February 9, 1922] 



NATURE 



193 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 

 ^ Royal Society, February 2.— Sir Charles Sherrington, 

 isident, in the chair. ^ — C. Shearer : The oxidation 

 :esses of the echinoderm egg during fertilisation. 

 ie oxygen consumption and the carbon dioxide out- 

 of the eggs of the sea-urchin E. microtubercu- 

 during fertilisation have been measured by means 

 a special form of the Barcroft differential mano- 

 »ter. An immediate consumption of oxygen and a 

 rresponding output of carbon dioxide take place on 

 sperm being added to the eggs. At the end of 

 minute this increase is equivalent to a rise in the 

 Stabolic rate of the egg of more than 8000 per cent. 

 :tions of fixed material preserved during different 

 tervals of the process of fertilisation show that this 

 {brought about by the contact of the sperm with 

 external surface of the egg-membrane. The fusion 

 Hhe rnale and female pronuclei in the later phases 

 >f fertilisation is without any influence on the curve 

 of the oxygen consumption. The dipeptide glutathione 

 is present in both ripe germ-cells of the sea-urchin 

 E. miliaris, but one minute after fertilisation it is 

 found in much greater quantity in the egg in reduced 

 form, and evidence shows that it plays a very im- 

 portant, if not the chief, part in the oxidation pro- 

 cesses taking place.— J. Schmidt : The breeding-places 

 of the eel. The common or fresh-water eel (Anguilla 

 angiiiUa or .4. vulgaris) of Europe has only one breed- 

 ing area, as determined by the distribution of the 

 larvae, situated in the western Atlantic, south-east of 

 Bermuda. The larvae are pelagic, and are carried to 

 ihe east and north-east by the Atlantic current; their 

 L^rowth and the metamorphosis into the "elver," or 

 young eel, are described ; the elvers are three years 

 old. The breeding area of the American eel (.4. 

 chrysypa) is south-west of that of the European eel, 

 but overlaps it ; in the American eel growth of the 

 larvae is nmch more rapid than in the European 

 -'wxnes, and the elvers are only one year old. This 

 I'lains why the European eel is not found in 

 iierican rivers or the American eel in Europe; 

 ;l larvae of the American eel are carried eastwards, 

 ilic metamorphosis takes place in the middle of the 

 Atlantic; it larvae of the European eel go north or 

 north-west, they reach the American coast two years 

 Ixfore the metamorphosis is due. — J. Gray: The 

 nuchanism of ciliary movement. Pts. i and 2. The 

 rale of beat of the cilia on the gills of OlytUus edulis 

 I an be controlled by adjusting the hydrogen-ion con- 

 uration of the cell interior. The amplitude of the 

 at can be controlled by an alteration in the osmotic 

 I'M ssure of the external medium. The cilium is essen- 

 tially a bundle of elastic fibres the tension of which 

 varies during the different phases of the beat. The 

 activity of cilia and muscle-cells depends on similar 

 conditions and mechanisms. The normal properties 

 of the cell-membrane are maintained only in the 

 presence of divalent cations. Ciliated cells are 

 l>< rmeable to monovalent cations, but not to anions. 

 Ciliary activity may persist when the normal semi- 

 ixiineable properties of the cell-wall have been 

 licstroyed— J. S. Huxley and L. T. Hogben : Experi- 

 ments on amphibian metamorphosis and pigment 

 responses in relation to internal secretions. Sala- 

 mandra and Triton larvae may be metamorphosed by 

 immersion in a dilute solution of iodine. iMeta- 

 niorphosis is retarded by low temperature; high tem- 

 perature at first causes increased growth ot the gills. 

 Sexually mature Axolotls can be made to undergo 

 rapid metamorphosis by means of a thyroid diet. 

 Metamorphosis is accompanied by exophthalmos, 

 apparently in all Amphibia. Iodine free of organic 

 NO. 2728, VOL. 109] 



combination, and fresh glandular substance of the 

 prostate and pituitary anterior lobe, are without effect 

 on the metamorphosis of the Axolotl. Pituitary 

 feeding produces a marked temporary dilatation, fol- 

 lowed by excessive contraction of the dermal melano- 

 phores in albino Axolotls. Adrenal medulla extract 

 produces, temporarily, complete contraction of the 

 dermal melanophores in the Axolotl. Pineal adminis- 

 tration rapidly causes a striking transient contraction 

 of the dermal melanophores in frog tadpoles, but has 

 no effect on the melanophores of the Axolotl. Seven 

 months' thyroid feeding was not accompanied by any 

 noteworthy somatic changes in Necterus. 



Royal Meteorological Society, January i8.— Mr. R. H. 

 Hooker, president, in the chair. — R. H. Hooker : The 

 weather and the crops in eastern England, 1885-192 1. 

 The objects of the inquiry were : (i) To determine by 

 the method of correlation, on the basis of the thirty- 

 five years 1885-19 19, which were the critical periods 

 in the growth ot farm crops ; {2) to ascertain how 

 far each such period was responsible for the actual 

 crops harvested in each year. Wheat is most seriously 

 affected by wet weather at sowing in autumn and 

 winter, while warmth in winter is beneficial. The 

 chief requirement of barley is a cool, dry early 

 summer, whereas for oats the same period should 

 be wet and cool. Turnips need rain about June, but 

 cool weather is even more important ; for hay the 

 fundamental necessity is rain in the late spring. A 

 cool summer is more important than rainfall for 

 almost all crops except hay, and even that is 

 the better for cool weather. The requirements oi 

 potatoes are practically the opposite of all other crops. 

 For quality of seed, absence of rain, and in some 

 cases warmth, is desirable. One feature strongly 

 emerges, viz. that so far as regards bulk of corn the 

 east of England is too wet (except for oats and beans) 

 and too warm. The worst years, particularly 1893 

 and 191 1, were due to hot, dry summers, and the 

 same feature was the cause of the generally bad 

 crops of 1921, though wheat, which withstands heat 

 and drought well, was a record. As a type of a good 

 all-round year 1902 was selected ; it was charac- 

 terised by prolonged cool weather throughout the 

 spring and summer, accompanied by rain until June, 

 and followed by dry weather. In the east of Eng- 

 land 1920 had a cool summer, only partly spoilt by 

 rain in July, and the resultant crops were mostly 

 good. The fifteen years 1895-1910 were mostly a 

 period of good crops, but in the last seven or eight 

 years there have been a succession of very unfavour- 

 able weather' conditions, notable chiefly for dry, v^arm 

 springs. 



Geological Society, January 18.— Mr. R. D. Oldham, 

 president, in the chair. — A. C. Seward and R. E. 

 Holttum : Jurassic plants from Ceylon. The plant- 

 impressions are from a shale resting upon Archaean 

 rocks at Tabbowa, in the North-Western Province of 

 Ceylon. These are the first fossil plants recorded from 

 the island. The plant-bearing beds coincide, both in 

 the composition of the flora and in their relation to 

 the older igneous rocks, with those of Madras. — 

 F. S. Wallis : The Carboniferous Limestone (Avonian) 

 of Broadfield Down (Somerset). Lithologically and 

 palasontologically the area holds an intermediate 

 position, and forms a link, between the developments 

 of the Bristol and the Mendip districts. A well- 

 marked faunal assemblage is described from the top 

 of S,. It constitutes a very useful field determination 

 of the datum-line between the S, and S, sub-zones. 

 Pustula elegans (M'Coy) from the S, sub-zone and the 

 sub-zones Z, and D, are recorded lor the first time 

 from this area. 



