NATURE 



[November 5, 1908 



while the necessary nerve mechanisms are developing. To 

 ascribe so much to use, as Dr. Reid does, and so little to 

 inheritance, is surely a grave error. Speech has certainly 

 been acquired by the human race, and it is an accomplish- 

 ment which is not learned afresh by each one of us as 

 he would have us believe — we inherit the nervous 

 mechanisms that make it possible, and these tend to develop 

 even independently of use. H. Charlton Bastian. 



The .\thonaeum, October 20. 



I FEAR I must think that the crucial instances which 

 Dr. Bastian mentions are merely cases in which the 

 observer, having a preconceived theory, has preferred an 

 improbable interpretation to an obvious and simple one. 

 The muscles of the limbs atrophy when disused through 

 joint disease as well as when the injury is in the spinal 

 cord. At the same time the nails, which do not develop 

 under the stimulus of use, continue to grow. It is always 

 dillicult to prove the excessively obvious in a few words ; 

 and to me — if anyone ever learns anything — children as 

 obviously learn to walk and speak as to write and swim. 

 Dr. Bastian would have us believe that people who have 

 never heard a word would still be able to express their 

 thoughts in language. But in what language? How does 

 it happen that children always speak the language of the 

 people with whom they are reared? My parents were 

 English. My first language was Hindustani. Which of 

 the two was innate? Structures (e.g. external ears), which 

 do not develop under the stimulus of use, do not atrophy 

 through disuse. So also instincts never atrophy — are never 

 forgotten — through disuse. How does it happen that I 

 have forgotten my first language? 



G. Archd.^ll Reid. 



Netherbv, Victoria Road, S., Southsea, October 27. 



Polypus Vinegar — Sea-blubber Arrack. 



(i) Although I am afraid it is now much too late to 

 reply to Mrs. Hoskyns-.^brahall's inquiry anent the so- 

 called Polype vinaigre (Nature, August 9, 1906, vol. Ixxiv., 

 P- 35O. to which hitherto no answer has appeared in your 

 columns, I may be allowed to quote the following passage 

 as a probably important clue to its scientific elucidation : — 



" Amongst the greatest curiosities of the Yellow Sea 

 there is a wonderful polypus, only recently discovered. 

 This curious zoophyte is known on the coast of Newchwang 

 by the name of Chang-yii, and possesses the property of 

 turning into vinegar the fresh water in which it is placed. 

 This fact was noticed for the first time in Hue's travels in 

 China and Thibet, but our savants at home were rather 

 sceptical on the point, and refused to believe in its exist- 

 ence till it was lately sent to Paris by another missionary, 

 Mr. Pernys, and the specimens, one alive and one dead, 

 being put in tank at the aquarium of the Soci^t^ d'Accli- 

 matisation, they both turned into vinegar the fresh water 

 in which they were placed " {.\. Fauvil, " The Province 

 of Shantung," in the China Review, vol. ii.. No. 6, 1875, 

 pp. 366-7). 



So far as my limited reading goes, not a single Chinese 

 work mentions or describes this remarkable creature. But 

 I may hazard a remark that peradventure by polype Hue 

 really meant a cephalopod, for the " Pen-tsao " applies the 

 name Chang-yii (not yu) to the octopus, which formed a 

 member of the classic authors' Polypi, as is manifest in 

 Pliny's " Natural History," bk. ix., ch. 48 (see also the 

 " Encyc. Brit.," ninth edition, vol. xix., p. 428). 



(2) in " A New Account of East India and Persia in 

 Eight Letters, being Nine Years' Travels, begun 1672 and 

 finished 1681," by Dr. John Fryer, F.R.S., published 

 London, 1698, pp. 68-9, the writer, recounting the causes 

 of the bad health of the inhabitants of Bombaim, an island 

 situated sixty leagues south of Surat, and the same distance 

 north of Goa, says, " Among the worst of these, Fool 

 Rack (Brandy made of Bhihber, or Carvil, by the Portu- 

 gals, because it swims always in a blubber, as if there 

 were nothing in it ; but touch it, and it stings like nettles ; 

 the latter, because sailing on the Waves it bears up like 

 a Portugal Carvil ; it is, being taken, a Gelly, and dis- 



NO. 2036, VOL. 79] 



tilled causes that take it to be Fools), and Foul Women 

 may be reckoned." 



