100 YEARS AGO

Snake-stones are fairly common in South Africa, and are described as white, porous stones, which, when applied to the place where the snake has bitten a person, adhere till all the poison is drawn out into them, after which they are placed in milk, which in turn draws the poison from the stones, and renders them again fit for use. The farmers firmly believe they are taken from the head of a snake. It is suggested that snake-stones are made of pumice. To the uneducated, the structure of pumice has a close resemblance to that of bone, and this may possibly explain the popular delusion that snake-stones are made of bone… The fact that the fable of the stone having been taken from the head of a snake is exactly the same in the Malay States as is prevalent in South Africa is interesting, though the Malay slaves which the early Dutch obtained from Batavia in exchange for quaggas, zebras, ivory, &c., may have carried the legend with them. It is not an uncommon custom in Germany for people to carry about with them nuggets of raw gold to draw out of their bodies all the more subtle evils, such as those produced by spirits and devils, while for the grosser evils they carry a potato. Is the snake-stone legend a derivative of these, or are they subsequent to the snake-stone?

From Nature 26 July 1900.

50 YEARS AGO

The mango, a favourite tropical fruit, which is widely cultivated in India, belongs to the Malaysian genus Mangifera Linn. (fam. Anacardiaceae). Taxonomic study shows that it contains forty-one valid species, three of which, M. indica L. (wild and cultivated), M. sylvatica Roxb. (wild in the hilly forests of north-east India), and M. khasiana Pierre (a species of doubtful occurrence) have been reported from India. About a thousand cultivated varieties of mango occur in India, all of which are included in the single species, M indica L. They differ from one another mainly in fruit characters, on the basis of which they have been classified into three groups: round-, ovate-oblong, and long-fruited… The three species investigated — M. indica L. (including twenty-three grafted varieties, and one wild race), M. sylvatica Roxb. and M. caloneura Kz. (a Burmese wild species) — show striking stability in their chromosome numbers, all having n = 20 and 2n = 40 chromosomes.

From Nature 29 July 1950.