October 14, 1897] 



NATURE 



575 



ttiucli value ; when accumulated, however, the case is very 

 dift'erenU Were it known that a record of any obscure or 

 rarely observed custom would be duly filed and classified and be 

 readily available to any one who was studying native folk-lore, 

 the probability is that many memoranda which otherwise would 

 be lost would find their way to the Bureau. It cannot be too 

 often or too strongly insisted upon, that now is the time for the 

 collection of all anthropological data in every department of 

 that far-reaching science. To many, results alone are interest- 

 ing, and there is too frequently a danger to generalise from 

 imperfect data. Posterity will have plenty of time in which 

 to generalise and theorise, but it will have scarcely any oppor- 

 tunity for recording new facts. This century has been one of 

 most rapid transition. The apathy of our predecessors has lost 

 to us an immense amount of information : let not this reproach 

 be applied to us by our descendants." 



A decade ago, that distinguished Indian officer Major R. C. 

 Temple wrote : " I have no hesitation in saying that to us 

 Englishmen such studies are not only practical, but they are 

 in some respects of the first importance. The practices and 

 beliefs included under the general head of folk-lore make up 

 the daily life of the natives of our great dependency, control i 

 their feelings, and underlie many of their actions. We foreigners ! 

 cannot hope to understand them rightly unless we deeply study j 

 them, and it must be remembered ihat close acquaintance and 

 a right understanding beget sympathy, and sympathy begets l 

 good government ; and who is there to. say that a scientific ' 

 study which promotes this, and, indeed, to some extent renders 

 it possible, is not a practical one ?" A. C. IIaddon. 



than two months, in order to show that where no insect had 

 been introduced the grapes remained sterile, bearing on their 

 surface neither moulds, nor yeasts, nor bacteria. 



Large numbers of ants were collected from the trunks of 

 trees. One species — the Cremastogaster scu(e/hris—y/a.s pre- 

 ferred, because it lives in trees, and is very common on vines 

 and vine-poles. The ants were collected with due precaution 

 into sterilised glass vessels, and thence introduced into the 

 bottle B of each apparatus, in numbers varying from a minimum 

 of about 100 to a maximum of about 5000. In the bottle B the 

 ants remained for a few days, then gradually and guardedly ad- 

 vanced up the sterilised branches, congregating and halting at 

 stations on their upward way in the long tubes ; generally about 

 two days passed before the first ants appeared on the sterilised 

 grapes in A ; thence they passed down the second tube into the 

 bottle c. In this way, starting from B, the most adventurous of 

 the ants which reached c, had travelled a distance of 3*20 m., 

 about equal to the actual height of many vines from the soil, 

 over which ants must travel when they climb up to visit the 

 grapes. The ants used in these experiments suffered probably 

 from want of ventilation ; they attacked the corks in efforts to 

 escape, and congregated in great numbers near the cotton wool 

 through which the outer air filtered. Many, however, visited 

 the grapes in search of food, biting the surface of the berries, or 

 absorbing the juice where these had been purposely punctured. 

 In one apparatus where the grapes were unripe, their acid juice 

 proved rapidly poisonous to the ants: an interesting observa- 

 tion, for it gives evidence in favour of the protective character 



INSECTS AND VEASTS.' 

 TN the Portici Laboratory for Agricultural Chemistry, Dr. 

 Amedeo Berlese has been making interesting investigations 

 on the manner in which some insects — ants and flies especially — 

 contribute to the diffusion, preservation and multiplication of 

 alcoholic ferments. 



It had been formerly observed by Dr. Berlese that on the 

 trunks, both of fruit and forest trees, hidden in the fissures of j 

 the bark, the cells of alcoholic yeasts (Saccharoviyces apiculattts j 

 and Saccharoinyces ellipsoidens) are commonly found. It was ! 

 natural to suspect that ants, which are constantly travelling up I 

 and down trunks and branches, and perhaps also flies, should | 

 be among the chief agents in disseminating yeast cells on trees. 

 Dr. Berlese had also ob-;erved that these cells are often more 

 numerous on the sunny side of the trees, where insects, especially 

 flies, are likely to linger. 



The first series of experiments was to show that ants, starting 

 from an infected soil, and being themselves infected with yeast 

 cells, carry them for a distance up stems and branches, infecting 

 the fruits which they visit, and thence travelling further may 

 carry on the yeast-infection into a sterilised soil. 



The apparatus used was very simple (Fig. i). Inside a large 

 glass jar a, well closed and carefully sterilised, a bunch of 

 grapes was hung, after due sterilisation by successive washing 

 and immersion in carbon disulphide and boiling water. The 

 jar containing the grapes communicated by means of two long 

 glass tubes (about 1-30 m. each) with a glass bottle on each 

 side. These long tubes and the bottles were also carefully 

 sterilised, and connected, by means of corks, so as to form, 

 together with the central jar, a closed system, into which, how- 

 ever, air could penetrate after filtering through sterilised cotlon 

 wool. Fourteen of these combinations were prejjared, into each 

 of which, in one of the side bottles B, non-sterilised substances 

 were introduced, probably containing yeast cells, such as soil, 

 bark of vines, bark of vine-poles and of oak-trees. In the 

 second .side bottle c, the same substances were introduced, | 

 but after careful sterilisation. Inside the long tubes were put 

 slender vine branches connecting the substances in the side 

 bottles B and c with the grapes in the central jar A. These vine 

 branches, previously sterilised, were the paths along which the 

 ants were to travel on their way from the infected material in B 

 to the grapes in A, and thence onwards to the sterilised material 

 in c. Before introducing the insects it was verified that each 

 apparatus was internally sterile. Some apparatus were left 

 without insects during all the time of the experiments for more 



i R.-ipporti fra l.-i Vite ed i Saccaromiceti. Ricerche sui mezzi di tras- 

 porto dei Fermenti .alcoolici. Amedeo Berlese. Rivista di Fatohnia. 

 i^'egetale e Zimologia, 1897. 



NO. 1459, VOL. 56] 



of the acids existing in fruit juices before maturation. A small 

 number of ants reached the bottle c. After ten or twelve days 

 most of the ants were dead, and the experiments were ended. 

 The grapes and the materials in c, that had been previously 

 sterilised, were now separately tested to see if through the 

 agency of the ants they had been infected with yeasts. The 

 grapes were removed from the jars with due caution to prevent 

 air-infection, and after shaking off gently all insects still ad- 

 hering to the fruit ; whole berries or small portions of the stalks 

 of the bunches were dropped, without delay, into test-tubes 

 containing sterilised grape-must ; and the plugged test-tubes 

 were then left in the thermostat for several days, at a temperature 

 favourable to alcoholic fermentation. 



The results obtained are remarkable. In the ten experiments 

 in which ants were introduced, the infection of the grapes in A, 

 and of the material in c, with yeasts and moulds was evident ; 

 but varied chiefly according to the various nature of the places 

 from which the ants originally came, and also with the nature 

 of the non-sterilised material in B. When the ants came fronj a 

 vineyard, and the material in B was ordinary soil or bark of vines 

 or of vine-poles, the germs conveyed to the grapes in A, and to 

 the sterilised material in c, were chiefly moulds together with 

 Saccharomyces apiciilatus and ellipsoidem ; S. apiculatiis was 

 far more abundant than ellipsoidens. In one case, when B 

 contained oak bark and the ants had been collected on oak 

 trees, the infection of the grapes and of the material in c 

 showed abundance of Saccharoviyces apiciilatus, with some 

 S. ellipsoidens and S. pastorianiis. When the ants and the 

 bark in B came from olive-trees no yeasts were observed in the 