It is well known that certain species of jelly-fishes are 

 eaten with gusto by the Japanese and the Chinese, but we 

 have never heard, e.xcept the above instance, of any acaleph 

 capable of yielding a spirituous liquor. Will any of your 

 readers kindly tell whether it is fiction or truth? 



KUMAGLSU MiNAKv\TA. 



Tanabe, Kii, Japan, August 6. 



Occurrence of a Fresh-water Nemertine in Ireland. 



In -Nature, 1902 (vol. xlvi., p. 611), Prof. Benham re- 

 cords the discovery of a fresh-water Nemertine living in 

 the River Cherwell, at Oxford. He found only a single 

 immature specimen, which was accidentally destroyed 

 before the specific title was definitely determined. I have 

 recently (October) obtained numerous sexually mature 

 specimens of a Nemertine, living among weeds in the 

 Grand Canal, at Clondalkin, co. Dublin. 



Seven species of fresh-water Nemertjnes, all belonging 

 to the genus Prostoma (Tetrastemma), are recognised by 

 Burger (Tierreich, vol. xx., p. 68). The distinctive 

 characters are somewhat vague, and depend largely on 

 differences in the mode of reproduction. The Irish forms 

 are referable to the species Prostoma clepsinoides. Ant. 

 Dugfes, with which the Tetrastemma aqiiarnm diilcium of 

 Silliman is probably synonymous. Benham notes several 

 points in which his specimen differed from the latter 

 species, and the Irish specimens show the same differ- 

 ences. Such points, however, as the relative position of 

 the eye-spots and ciliated pits depend largely on the state 

 of contraction of the worm, or it is possible that Silliman 

 made his drawings from pressure preparations. As Ben- 

 ham points out, the proboscis is much longer than Silli- 

 man shows. Benham also says that the colour of his 

 specimen was due to pigment in the skin, and not to the 

 red colour of the nervous sj'stem. In the Irish worms, 

 the Epidermis is only faintly yellow in colour, whilst the 

 brain and nerve cords are bright red, as is usual in the 

 Nemertines. 



This species was also found by Beddard (" Cambridge 

 Natural History," vol. ii., p. 118) in one of the tanks in 

 the Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park. 



These are the only records of fresh-water Nemertines in 

 the British Isles, and it is highly probable that they refer 

 to the same species, for which the name Prostoma 

 clepsinoides. Ant. Dugfes, has priority. 



Rowland Southern. 



Natural History Department, National Museum, 

 Dublin, October 22. 



Mercury Bubbles. 



I SHOULD be glad to learn through the medium of your 

 columns if any previous attempt has been made to produce 

 mercury bubbles, an3, if the attempt was successful, where 

 was the result described? A few days ago, while in the 

 act of purifying mercury by the common method of treat- 

 ment with acid, and afterwards washing with a powerful 

 stream of water, I was surprised to notice quite fre- 

 quently several beautiful silvery spheres circulating on the 

 surface of the wash-water. As to dimensions, many of 

 these spheres were at least 22 mm. in diameter, and I 

 estimated the thickness of the metallic film in one case 

 to be 0-017 mm. 



The bubbles seemed to be produced by the jet of water 

 entangling air at the moment of striking the surface of 

 the water in the containing vessel, and thus carrying the 

 air into the body of the mercury, the rapid circulation of 

 the wash-water helping to disengage the bubbles from 

 the surface of the metal as they were formed. It is just 

 possible that the air was not derived from the surrounding 

 atmosphere, but was contained in the water supply. I 

 should add that in my laboratory the pressure averages 

 about 60 lb., and there is undoubtedly at times a relatively 

 large amount of air present. 



J. G. Ernest Wrtght. 



South Benwell, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



