October 28, 1920] 



NATURE 



289 



the office, it apparently went beyond the spirit of the 

 statutes, but, in any event, we understand that no 

 director has yet been appointed to succeed Sir Alfred 

 Bourne. We trust that the post will be filled by a 

 man who combines administrative capacity with 

 -( ientific knowledge. 



One of the most valuable contributions to the study 

 of magic in the Malay Peninsula was the description 

 by Mr. W. VV. Skeat in his "Malay Magic" of the 

 methods by which the soul of the rice plant was 

 evoked in the seed grain. Our knowledge of these 

 practices has recently been advanced by the papers 

 contributed by Mr. R. O. VVinstedt to the Journal 

 of the Federated States Museums (vol. ix., part 2, 

 July, 1920) descriptive of similar rites in Upper Perak 

 and Negri Sembilan. In the former region the seed 

 is washed and cleansed with limes, and the farmer 

 makes the invocation: "Greetings be to thee, God's 

 prophet Solomon, King of all the earth ! I would 

 sow seed rice. I pray thee, cherish it from all 

 danger and hazard! " .\t harvest he says: "Greet- 

 ings be to you, gnomes of the latter days, gnomes of 

 the beginning, gnomes one hundred and ninety ! 



• ■t ye back and aside! If ye turn not aside, I will 

 V urse you ! " After the regular invocation the soul of 

 the rice will come in the form of a grasshopper or 

 other insect with the sound of a breeze. When the 

 rice-soul is invoked at harvest the magician must 

 wave a white cloth, so that the rice-soul shall not 

 fall on and crush one of the party at her coming. 

 This valuable contribution supplies additional informa- 

 tion on the subject fully discussed by Sir James Frazer 

 in the last edition of his "Golden Bough." 



The origin of cancer is discussed by Dr. .Mcxandcr 

 I'alne in a paper in the Lancet of October 2 last 

 {p. 693). The conclusion Dr. Paine arrives at is that 

 Tincer is due, not to the action of a specific parasite, 

 has been suggested, but to a disordered growth 

 n( epithelium caused by various chemical or physical 

 irritants, the most important being the toxins or 

 ■.isons of micro-organisms. Dr. Paine considers 



at the origin of cancer lies in the degeneration of 

 iln; "nobler" parts of the cell consequent on damage 

 lo its structure. The result of this damage is to 

 disturb the balance of metabolism by impairing the 

 special funrtioiis of the cell, iherehv causing persistent 

 overgrowth. 



TiiK Research Defence Society has published a 

 pamphlet by Sir Ixonard Rogers on " The Value of 

 Kxperimenis on .Animals." No one is better qualified 

 than Sir Leonard Rogers to speak with authority on 

 this subject. Investigations on rinderpest in cattle 

 and surra in horses are quoted as examples of the 

 value of animal exjK.Timents in the elucidation and 

 "vention of diseases affecting the lower animals, 

 hereby much suffering to the animals themselves 



• I pecuniary loss to their owners are diminished. 

 le action of snake-venoms and the preparation of 



native sera for snake-bites, the use of perman- 

 ,.,anates in the treatment of snake-bite and of cholera, 

 work on the dysenteries, and experiments leading to 

 improved treatments of leprosy, lulierculosis, and 



NO. 2661, VOL. 106] 



kala-azar are all summarised. It is shown how much 

 we are indebted to experiments on animals for a 

 better knowledge of these conditions and for im- 

 proved methods of dealing with them. 



Mr. E. H. Taylor gives (Philippine Journ. Set., 

 vol. xvi.. No. 3, March, 1920) an account of sixty-six 

 species — seventeen being new— of Philippine Am- 

 phibia. These belong to the orders Apoda — repre- 

 sented by a new species of Ichthyophis — and 

 Salientia, there being only one doubtful record in the 

 order Caudata. The Salientia, which includes the 

 frogs and toads, is represented by four families, 

 Ranidse, Engystomidae, Bufonidse, and Pelobatidae, 

 the first of which has by far the largest representa- 

 tion. .\ new genus of the Ranidse — Hazelia — is 

 described. 



Messrs. Boving and Champlain (Proceedings of the 

 U.S. National Museum, vol. Ivii., No. 2323, 1920) 

 describe the morphology and taxonomy of a number 

 of North American species of beetle larvae belonging 

 to the family Cleridae. With very few exceptions, 

 these insects, both as larvae and adults, prey upon 

 destructive wood- and bark-boring beetles. This 

 careful and very exact memoir should appeal to 

 all coleopterists, and the classification of Clerid 

 larvEB illustrates how much a taxonomic arrange- 

 ment of the beetles can differ from that of 

 their larvae. A new appropriate classification of 

 larvae independent of the adults is necessary in this 

 case. The second part of the paper deals with the 

 biology and seasonal history of the Cleridae. Informa- 

 tion of this nature is obviously essential if the forester 

 is ever to benefit by the preservation of the predators, 

 and at the same time by the destruction of the 

 injurious species upon which they prey. The authors 

 state that, whenever practicable, the dissemination of 

 Clerida;, particularly of Thanasimus and Enoclerus, 

 in quantities in badly infested regions would be a 

 valuable additional aid to control measures. 



A CERTAIN amount of romance is attached to the 

 control of insect pests by parasites, and the .Americans 

 have specialised in this work. Those interested will 

 find a very full illustrated account of the subject in the 

 Monthly Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture for 

 California (vol. ix., No. 4, .April,, 1920). Several para- 

 sites have l)een introduced as natural enemies of mealy- 

 bugs in the hope that some might prove effective. 

 One, a so-called mealy-bug destroyer, Cryptolaemus 

 Montrouzieri, Muls., a ladybird beetle from .Australia, 

 was expected to solve the problem, but after the first 

 few months seemed to die out except in particular 

 localities. The reason is fairly obvious. The success 

 of such a parasite means that its natural food 

 becomes scarce, and therefore it starves. The 

 problem has now, however, been solved by the Cali- 

 fornian authorities, who found that they could feed 

 thi- mealy-bug on potato-sprouts, and hence were 

 enabled to keep the ladybird fed and breeding during 

 the winter months. Special insectaries have been 

 built for this purpose, and tubes of the ladybird can 

 be supplied ffir release when and where necessary the 

 following spring. 



