804 
types common to the Antilles and Ecuador, 
and these resemblances are most abundant 
in the islands most accessible to the South 
American continent. It is also noted that 
one quite peculiar form of stone axe, with 
a depression at the butt and rounded lateral 
arms, which seems to have reached its per- 
fected development in Ecuador, has been 
discovered also, both in stone and copper, in 
tombs of the 1Vth and XIIth dynasties of 
Egypt ; another illustration of the parallel- 
ism of artistic development. The pottery 
of Ecuador, as shown in the collection, is 
closely assimilated to that of Chiriqui and 
other parts of Central America. 
THE BERBERS OF MOROCCO. 
THE most accurate description of this 
people since that of Quedlinberg is given 
by Mr. W. B. Harris in the Journal of the 
Anthropological Institute for August. He 
notes their complexion as nearly always 
fair, while many are red-haired, red- 
bearded, and with blue eyes. The Susis, 
however, south of the Atlas, and claiming 
to be of unadulterated Berber blood, are 
copper-colored, with high cheek bones and 
narrow dark eyes. This would seem to 
bear out Dr. Collignon’s theory of a dark 
and light Berber type. The Riffians are 
distinguished by a ‘ scalp-lock,’ which they 
allow to grow thick and long. It is plaited 
or twisted, and wound around the head. 
Mr. Harris does not explain its significance. 
In the central Atlas they still call them- 
selves ‘ Berber’ (plural Berebber), but the 
meaning of the term was not obtained. 
They apparently have no knowledge of 
the old Hamitic or modern Tuareg alphabet, 
and he asserts that no writing in their 
tongue exists, though it is occasionally 
written in Arabic characters. Many tracts 
of the Riff country of the north have never 
been visited by Europeans, and the Sultan 
of Morocco exerts a merely nominal control 
over it. D. G. Brinton. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. VI. No. 152. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
A conTrisution to the much discussed 
subject of the use of alum in foods is given 
in the last Journal of the American Chem- 
ical Society, by Professor C. F. Mabery and 
L. Goldsmith. The authors describe a 
series of tests as to the influence of varying 
quantities of alum on the peptic digestion 
of blood fibrin. In every case the digestive 
action was retarded by alum, even when 
present in very small quantity. In order 
to test the action under actual conditions, 
two loaves of bread were prepared, one with 
alum baking powder and the other with a 
cream-of-tartar-soda powder. Here, again, 
the peptic digestion was retarded in the case 
of the bread containing alum. Similar ex- 
periments carried out with salicylic acid, 
boric acid and with formalin showed that 
while there was with these antiseptics some 
retardation of the peptic digestion it was. 
slight in comparison with that when alum 
was used. 
Tuer cause of the rusting of iron which is 
covered with a protective layer of paint is 
usually attributed to minute cracks in the 
paint, occasioned by the unequal expansion 
of the iron and paint. Edmund Simon 
gives in Dingler’s Polytechnisches Journal the 
results of a study of the conditions of this 
rusting, and concludes that paint stands 
changes in temperature, but is always hy- 
groscopic, and when swollen by moisture is 
pervious both for water and gases. The 
best way to prevent such rusting is to use 
three or four coats of a paint, which adheres 
as closely as possible to the iron, and which 
contains the largest possible quantity of oil. 
In the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie 
Jobn Gibson contends that in all cases the 
chemical action of light is such that the 
new products have a higher conductivity 
than the original. This is true in the 
case of selenium, sulfur, phosphorous and 
mercuric sulfid, in the combination of hy- 
