JUxNE 23, 1 9 10] 



NATURE 



489 



I have now completed an experiment in which the 

 following results (among others) were obtained with the 

 " great millet " (Sorghum), single plants of which were 

 grown from germinated seeds for ten days in soil (i) un- 

 heated ; (2) heated to 97° ; and (3) heated to 170° : — 



Green weight 

 Treatment of soil of plants 

 (in grains) 

 r Unhealed ... 145'S ■•• Mean of 8; max. 314, min. o 

 |K Heated to 97' 1517 ... ,. „ 353, „ 36 



^fc 170° 1055-6 1470, „ 835 



^^■At 170° the soil was obviously sterilised completely, but 

 ^ffie yield was four times that from the partially sterilised 

 soil. F. Fletcher. 



School of Agriculture, Giza, May 14. 



Pot experiments are carried out by Dr. Hutchinson and 

 myself to run parallel with the chemical and bacteriological 

 examinations of the soils. Productivity is not regarded as 

 synonymous with bacterial activit}-, although in general 

 the two are intimately related. .\n exception occurs when 

 the soil has been heated suflicienily to decompose some of 

 the organic matter present with formation of plant food. 

 As stated in my letter, the addition to toluened soil of an 

 aqueous extract of untreated soil increases crop productive- 

 ness. E. J. Russell. 



Rothamsted Experiment Station, Harpenden. 



Ooze and Irrigat on. 



The interest which my former letter has aroused 

 (X.VTLRE, June 9) induces me to offer a few further re- 

 marks. For a hundred years it was usually thought that 

 all our earthworms were of one kind, and the term 

 Lutr.bricus terrestris was glibly used. Thanks to the help 

 I have received from curators, gardeners, and nature- 

 tovers at Kew, Chelsea, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, 

 and elsewhere, my list of British Lumbrici now stands at 

 nearly forty species, belonging to upwards of half-a-dozen 

 genera. 



In like manner, nearly all fresh-water worms 'have, until 

 recent times, been relegated to one species, «nd Tiibifex 

 rivulorum was the magic name. Our knowledge of these 

 wonderful ooze-workers is still deplorably limited, but a 

 little progress is being made in their study. We now know 

 that the so-called Tubifex is not a tube-maker, and that 

 it includes such genera as Limnodrilus, Stylodrilus, Tricho- 

 xL'ilus, and others, which represent more than one family, 

 with upwards of twenty known British species. Even- 

 year is bringing new forms to light, and each new dis- 

 covery supplies a missing link. 



But, in addition to the ooze-makers belonging to the 

 Tubifex group, 1 now find that certain species of white 

 worms, which are destitute of red blood, and are usuallv 

 grouped together as Enchytraeids, frequently find emplov- 

 ment in this capacity, and often get introduced among 

 valuable plants in garden and field, to the great loss of 

 the horticulturist. Hence the need of a fuller and more 

 systematic study of this branch of science. Here is a 

 subject worthy of Earl Carrington's new committee. 



One correspondent remarks that the subject is " ver>' 

 suggestive." He adds a query which needs attention. 



I suppose the worms cannot take nitrogen directlv from 

 the air like the legumes? If thev could assimilate it. of 

 course a very important point would be settled bv establish- 

 ing that fact, though the probabilities are that thev con- 

 not." I should like to know what biologists have to say. 



Great Malvern. Hilderic Friend. 



New Development in Library Work. 



With the permission of the council of this society, I 

 nave recently instituted a departure in library practice, 

 which I have been asked to describe to you, in the belief 

 that other learned societies may think it worth while to 

 try the experiment. 



Fellows of medical and other scientific societies living 

 abroad suffer many disadvantages as compared with their 

 resident brethren, and none so great or so much felt as 

 the deprivation of the use of their libraries. To all our 

 fellows living abroad we now offer to prepare for them, 

 £Taiis. short abstracts of papers, and even of books, upon 



NO. 2 I 2 I , VOL. 8 3] 



any medical subject, and to search for or check references 

 to medical literature. 



