668 



NATURE 



[July 21, 192 1 



casein. On improvement to a casein equivalent of 

 41 gm. no more cases of pella|:<ra occurred. 



Chick and Hume (1920) succeeded in producing in 

 three monkeys symptoms very like those of human 

 pellagra. The diet was very carefully selected, and 

 was deficient onlv in respect that it contained no 

 animal protein. One monkey refused the food after 

 a short time ; he lost weight and showed signs of 

 incipient pellagra. The second monkey also lost 

 weight, but the loss was lessened by adding^ trypto- 

 phan, though the addition of other amino-acids lack- 

 ing in maize had no annreciable effect. This monkev 



had signs of pellagra, and was cured by giving a 

 normal diet. The third monkey had its loss of 

 weight arrested by including^ tryp"tophan and hexone 

 bases. This monkev showed some of the charac- 

 teristic symptoms of pellagra, such as the symmetrical 

 bilateral rash. 



It appears thus that pellaf^ra is caused by a con- 

 tinuous shortage in the supply of certain amino-acids 

 in the food. A diet containing animal protein in 

 small quantities will supply the needful amino-acids, 

 but a large supply of vegetable protein may not be 

 equally efficient. 



The Cawthron Institute, Nelson, N.Z. 



THE buildmg and grounds in which the staff of 

 the Cawthron Institute of Scientific Research 

 lias commenced its work were formally opened on 

 Saturday evening, April 2, by his Excellency Lord 

 Tellicoe Governor-General of the Dommion of New 

 Zealand. The building is a fourteen-roomed house, 

 formerly the residence of the late Mr. John Sharp, 

 and has been fitted uo with chemical and biological 

 laboratories, a library, a museum, and offices. The 

 grounds provide room for a considerable amount of 

 investigational work, but an experimental orchard 

 and a site for an arboretum have been secured els^e- 

 where. After being shown over the building by the 

 trustees and staff, Lord and Lady Jellicoe adjourned 

 to the School of Music, where a very enthusiastic 

 gathering of citizens awaited them. 



In opening the proceedings the chairman of the 

 Trust, the Lord Bishop of Nelson, gave a short 

 resume of the events which led to the founding of 

 the institute under the will of the late Mr. Thomas 

 Cawthron, and explained the nature of the difficulties 

 which had been met in attempting to carry into effect 

 the provisions of the will. He also stated that the 

 trustees had been fortunaie in securing the unique 

 entomological library of Dr. David Sharp, the editor 

 of the Zoological Record. 



Lord Jellicoe^ in declaring the institute open, 

 emphasised the importance of the co-operation of the 

 workers in pure science with those engaged in 

 industry. He had seen sufficient of the Cawthron 

 Institute and its staff to convince him that the work 

 carried out in the institute would be of very great 

 value indeed. 



An account of the work of the staff was then given 

 by the director, Prof. T. H. Easterfield, who stated 



that the staff had been working steadily for about 

 eight months. In the chemical laboratory Mr. Rigg, 

 the soil chemist, had obtained sufficient data for the 

 preparation of a preliminary soil-map of the Waimea 

 district, and this was already being eagerly examined 

 by the farmers and fruit-growers of the district. A 

 careful comparison of the chemical constituents of 

 New Zealand mineral oils from various sources had 

 been made by Mr. McClelland. Dr. R. J. Tillyard, 

 the chief biologist, had paid much attention to the 

 question of the control of plant diseases both by inocula- 

 tion and by the use of natural enemies of insect pests. 

 He had been successful in establishing Aphelinus malt, 

 one of the enemies of the woolly aphis. Several entomo- 

 logical papers by Dr. Tillyard and Mr. Alfred Phil- 

 pott, the assistant entomologist, were already in the 

 press. The relation of hawthorn hedges to the spread 

 of fire-blight and other p'ant diseases had also been 

 the subject of close inquiry. Dr. Kathleen Curtis, 

 mycologist to the institute, was working out the life- 

 history of several fungoid diseases under New Zea- 

 land conditions, and the work was being followed 

 with great interest by the fruit- and tomato-growers. 

 The rapidity with which the building had been con- 

 verted into a convenient research institute was very 

 largely due to the energy and effectiveness of th^ 

 curator, Mr. W. C. Davies, whose arrangement of 

 the museum was admirable. 



The director announced that during the week fol- 

 lowing the official opening the institute would be 

 thrown open for four afternoons and one evening, 

 and that the staff would explain the various activi- 

 ties to the public. More than a thousand visitors 

 took advantage of the opportunity to visit the 

 institute. 



Institute of Historical Research in London. 



THE opening of the new Institute of Historical 

 Research of the University of London in Malet 

 Street, close to the British Museum, on July 8 is a 

 notable event on which warm congratulations may be 

 tendered to the University and to Prof. Pollard, 

 i^ondon University has always led the van in the 

 recognition of research, and the new institute is to 

 be devoted to the extension of knowledge. The in- 

 auguration of the building has been happily made 

 the occasion of an Anglo-American Conference of 

 Professors of History. London University, a pioneer 

 in so many directions, created in 1920 the first post 

 in England for the history of medicine. We have 

 already referred to the systematic courses in the his- 

 tory of science that are being developed at University 

 College, and it was in harmony with this London 

 tradition that a sectional meeting of the congress was 



NO. 2699, VOL. 107] 



held on Wednesday, July 13, to discuss "Anglo- 

 American Co-operation in the Publication of Docu- 

 ments and Results of Research on Medieval Science 

 and Thought. " The meeting was well attended, and the 

 chair was taken by Mr. A. G. Little, who spoke of 

 the immense amount of important medieval material 

 by English writers still waiting to be edited. He 

 emphasised the need of scholars keeping in touch 

 with one another's work. 



Dr. Singer spoke of the educational value of the 

 history of science and of the advantages accruing both 

 to professor and student when to specialised research 

 in a purely scientific field is added a general training 

 as a qualification for a degree. Mr. Charles Johnson, 

 of the Public Record Office, suggested that the edit- 

 ing of a text formed an excellent training for his- 

 torical research, and suggested that such work, carried 



