100 YEARS AGO

The very remarkable description of the “Fire Walk” collected by Mr. Andrew Lang and others had aroused a curiosity in me to witness the original ceremony, which I have lately been able to gratify in a visit to Tahiti. I had heard that it was performed in Tahiti in 1897, and several persons there assured me of their having seen it, and one of them of his having walked through the fire himself under the guidance of the priest, Papa-Ita... who had also performed the rite at the island of Hawaii some time in the present year, of which circumstantial newspaper accounts were given... According to these, a pit was dug in which large stones were heated red hot by a fire which had been burning many hours. The upper stones were pushed away just before the ceremony, so as to leave the lower stones to tread upon, and over these, “glowing red hot” (according to the newspaper accounts), Papa-Ita had walked with naked feet... I could not doubt that if all these were verified by my own observation, it would mean nothing less to me than a departure from the customary order of Nature, and something very well worth seeing indeed.

From Nature 22 August 1901.

50 YEARS AGO

Many of the small plankton animals in the sea which are important as the food of fish such as herring, sprat and mackerel swim upwards towards the surface in the evening and down again to deeper levels after dawn. It is of interest from a purely biological point of view to find out what are the factors which govern these movements, and may also be useful in reaching a better understanding of the shoaling of herring. The plankton consist of small animals of many different kinds, small jellyfish, worms and molluscs, hosts of small crustaceans and many others; they nearly all show this nightly vertical migration upwards. Since it has been developed in so many different groups of animals and must use up so much energy every day — some of them climbing more than a hundred feet — it must clearly be of profound significance in their lives. We do not yet understand its meaning and are still only in the stages of studying the actual movements of the animals in relation to different conditions of light, temperature, pressure, etc.

From Nature 25 August 1951.