September 8, 1898] 



NATURE 



435 



LETTERS ^ TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to retwn, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 mamiscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.l 



Wasp and Bee Stings. 



As we are now in the thick of the wasp season, it may interest 

 some of the readers of Nature to know that cocaine is a 

 remedy for wasp or bee stings. It act? apparently not only as 

 a temporary local anesthetic, but seems also to have the power 

 of destroying the poison of the sting. I happened to have some 

 l/6th grain cocaine tabloids for hypodermic injection when a 

 Lidy was badly slung by a wasp a year or two ago. Such stings 

 have a great effect on her, not only producing a very large and 

 painful swelling, but making her feel more or less unwell for 

 two or three days. One tabloid dissolved in a few drops of 

 water, and applied with the finger at once, almost removed the 

 pain ; a second, applied an hour or two after, completed the 

 cure. A few days later I found the cocaine equally effective in 

 the case of a young girl who had been severely stung. Since 

 then I have kept a small bottle of a strong solution of cocaine 

 ready for use, and it has always proved effective. It should, of 

 course, be applied as soon as possible, but only two days ago I 

 found that it gave great relief seven or eight hours after the 

 sting. 



If any medical man should happen to read this, may I ask him 

 to say whether it would be safe, in case a person were stung on 

 the tongue, and no doctor could be secured at once, to give a 

 hypodermic injection in the tongue of i/6th grain cocaine, or 

 whether it would be better to apply the tabloid or a solution 

 externally to the place. J. F. D. Donnelly. 



September 4. 



The "Jelly-fish" of Lake Urumiah. 



Some years ago there appeared in Nature a letter from Mr. 

 P. L. Sclater, drawing attention to the possibility of the occur- 

 rence of a species of medusa in the salt lake of Urmi in Persia. 



During my present visit I have had several opportunities of 

 examining the fauna of the lake, and have met with a great 

 abundance of the organisms referred to by Mr. Curzon in his 

 work on Persia (vol. i. p. 533) as "jelly-fish." Near land they 

 are present in such countless swarms that they cannot escape 

 the attention of the bather, and are consequently very well 

 known to the inhabitants of the shores of the lake, who, more- 

 over, deny the existence of any second kind of animal in its 

 brine. 



These organisms are Crustaceans belonging to the order 

 Branchiopoda. Without books, I cannot refer them to their 

 exact systematic position ; but they seem to me to resemble the 

 Artemia group of varieties of the Branchipus type, which are 

 specially adapted for life in strong saline solutions. 



The Urmi Branchiopods are of two sexes. The females 

 grow to a length of about 13 millimetres, the males of about 10 

 millimetres ; the former have a faint reddish, the latter a faint 

 greenish tinge of colour. The males are, moreover, readily 

 distinguished by the absence of egg sacs, and by the possession 

 of enlarged anterior clasping appendages, by means of which 

 they often hang on to the females and are towed about by 

 them. 



In very shallow water I have also found the larva of a fly in 

 which the trachere open at the tip of a bifurcated process which 

 is thrust up to the surface when the larva breathes. There is 

 an abundance of an alga forming small dark green gelatinous 

 masses floating freely in the lake, but up to the present these 

 are the sole vestiges of life I have been able to detect in the salt 

 water. R. T. Gunther. 



Urmi, Persia, July 20. 



Science and Art Department Examinations. 



For more than twenty years I have annually sent pupils in 

 for some of these examinations, and, although at times unable 

 to understand the reason for the adoption of some of the regu- 

 lations, this is the first time that I have ever ventured to call 

 attention to one or two points connected with the working of the 

 Department. Recently, as is well known, the system of payment 

 which has hitherto been adopted has been altered. It is claimed 



NO. 1506, VOL. 58] 



that this alteration is an improvement, because it is said to sub- 

 stitute payment by attendance for payment by results ; but in 

 reality it does nothing of the kind, for the examinational results 

 are still one of the chief, if not the chief, factors in fixing the 

 amount of grant. Also the amount of payment per attendance 

 is so small that a most inadequate remuneration is given to the 

 teacher. The result of this on the Science Classes throughout 

 the country is, that while possibly only a comparatively slight 

 alteration will be made in the total amount of money paid to 

 large classes — such as the classes in large day schools— the 

 amount paid to smaller classes, especially those held in the 

 evening, where higher work is carried on, will be reduced to 

 such an extent as to threaten the existence of many of them. 

 For example, in a class known to me where work of the highest 

 kind is carried on, and which work has been specially com- 

 mended by the Inspector in two of his annual reports, the earn- 

 ings this session will be reduced 75 per cent. If this is the 

 outcome of the new policy, the sooner the Department reverts to 

 the old plan the better for all concerned, and especially for the 

 propagation of scientific knowledge. Of course all teachers are 

 aware of the anomalies which occur in examinations, but the 

 following is a somewhat remarkable instance : — A student sat 

 for the examination in May last in the advanced stage of prac- 

 tical organic chemistry. He was required to answer two question?, 

 and to analyse two substances (unknown), as well as to find the 

 halogen element present in an organic solid, and to determine 

 the melting point of this solid. The written questions were 

 correctly answered, the analyses were correctly done, the 

 halogen was correctly determined, and the melting point of the 

 substance was less than i per cent, too low. The description of 

 the practical worlc was also fairly well done ; but this student is 

 returned as having failed, notwithstanding that there are two 

 classes of success, first and second class. It would be interest- 

 ing to know, in the face of this, the standard the examiners 

 require for a first class success. At the last May examinations 

 the other chemistry results show many anomalies of a somewhat 

 similar character. D.Sc. (Lond.). 



BOOKWORMS} 



THE naturalist frequently spends a good deal of time 

 in abuse of his fellow man, considered in the light 

 of a destructive agent ; he points ruefully to the reduced 

 faimas and floras of certain islands, to the Dodo, to the 

 Moa, and to various creatures which have been extirpated 

 by the direct or indirect influence of human occupation 

 of the countries where they once flourished. But there is 

 no action without compensation ; and while man has 

 sensibly impoverished the fauna and flora of the world in 

 which he lives in some directions, he has unwillingly 

 encouraged and promoted the welfare of many creatures 

 belonging to humbler groups than those which he has 

 thinned or entirely abolished. The average householder, 

 as he takes his nightly rounds with a view to bolts and 

 bars, is probably not aware that with luck and under 

 favourable circumstances he might meet with nearly one 

 hundred species of insects and other allied forms to whom 

 he has not only furnished secure lodgings, but abundant 

 food. Several species of clothes moth batten upon his 

 Sunday coat ; two species of cockroach may or do stalk 

 boldly through his kitchen ; and, in short, a host of 

 creatures — some of them importations from abroad, 

 destitute aliens in fact— thrive at the expense of the most 

 formidable enemy of the brute creation. Our libraries 

 afford pasturage to quite a number of small creatures, for 

 the most part beetles, which have found in the dry leather 

 and paper (and doubtless, too, on account of the 

 infrequency with which books are apt to be consulted) a 

 more suitable home than the woods which they pre- 

 sumably at: one time inhabited. The Rev. J. F. X. 

 O'Connor, whose interesting little book about bookworms 

 is before us, was led to investigate these destructive 

 creatures by discovering one in an old folio belonging to 

 the library of Georgetown College. 



Being a lover of books, it is not surprising to find that 



1 " Facts about Bookworms." By Rev. J.F.X. O'Connor, S.J. (London : 

 Suckling and Co., 1898.) 



