August 26, 1909] 



NA TURE 



269 



ing to find that the King of the Seminoles threatened a 

 certahi Mr. McLatche that " if he did not comply with 

 his requisitions, he would command the thunder and 

 lightning to descend upon his head, and reduce his stores 

 to ashes." They had also a remarkable cult of the sacred 

 fire. " The Spiral Fire, on the hearth and floor of the 

 Rotunda, is very curious ; it seems to light up in a flame 

 of itself at the appointed time, but how this is done I 

 know not." 



Another important article in the same reprint is that 

 by E. G. Squier on " The Archaeology and Ethnology of 

 Nicaragua." He describes a curious kind of spindle, re- 

 sembling a gigantic top, which revolved in a calabash, 

 and an equally primitive hand-loom. Mr. Squier was the 

 first traveller who collected a vocabulary and prepared a 

 grammar of the speech of these tribes. They used, he 

 says, the vigentesimal system of counting by twenties 

 instead of the decimal, while the Eskimos, Algonkins, 

 and Choctaws counted by fives. They were emigrants 

 from Me.Kico, " and presented the extraordinary pheno- 

 menon of a fragment of a great aboriginal nation, widely 

 separated from the parent stock, and intruded among 

 other and hostile nations ; yet from the comparative late- 

 ness of the separation, or some other cause, still retain- 

 ing its original, distinguishing features, so as to be easily 

 recognised." Their arms were identical with those of the 

 Mexicans — lances and arrows pointed with flint, copper, 

 and fish-bones, with blades of obsidian set on the edges. 

 These papers are specially interesting, because they were 

 written before the age of scientific ethnography, and were 

 prepared without reliance on any particular theory of the 

 origins, social organisation, or beliefs of the tribes which 

 were studied by their authors. The re-publication of this 

 valuable material is a laudable enterprise on the part of 

 the Ethnological Society. 



PURIFICATION OF WATER BY STORAGE. 

 '~r' HE third annual report, compiled by Dr. Houston, of 



the Metropolitan Water Board, on the results of the 

 chemical and bacteriological examination of the London 

 waters for the twelve months ended March 31 has just been 

 issued, and contains a mass of valuable information. The 

 chief conclusions formulated by Dr. Houston may be sum- 

 marised as follows. The raw waters from which the supplies 

 are derived are usually unsatisfactory, particularly during 

 the winter months, and a judicious selection for waterworks 

 purposes is important. The storage is unequal, and in some 

 cases inadequate in the different works ; filtration is also 

 unequal, and in some instances too rapid. The quality of 

 the filtered water is likewise variable, and in some cases 

 not altogether satisfactory, though a remarkable percentage 

 improvement in the quality of the raw water is effected 

 by storage and filtration ; on the whole, however, the water 

 supplied to the consumer is of satisfactory quality. Storage 

 has been clearly proved to be advantageous in all respects. 

 The recent investigations of the Board point to the fact that 

 the present sources of the water supply of the metropolis 

 may be regarded with less disfavour than previously. 



Dr. Houston, in a fourth report on research work, also 

 details the results of an Investigation on the vitality of the 

 cholera microbe in artificially infected samples of raw 

 Thames, Lee, and New River water, which may be con- 

 sidered to be supplementary to his previous report on the 

 vitality of the typhoid bacillus in similar circumstances (see 

 Nature, vols, ixxviii., p. 377, Ixxix., p. 25q, and Ixxx., 

 p. 286). A number of different strains of the cholera 

 vibrio was dealt with, and only those which, after 

 investigation, might be regarded 'as undoubted cholera 

 vibrios were employed in the research, and their bacterio- 

 logical characteristics are detailed. The conclusions are 

 that cholera vibrios rapidly die in the raw waters as a 

 result of storage in the laboratory. At least qqq per cent, 

 of the organisms perish within one week, and none could 

 be isolated even from 100 c.c. of the water three weeks after 

 infection. These results are of considemble interest now 

 that cholera is prevalent in Russia and other parts of 

 Europe, and emphasise the importance of storage of the 

 raw water as a safeguard against water-borne disease. 



