386 



NATURE 



[July i8, 191 8 



certificate would be to-day worth \l. because the 

 nation will pay iZ. for it in five years' time. I fear 

 that he stands alone in this valuation. H. Louis. 



Man's Ancestry. > 



In relation to your . reviewer's interesting notice 

 in Nature for June 27 of Prof. Wood-Jones's 

 booklet, "The Problem of Man's Ancestry," it 

 is appropriate to remember that the "blood- 

 reaction test" shows the relationship of man to 

 the ape to stand exactly as that of the horse to the 

 donkey; the latter have had a common ancestor. 

 Taking man as equalling 100, the ape comes at 70; 

 the numbers for the horse and the donkey are the same. 

 But this test shows no blood relationship whatever 

 between man and the lower animals, thus confirming 

 Klaatsch's .view that the human line became 

 separated very far down at the basis of the vertebrate 

 phylum. W. Woods Smyth. 



Maidstone, July 3. 



The similarity in the reaction of human and 

 anthropoid blood is the most convincing evidence we 

 have of man!s close relationship to the gorilla, chim- 

 panzee, and orang. The classical experiments on 

 blood immunity and blood relationships carried out 

 by Prof. Nuttall, of Cambridge, in the opening years 

 of the present century assured him that those 

 anatomists were right who brought man and anthro- 

 poid apes from a common stock. All the biological 

 evidence collected since 1904 has supported Prof. 

 Nuttall's conclusion. When attempts have been made 

 to transmit diseases which are peculiar to man, such 

 as syphilis and typhoid, it has always been found 

 that the great anthropoid apes are more susceptible 

 than any other primate, and much more than any 

 other mammal. When physiologists wish to discover 

 the action of any particular part of the human brain 

 they invariably select an anthropoid ape as the sub- 

 ject most likely to yield the information which is 

 being searched for. But I do not know of any 

 anatomist who has claimed that the relationship 

 between man and the gorilla or between man and the 

 chimpanzee is as close as that which exists between 

 the horse and ass. The structural difference between 

 the gorilla and chimpanzee is greater than that which 

 differentiates the horse from the ass ; the structural 

 difference between man and the gorilla is still greater. 



It is for those who hold that man has arisen by 

 an independent line from a primitive mammalian 

 stock to explain why man's blood gives no reaction 

 with the blood of lower animals. If it is true that 

 man *is a primitive form and retains primitive 

 characters, then we should expect his blood to yield 

 such reactions. The fact that it does not supports 

 the usually accepted hypothesis that man has arisen 

 from an anthropoid stock. The Reviewer. 



POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE 

 HOME TIMBER SUPPLY. 

 HE utility of forests to a nation is one of the 

 economic factors to its well-being which 

 have been brought to an unforeseen prominence 

 during the world-war ; and perhaps to no other 

 European nation has this unlooked-for develop- 

 ment proved so startling, because so totally un- 

 suspected, as to ourselves. 



Our woods were not grown from the commercial 

 aspect — sport, amenity, and shelter to crops and 

 stock were their main raison d'etre. We did not 

 NO. 2542, VOL. lOl] 



consider it necessary to grow woods for purely 

 commercial reasons — that is, for the sake of the 

 timber and pit wood and paper pulp, etc., .they 

 would yield. We obtained our requirements in 

 these commodities by importing them from abroad, 

 and relied on the Navy being able to safeguard 

 these imports. We have now discovered, our mis- 

 take and are paying for it. The timber purchased 

 in 1915 and 1916 cost ,37,000,000!. more than it 

 would have done in 1909-13. 



On the Continent it was thought that the utility 

 of the forest to a nation was thoroughly under- 

 stood, but a study of Continental text-books 

 discloses the fact that, so far as modern warfare 

 is concerned, even there the value of the forest and 

 its close connection with the operations , of the 

 contending armies were but dimly foreseen. It 

 may be on record, perhaps, in the archives, of the 

 German War Office that an exceptionally large 

 demand for timber might prove one of the essen- 

 tial factors to the successful waging of a great 

 war. But it is doubtful whether the Germans even 

 foresaw the magnitude of the demands; and, in 

 any event, they would have calculated on obtain- 

 ing their requirements in this respect from the 

 countries they overran — as, in fact, has been the 

 case in France, Belgium, Poland, and elsewhere. 

 Nor was it anticipated that the destruction of 

 forests would be so heavy in the fighting zones. 

 In the western provinces of Russia, for instance, 

 from which the Baltic ports were mainly supplied, 

 some 16,000,000 acres of forest have been de- 

 stroyed ! This in itself will limit the amount 

 we are likely to receive from the Baltic in 

 the future. Destruction and heavy fellings are, 

 then, taking place throughout Europe, and, with 

 our timber imports reduced to a negligible amount, 

 we have now been felling heavily for some time 

 past in our own small area of 3,000,000 acres of 

 woodlands, of which probably not much more than 

 half will be commercially exploitable. It will be 

 alike useful and of. interest to consider briefly the 

 present position and future prospects of this timbter 

 question. 



Almost from the outbreak of war we have been 

 living a hand-to-mouth existence so far as timber 

 supplies are concerned. The first troubles arose with 

 the pit-wood requirements of the collieries, and 

 the matter has remained a difficult one throughout. 

 Our position as the coal producer and coal mer- 

 chant of the Allies has rendered it essential to 

 keep the collieries working at full pressure. 

 Previous to the war three-quarters of our pit-wood 

 supplies came from Russia and France ; this 

 amount was cut off at a moment's notice with the 

 closure of the Baltic ports and the calling to. the 

 colours of the French woodcutters. The price at 

 once rose, and though, the imports continued for 

 some time, the increasing demands made upon 

 tonnage for other purposes, coupled with the 

 German submarine campaign, gradually reduced 

 them to a very small figure. We had to fall back 

 upon our home woods for this product. A demand 

 also quickly arose for ash with which to fashion 

 the handles of entrenching tools ; but the use of 



