This superb Long-tailed Skink (Eutropis longhicaudata) joined AJP for luch in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, last week. It is the largest skink that occurs in Hong Kong, reaching 40 cm in length. It occurs in south-east Asia, from Malaysia in the south to southern China and Taiwan in the north.
Fifty years ago the late Jim Linzell and I were writing our monograph, Salt Glands in Birds and Reptiles, for the Physiological Society's Monograph Series; it was published in May 1975. In this series I revisit some of the topics and people who followed up the discovery of salt glands in birds by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen.
I was sad to find that Maryanne Robinson Hughes had died in 2020 just short of her 90th birthday. Maryanne was in right at the beginning of the discovery of salt glands in birds since she was Knut Schmidt-Nielsen’s PhD student at Duke University in North Carolina and in 1958 was a co-author of the second full paper, with Knut and Ragnar Fänge, to appear on salt glands in birds in which they established the nervous control of the gland.
An obituary online written by one of her three children, together with a page on ancestry.com provides an outline of her life. Maryanne Elizabeth Robinson was born on 27 December 1930 in Binghampton, New York. She was educated at Binghampton Central High School and Harpur College. A masters and PhD at Duke then followed. Her PhD was awarded in 1962 but from newspaper articles on her engagement it would seem that while writing up she had been employed as a research assistant in the physiology department of the University of Washington in Seattle. On 26 August 1961 she married Gilbert C Hughes (1933-2010) in New York; they went to live in Kansas where Gil was an assistant professor. In 1964 the moved across the Canadian border, Gil to the Department of Botany of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where he worked on marine fungi. I remember Maryanne telling me that with a young family she first worked part-time in the Department of Zoology where she stayed until retirement. Maryanne died in a care home in Vancouver on 10 December 2020.
I met Maryanne only once; at a dinner with Gil, during the Physiological Congress on the UBC Campus in Vancouver, where I chaired a session on salt glands, a memorable occasion (the dinner not the session) with them both in fine form. Maryanne continued working on birds with salt glands for her entire career with a string of postgraduate students and other collaborators. She was particularly concerned with the integration of function of all the organs and tissues concerned with osmoregulation and water balance, a very difficult job given the nature of urinary excretion and the admixture of urine and faeces in the hindgut of birds.
I have gathered Maryanne’s publications in the following list from my own records and all the usual sources. Her first paper was published when she was 27; her last when she was 76. However, because the indexing services often miss (even with the benefit of machine-learning) many publications in books and conference proceedings, the list may not be complete. Some of Maryanne’s papers in my own records have not been picked up.
Maryanne Robinson Hughes: Publications 1958-2007
Fänge R, Schmidt-Nielsen K, Robinson M. 1958. Control of secretion from the avian salt gland. American Journal of Physiology 195, 321-326.
Hughes MR. 1962. Studies on renal and extrarenal salt excretion in gulls and terns. PhD thesis, Duke University, North Carolina.
Goldstein DL, Hughes MR, Braun EJ. 1966. Role of the lower intestine in the adaptation of gulls (Larus glaucescens) to sea water. Journal of Experimental Biology 123, 345-357.
Hughes MR. 1968. Renal and extrarenal excretion in the common tern Sterna hirundo. Physiological Zoölogy 41, 210-219.
Hughes MR, Ruch FE. 1968. Sodium and potassium in the tears and salt gland secretion of saline acclimatized ducks. Proceedings of the International Union of Physiological Sciences 7, 204 (24th International Congress, Washington, D.C.).
Hughes MR. 1969. Ionic and osmotic concentration of tears of the gull, Larus glaucescens. Canadian Journal of Zoology 47, 1337-1339.
Hughes MR, Ruch FE. 1969. Sodium and potassium in spontaneously produced salt-gland secretion and tears of ducks, Anas platyrhynchos, acclimated to fresh and saline waters. Canadian Journal of Zoology 47, 1133-1138.
Hughes MR. 1970. Flow rate and cation concentration in salt gland secretions of the glaucous-winged gull, Larus glaucescens. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 32, 807-812.
Hughes MR. 1970. Relative kidney size in nonpasserine birds with functional salt glands. Condor 72, 164-168.
Hughes MR. 1970. Some observations on ion and water balance in the puffin, Fratercula arctica. Canadian Journal of Zoology 48, 479-482.
