8 4 6 



NA TURE 



[December 2.3, 1922 



Sir Archdall Reid in his letter to Nature of 

 December 9, p. 769, tells ns that medical students in 

 their biology course learn " facts about . . . the 

 vascular system of the sea-urchin, the digestive 

 system of the leech, the bones in the cod's head, and 

 so on." 



Now at this university we have nearly finished the 

 three months' course of zoology for medical students 

 held under Prof. Graham Kerr, and not one of our 

 medical students could answer a question on the 

 subjects named by Sir Archdall Reid. It is a pity, 

 as they are interesting subjects, but there is no room 

 for them in a zoology course for medical students. 

 There is none too much time for the students to learn 

 what they really are taught, namely those parts of 

 zoology which will be, or should be, directly useful to 

 tiirm either as anatomists or medical men. 



The point which seems clear is that in the first part 

 of his letter Sir Archdall Reid is asking us for informa- 

 tion about " facts" which are not facts, as King 

 Charles II. is said to have done with the Royal 

 Society. What then is the value of his comments 

 based upon these " facts " ? J. S. Dunkerly. 



The University, Glasgow. 



I have no desire to enter into a discussion with 

 Sir Archdall Reid of the value of the " biology of 

 their own " which medical men " are in a position to 

 construct, and for all practical purposes have al- 

 ready constructed," but it is necessary to point out 

 that his description of the " biology which medical 

 students learn " is not correct. He describes the 

 latter biology as consisting of facts about the classi- 

 fication of plants, the vascular system of the sea- 

 urchin, the digestive system of the leech, the bones in 

 the cod's head, and so on. 



Whatever may have been the case when Sir 

 Archdall Reid was a medical student at Edinburgh, 

 not one of the animal types he mentions is now 

 included in the syllabus of elementary practical 

 zoology of the medical curriculum in that university, 

 nor are they included, so far as I know, in the corre- 

 sponding syllabus in any English university. It is 

 surprising that a member of the medical profession, 

 which is not yet emancipated entirely from the 

 empiricism of earlier times, should write so con- 

 temptuously of the leech, once so closely associated 

 with that profession. J. T. Cunningham. 



East London College, Mile End Road, E., 

 December 13. 



Scientific and Industrial Pioneers. 



Throughout the past year it has been my privilege 

 to contribute week by week to these columns a 

 Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. This now comi to 

 an end. This Calendar and the Calendar of Scientific 

 Pioneers, which appeared last year, contain some 

 930 names, and the lists are believed to be thoroughly 

 representative of that great and ever-increasing army 

 of workers by whom the secrets of Nature are un- 

 ravelled and natural riches are made available for the 

 benefit of mankind. In selecting the names to be 

 included this year I was assisted by Dr. W. C. 1 "n\\ 111, 

 Professors Eccles, H. C. H. Carpenter and Abell, 

 Mr. F. S. Marvin, and others, and to them I am 

 indebted for suggestions of which I have been glad to 

 make use. Edgar C. Smith. 



5 Cotehele Terrace, Devonport. 



W. H. Hudson Memorial. 



At a meeting of friends and admirers of W. H. 

 Hudson, held at Messrs. Dent's on November 28, it 

 was agreed that a fitting memorial in stone should be 

 placed in or near one of the sanctuaries in the London 



parks which should be dedicated to his memory, 

 subject to the consent of H.M. Office of Works. 



It was also decided that Prof. Rothenstein's portrait 

 in oils of Hudson should be presented to the Nationa 

 Portrait Gallery subject to the permission of the 

 trustees, and that all monies over and above those 

 spent upon these works should be devoted to the 

 preservation of wild bird life. An executive committee 

 was appointed to carry these proposals into effect. 



Hudson's works are imperishable, but we need a 

 national memorial to the great Englishman whose 

 Nature writings are inspired by that change of heart 

 towards wild life which is replacing the old indifference 

 and spirit of destruction. There were two sides to 

 his genius, that of the man of letters and that of the 

 naturalist. Both these elements are, we feel, properly 

 represented in the suggestions outlined, and we 

 earnestly appeal to the public to make it possible for 

 them to be finely executed. Donations should be 

 sent to the hon. treasurer, Mr. Hugh R. Dent, Aldine 

 House, Bedford Street, W.C.2. 



R. B. Cunninghame Graham. - 



Human Blood Relationships and Sterility. 



It is not, I think, generally known that the late 

 Alphonse Milne-Edwards made curious and interest- 

 ing investigations and suggestions with regard to 

 these matters, but did not live to publish them. A 

 record will be found in Sir Ray Lankester's 

 of Earth and Sea " (p. 141). Briefly, his view was 

 that the serums of separated species are toxic to 

 one another — as in the tables given by von Dun^ 

 gem and Hirschfeld and in this country by Back 

 and Edwards, and thus prevent the fertilisation 

 of the ovum of one species by the spermatozoon of 

 another. " He proposed to inject one species by 

 ' serums ' extracted from the other, in such a way 

 as seemed most likely to bring the chemical state 

 of their reproductive elements into harmony, that 

 is t>> say, into a condition in which they should not 

 be actively antagonistic, but admit of fusion and 

 union " (E. R. L.). I would suggest that the per- 

 plexing sterility of many normal, healthy young 

 man led couples is closely linked up with this question, 

 ami it may be that a great future is in store fur the 

 surgeon who would boldly adopt the suggestion of 

 Milne-Edwards with the view of harmonisuiL; the 

 serums of married persons whose relative sterility 

 would appear to be capable of tabulation after the 

 manner of the haemolytic charts given by Back and 

 Edwards and by the writer of the article in Nature 

 of December 2. Christopher Blayre. 



So far as I know, the blood groups dealt with in 

 the article on " Human Blood Relationships " in 

 Nature of December 2 concern only the agglutina- 

 tion (and sometimes lvsis) of red corpuscles and not 

 any other of the obscure differences which deter- 

 mine incompatibility between species and subspecies. 

 These no doubt include the qualities of tissues other 

 than blood, and the project to alter them by trans- 

 ferring blood or serum from one species or individual 

 to another seems very unlikely to succeed : the 

 blood is only one tissue among many and its qualities 

 certainly do not dominate those of the body as a 

 whole. In the course of working out the inheritance 

 of the agglutination groups a great deal of germane 

 information has been obtained, but there is no 

 indication that one combination of groups in parents 

 is more likely to be sterile than another. The 

 failure of many normal healthy young married couples 

 to produce children is probably capable of a much 

 simpler explanation. 



The Writer of the Article. 



NO. 2773, VOL. I IOJ 



