April 8, 1922] 



NA TURE 



463 



_ independent of the purity. It is found that the 



" )urer water can be broken into finer drops. Charges 



ire obtained about ten times as great as any reported 



)reviously. The probable charge produced by the 



itural breaking up of a rain-drop of 4 mm. diameter 



0-2 e.s. unit per c.c. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, March 20. — Prof. F. O. Bower, 

 [president, in the chair. — Address by Sir Chafles 

 Sherrington: Some points regarding present-day 

 ^ views of reflex action. More attention is being paid 

 [now than formerly to the intimate nature of the 

 )rocesses in the nervous centres during reflex action. 

 The question has been raised as to whether the 

 sential elements of reflex action as unfolded in the 

 jflex centre itself contain any wliich are funda- 

 tnentally different from the properties shown by 

 'imple peripheral nerve-muscle preparations. The 

 isemblance between the neuro-muscular junction 

 id the synapse suggests that the latter, like the 

 )rmer, is a junctional region exhibiting decremental 

 conduction of the nervous impulse. Then much of 

 'le summation observable in the nervous centre 

 Fcould be accounted for by such timing in the sequence 

 of centripetal impulses that the successive impulses 

 fell in the conducting path at such frequency as to 

 coincide with the period of supranormal phase in the 

 conducting fibre. The larger impulses thus resulting 

 would pass through the decremental block that suffices 

 to extinguish smaller ones. A somewhat slow 

 frequency of stimulus rhythm would thus succeed 

 in making a stimulus effective which had been at the 

 outset ineffective. Conversely a frequency of serial 

 stimuli, each singly effective, but so timed as to 

 follow one upon another at such interval as to fall 

 within the period of relative refractory phase of the 

 precedent impulse, would lead to impulses of sub- 

 normal extent. These on arriving at a region of 

 decrement, a synapse, would fail to pass. A neurone 

 occupied by such subnormal impulses would form 

 a complete inhibitory block to any reflex arc of 

 wliich it formed a link. Thus central inhibition 

 could be established by successive impulses, the 

 interval between which lay outside the period of 

 absolute refractory phase but not so far outside as 

 to escape that of relatively refractory phase. Lucas 

 offers an explanation of reciprocal innervation by 

 such rhythmic impulse adjustments as involve inter- 

 ference of impulses of this nature. By invoking 

 changes in the degree of decrement in the decre- 

 mentally conducting regions the reversal of reflex 

 action can be explained. Thus A. Forbes accounts 

 for the changing of reflex excitation into reflex 

 inhibition by assuming that the intensity of decre- 

 ment is increased by such agents as chloroform and 

 ether. The similar reversal by fatigue lends itself 

 to a similar explanation. Such properties, observ- 

 able in the simple nerve-muscle preparation itself, 

 can be made to explain the main essential features 

 ot action of the nerve-centres. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 6. — M. Emile Bertin 

 in the chair. — The secretary announced the death 

 of M. Max. Noether, correspondent for the section 

 of geometry. — G. Julia : New apphcations of con- 

 formal representation with functional equations. — 

 H. Villat : A new problem concerning analytical 

 functions and conformal representation. — R. 

 Lagrange : The application of varieties of order p 

 in an x space of n order. — B. Gambier : Point corre- 

 spondence deduced from the study of the three 

 fundamental quadratic forms 01 two surfaces. — A. 

 Planiol : Organic yield of internal combustion 



NO. 2736, VOL. 109] 



motors. — G. Camichel : Surfaces of discontinuity. — 

 C. Nordmann and Le Morvan : Observation of a 

 singular phenomenon presented by the star Q of the 

 Great Bear. From its spectrum, this star should 

 belong to the solar type, but the intensity distribution 

 in its spectrum corresponds with an effective tempera- 

 ture near that of the very hot hydrogen stars. — G. 

 Pr6vost : Determination of the coefficients in the 

 development in Laplace polynomials of a function 

 of two variables. — M. Labussiere : The geometrical 

 existence of a general invariant of pencils of rays 

 refracted according to Descartes' law, and its apphca- 

 tions to geometrical optics and to radiation. — E. 

 Belin : The telegraphic transmission of photographs, 

 drawings, or manuscripts. The original is converted 

 into a reUef photograph on bichromate gelatine paper, 

 and a stylus connected with a microphone is moved 

 over this reUef. Special arrangements are described 

 for ensuring the synchronism of the transmitting and 

 receiving mechanism. The efficiency of the apparatus 

 has been proved by trials in America and in France. — 

 G. Claude : The elimination of the heat of reaction 

 in the synthesis of ammonia at very high pressures. — 

 G. Chaudron and G. Juge-Boirard : The estimation 

 of sulphur in iron pyrites. In the method in current 

 use (solution in aqua regia) some sulphur occasionally 

 separates. It has been found that by allowing the 

 reaction to proceed at the ordinary temperature 

 for 12 hours this error can be avoided. — H. de 

 Pommereau : The reduction of ethyl benzoate and 

 of some other benzene compounds by sodium and 

 absolute alcohol. With ethyl benzoate ^ the chief 

 product is tetrahydrobenzylic acid, witfi a small 

 proportion of -tetrahydrobenzyl alcohol as a secondary 

 product. — M. Sommelet and J. Guioth : The formic 

 hydrogenation of the quaternary salts of hexa- 

 methylenetetramine. Hexamethylenetetramine chlor- 

 benzylate boiled with formic acid gives a slow 

 evolution of carbon dioxide. When gas ceases to be 

 evolved, dimethylbenzylamine, CgHj • CH, • N(CH3)2, 

 can be isolated, in quantity corresponding with 

 60-70 per cent, of the theoretical yield. — A. AUix : 

 Observations on relief sculpture by ice. — A. Guillier- 

 mond and G. Mangenot : The signification of the 

 reticular apparatus of Golgi. It has been suggested 

 that Golgi's apparatus has no real existence in the 

 living plant and is caused by the preparation and 

 staining of the section. With barley root as material, 

 Golgi's experiments were repeated and confirmed, 

 using not only Golgi's method, admittedly open to 

 objection, but also the more certain technique of 

 Cajal and Da Fano. — P. Georgevitch : The origin 

 of the centrosome and the formation of the spindle 

 in Stypocaulon scoparium. — Mme. A. Pruvot : A new 

 and remarkable type of Gymnosome (Loginiopsis). 

 A description of a new type of Gasteropod collected 

 during the voyages of the Prince of Monaco in the 

 region of the Azores. At the point where the mouth 

 is usually situated tliis animal carries an appendix, 

 in length about one-third that of the body. This is 

 expanded near the summit into three fleshy lobes. — 

 F. Maignon : The utilisation of the tissue diastases for 

 the determination of the organ, the functional in- 

 sufficiency of which is the cause of a pathological 

 state. The application of this clinical method to 

 the study of the physiological role of certain organs. 

 Basedow's disease was proved to be caused not by 

 the condition of the thyroid gland alone, since a 

 mixture of diastases from the thyroid, ovary, 

 and suprarenal glands was required to abate the 

 symptoms-. Eczema yielded to treatment with 

 hepatic diastases, either alone, or mixed with diastase 

 from other organs. — J. Benoit : The physiological 

 conditions relating to the periodic nuptial adornment 

 in birds. There is a close connection between the 



