April 13, 191 ij 



NATURE 



235 



11 as hqalthy bees and combs in contrast. The material 

 iS obtained from Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire in 

 iich. The infected combs were brown in colour instead 

 Lhe normal yellow, while the infected bees suffered from 

 -ort of dry dysentery, which rapidly proved fatal. The 

 iiogenic agent of this dry dystentery, iV. apis, formed 

 >usands of minute spores, which fouled the hive, while 

 jnfection was probably spread to new hives by hungry, 

 weakly bees attempting to enter healthy hives. The 

 spores, about 2 to 3 ^ by 4 to 6 /i, were the resistant and 

 :ross-infective stages of the protozoon. The parasite 

 v. a\>is was closely allied to that of p6brine, the silk- 

 „vorm disease due to .V. bombycis. The trophozoite and 

 sporoblast stages of N. apis had been observed, as well 

 ome spores with polar filaments extruded. Like 

 hombycis, the bee-parasite was possibly capable of 

 ditary infection, as infected bee-larvae had been found, 

 fhe only certain destructive agent of the microsporidian 

 ""res was fire, and all infected bees and hives, and any 

 lis therefrom, should be most carefully burned. In 

 opinion of the exhibitors, the microsporidian parasite 

 '\ . apis had been responsible for much of the bee-disease 

 'orded in this country since 1906, especially in 1906, 

 7, and 19H. The exhibitors first noticed the parasite 

 i'»o6 in diseased bees obtained from the Isle of Wight; 

 full significance was grasped in 1907, but owing to 

 difficulty of obtaining material the exhibitors' results 

 • not published. .As much attention was now being 

 I ted to " bee-disease," the exhibitors briefly recorded 

 ir observations. It was not asserted that micro- 

 •poridiosis was the only disease of bees current in Great 

 Britain at present, as Dr. Maiden had investigated a 

 )acillary infection in bees. Microsporidiosis had probably 

 )een introduced from the Continent into British apiaries. 

 —Dr. R. T. Leiper : Nematode parasites obtained from 

 inimals in the Zoological. Gardens during the year ending 

 sWember, 1910. The collection contained a number of 

 lew forms, of which a systematic account will be pub- 

 ished later. Among the more interesting of trie known 

 orms were Rictiilaria plagiostoma from a palm-civet, a 

 lumber of species of Polydelphis from various pythons, 

 ^icheilomena horrida from the South American ostrich, 

 md Dictyocaidus filaria from the lungs of sheep. From 

 he observations it appeared that the change of food and 

 Jeneral conditions obtaining in the gardens were unfavour- 

 iblc to the continued existence of the intestinal parasites 

 in animal may harbour on its admission. The number 

 f cases of auto- and re-infection during captivity was 

 trikingly small, and bore testimony to the cleanly 

 urroundings in which the animals were kept. In four 

 ascs only was there evidence of the occurrence of accumu- 

 ative infection in the gardens : — (i) a number of giant 

 cads died from lung infection with Rhabdias bufonis ; 

 2) the wolves appeared to be heavily infected with Ascaris 

 «n«-s ; (3) a sheep died from pneumonic condition result- 

 ng from an intense infection with Dictyocaulus filaria ; 

 4) the tortoises had oxyuriasis. In all these cases re- 

 •eatcd infection undoubtedly had followed from contamina- 

 ion of food and drink with fjBces containing eggs of the 

 «rasite. The infection could be eliminated by steam 

 ilisation of the cages, or still more easily by changing 

 species of animal living in the particular paddocks or 

 s, for helminthes were often peculiarly selective as 

 [ards their hosts, and those flourishing in one animal 

 ;etimes found it impossible to continue their life even 

 closely allied forms. — F. E. Beddard : Some mam- 

 _lHan tapeworms collected from animals which had died 

 n the society's gardens. This collection was the result 

 f nearly two years' examination of a very large number 

 ►f animals, but did not contain a very large number 

 rf species. Tapeworms were by no means so common as 

 •ther parasitic worms, particularly nematodes, which were 

 lie most abundant among the animals in the gardens. — 

 A. Mttrch : The natural history of whalebone whales. 

 Che paper directed attention to, and threw light upon, 

 ome of the problems connected with the migrations of the 

 arger Cetacea. 



