134 



NATURE 



|_.\Iarch 2^, 1911 



locally and distully, ultcrutionii in the coagulability of the 

 blood, and secondary effects upon the rei>pi ration, heart, 

 and central nervous system. The symptoms of experi- 

 mental {x)isoning thus very closely resemble those which 

 have been described in cases of Echis bite in man. Kchis 

 venom differs from Colubrine venoms in having little or 

 no direct action on the central nervous system or on the 

 nerve terminals in voluntary muscle. it has a direct 

 action in lowering the blood-pressure in mammals by slow- 

 ing and weakening the heart's contractions; lethal doses 

 also produce a fall of temperature in mammals. The 

 chief to.\ins in Echis venom, in the order of their jHJtcncy, 

 are a hicmorrhagin, a substance which alters the coagula- 

 bility of the bItxKl, and a haimolysin. — Sir David Bruc«i 

 Captains .\. K. Hamttrton and H. K. Bateman, and 

 Captain F. I\'Mackio (Sleeping Sickness Commission of 

 the Royal Society, Uganda, 1908-10). Further researches 

 on the development of Trypanosoma gambiense in Glossina 

 palpalis. (i) In the course of the development of Trypano- 

 soma f^amhicnse in Glossina palpalis, the proboscis does 

 not become involved, as in the case of some other species. 

 (2) A few days after an infective feed the trypanosomes 

 disappear out of the great majority of the flies, but in a 

 small percentage this initial disappearance is followed by 

 a renewed development. (3) After a very short time the 

 flies which have fed on an infected animal become incap- 

 able of conveying the infection by their bites, and this non- 

 infectivity lasts for some twenty-eight days, when a re- 

 newed or late infectivity takes place. (4) A fly in which 

 this renewed or late infectivity occurs can remain infective 

 for at least ninety-six days. (5) An invasion of the salivary 

 glands occurs at the same time as this renewal of infec- 

 tivity, and without this invasion of the salivary glands 

 there can be no infectivity. (6) The type of trypanosome 

 found in the salivary glands when the fly becomes infective 

 is similar to the short, stumpy form found in vertebrate 

 blood, and it is believed that this reversion to the blood 

 type is a sine qua non in the infective process. — Dr. M. 

 Haaland : Spontaneous cancer in mice. The observations 

 recorded have been made upon 300 mice in which cancer 

 had developed spontaneously. The tumours originally 

 observed numbered 350. Many of the mice presented 

 multiple growths. It is important that forty-two tumours 

 had a structure distinct from that of the well-known 

 mammary tumours of the mouse. Spontaneous healing is 

 recorded of undoubted malignant new growths. The 

 reasons have been sought for that preponderance of 

 mammary turnours which is characteristic for the mouse. 

 The physiological demands made upon the mamma by re- 

 peated pregnancy and lactation can be excluded, since 

 many of the mice which had been under observation since 

 birth had never littered, and twenty had been completely 

 isolated from possibility of association with a male. The 

 histological examination of the mamma of a large number 

 of old mice, cancerous and non-cancerous, showed the 

 frequency of chronic inflammation combined with hyper- 

 trophic and other changes in the epithelium. The latter 

 pass through all stages to definite tumours. The only 

 explanation found for the chronic inflammatory and other 

 changes was the presence of nematodes. Numerous experi- 

 ments of diverse kind were made to define the parts played 

 by local causes, such as those described above, and by 

 constitutional conditions. All the evidence points to the 

 importance of local causes, e.g. chronic irritation, and to 

 the absence of general constitutional changes favourable 

 for the growth of cancer. The part plaved bv the irritant 

 IS a mediate one, so that it produces the altered conditions 

 under which either the first departure of the cells from 

 the normal takes place, or permits spontaneously occurring 

 sports of cells to multiply and adapt themselves to a new 

 mode of life as observed in propagated tumours. 



Geological Society, March 8.— Prof. W. W. Watts, 

 president, in the chair.— Contributions to the geology of 

 Cyrenaica. by Prof. J. W. Gregory and others, (i) Prof. 

