December 8, 1923] 



NA TURE 



827 



Ascidian (Clavellina) . The only originality which 

 I claim is the combination of well-known experiments 

 and their application to the solution of a problem 

 of inheritance. 



Barfurth,^ after he had discovered (at that time 

 in his laboratory at Dorpat) that the limbs of frog- 

 larvae had the power of regeneration, laid stress on 

 the superiority of one positive result as against any 

 i number of negative results. " Even if only Dorpat 

 tadpoles regenerated their limbs, nevertheless his 

 result would be established." I make the same claim 

 for Ciona, " even if only Ciona from Naples and 

 Trieste grow long siphons." Finally, have perhaps 

 only southern populations this power ? 



I make use of this opportunity to refer also to 

 Nature of September 14, in which Dr. W. Bateson 

 writes again on the subject of Alytes. The type 

 specimens of my experiments are in the Museum of 

 Experimental Development attached to the Bio- 

 logical Institute of Vienna, and are the property 

 of the Museum. I communicated Dr. Bateson's 

 proposal to the directorate, and added, as my own 

 opinion, that I was not in favour of exposing the 

 critical specimen of Alytes with nuptial pads to the 

 dangers of a second journey, only because Dr. Bateson 

 had neglected the opportunity of examining it 

 when he was able to do so. Nevertheless, I did not 

 oppose a veto to the directorate sending the specimen 

 if they wished to do so. 



I was formerly very generous in lending type-speci- 

 mens, but I have unfortunately had very unfavourable 

 experiences in so doing. Paul Kammerer. 



Vienna, November 10. 



Problems of Hydrone and Water : the Origin of 

 Electricity in Thunderstorms. 



As one of my younger sons remarked to me some 

 time ago — it is impossible, in these days, to get up a 

 scrap ! I challenge the current explanation — we 

 cannot yet call it a theory, but, again, in these days, no 

 one has care of words, every one calls his pet notion a 

 theory — of the origin of the electricity let loose in 

 thunderstorms, raising thereby an entirely funda- 

 mental issue. Yet no one dare face the problem. In 

 these days, we have no regard for fundaments ; our 

 care is only for the chimney-pots ; we devote ourselves 

 to polishing these, forgetting that often the foundation 

 of the house is yet to be built. I privately challenge 

 the Sage of Salisbury, who formerly took some interest 

 in electrical phenomena and lightning conductors and 

 icigned to consort with us weak chemical vessels; 

 IS reply is proof that he has not seized my point and 



" up above the world so high " that he cares only to 



i)ntemplate electrons in transcendental garb, not in 



ihat of the vulgar raindrop. Big as he is, he has 



wrapped himself up snugly within the atom and won't 



nsider what happens between at'ems — when they 

 molecules and interact. 



I am sorry if I have depressed Dr. Simpson 

 Nature, Oct. 27, p. 620). I well know that he bases 

 IS conclusions upon the experiments he has made. 

 I nfortunately, from the sad experience of fifty years, 

 I know that the results of experiments are often to be 

 interpreted in opposite and equally plausible ways. 

 Lenard and Dr. Simpson, so far as I am able to judge, 

 have made experiments on very similar lines : the 

 conclusions at which they arrive are different, however ; 

 rain, too, is .sometimes negative, sometimes positive. 

 I ask that exact stock may be taken of the work, and 

 that we may know precisely what it is that has been 

 measured. The feeling is upon me that the circuits 

 dealt witli were not so simple as is supposed. 



We chemists are in grave difficulty. Physicists 



' "Sind die Kxtrcmit.itpn drr F'roschc regenerationsfahiR? " Arch. Kntw. 

 .\tech., vol. I, X894. 



m 



seem not only unwilling but also unable to grasp the 

 spirit of our work ; we are, therefore, forced to dabble 

 in their field and naturally feel far from safe in dealing 

 with electrical problems — though some of us have no 

 hesitation in pronouncing on the electrical in'ards of 

 the atom. If the physicists had sympathy with us, 

 they would long since have tutored us and not allowed 

 us to talk the nonsense we have indulged in, all these 

 years, on the subject of ionic suicide in solution. 



I am really posing a problem far deeper than that 

 considered by Dr. Simpson. Whether energy be let 

 loose in the division of big raindrops or when small 

 ones unite matters relatively little to me — what I 

 first want to know is whether, in such a liquid circuit, 

 the energy would appear otherwise than as heat ; 

 whether, in fact, electrical energy can get loose from an 

 electrodeless liquid circuit. This seems to me to be 

 one of the fundamental problems to be solved in 

 connexion with chemical change in solutions. The 

 fire is a far more potent display of energy than a rain 

 shower, yet we have no evidence of electricity being 

 stormily loosed from it, however strong the draught up 

 the chimney. I would beg for a Roland from Sir 

 Oliver in this connexion : if he cannot meet me, I 

 would ask some other Knight Physical to make his 

 proclamation on the issue I have stated or, in some 

 way, confound my inconvenient, if not improper, 

 curiosity concerning an ordinary but always entran- 

 cing phenomenon. As to an external source, ultra- 

 violet radiation must be doing something in the upper 

 atmosphere. Henry E. Armstrong. 



The Gorilla's Foot. 



Since I have examined and sketched the feet of one 

 or two dead gorillas in the Zoological Society's Gardens, 

 may I be permitted to say that no one acquainted 

 with the foot of this ape can dissent from Sir Ray 

 Lankester's condemnation (Nature, November 24, 

 p. 758) of the photograph of the cast of the foot of 

 the Kivu specimen published by Mr. Akeley ? The 

 photograph successfully conceals the fundamental 

 resemblance, so far as mobility is concerned, between 

 the hallux of the gorilla and that of monkeys, and 

 suggests a resemblance, which doe." not exist, between 

 the hallux of this ape and of man. It is, therefore, 

 entirely misleading ; but it is quite in keeping with 

 Mr. Akeley 's statement that the big toe in the gorilla 

 " has grown away from the thumb, which is useful 

 in climbing, towards the big toe, useful for walking " 

 {World's Work, October 1922, p. 377). 



Without any reflection being cast on Mr. Akeley's 

 bona fides, that statement may be dismissed as in- 

 correct, and as attesting the author's unfamiliarity 

 with the structure of the gorilla's foot. Admittedly 

 the hallux of the gorilla, like that of any monkey, can 

 be stretched forwards so as to lie in contact with the 

 adjoining edge of the next toe ; but it cannot take 

 up that position without forming a long and deep 

 integumental crease on the sole of the foot. To the 

 failure of Mr. Akeley's cast to reproduce this crease, 

 showing the mobility of the hallux, must be mainly 

 a.ssigned the fictitiously human appearance of his 

 photograph of the gorilla's foot. It is to be hoped 

 that the duplicate cast will not be exhibited in the 

 Natural History Museum without a label clearly ex- 

 plaining this misleading defect. R. I. Pocock. 



November 26. 



Note. — While this letter was in the press, I saw at 

 the Natural History Museum the duplicate cast 

 above referred to. It shows quite clearly the deep 

 crease mentioned ; and the deceptive photograph 

 would have revealed it, if proper attention had been 

 paid to the direction of the lignt. 



November 29. 



NO. 2823, VOL. 112] 



