August 29, 1907] 



NA TURE 



463 



Science), and will be found fully reported in the account 

 of the proceedings of that section. Apart from these two 

 papers, the most noteworthy contribution was one by 

 Messrs. James and Fleure, giving an account of the pro- 

 gress of the University of Wales Ethnographical Survey. 

 It is hoped to extend the survey to all the purely -Welsh 

 people, but at present only a limited area has been ex- 

 amined. Still, the results, although purely tentative, are 

 very striking, and the population of the district examined 

 may be said to fall into four distinct groups, of which 

 two may be provisionally identified with Homo mcditcr- 

 raneiis and the " Northern Race." The survey which has 

 been so auspiciously started is one from which most 

 important and valuable results may be expected, and it 

 is to be hoped that the work will be energetically pushed 

 forward, as the population is rapidly changing, and in a 

 comparatively few years it may be too late. 



In papers dealing more or less with ethnography, Mr. 

 J. W. Crowfoot directed attention to the importance of 

 the .Anglo-Egyptian Sudan as a held for anthropological 

 research. A great part of the district is virgin soil, and 

 only waits the advent of the anthropologist to produce 

 most important results, while in the northern Sudan the 

 dervish rule has completely changed the conditions, whole 

 tribes having been devastated, transplanted, or mixed with 

 foreign blooti. Still, the three main language groups re- 

 main, but the problem of the origin of the people using 

 ihom still awaits solution. It is a matter for regret that 

 Dr. Pirrie was unavoidably prevented from giving his 

 promised account of the Buruns, as his observations would 

 have had an important bearing on Mr. Crowfoot's paper. 



.Apart from the president's address, on " Religious 

 Survivals," which has been reported in Nature, the only 

 paper dealing purely with religions was Dr. Farnell's 

 criticisms of Dr. Usener's theories concerning Sonder- 

 Gotter and . Augenblick-Gotter. The divinities of which 

 Dr. Usener treats are those which have no proper personal 

 names, but mere appellatives, to express their functions. 

 Such divinities are found in the Roman and Greek cults, 

 and a few examples have been noted among savage 

 peoples. The system may be regarded as a peculiar form 

 of animism. Dr. Usener's theory assumes that these 

 divinities are relics of a very primitive period, when 

 imagination had not created concrete personal divinities, 

 and that the Greek Pantheon was deeply indebted to this 

 system. Dr. Farnell argued that the Greek evidence did 

 not support these assumptions, and that many of these 

 Greek appellative Huniina may be creations of personal 

 polytheism, mere emanations of concrete divinities. 



The subject of totemism was dealt with by Mr. G. L. 

 Gomme in a paper on its origin. Mr. Goinme was of 

 opinion that totemism must have arisen from conditions 

 of human life which are universal, and which are prob- 

 .'ibly supplied by migration. Sex cleavage was produced 

 by the fact that woman was the stationary animal, and 

 in this way became more closely associated with friendly 

 animals, plants, &c., to which she looked for protection 

 and food rather than to the male, who constituted a 

 migratory element ; women thus influenced the totem 

 names. Mr. Gonime's conclusion was that totemism began 

 as an artificial association of groups of people, and was 

 not based on a kinship society. 



Sociology was also dealt with in two papers by Dr. 

 Rivers, one criticising Morgan's Malayan system of 

 relationship, and the other offering some most valuable 

 suggestions for the definition of the technical terms used 

 by anthropologists, especially with regard to the divisions 

 of society and marriage and descent. He urged the 

 importance of the terms used being strictlv defined, and 

 also the necessity of some general agreement in their use 

 being obtained. 



A most suggestive technological paper was one by Prof. 

 J. U. Myres on a terminology of decorative art. The 

 necessity of arriving at a terminology was strongly 

 emphasised, as persons would thus be enabled to describe 

 by some recognised terms the arrangement and motif of 

 any pattern in the same way as the herald is able to 

 describe, without graphic illustration, the colours and 

 component parts of any coat of arms, however complicated. 

