592 REPORT—1899. 
The Murray Islanders have a wonderfully developed idea of rhythm, as is proved 
by their being able regularly to continue accurately recorded beats of prescribed 
rapidity for a considerable period. Many suggestions have been made as to which 
of the intervals came most naturally to the human voice. The Murray Islanders 
have no polyphonic music, but in a chorus accompanying the songs of the Kenyah 
and allied races in Borneo a long-drawn note a fifth below the key-note runs 
drone-like through the song. A similar interval has been noted in one of the rare 
examples of polyphonic music found in North America. 
Writers have been led to conclude that various peoples employed far smaller 
intervals than our own, misled apparently by viewing the numerous intervals as if 
they formed a scale instead of a series of notes from which various scales were de- 
rived. In this way travellers have been induced to look for quarter-tone music in 
uncivilised parts of the world; but the author has no doubt that those quarter- 
tones, which have been written down as occurring between any two whole (or 
semi-) tones, merely express a gradual descent in the voice from one of these tones 
to the other. The insensitiveness of the ear of the Murray Islanders to minute 
differences of interval was estimated by means of tuning-forks. The common in- 
correct intonation in savage music was alluded to. 
Photographs of Anthropological Interest.—Report of the Committee, 
consisting of Mr. C. H. Reap (Chairman), Mr. J. L. Myres 
(Secretary), Dr. J. G. Garson, Mr. H. Line Rots, Mr. H. 
Batrour, Mr. E. 8. Harrnanp, and Professor FLINDERS PETRIE, 
appointed for the Collection, Preservation, and Systematic Regis- 
tration of Photographs of Anthropological Interest. 
Tris Committee was appointed by the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science in September 1898, to provide for the ‘ Collection, 
Preservation, and Systematic Registration of Photographs of Anthro- 
pological Interest.’ 
A similar Committee on Geological Photographs was appointed in 
1889, and has organised the valuable collection preserved in the Museum 
of Practical Geology. The Royal Geographical Society has gradually 
collected a large number of geographical photographs, many of which are 
also of anthropological interest. More recently the Hellenic Society has 
announced a large special collection for the use of students of the topo- 
graphy, civilisation, and art of Greece. And the Anthropological Institute 
possesses a considerable collection of photographs, which have been lately 
mounted and classified ; and has permitted the registration of these in the 
list of the new Anthropological Photographs Committee. 
The considerations which led to the appointment of this Committee 
are briefly as follows :— 
(1) A very large number of Anthropological phenomena can only be 
studied in the field, or by means of accurate reproductions ; but the latter 
are in many cases difficult to procure, except where typical examples have 
been regularly published ; and even then it is frequently of advantage to 
be able to acquire separate copies of single plates or illustrations, for pur- 
poses of comparison, without breaking up a collection or a volume. 
(2) On the other hand, most travellers, collectors, and museum officials 
find it necessary to make many photographic negatives in the course of 
their own work, for which they themselves have no further use, but which 
