128 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Lenk {Biochem. Zeitschr. vol. lxxiii.) has made interesting 

 comparisons of the effects of various saline solutions on the 

 swelling of gelatine with those on beans and on fish. The 

 results of the comparison vary somewhat with the concentra- 

 tion of the salts, but, in the main, those solutions which produce 

 greatest swelling in the gelatine are the most toxic to life. 

 Moreover, a salt which antagonises the toxicity of another salt 

 also diminishes the effect of the same salt on the swelling of 

 the gel. Schryver (Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. Ixxxix. B) has also com- 

 pared the behaviour of cells and of gels. This observer had 

 previously found that a sodium cholate solution readily sets 

 to a gel when heated to 50 in the presence of a calcium salt, 

 and that this gelation is inhibited by various substances 

 (roughly) in proportion to their toxicity. The present paper 

 deals with the erosive effects of various agents on the gel. 

 These are not quite parallel with the inhibitory effects of the 

 same substances on gelation, but agree more closely with the 

 narcotic and cytolytic action of the bodies in question. Saline 

 antagonisms are also noted which agree with those described 

 by Lenk. Both these writers refer to the work of Loeb on 

 the mutual antagonism of salts, but neither to that of Ringer. 



W. E. Burge (Amer. Journ. Physiol, vol. xxxix.) has made 

 observations on the effect of ultra-violet radiation on living 

 cells. He found the most effective waves had a wave-length 

 of between 254 /n/x and 302 fifi. These waves caused cataract 

 in fish when (and only when) there was a sufficiency of 

 calcium salts. Abnormal quantities of calcium salts (and 

 sodium silicate) in the eyelids increase this effect of ultra- 

 violet light. 



A possible relation between the pituitary and adrenal glands 

 is suggested by the work of Shamoff (Amer. Journ. Physiol, vol. 

 xxxix.) and of Hoskins (/. Amer. Med. Assoc, vol. lxvi.), con- 

 sidered in conjunction with that of Watanabe and Crawford 

 (/. Pharmacol, vol. viii.). The two former writers find, inde- 

 pendently, that some pituitary extracts cause relaxation of the 

 intestine, comparable with that produced by adrenaline, instead 

 of the normal effect, viz. contraction. Watanabe and Crawford 

 state that the colour reactions of adrenaline are yielded by some 

 samples of pituitary extract, and that such extracts produce 

 physiological effects like those of mixtures of adrenaline and 

 normal pituitary extracts. They have not, however, in spite 



