Maech 13, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



397 



made in three recent summers. The islands 

 result from the deep dissection and submer- 

 gence of a great volcanic mass, whose nearly 

 level lava beds determine the tables and 

 cliflfe which dominate the scenery. The ex- 

 posed coasts are cut back into great sea 

 clifis, some of which rise 1,500 to 2,400 

 above the sea, exposing magnificent struc- 

 tural sections. Huge outstanding stacks 

 remain in front of many cliffs. 



The outer islands are reached only in 

 fair weather and then with difS.culty; their 

 small population often being storm bound 

 for weeks at a time. Sea birds, nestling on 

 the cliffs, constitute an important article of 

 food supply; the ' bird rocks ' forming val- 

 uable property for the parishes to which 

 they belong. Here the hardy custom of bird 

 catching, while dangling from a rope let 

 down from the cliff top, is still in practice. 

 ' Tidal whirlpools ' occur in the inner 

 fiords ; some have a diameter of thirty yards; 

 their smooth surface, bordered by a rip- 

 pling cascade, standing half a foot above the 

 surrounding water. 



MOUNTAIN WASTE IN RELATION TO LIFE AND 

 MAN. 



Among the AnthropogeograpMsche Beitrdge, 

 edited by Eatzel (Wiss. Verofifentlichungen, 

 Ver. f. Erdk., Leipzig, ii, 1895), is an essay 

 by Bargmann on the forms assumed by the 

 youngest waste building talus slopes and fans 

 on the flanks of the northern Kalkalpen, 

 in their relations to mountains, snow, water, 

 plants and mankind. Various forms as- 

 sumed by the waste are minutely classified. 

 The already large area covered by waste 

 slopes is shown to be increasing, while the 

 naked rock area is deci'easing; thus the 

 opportunity for occupation of the mountain 

 district by various forms of life is on the 

 whole improving. Yet in the present phase 

 of degradation, the modern invasion of 

 meadows by the advancing foot of waste 

 slopes has in a number of cases seriously 



reduced the value of the valley floors as pas- 

 ture grounds. Some slopes of loose waste 

 descend at angles of 44 and 46 degrees. 

 The chapter on the manner in which waste 

 Slopes are taken possession of by plants is 

 an excellent illustration of the relation of 

 physiography to botany. W. M. Davis. 

 Haevaed Univeesity. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 



WAS SYPHILIS A GIFT FROM THE AMERICAN 



RACE? 



No doubt there is a racial nosology as well 

 as physiology. Many writers have asserted 

 that syphilis originated in America and was 

 first introduced into Europe by the sailors 

 of Columbus. Dr. Joseph Jones claims to 

 have unearthed bones showing syphilitic 

 caries from the ancient graves of Tennessee. 

 In the Journal of Cutaneous Diseases, Octo- 

 ber, 1895, Dr. A. S. Ashmead argues 

 that syphilis was autochthonous among the 

 Aymaras of Bolivia, and quotes Forbes as to 

 the possible origin of it from the alpaca, an 

 animal which suffers from it in a malignant 

 form. Dr. E. Seler, in the Verhandlungen 

 of the Berlin Anthropological Society for 



1895, has a learned article to support the 

 view that it was prevalent in Mexico before 

 the conquest. 



On the other hand, in the same volume, 

 (p. 454) , Prof. Virchow declares he never 

 saw a syphilitic bone from an ancient 

 American grave ; that the disease was 

 known in Europe certainly as early as 

 1472, and was prevalent in Japan in the 

 ninth century. 



ETHNOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY. 



The relations of these three sciences are 

 discussed by T. H. Achelis in the Globus 



1896, No. 4. He regards ethnology as a 

 strictly empirical study, ' wholly without 

 metaphysical tendencies.' Its ultimate aim 

 is to define the human soul by a thorough 

 collation of all that it has actuallj^ achieved, 