 The basis of any such system must be strictly techno- 

 logical ; it must be a description of what the artist did. 



NO. 1974, VOL. 76] 



of the order in which he did it, and of the effect pro- 

 duced, and all minor elements in the design must be 

 located by reference to the major element on which they 

 are based. Such a terminology must, of course, be 

 elaborated gradually, but Prof. Myres's valuable sugges- 

 tions should serve as an admirable basis on which the 

 work may be built up, and it is to be hoped that all 

 persons interested in decorative art will assist him in his 

 efforts to arrive at a sound scientific terminology, the 

 practical value of which cannot be overestimated. 



Attention was directed by Mr. Newbery and Dr. Bryce 

 to what is practically an unworked field, namely, the so- 

 called " door-step " art of the west of Scotland. The 

 patterns, which are drawn solely by women, are of great 

 variety, are purely geometrical and conventional, and are 

 used to decorate doorsteps, hearths, &c. The drawings 

 are very primitive, and represent an early stage of artistic 

 evolution. Mr. Newbery was of the opinion that the 

 designs were the expression of a primitive art instinct, 

 but since they are traditional in character, being handed 

 down from generation to generation, it seems more likely 

 that Ihey are a survival. However this may be, there 

 can be no question as to their interest, both in themselves 

 and as a field for research. Another paper of interest to 

 which passing reference may be made was one in which 

 Prof. Ridgeway sought to identify the origin of the 

 crescent as a Mohammedan badge, not with the young 

 moon, but with the well-known amulet of two boar's or 

 other animal's claws or tusks set base to base in crescent 

 form. 



Amongst the reports of committees, reference should be 

 made to that appointed to excavate the Lake Village at 

 Glastonbury, which hopes to be able to complete its long 

 work this month (.August), and to the Stone Circles Com- 

 mittee. This committee was able to make the announce- 

 ment that it had received permission to conduct excava- 

 tions in the .Avebury Stone Circle, from which important 

 results cannot fail to be obtained, results which should 

 go far towards accomplishing the object of the committee, 

 namely, to ascertain the age of these structures. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 London. — University College : In consequence of the 

 removal of University College School to Hampstead, the 

 south wing of the college buildings has been set free for 

 university purposes, enabling the following developments 

 to take place, beginning with the new session : — In the 

 mechanical engineering department a new hydraulic labor- 

 atory will be provided in the basement, and also additional 

 space for experimental work in mechanical engineering 

 during the second and third years. A separate laboratory 

 will be set aside for research work, thereby leaving the 

 main laboratory entirely free for undergraduate work. In 

 the department of electrical engineering, the present 

 lecture-room will be replaced by a large new lecture-room 

 with a small demonstration class-room adjoining it. The 

 old lecture-room will be fitted up as an experimental room 

 for advanced students. The electrical engineering depart- 

 ment will also contain a research laboratory with apparatus 

 and preparation rooms adjoining. The department of 

 applied mathematics will also receive considerable 

 extensions, providing two special research laboratories and 

 ample accommodation for the work being carried on in 

 the Galton Eugenics Laboratory. New accommodation 

 will be provided for the department of geology, and in- 

 clude a museum, with a research room, and a lecture- 

 room suitably equipped with lantern apparatus. .Applica- 

 tions for the prospectus should be made to the secretary 

 of the institution. 



Lord Kelvin will open the new science buildings of 

 Queen's College, Belfast, on September 20. 



-A COMMITTEE has been formed to promote the raising 

 of a memorial to the late Major D. M. Moir, I. M.S., 

 professor of anatomy at the Medical College, Calcutta, 

 who died of septicaemia contracted in the execution of his 

 public duties. It is hoped that sufficient money will be 

 obtained to found a prize or to endow a bed, after providing 

 for a tablet and portrait in the college hospital. The 



