NATURE 



[July 31, 19 13 



anaesthetics, but all inoculations — has given rise to an 

 interesting' correspondence in The Times. Mr. John 

 Galsworthy urged that the affectionate relationship 

 existing between the dog and man gave dogs claims 

 to consideration over those possessed by other animals. 

 But, as Mr. Stephen Paget pointed out, 30,000 dogs 

 are put to death annually at the Battersea Home for 

 Lost Dogs, whereas the total number used for experi- 

 ments of all kinds in Great Britain and Ireland is 

 only 500. Nothing can be learned, nothing can be 

 gained, by the killing of these 30,000 dogs ; and they 

 suffer neither more nor less than dogs anaesthetised 

 for an experiment and killed under the anaesthetic. 

 The physiologist is so often pictured as a man who 

 has no tender or sentimental feelings that a letter 

 from Sir E. A. Schafer, published in The Times of 

 July 26, is particularly appropriate to the discussion. 

 Sir* E. A. Schafer is not prepared to let Mr. Gals- 

 worthy have it all his own way in the matter of ethics 

 and sentiment. He says :— " I also love my dog even 

 more, I confess, than many of my own kind. If the 

 question arose of sacrificing my dog to save my own 

 life I might hesitate. But if it were a question of 

 choosing between the life of my dog and that of my 

 wife, or child, or friend; nay, even between the life 

 of any man, woman, or child— were it the meanest 

 beggar in the street— and that of my dog, I should not 

 hesitate to sacrifice the dog. This I would do— and 

 I believe Mr. Galsworthy also would do the same — 

 to save even a single human life. And when I con- 

 sider that the employment of a few uncared-for 

 animals, which would otherwise have been uselessly 

 sacrificed for the mere sake of getting rid of them, 

 has been the means of saving the lives and mitigating 

 the sufferings of many thousands of our fellow-beings, 

 it seems to me to be beyond a doubt that both ethics 

 and sentiment are on the side of science." 



The Scientific American for June 14 contains an 

 illustrated article by Dr. Bolduan entitled " Bacterio- 

 logy and Your Health," in which antitoxins and 

 other curative serums, vaccine treatment, and bac- 

 teriological methods for the diagnosis of disease 

 conditions are dealt with in a popular manner. 



To Vol. xxxv., No. 2, of Notes from the Leyden 

 Museum Mr. R. Van Eecke communicates an article, 

 illustrated by four plates, on variation in the beautiful 

 "long-tailed" Indo-Malay butterfly, Actias maenas, 

 of the family Saturniidae. Four varieties, or races, 

 are indicated, which exhibit a complete transition in 

 the matter of colouring from dark-brown to greenish- 

 yellow, the females of one race being more advanced 

 in this respect than the males. In Java the females, 

 which differ markedly from the males, are more 

 numerous than the latter, whereas in Celebes the 

 reverse of this condition obtains. 



In connection with experiments to find parasites 

 capable of successfully combating the spread of the 

 gipsy moth, the Entomological Bureau of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture has issued a pamphlet, by 

 Mr. P. H. Timberlake, on the life-history of Lim- 

 nerium validum, an hymenopterous parasite normally 

 attacking the fall web-worm (Hyphantria cunea). 

 This parasite will attack caterpillars of the brown- 

 NO. 2283, VOL. 91] 



tail and gipsy moths, as well as the tent-caterpillar, 

 but will only undergo its full transformation, and 

 then but seldom, in the last. It is, therefore, a failure 

 in the matter of checking the gipsy moth. 



From the Imperial Department of Agriculture for 

 the West Indies we have received a copy of a pamphlet 

 on the insect pests of the Lesser Antilles, by Mr. 

 H. A. Ballon. The work; which is well illustrated, 

 describes in popular language the chief species of 

 insects, mites, and ticks injurious to plants and 

 animals. It is interesting to note that, with the great 

 increase of cotton-growing which has taken place of 

 late years in the West Indies, "insects which were 

 not previously recognised as pests, and in some cases 

 even were not known to science, have assumed an 

 important position as serious pests." 



In a report on calf-feeding experiments (North of 

 Scotland College of Agriculture, Bulletin 17), Prof. 

 Hendrick discusses the use of separated milk and 

 oils as substitutes for whole milk. The data obtained 

 from three series of experiments show that separated 

 milk with either cod liver oil or cottonseed oil may 

 be substituted for whole milk with good results. The 

 average cost per pound of' increase was found to be 

 1-83, 1-85, and 4-77 pence respectively up to the time 

 of weaning, and both in regard to health and quality 

 of carcase at the age of two years, the different sets 

 of animals were indistinguishable. Although the 

 stock which received whole milk were slightly heavier 

 than those fed on substitutes, this difference was not 

 great, and would be more than counterbalanced bv 

 the reduced cost of rearing. 



In the current number of Bedrock, Prof. Punnett 

 replies to Prof. Poulton's article on mimicry, muta- 

 tion, and Mendelism, which appeared in the April 

 number of that publication. The main point of differ- 

 ence between the two writers is stated by the former 

 to be concerned with " the conception of the function 

 of natural selection with regard to these [mimetic] 

 resemblances." " Both of us," he says, " are agreed 

 as to the reality of natural selection," but while Prof. 

 Poulton believes in the establishment of mimetic 

 resemblance by the accumulation of small variations, 

 Prof. Punnett holds that the mimicking form has in 

 all cases suddenly arisen as a definite "mutation." 

 This mimetic form, he allows in theory though appar- 

 ently not in concrete instances, may when once pro- 

 duced be "conserved" by natural selection. To Prof. 

 Poulton's argument from the existence of transitional 

 forms, as in the females of Papilio dardanus, Prof. 

 Punnett replies that apparently continuous transi- 

 tional series may occur in cases of strict Mendelian 

 inheritance. 



The Buenos Aires Handch-Zeihing (No. 1297) of 

 May 3 discusses the recent discoveries of petroleum 

 in the northern districts of Argentina, and reports 

 the presence there of oil-bearing horizons for a dis- 

 tance north and south of 300 kilometres, and b< side 

 a series of moderately inclined anticlinals. This dis- 

 covery is the more valuable as analyses show that 

 the petroleum is rich in light illuminating oik, 

 whereas that previously found in the Argentine Pata- 



