100 YEARS AGO

Having regard to the wide reputation which the Malays have earned for themselves as a maritime people in Eastern seas, it is at first sight not a little remarkable that, so far as the Malay Peninsula is concerned, they have developed no really able type of sea-going boat. Three main factors have been at work influencing the development of boats, and tending to produce the characteristic shallow draft, lack of beam, and a consequent want of stability and weather lines. (1) The rivers are protected by very shallow bars of sand or mud, which make it impossible for a deep-bodied boat to obtain shelter within them. (2) The variable character of the light breezes prevailing in the Straits of Malacca. (3) The great strength of the tides. The lot of the sailing vessel is thus precarious; racing tides and baffling winds and calms make progress very slow. Hence propulsion by oars or paddles was the first necessity of the old-time Malay seaman in the Straits; sails were merely an occasional convenience.

From Nature 29 May 1902.

50 YEARS AGO

It has been established by earlier investigators that acetic acid has a destructive effect on the ascorbic acid in raw cabbage. This effect is somewhat surprising, since the lower the pH in the medium, the more stable is the ascorbic acid and, therefore, one would expect the acetic acid to have a preservative effect on the ascorbic acid in the cabbage. However, in experiments carried out in the early months of 1951, we found that, in many fruits and vegetables, the ascorbic acid is to a remarkable degree oxidized into dehydroascorbic acid if slices are sprinkled with 5 per cent acetic acid and allowed to stand for two hours … in cabbage, cucumber, horse-radish, carrot, potato, lettuce, dill, leek, apple, pear and banana, 60–90 per cent of the ascorbic acid is oxidized. In parsley, spinach, cauliflower and tomato, the corresponding values are 20–50 per cent, and in orange and onion, only 0–10 per cent. We conceive the effect to be similar to that caused by mechanical damage to the cells. The acid penetrates into the cells and the hydrogen ions bring about a disturbance of the balance between the oxidizing and the reducing enzyme systems of the cell.

From Nature 31 May 1952.