544 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Anti-fowl serum produced a reaction in bloods of widely divergent 

 birds, but only once in mammalian blood (experimental error r). 



Anti-lobster serum reacted with lobster serum dilutions ; produced 

 slight reactions or marked clouding with blood dilutions of five kinds of 

 crabs ; produced marked clouding with blood of crayfish ; but exerted 

 no effect whatever on any of the 250 non-crustacean bloods examined. 



Minute Traces of Arsenic in Animals.* — A. Gautier re-expounds 

 the delicate method which enabled him (1899) to demonstrate the 

 normal presence of arsenic in minute quantities in some organs of 

 animals, — the skin, the thyroid, the thymus, the bones, &c. Those who 

 have not been able to confirm this have not been careful enough. There 

 are, however, some confirmations, e.g. the observations of G. Bertrand. 

 Gautier finds that at certain times the arsenic seems to pass from the 

 infernal organs to epidermic structures, such as the hair. 



Experiments on Pigeons in relation to the Semicircular Canals.| 

 — L. Boutan refers to the fact that when the semicircular canals of a 

 pigeon or other bird are cut, there is a constant bending of the head 

 towards the injured side. This phenomenon has been interpreted by 

 E. de Cyon and by Laborde as a direct consequence of the lesion of the 

 semicircular canals. By means of a delicate operation, Boutan has been 

 able to show that the lesion of the semicircular canals is not the real 

 cause of the phenomenon, — from which, it may be noted, the pigeon 

 may react to vital normality. 



Reactions to Anisotonic Solutions. J — P. Enriques has studied 

 the processes of osmosis and absorption in the reactions of Protozoa 

 (Oikomonas, &c), and of Limnsea siagnalis to anisotonic solutions. 

 The problem is rather a difficult one, but, so far as we understand, the 

 author seems to have shown that the passage by osmosis and the passage 

 by absorption are completely independent processes. 



Hgemolytic Action of Cobra Poison. § — A. Calmette discusses the 

 remarkably strong dissolving effect of cobra prison on the red blood- 

 corpuscles of horse, dog, rabbit, guinea-pig, and rat. The corpuscles of 

 ox, fowl, pigeon, and frog are more resistant. 



But the subject is somewhat complicated, for Calmette finds that the 

 red blood-corpuscles of an animal hyper- vaccinated against cobra poison ,, 

 and furnishing a strongly anti-toxic and anti-hasmolytic serum, are still 

 perfectly haemolysable when, after being separated from the serum by a 

 series of washings and centrifugal operations, they are put in contact 

 with feeble doses of cobra-venom, with the addition of a little normal 

 serum heated to 62°. 



Calmette asks biologists interested in the problem of cellular im- 

 munity to correlate his results with those noted by Wassermann and 

 Takaki in regard to the fixation of tetanic toxin by nerve-cells, and 

 those noted by Roux and Borrel in regard to cerebral tetanus in vacci- 

 nated animals. 



Hsemolytic Effect of Viper's Venom.||— C. Phisalix finds that the 

 effects on the dog are very different from those on the rabbit. In the 



* Comptes Rendus, exxxiv. (1902) pp. 1394-9. f Tom. cit., pp. 1417-9. 



% Atti R. Accad. Lincei (Rend.), xi. (1902) pp. 495-9. 

 § Comptes Rendus, exxxiv. (1902) pp. 1446-7. 

 || Op. cit., exxxv. (1902) pp. 257-9. 



