50 years ago

It was natural that the genetic transformation of bacteria effected by the introduction of foreign deoxyribonucleic acid should lead to speculation as to whether the phenomenon could also be induced in higher forms. That similar treatment should be capable not only of altering the racial characteristics of the growing vertebrate but that such changes would also be heritable seemed one of the least likely outcomes of such an experiment. Recently published reports by Benoit et al. state that they have succeeded in changing the characteristics of ducks of one breed by injections of deoxyribonucleic acid from another, and that the modifications continued to be identifiable in the progeny of the treated birds. Because of the importance that must be attached to such revolutionary claims, and in the absence, as yet, of substantive evidence from repeat experiments, the work of Benoit and his colleagues should be subjected to critical scrutiny.

From Nature 22 February 1958.

100 years ago

In the February issue of British Birds the editors discuss certain allegations against the black-headed gull which formed the subject of notice in the previous issue. Without entering into the controversy, we may notice that the allegations have induced two county councils in Scotland to strike gulls of all kinds out of the protected list. In another paragraph the editors refer to the subject of “luminous owls.” In their opinion, the luminosity is most probably to be attributed to phosphorescent bacteria derived from decaying wood. It may, however, be due either to a phosphorescent feather-fungus (akin to one known to occur in geese) or to a diseased condition of the oil-gland, whereby the oil is more abundant than usual, and so abnormal in its nature as to become luminous on exposure to the air.

From Nature 20 February 1908.