458 



NATURE 



[March 19, 1908 



Iciistics of the age. By 300 b.c. the Greeks had lost 

 much of their manly vigour and intellectual strength." 



In seeking for a cause for so remarkable a change 

 the pregnant suggestion was made by Major Ross 

 ih.it widespread disease — particularly those "endemic 

 diseases, which when introduced oppress a country 

 lor ever" — may have had far-reaching effects in 

 modifying and moulding a new national character. 

 Thus, in many of the southern States of America, the 

 ill-health produced by widespread infection with the 

 hook-worm has been held by American parasitologists 

 to be largely responsible for the sloth and want of 

 enterprise exhibited by the inhabitants of those dis- 

 tiicts. Recent investigations into the prevalence of 

 m.ilaria in Greece by Major Ross and others suggest 

 that this disease may have been introduced into the 

 country during the period mentioned, and may have 

 bien the factor bringing about this remarkable altera- 

 tion of national characteristics. For malaria has not 

 necessarily always been endemic in the districts in 

 wh'cli it is now found. For example, Mauritius was 

 Irie from malaria up to 1866, in which year it was 

 introduced, and has caused infinite injury to the island 

 ever since. 



Mr. Jones has sought in the ancient authors for 

 evidence which may serve to show when malaria was 

 introduced into Greece, and what its effects may have 

 been on the race, and has embodied the results of his 

 researches in this interesting book. With two excep- 

 tions there seem to be no noferences in the classic 

 writers to any disease which could be malaria before 

 the middle of the fifth century B.C. It is in the 

 " Wasps of Aristophanes " (422 B.C.) that the word 

 ■KvptTos (used, generally in the plural, for malaria) 

 first occurs in Greek literature (with a single 

 exception in the " Iliad "). It is a singular coinci- 

 dence that three years previously the Athenians were 

 engaged on the island of .Sphacteria, which is now 

 one of the most malarial centres in the Mediterranean. 

 The Peloponnesian war followed, large tracts of land 

 were allowed to go out of cultivation, and it seems 

 not unreasonable to conclude that the malaria para- 

 sites, introduced from Italy by Greek slaves or per- 

 haps by the Carthaginians, then spread gradually 

 over the countrv. 



The word /ifXay;(oXin and its cognates occur in Greek 

 literature soon after the word rupfrdf became common. 

 Now the primary meaning of " melancholy " (derived 

 horn jiiXaiva ^uXij, " black bile ") seems to have been 

 " excitable " or nervous. In the medical writers, 

 tertian and quartan fevers were said to be derived 

 from yellow and black bile respectively. Galen says 

 that "large spleens are caused by 'melancholy 

 humour'" (humour being used in the sense of a 

 morbid fluid), and Hippocrates remarks that cases of 

 "melancholy" occur in the autumn, which is the 

 m.ilarial season. It would therefore seem that the 

 " melancholy " of these early writers is malarial 

 cachexia. Mr. Jones arrives at the concltjsion that 

 " miliaria was certainly prevalent in many parts of 

 Greece, including Attica, during the foijrth century 

 B.C., tliough Greece was not ' highly infected,'" and 

 NO. 2003, VOL. 7;] 



that " the change which gradually came over the 

 Greek character from 400 b.c. onwards, was one which 

 would certainly have been aided, and was in all prob- 

 ability at least partiallv caused by the same disease." 



In a similar manner the introduction of malaria 

 into Italy is discussed, and it is inferred that this 

 disease did not exist there much before 200 B.C., but 

 was prevalent from 50 B.C. onwards. It seems 

 plausible that it was introduced by Hannibal's Cartha- 

 ginian mercenaries. .\s in Greece, so in Rome, it 

 left its mark on the national character : — " Malaria 

 made the Greek weak and inefficient ; it turned the 

 sterner P.oman into a blood-thirsty brute- (i/ra hxMs 

 made its victims mad." 



Mr. G. Ellett contributes a final chapter, and among 

 other points directs attention to the immunity from 

 malaria enjoyed by progressive Japan contrasted with 

 her stagnant neighbour China, where malaria is pre- 

 valent. Major Ross's foreword describes the manner 

 in which malaria is disseminated by the mosquito, and 

 some of the results of malarial infection, and serves 

 as a fitting introduction to this interesting essay, par- 

 ticularly foi the non-medical reader. Besides being 

 interesting, the book has been issued with an object — 

 to show how important it is to stamp out malaria 

 wherever possible. R. T. H. 



ELECTRICITY OLD AND NEW. 



Cours d'Electricite. By H. Pellat. 3 vols. Vol. i., 



pp. vi + 32g; price 10 francs. Vol. ii., pp. 554; price 

 18 francs. Vol. iii., pp. vi + 290; price 10 francs. 

 (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1901, 1903, 1908.) 

 Les Decoiivertes moderues en Physique. By O. Man- 

 ville. Pp. iii -f- 186. (Paris: A. Hermann, igo8.) 

 Price 5 francs. 



MPELL.\T has published the courses of lectures 

 • which he gave from 1898 to 1907, covering 

 the whole science of electricity. The first volume 

 deals with electrostatics, the second with currents and 

 magnetism, the third with the later developments of 

 electrolysis and gaseous conduction. The course is 

 intended and suited for soinewhat advanced students, 

 and no limitations are placed upon the use of mathe- 

 matics; for the most part, little attention is given to 

 experimental arrangements. 



In the case of a work by a physicist so distin- 

 guished as M. Pellat it is unnecessary to criticise 

 details ; accuracy and soundness in all essentials may 

 be assumed. The only remarks which a reviewer can 

 offer concern the method of treatment ; and it is in 

 this respect that M. Pellat's volumes call for com- 

 ment, for the order in which the subject-matter is 

 introduced is entirely unconventional. The author 

 believes that the usual development is illogical, and 

 has endeavoured to correct this fault. 



Thus he refuses to develop electrostatics from the 

 basis of Coulomb's law on the ground that, if that 

 law is taken as the starting-point, some hypothesis 

 must be introduced, when media of different dielectric 

 constant are considered. -Accordingly he starts from 

 experiments with a Faraday cylinder and an electro- 

 meter, and only introduces Gauss's theorem and the 



