October 4, 19 17 



NATURE 



91 



This is rendered possible by the return to England of 

 numbers of men who have had malaria in the Eastern 

 campaigns. These men in many instances still carry 

 the parasites in their blood, and, given the presence 

 of the intermediary anopheline mosquitoes, consider- 

 able risk of the transmission of the disease must exist. 

 In fact, cases of indigenous malaria arising in this 

 way have recently been recorded. The Board invites 

 the co-operation of medical practitioners and medical 

 officers of health, and has made arrangements whereby 

 specimens of blood may be examined. Inquiries are 

 .'ilso being instituted into the local prevalence of 

 ;inopheline mosquitoes. 



S. VERY useful pamphlet on bee plants and their 

 honey has been drawn up by Mr. Grieve, of Whin's 

 Vegetable Drug Plant Farm and Medicinal Herb 

 Nursery, Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks. The various use. 

 ful bee plants are referred to in special paragraphs, and 

 notes of value as to the plants themselves and the 

 character of their honey are given. The time of year 

 at which the plants are in flower is also mentioned. 

 Some attention is paid to poisonous honey, and the 

 •classic case of the rhododendron and azalea honey near 

 Trebizond referred to by Xenophon is quoted The 

 uses of honey, its quality, and also the treatment of 

 bee stings are given their due share of attention, and 

 the pamphlet should prove of value to all interested 

 in the beekeeping industry. 



We have received Bulletin No. lo of the Department 

 of Fisheries of the United Province of Bengal and 

 Bihar and Orissa. It is a statement of the quantities 

 of fish imported into Calcutta in the year ending March 

 31 last. The promptitude in publication is to be 

 remarked, but this is explained by the circumstance 

 that the data are evidently copies of " traffic returns," 

 being statements of the quantities of fish carried by 

 the various railways and other means of conveyance. 

 >Jo mention of the kinds of fish, or of their value, is 

 :given. 



A DESCRIPTION of the Gymnosomatous Pteropods of 

 the coastal waters of? Ireland is given by Miss Anne L. 

 Massy in the July number of the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Dublin Society. The report is interesting be- 

 cause of our meagre knowledge of the group as it 

 exists in British and Irish seas. The collections were 

 made, by plankton and other nets, by the Irish fishery 

 cruiser Helga off the west, south, and east coasts of 

 Ireland during the years 1901-4. The Pteropods are 

 not an abundant group among the specimens taken by 

 the Helga, and they occur mostly in deep water be- 

 tween latitudes 50" to 52"^' N. and longitudes • 11° to 

 13° W. Miss Massy has identified twelve species, and 

 5ix of these are new to science, while four others are 

 now recorded, for the first time, from British or Irish 

 seas. Most of the species are deep-water forms, but 

 one, Pneumodermopsis paucidens (Boas), is a shallow- 

 \yater animal, and is fairly common between Inishbofin 

 (in County Galway) and St. George's Channel, and is 

 abundant enough to be of some value as a source of 

 food for fishes. 



We have received from Dr. C. C. Easterbrook the 

 interesting reports of the Crichton Royal Institution, 

 Dumfries, for 1913 and 1914, as bearing upon the 

 review by Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones of " Shefl- 

 shock" in Nature of September 6, and entitled 

 "The Psychopathy of the Barbed Wire." In 

 •specially marked paragraphs these reports emphasise 

 <a) the definite dependence of the mind upon the body, 

 ■"for mental illness, like other illnesses, is primarily a 

 matter of derangement of health " ; further, " in mental 

 NO. 2501, VOL. 100] 



affections the mental machinery {i.e. the cells ot the 

 cerebral cortex) is disordered in its working and thrown 

 out of gear"; (6) the concern expressed by all psychia- 

 trists long before the war that mental disease among 

 the poor should receive statutory sanction for treat- 

 ment without the medical certificate, which, when 

 issued, registers insanity as well as pauperism. As 

 stated by Sir Robert, these suggestions made by the 

 authors of " Shell-shock, etc.," are plainly the reflec- 

 tion of the considered opinion of all those who practise 

 among the mentally afflicted. They have for many 

 years urged the early treatment of these cases, both 

 in the interests of the patient, who recovers earlier, and 

 upon grounds of public economy. Lastly, (c) the re- 

 ports show the dependence of mental illness upon the 

 nervous or neurotic constitution, which " is a precursor 

 of and a sine qua non of an attack of insanity." The 

 reports support the view that the nervous constitution 

 "is to be found among the nearer blood-relations." 

 Although Dr. Easterbrook criticises the inferential 

 value of hereditary histories of nervous and mental 

 diseases, he yet derives "anomalous dispositions" in 

 great part from racial, ancestral, and familial traits, 

 with the result that the sufferer " loses his nerves ", in 

 consequence of a faulty heredity. 



Red sandal (Pterocarpus santalinus , Linn., f.) was 

 formerly valued for the red colouring matter santalin 

 found in the heart-wood, and was exported to Europe 

 from Madras in large quantities for use as a dye. 

 Thds use outside India has been superseded by 

 aniline dyes, and the wood is now used for the con- 

 struction of house-posts, as it is never attacked by 

 white ants. The tree grows on the slopes of the 

 Cuddapah and neighbourmg hills in the Madras Presi- 

 dency, and a useful account of the tree and its growth, 

 etc., with a map of its distribution and photographs, is 

 given by Mr. T. A. Whitehead in Forest Bulletin 

 No. 34, India. " Redwood " was frequently used as 

 ballast in home-going ships in early days, and was 

 referred to as "Caliature," a name which Rumphius 

 traces to the town of Kistnapatam, eighty-two miles 

 north of Madras, which, according to an old glossary, 

 is the Greek Sopatma, or otherwise " Calitore." In a 

 Portuguese map of 1672 a village Caletur is indicated, 

 and it is interesting that, though the place was known to 

 foreigners as Calitore or Caletur, it was not recognised 

 by that name by British factors. 



Towards the middle of June in the present year con- 

 siderable tracts of the Pennine Hill pastures were found 

 to be infested with the caterpillar of the antler moth 

 {Charaeas graminis, L.) in extraordinary numbers, 

 causing serious damage to the grazing. The outbreak 

 was investigated at the time by officers of the Board of 

 Agriculture and others, and forms the subject of two 

 reports which are published in the .\ugust issue of 

 the Board's Journal. Messrs. A. C. Cole and A. D. 

 Imms contribute a report on observations in the Peak 

 District. They record that the principal grass attacked 

 was that known locally as " bent " grass {Nardus 

 stricta), whilst cotton grass (Eriophorum) and other 

 species appeared to suffer less severely. The more succu- 

 lent and finer grasses escaped attack, as did also bil- 

 berry, white bedstraw, heather, and bracken. The altitude 

 appeared to be a distinct factor in the limitation of the 

 infestation, no caterpillar being found at an elevation 

 less than 900 ft., although from that altitude up to 

 1700 ft. it was prevalent. The two most efficient bar- 

 riers were found to be water and stone walls. These 

 observations are substantially confirmed by Mr. J. 

 Snell's report on the outbreak in Yorkshire.' He also 

 found Nardus stricta to be badlv attacked, 

 and further observed the caterpillar feeding on Aira 



