46 



of animals and plants. He declares that he has never doubted the trans- 

 mission of changes which depend on alterations of the germ-plasm. He 

 then inquires: "And how could the germ-plasm be changed except by the 

 operation of external influences, using the words in their widest sense?" 

 To this we may reply, that he has hitherto attributed all changes to sex- 

 ual mixture alone. If he is willing to admit that use and disuse of or- 

 gans, changes in nutrition, and in the environment in general, may bring 

 about modifications of organisms, he will not find it difficult to come to 

 an agreement with many of his opponents, even if he does insist on post- 

 poning the results for a few generations. A few may insist that some 

 characters acquired by the parent, for instance by the use of an organ, 

 may be inherited by the next generation, but most persons would con- 

 tend onlj' that a predisposition to the reproduction of the character is 

 inherited. 



PAPERS READ. 



Condensation of acetophenone with ketoi.s bv mean.s ok dilute pota.s- 

 siuM cyanide. By Alex. Smith. 



, [abstract.] 



It has been proven for some years that when beuzaldehyde is boiled in 

 dilute alcohol with a small quantity of potassium cyanide, two molecules 

 of benzaldehyde unite to form benzoin. The present paper describes a 

 class of cases where the same reagent has the power of causing the union 

 of two bodies with the elimination of water— a condensation. The inter- 

 action takes place between a ketol such as benzoin, on the one hand and 

 a ketone such as acetophenone on the other. For example benzoin and 

 acetophenone in dilute alcoholic solution, in presence of a little potassium 

 cyanide, yield on boiling desyl-acetophenone. (Jour. Chem. Soc. LVII, 

 p. 643.) 



C, H— CO— CH-()li + ('l 1 — CO-C,H,= 



' ■ I 



C,;H-, 



C,H-,— CO-CH~CH,— CO— C,H-, tH,0 



1 



C,;H-, 



The interaction is now found to extend to other ketols. From cuminoin 



