114 



NA TURE 



[July 22, 1909 



Number of Students in Higher Educational Institutions 

 in different Countries. 



Russia, it is seen, is the only western country of 

 prominence which has not passed Germany's figure of the 

 year ^ 1870, namely, one student for two thousand 

 inhabitants. " Perhaps," says Prof. Marx, " the most 

 striking fact displayed by this table is the way Great 

 Britain has lagged in this vast movement of the demo- 

 cratisation of the advantages of higher education — and, 

 scarcely less significant, the strong leading position of the 

 United States." 



Too much importance must not, however, be attached 

 to the table^here reprinted with slight modifications, or to 

 Prof. Marx's conclusions. The, total number of students 

 of higher education in the case of the United States 

 includes students of both sexes in colleges, universities, 

 technical and professional schcols (exclusive of preparatory 

 departments), in the session 1905-6, and in the case o'f 

 Germany, too, the students of technical and professional 

 schools above gymnasial rank are included in the total. 

 But Great Britain's 25.000, and the totals assigned to 

 all the remaining countries except Russia, deal only with 

 their universities; their technical colleges and professional 

 schools being ignored, apparently. It is not by any means 

 contended that higher instruction in science and letters 

 receives anything like the consideration it should in this 

 country, but it is desirable, in making a comparison such 

 as that Prof. Marx has instituted, to eliminate as many 

 sources of error as possible, and to confine attention rigidly 

 *.°tT^"*'" '•''^'"^^ ^""i^ '■'^^".v comparable. The article upon 



The Supply of Secondary Education in England and 

 Elsewhere, ' which appeared in Nature of June 17 sup- 

 pletnents to some extent the information brought together 

 by Prof. Marx and summarised in the foregoing tables. 



ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC BIOLOGISTS. 

 'P'HE eighth annual meeting of this steadily growing 

 association was held in the new School df Forestry 

 at Oxford on July 13-15. The outstanding features of the 

 meetings were the extremely interesting, and in many cases 

 important, papers that were read and the discussions which 

 followed, signs alike of the increasing importance of the 

 application of biological science. 



The president. Dr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., opened the 

 meeting with a paper on the relations of certain cestodes 

 and nematode parasites to bacterial disease. He argued 

 that the piercing of the wall of the alimentary canaT by 

 parasites carries with it bacterial infection. In the case 

 of the disease " of the grouse, the piercing of the wall 

 of the caecum by the tapeworm TricJwstrongvlus -ber- 

 gracths was followed by an intrusion of bacteria into the 

 submucous layers. It is found that there is a definite 

 relation between the number of worms in the alimentary 

 canal and the number of bacteria in the body of the host 

 /his perforation of the intestinal wall and subsequent 

 invasion of the lesions by bacilli is of importance in such 

 diseases as peritonitis and appendicitis. Such worms as 

 rl/"''it' ' ^'"'^ frequently associated with peritonitis, 



f j°!u '' ^"'°^°3 with appendicitis. He strongly advo- 

 cated the greater use of vermifuges, which are used less 

 man heretofore, and in this he was supported by Prof. 

 Osier in the discussion that followed. 



One of the most important papers was that of Prof. 

 NO. 2073, VOL. 81] 



G. H. F. Nuttall and Dr. S. Hadwen, who gave an 

 account of their successful curative treatment of piro- 

 plasmosis. This " tick-fever " is very fatal. In severe 

 cases 80 per cent, to 85 per cent, of the red blood-corpuscles 

 are infected, and the escape of the parasites into the blood 

 gives rise to the characteristic haemoglobinurea. The life- 

 cycle, which was described, bears a definite relation to the 

 treatment, and the double pyriform and large rounded forms 

 of the parasite are dominant in the blood. It was found 

 that if trypanblau was injected subcutaneously or intra- 

 venously all the pyriform parasites disappeared, and the 

 remaining parasites degenerated two hours later. The 

 animals (dogs) showed no symptoms. The parasites re- 

 turned in very small numbers after about ten to twelve 

 days, but the animals appear to be quite well, and the 

 parasites disappear. One injection was sufficient, and 

 nearly all the animals injected were cured, while the un- 

 injected controls all died ; a 100 per cent, mortality which 

 occurred in this disease in dogs was converted into an 

 85 per cent, recovery. The drug has the same effect on 

 the Piroplasma causing " red-water disease " in cattle. 

 Further investigations of a thorough character are neces- 

 sary before the drug can be put to practical use, but its 

 discovery is of the greatest importance. 



Mr. C. Warburton gave a very interesting account of 

 his experiments on the life-histories of the human Pediculi, 

 the clothes and head lice. Great difiiculties were 

 encountered at first, but finally, by allowing them to feed 

 on the back of his hand two or three times a day, the 

 author was able to fill a very important blank in the know- 

 ledge of these insects. He found that the female of 

 P. vestimcnli laid 124 eggs in twenty-five days. The eggs 

 began to hatch in eight days, and continued to do so for 

 about a month. The larvie feed as soon as they are 

 hatched, and after moulting three times became imagines 

 in eleven days. Great trouble was experienced in breeding 

 P. cervicalis (P. capitis), but patience and discomfort were 

 rewarded with success, and it was found that a single 

 female deposited forty-eight eggs, which hatched in seven- 

 teen to eighteen days, and the later stages were corre- 

 spondingly lengthened compared with those of P. vesti- 

 mcnti. 



The actual and possible applications of recent discoveries 

 in heredity to biological problems of an economic character 

 were discussed by Mr. A. D. Darbishire. He showed how 

 important were such Mendelian principles as segregation 

 and the breeding true of organisms bearing the recessive 

 character. The recessive character may be a resistance to 

 the rust fungus, as Prof. Biffen discovered in wheat. He 

 was inclined to believe that resistance to the attacks of the 

 beetle Bruchus might be dealt with according to Mendelian 

 principles, and also the increase of the saccharine contents 

 of peas by the selection of the absorptive character, which 

 is different in round and wrinkled peas. 



Mr. S. A. Neave gave an interesting account of his 

 observations on the distribution and habits of the tsetse-fly 

 Glossina pajftalis, which were made in the Congo Free 

 State and North-east Rhodesia in the years 1907-8. It 

 would appear that the high plateau country forming the 

 watershed between the basins of the Congo and Zambezi 

 rivers forms a barrier against the southward extension of 

 the distribution of the fly. He was of the opinion that, 

 on the whole, G. pajftalis will not be found to occur in 

 the Zambezi basin, an important fact in view of the possi- 

 bility of the spread of sleeping sickness into South Africa 

 entertained by some authorities. 



The results of observations and investigations on other 

 insects of economic importance were communicated to th". 

 association. Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt has continued his 

 investigations on the large larch saw-fly Neinatiis erichsoni, 

 and finds that the natural enemies are increasing in 

 number. The percentage of parasitic ichneumons has in- 

 creased, as also the attacks of the small vole Microius 

 agrcstis. A parasitic fungus (Cordyceps) has been found 

 attacking the pupal stage, and the insectivorous birds are 

 being encouraged. In spite of all these he was of the 

 opinion that the results of the attack would be of a grave 

 character, an opinion which was shared by Prof. Somer- 

 ville in the subsequent discussion. A number of successful 

 experiments on the breeding of the house-fly during the 

 winter months (February) under favourable conditions of 



