Silly Scientists, and a Spot

Here Or There?

Silly Scientists, and a Spot in Tahiti

From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, July 19.

A GOOD example of the “Much Ado About Nothing’’ which often agitates the world of scientists is to be found in the January, 1937, issue of the Geographi cal Journal.

Someone has stirred up the savants of the learned society which publishes that Journal over the question of whether or no the memorial, now standing on Point Venus, Tahiti, to mark the spot where, in 1769, Captain Cook made his observa tions of the transit of Venus across the face of the sun, is correctly placed.

Now. no one in the world disputes the

fact, that Captain Cook made his observa tions on the narrow cape called Point Venus. The question seems to be if his instruments were or were not set up on the exact spot occupied by the memorial; or were placed a few feet away from that spot. It would be very well if this were a question of a marker for latitude or longitude, or the burial place of Cap tain Cook himself.

But it is none of these things. It is merely a contention over the setting up of some instruments: and the whole area where these instruments could have been set up is not as large as a cricket field.

It brings to our mind a learned scien tist who came to Tahiti some years ago to collect and classify the Lepidoptera.

Coleoptera and other“optera’’of our island.

He had not been here a week before he got into an argument with another scien tist as to whether or no Anopheles mos quitoes existed on Tahiti. He contended that they did while his opponent main tained that they did not.

That ended the search for Co'eoptera.

Our entomologist dropped everything to ransack the hills and valleys for Anopheles and, after a quest of weeks, found —one! This he carefully gummed on his visiting card and gleefully sent the treasure to his antagonist.

No doubt some museum will send down a well-financed expedition, one of these days, to investigate this most important question about Captain Cook’s instru ments; and one more corroding worry will be lifted from our minds.