August 21, 19 13] 



NATURE 



641 



intermediate between the highest anthropoid and 

 the highest form of man. 



Dr. Smith Woodward fixes its date in the very 

 early Pleistocene period, contemporary with the 

 well-known Heidelberg jaw. Prof. Rutot, of 

 Brussels, assigns the Piltdown stratum of gravel 

 in which the remains were found to the latter part 

 of the Pliocene period. If these views be ac- 

 cepted, it is of much earlier date than the remains 

 of Neanderthal man recently discovered in France ; 

 and while Prof. Rutot estimates the duration of 

 the Pleistocene period at 150,000 years, Prof. 

 Penck, one of our greatest authorities on the 

 Glacial period, estimates its duration from half a 

 million to a million and a half of years. 



On the other hand, Prof. Keith, of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, has articulated the portion 

 of the skull to represent a large and well-modelled 

 human head with a brain capacity of 1500 c.c — 

 an amount slightly above the average of modern 

 human brains. 



The difficulty of accepting Dr. Smith Wood- 

 ward's reconstruction is in believing that Eoan- 

 thropus could be transformed into modern man 

 in the short period represented by the first half 

 of the Pleistocene period. On the other hand, 

 to quote the admirable summary of the question 

 in The Times of August 11, "if Prof. Keith is 

 rif>-ht, then it is quite possible that mankind may 

 have reached the stage represented by the Galley 

 Hill remains before the middle of the Pleistocene 

 period. If Dr. Smith Woodward is right, we 

 have to seek the beginnings of our modern culture 

 and civilisation at the middle of the Pleistocene 

 period ; if his opponent's reconstruction is well 

 founded, we have to go a whole geological period 

 further back — perhaps a million of years — to find 

 the dawn of modern man and his culture." 



In the discussion which took place, reported 

 in The Times of August 12, the weieht of scientific 

 opinion seems to have been decidedly in favour of 

 the views of Prof. Keith. But the importance 

 of the question is so vital to the science of anthro- 

 pology that we may be well advised to await 

 further developments of the controversv. 



HELMINTHS AND CANCER. 

 TN a memoir recently published, 1 Dr. Johannes 

 J- Fibiger brings forward strong evidence in 

 support of the view, by no means novel, that the 

 lesions of the tissues produced by parasitic worms 

 may act as the starting-point for the development 

 of cancerous growths and tumours. The author 

 found in wild rats a disease of the oesophagus and 

 stomach characterised by an epithelial proliferation 

 and inflammation leading, in pronounced cases, 

 to a papillomatous growth which was the pre- 

 cursor of a malignant epithelioma. Examination 

 of the primary lesions revealed the presence of a 

 nematode worm, an undescribed species of Spiro- 

 ptera. 



From a series of experiments it was concluded 

 that cockroaches (Periplaneta americana and P. 



1 Oversigt Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Fortiandlinser, 1913, 

 No. 1. 



NO. 2286, VOL. 91] 



orientaiis) serve as intermediate hosts for the 

 Spiroptera. The cockroach becomes infected by 

 ingesting eggs of the worm which are passed out 

 in the excrement of the rat; the eggs develop in 

 the cockroach and the embryos of the worm be- 

 come localised in the striated muscles of the pro- 

 thorax and the legs. The rats become infected 

 by eating cockroaches, and the embryos of the 

 worm, set free from their cysts, attack the epi- 

 thelium of the stomach, sometimes also that of the 

 oesophagus or buccal cavity, and develop into the 

 adult nematode, the cause of the lesions already 

 mentioned. From his investigations the author 

 concludes that all the anatomical alterations are 

 due to toxic products of the nematode. 



From the primary lesions caused by the nema- 

 tode secondary metastases may be produced in 

 other organs. The metastases contain neither the 

 parasites nor their eggs. The development of 

 the metastases is ascribed to the faculty of the 

 epithelial cells to multiply in other organs inde- 

 pendently of the parasite. The author thus con- 

 firms the view put forward by Borrel and others 

 that nematodes may produce malignant tumours 

 in rats and mice, and considers it not improbable 

 that in human pathology also cancerous tumours 

 may owe their origin in some cases to the presence 

 of helminths. 



NOTES. 



A circular from the Institut International de 

 Physique Solvay informs us that a sum of 20,000 

 francs is available for the encouragement of experi- 

 mental work in physics and physical chemistry, par- 

 ticularly for investigations on radiation phenomena 

 (Rontgen ravs and those of radio-active bodies) and 

 for studies of the theory of energy quanta and of 

 molecular theories. Grants from the fund will be 

 awarded, without distinction of nationality, by the 

 administrative commission of the institute on the re- 

 commendation of the international scientific com- 

 mittee. The administrative commission is composed 

 of Profs. P. Heger, E. Tassel, and J. E. Verschaffelt, 

 Brussels," and the scientific committee of M. H. A. 

 Lorentz, president, Haarlem; Mme. M. Curie, Paris; 

 M. Brillouin, Paris ; R. B. Goldschmidt, Brussels ; 

 H. Kamerlingh-Onnes, Leyden ; W. Nernst, Berlin; 

 E. Rutherford, Manchester ; E. Warburg, Berlin ; and 

 M. Knudsen, secretary, Copenhagen. Applications for 

 grants should be made before September 15 to Prof. 

 H. A. Lorentz, Zijlweg 76, Haarlem, Holland. They 

 should state precisely what problems are to be inves- 

 tigated, the proposed means of inquiry, and the 

 amount required, in order that the committee may 

 have before it all details necessary in considering the 

 awards to be made. 



Ax exhibit illustrating the damage caused to biscuits 

 sent out in soldered tins for the use of the troops in 

 South Africa — especially during the Boer war — Gib- 

 raltar, Malta, Ceylon, &c, has just been placed in 

 the central hall of the British Museum (Natural 

 History), where it will be kept open about a month. 

 The larvae of certain minute moths and beetles were 

 the active agents ; and it appears that since these 



