Julys, 1919] 



NATURE 



3i>5 



vol. XV., December, 1918), Carl Hartley, T. C. 

 Merrill, and Arthur S. Rhoads have made a valuable 

 contribution to the study of forest pathology. Damp- 

 ing-off is the most serious disease of very young 

 seedling conifers, and several types of the disease are 

 described. In addition to the well-known Pythium 

 debaryanuin and Corticium ra^M»i, species of Fusarium 

 and Botrytis cinerea have been isolated from affected 

 seedlings, and are believed to be able to cause the 

 disease. Artificial cultures of the fungus indicated a 

 marked difference in virulence between different 

 strains, which bears little or no relation to the host 

 from which the strain was isolated. Thus strains 

 from spruce and sugar-beet respectively proved more 

 virulent in inoculations on pine seedlings than did 

 any of the strains originally isolated from pine. 

 Losses often wrongly attributed to poor seed are 

 caused by the fungus killing the seed or the seedling 

 before it appears above soil ; and some of the 

 damping-off fungi may continue to kill the roots of 

 seedlings after they develop rigid stems, so that the 

 plant does not fall over. The latter type of trouble is 

 sometimes confused with damage caused by exces- 

 sive heat or dryness of soil. 



In the Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture 

 in India (Botanical Series, vol. ix., November, 1918) 

 W. McRae gives a detailed account of a new fungus 

 disease (Phytophthora meadii) of a rubber plant, 

 Hevea brasiliensis. This species of Hevea is now 

 being extensively grown in the south-western region of 

 the Indian peninsula. The most striking svmptoms of 

 the disease are the rotting of the fruit and the wilting 

 and abnormal shedding of the leaves. Mr. McRae 

 describes the external symptoms and the microscopic 

 characters of the affected tissues, and also his experi- 

 ments on inoculation ; the structure and the life- 

 history of the fungus are also fully described. The 

 resting spores of the fungus are found in the fruits 

 of the plant, and as the fruits are therefore the chief 

 means of propagating the disease, the possibility is 

 suggested of the destruction of the flowers in order 

 to prevent the formation of fruit. This might be 

 done by mechanically removing the flowers or by 

 spraying them with a chemical that would kill them, 

 but up to the present neither of these means has 

 been found practicable. 



THE FISHERIES AND THE INTER- 

 NA TIONAL CO UNCIL.^ 

 I. 



IN former communications' it was shown how 

 insignificant is the influence of man in affecting 

 the plants, such as seaweeds and diatoms, abounding 

 in the sea, and how little he can influence the lower 

 marine animals, from microscopic elementary forms, 

 through sponges, zoophytes, starfishes, annelids, shell- 

 fishes, and cuttlefishes, up to fishes. It was further 

 demonstrated in 1S98 that the closure of the experi- 

 mental areas (Forth, St. Andrews Bay, and Aberdeen 

 Bay) had not affected the food-fishes, either as regards 

 increase or diminution in numbers or size. Now it 

 ■may be asked : Where have the melancholy anticipa- 

 tions of the pessimists been demonstrated; where has 

 the serious diminution of any food-fish occurred ; and 

 where have the principles enunciated in "The Re- 

 sources of the Sea " been traversed by the International 

 Fisheries Council, the most extensive, and certainly 

 the most expensive, combination of fisheries authori- 

 ties the world has seen, which owed its existence 

 to opinions (viz. those of the impoverishment theory) 



1 From a lecture given in Ab«rdeen on >Tarch 4 by Prof. Mcintosh, 

 F.R.S. 

 * Nature, vol. Ixxvi., p. 301, 1907. 



NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 



diametrically opposed to those of "The Resources of 

 the Sea " ? 



In the lectures at the Royal Institution in 1907 

 the uncertainty of the Fishery Board for Scotland in 

 connection with the further closures than those re- 

 mitted to it was pointed out, for it had oscillated 

 between an increase and a diminution of fishes in the 

 experimental areas, and its own statistics in sub- 

 sequent years proved the safety of the Scottish 

 fisheries, which have been dealt with elsewhere up to 

 1912, when they were reviewed at the Dundee meet- 

 ing of the British Association. No voice at that 

 meeting was raised in support of the impoverishment 

 of the sea, though Dr. Petersen, Dr. Mortensen, and 

 Prof. Jungarsen from Copenhagen, and others 

 specially interested were present. Indeed, Prof. 

 Hulrecht, of Utrecht, also present, strongly sup- 

 ported "The Resources of the Sea," and stated that 

 Prof. Huxley held the same views. Since 1912 similar 

 prosperous records have been annually published by 

 the Scottish Board up to 1913, the last year unaffected 

 by the war, when the climax was reached, the value 

 of the catch of fishes being no less than 3,997,717!. 

 (or only 2283Z. less than four millions), the highest 

 value yet attained in the fisheries of Scotland, though 

 the catch of herrings that year had been 758,756 cwt. 

 below that of the previous one. 



The same cause for satisfaction exists after a 

 perusal of the captures, year by year, in such a bay as 

 St. Andrews, where they have been under observa- 

 tion for at least half a century, and in which the pulse 

 of the North Sea is felt day by day and month by 

 month each season, with perhaps varying regularity', 

 producing its fishes in greater or less abundance. 



Before going into the results of the costly inter- 

 national scheme, it mav be well to recall the remit 

 made to the Council of that body. It was, in the first 

 place, to benefit the British fisheries, to clear up the 

 discrepancies between "The Resources of the Sea" 

 and "The Impoverishment of the Sea" — in the words 

 of Prof. Garstang : " It was the problem of all 

 problems whether the conclusions in this book [* The 

 Resources of the Sea '] were well or inadequately 

 founded." The Council had also ^ to ascertain 

 " whether the quantity and consumption of fish taken 

 from the North Sea and neighbourhood are in proper 

 proportion to the production occurring under the pre- 

 vailing natural conditions, and whether any dispro- 

 portion between production and consumption arises 

 from a local over-fishing or from an injudicious em- 

 ployment of the fishing apparatus at present in use." 

 The flat-fish grounds were also to be investigated ; 

 annual results published ; discoveries of practical im- 

 portance to the fisheries made, such as "discovering 

 the limit to which fishing grounds can be depleted 

 without undergoing serious injury " ; and, finally, 

 recommendations for international action proposed. 

 This formidable remit was, moreover, burdened by a 

 heavv load of hydrogranhical, physical, chemical, and 

 meteorological observations. Yet some members of 

 the Council guaranteed results for international action 

 within two years — a fact which demonstrates how 

 little the situation was understood. 



The earlier work of the International Council was 

 dealt with on a former occasion, and since then the 

 following gives a brief note of its labours : — 



Reports on the quantitative distribution of the eggs 

 and larvae of the cod tribe and of the sardine and 

 anchovy in the North Sea have been given by Hoek ; 

 on young salmon by Arwidsson ; on the cod by Hoek ; 

 on the herrinr* bv Hjort and Lea ; on the eel by 

 Schneider: and on the mackerel by Nilsson, all con- 

 taining additions to our knowledge, though thev do not 

 bear on the main question submitted to the Interna- 

 tional Council for solution. The Council was likewise 



