472 



NATURE 



[August 14, 19 19 



day. The result was that the brunt of the suffering 

 had to be borne by the working-class and middle-class 

 urban populations. ' Prof. Starling finds that the con- 

 ditions are grave. Even under the most favourable 

 conditions, and "if Germany is treated by the world 

 as a sick child to be nursed back to health, it will 

 lake one, and perhaps two generations before she can 

 recover her previous efficiency. After that, whether 

 she is a danger or not to Europe depends on her 

 Government. Her docile and industrious people are, 

 at any rate, sickened of war, and represent no longer 

 any active menace to the people of Europe." It 

 appears that if Germany is to be in a position to 

 utilise her full working capacity, she will need during 

 the coming year imported food amounting to about a 

 quarter of that normally imported into the United 

 Kingdom. 



At the invitation of Sir Robert Hadfield some 200 

 representatives of the firm of Messrs. Hadfields, 

 Sheffield, including directors, members of the technical, 

 financial, and commercial staffs, the research depart- 

 ment, managers, foremen, workmen, and boys, visited 

 London recently to inspect the British ' Scientific 

 Products Exhibition, at the Central Hall, Westminster, 

 and the Science Exhibition, South Kensington. At 

 a luncheon at the Central Hall Sir Robert Hadfield, 

 who presided, said he was far from being a pessimist 

 at the present time. Naturally the workmen, owing 

 to^ higher prices prevailing, wanted higher wages. 

 What was wanted was' the exercise of more patience 

 on both sides, and the recognition of the fact that the 

 best way to gain one's ends was by the constitutional 

 method of Parliament. That was the method which 

 would, he was sure, commend itself most to the 

 British working man. Sir Richard Gregory, 

 chairman of the organising committee of the 

 British Scientific Products Exhibition, said that 

 the lesson to be learned from the exhibition was 

 that modern civilisation demanded progressive woi'k 

 from science and from industry. After lunch a visit 

 was paid to the Science Museum at South Kensington, 

 where the party was joined by Prince? Albert, who 

 spent half an hour with them in looking over the 

 exhibits. The Prince, who is chairman of the Indus- 

 trial Welfare Society, expressed his pleasure at 

 meeting such a happy lot of workers, and said he 

 would be very glad to receive a copv of the essav 

 which won the prize offered by Sir Robert Hadfield 

 to the boy who wrote the best account of his visit to 

 London. 



KiLDARE, the site of the nunnery of St. Brigid, was 

 undoubtedly in pre-Christian times the site of a fire 

 and solar sanctuary, and the traditions of the older 

 establishment have in more than one respect coloured 

 those of the later. In Man for August Prof. R. A. 

 Macalister quotes an early story about Dar-Lughdach, 

 a pupil of St. Brigid, who was smitten by unholy love 

 for a man. An angel warned her in a dream to fill 

 two shoes with hot coals and to walk shod therewith. 

 The fire extinguished her ardour, and St. Brigid 

 blessed her feet and the burns were healed. Prof. 

 Macalister suggests that this legend is a tradition of 

 the practice at pagan Kildare of the rite of the fire- 

 walk. Starting with fragmentary recollections of a 

 woman who walked on fire with unhurt feet, the 

 legend would naturally assume its present form. The 

 name of the heroine means "Daughter of Lugaid," 

 but it is highly probable that this Is a perversion or 

 a bv-form of Dar-Luga, "Daughter of Lug," the sun- 

 god. 



Under the title of "A Brief History of the Study 

 of Greek Vase-painting " Mr. S. B. Luce, in the 



NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 



Proceedings of the American Philosophical Societv 

 (vol. Ivii., No. 7, 1918), gives a useful summary of 

 what has been done to elucidate the subject. A valu- 

 able addition to his paper is a classified list, by 

 countries, of museums containing collections of vases, 

 with accounts of the catalogues which have been 

 issued. A study of this will probably lead to the dis- 

 covery of other smaller collections which deserve 

 attention, and will stimulate the curators of museums 

 containing uncatalogued collections to supplv the 

 want. 



In the Report for 1918 on the Lancashire sea- 

 fisheries laboratory at the University of Liverpool and 

 the sea-fish hatchery at Piel, Prof. Herdm'an, Mr. 

 Andrew Scott, and Miss H. Mabel Lewis give a short 

 account of their Intensive study of the marine plank- 

 ton around the south end of the Isle of Man. One 

 conclusion, they state, is becoming clear from the 

 accumulated observations of the last ten years, and 

 that is the surprisingly small number of different kinds 

 of organisms which make up the bulk of the plank- 

 ton that are of real importance in regard to fish. 

 Seven genera of diatoms and six species of oopepods 

 are named in this connection, and particular attention 

 is directed to one of the copepods, femora longicornis, 

 which was found in 1917 to be related definitely to 

 the summer herring fishery off the Isle of Man. " To 

 the same report Dr. Johnstone contributes a summary 

 of his investigations into the dietetic value of sprats 

 and other clupeoid fishes, including a short discussion 

 of the nature of the "maturation" which takes place 

 when pilchards, herrings, sprats, etc., are "processed 

 and packed a la sardine.'" When newly packed the 

 bones are not softened, and the taste and smell 

 not those expected ; the ripening is the result of allow- 

 ing the tins to stand unopened for a period of six 

 months to four years, during which the fish continu- 

 ally improve in flavour and the bones become softened. 

 Apparently nothing is known as to the nature of this 

 maturation process, but bacterial action can be ex- 

 cluded. Dr. Johnstone suggests that it may be a 

 process of autolysis due to specific intracellular en- 

 zymes normally present in the flesh of the fish, but 

 on chemical examination the amount of amino-acids 

 — which would be formed on the partial splitting of 

 the protein — was found to be negligible. Further in- 

 vestigation is required to elucidate the nature of the . 

 process. 



Prof. Arthur Thomson gives an account (Journ. 

 of Anat., vol. liii., pts. ii. and iii., 1919) of his ob- 

 servations on the maturation of the human ovum, 

 and holds that there is distinct evidence of the first 

 and second polar bodies being given off while the egg 

 still lies in the ovary within the discus proligerus of 

 the Graafian follicle, and therefore before it has been 

 subjected to the influence of the spermatozoon. This 

 is contrary to the general rule, for in other vertebrates 

 the sperm usually enters the egg during the second 

 maturation division. The average size of the human 

 ovum is, according to Prof. Thomson, o-i 1x0-095 mm. 

 (including the zona pellucida) — that is, considerably 

 less than is generally stated. 



Little has hitherto been known of the Polyclad 

 Turbellaria of the Japanese coasts, and the attention 

 of workers on this interesting order may be directed 

 to a paper by M. Yeri and T. Kaburaki (in Journ. 

 Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, vol. xxxix., December, 

 1918), recently received, in which are described twenty- 

 six species referred to fourteen genera. Two new 

 genera have been formed, and seventeen of the species 

 are described as new. One of the latter belongs to 

 the remarkable genus Bergendalia, and has the pecu- 



