October 13, 192 1] 



NATURE 



231 



nitrate. The products obtained by the electrolysis of 

 alkaline bicarbonates with a copper anode, and by 

 the electrolysis of solutions of carbon dioxide with 

 copper anode under pressure have been examined. — 

 M. PhiJippson : The laws of the electrical resistance of 

 living tissues. Cellular membranes behave as capaci- 

 ties towards alternating currents. Formulae are given 

 for the electric conductivity of living tissues, and one 

 of the constants in these formulae characterises the 

 physico-chemical state of the protoplasm. 



Sydney. 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, August 31. — Mr. 

 G. A. VVaterhouse, president, in the chair. — H. J. 

 Carter : Australian Coleoptera : notes and new species. 

 The paper includes descriptions of Queensland 

 material lately acquired by the Queensland Museum, 

 of specimens from Northern Territory, and of two 

 new species from the Barrington or Mount Royal 

 Range, N.S.W. Thirty-six species belonging to 

 twenty-six genera in the families Lucanidas, Bupres- 

 tidce, Tenebrionidae, and Cistelidae are described as 

 new. — G. H. Hardy : A preliminan*- revision of some 

 _;enera belonging to the Diptera Brachycera of Aus- 

 tralia. In this revision certain characters considered 

 to be of primar\' importance are used in defining some 

 of the genera. In the Asilidae the antennal char- 

 acters are used for distinguishing the genera belong- 

 ing to the sub-family Dasypogoninae. Two robber- 

 flies belonging to the genus Blepharotes are described 

 as new. The genus Clesthentia, White, is trans- 

 ferred from the Leptidae to the Therevidae, and taxo- 

 nomic improvements for the latter family are sug- 

 gested. Attention is directed to the need for revision 

 of the type specimens of the Australian species of 

 Apiocera, the only genus of the Apioceridae repre- 

 sented in Australia. — J. M. Petrie : The active prin- 

 ciple of Erythrophloeum Laboucherii. Examination 

 of a small amount of air-dried leaves and a few 

 beans of Erythrophloeum Laboucherii proved that 

 cyanogenetic glucosides and saponins were absent, 

 but that a small percentage of a poisonous alkaloid 

 was present. 28 kg. of leaves yielded 56 mg. of 

 an amorphous alkaloid, while 290 g. of the beans 

 yielded 87 mg. of the same alkaloid. Both the 

 chemical and physiological properties of this alkaloid 

 prove it to be identical with the erythrophleine of the 

 African plant, E. guineense. The general action of the 

 digitalis group was obser^ea in experiments carried 

 out with the alkaloid of E. Laboucherii on frogs and 

 dogs. 



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