Hughes MR. 1970. Cloacal and salt-gland ion excretion in the seagull, Larus glaucescens, acclimated to increasing concentrations of sea water. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 32, 315-25.
Hughes MR. 1972. The effect of salt gland removal on cloacal ion and water excretion in the growing kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla. Canadian Journal of Zoology 50, 603-610.
Hughes MR. 1972. Hypertonic salt gland secretion in the glaucous-winged gull, Larus glaucescens, in response to stomach loading with dilute sodium chloride. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 41. 121-127.
Hughes MR, Blackman JG. 1973. Cation content of salt gland secretion and tears in the Brolga, Grus rubicundus (Perry) (Aves: Gruidae). Australian Journal of Zoology 21, 515-518.
Hughes MR. 1974. Water content of the salt glands and other avian tissues. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 47, 1089-1093.
Hughes MR. 1975. Salt gland secretion produced by the gull, Larus glaucescens in response to stomach loads of different sodium and potassium concentration. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 51, 909-913. Ruch FE Jr, Hughes MR. 1975. The effects of hypertonic sodium chloride injection on body water distribution in ducks (An as platyrhynchos), gulls (Larus glaucesens) and roosters (Gallus domesticus). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 52, 21-28.
Hughes MR. 1976. Effect of glucose on salt gland secretion in the glaucous-winged gull, Larus glaucescens. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 53, 311-312.
Hughes MR. 1976. The effects of salt water adaptation on the Australian black swan, Cygnus atratus (Latham). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 55, 271-277.
Hughes MR. 1977. Observations on osmoregulation in glaucous-winged gulls, Larus glaucescens, following removal of the supraorbital salt glands. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 37A, 281-287.
Walter A, Hughes MR. 1978. Total body water volume and turnover rate in fresh water and sea water adapted glaucous-winged gulls, Larus glaucescens. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 61A, 233-237.
Hughes MR. 1980. Glomerular filtration rate in saline acclimated ducks, gulls and geese. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 65A, 211-213.
Roberts JR, Hughes MR. 1983. Glomerular filtration rate and drinking rate in Japanese Quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica, in response to acclimation to saline water. Canadian Journal of Zoology 61, 2394-2398.
Roberts JR, Hughes MR. 1983. The effect of saline acclimation on water and sodium transport across the small intestine of ducklings, gulls and quail. American Zoologist 23, 1014.
Roberts JR, Hughes MR. 1984. Exchangeable sodium pool size and sodium turnover in freshwater- and saltwater-acclimated ducks and gulls. Canadian Journal of Zoology 62, 2142-2145.
Roberts JR, Hughes MR. 1984. Saline acclimation and water and sodium transport across avian small intestine. American Journal of Physiology 247, R246-249.
Hughes MR. 1987. The effects of ureteral resistance on gull urine composition and flow rate. Canadian Journal of Zoology 65, 2669-2671.
Hughes MR, Roberts JR, Thomas BR. 1987. Total body water and Its turnover in free-living nestling glaucous-winged gulls with a comparison of body water and water flux in avian species with and without salt glands. Physiological Zoology 60, 481-491.
Conway GL, Hughes MR, Moldenhauer RR. 1988. Extrarenal salt excretion in clapper and king rails. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 91, 671-674.
Hammons RL, Hughes MR, Moldenhauer RR. 1988. Body water and water flux in fresh water and sea-water acclimated clapper rails, Rallus longirostris. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 91, 539-541.
Hughes MR, Roberts JR, Thomas BR. 1989. Renal function in freshwater and chronically saline-stressed male and female Pekin ducks. Poultry Science 68, 408-416.
Hughes MR. 1989. Extracellular fluid volume and the initiation of salt gland secretion in ducks and gulls. Canadian Journal of Zoology 64, 194-197.
Hughes MR, Chadwick A. (Editors) 1989. Progress in Avian Osmoregulation. Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society.
Hughes MR. 1989. Stimulus for avian salt gland secretion. In, Progress in Avian Osmoregulation. Edited by MR Hughes and A Chadwick, pp 143-161. Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society.
Hughes MR, Kasserra C, Thomas BR. 1990. Effect of externally applied bunker fuel on body mass and temperature, plasma concentration, and water flux of Glaucous-winged Gulls, Larus glaucescens. Canadian Journal of Zoology 68, 716-721.
