1890-91.] FOURTH MEETING. 11 



cells prove that the pancreas has a hitherto undescribed function — that 

 of a protective one. This might be the interpretation of some experi- 

 ments by Italian biologists on the partial and total extirpation of the 

 pancreas in pigeons, resulting in a diminished immunity from attacks of 

 Bacillus anthracis or in a complete disappearance of immunity, accord- 

 ing as a part or the whole of the pancreas was removed. 



In regard to the other classes of intracellular bodies, the cells can be 

 found and fixed in the act of swallowing the remains of their destroyed 

 neighbours, and the bodies so swallowed derange the metabolism of the 

 cells. Plasmosomata can also be found in the act of passing out of the 

 nucleus, but what conditions favour this cannot be determined. The migra- 

 tion of plasmosomata from the nucleus has been again and again observed 

 in cancer cells, and have in some cases therefore been mistaken appar- 

 ently for parasites. The question of the function of the plasmosomata 

 is connected with the origin of the digestive ferment of the pancreas. 

 The studies on the plasmosomata of the pancreatic cells and on a com- 

 pound diffused through the nucleus, show that the plasmosomata and 

 the compound are both the primary stage of the zymogen which gathers 

 in the cell in the form of granules, and which, again, gives origin to the 

 digestive ferment (trypsin) of the pancreas. This indicates that the 

 nucleus is of vast importance in the cell, controlling and directing its 

 secretion and nutrition, and reinforces the view that the nucleus in red 

 blood cells gives origin to haemoglobin, and the observations of botanists, 

 which show that the nucleus of vegetable cells builds up sugar out of 

 carbon dioxide, and the only function of the vegetable cell itself is to 

 convert the sugar into starch. 



FOURTH MEETING. 



Fourth Meeting, 22nd November, 1890, Mr. Harvey in the chair. 



Donations and exchanges 73. 



Mr. J. J. Mackenzie, B.A., read a paper on " The Typhoid Bacillus in 

 Relation to Drinking Water," which was illustrated by a number of 

 specimens. The characteristics of the bacillus were first described, 

 then the contamination of sewage by the bacillus and its development 

 therein. The conditions of its development in potable waters were then- 

 taken up, and the chances of the spread of a typhoid epidemic by such 

 means explained. After this the methods used for the isolation of the 

 bacillus were explained, and finally a number of samples given where 



