied Lake in June. From there the 

 party returned in July to Chesterfield Inlet. The 

 country between Chesterfield Inlet and Yathkied 

 Lake is inhabited mainly by pronounced inland 

 tribes of Eskimo who only during recent decades 

 have begun migration to the sea coast. They live 

 on bad terms with the nearest Indian tribes, and some 

 of them had never seen white men. Their legends 

 often agree in minute detail with the Greenland 

 legends : their religion is on a much lower level. 

 Mr. Rasmussen considers these tribes to be the most 

 primitive that he has ever met : this is also shown in 

 weapons, houses, and boats. Everything connected 

 with the sea is taboo. The stone houses are unheated, 

 as no blubber is available. Salmon fishing and 

 reindeer hunting are the only means of livelihood, 

 and starvation is not an uncommon experience of 

 these tribes. Steensby's theory that the Eskimo were 

 originally inland American people receives support 

 from these discoveries. The inland tribes which Mr. 

 Rasmussen studied very likely may be the last 

 survivals of the primeval Eskimo who have not yet 

 reached the sea. 



Prof. Leonard Hill delivered a Chadwick Public 

 Lecture on " Ventilation and Atmosphere in Factories 

 and Workshops " on October 26. Prof. Hill em- 

 phasised the fact that it is not the relative humidity 

 that matters, but the actual vapour pressure of the 

 air coming in contact with the skin ; the breathing 

 of cool air entails more evaporation from the re- 

 spiratory membrane and consequent greater outflow 

 of lymph through the secretion of fluid from it. 

 Thus the membrane is better washed and kept clean 

 from infecting microbes. The open-air worker is 

 thus better protected, and moreover escapes the 

 massive infection from carriers which occurs in 

 shut-up rooms. Wet-bulb temperatures in factories 

 and mines are physiologically more important than 

 dry-bulb temperatures ; the velocity of the air is 

 an important consideration, for on this chieflv 

 depends cooling by convection and evaporation. 

 The cooling and evaporating powers of an atmosphere 

 can be measured by the kata-thermometer, a large- 

 bulbed spirit thermometer. Furnace- and engine- 

 rooms should be ventilated by fans at the bottom of 

 wide trunks down which cool air naturally sinks, 

 the fan breaking up the air into fine streams. Rooms 

 are best ventilated by open windows or a system of 

 fans to impel cool fresh air through gratings about 

 eight feet from the ground and extract it through 

 apertures in the ceiling ; floors and walls should be 

 warmed by radiant heat from gas or coke fires. 



The Eastman Kodak Company of New York has 

 issued the fourth volume of " Abridged Scientific 

 Publications from the Research Laboratory of the 



NO. 2767, VOL. I io] 



Eastman Kodak Company," a volume of about 340 

 pages. It includes abridgments of 54 papers that 

 have been published during the years 1919 and 1920 

 in various scientific journals and the proceedings of 

 scientific societies. The abridgments are not mere 

 expansions of the titles, as is too often the case just 

 now, but useful and often long abridgments giving 

 details of methods and results. At the end of the 

 volume there is a complete list of all communications 

 issued by the Laboratory (a total of 117), and indexes 

 of authors and subjects for the four volumes. The 

 subjects dealt with cover a very wide range. Besides 

 those that are obviously related to photography, 

 which are divided into nine sections, there are papers 

 on photometry, colour measurement, sensitometry, 

 photographic optics, physiological optics, chemistry, 

 physical chemistry, electro-chemistry, colloids, and 

 radiography. The volume is undeniable evidence of 

 the activity of those who work in this Laboratory and 

 of the broad views taken of the subject by the Director. 



With reference to Dr. Hale Carpenter's letter de- 

 scribing a waterspout published in our issue of Sep- 

 tember 23, p. 414, we have received a letter from 

 Mr. E. R. Welsh, Devon, Pa., U.S.A., in which he 

 suggests that in a waterspout, centrifugal force would 

 cause a partial separation of air and waterdrops, the 

 waterdrops tending to concentrate in an outer sheath, 

 while within the sheath there would be a region with 

 lower waterdrop content ; the continued existence 

 of the central core would be provided by the uprush 

 of spray from the surface of the water. Mr. Welsh 

 suggests that the appearance of pulsation in the outer 

 sheath might be explained by the rotation, combined 

 with a spiral fluting of the sheath. 



In his presidential address before the Institution 

 of Automobile Engineers, Colonel D. J. Smith warned 

 the members that they must not allow themselves 

 to be engrossed entirely in the technical aspect of the 

 motor car; there are many other questions which 

 might have a great effect on the well-being of the 

 industry. He urged upon automobile engineers the 

 necessity of not being content to design a car which 

 would run on the comparatively good roads in this 

 country. The local conditions in the various parts 

 of the British Empire should be ascertained and steps 

 taken to design cars to meet these conditions. The 

 most suitable vehicle for any market captures that 

 market, price being a secondary consideration. 

 Col. Smith believes that the chief development in 

 Great Britain would lie in the direction of vehicles 

 carrying fourteen to sixteen people and luggage, 

 which could compete with the railways in providing 

 rapid and frequent passenger service, and so opening 

 up rural districts in a manner not hitherto contem- 

 plated. He also criticised strongly the present 

 methods of road construction, and likened the result 

 to that which would prevail if the track of the L. & 

 N.W. Railway were maintained by the \ different 

 borough councils of the areas through which the track 

 passes between London and Scotland, each employing 

 its own unemployed and using local unsuitable 

 material. In connexion with the carrying capacity 



