7o8 



NATURE 



[January 27, 1921 



a method for measuring the electrical resistance 

 of cells and tissues. The crescograph shown by Bose 

 (Calcutta), which is claimed to magnify growth and 

 other movements ten million times, was closely 

 examined and much criticised. Mention may also 

 be made of the display of well-made physiological 

 apparatus by several French and Swiss firms. 



Morpurgo (Turin) showed a number of artificially 

 united rat.pairs (so-called Siamese twins). He finds 

 that when two animals of different size are united 

 the weaker dies from inanition, gs a result of failure 

 to hold its own in the joint distribution of nutritive 

 substances. Rochon-Duvigneaud (Paris) finds that the 

 foveje in the retina of birds may be central, ex- 

 central, or double ; since complete decussation occurs 

 at the optic chiasma, each has a unilateral connec- 

 tion. A communication by Minkowski (Zurich) dealt 

 with the course of the optic fibres in man and other 

 mammals. 



Botazzi (Naples), by very slowly varying its tem- 

 perature, finds that mammalian striated muscle 

 (diaphragm) shows a distinct shortening at o° C. 

 (cold-contracture) and another, already well known, 

 at 45° (heat-contracture). He believes that these 

 changes, which are reversible, are due to the sarco- 

 plasm. Heat rigor (63° C), which is irreversible, he 

 regards as due to contraction of the connective-tissue. 

 Parnas (Warsaw), in his communications on muscle 

 physiology, supported a view which is opposed to 

 that of a' V. Hill on the question of the fate of lactic 

 acid during the relaxation phase, favouring the com- 

 bustion theory. Langley (Cambridge) suggested that 

 muscle atrophy after denervation is due to fatigue 

 (fibrillation), resulting from the irritation set up in 

 the neural region of the muscle. He also spoke upon 

 nerve suture and regeneration. The conditions of 

 industrial fatigue were dealt with in a paper by Lee 

 (New York). 



The question of fat metabolism in its broadest 

 aspect was the subject of a communication by Halli- 

 burton (London), the vitamine problem being specially 

 considered. Gosset, Camus, and Monod (Paris) 

 described a method for obtaining permanent biliary 

 fistulEB in the dog. Both Foa (Parma) and 

 Lombroso (Messina) dealt with the metabolism 

 of fats in the liver; they showed that their 

 destruction is much greater during digestion 

 than during fasting. Lombroso also discussed the 

 action of enterokinase upon the proteolytic activity of 

 pancreatic juice. Brinkman (Groningen) showed that 

 the cholesterol-phosphatide quotient controls the 

 permeability of cell-membranes, those of erythrocytes 

 in particular, and pointed out that this factor is all- 

 important in the pathology of anaemias. The ques- 

 tion of intermediary metabolites and their relation to 

 heat production was dealt with by Graham Lusk 

 (New York), who found that in the dog 58 grams of 

 glucose increased heat production by 43 Calories, 

 while 50 grams of glucose ^lus 8 grams of lactic 

 acid caused an increase of 48 Calories. When lactic 

 acid was replaced by 3 grams of acetic acid, the 

 increase observed was 73 Calories. This last result 

 is similar to that obtained when fat and glucose are 

 metabolised together, and suggests that acetic acid 

 may be an intermediary metabolite of fat, but not of 

 glucose. E. and May Mellanby (London) showed 

 that the cause of rickets is probably want of fat- 

 soluble A vitamine in the diet. When this is lacking 

 the development of bones and teeth is defective. 



With intact kidneys a small dose of uraemic blood 

 causes intense diuresis, while a large dose arrests the 

 flow of urine. After denervation no result is ob- 

 tained. This was demonstrated by Pi Suner and 

 Bellido (Barcelona). 



NO. 2674, VOL. 106] 



Macleod (Toronto) showed that in decerebrate cats 

 the respiratory centre can be stimulated during slight 

 anoxaemia without any decided change in the COj 

 tension or the H-ion concentration of the arterial 

 blood ; greater degrees of anoxaemia cause paralysis 

 of the centre. Krogh (Copenhagen) demonstrated 

 that the respiration of aquatic animals is not in- 

 fluenced by CO2, but only by the amount of oxygen. 

 The same author, employing the frog's tongue, 'finds 

 that capillaries can be caused to dilate independently 

 of the influence of the arterioles supplying the part. 

 Waller (London) described a ready method of deter- 

 ining the COj output under varying conditions of 

 work ; he also demonstrated the electrical emotive 

 response in man. The effect of different kinds of 

 exercise on the respiratory exchange in man was also 

 dealt with by Liljestrand, Linhard, and Stenstrom 

 (Stockholm), and as affected by g\'mnastic exercises 

 by Langlois (Paris). The transport of CO, by haemo- 

 globin formed the subject of a communication by 

 Buckmaster (Bristol). The crystallisation of haemo- 

 globin of the bat was described by Amantea and 

 Kryszkowsky (Rome) ; these authors also dealt with 

 the physiology of spermatozoa. 



The glycogen-content of leucocytes and the nature 

 of amoeboid movement were discussed by de Haan 

 (Groningen) ; amoeboid movement is stated to te 

 dependent partiv on viscositv (colloid) and partiv on 

 HCO, (NaHCd,). De Haan and Feringa produced 

 evidence of the apparent formation of eosinophil 

 leucocytes from lymphocytes. Doyon (Lyons) demon- 

 strated that incoaguiability of the blood after peptone 

 injections is due to an antithrombic substance of 

 nuclear origin — a nucleo-protein — containing 3 per 

 cent, of phosphorus. Nucleinate of soda was also 

 shown to be a strong anti-coagulant. Gautrelet 

 (Paris) found no fatal effects or any alteration in 

 the viscosity or the H-ion concentration of the blood 

 after an intravenous injection of oil (1 c.c. per kilo, 

 body-weight). 



Sharpey Schafer (Edinburgh) proved that the pul- 

 monary blood-vessels are supplied by vaso-motor 

 nerves by showing that stimulation of the depressor 

 nerve causes a fall in pulmonary pressure indepen- 

 dently of the aortic system. He also exhibited cats 

 in which both cervical sympathetics had been cut at 

 an interval of a few weeks, showing paradoxical con- 

 traction of the pupil and dilatation of arterioles on the 

 side of the first section. The mechanism of para- 

 doxical dilatation of the pupil following cocainising of 

 the cervical sympathetic was also discussed in a com- 

 munication sent by Byrne (New York). 



Feenstra (Utrecht) confirms the work of Zwaarde- 

 maker on the inter-availability of potassium and other 

 radio-active salts in Ringer's solution. Dubois and 

 Duvillier (Lille) showed that after section of the 

 cervical cord double vagotomy may still produce 

 cardiac acceleration provided the blood-pressure is 

 sufficiently high. Wertheimer and Boulet (Lille) 

 showed tracings to demonstrate that in frogs poisoned 

 by BaClj it is possible either to provoke or to arrest 

 heart-block bv an induction shock, according to the 

 phase of the normal rhythm at which the heart is 

 stimulated. Barry (Cork) showed in the toad's heart 

 that reversal of action may take place (ventricle 

 beating before auricle) during recovery from the effect 

 of nicotine. Einthoven (Leyden) described _ experi- 

 ments which aopeared to show that the positive elec- 

 trical change during vagal stimulation described bv 

 Gaskell in the tortoise auricle is due to mechanical 

 stretching by contraction of the lung. De Boer 

 (.^msterdam) reported the results of his studv of the 

 effects of varying rates of conduction on the form 

 of the ventricular electrogram. He also described a 



