January 26, 1922] 



NATURE 



107 



^lall were observed with some care it seems desirable 

 ' put the case on record. 



The two ladies were sitting at table about 8 p.m., 

 with the window open. It was raining heavily at the 

 time, and there was no wind. Stormy clouds were 

 about, but it was not unusually hot. Thunder and 

 lightning at the same time were afterwards reported 

 from London — a distance of, say, 50 miles — but there 

 was no thunderstorm at Eastbourne. There had been 

 no rain during the few preceding days. As one of the 

 ladies took up a knife to cut bread the ball of light 

 V as seen to flash past the knife (without touching it) 

 n to the table, travelling a distance of about 9 in. 

 at an average height of about 3 in. from the table, 

 but moving towards the latter. 



When the ball touched the tablecloth it "went out 

 with a spitting sound," leaving no mark or trace of 

 any sort. Until it touched the cloth there was no 

 sound, and the whole thing was over in such a " flash 

 of time " that it was impossible to say how fast the 

 ball travelled. There seems to have been an impres- 

 that the ball came from the direction of the op>en 

 ndow, but it was only under dependable observa- 

 during its 9-in. path from the bread-knife to the 

 lecloth. 

 As to the appearance of the ball itself, it was 

 ^about the size of a pea, the light encircling it being 

 t the size of a golf ball. The light was white 

 d intensely bright, like electricity." "Too dazzling 

 to see through." A. P. Chattock. 



The University, Bristol. 



Where did Terrestrial Life Begin? 



For a long time now the idea has prevailed that 

 life began in the sea or in the mud of the seashore, 

 and many interesting articles have been written to 

 describe the emigration of sea-creatures and water- 

 creatures to the land, but there are some difficulties 

 in the way of this theory which do not seem to have 

 been noticed, and on broad general grounds it is, 

 perhaps, more probable that life began on mountain- 

 tops. 



Life became possible on the earth only after it had 

 cooled to a certain point, and surely that point was 

 reached much sooner on hilltops than in the sea 

 or on the seashore. It must be remembered that the 

 sea when first formed would have a temperature of 

 more than 100° C, since the condensation of volcanic 

 steam must have taken place under a massive atmo- 

 sphere of carbon dioxide. This heavy atmosphere 

 would not only raise the boiling point of the sea, but 

 would greatly retard its cooling, which would in any 

 case be a very slow process, since the sea-bed would 

 be hot and the sea deep, and a bad conductor. Would 

 not the mountain-tops have become cool and habitable 

 centuries before the temperature of the sea fell to 

 111° F. and became a fit abode of life? Further, it 

 Is almost certain that the first life was green chloro- 

 phyll-carrying cells which would require sunlight, and 

 sunlight would pierce the heavy and cloudy atmosphere 

 of steam and carbon dioxide, and would reach the hill- 

 tops long before it reached sea-level. 



For these reasons it seems that life is more likely 

 to have mad'^ its first appearance on the mountain- 

 top of the Polar regions than in sea-mud or sea- 

 water. Ronald Campbell Macfie. 



Dr. Macfie's suggestion that life originated on the 

 mountain summits is new, and entitled to careful con- 

 sideration. If the early earth, when its atmosphere 

 was laden with carbon dioxide and steam, had been 

 windless, then the mountain summits would have 



NO. 2726, VOL. 109] 



stood like islands above a sea of hot mist, and they 

 would have been the only situations possible for the 

 development of life; but as any wind would have at 

 times submerged the mountain summits beneath the 

 lower atmosphere, they would have been subject to 

 violent fluctuations in temperature and moisture 

 which would have been unfavourable to primitive life. 

 It may be doubted whether life could have appeared 

 on the earth until later, when the temperature and 

 the atmosphere were more similar to those which 

 have existed throughout all the time of which there 

 are contemporary geological records as to climate and 

 geographical conditions. 



In the discussion on this question in a chapter of 

 "The Making of the Earth" I laid stress on an 

 equable environment as an essential condition for the 

 development of Protobion, the most primitive form of 

 life. If that view be sound, then life was not likely 

 to have developed until a considerably later stage on 

 the earth than that at which the conditions stated by 

 Dr. Macfie would have held. His letter involves the 

 issue whether the first life was semi-aquatic or terres- 

 trial. On his assumption that it is "almost certain " 

 that the first life consisted of cells containing chloro- 

 phyll it would certainly have begun on land. But 

 such an organism would be more complex, and, there- 

 fore, probablv later in development than some simple 

 form of amoeboid or mycetozoon, to which strong sun- 

 light would have been less beneficial, and for which 

 the unchanging environment on the muddy shores of 

 a primeval lagoon would appear to be a more suit- 

 able medium than a mountain summit. 



J. W. Gregory. 



Rainfall and Drainage at Rothamsted in 1921. 



In view of warnings that are being issued by 

 various water companies that waste of water should 

 be avoided, the rain and drainage figures of the 

 Rothamsted Experimental Station for 1921 are of con- 

 siderable interest and significance. The drainage 

 gauges were built in Barnfield in 1870 by Law^es and 

 Gilbert, and contain undisturbed soil which is kept 

 bare ; each gauge measures i / 1000 acre. The soil is 

 a rather heavy loam with a reddish subsoil over 

 chalk. 



Rainfall Percolation. 



Throuch Through Through 



i/iooo acre 20 inches 40 inches 60 inches 



eauge. of soil. of soil. of soil. 



Inches. Inches. Inrhes. Inches. 



For year 1921 16093 5766 5984 5479 

 Average for 

 50 years ... 28692 14834 15-482 14-659 



The significance of these figures is that not merely 

 is the rainfall and drainage the lowest since the 

 records started, but that whereas in a normal year 

 about 50 per cent, of the rainfall evaporates, during 

 the past twelve months as much as 63 to 65 per 

 cent, evaporated. This is partly accounted for bv 

 the excess of sunshine, which at this station amounted 

 to 159 hours above the average, or about 26 mmutes 

 a dav. 



The number of davs on which ram fell (boi m. or 

 more) during the past twelve months is ri^; this 

 compares with an average for sixty-eight years of 174. 



It is interesting to recall the fact that the year 

 1902, which hitherto gave the lowest percolation 

 figures, was followed by the wettest year on our 

 records, when the heaw fain-showers gave a dramage 

 of 24 in. ' W. D. Christmas. 



Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, 

 * January 16. 



