October i8, 1917] 



NATURE 



123 



and under this the sum now available for medical 

 research amounts to about 55,000^ annually. 

 There is finally the block grant of 1,000,000/. 

 made t(^the Department of Scientific and Indus- 

 trial Research, which has much the same functions 

 as those of the Council of Science adumbrated by 

 the Science Commission of 1870. 



We have g-ood reason to be satisfied that the 

 importance of research which was urged by 

 scientific advocates for so many years without 

 effect is now being recognised by the State ; and 

 that the lead thus given is being followed by our 

 manufacturers. What has now to be guarded 

 against is the administration of the funds by 

 executive officers who do not possess sufficient 

 scientific knowledge to prepare promising schemes 

 of work or have not that close sympathy with 

 scientific aims which places the original investi- 

 gator above all other men in national value. The 

 managing head of every council or manufactory 

 which depends upon progressive science for its 

 maintenance and development should be an expert 

 in science and not an administrator only. The 

 official mind is unwilling to believe that broad 

 scientific, knowledge may be combined with 

 administrative capacity ; and the result is, as Prof. 

 Pope pointed out in his address, the more a man 

 knows of scientific subjects on which he is 

 engaged in a Government department or industry, 

 the less likely is he to be given charge of them. 

 Whatever provision is made for research by the 

 State or in private industries cannot produce the 

 fullest advantage until this unreasonable principle 

 of appointment has been abandoned and the power 

 of action is placed in the hands of men who can 

 draw up the plans of a scientific campaign, and be 

 given the responsibility of carrying them to a 

 successful conclusion. Until this military method 

 is applied to the scientific services, no machinery 

 provided can be used to its utmost efficiency. 



BEETLES AND DRAGONFLIES. 

 (i) The Fauna, of British India, including Ceylon 

 and Burma. Coleoptera. Rhynchophora : Curcu^ 

 lionidae. By Dr. Guy A. K. Marshall. Pp. 

 XV + 367. Coleoptera. Lamellicornia, Part ii. 

 {Rutelinae, Desmonycinae, and Euchirinae). By 

 G. J. Arrow. Pp. xiii + 387 + plates v. (Lon- 

 don: Taylor and Francis, 1916-17.) Price 155. 

 each vol. 

 (2) The Biology of Dragonflies (Odonata or 

 Paraneuroptera). By R. J. Tillyard. ("Cam- 

 bridge Zoological Series.") Pp. xii + 396. (Cam- 

 bridge : At the University Press, 1917.) Price 

 155. net. 



[{i) ' I ^ HE imposing series of monographs on the 

 [ ■»- fauna of India, published under the 

 authority of the Secretary of State, has been en- 

 NO. 2503, VOL. 100] 



riched by these two volumes now contributed 

 on impKJrtant groups of beetles by Dr. Marshall and 

 Mr. Arrow respectively. The Curculionidae, or 

 weevils, are dominant insects in most parts of the 

 world, often forcing themselves on the attention 

 of mankind by the damage that they cause to 

 vegetation. In the volume now issued Dr. Mar- 

 shall gives a general introduction on the family 

 with respect to structure, life-history, and habit, 

 and deals systematically with the two extensive 

 sub-families Brachyderinae and Otiorrhynchinae. 

 In the introductory section there are clear descrip- 

 tions with figures of those modifications of the 

 jaws and body-skeleton that are of classificatory 

 importance, and a brief account of larval and 

 pupal structure, with illustrations of the early 

 stages in three genera. Dr. Marshall comments 

 on our lack of knowledge about the life-histories 

 of the vast majority of these beetles ; nevertheless, 

 he has brought together much interesting informa- 

 tion about the habits of various Indian species. 

 It is not generally known, for example, that a 

 white excretory substance which builds the cocoon 

 of certain Larini in the pupal stage "forms an 

 article of commerce in the East, being largely used 

 both medicinally and as a food." The systematic 

 part of the work contains careful diagnoses of 

 342 species, illustrated by means of a hundred 

 excellent figures. 



Mr. Arrow's volume is the second devoted to 

 the large gro.up of the Lamellicorns, which includes 

 the conspicuous stag-beetles and chafers and the 

 highly interesting dung-beetles. It deals with 

 three sub-families of chafers, including the Rute- 

 linae, to which belongs the common British 

 "garden chafer." Nearly four hundred Indian 

 Rutelinae are described ; many of them are adorned 

 with brilliant colours, and the appearance of these 

 can be judged from a coloured plate. Four other 

 plates give structural details of the male repro- 

 ductive armature, the systematic value of which 

 among insects is becoming increasingly recog- 

 nised. Some of the genera have an enormous 

 number of species; Mr. Arrow describes 181 dif- 

 ferent kinds of Anomala, but he wisely refrains 

 from attempting to divide this huge genus on 

 characters derived from the study of a local fauna 

 even so extensive as the Indian, because such 

 characters " invariably break down when applied 

 to other species or faunas than those upon which 

 they are founded." The Euchirinae, with which 

 the volume concludes, are large chafers which 

 climb about on trees, feeding on sweet exudations 

 by means of speclallv modified jaws ; the males 

 possess forelegs of abnormal length and puzzling 

 structure. 



(2) Dragonflies are among the most interesting 

 of the smaller orders of insects, and accounts of 

 their structure and life-history may be found in 

 many general works on entomology. But never 

 before has the group received such detailed and 

 well-balanced treatment as Mr. Tillvard has given 

 in the handy volume now Dublished as one of the 

 "Cambridge Zooloeical Series." Students of the 

 anatomy and development of insects are much 



