March 25. 1920' 



NATURE 



»'5 



Horough Council, and is worthy of the careful con- 

 sideration of all authorities concerned with national 

 health. Dr. Fraser urges that the highest aim of a 

 health authority should be the prevention, not the 

 ' ! eatinent, of disease, and that the necessity for exten- 

 sive provision for treatment is evidence of the neglect 

 or failure of prevention. He shows clearly that the 

 successful prevention of venereal disease by scienti- 

 fically accredited means can be achieved only by the 

 adoption of certain sanitary measures which are readily 

 available and easily applicable. These measures con- 

 sist in the use of a solution of permanganate of potash 

 immediately after exposure to infection and of an 

 ointment containing calomel. The provision of these 

 disinfectants by any local health authority is not sug- 

 i^ested, but the authority is recommended to take such 

 steps as are necessary to spread the knowledge of the 

 means of self-disinfection, so that those who insist 

 on satisfying their sexual appetites by promiscuous 

 Intercourse may be instructed how to protect them- 

 selves from diseases which, when contracted, are 

 notoriously so often communicated to innocent women 

 and children. Since it is far more easy to disinfect 

 men than women, it is rightly urged by Dr. Fraser 

 that it is of the first importance to prevent the infec- 

 tive germs from entering the body of the male, 

 for if one sex can be protected from infection venereal 

 diseases will be well on the way towards extinction. 

 The report gives ample consideration and reply to 

 various objections which have been pet'sistently made 

 against the inclusion of venereal diseases in the cate- 

 tjorv of infectious and preventable diseases which can 

 now W dealt with on scientific lines. 



A ( iiRious case of stone worship is described by 

 Mr. H. A. MacMichael among the Tungur-Fur tribe 

 in the Sudan {Sudan Notes and Records, vol. iii., 

 No. I, January, 1920). The stone is known as the 

 ■'Bride's Stone" or the "Custom Stone." Rites are 

 performed on marriage, at the circumcision of a child, 

 at a birth, and when a high official visits the place. 

 But that at marriage is, as the name implies, the 

 most usual. After the marriage rite the pair are made 

 to rub some blood of a sacrificed animal on the stone 

 in the form of a cross. If they are too poor to afford 

 this, they ofifer a piece of cowdung. Then they are 

 taken to a neighbouring well, where the officiant takes 

 a piece of mud from the pool, daubs it on the fore- 

 heads, shoulders, waists, knees, and loins of the 

 couple, and binds some green grass on their necks, 

 ankles, and wrists — ail doubtless intended as a fer- 

 tility charm. 



L.^sr year the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 

 Society attained its jubilee, and we congratulate its 

 members on their fifty years of good work. The 

 v«ry name of "naturalist" is in danger of extinction. 

 Our pursuits are so specialised that we have ornitho- 

 logists, marine biologists, and protozoologists who yet 

 could scarcely be called naturalists. Another peril to the 

 name of naturalist was brought about by Mr. Arthur 

 Balfour's use of the word "naturalism" to denote 

 what other people call "materialism." It would be a 

 thousand pities to lose familiarity with this most 

 NO. 26^0. VOL. TO:;1 



honourable name of naturalist, or to pervert it to a 

 false use. Happily, we are safe so long as the Norfolk 

 and Norwich Naturalists' Society flourishes, and others 

 like it. Its latest number of Transactions (vol. x., 

 part v., 19 18-19) is altogether admirable, with Mr. 

 W. P. Pycraft's paper on "Some Neglected Aspects 

 in the Study of Young Birds," Mr. Robert Gurney's 

 " Breeding Stations of the Black-headed Gull in the 

 British Isles," and Mr. W. G. Clarke's "The Fauna 

 and Flora of an Essex Common." The whole issue 

 is well illustrated and well edited ; and Dr. Sydnev 

 Long, the society's hon. secretary and editor, say's 

 truly that new problems and new points of viev^ con- 

 tinually arise. "It is to be hoped that members of 

 our society may devote attention in the future to such 

 questions as the limiting factors in the distribution 

 of our flora and fauna, to the peculiar physical and 

 biological features of our great asset, the Norfolk 

 Broads, or even to such practical questions as the 

 advancement of agricultural methods by the applica- 

 tion of modern ideas on heredity and soil fertility." 



The Sumatran hare {Nesolagus Netscheri) is one of 

 the rarest of known mammals. Hitherto only two 

 specimens have ever found their way into a museum, 

 and these are in the Natural History Museum at 

 Leyden. Messrs. E. Jacobson and C. Boden Kloss 

 are therefore to be congratulated on being able to 

 describe four recently captured examples in the 

 Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums 

 (vol. vii., part iv.). The specimens were obtained by 

 Mr. Jacobson after a long and almost hopeless search 

 in south-west Sumatra. In its coloration this animal 

 is remarkable, being broadly striped with dark brown 

 on a " buffy or greyish " background, forming a strik- 

 ing pattern, which is admirably shown in two photo- 

 graphs of a living animal. The skin of this creature 

 is so exceedingly thin that it was possible to prepare 

 the specimens captured only after hardening in spirit. 

 It is nocturnal in its habits, and haunts the remote 

 parts of the forest at an altitude of from 600 to 

 1400 metres. Hence it is almost unktiown, even to 

 the natives. So far as can be ascertained, it would 

 seem to live in burrows at the base of big trees or 

 in holes in the ground made by other animals. Mr. 

 Jacobson succeeded in keeping one of the specimens 

 here described for more than a year, during which 

 time it fed readily upon cooked rice, young maize, 

 bread, and ripe bananas. But its favourite food in the 

 wild state would appear to consist chiefly of the juicy 

 stalks and leaves of different species of Cyrtandra, 

 which plants form a large part of the undergrowth 

 of the forests in which it lives. Repeated experiments 

 showed that these plants were preferred to all others, 

 and were consumed in large quantities. 



The Philippine Journal of Science (vol. xiv., No. 6) 

 contains an account by H. A. Lee and H. S. Yates of 

 the so-called "pink disease" which has recently 

 appeared in the Philippines, spreading rapidly and 

 causing serious stem- and branch-disease of citrus- 

 trees. The organism is a well-known fungus, Cor- 

 ticimn salmonicolor, which, though not previously 

 reported upon citrus, is known to cause disease on 

 rubber-trees {Hevea brasiliensis), cocoa, coffee, and 



