October 14, 1920] 



NATURE 



2ir 



A Monograph of the British Orthoptera. By 

 W. j. Lucas. Pp. xii + 264 + xxv plates. 

 (London : The Ray Society, 1920.) Price 255. net. 

 We heartily wefcome the appearance of this useful 

 work, for there is no doubt that a complete mono- 

 graph, on any order of insects, is a great stimulus 

 to its further study in the country concerned. 

 Our British Orthoptera have been rather neglected 

 in the past, but Mr. Lucas's papers, which have 

 regularly appeared in the entomological maga- 

 zines, have done good service in awakening an 

 interest in our native species. No one, therefore, 

 is better qualified than he is to write a Ray Society 

 volume on the order. The book is strong on the 

 biological side, habits, times of appearance, and 

 distribution being adequately treated, and many 

 interesting facts are thus collected together. We 

 should have liked to see a fuller account of 

 the structure of Orthoptera and some remarks 

 on their internal organisation, but recognise that 

 the author probably has had to limit his pages 

 very considerably owing to the expense of pub- 

 lication. The earwigs are regarded as a sub- 

 order rather than as constituting a separate order : 

 out of twelve families only one — the Ectobiidse— 

 contains indigenous species. The crickets are 

 represented by four species, including the remark- 

 able and seldom observed mole cricket (Gryllo- 

 talpa). Only nine species of long-horned grass- 

 hoppers are known with certainty to be natives, 

 though {XJSsibly Phaneroptcra falcata may eventu- 

 ally prove to be indigenous. There seems to be 

 but a single record of a Locustid from Scotland 

 and, in fact, our scantv British fauna compares 

 very unfavourablv with the 160 Western European 

 representatives of the Locustodea. Of the short- 

 horned grasshoppers, Mr. Lucas recognises eleven 

 species, but none are migratory locusts. The 

 twenty-five plates illustrating the work are on the 

 whole adequate, though we fear Nos. 7, 14, and 

 19 have reproduced the objects concerned on too 

 small a scale to be of very much service. These 

 can scarcely fail to be a source of disappointment 

 to the author, who is an expert in the art of 

 delineation. A. D. L 



Grain and Chaff from an English Manor. By 

 A. H. Savory. Pp. viii4-3ii. (Oxford: Basil 

 Blackwell, 1920.) Price 21J. net. 

 The village described is .Aldington, in the Vale of 

 Evesham, situated at the foot of the Cotswold 

 Hills, and the author sets out his recollections of 

 the people and the village life as he has known 

 them during his residence. It is not a survey in 

 the ordinary sense; it is rather a record of the 

 trivial features of everyday life during the past 

 thirty years in the village, which will no doubt 

 prove of interest to readers who enjoy reading 

 about country matters. The details of the farming 

 are not described, and although figures are some- 

 times mentioned in connection with prices, there 

 arc no dates to give precision or to allow of any 

 check. The book is concerned almost wholly with 

 the village inhabitants, and its interest is literary 

 rather than scientific. 



NO. 2659, VOL. 106] 



Letters to the Editor. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts interuied for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



The British Association. 



We are hoping to reply in due course to the 

 criticisms which have been made in the columns of 

 Nature on the present position of the British Associa- 

 tion, but in order to do so with proper effect we are 

 inviting from various presidents and secretaries of 

 Sections an expression of their own views of the cor- 

 respondence. We hope that it may be possible to 

 summarise these views for the benefit of your readers 

 without undue pressure of space. Meanwhile, it may 

 be of interest to give at full length the following 

 remarks from the president of Section A. It should 

 be remembered that these were not written for pub- 

 lication, but, as above stated, for our consideration 

 along with other similar documents, and publication 

 in extenso has been permitted by Prof. Eddington only 

 at our special request. H. H. Turner. 



John L. Myres. 



New College, Oxford, October 10. 



It is important not to confuse two distinct aims : 

 (i) to make the proceedings less specialised, and (2) to 

 make them more popular. 1 believe that in practice 

 these two aims are often found even to be opposed. 

 The committee of Section .\ has often arranged joint 

 discussions with other Sections — a typical way of 

 broadening our proceedings — but not in the least with 

 the idea of attracting the public. I think the idea 

 was that, by bringing together a number of experts 

 with different points of view, a discussion would result 

 which would advance science, but would neces- 

 sarily be rather beyond the comprehension of most 

 of us. 



(i) I am all in favour of avoiding specialisation. 

 The meeting of the British .Association is a unique 

 occasion in the year, and is wasted if the programme 

 is on the same lines as those of the specialised societies 

 which meet frequently. I would, however, deprecate 

 the idea that the chief means of accomplishing this 

 must necessarily be by joint meetings of Sections ; 

 this may be encouraged in moderation, especially 

 between those Sections which (some of us think) 

 might well never have separated. Where, as in 

 Section \, wc have a wide range of subjects the 

 adherents of which do not usually meet togethtr 

 during the year, there is less need to join other 

 .Sections, and there would often be difficulty in finding 

 a largo enough room. 



The drawback to a joint discussion is the multi- 

 plicity of sp<'.Tkers and the absence of a unifying pur- 

 pose ; that is how those to which I have listened 

 strike me. If, for example. Section \ should decide 

 to give some time next year to aviation problems,^ I 

 think it would be more profitable, not to arrange a joint 

 meeting with the Engineering Section, but to invite 

 an expert (an engineer, perhaps) to set the problems 

 before Section .\ in a non-technic;d way. No doubt 

 other engineers will come to henr him and make 

 rem.nrks on his paper ; but he will have had n definite 

 task before him to make the problems and results 

 clear to astronomers, mathematiri;ms, geophysicists, 

 etc.. not to argue with other experts about stalling 

 angles and other mysterious technicalities. An illus- 

 tration of this was provided this year when Prof. 



