264 



NATURE 



[May 31, 1917 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



Plated Teeth of Sheep. 



Twice in recent years I have had brought to me by 

 different people, as great curiosities, teeth of sheep or 

 lambs, some of which were partly covered with a 

 bright yellow metallic-looking film, which was thought 

 to be gold. One of the persons referred to, as a foreign 

 meat purveyor, had had a large experience with car- 

 cases of sheep, but had not observed the peculiarity 

 before ; and none of the farmers whom I questioned 

 about the matter had ever seen or heard of it. But 

 whether it is actually so rare a phenomenon as the 

 above remarks suggest is doubtful, for the Rev. John 

 Morton, in "The Natural History of Northampton- 

 shire," published in 1712, p. 50, says : — 



" Whether it be owing to some accidental uncommon 

 Property in the Soil, that the Teeth of certain Sheep, 

 and Cows, are tinged with a Golden, or rather Brazen 

 Colour; whereof thev have had instances in Stafford- 

 shire, as also here in this County, and of which I 

 have now by me a pretty remarkable Sample that I 

 met with at Oxenden ; or whether it be owing to the 

 feeding of Cattel upon yellow-flower 'd Plants or to 

 some other Cause, I shall not now stay to examine." 



Actually, of course, the yellov.' film referred to con- 

 sists of iron pj'rites^ and .seems to require for its 

 formation the concomitants of ferruginous matter, 

 sulphates, and anaerobic bacterial action. Bacteria in 

 the decomposing organic matter on or around the 

 teeth may be supposed to reduce the sulphates with 

 evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen, which latter 

 reacts on the available iron to form the iron pyrites, 

 FeSj, a well-known chemical reaction commonly occur- 

 ring in Nature under anaerobic conditions. It is con- 

 sequently reasonable to suppose that the particular 

 sheep, etc., exhibiting the characteristic spoken of, 

 that of plated teeth, had been drinking water charged 

 both with iron and sulphates. 



Now most chalybeate waters are bog waters, where 

 humic acids have first dissolved the iron, and then 

 on oxidation deposited it in the form of the hydrated 

 peroxide of iron, when sulphates may or may not have 

 been present. But some chalybeate waters (including 

 some bog waters), besides depositing iron, yield abund- 

 ance of sulphates of iron, or calcium, or both ; then 

 obviously the original source of, the iron was iron 

 pyrites, probably marcasite. It woulci appear that 

 this latter class of water would especially lead to the 

 plating of the teeth of animals using it. 



I should be rather glad to know of any instances 

 where the result referred to could be actually .traced 

 direct to its cause. Beeby Thompson. 



67 Victoria Road, Northampton, May 19. 



J. E. B. Mayor and Todhunter. 



The review of Dr. MacFarlane's "Lectures on Ten 

 British Mathematicans " in Nature of May 17 closes 

 with a quotation about Todhunter. 



The words cited are attributed to Prof. Mayor, but 

 a note of interrogation seems to imply some uncer- 

 tainty as to which of the two brothers Mayor it was 

 who wrote them. The quotation is from the late 

 professor of Latin, John E. B. Mayor. 



On the death of Todhunter Mayor wrote an " In 

 Memoriam" notice of his old friend. It appeared in 

 three consecutive numbers of the Cambridge Review 



NO. 2483, VOL. 99] 



for 1884. The first instalment appeared in thp number 

 for March 5. The quotation in Nature is from the 

 number for March 19, p. 262, col. i. -• ^ '-• 



Todhunter was not only a mathematician, but also a 

 linguist. " Besides most' European languages (includ- 

 ing Russian, of which he learnt enough to master a 

 mathematical treatise), he had studied Hebrew, Arabic,, 

 Persian, and Sanskrit. He was a sound Latin and 

 Greek scholar" {loc. cii., p. 229). 



Unlike his great inaster, De Morgan, who is said 

 to have been a skilful performer on both the organ and 

 the tin whistle, Todhunter lacked the musical faculty. 

 " He used to say he knew two tunes ; one was ' God 

 save the Queen,' the other wasn''t. The former he 

 recognised by the people standing up" (p. 261, foot- 

 note). Edmund Symes Payne. 



27 Constitution Hill, Clifton, May 21. 



THE REMOULDING OF NATIONAL 

 ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 



IN the recently issued, third annual report (191 6) 

 of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and 

 fifteenth annual report (191 5-1 6) of the Carnegie 

 Trust for the Universities of Scotland, there is 

 evidence of the deeply adverse influence which 

 the heavy hand of war has exerted in directions 

 usually the most remote from strife and rancour. 

 The width of the influence is very evident, too,, 

 for these reports deal with subjects so diverse as 

 higher education, scientific and literary research, 

 music, church organs, libraries, etc. In the case 

 of the former trust it is remarked that, "while 

 the past year may confidently be said to have 

 seen progress made with the work of the trust, 

 the war and its reactions on the ordinary activi- 

 ties of the country have necessarily hampered any 

 rapid development of schemes which are not 

 directly concerned with its prosecution. A 

 philanthropic trust is peculiarly subject to the 

 difficulties of the moment, especially when its 

 efforts must be entirely devoted towards the 

 amelioration of normal conditions." In the case 

 of the latter trust it is remarked that " the opera- 

 tions of the trust under the Research Scheme still 

 continue to be considerably affected by the 

 European war." Fellows and scholars of the 

 trust "have been engaged on military duty," and 

 some "are among the fallen." "The influence 

 of the war ... is seen in the diminished number 

 of candidates for fellowships and scholarships, 

 and still more, in the fact that of those elected 

 one half either did not avail themselves of the 

 awards or resigned in the course of the session 

 to engage in other work. It is also seen in the 

 altered character of the research work of the 

 beneficiaries, which, except in one or two cases, 

 instead of following the usual lines, was directed 

 to the solution of definite problems arising out of 

 the war." 



One can remember readily the time when ap-^ 

 plications were received by the universities from 

 America, but never from the United Kingdom, 

 for honours graduates to direct the labours of,, 

 e.^., cotton manufacturers or gardening firms. 

 That the war has made this old condition an im- 

 possibility for the future became forcefully clear 

 in the recent report of the .A.dvisory Council of 



