October 6, 1910] 



NATURE 



429 



The Habits and Distribution of Scutigera in India. 



Beyond the bare fact of its occurrence, but little eJse 

 seems to have been recorded concerning either the habits 

 or distribution of this remarkable myriapod in India. 

 During the last three years I have come across it on 

 many occasions, and it proves to be very widely distributed 

 in the United Provinces. It occurs from a few hundred 

 feet above sea-level in the plains, at Allahabad, up to 

 nearly ii,ooo feet in the Himalayas, having thus a con- 

 siderable vertical range. I have found it plentiful at 

 Khowali, among the Himalayan foot-hills of Kumaon, at 

 5700 feet, and at many other localities in the same dis- 

 trict. It occurs at Dhakuri and Dhwali at an elevation 

 of 9000 feet, and also at Phurkia at about 10,300 feet — 

 about five miles below the Pindari glacier. In the neigh- 

 bouring district of Garhwal I have met with it this year 

 under stones between Badrinath and the village of Mana, 

 .situated at the entrance of the pass of the same name 

 into Tibet. The elevation was approximately 10,800 feet, 

 or possibly a little more. How many species are included 

 within this area of distribution I am unable to say, as 

 the Indian forms are at present being worked out by Prof. 

 Silvestri. 



Scutigera exhibits a strong dislike to expose itself to 

 daylight and sunshine, and lurks during the daytime in 

 dark places. The commonest situation for finding it is 

 under matting covering the floors of bungalows, or on 

 walls in dark corners, or under stones, &c., out of doors. 

 Sinclair, in vol. v. of the " Cambridge Natural History," 

 states that in Malta Scutigera darts about in the hot 

 sunshine after its prey. In India, so far as my e.xperi- 

 ence goes, it is a nocturnal animal. It is difficult to 

 secure perfect examples, for Scutigera never seems loth 

 to part with one or more of its extremely long and fragile 

 limbs, which are dismembered with extreme readiness. 

 After separation from the body the legs exhibit active 

 muscular contractions for about twenty or thirty seconds. 

 One of its chief enemies in the plains seem to be scorpions, 

 which inhabit very much the same situations. On one 

 occasion a large Buthus was observed to seize a Scutigera 

 by several of its legs with one of its pedipalps. The 

 Scutigera departed in great haste, and made good its 

 escape, leaving several legs behind in the possession of 

 the scorpion. From this occurrence one is led to suggest 

 that the extreme length of the legs of Scutigera may 

 perhaps be an adaptive modification for defensive purposes. 

 When an animal is encompassed by such an armature of 

 appendages it makes it difficult for an enemy to seize it 

 by a more vital part of the body. 



From watching the living animal, there seems no doubt 

 that the extremely long and antenna-like hind pair of legs 

 function as sense-organs. Individuals in captivity kept 

 these appendages frequently uplifted and on the move after 

 the same manner as antenna;. A large spider was placed 

 in a vessel along with a Scutigera, and the latter mani- 

 fested great alarm. The long posterior appendages w'ere 

 kept in constant agitation, apparently to guard against 

 a rear attack, while the antennje were behaving in the 

 same manner at the opposite end of the body. 



A. D. Imms. 



Biological Laboratory, Muir College, University 

 of .Allahabad, September 5. 



Fire Tests with Textiles. 



I SHALL be glad if you will insert the following letter 

 in reference to fire test with textiles, as the conclusions 

 at which I have arrived, after repeated experiments, are 

 so different from those reached by the British Fire Preven- 

 tion Committee that I feel I cannot allow the assertions 

 of that committee to pass unchallenged. I have over and 

 over again shown publicly and privately, including a 

 demonstration to the members of the Home Office Com- 

 mittee referred to below, that " Non-flam " flannelette is 

 only non-inflammable if it is washed in a certain way. 

