100 YEARS AGO

The Corporation of the City of London is rightly taking part in the crusade against tuberculosis. It has for many years instituted legal proceedings against farmers, butchers and meat-salesmen for sending tuberculous meat into the City markets, or for exposing the same for sale. Since it would appear that in some cases such offences may have been due to ignorance, the Public Health Department has issued a circular describing the indications of tuberculosis in the carcase, and the symptoms of the disease in the living animal.

ALSO...

Reuter reports that an eruption of the volcano Del Tierra Firme (Columbia), near Galera de Zamba, occurred on March 22 by which the village of Tiojo was destroyed. Brightly illuminated clouds, giving rise to the appearance of flames, were seen above the volcano on the night of March 24 by ships passing sixty miles off the coast.

From Nature 16 April 1903.

50 YEARS AGO

At all periods, mankind has danced to get rid of surplus nervous emotion — to obtain release. During the First World War a United States hospital unit took over a British general hospital soon after the Germans had launched mustard-gas attacks. The sights and sounds were particularly distressing and the nurses, new to war conditions, in many cases became hysterical, though doing their duties magnificently. When the matron organized dances, the nervous tension was released and the troubles ceased... Even in prehistoric times it would seem that dancing had a place in the various cults. Both in ancient Egypt and in Greece dancers are shown in the pictures of religious festivals; again, we read in the Old Testament how David danced before the Lord... Naturally, then, when Europe became Christian, dancing was absorbed into the new cultus, though the Church naturally looked on it with disfavour, and from time to time attempts to exclude it were made. Nevertheless, it was not only the populace who frequently expressed their religious emotions by dancing; the clergy and choir, too, sometimes danced during the services. The Easter dances before the high altar in the cathedral at Seville are well known and still take place, and many less famous though equally ancient ones still happen in churches or churchyards at certain times of the year.

From Nature 18 April 1953.