100 YEARS AGO

It has long been recognised that a change of surroundings may profoundly influence the reproductive system, in some cases increasing the fertility, in others leading to complete sterility... An Arab-Kattiawar pony which arrived during April from India proved during the first three months quite sterile, owing, I believe, to loss of vigour on the part of the germ-cells, their vitality being only about one-tenth that of a home-bred hackney pony. But the fertility is apparently impaired by even comparatively slight changes of environment. Lions which breed freely in Dublin seem to be sterile in London, and I heard recently that when bulls are changed from one district to another in the north of Ireland complete sterility is sometimes the result... No one doubts that the bodily vigour is liable to be impaired by fevers and other diseases, by changes in the habitat, unsuitable food, rapid and unseasonable changes of temperature, and the like; hence it will not be surprising if further investigations prove that changes in the soma, beneficial as well as injurious, are reflected in the germ-cells, and thus indirectly induce variation.

From Nature 12 September 1901.

50 YEARS AGO

Early last year Sir Stanley Unwin reviewed in a pamphlet entitled “How Governments Treat Books”, some of the obstacles which taxation policy offers today to the free flow of books from one country to another... Sir Stanley in this pamphlet, rightly emphasizing the value of books for the transmission not merely of knowledge but also of thought, pointed out that post-war governments are treating with scant respect this unique and priceless instrument for giving continuity and permanence to the free expression of thought. In many otherwise civilized countries, there is an increasing tendency to treat books as if they were merely an ordinary commodity of commerce, without cultural value or importance. The fundamental principle that the one thing no country can afford to hamper, limit or tax is knowledge no longer receives the respect that it enjoyed a century ago; and in the climate of opinion that is engendered by security measures, once they escape beyond the limits that the national interest requires in such matters as atomic energy, the progress of knowledge is bound to slow down.

From Nature 15 September 1951.