392 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Steel exhibited a string of copra as brought to the dealers 

 by the natives of Fiji and other South Sea Islands. The half 

 segments of the dried cocoanut kernel are perforated in the centre 

 and strung on a piece of bark or a fibrous palm leaf. 



Dr. Chapman exhibited a sample of the dried blood-serum of 

 a rabbit which contained a precipitin for the egg-albumen of the 

 ostrich, and which he had prepared with the collaboration of 

 Professor D. A. Welsh. The precipitating substance in the 

 serum was produced by the intraperitoneal injection at intervals 

 of 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 4, 4, and 2 days of 5, 8, 10, 10, 7, 10, 10, 5, and 

 10 c.c. respectively of the white of an ostrich's egg presented to 

 them by Mr. Le Soeuf, Curator of the Zoological Gardens. The 

 rabbit was killed by bleeding, 12 days after the last injection. 

 The serum expressed from the clot was collected partly in sterile 

 sealed tubes, and the remainder dried in vacuo over anhydrous 

 CaClo at 20° C. In 24 hours 5 c.c. were dried, and this yielded 

 0-511 gramme of dried substance. The fluid serum was found 

 to produce strong precipitation with diluted ostrich egg-white. 

 It gave instantaneous clouds with dilutions as great as 1 in 5000 

 of normal saline, when added in the proportion of 1 of antiserum to 

 5 of dilution. Clouds appeared in 30 minutes with dilutions of 

 1 in 20,000, yielding a deposit in 16 hours. Standardised by 

 Nuttall's method, the precipitate measured 0-072 c.c. The dried 

 serum was dissolved in normal salt solution in the proportion of 

 0-02 gramme in 1 c.c. This solution was filtered and tested. It 

 gave reactions with 0*1 c.c. of the solution of antiserum to 0*5 

 c.c. of diluted ostrich albumen to an extent comparable to that 

 obtained with undried antiserum. It had long been known that 

 the precipitable substance in serum is not destroyed by dr3ang, 

 but, as far as he was aware, the antiserum had hitherto been 

 kept in the fluid state, which involved much time and labour 

 spent in placing it in sterile tubes. The dried serum was pre- 

 served with greater ease. Some human antiserum kept dry for 



