404 SUMMARY OF CUREENT EESEA.RCHES. 



As the result of a number of comparative tests it has been found that 

 the apparatus may be considered as a workshop tool giving results of 

 sufficient accuracy for workshop testing of many of the steels in ordinary 

 use. Whether the concordance would be as satisfactory with harder 

 steels is questionable. The apparatus would be more reliable if some 

 provision were made for insuring that the rod b is truly vertical when it 

 is struck. A. N. D. 



Nature of Growths in Colloidal Silica Solutions. — H. Onslow 

 {Proc. Royal Soc, 191S, B. 628, 2G6-;)). The late Dr. Charlton 

 Bastian, after having performed a number of experiments, claimed 

 to have synthesized certain symmetrical bodies resembling torulas and 

 other minute organisms from steiilized colloidal solutions, which had 

 been exposed for a long period to the light. Further, he claimed that 

 such " organisms " were capable of reproducing themselves. Dr. 

 Bastian was so anxious for independent investigation that the author 

 undertook to repeat his experiments carefully, in order to ascertain 

 whether the organized bodies in question were in reality living proto- 

 plasm. Accordingly, he prepared a series of ninety tubes and repeated 

 Bastian's experiments, which in some cases required upwards of three 

 years' culture. The centrifugalized deposits were examined by micro- 

 scopical observation with a ^-inch objective and by sub-cultivation The 

 most elaborate precautions were taken against air-contamination. The 

 results were entirely negative, and the author was forced to the conclusion 

 that the bodies found by Dr. Bastian, which often resembled living 

 organisms in a striking fashion, are due to the slow deposition of silica 

 from the colloidal solutions, either about minute nuclei or about the 

 detritus of dead organisms, in the manner described by Professor Moore 

 and Evans, and also by Sydney G. Paine. The only living organism 

 which occurred in the author's experiments must have been introduced 

 accidentally owing to the lack of sufficient precautions, for when great 

 care was taken to avoid contamination the tubes were found to be 

 uniformly sterile. A. N. D. 



Industrial Processes. 



Investig-ations on Textile Fibres. — W. Harrison {Proc. Roy. Soc, 

 1918, A 663, 4(;0-l), 2 pis.). The object of the author's investigations 

 was to determine some of the fundamental properties of textile fibres 

 which goverij their behaviour in manufacturing processes, and thereby 

 to establish a scientific basis for research into such processes. The 

 investigations included ; — 1. Effect of stress, moisture, and heat on 

 textile fibres. 2. Cause of the double refraction of textile fibres. 



3. Effect of chemical treatment on the double refraction of fibres. 



4. Probable causes of the internal stresses existing in natural fibres. 

 Photomicrographs depending on ultramicroscopy, polarized and ordinary 

 light are given illustrating the author's observations and conclusions. 



A.N. D 



