250 



NATURE 



[February 23, r92 2 



hypertrophy of interstitial cells is more marked in 

 fragments with improved blood-supply. Hypertrophy 

 appears to be independent of the internal secretory 

 function of the testicle in its relation to the organism 

 as a whole, and is a response to local conditions. 



Linnean Society, February 2. — Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, president, in the chair, — F. Johansen : The 

 Canadian Arctic Expedition of 19 13-18. The expedi- 

 tion started from Vancouver in the Karluk for Nome, 

 in Alaska, where the equipment was procured. One 

 party, under Mr. Stefansson, on the Karluk was caught 

 in the ice in September, 1913, and carried westward 

 until the vessel sank, in alsout 73° N. lat. and~ 

 i6o°-i65° W. long. The party camped on an ice- 

 floe, and the survivors reached Siberia in March, 

 1914, and Nome in May. Stefansson later organised 

 a new search-party to proceed by sledge across 

 Banks Land; he explored Parry Islands, dis- 

 covering coal in Melville Island. Coasts hitherto un- 

 mapped were surveyed, and much geological and bio- 

 logical material was gathered, as well as many im- 

 plements used by Esquimaux. — J. C. Willis and G. U. 

 Yule : Some statistics of evolution and geographical 

 distribution in plants and animals and their signifi- 

 cance. The general result seertis to show that 

 evolution and geographical distribution have proceeded 

 in a chiefly mechanical way, the effects of the various 

 "other" factors that intervene— climatic, ecological, 

 geological, etc.— being only to bring about deviations 

 this way and that from the dominant plan. Every 

 family and every genus, and in every country, be- 

 haves in the same way. Strong evidence is thus given 

 for de Vries's theory of mutation and for Guppy's 

 theory of differentiation (see Nature, February 9, 

 p. lyy). — Mrs. E. M. Reid : Note on the hollow curve 

 as shown bv Pliocene floras. The material was that 

 published from Tegelen, Castle Eden, etc. Fossil 

 floras take their appropriate place alongside living 

 floras, bringing direct evidence from the host to show 

 the universality of the law of hollow-curve dis- 

 tribution. 



Aristotelian Society, February 6.— Prof. Wildon Carr 

 in the chair. — A. H. Hannay : Standards and principles 

 in art. The problem of standards and objectivity in 

 art is usually debated on the basis of standards and 

 objectivity or no standards and subjectivity. Each 

 new and individual work of art carries with it its 

 own individual and original awareness. This view 

 does not necessitate a lapse into subjectivism if it is 

 realised that the awareness or taste is itself a striving 

 for objectivity and rightness. The search for stan- 

 dards is the outcome of this incessant quest for right 

 taste. Beauty is not entirely unique and indefinable. 

 It is a process, a constructing, and can be differen- 

 tiated from other processes such as history, science, 

 and philosophy. Actually, modern criticism is full 

 of psychological analyses which definitely involve 

 reflective principles, but they are distinct from the 

 old standards, for they do not pretend to anticipate 

 the individual content of works of art. But do they 

 precede, accompany, or follow upon aesthetic creation 

 and appreciation ? It Is accepted that they are a later 

 product, and this view has been stated very lucidly 

 by Benedetto Croce, Yet history does not confirm 

 it, and It does not explain the fact that criticism 

 clarifies taste. It is suggested that the process 

 imagination-principle is not a passage from one in- 

 dependent activity to another, but a development 

 which requires both activities and in which a modifica- 

 tion in one means a modification In the other. The 

 critic emphasised the universal element, while the 

 artist emphasised the Individual element. 



Zoological Society, February 7. — Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, vice-president, in the chair, — C. W. Hobley : 

 NO. 2730, VOL. 109] 



The fauna of East Africa and its future. Special 

 attention was directed to the need for Immediate 

 action to preserve the herds of big game from total 

 extinction. — Miss L. E. Cheesman : The position and 

 function of the siphon in the amphibious mollusc 

 Ampullaria vermiformis. — J. Stephenson : Contribution 

 to the morphology, classification, and zoogeography of 

 Indian Oligochaeta. IV. : The diff'use production of 

 sexual cells In a species of Chaetogaster (fam. 

 Naldldae). V. : Drawida japonica, MIchlsn., a con- 

 tribution to the anatomy of the Moniligastridae. 

 VI. : The relationships of the genera of Moniligas- 

 tridae, with some considerations on the origin of 

 terrestrial Oligochaeta. 



Physical Society, February 10. — Dr. A, Russell, 

 president, in the chair. — E. A. Owen and Bertha 

 Naylor : The measurement of the radium content of 

 sealed metal tubes. Tables have been compiled giving 

 the corrections to be applied to the observed radium 

 content of sealed platinum and silver tubes to obtain 

 their true radium content. Two cases have been con- 

 sidered : (a) that In which the active deposit is uni- 

 formly distributed throughout the volume of the tube, 

 and (b) that in which the active deposit Is uniformly 

 distributed over the inner wall of the tube. With 

 constant wall-thickness the correction increases with 

 the external diameter of the tube, and for the same 

 increase of external diameter the increase of correc- 

 tion is more pronounced for the " empty " than for 

 the full tube.— Sir William Bragg : The crystal struc- 

 ture of Ice. The methods of X-ray analysis have been 

 applied to ice by Ancel St. John and by D. M. Den- 

 nison. The former refers the structure to a lattice 

 composed of right triangular prisms of side 474 A.U. 

 and height 665 A.U. ; the latter to a similar lattice 

 of dimensions 4-52 A.U. and 7-32 A.U. respectively. 

 The arrangement of the atoms was not found. On 

 certain suppositions the arrangement can be found 

 independently of direct X-ray analysis. Assume that 

 each positive ion Is surrounded symmetrically by 

 negative ions, and vice versa ; and, in view of the 

 low density of ice, let the number of neighbours be 

 in each case as small as possible. The crystal is to 

 be hexagonal and to have the right density. Then 

 each oxygen atom Is at the centre of gravity of four 

 neighbouring oxygens, from each of which it is 

 separated by a hydrogen atom. The dimensions of 

 the structure agree with Dennison's figures, and the 

 calculated Intensities of reflection agree well with 

 the observed Intensities recorded bv Dennison. — Kerr 

 Grant : A method of exciting vibrations In plates, 

 membranes, etc., based on the Bernoulli principle. 

 A plate placed close to a flanged orifice from which 

 a stream of air or liquid Is issuing is attracted 

 towards the orifice. If the plate be mounted as a 

 diaphragm it can be excited to strong vibration by a 

 suitable blast, and a loud sound is produced with high 

 efficiency. 



Faraday Society, February 13.— Prof. A. W. Porter, 

 president, in the chair.— J. R. Partington : The energy 

 of gaseous molecules. The translational and rotational 

 energies of gases are, at ordinary temperatures, ap- 

 proximately represented by the theory of equipartition, 

 and any excess of C„ over 6 may be put down to 

 internal motions. This excess is parallel to the 

 activities of the gases. The translational energy may 

 be represented on the quantum theory with a fre- 

 quency equal to the collision frequency. The value 

 of n in the equation n = tio(T/„3)'». representing the 

 effect of temperature on the viscosity, is related to the 

 critical pressure (p, In atm.) by the empirical equa^ 

 tlon n=o-642+oooi 16 ^^+00000399 />/. The mole- 

 cular heat of hydrogen may be represented empirically 



