NATURE 



1923 



ar«» rlwiTly a people of wond«»rfiil courage and energy ; 



1 ' onstructive ; willing to be governed 



r u Rovernriii whole nation i» at 



V I .< rinany i» due to the 



<!• nt : only the appearance 



(»i .1 1.. ;; Wo mav well tnke warn- 



ing. We seem to show no constructive power ; th' 

 poii! > re at fault, without imagination, without 



out ir moral attitude towards work« in all 



classes, IS unsound. Unless our science can be im' 

 elective we shall soon be nowhere. 



Hknrv E, Armstro.vo. 



The Present Position of the Ergot Problem. 



/^ 



MU-\' " ' ■!ni;4s, cri^ot lias ' 



OCi poMtion. A 1 



fungus, Wiin.M .iii< I i,:,.i.. disastrous riiliicini. >wi.-. 



recognised as a sc<)mi.',c, ultnu.iti'K- hci.iinf tin- chief 

 medicament of the ubbU;tri< i.m. Mm mini'Tons at- 

 tempts of ill.' nineteenth centniA to isolate it^ a( n\c 

 constituents now appear ol little \alni' iiit ilic 

 fundamental discovery by Tanret in 1 iln' 



crystalline alkaloid ergotinine, C»»H„OjN:, nds 



out. Unfortunately this substance does not j)rud uce tlie 

 charnctrristir offrrts of ergot to any considerable extent ; 

 • !kaloid, ergotoxine, CgjH^iOjNj, 



usly by Barger and Carr in 

 Great JJntuui, and by Kraft in Switzerland, was, how- 

 ever, found by Dale to have a powerful physiological 

 action, and to prodiuc. for example, the characteristic 

 gangrene. The suhsc.iurnt discover^', by Barger and 

 Dale, of small amounts of powerfully active, non- 

 specitu amines in ergot extracts led some clinicians, 

 particularly in Ciermany, to substitute these amines 

 for ergot, and to neglect the specific alkaloids. 



Attention has been recently again focussed on the 

 latter by A. Stoll, of Basle, who gives in Die Natur- 

 wissenschaften for August 17 and 24 a resum6 of earlier 

 researches and of his own work. In certain varieties 

 of ergot Stoll has discovered two new crystalline 

 alkaloids of the formula C33H3JO5N6. One of these, 

 ergotamine, was found by Spiro to resemble ergotoxine 

 in action, and more recently Dale and Spiro, in a 

 joint paper, declared ergotamine and ergotoxine to 

 be pharmacologically identical. There are therefore 

 no complications on the biological side. Ergotamine 

 can be converted into a less soluble and less potent 

 isomer ergotaminine, which in some respects is 

 analogous to Tanret's ergotinine. Stoll has thus 



all 



discovered a new pair of alkaloids, showing v.i 

 similarity to the older pair. The phy8iol(J^l( 

 potent member of each pair has the same • 

 finding which, according to .Stoll, also res 

 unpublished experiments of Rothlin. Chen 

 new pair are also closely related to the 

 reactions, decomposition products, opt; 

 ( t( . I'.rgotamine and ergotaminine tx)th ditler 

 (T^^otmine bv r,H,, and from ergotoxine by CJ 

 the element !ccule of ethyl alcohol. 



Yet all at ;o convert one pair of alkaloid 



into the other pair have failed, and for the presen- 

 they may be regarded as homoiogues. From sonri' 

 specimens of ergot Stoll obtained only ergotaniim-, 

 from others only ergotoxine ; sometimes both alkal' ': !s 

 were isolated. Yet the identity of the action of thes- 

 two alkaloids is remarkable, and without parallt 

 among homologues. *~ *' — — i -^ both forme: 

 from a common preci at methods o* 



extraction employed : :\i^ n^ \ j.<.ii.aps conve-*- 

 into the same active substance in the body ? I 

 puzzling relationship certainly deserves further 

 vestigation, which is, however, rendered diit; v.\\ !.\- 

 the scarcity of suitable material, greatlv ;u . . • •.•■ i 

 by the War. 



This seems to be the present position "^ii^>'^ 



question. The r^sumd under review deals in a useful 

 manner with the older work, and shows how during 

 the last two decades our knowledge of the active 

 principles of ergot has been placed on a solid founda 

 tion, largely through English and Swiss work. Most of 

 the investigations of the last century the writer dis 

 misses as valueless. His own important contributions 

 are of the kind we might expect from one who was associ 

 ated with Willstiitter in the study of chlorophyll. 



Clothes Moths and their Control.' 



A MONG entomologists there are well known to be ] 

 -^*- two very common moths the larvae of which i 

 are destructive to fabrics ; namely, the case-making 

 clothes moth {Tinea pellionella L.) and the webbing 

 clothes moth (Tineola biselliela Hum.) ; the tapestry 

 moth {Trichophaga tapetzella L.) is much less frequent 

 but is occasionally destructi\e. In the case-making 

 clothes moth, the larva makes a portable habitation 

 out of its silk, together with fragments of the material 

 upon which it feeds. It withdraws completely into 

 the case when resting, but when feeding or moving 

 it protrudes its head and foremost body-segments. 

 Pupation also takes place within the case, which is ! 

 sealed up and anchored to the fabric or other object. 

 The webbing clothes moth is the most abundant 

 species of the three ; its lar\-a does not construct 

 a portable case, but spins silken tunnels wherever 

 it crawls over the material which it is consuming. 

 \\ hen fully fed it constructs a silken cocoon inter- 

 mixed w itii particles of fabric and excrement ; this 

 pupal shelter, therefore, is quite different from that 

 of the species previously mentioned. In the rarer 

 tapestry- moth the larva constructs silk-lined burrows 

 through the substance of the material which it 

 infests. 



» CK 



Fanui 



iiid their Control, by E. A. Back. U.S. Dept. of .Agric. 

 July 1913. 28 pp. with 31 figs. 



NO. 2S24, VOL. I 12] 



In general, the larvae of clothes moths feed upon 

 wool, fur, feathers, hair, and all fabrics manufactured 

 from them. It will therefore be realised that they 

 may be found attacking not only clothing but also 

 carpets, rntjs, furs, upholste; ifTed animals, 



brushes, \c\\> m ]iianos, and The moths 



are relatively short-lived : tlux i.iKe nu nourishment 

 and are in themseK es harmless. Their eggs are 

 laid upon or between folds of fabrics or within the 

 meshes of the latter. They are readily crushed by 

 brushing, etc., and are very fragile. Under average 

 indoor conditions they hatch in about a week, this 

 period being subject to lenj^thening or shortening 

 according to temperature. The larvae are relati\ely 

 long-lived and require from about fifteen weeks 

 to two years to complete their development. Much 

 depends upon the nature of the material upon which 

 they are feeding and the temperature conditions 

 under which they exist. The pupal, or resting, 

 period varies from about eight days in warm summer 

 weather to a month or more in winter. In the 

 British Isles the moths are commonest between June 

 and October, and their lar\ce are feeding the great 

 part of the remainder of the annual cycle. 



Methods of dealing with these pests are numerous. 

 Fabrics that are well brushed or beaten ever\' two 

 weeks are seldom seriously affected : exposure to 



