100 YEARS AGO

A description of the large diamond found recently in the Premier Mine, Transvaal, is given in the Geological Magazine (April) by Dr. F. H. Hatch and Dr. G. S. Corstophine, with reproductions of four photographs which represent the diamond in its actual size from four different points of view... The stone is bounded by eight surfaces, four of which are faces of the original crystal, and four are cleavage surfaces, which are distinguished from the original octahedral faces by greater regularity and smoothness. For a large stone the crystal is of a remarkable purity... The stone, which has been named the Cullinan diamond, weighs 9600.5 grains troy, or 1.37 lb. avoirdupois; this is more than three times the weight of the largest diamond previously known.

ALSO:

In proposing the toast of “The Japan Society” at its annual dinner on May 3, Sir Frederick Treves referred to the medical and surgical ability of the Japanese. Nothing astounded him more, he said, in his recent visit to Japan than the way in which the Japanese have inquired into the medicine and surgery of the western world and the marvellous thing they are making of it... The Japanese have all the qualities of a surgeon. They have infinite patience and infinite tenderness. Sir F. Treves is confident that not many years hence there will be seen in Japan one of the most progressive schools of medicine the world has ever known.

From Nature 11 May 1905.

50 YEARS AGO

In 1947, Evans and Guild described a technique for the quantitative extraction of earthworms. This consisted of treating a known area with a solution of potassium permanganate (1.5 gm. per litre) at the rate of 6.8 litres per sq. metre. The method was said to recover a high proportion of the total population... I found, however, that population estimates obtained by the permanganate technique were considerably lower than those suggested when a more laborious hand-sorting method was employed. In order to measure the relative efficacy of these techniques, permanent pasture on light soil of alluvial origin was sampled by both methods contiguously... While the fifty soil cores... produced 639.5 worms, the permanganate samples... produced only 350 worms.

J. A. Svendson

From Nature 14 May 1955.