Linnean Society, April 6.— Dr. D. H. Scott, P'.R.S., 

 •resident, in the chair. — Miss Sarah M. Baker : The 

 yown seTweeds of the salt-marsh. — Conjoint communica- 

 >«n on the genus Salicornia. (1) Dr. C. F. Moss : .A 



NO. 2163, VOL. 86] 



history of the genus from Linnaeus, " Species Plantarum,'* 

 ed. I, 1753, to the present time; (2) E. G. Salisbury: 

 An exposition of the characters of the species comprised, 

 in the genus ; (3) Dr. Ethel de Fraine : The anatomy of 

 certain species in the genus. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April 3. — M. Armand Gautier in 

 the chair. — F. Henneguy : Experimental parthenogenesis 

 in the Amphibia. The eggs of the frog (_Rana fusca). 

 were caused to develop parthenogenetically by simple 

 puncture, following the method suggested by M. Bataillon- 

 Comparison batches of eggs were impregnated in the 

 ordinary way. Out of a large number of the punctured, 

 eggs, four only became normal tadpoles, and these were 

 smaller than the tadpoles from the comparison batch. — 

 Albert I., Prince of Monaco : The twelfth campaign 

 of Princesse Alice II. — Sir J. J. Thomson was elected a 

 correspondant for the section of physics in the place of 

 H. Lorentz, elected foreign associate. — Th. De Donder : 

 Jacobi's multiplier. — M. Devaux-Charbonnel : The direct 

 measurement of diminution of loudness, and of the charac- 

 teristic of tjilephone lines. — Victor Henri and Samuel. 

 Lifchitz : The kinematographical study of the displace- 

 mftnts of ultra-microscopic particles produced by very, 

 rapid sound shocks. The action was shown to be a 

 mechanical one, and to be independent of the electrical, 

 charge on the particles. — Paul Lebeau : The formula of 

 uranium carbide. Analyses of some ingots of uraniuni 

 containing carbon showed a percentage of the latter higher 

 than would correspond with the Ur^C, of Moissan. Cast- 

 ings were then prepared containing various proportions of 

 uranium and carbon. Metallographic examination proved 

 all of these to consist of a single carbide with varying 

 amounts of graphite. It was found necessary to consider- 

 ably modify the analytical method used by Moissan in the- 

 anal3'ses of these compounds, and the true formula of the 

 carbide was found to be UrCj. — M. Driot : Mercury oxy- 

 chlorides. Four oxychlorides, HgCU.3HgO, HgCU.zHgO, 

 HgCU.HgO, and aHgCU.HgO, have been isolated, andi 

 each of these exists in one form only. — E. E. Blaise and. 

 L. Picard : The mode of formation of ethyl chloro- 

 ethoxyacetate ; the use of this ester in the synthesis of the- 

 a-acid alcohols. An attempt to prepare the chloride 

 (C,H,.0)XH.C0.C1 failed, a molecular transposition* 

 taking place, and the compound CjHj.O.CHCl.CO^CjHj 

 being produced. — P. Lemoult : The new series of leuco- 

 bases and colouring matters derived from diphenylethylene. 

 — G. Andrtf : The conservation of the salt material in an 

 annual plant : distribution of the fixed elements. — P. A.. 

 Dangeard : The conditions of chlorophyll assimilation in 

 the CyanophyceiE. — Jean Bonnet : Nuclear fusions without 

 sexual character. — M. Vermorel and E. Dantony : The- 

 increase in the moistening power of anticryptogamic solu- 

 tions for spraying. — E. Kayser : Researches on the juice 

 of beer j-east. — L. Bordas : The intestinal caecum and the 

 rectal glands of the Lepidoptera. — P. Chaussd : E.xperi- 

 mental tuberculosis in the dog. Under normal conditions, 

 the latent mesenteric tuberculosis experimentally produced 

 in the dog completely disappears from the system in 200^ 

 days. — L. Cayeux : The marine deposits resting on the 

 middle Miocene in Crete. — .Alphonse Bergret : The exact 

 determination of the salinity of sea water by the measure- 

 ment of the index of refraction. The refractometer was 

 modified to read the index to o-ooooi, and the rclatior> 

 between refractive index and concentration of salt was- 

 shown experimentally to be linear. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of South Africa, March 15.— Dr. H. 

 H. W. Pearson, vice-president, in the chair.— -Dr. Thos. 

 Muir : Sylvester's and other unisignants. Unisignant is 

 the name given to a peculiar class of multilinear functions- 

 which though expressible as determinants are quite unlike 

 the latter functions in their properties, having, for example, 

 in their final development nothing but positive terms. 

 Probably the first instance of such a function was observed' 

 by .Sylvester. The object of the present paper is to throw 

 fresh light on Sylvester's work by bringing it into thi.- same 

 field of view with certain recent investigations of a mors 