 J. \\. Qrogory : The geology of Cyrenaica. .Accord- 

 ing to the evidence available in 1908 regarding Cyrenaica, 

 the country might be interpreted as a fragment of a 

 mountain-loop, or as a plateau of Miocene rocks. In a 

 journey across the country, the author found that it was 

 a plateau of Lower Kainozoic limestones. Those lime- 

 stones must have been deposited in a clear sea, at depths 

 NO. 2160, VOL. 86] 



down to 1000 fathoms. Intervals of shallow s«a a 

 indicated by limestone-conglomerates and coral-reef litn 

 stone. The country was uplifted in later Miocene tim( 

 and was then part of a wide land which included Crc 

 and occupied the site of the /Egean Sea. Thi» land w 

 broken up by great subsidences, which left C}rcnaica 

 a horst bounded by fault-scarps on the north and wei 

 Cyrenaica may be regarded as part of the western limb 

 the geosyncline of western Egypt. — (2) R. B. N«wtoi 

 Notes on the Kainozoic Mollusca. A number of .M 

 are recognised as belonging to members of the K. 

 system. The most abundant of the post-'" 

 L'crastoderma edule. Among the 11' 



forms are Alectryonia cf. virleti and bti. ... 



natus. The Aquitanian shells present a relationship to tl 

 '■ Schioschichten " fauna of northern Italy. Foraminifer 

 organisms occur in these beds, but no nummulitc 

 Lepidocyclina elephantina, a good .Aquitanian species, 

 found with Oopecten rotundatus from Birlibah. Tl, 

 characteristic of the Priabonian Mollusca is 

 arcuatus. A new species of /Equipecten is d> 

 Nummulites abound in these rocks. So far as ti 

 lusca are concerned, nothing older than Lutetian h.. 

 observed. — (3) t. Chapman: Foraminifera, Oslracod 

 and parasitic fungi from the Kainozoic limestones 

 Cyrenaica. The Foraminifera are mainly from the Midd 

 Eocene ; others belong to the Upper Eocene and to t! 

 •Aquitanian or Stampian. The most abundant foraminif 

 is Nummulites gizehensis. At a higher horizon is 

 nummulitic limestone containing N. gizehensis, var. lyel 

 Some limestones at VVadi Umzigga contain Lepidocyclit 

 elephantina, and are referred to the .Aquitanian > 

 Stampian. The boring fungus Palaechyla perforans occu 

 perforating Lepidocyclina. — (4) Prof. J. \V. Orogor^ 

 The fossil Echinoidea of Cyrenaica. The Echinoi'! 

 referred to ten species, of which two are new, and 

 a new variety. The echinoids come from four hi : 

 the oldest fauna belongs to the Middle Eocene ; the Upp 

 Eocene is represented by an unusually early species 

 .Amphiope, and by an Echinolampas. Some echinoii 

 from the Cyrene limestones are of .Aquitanian affinitie 

 and others seen in the limestone east of Benghazi a 

 Miocene. The echinoid faunas show that the Eocei 

 rocks containing them were, as a whole, deposited in 

 sea of moderate depth. — (5) D. P. MacDonald : Tl 

 foraminiferal limestones of Cyrenaica. The micro«cop 

 examination of the limestones shows that they arc 

 composed of organic material, and are free from 

 material. Some of them have been partly dolonuu.^p 

 Some of the limestones are oolitic. — G. E. Dibley : Tl 

 teeth of the genus Ptychodus, and their distribution in tl 

 English Chalk. This paper is an attempt to define tl 

 species of the fossil fish genus Ptychodus. Hitherto, oi 

 information as regards Ptychodus has been derived fro 

 associated sets of P. decurrens in place and isolated teei 

 of this and other species. The variation in teeth of 01 

 individual is often so marked that, when found separate! 

 they have given rise to the formation of new speci-^ 

 can now be proved that these teeth belong to . 

 known species, and merely represent a phase in v;: 

 in the development of certain teeth of one species. Sped 

 attention has been given to the extreme variation ; 

 P. decurrens, as well as in the equally variable specii 

 P. polygyrus, and one new species has been added. 



Zoological Society, March 7. — Dr. A. Smith- Wood \v.iri 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. Karl Jorda 

 and the Hon. N. Charles Rothschild : Some Siphonaptei 

 from northern China. This collection of fleas had be€ 

 made by Mr. M. P. .Anderson, the Duke of Bod*. ^'-h 

 collector, in the province of Shen-si, and co 

 altogether seventeen species, of which no fewer 

 thirteen were new. Some of these were possibly oni 

 geographical developments, but others represented distin< 

 types not very nearly allied to any known species. — F. I 

 Beddard : Certain points in the anatomy of the frc 

 Megalophrys (Leptobrachium) fcae, based on specimer 

 exhibited in the society's gardens. — F. E. Beddard 

 The spermatophores in earthworms of the genus Pheretin- 

 ( = Perichaeta). These structures had been found in tw 

 species, one of which would be described as new, co: 

 tained in a collection of terrestrial Oligochjeta from tl 