Hughes MR, Winkler D. 1990. Osmoregulation in nestling California gulls at Mono Lake, California. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 95, 567-571.
Kasserra CE, Jones DR, Hughes MR. 1991. Acid-base disturbance and ventilatory response to changes in plasma osmolality in Pekin ducks. Respiration Physiology 85, 383-393.
Hughes MT, Zenteno-Savin T, Kojwang D. 1991. Effects of saline acclimation and cecal ligation on body water and water flux in male and female Pekin ducks. Canadian Journal of Zoology 69, 771-775.
Hughes MR, Kojwang D, Zenteno-Savin T. 1992. Effects of caecal ligation and saline acclimation on plasma concentration and organ mass in male and female Pekin ducks, Anas platyrhynchos. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 162, 625-631.
Bennett DC, Bowes VA, Hughes MR, Hart LE. 1992. Suspected sodium toxicity in hand-reared great blue heron (Ardea herodias) chicks. Avian Diseases. 36, 743-748.
Kojwang D, Hughes MR. 1993 High dietary sodium chloride and body temperature in the domestic fowl and the glaucous-winged gull. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 163, 421-426. Hughes MR, Goldstein DL, Raveendran L. 1993. Osmoregulatory responses of glucous-winged gulls (Larus glaucescens) to dehydration and hemorrhage. Journal of Comparative Physiology B. 163, 524-31.
Hughes MR. 1995. Responses of gull kidneys and salt glands to NaCl loading. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacologu 73, 1727-1732.
Bennett DC, Hughes MR, De Sobrino CN, Gray DA. 1997. Interaction of osmotic and volemic components in initiating salt-gland secretion in Pekin ducks. Auk 114, 242-248.
Ching AC, Hughes MR, Poon AM, Pang SF. 1999. Melatonin receptors and melatonin inhibition of duck salt gland secretion. General and Comparative Endocrinology 116, 229-240.
Bennett DC, Hughes MR, Elliott JE, Scheuhammer AM, Smits JE. 2000. Effect of cadmium on Pekin duck total body water, water flux, renal filtration, and salt gland function. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health A. 59, 43-56.
Hughes MR, Smits JE, Elliott JE, Bennett DC. 2000. Morphological and pathological effects of cadmium ingestion on Pekin ducks exposed to saline. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health A. 61, 591-608.
Hughes MR, Bennett DC, Gray DA, Sharp PJ, Scheuhammer AM, Elliott JE. 2003. Effects of cadmium ingestion on plasma and osmoregulatory hormone concentrations in male and female Pekin ducks. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health A 66, 565-579.
Hughes MR. 2003.Regulation of salt gland, gut and kidney interactions. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 136, 507-524.
Bennett DC, Hughes MR. 2003. Comparison of renal and salt gland function in three species of wild ducks. Journal of Experimental Biology 206, 3273-3284.
Bennett DC, Gray DA, Hughes MR. 2003. Effect of saline intake on water flux and osmotic homeostasis in Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos). Journal of Comparative Physiology B. 173, 27-36.
Bennett DC, Kojwang D, Sullivan TM, Gray DA, Hughes MR. 2003. Effect of saline acclimation on body water and sodium compartmentalization in Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos). Journal of Comparative Physiology B. 173, 21-26.
Hughes MR, Bennett DC. 2004. Effect of saline intake, sex and season on Pekin duck osmoregulatory organ masses and comparison with wild Mallards. Canadian Journal of Zoology 82, 30-40.
Bennett DC, Gray DA, Sharp PJ, Hughes MR. 2005. Redistribution of extracellular water and sodium may contribute to saline tolerance in wild ducks. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 78, 447-455.
Hughes MR, Bennett DC, Gray DA, Sharp PJ, Poon AM. 2006. Influences of sex and saline intake on diurnal changes in plasma melatonin and osmoregulatory hormones of Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos). General Comparative Endocrinology 149,124-133
Hughes MR, Kitamura N, Bennett DC, Gray DA, Sharp PJ, Poon AM. 2007. Effect of melatonin on salt gland and kidney function of gulls, Larus glaucescens. General and Comparative Endocrinology 151, 300-307.
