100 YEARS AGO

A few years ago a station was established near the town of San Marcos, Texas ⃛. As the rainfall in western Texas is untrustworthy, the Commission determined to bore an artesian well to supply the water for its new station. ⃛ Soon after the San Marcos well was opened a number of living animals began coming up with the water. So far, four kinds of Crustacea and a salamander have been seen, and of these quite a number have been obtained. The Crustacea are new to science and were described by Dr. James E. Benedict, of the Smithsonian Institution. They are white and perfectly blind. Most of the shrimps and crab-like animals have eyes set on the extremities of stalks that project above the surface. The shrimps from this well have the stalks, but the eyes have disappeared.

It is announced that Sir Edmund Antrobus is desirous of selling Stonehenge, the famous and mysterious monument on Salisbury Plain. Thinking it right that the nation should have the opportunity of purchasing this great relic of antiquity, the owner has offered it to the Government, with about 1300 acres of surrounding land (subject to certain pasturage and sporting rights), for the sum of 125,000l.

From Nature 24 August 1899.

50 YEARS AGO

Goethe, the greatest poet that Germany has produced, was a dominating intelligence who must claim a prominent place in any history of the human mind, and he devoted a considerable part of his effort to scientific studies. ⃛ Yet we must face the fact that while there is in this scientific work of his much that is of the greatest interest, for the light that it throws on a superlative and complex character, there is not much — except, some would contend, in his botanical studies — that is important for the history of science. ⃛ Goethe's scientific work may, perhaps, almost stand with Newton's work on theology and chronology — excellent, in many ways, if judged by the standard of the times, very important in the eyes of its producer, but not likely to have been remembered to-day had it been produced by a lesser man.

From Nature 27 August 1949.