 If washed in the manner usually employed by the ordinary 

 housewife, i.e. w'ashed with soap and water, and finally 

 wrung out of clear water until all trace of soap has gone, 

 it burns as readily as ordinary cheap flannelette. This 

 fact was testified to bv manv witnesses besides mvself 



NO. 2136, VOL. 84] 



before the Home Office Committee. The manufacturers 

 of " Non-fiam " acknowledge this in a letter to me (a 

 letter which was added as a footnote to my evidence 

 before the Departmental Committee on Coroner's Law, 

 second report, p. 42), from which the following are 

 extracts : — " If a piece of Non-flam is washed . . . with 

 plenty of soap to form a good lather, and then rinsed in 

 water, but not beyond the point at which the water on 

 wringing runs a little milky, showing that a little soapy 

 water still remains in the cloth, it will be found to have 

 lost scarcely any of its fire-proof qualities even after re- 

 peated washings. . . . You may perhaps ask why we 

 have not issued instructions as to the method of washing 

 to be adopted with Non-flam. ... It has never been done 

 for two reasons. One is that to issue such instructions 

 would create suspicion. . . . The other reason is that, 

 upon inquiry, we are satisfied that ninety-nine times out 

 of a hundred the method which is followed in the domestic 

 wash could hardly be improved upon. . . . The clothes, 

 after washing, are seldom, if ever, rinsed until no soap 

 is left in them." My contention is that this method of 

 washing is not the one employed by the ordinary woman 

 who washes at home. My school nurse made inquiries for 

 me of a dozen mothers as to their method of washing 

 their children's flannelette garments, and, without excep- 

 tion, they all said they finally wrung out of fresh water 

 to get rid of all traces of soap. (The reason for this is, ? 

 believe, that if any soap is left in it makes the clothes 

 nasty and sticky.) 



I am confident that the 1400 lives annually lost by 

 burning and scalding in this country will only be sub- 

 stantially diminished when fire-guards are compulsory. 

 Eightv-five per cent, of these deaths were proved to be due 

 to the want of a guard. Section 15 of the Children Act, 

 excellent as it is, needs strengthening. It only renders it 

 a penal offence if a child is burnt to death or seriously 

 injured owing to the want of a fire-guard. It does not 

 compel a parent to take reasonable precautions, by the 

 provision of a guard, to prevent this burning. 



I shall be most interested to see ijvhat conclusions are 

 arrived at by Mr. Gladstone's committee after having 

 heard tlie evidence of the various witnesses. The final 

 report may be expected shortly. 



Leonard Parry. 



83 Church Road, Hove, September 28. 



Customs at Holy \A^ells. 



It has been suggested that the following information is 

 of sufficient interest to justify insertion in Nature. 



Some of your readers doubtless know the Well of St. 

 Cubert, near Crantoclc, Newquay, and have read the 

 guide-book description of the miraculous cures of infants 

 which used to take place there in old times. 



The book on ancient and holy wells in Cornwall, by 

 Mr. Ouiller-Couch, gives a full account of the ceremonies 

 which must be observed, and Sir Norman Lockyer quotes 

 them in the chapter on holy wells in " Stonehenge and 

 other Stone Circles." * 



These authorities seem, however, to be unaware that 

 the help of St. Cubert was sought as late as the latter 

 half of the nineteenth century. When we were at New- 

 quay in 1886, my parents' man-servant, a native of 

 Mawgan, near Newquay, told the other servants that he 

 as a delicate infant had been passed through the hole in 

 the rock of St. Cubert 's Well " for luck." 



Whether all the proper ceremonies had been observed I 

 cannot say. The servant must have been about eighteen 

 years old In 1886, and he was alive and well in 1898, since 

 which time we have lost sight of him. 



ZORAH GODDES. 



Little^vood, Weybridge, September 27. 



A Meteorological Phenomenon. 



On Monday. September 26, travelling between Etaples 

 and Breteuil, Chemins de Fer du Nord, en route to Paris, 

 my family and myself and a friend (five in all) observed 

 the following meteorological phenomenon. 



The sun was hidden, but traceable, behind a white mist 