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| Oak Eggar Moth Lasiocampa quercus It will become obvious on reading this article why a photograph of this species is an appropriate one to remember the subject From Wikipedia ©Entomart |
While William Rowan was looking for a way to make a zoological living he worked a schoolmaster, latterly for a school year at Bedales in 1918-19.
Marianne Ainley in her biography wrote that Rowan arrived at Bedales School in Hampshire on 19 September 1918. She found in Rowan’s notes an account of the tragic death of a boy at the school:
…He liked all his colleagues and many of his pupils. He felt a special affinity for Woolacott, one of the big boys, a clever, reserved lad, keen on natural history, who had already published notes in the Entomologist. The two spent much time together, and from their discussions Rowan found the boy was practically a misogynist. This, he noted, "seems unnatural and calls for a deeper explanation.” Because of his busy schedule, however, Rowan had to postpone investigating the causes of the boy's attitude. Understandably, Rowan was distressed when, a few weeks later, Woolacott informed him he would probably be expelled. Rowan promptly arranged to see the headmaster [John Haden Badley who had, with his wife, founded the school] to intercede on Woolacott's behalf, but was too late. Woolacott shot himself that afternoon. Rowan blamed himself for not getting to the root of the boy's problem, and was most deeply touched to find that Woolacott had left a pile of beautifully made entomological slides, representing many hours of careful work, on Rowan’s desk.
Who was this budding entomologist, Woolacott? And what did reports of his death have to say?
First though it is worth pointing out that Bedales was a rare example at the time of a co-educational secondary school and I take it that the ‘misogyny’ on the part of Woolacott, was related to the presence of female pupils at the school and, perhaps, somewhat of a tradition of the boys who had objected to the presence of girls when they first appeared on the scene some years earlier.
It must also be borne in mind that the tragedy occurred on 4 November 1918, only six weeks after Rowan’s arrival. He had clearly got to know the boy’s interest in the natural world but had not had time to understand much of Woolacott’s past.
The Hampshire Telegraph of Friday 8 November had a short account of the coroner’s inquest held the day before.
STUDENT OF 17 SHOT DEAD.
A shocking tragedy occurred at Bedales School, Petersfield, on Monday afternoon, when a student named Harold Kingsley Woolacott, aged 17, was found dead in a dormitory with a bullet wound in his temple.
It appears that the deceased lad was about to leave the school, and on going to pack up his clothes we given a small rifle, which the Matron had been keeping for him for about two years. Shortly afterwards he was found as described with the rifle at his feet. Dr. Brownfield was summoned, but could only pronounce life extinct.
At an inquest yesterday afternoon a verdict of "Suicide whilst temporary insane" was returned...
The school magazine, the Bedales Record for 1918-19 also had an account:
The term was saddened by the death of Woolacott, as told on a later page. He was buried in Steep Churchyard, where now lie several of our boys, the coffin being carried by his fellow prefects and followed by his schoolfellows.
H. K. Woolacott joined the School in 1916 at a later age than most. He was a quiet introspective boy, given to melancholy moods, which were deepened by the absence of his parents in India and by the war. He would normally have left the School last Summer to begin his military service, but asked to stay on another term in order to be a prefect and try to do more for the School than he had done. But he did not prove strong enough to be in so responsible a position, and at the beginning of November it was decided, with his own concurrence, that he should leave then and begin his training at once. While packing his things, amongst them a miniature rifle which, like many others, he had brought here for practice on the range, and for which, unknown to us, he had some cartridges of his own, he must, in a moment's impulse, have shot himself through the head; when found, a few moments later, he was past all help. At the inquest neither the evidence nor his own diary could throw any light upon the motive, other than the boy's strange nature and his sense of failure at School, and no kind of blame was felt to attach to anyone else.
I would suggest that Rowan’s more succinct explanation for Woolacott’s departure from the school is the correct interpretation; he was being expelled and thus required to join the army seven days, as it happened, before the Armistice of 11 January.
Harold Kingsley Woolacott had indeed had notes published in The Entomologist. I have found two, both in the January 1918 edition.
In the early decades of the 20th century amateur entomology and especially lepidoptery was in its heyday.
