November i8, 1920] 



NATURE 



393 



ferent in their mode of calcification. The distribution 

 and proportions of the three kinds of cartilage com- 

 posinj« the centrum are of greater morphological im- 

 portance than the disposition of the calcified lamellae 

 in them, and the difference between chorda-centra and 

 arco-centra is relative rather than absolute. In some 

 cases (Lamnidae) the centra possess so little sheath- 

 cartilage that they .ipproach the arco-centra of Esox 

 and .\mia. — Dr. \. Coinpton : Studies in the mechanism 

 of enzyme action. I. : R6\e of the reaction of the 

 medium in fixing the optimum temperature of a fer- 

 ment.— C. H. Kellaway : The effect of certain dietary 

 deficiencies on the suprarenal glands. Changes in the 

 size and adrenalin content of the suprarenal glands 

 of pigeons were found constantly when the diet con- 

 sisted of polished rice alone, or when an adequate ration 

 of protein or of fat was added to the dietary, and were 

 associated with the appearance of polyneuritis. The 

 daily administration of a sufficient amount of " Mar- 

 mite " to the diet of polished rice prevented these 

 changes from occurring. .-\n attempt was made to 

 expl.iin the enlargement of the adrenals as being due 

 partly to congestion and oedema of the gland-tissues, 

 and partly to the storage in the cortex of the gland 

 of lipoids set free by the breaking down of body- 

 tissues. The investigation of the cholesterol content 

 of the adrenals of normal and polyneuritic birds did 

 not support this theory of lipoid storage. The in- 

 creased residual content of adrenalin was attributed 

 to diminished output of adrenalin, as a result of the 

 greativ lowered metabolism in birds fed on deficiency 

 dietaries. The histological appearances of the glands 

 suggested obstruction of the venous outflow from the 

 mi'dulla by cortical hypcrtropy as an additional cause. 

 O'xlema in birds fed on deficient diets was of infre- 

 quent occurrence, and could not be produced bv the 

 daily administration of large doses of adrenalin. It 

 does not appear to be causallv related to an increased 

 output of adrenalin. K. J. Collins : The genetics of 

 sex in Funaria hyf<rometrica. Cultures of F. hvffro. 

 metrica from snores reproduce<l the normal monoecious 

 plants ; vegetative cultures derived from the anthcridia 

 and the surrounding " perigonial " leaves of the male 

 " inflorescence " produced male plants only, pointing 

 to the probability that a separation takes place such 

 that the element uoon which the monoecious condition 

 depends is dropped out of those cells from which the 

 male organ with its surrounding leaves is formefl. 

 Vegetative cultures from the archegonium and the sur- 

 rounding " perirhaetial " leaves have been made, and 

 h.ive produced typical monoecious plants. The con- 

 clusion is that up to the point of the formation of the 

 fem.'ile organ the cells of the haploid gametophvtic 

 phase retain the power to produce mona-cious plants, 

 whereas the leaves surrounding the male organ have 

 lost this power. S'v-t.nr.nritifin here orriirs in a 

 haploid tissue. 



Qcoloftical S»ck«>. N,,v.„,n. r ,?. Mr. K. I). Oldham, 

 presiflent, in the chair. Miss M. E. J. Chandler: The 

 Arctic flora of the Cam Valley at Barnwell, Cambridge. 

 The Pleistocene loams and gravels at Barnwell, Cam- 

 bridge, contain peat-seams showinp variations in 

 character which are probably d'tiendent on the ordinnrv 

 laws of transport by water. These seams have ad<led 

 numerous new plants to the small flora previously 

 known to occur therein, so that the floral list now 

 includes about eightv-ninc species. The plants iden- 

 tified were grouped as follows : fi) The .\rrtic element. 

 d) The plants of wider distribution, (i) The southern 

 element, f4) The calcareous-soil element. f.O The 

 ' >tuarine element. .Nttenlion is dirertetl to the com- 

 [p|exit\ i)f the flora because of its bearinir on the whole 

 miestion of peat drp<isits in river-gravels. The .\rclic 

 f1(iras of the I.ea and Cam Valley differ in the occur- 



NO. 2664, VOX,. 1061 



rence, to a great extent, of different plants and plant- 

 families in the two cases, and in the more pronounced 

 -Vrctic character, exotic element, and calcareous- 

 soil element in the Barnwell flora. If the floras lived 

 during different cold periods, their discrepancies could 

 be explaineil by an appeal to the interval of time 

 which separated them ; if, as seems more probable 

 from stratigraphical evidence, they lived during the 

 same cold period and were approximately contem- 

 porary, the gradual oncoming or decline of the cold, 

 together with the respective geographical situations in 

 the two cases, would probably be a sufficient explana- 

 tion of their points of dissimilarity. 



Ariitotelian Society, November 8.— The Very Rev. W. R. 

 Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, president, in the chair. — 

 W. R. Inge: Inaugural presidential address on "Is 

 the Time Series Reversible? " The kinematograph 

 has illustrated the possibility of observing events in 

 a reversed time order ; is it possible that we might 

 actually move through time in a reversed order so 

 that effects would be thought of as causes? If the 

 positions of earlier and later and of past and future 

 ■ belong to appearance, and not to reality, the real order 

 will be a series, but a series without change and with- 

 out time. The psychological theory of the "specious 

 present " was criticised, and also the scientific con- 

 cept of cause. In regard to the first, it was sug- 

 gested that our consciousness of the present is our 

 point of contact with supra-temporal existence, and 

 that our tendency to identify this experience with the 

 moving line which divides past from future is an 

 error. Immediacy belongs only to a supra-temporal 

 mode of intuition. With regard to the conception of 

 causation, it had been almost driven out of natural 

 science, and it would be a good thing if it were 

 driven out of philosophy too. Time-succession seems 

 to belong to a half-real world and to share its self- 

 contradictions. We are partly in this half-real world 

 and partly out of it. We are enough out of it to 

 know that we are blind on one side, which we 

 should never know if time were real, and we inside it. 



CAMnRIDCE. 



Philoiophicai Society, October 25.- Mr. C. T. R. 

 Wilson, president, in the chair. — K. Tamakl and 

 W. J. Harrison : The stability of the steady motion 

 of viscous liquid contained between two rotating co. 

 axial circular cylinders. It is shown that the steady 

 motion is unstable for one particular type of disturb- 

 ance, and that a considerable degree of viscosity is 

 needed to give stability in the case of some other 

 modes of disturbance. It is not possible to dis- 

 criminate on a theoretical basis between the relative 

 stabilities when the inner cylinder is rotating and the 

 outer fixed, and vice versa. A criterion suggested by 

 Prof. Lamb is discusstMl. Further, an explanation is 

 given of the apparent discrepancy between the con- 

 clusion of Reynolds that a certain degree of viscosity 

 is necessary for stability and the conclusion of Lord 

 Rayleigh that certain steady motions of an inviscid 

 liquid are stable, without making the assumption that 

 there is a finite difference in l>ehaviour between a 

 vi.scous and a non-viscous liquid. M. M. RIesi and 

 Prof. G. H. Hardy : Le principe de Phragm^n- 

 Lindelof.— G. P. Tliomson : \ note on the nature of 

 the carriers of the anode ravs.- M. M. Cramir : The 

 distribution of primes.— Prof. G. FI. Hardy: Note on 

 Ramanujan's trigonometrical function (,(«), and cer- 

 tain series of arithmetical functions. -L. J. Mordell : 

 The representation of an algebraic number as a sum 

 of four squares. Major P. .\. MacMahoB : The parity 

 of the number which enumerates the partition^ of a 

 number. 



