662 



NATURE 



[July 22, 1920 



First Conference of the International 

 Federation of University Women. 



THE International Federation of University 

 Women held its first conference at Bedford 

 College, London, on July 12-14, and it has been 

 interesting to note how thoroughly the Federation 

 deserves its name. If Great Britain and the United 

 States were the most numerously represented, as they 

 are the founder nations, there were plenty of other 

 nationalities to meet them. France, Spain, Italy, 

 Holland, Belgium, the Scandinavian countries, Czecho- 

 slovakia, India, and the Overseas Dominions of the 

 British Empire had all sent their delegates to par- 

 ticipate in the conference. The proceedings opened 

 on the evening of July 12, when a large audience 

 listened to speeches by Lord Grey of Fallodon, Prof. 

 Caroline Spurgeon (Bedford College), Dean Virginia 

 'Gildersleeve (Barnard College, New York), and Prof. 

 Winifred Cullis (the London School of Mediciije for 

 Women). Lord Grey emphasised the necessity for 

 intercourse between the peoples of the world, and the 

 women speakers outlined the means by which the 

 International Federation intends to promote this 

 necessary contact between the women of the 

 -universities of the world. Briefly, their aims are the 

 establishment of travelling fellowships and inter- 

 national scholarships ; the exchange of professors, lec- 

 turers, and students ; the establishment of club-houses 

 and other centres of international hospitality; and 

 useful co-operation with the national bureaux of 

 education in the various countries. 



On the following days the foundations of the 

 Federation were established. A constitution and 

 by-laws were freely discussed and considerably 

 amended before final adoption. The effect of these 

 will be to establish a central office in London for 

 general information, which will operate in connection 

 with Committees on International Relations set up 

 in each country which is a member of the Federa- 

 tion. Officers have been elected for the ensuing two 

 years, the president being Prof. Spurgeon ; the vice- 

 president, Mrs. R. F. McWilliams, of Winnipeg; the 

 treasurer, Mrs. Edgerton Parsons, of New York; and 

 tha secretary. Miss T. Bosanquet, assistant secretary 

 to the Universities Bureau of the British Empire, 

 50 Russell Square, W.C.i. 



Informal reports on the position of the higher 

 education of women in the various countries repre- 

 sented were read, and steps will be taken to correlate 

 the academic standards in the different universities. 



The next meeting will be held in the summer of 

 1922. _ It is hoped that in the meantime each branch 

 association of the Federation will work actively to 

 further the aims of the Federation in its own country. 

 The British Federation of University Women is losing 

 no time in getting to work, and will initiate a cam- 

 paign for the programme of the International Federa- 

 tion in the autumn. 



Insect Pests. 



T N connection with tropical agriculture, attention 

 ■»■ has been directed to the question of the influence 

 ■of the condition of the host-plant on infestation with 

 sucking insects. It is believed that such pests as 

 thrips on cacao and froghopper blight on sugar-cane 

 can be held in check by increasing the resistance of 

 the plant by improving agricultural conditions. In 

 the Agricultural News {vo\. xix.. No. 464) it is claimed 

 that the "mosquito blight " of tea (caused by a capsid 

 tug of the genus Helopeltis) is afifected in a similar 



NO. 2647, "^^OL. 105] 



way, and that the condition of individual tea-bushes 

 determines the susceptibility to attack. The distribu- 

 tion of mosquito blight appears to be connected with 

 soil conditions, and -analytical data indicate that soils 

 on which the pest is prevalent show similarities in 

 the potash-phosphoric acid ratio, the addition of potash 

 having an appreciable, though irregular, action in 

 reducing the blight. Water-logging tends to encourage 

 infestation, probably because the vitality of bushes 

 grown on such areas is lowered; draining is the 

 remedy advised in such cases. Acidity and poverty of 

 soil are other factors which vitiate the health of the 

 tea-bushes, so rendering them more liable to attack. 



The spread of prickly pear in .Australia is so rapid 

 that large areas of land will continue to be thrown out 

 of cultivation year by year unless some effective 

 measure of control can be devised. It is estimated 

 that the pest claims for its own 1,000,000 acres of 

 fresh land per annum. Various methods of eradica- 

 tion have been tried, but destruction by mechanical 

 or chemical means has proved too expensive for use on 

 a large scale. The pear cannot be fed off to stock, and 

 the manufacture of potash and paper from it has not 

 proved to be commercially successful. A fourth line 

 of attack — destruction by natural enemies — is now 

 being followed up (Science and Industry, vol. ii.. 

 No. i). It is necessary to find some enemies of the 

 prickly pear that will not attack other vegetation, 

 as the introduction of "omnivorous vegetarians" 

 would probably result in serious injury to other forms 

 of plant-life. For this reason certain rodents, snails, 

 and insects which are known to feed on prickly pear 

 in America and Africa cannot be recommended for 

 introduction into Australia. One insect, however. 

 Coccus indicus, appears to feed exclusively on one 

 form of pear, Opuntia monocantha, but unfortunately 

 it will not feed upon the chief pest, O. inermis. It 

 is recommended that experiments should be carried on 

 to induce the insects to transfer their attention from 

 one species to the other, if necessary by means of 

 hybridising the pears. Other insects — bugs, flies, 

 moths, and beetles — are known to feed upon one or 

 other species of prickly pear, and it is possible that 

 useful enemies might be introduced from Mexico and 

 South America. 



The loss caused by the jointworm flies of the genus 

 Harmolita (Isosoma) in the United States runs into 

 millions of dollars per annum, the wheat jointworm 

 (H. tritici) being the greatest devastator. W. J. 

 Phillips (Bull. 808, Professional Paper, U.S.A. Dept. 

 Agric.) has gathered together the available information 

 and classified the species into groups that attack grain 

 crops, cultivated grasses, and wild grasses. The two 

 first groups cause considerable loss by the injury they 

 entail to the crops. The members of the last group, 

 however, may possibly be beneficial in an economic 

 sense, as they provide intermediate hosts for the para- 

 sitic insects which prey upon the genus, the more 

 important parasites being common to the majority of 

 species of Harmolita. The life-histories of several 

 species are described, together with the way in which 

 injury is caused to the plants attacked. H. tritici 

 causes the most serious losses, reducing the vield of 

 wheat by as much as 50 per cent., the grains 

 being somewhat small and shrivelled. H. grandis 

 is also confined to wheat, and produces two genera- 

 tions in the year, but as it is easily controlled its 

 powers of destruction can be kept in check. Breed- 

 ing experiments indicate that each species is probably 

 confined to a single host, as it has proved impossible 

 to induce the more important forms to attack other 

 crops than that with which they are normally asso- 

 ciated. The jointworms are much subject to parasitic 

 attacks, and for this reason do not often get quite 



