No.

3584, jULY 9, 1938 NATURE 67

also of the gift by Mr. Fry of a smaller instrument, England. One is a draft of a letter intended for,
an 8-in. refractor by Cooke. The Astronomer Royal and perhaps actually sent to, Dillenius at Oxford in
described the Radcliffe telescope as a sister telescope 1733, when Linnreus was twenty-five years old, and
to the one now being used at Greenwich for parallax shortly after his expedition to Lapland. It is written
determinations, and hoped that much useful work in Latin and ends by expressing the hope that he
along similar lines would be done in the future at might one day meet Dillenius. This hope was ful-
Mill Hill, in keeping with the past traditions of the filled when Linnreus visited Oxford three years later.
Radcliffe Observatory. The Radcliffe 0b'3ervatory The other document is a letter written in August 1735
haa now been removed to Pretoria, where the largest by J. F. Gronovius in Leyden to Philip Miller,
telescope in the southern hemisphere is being erected. superintendent of the Apothecaries' Garden at
The Vice·-Chancellor, Sir Robert Pickard, thanked Chelsea. It is written in English and states that
the Astronomer Royal on behalf of the University Linnreus, then in Leyden, "hath a mind to make a
for performing the opening ceremony. step over to England to be acquainted with you. . . •
I am sure you will be pleased with his company, but
Museums and Rural Life it will bee troublesome for him as only speaking his
IN supporting the appeal for a further £5,000 for own Language and Latin, however I think the
the endowment fund which was launched at the Swedish minister at London can procure him an
jubilee celebrations of the Haslemere Educational interpreter".
Museum, Dr. John Ramsbottom, president of the
Linnean Society, stressed the great importance of Experimental Fire-Walks
teaching people of all classes how best to spend their A REPORT by Dr. G. Burniston Brown on three
leisure. The Haslemere Museum, he said, is worthy experimental fire-walks has recently been issued
of unreserved praise, for it is part of the communal ("A Report on Three Experimental Fire-Walks by
life of the district. Children and adults bring speci- Ahmed Hussain and others". By Dr. G. Burnhton
mens of all kinds to the Museum for identification Brown. Bull. 4. University of London Council for
and are assured of receiving information, whether it Psychical Investigation, 19 Berkeley Street, Mayfair,
be a matter of local history or natural history. He also London, W.L Is. net). The experiments were
referred to the magnificent display of British wild made at Carshalton, where Kuda Bux had also been
flowers with their names and such information as is tested (see NATURE, 136, 468, 521; 1935) and at the
sure to appeal, that is maintained in the Museum Alexandra Palace. The accompanying table shows
throughout the year. Lord Winterton suggested a comparison of the most successful attempts made
that research into the origin of the old wage- by Ahmed Hussain, R. Adcock and Kuda Bux.
earning families in the neighbourhood of
Haslemere would prove most interesting, for Minimum
Weight Distance Surface No. of Time mean time
many of them are descended from migrants walked temp. (°C.) steps of contact
from France or Flanders in the fourteenth per step
--------
and fifteenth centuries. During that time there Hussain 126 lb. 12 ft . 800° 4 1·6 sec. 0·40
Adcock 160 " 12 800° 3 1·8 0·60
was a big trade between the Sussex and Hamp- KudaBux 120 " 11 " 430° 4 2·2 " 0 ·55
shire ports with France and considerable migra- " "
tion between the two countries ; also large numbers The results of the experiment showed that the fire-
of workers came over for the extensive glass industry walk is not a trick, but is performed in the normal
then existing in the south of England. In those days, manner with bare and chemically untreated feet.
when anyone made any money, it was put into land, Moisture on the feet was shown to be a disadvantage,
and many of the place names-such as those of the since it may cause hot particles to adhere to the
woods, fields and so on in the neighbourhood-give skin and thus cause blisters. The sudden formation
indications of the names of the worker-immigrants, of an insulating cushion of vapour between the foot
some of them also being of Saxon origin. and the hot embers does not occur, and no abnormal
degree of callosity of the feet is required.
Linnreus in England
THE Year Book of the Swedish Linnean Society The "Invisible College", 1645-1662
for 1938 (Svenska Linne-Sii.llskapets Arsskrift, Arg. IN the Moravian literary publication, Miscellanea,
21) opens with a dedication to the Linnean Society Dr. R . F. Young recently gave an account of the
of London on the occasion of its sesqui-centenary, in "Invisible College" which preceded the foundation
which the elder Society is greeted as "chirographorum of the Royal Society in 1662. The term was used to
Caroli Linnaei pia conservatrix". The volume con- describe the periodical meetings of men of science
tains a long account, illustrated by photographs and at either London or Oxford, and Dr. Young points
drawings, of Linnreus's house in the old Botanical out that the contemporary meaning may have been
Gardens at Uppsala and of the way in which it has derived in four possible ways. In the first place, it
now been skilfully restored as nearly as possible to may be an Italian concetto adopted directly by Boyle
the state in which it was when Linnreus lived in it. from the name of a literary academy at Cremona. It
Of the other articles one, by the editor, Mr. A. Hj. may have been borrowed from the contemporary
Uggla, is of special interest to readers in Great critics and opponents of the "invisible" Rosicrucians,
Britain, since it deals with two recently discovered such as J. V. Andreae (1586-1654). A third view
documents bearing on Linnreus's connexion with is that it was a reminiscence of an elaborate play on
© 1938 Nature Publishing Group
 68 NATURE jULY 9, 1938, VoL. 142

