________________
JULY, 1926] ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, INDIAN SECTION
creeper scrolls disappears and restraint gives place to superabundance, and in this the technique and imagery advance together. At Ajanta already the Medieval is seen. The Gupta 5th century provides a classic period absolutely foreign to the art even of Bâdâmi in the early 6th century. The term Gupta has an intrinsic meaning and should not be used of Ajanta. The date of Ajanta is difficult to arrive at. The interaction of the Vâkâtakas with the Guptas plays an important part. I do not believe the work of this period at Ajanta covered any great stretch of time. A study of the windows and doors leads one to place these caves closely after the Gupta series, that is to say after Deogarh. The plan of the little shrines in the centre of the back walls of these caves is exactly that of the Gupta shrines, intercolumniation and all. D. Medieval.
3
"The Medieval period seems to me to be divided into the later period (10th and 11th century) of Khajuraho and Bhuvaneswar, and an earlier period that centres round the great brick temples of the Central Provinces with their carved and moulded terracotta ornament. These again are contemporary with the Sind stupas at Mirpur Khâs."
India also received attention at Ordinary Meetings of the Institute.
On June 23rd, 1925, Lt.-Col. J. Cunningham, I.M.S., Director of the King Institute, Madras, read a paper on "Some Factors in Racial Immunity and Susceptibility to Disease." Col. Cunningham discussed the conclusions summarized by Ripley and others in the light of more recent research. The incidence of disease in various races is in itself no gauge of their true racial susceptibility, as it is liable to be modified by secondary factors such as social habit and environment. Osteomalacia, for instance, is associated with the conditions of zenana life, beri-beri with defective diet, cholera and plague with an un-hygienic environment, sleeping sickness with climatic conditions favourable to the tse-tse fly. Evidence of racial immunity can best be sought among the infective diseases, to which some species of animals are more susceptible than others. Whether such differences in natural immunity can be proved to exist between various branches of the human race is doubtful. Col. Cunningham reviewed the evidence for racial immunity in regard to yellow fever, malaria, intestinal diseases, tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, leprosy, elephantiasis and cancer, and concluded that "no innate immunities exist between the different races of men comparable with those found between different species of animals. A type of racial immunity does occur, however, due, as far as is known at present, to previous contact with the diseases in question."
The paper was discussed by Dr. Shrubsall, Dr. Mackintosh, Col. Gordon, Dr. J. G. Forbes, Miss Durham and Mr. Phillips. (The paper will be published in "Man.")
On June 6th, 1925, Shams-ul-ulama Dr. J. J. Modi read a paper on "The Daily Life of a Parsee of the Seventeenth Century."
Dr. Modi's paper was based on the Persian Farziat nameh, i.e., "The Book of Duties," written by Dastur Darab Pahlan of Naosari in Gujarat, a learned priest, born about 1642,
who died in 1735 A.C.
The daily religious duties of a Parsee of the 17th century began with early rising at the crowing of a cock, a sacred bird, not to be killed for food, and even requiring a kind of sacred burial. The day began with a recital, on or very near the bed, of Ashem Vohu, a sacred formula of prayer in praise of Asha (Sanskrit rita: English, right), which was followed by the application, on the exposed portions of the body, such as face, hands and feet, of nirang, or gaomiz, i.e., the urine of a cow (gao). The application was followed by an ordinary ablution in ordinary cases, but after nocturnal emission or cohabitation, the application was followed by a bath. This was followed by a prayer, and there were five periods during the day for such obligatory prayers. The ablution or bath was accompanied by the untying and
