August 28, 1919] 



NATURE 



51 



departments and public health authorities, and for 

 he preparation, testing, and standardising of sera, 

 vaccines, and drugs. Much of this bacteriological 

 ind pharmaceutical work has been done by women; 

 here was great need of their help, so many of the 

 men being away on active service. In the 

 administration of the Act relating to exf>eriments 

 on animals (39 & 40 Vic. c. 77) the Home Secretary 

 is assisted by a permanent advisory body — Lord 

 Moulton, Sir Anthony Bowlby, Sir John Rose 

 Bradford, Sir Horatio Donkin, Sir Alfred Pearce 

 Gould, Sir Seymour Sharkey, and Sir Charters 

 Symonds. 



A British munition dump exploded near Bailleul 

 on August 8, causing the destruction of the recently 

 built part of the town, and being, perhaps, responsible 

 for the series of air-waves the effects of which were 

 widely observed in the south-east of England on that 

 dav. ' Mr. R. B. Marston, writing to us from 

 160 Denmark Hill, S.E., noticed a sudden and pro- 

 longed shaking of an open window at about i.io p.m. 

 G.M T., followed after a minute or two by another 

 and less pronounced shaking. At Caterham windows 

 were shaken shortly after i p.m. At Norwich unfas- 

 tened windows rattled violently at i.io, i.iifr, 1.12, 

 r.i2^, and again at 7.5 p.m. ; and similar effects were 

 observed at Wymondham, .^ttleborough, and other 

 places in the neighbourhood. Bailleul is 11 miles 

 south-west of Ypres, and about 135 miles from 

 I^ondon and 140 miles from Norwich. 



In the Mitseum Journal (vol. ix., Nos. 3-4) for Sep- 

 tember-December, 19 18, Mr. Theodoor De Booy gives 

 an interesting account of explorations in Venezuela. 

 He shows that the tribes known as Tucucus, Irapenos, 

 Pariris, Macoas, Rio Negro and Rio Yasa Indians all 

 belong to the great Motilone family, deriving their 

 names from the rivers to the south of Machiques, the 

 head-waters of which they frequent. Up to the 

 present little has been known of the Motilones, who 

 are to this day regarded with great dread by the 

 Venezuelans, who are unwilling to penetrate into their 

 forest retreats. Their nomadic habits are due to 

 the fact that they are constantly at war with neigh- 

 bouring tribes, but they received Mr. De Booy with 

 great hospitality. They differ from the majority of 

 South American aborigines in possessing a strong 

 sense of humour, and they have attained a higher 

 standard of culture than might have been expected, 

 as is shown by his full account of their customs, arts, 

 and industries. 



Dr. a. M. Meerwarth, assistant curator of the 

 Ethnographical Museum, Petrograd, has compiled for 

 the Government of India a useful guide-book to the 

 collections in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, of objects 

 collected from the .Andamanese, Nicobarese, and hill 

 tribes of Assam. Though the museum contains much 

 valuable material, this was collected only in a casual 

 way, and there are many gaps in the series of the 

 Mishmis, Manipuris, and Kukis, while those of the 

 Nicobarese, Abor, Mikir, Khasi, and Garo are far 

 from complete. It is a matter of regret that in the 

 course of the Ethnographical Survey now in progress 

 arrangements were not made to supplement the mono- 

 graphs bv a representative collection of illustrative 

 objects. 'Dr. Meerwarth gives lists of desiderata 

 under the catalogue of each tribe, and now that 

 attention has been directed to the matter the Indian 

 Government should take active measures, before it is 

 too late, to fill up the gaps in the museum collections. 



Dr. H. J. Hansen has published, in Mono- 

 graph xxxviii. (June, 1919) of the Siboga Expedition, 

 a systematic account, with analytical keys to the 

 species, of the rich collection made during the expedi- 

 NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 



tion of Decapod Crustacea belonging to the family 

 Sergestidae. Four genera are represented — Sergeste's 

 by eight species (three of which are new) Sic}'onella 

 by two species (one new), Aoetes, and Lucifer. In 

 his account of the hitherto imperfectly known genus 

 Acetes, seven new species of which are described, the 

 author has included descriptions and figures of other 

 examples, chiefly from Indo-Chinese seas, not col- 

 lected by the expedition. The Siboga. gathered 

 enormous quantities of sub-adult and adult specimens 

 of the genus Lucifer, so that with these and the good 

 collection at his disposal in the Zoological Museum 

 in Copenhagen, the author has had ample material 

 on which to carry out a revision of the genus. He 

 concludes that of the twelve species previously 

 described only three can be accepted as valid. Details 

 of these three and descriptions of three new species 

 are given. 



It is well known that the various species of Euglena 

 are very sensitive to external influences, such as light, 

 gravity, oxygen, and a supply of organic food 

 material. Euglena deses is a sluggish form which is 

 often found on the surface of mud containing a large 

 percentage of organic matter, and Miss Rose Bracher 

 has given in the Annals of Botany for January last, 

 an excerpt from which has just been received, an 

 account of the behaviour of this organism as it occurs 

 on the mud along the banks of the River Avon within 

 its tidal region. The Euglenae are visible on the 

 surface of the mud during the daytime as green 

 patches, but they burrow under the surface during the 

 night, or when placed at any time in the darkness. 

 When covered by the tide they also disappear, but 

 reappear again when the tide goes down if the light 

 is strong enough. This tidal periodicity persists even 

 when the organisms are removed from the tidal 

 influence, for it was found that when placed in a 

 dish in the laboratory they still continued to burrow 

 into the mud at the time of high tide, and this power 

 of response was maintained under these conditions for 

 about three days. 



The Medical Research Committee has issued a 

 report/ (Special Report Series, No. 34) by Dr. H. M. 

 Vernon, with contributions from Dr. \V. C. Sullivan, 

 Capt. M. Greenwood, and N. B. Dreyer, on the 

 influence of alcoho' on manual work and neuro- 

 muscular co-ordination. .Accuracy and speed in type- 

 writing and in using an adding machine, and accuracy 

 in hitting spots on a target, were used as tests, and 

 both pure alcohol and alcohol in the form of wine and 

 spirit were employed. There was no distinct differ- 

 ence between the two forms of alcohol, and when very 

 dilute (5 per cent.) the effect was about three-fourths 

 as great as when taken strong (37-40 per cent.) for 

 the same amount of alcohol. Alcohol produced some 

 effect in all individuals tested. The degree of effect 

 depended largely on whether the alcohol was taken 

 on an empty stomach or with food ; on an average it 

 was twice as toxic under the former condition. In 

 the foodless experiments two subjects respectively 

 made 88 per cent, and 156 per cent, more mistakes 

 after consuming claret (19-4 c.c. of alcohol) and sherry 

 (22 c.c. of alcohol). In the same subjects a similar 

 amount of alcoholic liquid, taken with food, produced 

 no measurable effect, but when the amount was in- 

 creased to 3-; c.c. of alcohol and more, deterioration in 

 results obtained with the tests became apparent. 



\ STRONG plea for the establishment of a national 

 institute of industrial biology was put forward by 

 Mr. A. Chaston Chapman at a recent conference held 

 under the auspices of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry. There is very inadequate provision, made 

 in this country for •systematic instruction in industrial 



