144 



DISCOVERY 



workers, who are pursuing similar studies at the 

 Research Hospital in Cambridge. 



Professor A. Mawer's article on " Place-names " in a 

 recent number of this journal proved of great interest 

 to many of our readers. One of the advantages of living 

 in an island rich in history — of invasions, peaceful 

 or the reverse, and of slow but peculiarly characteristic 

 development — is that in the names of our country 

 villages, and even in ourselves, we carry the material 

 for the most thrilling researches. We are, as other 

 nations rudely tell us, a mongrel race. What nation 

 that has ever achieved greatness was otherwise ? Our 

 churches, Saxon, Norman, and Gothic, down to the 

 nondescript tabernacles of to-day, tell their story to 

 any week-end walker in the countryside. Names, 

 however, are a more subtle problem ; yet, as Professor 

 Mawer pointed out , the story they tell is none the less 

 clear and illuminating to the initiate. The English 

 Place-name Society, with which not only Professor 

 Mawer, but also Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, a frequent 

 contributor to Discovery, are intimately associated, 

 has been formed to make a comprehensive survey 

 of the rich mine of material which our land pro- 

 vides. The counties of Berkshire, Biickinghamshire, 

 Essex, and Lincolnshire will be among the first to 

 be surveyed, and the results are to be presented in 

 forthcoming publications of the society. We feel 

 sure that many of our readers will be glad to get 

 into touch with this most interesting study, and full 

 details will be given on application to the Hon. Secre- 

 tary, The University, Liverpool. 



Six Great Scientists. By Marg.\ret Avery. (Methuen 

 & Co., Ltd., 2s. 6d.) 

 We hear so little of the private lives of great scientists 

 that we are inclined, sometimes, to think that they ha\e 

 none, that they Hve in a plane very different from our 

 own, wherein test-tubes and mighty discoveries take the 

 place of our little romances and everyday adventures. 

 But in tliis book we read of many very human incidents 

 which seem to bring us in much closer relationship to 

 men who have revolutionised the thought and the prac- 

 tice of recent years. Pasteur, Lister, Darwin, Wallace, 

 Mendel, and Galton are portrayed for ns ; we hear of 

 Darwin's perpetual ill-health and brave endeavour in 

 despite of it ; of Lister and his unfortunate lapse at 

 school, which forced his parents to withhold a " plumb 

 cake " ; of Pasteur's fervent patriotism and great kind- 

 liness. The main features of the life-work of these 

 six eminent men are brought out in a most clear and 

 interesting manner. The sex of the author is clearly 

 shown in her very just emphasis on the influence of a 

 well-selected wife on a scientist's work ! We recommend 

 this book as an example of interesting and stimulating 

 biography. 



Suspended Animation — I 



By Sir Arthur E. Shipley, G.B.E., F.R.S. 



I^IaUer of ChrisVs College, Cambridge 



Tardigrades, Rotifers, and Nematodes 



In an article I wrote some year or two ago, dealing 

 with Life, it was pointed out that Life was difficult, 

 if not impossible, to define, but that living organisms 

 have certain definite attributes such as breathing, 

 feeding, moving, reproducing, and so on. There are, 

 however, times when these functions are suspended. 



If we collect some of the debris in gutters, amongst 

 moss, or in holes in trees, or in ditches, and examine 

 it under a microscope, we may be lucky enough 

 to come across one or two specimens of a group 

 of very small animals known as Tardigrada. These 

 little creatures are minute, and in some cases trans- 

 parent. Zoologically they are remotely connected 

 with the great group of spiders, but they have no near 

 relatives. They are provided with four pairs of legs 

 ending in claws, and their slow and deliberate move- 

 ments have earned them the name of Bear-animalcules. 

 They live obscure and hidden lives, " remote from the 

 world," as Cecil Rhodes described the lives of the 

 Dons at Oxford. Of animals that consist of many 

 cells, they are amongst the smallest, averaging one- 

 third of a millimetre to one millimetre in length. So 

 obscure are they that they are usually overlooked, 

 yet Max Schuhze asserts that they are, without doubt, 

 the most widely distributed of all animals that are 

 segmented. 



The Tardigrada possess many features of in- 

 terest. Some species look like dear little sucking- 

 pigs in plate armour. In their natural state — in a 

 damp atmosphere — they live, and move, and have their 

 being, like any other animals ; but if their surroundings 

 dry up, or if one be removed and placed upon a slide 

 and allowed to dry, then will their movements gradually 

 slacken until they entirely cease. The body begins 

 slowly but steadily to shrink. The outline and form 

 are lost. The skin becomes wrinkled and folded, and 

 in a short time it assumes the appearance of a 

 much-weathered grain of sand, and all vital activities 

 are suspended, or at any rate reduced to an unascer- 

 tainable minimum. In this dried-up condition tardi- 

 grades may remain for many years without under- 

 going any visible change. If, however, they be 

 moistened with water, the steps the animal under- 

 went when drying up are retraced. The " grain of 

 sand " begins slowly to swell ; the WTinkles disappear ; 

 gradually a plump little animal — for they are so plump 

 that you feel inclined to pat them, only they are too 

 small — swells up ; the legs stretch out ; and slowly 



