The Zoologist/4th series, vol 5 (1901)/Issue 720/Editorial Gleanings

by editor W.L. Distant

 

EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.

 

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In Merck's Annual Report for 1900, a publication recording that year's advances made in clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge, is an interesting contribution on strychnine nitrate, which has for a long time been employed for the destruction of animals or birds of prey, and when applied internally has generally acted as a rather rapid and certain poison. Complaints have, however, been made for a number of years to the effect that at times strychnine has shown itself ineffective, especially with large animals, which has induced the writer to enquire into the causes of this phenomenon. Strychnine and its salts—in particular its nitrate—which is commonly used for poisoning purposes, are, chemically, very stable compounds, and their toxic efficacy remains unchanged for years. Its occasional inefficiency can therefore have its cause exclusively in the mode of administration, the state of the body, especially the extent to which the stomach is charged, and the presence or absence of the tendency to vomit. From Feser's experiments^[1] it appears that strychnine nitrate may be administered internally to Dogs in the solid form without detriment to the degree and promptness of its action. This mode of administration, which gamekeepers and sportsmen are compelled to adopt, has, in six experiments of Feser, invariably resulted in the animals' death, whereas they recovered if the same dose was given in the form of a solution. Feser ascribes this result to the rapid solubility of the strychnia salt in the stomach of Dogs, and the more rapid absorption of the concentrated salt solution.

It is of the utmost importance that the poison should be correctly dosed. According to Kobert^[2] the lethal dose of strychnia administered subcutaneously amounts to 0·75 mgrm. (¹⁄₉₀ gr.) per kilo (2+¹⁄₅ lb.) in the case of Dogs. Feser fixes, however, 0·5 mgrm. (¹⁄₁₂₀ gr.) per kilo (2+¹⁄₅ lb.) as the subcutaneous dose of strychnia nitrate which kills a Dog with certainty, whilst 1 mgrm. (¹⁄₆₄ gr.) per kilo (2+¹⁄₅ lb.) produces the same result with certainty if given internally. According to Fröhner^[3] the minimum lethal dose is for Cattle 0·3–0·4 grm. (5–6 gr.), Horses 0·2–0·3 grm. (3 to 5 gr.), Pigs, 0·05 grm. (³⁄₄ gr.), Dogs 0·005–0·02 grm. (¹⁄₁₂ to ¹⁄₃ gr.), Cats 0·002–0·005 grm. (¹⁄₃₂ to ¹⁄₁₂ gr.). Unfortunately, data have hitherto been lacking respecting the weight of different animals. Enquiries were therefore addressed to one of the leading experts on this subject, Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, by whose courtesy the following data were contributed. The average weight of adult individuals of the subjoined species and varieties of animals is as follows:—

Lions (male) ⁠(Female Lions are somewhat⁠ ⁠less in weight.)	150–180	⁠kilo⁠	(330 to 396 lb.)
Tigers, Indian and Siberian	100–150	⁠kilo⁠„	(220 to 380 lb.)
Bears, Asiatic, e.g. Thibet Bears ⁠	80–120	⁠kilo⁠„	(166 to 264 lb.)
Bears, Russian and Caucasian	100–170	⁠kilo⁠„	(220 to 374 lb.)
Bears, American (Grizzly)	150–225	⁠kilo⁠„	(330 to 495 lb.)
Wolves, Russian and American	30–55	⁠kilo⁠„	(66 to 121 lb.)
Foxes, European	5–8	⁠kilo⁠„	(11 to 17 lb.)

According to these data the certain lethal doses for the internal application of strychnia nitrate are, in round figures, as follows: —

For Lions	0·7	grm. (10½ gr.)
For Tigers	0·6	grm.„ (10 gr.)
For Bears (Asiatic)	0·5	grm.„ (7½ gr.)
For Bears (Russian and Caucasian) ⁠	0·7	grm.„ (10½ gr.)
For Bears (American)	0·9	grm.„ (14 gr.)
For Wolves	0·25	grm.„ (4 gr.)
For Foxes	0·035	grm.„ (⅓ gr.)

The lethal doses suitable for birds of prey may be calculated from a table which I. Schneider^[4] has recently compiled for a few domesticated birds. According to this table the internal lethal doses per kilo (2i lb.) are as follows:—

For Geese	2·3–3·0 mgr. (1⁄25 to 1⁄20 gr.) of strychniæ nitras.
For Ducks	3·0–4·5 mgr. (1⁄20 to 1⁄15 gr.)
For Fowls (which exhibit a remark-⁠ able capacity for resisting the ac- tion of the poison)	30–140 mgr. (1⁄2 to 2+1⁄6 gr.)
For Pigeons	8·5–11·0 mgr. (1⁄8 to 1⁄6 gr.)

The corresponding experiments showed that it was immaterial both with regard to the intensity of the action and the time required for the fatal issue whether the preparation was given as an aqueous solution, or whether the birds were fed with strychnia wheat.

