September 26, 1907] 



NA TURE 



549 



investigations, scientific or literary, beyond tlie imme- 

 diate range of olticial routine, witii some Qegree of 

 suspicion. Tfiey claim all the time and powers of 

 mmd which tiieir servants possess for their own 

 special work; they have hitherto been unable fully 

 to realise the value of a personal knowledge of the 

 country and its people; they suppose that any studies 

 of this kind tend to divert attention from the con- 

 tinuous desk work, the compilation t.t statistical 

 reports which they consider the main duty of the 

 civilian, or the supervision of his men which is the 

 business of the soldier. With this is combined the 

 impression that men of genius are out of place in 

 the Indian bureaucracy, which prefers tne safe 

 person, who meekly follows the codes and circulars 

 of the Revenue Board, to one who is disposed to 

 raise awkward questions and inquire into matters 

 beyond the narrow range of official duties. Hence 

 the scientific inquirer, the linguist, naturalist, or 

 anthropologist, rests under a certain suspicion that 

 he is neglecting his real duties. 



Fortunately, the present political situation is tend- 

 ing to modify this old-fasnioned official view, and 

 it is becoming obvious that the Government servant 

 needs, above all things, an insight into the little- 

 known beliefs and prejudices of the peasantry, while 

 an officer destitute of scientific training, with no 

 interest in the counlry and its development, is an 

 unprofitable servant. It may reasonably be sus- 

 pected that many of the present difficulties in Bengal 

 are due to a fact which Sir A. Frazer mentions 

 incidentally, without apparently realising its import- 

 ance — that junior ol^lcers in Bengal fail to master 

 the vernaculars of the people because most of their 

 work on municipal and other boards is done in asso- 

 ciation with native gentlemen who prefer that the 

 business should be conducted in English. 



In spite of this lack of cooperation on the part 

 of the official classes, the out-turn of the society's 

 work for the past year is excellent. Dr. Annandale 

 continues his studies of the fresh-water fauna, dis- 

 cussing the little-known Polyzoa which are found in 

 fresh and brackish pools, with some undescribed 

 fresh-water sponges from Calcutta and other parts of 

 the country. He also deals with a specimen, recently 

 discovered by accident in the museum, of that rare 

 cat, FeXis tristis, and Major Anderson describes 

 Brcvnia Vredeiiburgi, a new Echinoid from the 

 Indian Ocean. Botany is represented by Mr. 

 Burkill's notes on the pollinisation of Indian flowers, 

 with a special account of Gentiana coronata. In the 

 zoological field Lieut. -Colonel Phillot deals with 

 various varieties of falcons, and translates the 

 chapters on hunting dogs and cheetas from an 

 Arabic treatise on falconry of the tenth century. The 

 chemical laboratory of the Presidency College con- 

 tributes notes on a new way of preparing mercurous 

 iodide, and on nitro-ethane as a solvent of iodoform. 



The anthropological and numismatic supplements 

 are as interesting as usual, and the materials col- 

 lected in the late Tibetan e.xpedition are being 

 worked up by Ral Sarat Chandra Das and other 

 native scholars. 



The society also continues its useful series of inde- 

 pendent memoirs. M. M. A. Gruvel contributes a 

 learned monograph on " Cirrhipedes opcrcules de 

 rindlan Museum de Calcutta," and Mr. E. R. Watson 

 discusses the fastness of the Indigenous dyes of Bengal. 

 On the ethnographical side Mr. E. H. C. Walsh 

 contributes a paper on the coinage of Tibet, and Dr. 

 Annandale and Lieut. -Colonel Phillott, in the second 

 part of their " Miscellanea Ethnographica," deal 

 with Malayan weapons and the plan of a Persian 

 gentleman's house. The most important contribu- 

 tion to this department Is the monograph by Mr. 



NO. 1978, VOL. 76] 



R. B. Bnlnbridge on the Saorias of the Rajmahal 

 Hills. These are but an isolated fragment of a 

 widely-spread, broken tribe found in Orissa, Chota 

 Nagpur, Western Bengal, Madras, and the Central 

 Provinces. The author speaks rather vaguely of 

 their ethnical character. He seems to identify them 

 with the Male, and he adds that the Santals call 

 them Munda and the Hindus Paharia or hillmen. 

 He notes that they combine, as many Dravidians 

 do, a high nasal inde.x with dollchocephaly, but, in 

 opposition to Sir H. Risley, he endeavours to dis- 

 tinguish them from typical Dravidians, like the 

 Santals and Oraons, and suggests that among the 

 Saorias the original Dravldlan type has become modi- 

 fied by admixture with Aryan blood. But consider- 

 ing the isolation of their territory from the plains 

 of Bengal, cross-breeding with high-caste Hindus 

 does not seem probable. The author is obviously 

 well acquainted with the people whom he describes, 

 but his lack of literary skill and of anthropological 

 training makes his memoir disappointing in com- 

 parison with the accounts of the same people by Sir 

 H. Risley and Colonel Dalton. At the same time, 

 he has collected much useful information on their 

 social customs and religion which will furnish a basis 

 for a full account of the tribe by some more com- 

 petent writer. 



THE CULLINAN DIAMOND. 

 'X'HE Cullinan diamond, which the Transvaal 



-'• Government, acting upon the proposition of the 

 Prime Minister, General Botha, has recently decided 

 to present to the King, was discovered at the 

 Premier Mine near Pretoria, in the Transvaal, 

 on January 25, 1905. The stone was found 

 projecting from the side of the open-work- 

 ing or excavation in the " pipe " area about 

 18 feet from the surface. After a preliminary 

 cleaning it was found to weigh 3024I carats, or 1.37 

 lb. avoirdupois ; consequently it is more than three 

 times the weight of the largest diamond previously 

 known — the famous stone found in 1893 at Jagers- 

 fonteln, in the Orange River Colony, which weighed 

 972 carats. A few days after its discovery the stone 

 was examined and measured by Dr. F H. Hatch 

 and Dr. G. S. Corstorphlne, who published a descrip- 

 tion of it in the Transactions of the Geological 

 Society of South Africa (vol. vlll., pp. 26-7, 1905) and 

 in the Geological Magazine (.Xpril, 1905, pp. 170-2). 



According to this description the stone measures 

 4 by 2i by 2 inches. It is bounded by eight sur- 

 faces ; four of these are faces of the original octa- 

 hedral crystal, and four are cleavage faces parallel 

 to the octahedron. Evidently the stone is a portion 

 only of the original crystal, which had the shape of 

 a distorted octahedron. The original octahedral 

 faces are distinguished by typical striatlons, the 

 bands varying in width from o-i to 04 centimetre, by 

 mammlllatlons and by triangular plttlngs, like deeply, 

 etched figures, the largest of which has a side of 

 o 65 era. On the other hand, the cleavage surfaces 

 are characterised by greater smoothness and conse- 

 quently by a more perfect reflection of light. Parallel 

 to the largest cleaved surface there is an air layer 

 between two internal cleavages, producing a " rain- 

 bow " or Newton rings. 



The crystal is of remarkable purity. Two spots 

 are visible, one on the surface, the other about i cm. 

 within the crystal. The colour approximates to a 

 blue-white. The stone was named after the chair- 

 man of the Premier Diamond Company. It is the 

 joint property of the company and of the Transvaal 

 Government, the latter being entitled to a share in 

 the profits made by the company. 



