Juny 30, 1897.] 
There are, however, a number of facts 
overlooked by Schweinfurth which indicate 
that the ‘New Race’ were conquerors of 
an older Egyptian civilization; nor is it 
likely that the Bedchas would have occu- 
pied so exclusively the left bank of the 
Nile, when their homes were east of its 
right bank. Petrie’s supposition is still the 
most probable of any offered. 
A PHILOSOPHIC SECT. 
In the May number of the Journal of 
the Anthropological Institute, Mr. H. Balfour 
describes the sect of the Aghori fakirs in 
India. Their doctrine and their practice 
are based on the philosophic principle of 
the fundamental equality of all things, and, 
therefore, they are sticklers for absolute 
indifferentism. They disregard caste and 
creed, and receive accessions from the vo- 
taries of all religions. They are mendicants 
and despise property and labor. They eat 
with indifference carrion, offal or excre- 
ment, and as a cup or dish they use a frag- 
ment of a human skull, often quite fresh. 
In creed they are monotheists, believing in 
one god only, and have no respect for 
persons except the teacher or guru, who 
has initiated them into the sect. He gives 
each disciple a name, thus blotting out his 
past self. 
It seems somewhat inconsistent that they 
should have a form of marriage, but other 
writers speak of their women as prostitutes. 
Originally, they seem to have been wor- 
shippers of Devi, the wife of Siva, in whose 
cult obscenity and bestiality were pushed to 
their furthest extremes. 
D. G. Brinton. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
AN account is given in Nature of the 
meeting of the International Congress on 
Technical Education held in London, June 
15th-17th. The opening day was devoted 
to the teaching of chemistry. In one paper 
SCIENCE. 
165 
Dr. Otto N. Witt, of the Polytechnic School 
of Berlin, said he could not admit any 
fundamental difference in the methods of 
research of pure and applied chemistry; 
consequently he could not admit the neces- 
sity for a difference of instruction for the 
two. A well-organized instruction in pure 
chemical science would be the best prepa- 
ration of any young chemist for his future 
career. Schools for producing specialists 
are not wanted; specialism comes as a 
matter of course in later life. Chemists 
are needed who embrace their science as a 
whole, and who are incapable of separa- 
ting either practice from theory or theory 
from practice. Dr. Gladstone, speaking of 
evening schools, said that when the school 
was situated in the neighborhood of fac- 
tories it would be allowable and even de- 
sirable that the illustrations should be 
chosen with some reference to the prevail- 
ing industry. This is a principle capable 
of wider application. 
Ty a paper by Professor Lunge, of Zurich, 
the writer held that, to raise English chemi- 
cal industry to the foremost rank, it is 
necessary that the technical management 
of chemical factories should not be left in 
the hands of ‘rule-of-thumb’ men, but 
should be entrusted to real chemists. These 
men should have a much fuller education 
than the majority of chemists seem to ob- 
tain at present in Great Britain, which 
means that they must spend more time and 
money on their training than they gener- 
ally do. At college the student should 
receive a thorough training in scientific 
chemistry, taking this in its widest mean- 
ing, not merely as a ‘testing’ exercise. 
Next to this, but not to the same extent, 
he should be taught physics, mineralogy, 
technology, mechanics and the elements of 
engineering. Professor Lunge held that it 
was unwise for the common workmen or 
even the foremen to have a knowledge of 
chemistry or technology, as it is their duty 
