"i; 
OcToBER 26, 1916] 
the nation industrially and commercially is to be 
maintained in face of the fierce competition of the 
advanced nations of the world. The nation is really 
entering upon the most critical period of its history. 
The old spirit was splendid, but it will not avail 
against modern science any more than we could make 
progress on the Somme without modern science in 
furnishing us with the great artillery and high ex- 
plosives required for battering down the trenches 
before us. Undue specialisation in secondary schools 
was undesirable in the best interests of education. 
Lord Haldane’s address was followed bya valuable 
paper by Sir A. Trevor Dawson, of Vickers, 
Ltd., on “Education after the War, with special 
reference to Engineering Instruction,’’ in which he 
strongly urged the desirability of apprenticeship be- 
ginning at an earlier age than at present, and that the 
most capable boys should devote a portion of each 
day to the workshop and the rest to the school, and 
that every encouragement should be given to capable 
and talented boys, with a view to their being sent 
on to the technical college or university to complete 
their theoretical training, serving their vacations in 
the works so that they may have the advantage of 
special courses of advanced work on experimental re- 
search. The council of the association was instructed 
to prepare a public statement dealing with the immediate 
necessity for the further development of the means of 
scientific and technical education, and a resolution was 
passed calling upon Parliament to abolish all forms 
of exemption from school attendance below the age 
of fourteen, and to requiye compulsory facilities for 
continued education up to seventeen years of age, ex- 
tending to at least six hours per week within working 
hours, for all persons employed who have left school. 
A further resolution was passed to invite the govern- 
ing bodies of the various agricultural schools and 
colleges to join the association. On Saturday, 
October 21, a valuable and suggestive paper was read 
by Major Robert Mitchell, director of the Regent 
Street Polytechnic on ‘‘What Can Be Done to Train 
Disabled Sailors and Soldiers in Technical Institu- 
tions?”’ The facilities existing in London for the 
training of such disabled men in various occupations, 
and the success which had followed the work, together 
with the necessity for its further extension through- 
out the country, were fully set forth. 
RECENT WORK ON TSETSE-FLIES. 
wf hn tsetse-flies (Glossina) continue to occupy the 
attention of entomologists working in tropical 
Africa. Dr. W. A. Lamborn has now published (Bull. 
Entom, Research, vii., part 1) a third report of his 
investigations into the habits of these flies in Nyasa- 
land (see Nature, vol. xcvii., p. 90). He believes that 
an abundance of the flies usually indicates the presence 
of “big game” in the neighbourhood; yet he doubts 
whether the destruction of game would be effective in 
reducing the numbers of the fly, because ‘‘the game, 
if severely harassed, will retire [to surrounding areas] 
during the dry season, when only it is possible to 
hunt, returning in the wet and probably bringing more 
flies with it.” In the same number of the bulletin 
there is also a paper by LI. Lloyd on Glossina morsi- 
tans in northern Rhodesia. His observations show 
that in districts where game is scarce tsetses are often 
more numerous and troublesome than where game is 
plentiful; he suggests that this is because the flies, in 
the absence or scarcity of other mammalian prey, 
must attack man in larger numbers and with a more 
violent hunger. Mr. Lloyd, like Dr. Lamborn, finds 
males much more abundant than females in ordinary 
collections of Glossina, but Dr. Lamborn points out 
NO. 2452, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
157 
that the proportion of females is largely increased when 
flies are caught beneath an’ umbrella or resting on 
trees, approaching the equality with the males which 
is seen in flies reared from puparia. Both writers 
have interesting notes on species of Mutilla (described 
by R. E. Turner in the same number of the bulletin), 
the larvz of which are parasitic in the pupe of the 
tsetses, while. Dr. Lamborn has shown that a small 
chalcid (Syntomosphyrum glossinae), believed also to be 
a parasite of the, Glossina, is really a hyperparasite on 
the Mutilla. 
A convenient and useful summary of our knowledge 
of the tsetse-flies (‘‘ Notice sur les Glossines ou Tsé- 
tsés”) by E. Hegh has been published in London 
under the auspices of the Belgian Colonial Ministry. 
It serves aS an introduction to the structure, life- 
history, and classification of the insects in tropical 
Africa generally, but with special reference to the 
Belgian Congo. M. Hegh begins his historical intro- 
duction with the work of Bruce in 1895-6, and seems 
to ascribe to that distinguished surgeon the discovery 
that tsetse-flies carry disease. The deadly action of 
Glossina on European domestic beasts was well known 
to Livingstone during his early African journeys, and 
in his ‘‘ Missionary Travels and Researches” (1857) he 
described the effect of the tsetse’s bite on cattle and 
horses. With a seeming prevision of modern dis- 
coveries, he wrote of the ‘‘ germ” of a poison ‘‘ which 
enters when the proboscis is inserted to draw blood,’” 
and which ‘“‘seems capable, although very minute in 
quantity, of reproducing itself.” Bruce’s contribution 
to the subject was the demonstration of this ‘‘germ”’ 
as a flagellate blood-parasite or Trypanosoma. 
% Ge Ga 
ZOOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
G My papers read in Section D were devoted chiefly 
to the consideration of problems arising out of 
the war. An account has already appeared in NATURE 
for October 19 of the papers on fisheries. 
Flies. 
Mr. F. M. Howlett gave a lecture dealing with the 
occurrence, habits, life-history, and means of preven- 
tion and destruction of the principal insects which 
have been troublesome during the campaign in 
France and Flanders. In another communication he 
surveyed briefly the known facts regarding the senses 
of insects, and gave an account of his observations, 
made in India, on the extraordinary attractiveness 
for the males of certain species of flies of isovaleric 
aldehyde, isoeugenol,.and methyleugenol. 
Miss O. C. Lodge gave an account of studies on 
the habits of flies in relation to means employed for 
their destruction. The best bait for blow-flies was 
found to be liver, brain, and fish which had been 
already attacked by maggots, and thus rendered more 
attractive. Baits were found to be much more attrac- 
tive in the sun than in the shade. The best bait for 
house-flies is a mixture of casein, banana, any sweet 
substance, and water. Formalin in water (about 
1:13) is apparently the best poison (excluding 
scheduled poisons) to use against house-flies. 
Bilharzia Disease in Egypt. 
Dr. R. T. Leiper gave an account of the later results 
obtained by the War Office Bilharzia Commission in 
Egypt. After sketching the conditions in a village 
where g1 per cent. of the schoolboys were found to be 
infected with Bilharzia, Dr. Leiper stated that the 
Commission had proved the occurrence of two species 
of Bilharzia, the chief characters of which he pointed 
out with the help of lantern illustrations. The egg of 
