NOTES 303 



explanations, by far the most interesting, while Messrs. Hadfield's and Barr & 

 Stroud's deserve special mention for the attractive arrangement of their stands. 



It has been decided to establish a Wild Life Forest Experimental Station at 

 the New York State College of Forestry (Syracuse University) as a memorial to 

 Theodore Roosevelt. Plans for such a station were drawn up in December 1916, 

 with the co-operation of Roosevelt himself, and it is felt that no more suitable and 

 characteristic memorial could possibly be obtained. The work to be carried out 

 includes investigations, experiments, and research in relation to the habits, life 

 histories, and methods of propagation of all kinds of forest wild life, including lake 

 and river fish. The station will be supported partly by grants from the New York 

 Legislature, and partly by private subscription. 



The existence of hereditary tendencies or predispositions to cancer in man has 

 been for years a much debated question. Murray, Loeb, and Lathrop have proved 

 that hereditary factors play an extremely important part in determining the 

 incidence of cancer in mice, and Dr. Little, of the Cancer Commission of Harvard, 

 considers that, even with the present imperfect method of preparing data, it seems 

 strongly indicated that there are hereditary tendencies to cancer in man. 



Science {May 2, 1919) contains an interesting article on the use of poisonous 

 gases in warfare. It appears that the first-recorded attempt to use such methods 

 dates from the siege of Plataea and Belium by the Spartans in the Athenian- 

 Spartan Wars (B.C. 431-404). Wood, saturated with pitch and sulphur, was burnt 

 under the walls of these cities for the purpose of choking the defenders. From 

 the Middle Ages come tales of poison gases projected from squirts or bottles, and 

 the famous plan of Lord Dundonald for the reduction of Sebastopol, as revealed 

 in the Panmure Papers, consisted in the use of the vapour from burning sulphur. 

 Dundonald estimated that 500 tons of sulphur, together with some 4,000 tons of 

 coke and coal for its combustion, would have been sufficient to reduce the fortress. 

 A remarkable discovery has been made by two British bacteriologists — Dr. 

 Cramer and Dr. Bullock. They find that bacteria of gas gangrene and of tetanus, 

 when completely freed from their toxins, either by washing or heating, do not 

 produce the specific disease when injected into a mouse or a guinea-pig. But if a 

 small dose of a soluble ionisable calcium salt is injected together with such treated 

 bacteria or their spores, the specific disease is elicited in a very virulent form. 

 The chlorides of sodium, potassium, ammonium, strontium, and magnesium, when 

 injected with the gas gangrene "bug," are not capable of producing the disease. 

 At present these facts ascertained by Bullock and Cramer stand alone, and it 

 remains to be seen how far any development of this work will touch on medical 

 bacteriology. 



In late numbers of Nature will be found some correspondence between Prof. 

 MacBride and Prof. Bateson with regard to the testimony of Dr. Kammertr, of 

 the Vienna Versuchsanstalt, on the Inheritance of Acquired Characters in the 

 Frog Alytes. From what Prof. Bateson says, it appears that Dr. Kammerer is a 

 most untrustworthy person ; dishonesty in Science is worse than any other sort ot 

 dishonesty. We are glad to see, however, that Prof. MacBride is trying to have 

 Kammerer's experiments repeated by observers in this country, and the question 

 may be considered to be unsettled at present. 



We note the appearance in the Journal of Anatomy of a paper by Prof. Arthur 

 Thomson on the Early Development and Maturation of the Human Ovum. This 

 subject is one of great interest to both medical and lay biologists, and it is with 

 pleasure that we congratulate Prof. Thomson on succeeding, after many years' 

 search, in finding some of the missing stages in human embryology. It is a pity, 