R. T. Hewlett. 



NO. 2078, VOL. 81] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. R. K. McClung has been appointed lecturer in 

 physics in the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. 



Dr. Fritz Cohn, extraordinary professor of mathematics 

 and astronomy at the University of Konigsberg, has been 

 appointed professor of theoretical and mathematical astro- 

 nomy, and director of the Koriigliche Astronomischen 

 Recheninstitut, at Berlin ; he enters upon his new duties 

 on October i. 



The Central News Agency reports from New York that, 

 by the will of the late Mr. Cornelius C. Cuyler, the sum 

 of 100,000 dollars is bequeathed for the immediate benefit 

 of the Princeton University, and on the death of Mr. 

 Cuyler 's widow several million dollars will pass into the 

 hands of the University authorities. 



We have received a copy of the Directory for higher 

 education, 1909-10, issued by the Education Committee of 

 the Staffordshire County Council. The directory contains 

 the regulations of the committee and the details of schemes 

 in operation throughout Staffordshire. We notice that a 

 very complete scheme of technological instruction is pro- 

 vided throughout the county by the committee. In the case 

 of mining, instruction is given by two lecturers, whose 

 whole time is devoted to the work, and their assistants. 

 For this purpose the county is divided into two portions, 

 comprising the North Staffordshire Coalfields and the South 

 Staffordshire Coalfields respectively. Theoretical and prac- 

 tical classes in metallurgy and iron and steel manufacture 

 are conducted in accordance with the regulations of the 

 Board of Education and the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute. Lectures and laboratory work in pottery and 

 porcelain manufacture will be given during the coming 

 session at Burslem, Longton, Stoke, and Tunstall. The 

 services of an instructor in boot and shoe manufacture are 

 engaged jointly by the committee and the Education Com- 

 mittee of the Borough of Stafford. Silk manufacture is 

 taught at Leek, glass manufacture at Stourbridge, and art 

 metal-work at Bilston. To enable teachers in elementary 

 and secondary schools to impart instruction in various 

 branches of technical and manual training, special classes 

 are provided at convenient centres by the committee. 

 Courses of lectures on health and the care of children are 

 delivered at suitable localities in both rural and urban 

 districts, and demonstrations and lectures are also provided 

 on gardening, bee-keeping, and poultry-keeping. An 

 elaborate system of scholarships is in vogue, including 

 training scholarships for teachers and midwives, extensive 

 aid is given to secondary schools, university extension 

 lectures are provided, useful work has been arranged in 

 rural districts, and numerous evening classes are available, 

 .^together the Staffordshire committee is making adequate 

 provision for the education of young men and women 

 anxious to equip themselves properly for their work in 

 life. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, Aiipnst 17. — M. Bouquet de la 

 Grye in the chair. — The synthesis of unsaturated fatty 

 ketones : F. Boudroux and F. Taboury. Calcium 

 carbide attacks the ketones of the fatty series. Acetone 

 gives mesityl oxide and other condensation products ; 

 butanone is dehydrated in a simpler manner, the un- 

 saturated ketone C,H,.C(CH,)=CH— CO.C.H, being 

 formed. — The influence of the reaction of the medium on 

 the development and proteolytic activity of Davaine's 

 bacteridium : Mile. Eleonore Lazarus. The limits of 

 acidity or alkalinity between which it is possible for the 

 organism to develop, as well as the reaction corresponding 

 to the maximum proteolysis, depends, not only on the 

 strain, but also on the nature of the food material. — The 

 mitochondria of the muscular fibres of the heart : CI. 

 Regaud. — The geological history of the Tellian Atlas of 

 eastern Numidia (Algeria) : J. Dareste de la Chavanne. 