In the general interest it may be mentioned that, as pointed out by Fröhner, Knudsen,^[5] and I. Schneider,^[6] the flesh of animals killed by strychnia poisoning may be consumed without fear of poisoning after being freed from the entrails, and prepared in the proper manner.

 

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Jarrold & Sons, of Warwick Lane, E.C., invite subscriptions to a proposed volume—'Letters and Notes on the Natural History of Norfolk, more especially on the Birds and Fishes, from the MSS. of Sir Thomas Browne, M.D. (1605-82). With Notes by Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.' We understand that the appearance of this book is dependent on a certain measure of promised support.

 

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In the 'Transactions' of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, vol. vi. pt. 1, Mr. Hugh Boyd Watt has contributed "A Census of Glasgow Rookeries," compiled in the season of 1900. The following is a summary of results:—Eight Rookeries inside the city (Dalmarnock, Belvidere, Langside, Camphill, Crosshill, Ibroxhill, Bellahouston, and Botanic Gardens) contain 384 nests; and the other Rookeries of which details are given (say) 911 nests = 1295 in all. Add to this 10 per cent, for omissions and oversights (Mr. Watt's experience is that he under-estimates the numbers of birds, generally speaking), making a total of 1425 nests. This represents 2850 parent birds, and, assuming that each nest sends out into the world two young birds, there are a further 2850, making the native Rook population of the outskirts of Glasgow last summer amount to 5700 birds.

 

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Mr. Alfred J. North has drawn attention to the importation of foreign mammals in New South Wales as an indirect factor in the destruction of a vast number of Australian Birds ('Records, Australian Museum,' vol, iv. p. 19). The phosphorized oats used as poisoned baits for decreasing the number of Rabbits has also caused the annual destruction of thousands of graminivorous birds, "chiefly the ground- and grass-frequenting species of Pigeons, Parakeets, Finches, and Quail." To cope with the Rabbits, domestic Cats were also turned loose, with the result that, after the Rabbits had been eradicated or disappeared, the felines—now become wild and of increased size—turned their attention to the ground- and low-bush frequenting birds, destroying large numbers of many species, and causing the total extinction of others where they were once common. The Fox, described as "that acclimatised curse" in Victoria, is not only robbing poultry-yards, but destroying numbers of most interesting species of the Victorian avifauna. In the lair of one of these animals the remains of upwards of thirty tails of Queen Victoria's Lyre-bird were found, mostly those of female and presumably sitting birds.

 

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Certain markings sometimes found on the Dolphin (Grampus griseus) are now generally accepted as the traces of encounters between these animals and large Cuttle-fishes. These markings are well figured in Flower's paper in the Trans. Zool. Soc. (vol. viii. pi. 1), and the suggestion was first made by Capt. Chaves, of Ponta Delgada.^[7] Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, in the last issue of the Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., has drawn attention to an older illustration of a Dolphin on which a great Cuttle-fish has left his unmistakable marks. The figure referred to is that on pi. xxviii. (Mammiferes), fig. 2, of the 'Voyage de I'Astrolabe,' and represents the lower surface of the head of Delphinus novæa-zelandiæ, Q. et G. The writer remarks:—"A glance at the figure will show that the so-called pores are the clear impressions of the suckers of a Cuttle-fish. The Dolphin itself was 5 feet 10 inches long, and we may judge from the figures that the sucker-rings were about, or very nearly, an inch in diameter. We may, perhaps, go a little further, and surmise that while these impressions were left by the suckers, the patches of 'striæ' were produced by tentacular hooks—in short, that the Cuttle-fish which made both was a giant Onychoteuthis."

 

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In the 'Athenaeum' for June 1st, Mr. James Platt, Jun., has communicated an interesting letter on the Brazilian names of Monkeys.

"There is an interesting little group of five native names of South American Monkeys—saguin, sapajou, sai, saimiri, sajou—of which the 'Century Dictionary' remarks that they are 'now become inextricably confounded by the different usages of authors, if, indeed, they had originally specific meanings.' The 'Century' vouchsafes practically no etymology of these zoological terms. They all belong to the Tupi language of Brazil. Sai is the word for Monkey. Sai-miri is its diminutive, from miri, meaning little. Sajou, on the contrary, is a French contraction for sajouassou, as Buffon spells it, or sai-uassu, as it should be written, where the termination -uassu is augmentative. We thus arrive at three shades of meaning to begin with. Research among old French works of travel would have thrown further light on the distinction between these terms in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Jean de Lery, 1580, carefully separates çay, Gueuon, from sagouin, Marmot. A still better authority is Claude d'Abbeville, whose 'Mission en Maragnan,' 1614, pp. 252–3, adduces all five names, in his orthography sagouy, sapaiou, çayou, çaymiry, çayouassou. The last he defines as 'grande monne ou grande guenon.' Sapaiou, according to him, really is a synonym for çaymiry.

