March 28, 1878] 



NATURE 



439 



In an interesting paper on the glycogenic function of the liver 

 Mr. Leconte, after stating that " the sole object of this function 

 is to prepare food and waste tissue for final elimination by lungs 

 and kidneys ; to prepare an easily combustible fuel, liver-sugar, 

 for the generation of vital force and vital heat by combustion, 

 and at the same time a residuum suitable for elimination as 

 urea," points out that the function is not sugar-making, as usually 

 supposed, and which is a pure chemical process and descetisive 

 metamorphosis, but glycogen-making, a vital function, and ascen- 

 sive metamorphosis. In diabetes the true organ directly in fault is 

 not the kidneys nor the lungs, but the liver, which fails to arrest the 

 sugar as glycogen. The starch-making function in plants offers 

 a striking analogy to the function under consideration ; for 

 plants change soluble forms of amyloids (dextrin and sugar), into 

 the insoluble form of starch (corresponding to glycogen, which 

 is animal starch), and store it away for future use. This analogy 

 is more remarkable in the lower animals and in embryonic con- 

 ditions ; the function often residing in all parts in such cases (as 

 plants), while in higher animals it is confined to the liver. And 

 it is sluggish animals that accumulate most glycogen in their 

 tissues. Plants, however, store away the starch as building 

 materials ; animals, as fuel for force-making. Further attention 

 is called to the close relation between the functions of the liver 

 and kidneys. As we descend the animal scale, we find cases 

 [e,g. insects) in which the same organ performs both functions. 

 The fact of a large percentage of glycogen being found in the 

 tissues of entozoa, which do not need any internal source of heat, 

 is regarded by Mr. Leconte as a striking proof (if any were still 

 needed) that the prime object of respiration is not heat-making, 

 hVit force-making. Heat is only a concomitant, often useful, but 

 sometimes useless, and even distressing. 



Mr. Trouvelot, of Cambridge, furnishes accounts of three 

 celestial phenomena observed by him, viz. , undulations in the 

 train of Coggia's comet, sudden extinction of the light of a solar 

 protuberance, and the zodiacal light of the moon. 



The atomic weight of antimony having been variously given'.by 

 MM. Schneider, Dexter, and Dumas (using different methods), 

 as I20'3, I22'3, and 122 severally, Mr. Josiah P. Cooke, jun., 

 was led to a fresh study of the subject. The general conclusion 

 which he reaches, after a very patient and laborious investigation 

 (which the chemist will find highly instructive) is that the most 

 probable value is S^ — 120 when S — 32. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Linnean Society, March 7. — Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S,, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. Thos. Christy exhibited a 

 series of fruits, among which were Chinese quinces, chayottes, 

 and a remarkable citron known in China as the "claw of 

 Buddha." — Prof. Ray Lankester also brought forward and made 

 remarks on a collection of fossil walrus tusks {Trichecodon 

 JIuxlevi[i]) from the Suffolk crag, and sent him for examination 

 by Mr. J . E. Taylor, of the Ipswich Museum. — Examples of a 

 variety of Helix virgata were likewise shown by Mr. Rich. — On 

 nudibranchiate moUuscafrom the eastern seas, by Dr. C.Colling- 

 wood, was the first paper read. He remarks that residents 

 searching carefully within limited areas have more chance of 

 obtaining new and interesting forms than have zoologists or 

 extensively equipped expeditions who but pay hurried visits to 

 tropical coasts. Season and other influences have much to do 

 with abundance or paucity of species in given localities. He gives 

 curious insta.nces of specimens of nudibranchs, isolated in a dish 

 of sea-water spontaneously and uncommonly neatly amputating 

 the region of their own mouth. With other information the 

 author further describes sixteen new species, illustrating the 

 same with coloured drawings from nature. Mr. Thos. Meetian's 

 paper, on the laws governing the production of seed in Wistaria 

 sinensis, was communicated by the Rev. G. Henslow in the 

 absence of the author. The latter alludes to the fact that the 

 Wistaria, when supported, grows amazingly, but is seedless ; on 

 the contrary, the self-supporting so-called " tree- wistarias " pro- 

 duce seeds abundantly. These cases illustrate the difference 

 between vegetative and reproductive force ; they are not antago- 

 nistic, but supplement each other. While Wistaria flowers 

 freely without seeding, it has been suppose^ this arises from the 

 bees not cross-fertilising. Mr. Meehan submits data, however, 

 in which he thinks the question lies rather in the har- 

 monious relation between the two above nutritive powers than 



with insect poUenisation. — The Rev. M. J. Berkeley in an 

 examination of the fungi collected during the Arctic Expedition 

 1875-76, mentions twenty-six species were obtained, all deter- 

 mined save two. Seven are new species, and seventeen already 

 known widely distributed forms. The Agaricns Feildeni and 

 Urnula Hartii are unusually interesting. — A paper on the deve- 

 lopment of Filaria sanguinis hominis, and on the mosquito con- 

 sidered as a nurse, by Dr. P. Manson, was read by Dr. Cobbold. 