the word 'invisible' contained in Shirley's comedy that provision is to be made for the demarcation,
"The Bird in a Cage" (1633). The last possibility, protection, and management of selected forests and
towards which the author leans, is that it was a title woodlands by native authorities, where the objects
devised by Theodore Haak to contain an implicit of conservation are comparatively local. These local
allusion to Comenius's plan of an international pan- Government forests will be supplementary to the
sophie college for scientific research to be erected in State forests, but they will in no way supersede the
London. This plan was much to the fore during village forests which are managed by the village
Comenius's visit to England in 1641-42, and the headmen solely in the interests of village needs.
scheme was set out in detail in his manuscript There will thus be three types of demarcated forests
treatise, "Via Lucia" (1642). Haak was a German in the future, each managed by its own authority.
from the Palatinate who had been one of the principal One of the chief dangers in many parts, owing to
supporters of the plan to establish a scientific academy the improvident habits of the people, is erosion.
in London. He regarded the informal scientific meet- Provided that each type of forest reservation may be
ings as the nucleus of a future State college of science made to serve as a protective agent against this evil,
and is likely to have used the expression "Invisible the steps now being taken appear to meet existing
College" in conversation with Boyle and others. The problems.
"Philosophical College" was thus the "Invisible
College", until it definitely became the Royal Society. Science and Horticulture
VoL. 6 of Scientific HorticultU?·e (260 pp., 1938,
Medicine and Eugenics from the Editor, R. T. Pearl, S.E. Agric. Coli., Wye,
THE Galton Lecture to the Eugenics Society, by Kent, 48. net, 4s. 6d. post paid) the journal of the
Prof. John A. Ryle, on medicine and eugenics, is Horticultural Education Association, contains a very
printed in the Eugenics Review, 30, No. 1. In a useful series of reviews upon the science and practice
carefully considered address, it is pointed out that of horticulture. A suitable introduction is provided
the eugenic movement needs the fuller support of by Mr. F. A. Secrett, who writes upon the enterprise
the medical profession, and that this can only be and skill requisite for successful market gardening,
given when medical men receive a fuller training in and the need for "evolving schemes to assist Nature".
human genetics than is now the case. The family The article is the text of an evening address delivered
doctor is now rarely prepared, even if asked, to give at the University of Reading during the Association's
advice connected with eugenic prognosis, although revision course in horticulture in September 1937.
men and women are increasingly prepared to discuss Papers read at this course are published in the
such matters. Practising physicians should be able present volume ; they minister chiefly to the needs
to keep pedigree records of their patients who show of flower growers, with emphasis upon carnations,
mental and physical defects. Medical education roses, pot plants and chrysanthemums, both early
should be altered so as to lay greater stress on and late. There are further papers on genetics in
animal and human genetics in place of some of the relation to horticulture, the nature of inheritance of
routine zoology and the more specialized biochemistry flower colour, and on photoperiodism. Papers con-
and biophysics. The constitutional variations which tributed specially to the volume include a review of
abound should be the subject of closer genetic study. recent Dutch research upon the growth and flowering
Several chairs of human genetics should be instituted, of tulips and daffodils by Miss 0. N. Purvis, upon
and associated with them should be research centres hormones (M. Thomas), boron deficiency (A. W.
concerned with morbid inheritance in man. Wider Greenhill), chromosomes and their importance in
contacts of the Eugenics Society with medical horticulture (F. W. Sansome) and the place of school
societies throughout the country would be helpful. gardening in elementary and secondary schools (J.
The foundation of a National Council is advocated, Ewing). The production of virus-free seed potatoes
embodying an alliance between medicine, eugenics is discussed by P. A. Murphy, and the modified
and sociology and having appropriate contacts with leader tree by T. Swarbrick, whilst the formation and
the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Labour. development of cherries is described by M. B. Crane.
The preservation of health as a primary function,
with the treatment of disease as a secondary function, The Royal Technical College, Glasgow
should become the new ideal. IN the building up of the world-wide reputation
of the 'Scots engineer', the Royal Technical College,
Forestry in Nyasaland Glasgow, may fairly claim to have played a very
PERHAPS the most important information contained large part, and much of this work has been done in
in the annual report of the Forestry Department for its evening classes. It is noteworthy that of all the
the Nyasaland Protectorate (for the year ending colleges that come within the purview of the Uni-
December 31, 1936. Govt. Printer, Zomba, Nyasa- versity Grants Committee, the R.T.C. has far and
land, 1937) are the remarks on soil erosion and the away the largest number of evening students. Its
mvestigation work now being undertaken in this, recently published annual report shows that, not-
considered to be one of the greatest dangers facing withstanding the transfer of the classes in music,
Mrica as a whole. Extensive areas were examined with about a hundred students, at the end of the
with part.icular regard to overcrowding and to preceding session, to the Scottish National Academy,
cultivation on steep hill slopes in parts of the southern there was an increase in the evening student enrol-
province. On the subject of forest policy it is stated ment from 2,624 to 2,665, of whom a very large
© 1938 Nature Publishing Group