312 



NATURE 



TM 



from its Servant in thp Ea»i, i6oa-i«>i7," there arc 

 nuinvrous references to the variouit kind» of »ander» wood, 

 but they arc easily distinjjuished. '1 he red sandert wood 

 always raine froin the Madras coast, and was aent to 

 Europe for dyeing purpo»<.-«. The white sandal wood 

 (biantahim album) was used as a perfume, for nicdirinai 

 baths, and for presents. Sappan wood, !>apan|i, patanga, 

 or Brazil wood came from Malaya and Siam from the 

 tree called Caesalpinia sappan. It was one of the 

 " vendibles! " commodities in the trade between Siam and 

 J.ipaii in 1615. 



I here is still a demand for red sanders wood, but the 

 drug is not of so much importance as it was years ago. 

 The reasons are well known — on account of the artificial 

 substitutes now empk>yed for dyeing purposes. Evidence 

 of this is seen in the last issue of a .Madras newspaper 

 just to hand. It describes the visit of the (iovernor of 

 Madras to a large modern cotton mill. One sentence 

 reads: — " Mis excellency passed on to the reeling rtx>m 

 and then to the dye house, where the dyes used are mostly 

 aniline dyes." David Hooi-er. 



Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



Anguillula ji>lntims—Pakt\.t Eels. 



In Carpenter's work on the microscope, the eighth edition, 

 so ably edited by the late Dr. Dallinger, occurs the follow- 

 ing passage (p. 945) : " This last [/I. glutinis] frequently 

 makes its appearance spontaneously in the midst of paste 

 that is turning sour ; but the best means of securing a 

 supply for any occasion consists in allowing a portion of 

 any mass of paste in which they may present themselves 

 to dry up and then laying this by so long as it may not be 

 wanted, to introduce it into a mass of fresh paste, which, 

 if kept warm and moist, will be found after a few days 

 to swarm with these curious little creatures." 



As he also says that " a writhing mass of any of these 

 r-pecies of ' eels, * is one of the most curious spectacles 

 which the microscopist can exhibit to the unscientific 

 observer," very many young microscopists have been led 

 to try to obtain the eels by allowing paste to stand until 

 sour, and also by getting dried paste known at one time to 

 have contained *' eels." Unfortunately, in this country at 

 least so far as I know, such attempts have always failed, 

 and I have received many letters asking for the cause of 

 such failure. 



Of course, it is generally acknowledged that no animals 

 of the grade of these nematoid worms ever appear spon- 

 taneously ; they were probably present in the water used 

 to dilute the paste, but in paste that has been boiled and 

 diluted with water that has been boiled they never appear, 

 and I have tried hundreds, perhaps thousands, of experi- 

 ments in this direction. .And even when cold water from 

 a pond or brook was used to dilute the paste, 1 never found 

 them. 



In regard to dried paste also, my experience has been 

 different from that of Dr. Carpenter. When paste has been 

 thoroughly dried in the open air in our climate, no eels 

 can be made to appear by transferring some of this paste 

 to fresh material and keeping it warm and moist. Paste 

 niay dry up to a stiff mass and the eels still live, but I 

 have never been able to keep paste in a thin layer exposed 

 to the air in our dry climate for one month and then resus- 

 citate the eels. I have tried it over and over again, and 

 the eels always disappeared. By keeping the paste slig^htlv 

 moist, however, the eels (or their progenv) mav be kept 

 indefinitely. 



The fact that Carpenter could keep them alive after the 

 f»aste had apparently dried up, may perhaps have been due 

 to the moistness of the English climate in comparison with 

 ours. 



Fortunately, the "eels" may be found in most book- 

 binder's paste tubs, and a sufficient amount for a start mav. 

 if properly packed, be sent by mail provided the time of 

 transit is not more than two Weeks. John Phin. 



Paterson, N.J., U.S. .A. 



The Pox and the Pleas. 