"A sixth hitherto unexplained word for a kind of Monkey is ouarine, which occurs in several English dictionaries, such as Webster and Ogilvie, as French. Some naturalists anglicize it as warine, e.g. Goldsmith. Littré has it with a reference to Buffon, but without derivation, which is not surprising, as it is a 'ghost-word,' a misreading or typographical error for ouariue. The correct ouariue will be found in the book I have just quoted, p. 252. In modern French spelling it should, of course, be ouarive, which is then seen to be merely a French disguise for the well-known guariba, of which a good account is given by Mr. Bradley in the 'N.E.D.' Similarly, the Brazilian maniba, the stalk of manioc, is called manive by the old French voyagers, e.g. by Bellin, 'Description de la Guiane,' 1763, p. 56."

 

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Mice, as is generally known, will devour lepidopterous pupæ, but that they will also indulge in larvæ is the subject of a communication by Mr. Carleton Rea to the last issue of 'Science Gossip.' The curator of the Hastings Museum, Victoria Institute, Worcester, had secured last May over fifty larvæ of the large Emerald Moth (Geometra papilionaria). These he intended to "sleeve out" on growing trees, but delayed doing so, with the result that a Mouse or Mice broke into his collection, and destroyed the greater part of the larvæ.

 

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The 'Entomologist' has recently reprinted the Address delivered to the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society on Jan. 14th last by Mr. E.J. Burgess Sopp. In it allusion is made to the ever decreasing area of our forest land in this country, with special reference to Delamere Forest. We read that, "on the authority of Mr. Fortescue Horner, one of H.M. present Commissioners for Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, that five and forty years ago the woodlands of Delamere extended to nearly 4000 acres, since which time 1800 have been cleared for agriculture, and 126 sold. At that period 750 acres of reclaimed land were already let out as farms, a total which at the present day has grown to 2550: so that from 1856 to the end of the century just closed the woodlands appear to have shrunk from nearly 4000 acres to but little more than half their former dimensions." This is a matter to be pondered over by all British naturalists.

 

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Dr. A.W. Alcock has placed us all under an obligation by printing, as a separate memoir, "Zoological Gleanings from the Royal Indian Marine Survey Ship 'Investigator,'"^[8] As the author remarks in an introduction, "so many of the biological observations made through the medium of the 'Investigator' are buried in reports that are not accessible, and so many are scattered through 'systematic' papers where they are easily overlooked, that I have thought it advisable to collect and classify, as a supplement to the 'Summary of the Deep-Sea Zoological Works' published in these memoirs in 1899, all such observations as have been reeorded since I first became connected with the ship, together with many hitherto unpublished facts selected from my Journal." The branches of zoological knowledge to which contributions are made are—"Illustrations of Commensalism"; Notes on Sexual Characters; Pairing and Viviparity among Marine Animals, and on the sounds made by certain of them; Notes on Stalk-eyed Crustacea; Instances of Protective and Warning Colouration: the Phosphorescence of certain Marine Invertebrates; Peculiarities of Food, &c. We wish that this condensation was made by authors from other publications; biological facts do remain very often buried except to the most industrious students, and even then their knowledge is necessarily of a personal equation.

 

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Messrs. Friedländer & Sohn, of Carlstrasse II, Berlin, have just brought out a new and revised edition of their 'Zoologisches Adressbuch.' Mention has been already made in these pages as to the usefulness to all naturalists of this universal directory, and in its present revised form it will be still more serviceable. We still prefer, however, the usual and general method of allowing naturalists to communicate their own proper addresses, for we notice that the zeal of the compiler for change has in some cases outrun his discretion. However, all naturalists who have reason to correspond with others—and who has not?—will appreciate this publication.

 

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We have received the Report for the year 1900 of the Ghizeh Zoological Gardens, near Cairo, written by the Director, Capt. Stanley S. Flower. The following animals were born in the Gardens and successfully reared during 1900:—

Two Black Lemurs (Lemur macaco).

Two Mongoose Lemurs (L. mongoz).

Seven Dorcas Gazelles (Gazella dorcas).

Three Angora Goats (Capra hircus).

One (Three-quarter bred) Ibex (C. nubiana).

Two Hedjaz Sheep (Ovis aries steatopyga).

Three Guinea Pigs (Cavia porcellus).

Three Turtle Doves (Turtur senegalensis).

Nine Laughing Doves (T. risorius).

 

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1. 'Archiv f. wissenschaftl. u. prakt. Thierheilk.' 1881, vol. vii. p. 77.
2. 'Lehrbuch der Intoxicationen,' p. 664.
3. 'Lehrbuch d. Toxikologie f. Thierärzte.' ed. ii. 1901, p. 178.
4. 'Monatsschr. f. prakt. Thierheilk.,' by Fröhner and Kitt., vol. xi. No. 6, p. 245.
5. 'Monatssh. f. prakt. Thierheilk.,' vol. i. p. 529, vol. ii. p. 374.
6. Ibid. vol. xi. p. 269.
7. In Girard's "Céphalopodes des îles Açores," Jorn. Sc. math. phys. e natur. Lisboa (2), 11 1892.
8. Simla, 1901.