April 17, 1879] 



NATURE 



561 



absorption spectra only indicate the component parts of a com- 

 pound so long as the colour of a given substance is characteristic 

 of its chemical composition. 



We notice an interesting discussion which arose at the last 

 meeting of the Russian Society of Hygiene. M. Malarevsky, 

 pointing out the yearly increasing myopy of scholars, proposed 

 to print books with white letters on a black field, and proved 

 the superiority of this system by experiments he has made with 

 fifty scholars, as well as by experiments on the f jicility of dis- 

 cernment of black drawings on a white field and of white 

 drawings on a black field, these last always being better seen 

 from a greater distance than the former. 



We have received a very fidl Catalogue of Official Reports 

 upon Geological Surveys of the United States and Territories 

 and of British North America, by Mr. F. Prime, assistant- 

 geologist of Pennsylvania. It seems to be an enlarged con- 

 tinuation of the Catalogue by Prof. O. C. Marsh, published in 

 the American Journal for 1867. The present list covers 50 pp. 



At the last session of the U.S. Congress an appropriation of 

 250,000 dols. was made for the construction of a fire-proof 

 building for the reception of such collections belonging to the 

 National Museum as cannot be at present accommodated in the 

 Smithsonian Building ; and as the plans have already been pre- 

 pared, it is understood that the work will be begim without 

 delay. The design contemplates a building 301 feet square, with 

 certain projecting corners, the whole covering a space of about 

 97,000 square feet. Although not quite equal to the area of the 

 Government Building at the Centennial, it is capable of contain- 

 ing a much larger mass of material. The general plan is that of 

 a pa^•ilion, of one story, with brick walls and iron roof, the floor 

 to be of concrete. The corner buildings or projections constitute 

 offices connected with the administration of the Museum, to 

 include a library room, a small lectiu-e-room, and others. It is 

 expected that the entire edifice will be completed and ready for 

 occupation by April i, 1880. 



The whale whose bones have been so long exposed in the 

 court-yard of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, is to be demo- 

 lished in compliance with a report from M. Quatrefages, who 

 shows that the original number of vertebrae has been enlarged, 

 and a series of important alterations have been successively made. 



The publishing office of Science News, hitherto published at 

 Salem, Mass., will shortly be removed to New York. 



Many of our readers might like to know of Dr. Karl Mobius' 

 address on March 5 last, on his assumption of the rectorship of 

 the University of Kiel. Its subject is the passage from Goethe— 

 " Leben ist die schonste Erfindung der Natur, und der Tod ist 

 ihr KunstgriBf viel Leben zu haben." 



The Second Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the 

 Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of, the 

 Deaf and Dumb is one of great interest, and we are sure would 

 be perused with pleasure and profit by all who are interested in 

 the important subject. The Institution seems to be conducted 

 on thoroughly scientific principles, and its success 'seems very 

 marked. The Report is published by Stevenson, Foster, and 

 Co., Pittsburgh. 



We have received a cheap edition of "The Caves of South 

 Devon and their Teachuigs," by Mr. J. E. Howard, F.R.S., in 

 which he endeavovirs to combat the long chronology assigned to 

 the human race by Mr. Pengelly and others. Hardwicke and 

 Bogue are the publishers. 



The North British Daily Mail of March 29 contains reports 

 of recent meetings of the Geological and Natural History Socie- 

 ties of Glasgow. In the former Mr. Young gave a descriptive 

 notice of an interesting specimen of Elephas primigenitis dis- 



covered about four years ago when sinking a pit-shaft on Main- 

 bill Farm, near Baillieston, east of Glasgow. In the latter Mr. 

 Harvie-Brown read a paper on the Mammalia of the Outer 

 Hebrides. 



" New Views in Astronomy, illustrated by Working Models 

 and Diagrams, and Demonstrated by Inductive Philosophy," is 

 the title of a quarto pamphlet by Mr. John Harris, published by 

 Wertheimer, Lea, and Co., of Finsbury Circus. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Yak {Bison griinniens) from Bhootan, pre- 

 sented by the Hon. Ashley Eden, K. C.S.I. ; a Japanese Goat 

 Antelope {Capricornis crispus) from Japan, presented by Mr. H. 

 Pryer, C.M.Z.S. ; a Rhesus Monkey {Afacacus erythrceus) firom 

 India, presented by Mr. J. Roberts ; a Grivet Monkey (Cerco- 

 pithecus griseo-viridis) from West Africa, presented by Mr. W. B. 

 Greenfield ; a Common Seal (Phoca vitulina), British Isles, pre- 

 sented by Capt. Chas. Rawle ; a Red-throated Diver (Colymlnis 

 sepientrionalis), British Isles, presented by Mr. J. S. Thompson ; 

 a Masked Parrakeet {Pyrrhulopsis personaia) from Fiji, an 

 Entellus Monkey {Semnopithecus entellus), from India, depo- 

 sited. 



THE RESULTS OF RECENT RESEARCHES 

 IN ANIMAL ELECTRICITY "■ 



I. — Introductory Observations 

 The State of the Subject Ten Years Ago 



TTNTILthe year 1867 certain theoretical conceptions based 

 ^ upon the classical investigations of du Bois-Reymond 

 prevailed in the whole department of animal electricity. It 

 may indeed be said that du Bois-Reymond created this branch 

 of modem physiology, for it w as he who first struck out the 

 modern method of research and gave the lead to recent investi- 

 gation. To his individual labours we owe not only the estab- 

 lishment and the orderly arrangement of many facts which had 

 been left ill-defined by his predecessors, but also the actual dis- 

 covery of a still greater number of fundamental value. These 

 fundamental facts, briefly summarised, were the following : — 



1. Muscular fibres* and nerve-fibres when cut across exhibit 

 a current directed within them from the transverse to the longi- 

 tudinal surface, the electromotive force of which may equal 

 one-twelfth of a Daniell's cell, 



2. The negative potential of the transverse section also 

 belongs, though in a less degree, to the natural terminations of 

 the fibres of muscle ("natural transverse section") ; but in this 

 case it may be wanting, or even be changed to a positive poten- 

 tial. This diminution, absence, or reversal, of the common 

 condition, to which the term " parelectronomic state " is applied, 

 would seem to be favoured by the continued action of cold. 



3. If a certain portion of a nerve-fibre be traversed by a 

 galvanic current, the remaining portions, or the extra-polar 

 regions, become the seat of an electromotive force which has the 

 same direction as the traversing current, and which is strongest 

 in the vicinity of the poles (electrotonus). This influence ex- 

 tends only so far as the structural integrity of the fibre is 

 complete. 



4. Muscles and nerves with artificial transverse sections exhiHt 

 during the period of stimulation a diminution ("negative varia- 

 tion") of their proper current. In uncut muscle the nega- 

 tive value of the diminution or variation becomes algebraically 

 added to whatever current may be already present in the natural 

 termination of the muscle. 



Upon these facts du Bois-Reymond had based the following 

 theory : — 



1 . Muscle- and nerve-fibres contain electromotive molecules 

 suspended in an indifierent conductor, which present positive 

 surfaces to the longitudinal surface or section, and negative 

 surfaces to the transverse surface or section. 



2. At the natural terminations of the muscular fibres are 

 arranged particles of a peculiar kind, the presence of which is 



« A lecture delivered on February 2, 1878, before the Medical Society <rf 

 Zurich, by Dr. L. Hermann, Professor of Physiology in the University of 

 Zurich, and published in the " Vierteljahrsschrift d. naturf. Ges. in Zurich," 

 1878. All the papers referred to in this lecture which have no author's name 

 attached are papers of the author himself. 



