Letter: Making monkeys of Australia's leaders

Sir: Entering Cambridge University Library today, I should have said that nothing was further from my mind than the Australian constitutional question (letters, 1 and 6 April). Seated at the 'on-line catalogue system', I was attempting to find a new work on primates by Berischke. I had tried the author- search and drawn a blank. I tried the title-keyword-search and drew another. The browsable-name-index and browsable-subject-index were equally unforthcoming.

Finally, in dogged and slightly rebellious disbelief, I decided to type in the entire title: Primates - the road to self-sustaining populations. With less than a microsecond's hesitation, the screen presented me with a tabulation of the prime ministers of Australia.

Several intriguing interpretations come to mind, but I will leave further debate to the experts.

Yours sincerely,

PETER BOSTON

Cambridge

7 April