Lasiocampa quercus is the Oak Eggar Moth. Melitaea aurinia, the Marsh Fritillary Butterffly, is now Euphydryas aurinia. Phragmatobia fuliginosa is the Ruby Tiger moth. Macrothylacia rubi is the Fox Moth. Manulea lurideola is the Common Footman Moth
As mentioned by the report in the school magazine Harold Woolacott’s parents were in India. He was born in Brixton, London in 1901 to John Evans Woolacott and his second wife, Angiolina Maria Emily Seneca. John Evans Woolacott (1861-1936) is described on his Wikpedia page as journalist, newspaper editor and political activist who worked first in London for the Central News Agency as lobby correspondent and then in Ireland, Morocco and Egypt. in 1895 he stood, unsuccessfully, for parliament as a member of the Independent Labour Party in the Rollox Division of Glasgow. During the 1890s he worked on The Democrat and was assistant editor of the Weekly Dispatch. His first wife died and he married Angiolina Seneca in 1897; he was 34 and she was 21. By 1903 he was assistant editor of The Economist. In 1908 he was elected president of the Institute of Journalists but then left for India where he was assistant editor of The Statesman in Calcutta. 1913 saw him as editor of the Bombay Gazette. That publication soon closed and he returned to UK. He swapped political allegiance being adopted as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party but because of the outbreak of war no general election was held. Woolacott returned to India in 1916 (the year his son was sent to Bedales) working for The Pioneer in Allahabad and as a correspondent for The Times of London. By the time he had returned to UK in 1925 his politics had changed again, writing books opposed to political change in India. In 1929 he was appointed editor of The Bioscope, a weekly magazine devoted to the cinema. John Evans Wollacott died in Surrey in 1936.
Harold Woolacott’s mother, Angiolina, was the daughter of Alfonso and Eliza Seneca. Alfonso Seneca was Italian, a professional singer who appears in the local London newspapers of 1877 and 1878 performing regularly and frequently in concerts. Alfonso died in 1880. As far as I can see from the records John and Angiolina had no other children. Angiolina died in Surrey in 1934.
I have been able to find nothing else about the unhappy and clearly disturbed Harold Kinglsey Woolacott. I do not know if he ever accompanied his parents to India. It is clear that he entered Bedales when his parents left UK for the second time but where had he been educated until then? It was the norm for children of parents in India to either send or leave their children in UK when they were seven. The only clue as to young Woolacott’s location at any time is the address given in one of the articles in The Entomologist; in the summer of 1917 he was in St Merryn in Cornwall.
I have found a family tree online which includes a brother and sisters of John Evans Woolacott but not including John Evans himself. I do not know if Harold would have been in touch with members of his extended family while his parents were in India.
Harold Kingsley Woolacott’s tombstone can be found in the graveyard of All Saints in the village of Steep, near Petersfield. Reading his notes to The Entomologist I suspect the budding entomologist was a young scientist in the making. I can see why William Rowan, fondly remembered for his teaching and encouragement of birdwatching and photography in the school, was so upset by Woolacott’s utterly tragic death 106 years ago today.
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| Gravestone of Harold Kingsley Woolacott from findagrave.com |
Ainley MG. 1993. Restless Energy. A Biography of William Rowan 1891-1957. Montreal: Véhicule Press.
AJP spotted this Pheasant-tailed Jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgas) at Nam Sang Wai two weeks ago, his third ever. It is classed as an uncommon migrant and rare winter visitor. This is in non-breeding plumage, a time of year when the long pheasant-type tail is absent. The only migratory jacana they occur from Yemen in the west to the Philippines in the east.
I was delighted to see that the British Herpetological Society now has all issues of British Journal of Herpetology available with free access on its website. This is exactly the way a proper learned society should act and is in marked contrast to commercial scientific journal publishers and some scientific societies who know no better than to exist as parasites on the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge.
British Journal of Herpetology was launched by the newly formed society in 1948 and ran under that title until shortly after I handed over the editorship of the journal to Trevor Beebee in 1985. The change of title—to Herpetological Journal—had as I recall two aims: to ensure that the coverage was not just perceived as British amphibians and reptiles; submissions were not restricted to authors in Britain.
Access to the papers published in BJH had never been easy because the Society had relatively few sales to libraries. The journal was distributed to members but from the early years I suspect few copies have survived.
Apart from those wishing to consult the papers themselves, the additional material, the early membership list, for example, provides a fascinating insight into the development of interest in reptiles and amphibians in Britain and into what a good job those who founded the Society did in attracting members from such a wide range of backgrounds and interests—a topic I will return to in future articles.
