MICROSCOPY AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES AT RUHLEBEN * 

 (British Civil Prisoners of War Camp). 



Among the unfortunate students in Germany who 

 early in the war lost their liberty and found them- 

 selves mterned at Ruhleben, was Grant Lochhead, 

 only son of one of this society's esteemed members, 

 Wm. Lochhead, Professor of Biology, of Mac- 

 donald College, Que. 



Grant Lochhead studied at the University of 

 Leipzig, having just been granted his Ph.D. degree; 

 but he did not succeed in leaving Germany in time 

 when war broke out. Those who know the pleasant, 

 courteous and happy dispostion of Grant Lochhead, 

 will be glad to hear how 

 he and other young Brit- '^T"^ 

 ishers succeeded by a 

 dogged determination in 

 overcoming to some extent, 

 the boredom and ennui 

 to say the least of a 

 prisoner's camp life. 



" . . . . Ruhleben camp 

 is situated on a bleak 

 plateau on the site of the 

 w>-ll-known race course to 

 the west of Berlin. This 

 fact will account for the 

 mention of "betting booth, 

 hay loft and grandstand. " 



"Roughly the camp is 

 made up of students from 

 the Public Schools and 

 Universities. The educa- 

 tional work has been going 

 on there for the past two 

 and a half years. As an 

 introduction to the pros- 

 pectus of work for the 

 autumn term 1916, we find 

 among other notices the 

 following: In most sub- 

 jects the tuition provided 

 at the school, ranges from 

 that required by absolute 

 beginners to that required 

 by advanced university 

 students. The term consists of fourteen weeks; the 

 total subscription of 3.50 marks should be paid in 

 advance, if possible." 



From a letter of Dr. A. Eckley Lechmere 

 to R. Paulson, F.R.M.S., dated August 14th, 

 1917: 



"When the laboratory started in the spring of 

 1915, we were fortunate enough to have several 



t. 



\ 



DR. GRANT LOCHHEAD 



Lately a Canadian prisoner at Ruhleben 

 Camp, Germany. 



*Abstracted from "Microscory at Ruhleben", a 

 paper read by R. Paulson, F.R.M.S., .Jour. Roy. 

 Micr. Soc, March, 1918, part one, p. 26 (H.T.G.) 



microscopes at our disposal. These were supplied 

 by people in the camp who had their instruments in 

 Germany. I had been working at plant diseases in 

 Munich with Professor von Tubeuf, and the 

 cytology of se.x in insects with Dr. Biichner, so I 

 was fortunate in having both instruments and a 

 certain amount of material at hand which Prof, von 

 Tubeuf kindly sent me here. Since then several 

 more instruments have been obtained by other stu- 

 dents. We have now an excellent microscopical 

 outfit for general laboratory work. The instru- 

 ments include the follow- 

 ing items: 



One Leitz binocular, 

 two Leitz C, two Leitz 

 GH, two Winkel, one 

 Seibert, and one Nietsch, 

 one Baker Diagnostic, and 

 a set of eight dissecting 

 lenses, two polariscopes, 

 micrometer eye-pieces, 



camera lucida and micro- 

 spectroscope, one Leitz 

 Minot microtome. 



For sitting accommoda- 

 tion we use a large deep 

 bench, fitted under the 

 windows in the wall of the 

 loft. The windows them- 

 selves have been much 

 enlarged, and this year we 

 have had skylights let into 

 the roof. For work in the 

 evenings I have arranged 

 a small transformer to 

 work from the main elec- 

 tric supply, which gives 

 sufficient current to run 

 twenty 4-volt lamps ; at 

 the same time it can supply 

 current for heating a small 

 drying-box for the micro- 

 tome slides, and is further 

 used for an electric needle 

 for orientation of sections in wax. 



The general instruction in laboratory work and 

 the preparation of lectures do not leave much time 

 for original work. The only things I have attempted 

 here have been a series of stages in the development 

 of the Orange Scale insect (Aspidiotus), and a few 

 preparations of a curious mite infesting the earwig. 

 The body of each mite has a long stalk which 

 forms a branchng meshwork gradually covering the 

 bcdy of the host. I have never seen it before, and 

 do not know the genus. During the months of May 