I'liE Story of the fox and the fleas, published in Nature 

 of March 23, is not current among Celtic people onlv. .\s 

 liohemia is a country full of fields, mstures. oonds, brooks, 

 and forests, the last often being inhabited bv foxes, it is 

 no wonder that my father, who was a close observer of 



NO. 2166, VOL. 86] 



nature, told me th- 



Hut the lk>hemian U> 



the iuiglish fox, ' 



probably nut ti 



of the ilea*, he , • 



»o he plucked out as much i^ his own wool or hair w 



hi* teeth a» might easily serve to collect the fleas; .< 



the efTi'ct was superior, for the fleas could creep into : 



hair without noticing any change of medium during : 



water trick. 



.As regards the question about the origin of the fl* 

 raised by Prof. Hughes in Nature of April 13. m\ 'M' 

 cnce as iu\ old hunter is that, at least in our < 

 dry climate, the animals living in forests ha. 

 opportunity of gathering lleas there. If you h;i, 

 shoot a squirrel, never put it into your bag or pt>^ 

 else in a few minutes you wi!" ' irming wim i; 



which are quickly leaving the li il. 



Once 1 placed a freshly shoi .-,,.... . on a newspapt.:, 

 and was surprised to find what an enormous quantity o( 

 little fleas of a peculiar kind (all these different kinds of 

 fleas were studied by Baron Rothschild) were leaving i! 

 dead animal ; and yet the squirrel lives more in the tP 

 than on the ground, and hardly approaches stables or 

 inhabited buildings ; how much more easily can a foK 

 collect his parasites on the ground of the forest ! 



Some readers of Nature may ask what means the cra)- 

 fish on the immersed tail of the left-hand side fox in the 

 interesting figure on p. 211. To this I found an answer 

 in the invaluable book on " .Animal Intelligence " by 

 Romanes, p. 432, according to which " Olaus witnessed 

 the fact of a fox dropping his tail among the rocks on 

 the sea shore to catch the crabs below, and hauling up 

 and devouring such as laid hold of it." On the contrary, 

 it is not clear what is the matter with the tail of the riijlit- 

 hand fox in the figure. 



I may add that while ski-ing in deep winter 

 Bohemian Forest I often watched the footsteps of ditl-r-. ni 

 wild game in the snow, and once I found a trace of a fox 

 without being able to tell which way he was going. .After 

 having followed it for about half a mile to the summit 

 of a mountain, I found that the fox made a turn ih. f 

 and walked a long way back exactly in his own fi- 

 Did he intend to conceal in which direction he wa> ., 

 That the fox has sometimes this intention is shown by 

 the fact that in the proximity of inhabited places the foot- 

 steps of the fox in the snow suddenly disappear, the fox 

 having effaced them by his tail. 



BoHf^t *V' |-5u»ivFi». 



Bohemian University, Prague, .April 21. 



Belladonna Plaister for Bee-Stin(;s. 



Some years ago it ixcurred to me to try the experiment 

 of treating bee-stings with belladonna plaister ; and, as 

 this remedy is remarkably efficacious, and as I have met 

 no one who w-as aware of the cure, I have intended for a 

 long time to ask you to put the fact on record in your 

 columns. If the sting is but slight, there are no unpleasant 

 effects at all when belladonna is at once applied, and the 

 plaister may be removed after a comparatively short time ; 

 if the sting is severe — i.e., as I suppose, if it has entered 

 a vein — it may be necessary to retain the plaister for several 

 days ; and in such case, although there will be swelling and 

 some irritation, both these unpleasant effects will be very 

 notably less than in cases where no belladonna has been 

 used. Of course, as some people are extremely susceptible 

 to bee-poison, it is quite possible that they may not find 

 a belladonna-treated sting so small a matter as I find it ; 

 but I presume that they will find at least a proportionate 

 alleviation. In the summer-time my children run about 

 the garden bare-footed, and not unfrequently they step upon 

 a bee and get stung. .At once there is a shout for " beM.i- 

 donna " ; it is put on; and we never hear another word 

 about the sting. I have also found belladonna give great 

 relief from a wasp-sting. I should be very glad to hear 

 the result if anyone living in a " mosquito "-ridden part of 

 the country would try the experiment of applying bella- 

 donna to mosquito-bites. It might well be quite useless ; 

 but, on the other hand, it might serve. 



Frank H. Perrycostk. 



Higher Shute Cottage, Polperro, R.S.O., Cornwall. 

 April 25, iqii. 