 Discussing general questions, he proceeds to show that the female 

 mosquito, after gorging with human blood, repairs to stagnant 

 water and semi-torpidly digests the blood. Eggs are deposited 

 which float on the water and become the familiar "jumpers" of 

 pools. The filariae thus enter the human system along with the 

 drinking water. Dr. Manson got a Chinaman whose blood was 

 previously ascertained to abound with filariae to sleep in a 

 "mosquito house." In the morning the gorged insects were 

 captured and duly examined under the microscope. A drop of 

 blood from the mosquito was thus found to contain 120 filarise, 

 though a drop from a prick of the man's finger yielded only 

 some thirty. The embryo once taken into the human body by 

 fluid medium pierces the tissues of the alimentary canal. Deve- 

 lopment and fecundation proceed apace, and finally the filariae 

 met with in the human blood are discharged in successive and 

 countless swarms, the genetic cycle being thus completed. — Dr. 

 Cobbold, on his own behalf, further contributed a paper on the 

 life history of Filari(Z bancrojti, as explained by the discoveries 

 of Wucherer, Lewis, Bancroft, Manson, Sonsino, and others. — 

 Mr. Charles C. B. Hobkirk, of Huddersfield, was duly elected 

 a Fellow of the Society. 



Chemical Society, March 7. — Dr. Gilbert, vice-president, 

 in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On some new 

 derivatives of anisoil, by W. H. Perkin. The author has 

 obtained orthovinylanisoil boiling i95°-200° C, sp. gr. at 15, 

 I "0095; orthoallylanisoil, boiling 222°-223° C. sp. gr. at 15, 

 •9972 ; and orthobutenylanisoil, boiling 232^-234° C. sp. gr. at 

 I5> *9^I7. The author compares the physical properties of the 

 ortho- and para- compounds ; the former) boil about 10° lower, 

 have a slightly higher specific gravity, and crystallise with much 

 greater difficulty. — Note on the action of ammonia on anthra- 

 purpurin, by W. H. Perkin. The author has investigated the 

 colouring matters produced by the action of heat on an ammo- 

 niacal solution of anthrapurpurin in sealed tubes at 100° and 

 180° C. At the former temperature an unstable substance was 

 obtained dyeing alumina mordants purple and weak, iron 

 mordants indigo blue. At 180° a new substance, anthrapur- 

 puramide, was formed, which does not dye mordants. — On 

 certain polyiodides, by G. S. Johnson. The author attempted 

 without success to prepare a compound having the composition 

 AgRIg, or a similar substance having thallium in place of silver; 

 various compounds of silver and potassium, thallium and potas- 

 sium, and especially a very complicated substance containing 

 lead, acetic acid, potassium, and iodine were formed and 

 analysed. The latter substance crystallises in square prisms ; 

 of the six phases two have a dark purple and four a greenish 

 golden reflection. — On an improved form of wash-bottle, by T. 

 Bayley. The object of this contrivance is to prevent the reflux 

 of steam or other gases, such as ammonia, into the mouth of the 

 operator, without losing the advantages of the ordinary wash- 

 bottle. — On the preparation of glycollic acid, by R. T. Plimpton. 

 The author endeavoured to prepare this substance by the method 

 recommended bv Prof. Church, but only obtained quantities too 

 small for analysi , using two ounces of oxalic acid. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Society, February 18. — Sir William Thomson in the 

 chair. — Prof. Fleeming Jenkin read a paper on the application 

 of the graphic method to the determination of the efficiency of a 

 direct acting steam-engine. His results show that it is impos- 

 sible to determine by empirical laws the efficiency of an engine 

 as it varies with every change in the rate of action, the point at 

 which the steam is cut off, &c. — Prof. Tait communicated a paper 

 by Mr. Alexander Macfarlane, M.A., B.Sc, on the disruptive 

 discharge of electricity. The difference of potential required to 

 produce a spark between spheres for distances up to 15 centi- 

 metres is proportional to the square root of the distance between 

 their centres and between parallel plates ; it is a hyperbolic func- 

 tion of the distance between them ; for a constant distance it is a 

 similar function of the pressure of the gaseous medium for a 

 range of pressures of from one atmosphere to 20 mm. — Mr. JT. 

 Y. Buchanan, of the Chctllenger, read a paper on the compressi- 