The innovation has been most warmly welcomed, and 

 from remote parts of the world we have received many 

 grateful letters. Men living in the Chitral Valley, in the 

 Sudan, in Christmas Island, and equatorial Africa, who for 

 years have had their work hindered by lack of library 

 conveniences, say that what we now do for them is even 

 belter than they could have done for themselves had they 

 been in London, for even here they would probably not be 

 able to devote the many hours requisite for the research 

 required to produce the results which our machinery can 

 procure for them with a minimum of time and labour. 



J. Y. W. Mac.Alister. 

 (Secretary.) 



The Royal Society of Medicine, 15 Cavendish 

 Square, W., June 16. 



Altruism in Animal Life. 



"S'oLR Deal correspondent, Mr. Christopher Morse, has 

 told you (p. 437) of an ablutionary caterpillar; let me tell 

 you of life-saving " eels " in vinegar. I was examinmg 

 the creatures with a microscope when one of them became 

 stranded, owing to its having strayed into the shallower 

 portion of the vinegar-drop, and there it wriggled the 

 while the fluid grew shallower still. Just as it seemed 

 on the point of giving its last expiring wriggle, what was 

 my amazement to see three or four other " eels " make a 

 dash from the deeper vinegar, and force themselves across 

 the shallow to where lay their stranded comrade. 



Then occurred the most singular thing it has ever been 

 my lot to witness in the world of minute life. These tinv 

 life-savers rushed with all the energy of desperation at their 

 now quiescent comrade, and worked it slowly towards the 

 deeper part of the fluid, and they reached it, too, in time 

 to save their own and the other's life. J. H. Elgie. 



72 Grange .Avenue, Leeds. 



Colours of Plasmodia of some Mycetozoa. 

 From my experience in this part, I here note the 

 colours of Plasmodia of a few Mycetozoa to supply 

 the desiderata in the late Mr. Lister's " Monograph," 

 London, 1894 : — 



Phyioruni iiielUum, Mass. Yellow, then orange-yellow 



P. tenerum. Rex. Briaht primrose-yellow 



P. craUrifarme, Fetch, in Hit. Dull ochreous 



(Ceylon and Japan) 



P.fyrosum, Rest. Dingy ochrey-yellow.then dirty pink 

 Arcyria insignis. Kalchhr. and Cke. Colourless, then milky-white 



Perichaena variabilis, Rost. Watery c nnamoa 



The following species have their plasmodia mostly of the 

 colours as recorded by Mr. Lister, but at times of the 

 subjoined colours : — 



Normally coloured Occasionally coloured 

 Physaruni ■ inereuvi, Pers. Watery-white Pale yel'ow 

 Sti-Dnmitis s'>'eHdens,'Rost.. Creamy-white Sulphur-yellow 



B. n ebbcri. 

 Lycogala iiiiniatum, Pers. Rose-red Bright yolk-yellow or milky- 



white 



.\s regards the last-named species. Miss Gulielma Lister 

 writes to me : — " Since my father's ' Monograph ' was 

 written we have several times had instances of the aethalia 

 arising from a white or cream-coloured plasmodium. " 



Now a few words on the number of species of the 

 Japanese Mycetozoa. In the Journal of Botany, .\pril, 

 1904, pp. 97-9, Mr. and Miss Lister noticed eighteen 

 species collected by Mr. S. Kusano in Tokio, eleven of 

 which had been enumerated in Prof. Matsumura's " Index 

 Plantarum Japonicarum," published a few months 

 previously in the same year. Since my return home from 

 England in 1900, in order to keep my promise to Mr. 

 George Murray, then keeper of the Botanical Department, 

 Natural History Museum, I have sent for determination 

 to Mr. and Miss Lister even,^ characteristic specimen I 

 could find in this province, which has resulted in the 

 Japanese species of Mycetozoa actually reaching a total 

 number of eighty-six, including the two new species 

 Arcyria glauca, Lister, and Hemitrichia. minor, G. Listej-. 

 not to mention several new varieties and forms. 



KU.M.AGUSL- MlS.*KATA. 



Tanabe, Kii, Japan, May 21. 



