430 



NATURE 



[April i, 1922 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 



Royal Society, March 9. — Sir Charles Sherrington, 

 president, in the chair. — T. R. Merton and S. Barratt : 

 The spectrum of hydrogen (Bakerian Lecture). The 

 secondary spectrum is characteristic of pure hydrogen 

 and feeble discharges. Impurities weaken it and 

 enhance the Balmer series. The secondary lines are 

 classified in different physically related groups which 

 depend on the pressure of gas, the conditions of 

 excitation, etc. The Balmer series appear in most 

 celestial spectra. There is no evidence of the 

 secondary spectrum in the solar spectrum. Measure- 

 ments of the widths of the Unes by a new method 

 independent of estimates of " limiting visibility " 

 show that the secondary spectrum is due to the 

 molecule. When the current density of electrical 

 discharges through vacuum tubes is great a partial 

 separation of the gases is effected. This may have 

 some bearing on the interpretation of certain celestial 

 spectra. There is much evidence for a specific 

 influence of neighbouring atoms on the spectra 

 emitted. Helium modifies the secondary spectra of 

 both hydrogen and carbon. 



March 16. — Sir Charles Sherrington, president, in 

 the chair. — H. H. Dale and C. H. Kellaway : 

 Anaphylaxis and anaphylatoxins. Guinea-pigs were 

 rendered passively anaphylactic to egg-albumin by 

 injections two days previously of the precipitin 

 for crystalUzed egg -albumin. Intravenous injection 

 of a further dose of the same precipitin, a few 

 minutes before a dose of egg-albumin, suppressed 

 the anaphylactic reaction. Similarly, isolated plain 

 muscle from anaphylactic guinea-pigs suspended in 

 saline solution, was completely protected from the 

 stimulating effect of egg-albumin by adding to the 

 bath the precipitin which caused the anaphylactic 

 condition. The toxicity of so-called " anaphyla- 

 toxins," produced by digesting serum with carbo- 

 hydrate sols, etc., is due to the formation of complexes 

 which keep the foreign colloid finely dispersed. They 

 do not act on isolated plain muscle, as the anaphylactic 

 antigen does, but are active only in the presence of 

 the circulating blood. Their action is attributed to 

 exposure of the blood to a large foreign surface. — 

 J. C. Bramwell and A. V. Hill : The velocity of the 

 pulse wave in man. The velocity of the pulse wave, 

 relative to the blood in the vessel, is given in metres 

 per second, t; = 3-57/ ^/per cent, increase in vo l7~of 

 vessel per mm. of Hg. increase of pressure. An 

 observation of the velocity therefore gives the degree 

 of extensibiUty of the vessel, and is one criterion of 

 an efficient circulation. It is shown that pressure 

 has a considerable effect on the velocity and that the 

 calculated velocity is less than that observed in man. 

 This is attributed to the " elastic after-action." 

 Experiments on an isolated human artery gave a 

 velocity comparable with that observed in man. 

 The transmission of the pulse wave is purely 

 mechanical, its velocity depending on the extensi- 

 bility of the vessels as modified by any condition 

 (muscular or otherwise) pertaining at the moment.- — • 

 A. Fleming : On a new bacteriolytic element found in 

 tissues and secretions. A substance termed a 

 " microzyme " found in tissues and secretions is 

 strongly bacterio-inhibitory, bactericidal, and bacterio- 

 lytic. It is precipitated from albuminous solutions 

 by protein precipitants, is inhibited by 1/800 normal 

 acid or alkali, and will not pass through a collodion 

 membrane.- Filters of porcelain, cotton wool or 

 filter paper absorb microzyme from first portion of 

 fluid filtered, but when saturated the microzyme 



NO. 2735, VOL. 109] 



passes freely. Microzyme affecting Micrococcus 

 lyticus is present in most tissues of the human body. 

 Normal urine, sweat, and cerebro-spinal fluid ap- 

 parently contain none, but tissues of dog, rabbit, and 

 guinea-pig contain microzyme for M. lyticus. Egg- 

 white is very potent, showing lytic action at a dilution 

 of I in 50 millions, and a small amount was found in 

 the turnip. Human secretions contain microzyme 

 exercising lytic action on most bacteria of the 

 laboratory air, on bacteria pathogenic for animals 

 but not pathogenic for man, and on many cocci 

 isolated from the human body. — J. W. Pickering 

 and J. A. Hewitt : The action of " peptone " on blood 

 and immunity thereto. Typical inhibition of the 

 coagulation of the blood can be obtained by the 

 addition of " peptone " to blood in vitro, in quantities 

 no greater than those required to produce inhibition 

 in vivo, pro■^dded the disturbance of the surface 

 conditions of the blood, incidental to shedding, is 

 sufficiently reduced. Leucocytes play no part in the 

 anti-coagulant action of " peptone " on blood. The 

 slow injection of maximal amounts of "peptone" 

 into cats, with the liver out of the circulation, 

 produces typical immunity to anti-coagulant action. 

 A physical explanation is suggested. In the inter- 

 pretation of the coagulation of the blood it is 

 unnecessary to assume the existence of antithrombin, 

 proantithrombin, and antipro thrombin, and current 

 " thrombin theories " become untenable. 



Geological Society, March 8. — Mr. R. D. Oldham, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Baron Francis Nopcsa : 

 On the geological importance of the primitive reptilian 

 fauna in the Upper Cretaceous of Hungary. The 

 Upper Cretaceous of Eastern Hungary can be divided 

 into two horizons, the Cenomanian, Turonian, and 

 Lower Senonian strata, and the uppermost Senonian 

 and the Danian formation. The Danian is a fresh- 

 water deposit that passes downwards by means of 

 brackish-water beds into the marine strata. The 

 vertebrate fauna of the freshwater beds has, despite 

 its Upper Cretaceous age, a strikingly Jurassic 

 aspect. It contains primitive tortoises, a Campto- 

 saurian Dinosaur, a primitive Trachodon, a Sauro- 

 podous Dinosaur, an armoured Dinosaur, and a 

 Pterosaurian. Isolation during the whole of the 

 Cretaceous Period caused a dwarfing of the larger 

 animals (Dinosaurs) but did not affect the smaller 

 forms (crocodiles and tortoises). In consequence of 

 a general uplift at the dawn of the Eocene and the 

 cooling of the climate, nearly the whole of this fauna 

 became extinct. Crocodiles which were adapted to 

 a warm-blooded diet survived until the Miocene 

 Period, and only retired to the tropics when the 

 climate became so cold that the palms vanished from 

 Europe. 



Optical Society, March 9. — Sir Frank Dyson, 

 president, in the chair. — T. Smith and J. S. Anderson : 

 A criticism of the nodal sUde as an aid in testing' 

 photographic lenses. The nodal slide is only con- 

 venient for the examination of lenses over their entire 

 field when these are of normal type unless supple- 

 mented by suitable Unkages. Collimators and lenses 

 should in general be so directed that all useful light 

 passes through them as symmetrically about their 

 axes as possible. — A. J. Bull : A non-polarising 

 spectrophotometer. Uniform monochromatic patches 

 of colour are compared, instead of the more usual 

 arrangement of two portions of a spectrum. The 

 upper half of a spectrum undergoes selective absorp- 

 tion by the material under test, and a region of the 

 spectrum is selected by a sUt. A split lens then forms 

 two images of the dispersing prism face which are 

 brought together by a rhomb-like prism with slightly 

 unequal angles. Photometric balance is obtained by 



