RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 215 



pyridine (cf. Science Progress, No. 44, April 191 7, p. 634), 

 has curative action in polyneuritis, it must have the constitu- 

 tion represented by the formula I. and not II. : 



— O \^' 0H 



N 

 11 



In other words it must belong to the class of pseudobetaines 

 to bring it into line with methylpyridine, trigonelline, and 

 betaine, all of which exert a curative effect on polyneuritic 

 birds. For the same reason it is suggested that nicotinic acid 

 prepared by the action of silver hydroxide on nicotinic acid 

 hydriodide must have the constitution : 



CO 



NH— O 



and further the curative action of the vitamine fractions of 

 yeast and rice polishings must be due in part to the presence 

 of this form of nicotinic acid or some simple derivative thereof. 

 From feeding experiments on pigeons Atherton Seidell 

 (/. Biol. Chem. 191 7, 29, 145) has shown that the vitamine 

 deficiency of an exclusive diet of polished rice may be made 

 up by daily doses of o'5-i'oc.c. of a clear filtrate from autolysed 

 brewers' yeast, and he has calculated that a grown pigeon 

 requires less than 1 mgm. of vitamine daily ; the diet of a 

 pigeon and possibly of a man also would therefore require to 

 contain about 0*0033 per cent, of vitamine. 



GEOLOGY. By G. W. Tyrrell, A.R.C.Sc, F.G.S., University, Glasgow. 



Dynamical and Structural Geology 



Koto, B., The Great Eruption of Sakura-jima in 1914, /. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. 



Tokyo, 1916, 38, 1-237. 

 Oinouye, Y., A Few Interesting Phenomena of the Eruption of Usu [Japan], 



/. Geol. 1917,25,258-88. 

 Jaggar, T. A., Lava Flow from Mauna Loa, 1916, Amer. J. Sci. 1917, 43, 255-88. 

 POWERS, S., Intrusive Bodies at Kilauea, Zeitsch.f. Vulcatwlogie, 1916, 3, 28-33. 

 Schuchert, C, Atlantis and the Permanency of the North Atlantic Ocean, Proc. 



Nat. Acad. Sci. {Wash.), 191 7, 3, 65-72. 

 Spencer, J. W., Origin and Age of the Ontario Shore — Birth of the Modern 



Saint Lawrence River, Amer. J. Sci. 191 7, 43, 351-62. 



