Vermin from Venus: Letter

Sir: Regarding infestation from outer space, the theory is both older by at least two decades, and more extreme, than Professor Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor N C Wickramasinghe acknowledge (letter, 1 August).

In Worlds in Collision, published in 1950, Immanuel Velikovsky wrote: "The question arises whether or not the comet Venus infested the earth with vermin which it may have carried in its trailing atmosphere in the form of larvae..."

STEPHEN SENN

Harpenden

Hertfordshire