50 years ago

The July issue of Man contains several articles of general interest ... A. D. Lacaille illustrates a number of very large British Acheulean coups de poing, and a puzzling rock-carving from the Val Camonica is discussed by Dr. Anati of Paris. The site is near where the great glacial valley debouches on to the north Italian plain, and many rock-carvings there have been known for a long time. They include animals and humans treated in a conventional manner somewhat recalling the Copper Age paintings of Las Figuras in south-west Spain. The little group in question seems to indicate either a phallic or a ritual scene. The author suggests a date for this art group somewhere towards the start of the first millennium B.C. Is not this somewhat too early?

From Nature 10 December 1960.

100 years ago

The Anatomy of the Honey Bee. By R. E. Snodgrass. — In this modest pamphlet the author has given to entomologists an original, trustworthy, and excellently illustrated account of the structure of the honey bee ... Many volumes have been written on the honey bee, yet no surprise can be felt that Mr. Snodgrass has been able to add new points to our knowledge and to correct errors in the work of his predecessors ... He expresses scepticism as to certain positive statements that have been made on controverted details of physiology and reproduction; for example, “concerning the origin of the royal jelly or of any of the larval food paste ... we do not know anything about it.” There is a present-day tendency unduly to disparage the results obtained by former workers, and such a statement will strike many readers as extreme.

From Nature 8 December 1910.