4IO 



NATURE 



[December 9, 1915 



duction and oxidisation of organic compounds of 

 arsenic; S. Reich, Nitration of phenylpropiolic acid ; 

 P. Dutoit, On the mechanism of the formation of 

 certain precipitates ; E. Briner, On the formation and 

 the decomposition of the metallic carbures ; O. Kaiser, 

 On the hydrocarbons in coal ; M. Duboux, On a 

 differential calorimeter; G. de MontmoUin and O. 

 Billeter, The action of cyanide of benzine-sulphonyle 

 on sulphuretted compounds ; A. Pictet and T. Q. 

 Chou, Direct formation of aHialoids starting with 

 albumines ; L. Pelct, On the theory of dyeing. 



(5) Botany. — A. Ernst, Researches into Chara 

 crinata; C. Schroter, Recent researches in botanic 

 geography in North America ; P. Jaccard, On the 

 distribution of medullar rays in the conifers ; B. P. G. 

 Hochreutiner, On certain new species of Malvaceae ; 

 G. Senn, The distribution of chromotophores in 

 marine algae ; E. Kelhofer, Wooded and cultivated 

 parts of the Jura near Schaffhausen ; M. Rikli, The 

 flora of Crete ; A. Trondle, On the permeability of 

 the tip of the root; M. Jjiggli, The delta of the 

 Maggia and its vegetation ; J. Briquet, The vegetable 

 parts of the Cruciferae sempervivoides. 



(6) Zoology.— Dr. Thomas, A critical study of 

 mountain sickness ; P. Revilliod, Preliminary note on 

 the osteology of the fossil Chiropterae in Tertiary 

 beds; J. Roux, The family of the Atyidae; E. A. Goldi, 

 Comparative development in the sexual reproduction 

 of plants and animals ; A. Oswald, On the action of 

 the glands of internal secretion on the circulation ; 

 A. Burdet, The birds of the island of Texel, Holland; 

 O. E. Imhof, The molluscs of our Alpine lakes ; 

 H. Blanc, Contribution to the anatomy of Chlamydo- 

 phorus trimcatns ; L. Ascher, (a) The factors deter- 

 mining the internal secretion of the glandula supra- 

 renales, (b) the innervation of ^he liver; (c) the 

 acoustic properties of the canales semi-circulares ; 

 A. Lipschiitz, The importance of physiology In the 

 study of development; E. Yung, The effects of inani- 

 tion on the cell ; A. Gandolfi, Observations on the 

 distribution of Daphnia hyalina in the Lake Leman ; 

 E. Andre, The balantidium of the amphibians. 



(7) Entomology. — C. Emery, History of an experi- 

 mental society of amazon ants; J. L. Reverdin, Re- 

 vision of the palaeoarctic species Hesperia ; E. A. 

 Goldi, New discoveries in the origin of sex, the 

 determination of sex, and the proportion of the sexes 

 in insect states, particularly in the cases of the honey- 

 bee and the neotropic ants; F. Ris, Census of the 

 Swiss Plecoptera by F. J. Pictet in 1841 and nowa- 

 days ; O. Schneider-Orelli, On the biology of 

 Phylloxera vastatrix ; F. Brocher, The circulation of 

 the blood in the wings of the Dyticidae ; C. Ferri^re, 

 The utilisation of insects which eat other insects; H. 

 Faes, On the value of the powder of pyrethra obtained 

 from indigenous plants for insecticide purposes ; A. 

 Pictet, Hereditary and individual reactions in insects. 



(8) Anthropology and Ethnography. — Dr. Lardy, 

 The grotto of Cotanchere; H. Lagotala, Study of a 

 hundred Genevese femurs; Dr. Montandon, The in- 

 struments of music in the ethnographic museum at 

 Geneva ; R. Montandon, The handling of stones at 

 the Moustierian station of Rebi^res ; Prof. Schlagin- 

 haufen. The Neolithic lake-dwellings of Egolzwil ; 

 E. Matthias, The influence of physical exercise on 

 growth ; A. Schultz, New projective measurements of 

 the skull ; H. Hoessly, Craniological investigations 

 among the east Eskimos, after the Greenland ex- 

 pedition of 1912 ; A. Cartier, The chief discoveries at 

 the Magdalenian station of Veyrier; E. Pittard, 

 Castration and the morphological modifications which 

 it causes in man. 



On September 13 and 15 lectures were given to the 

 assembled society in the Aula of the University. 



NO. 2406, VOL. 96] 



Prof. Emile Yung, the eminent Genevan zoologist, 

 gave an interesting account of the first century of 

 the society, and laid before the meeting the Livre du 

 centenaire. The venerable geologist. Prof. Albert 

 Heim, the friend of Forel, spoke on fresh light in 

 the investigation of the Jura Mountains ; Prof. P. L. 

 Mercanton, of Lausanne, reported on forty years' 

 mensuration of the Rhone glacier; Dr. Fritz Sarasin, 

 of Basel, the well-known traveller and archaeologist, 

 gave a lecture, with lantern-slides, on an archi- 

 pelago in the Pacific Ocean — the Loyalty Isles ; and 

 Dr. E. Riibel, of Zurich, spoke of the international 

 botano-geographic expedition to North America, also 

 with magic lantern. But the most remarkable was 

 the opening discourse of the president. Prof. Ame 

 Pictet, of Geneva. It dealt with molecular structure 

 and its influence on life and death. What, he asks, 

 is it that renders matter living? And, again, what 

 is it that renders some matter injurious and some 

 harmless or beneficial? To study these profound 

 questions. Prof. Pictet turns to the vegetable world, 

 as more fundamental in the scale of life than the 

 more dependent animal realm. It is the plants, 

 indeed, that are able to perform the synthesis of 

 organic substances on which all life seems to depend. 

 In the vegetable world it is the group of poisons 

 known as, the alkaloids which have yielded up their 

 secret to Prof. Pictet's patient study. His theory is 

 that it is to the molecular constitution that we must 

 look. It has been shown that all the organic com- 

 pounds known belong to two types of molecular 

 structure : (i) open chains, and (2) closed chains. 

 These two classes of compounds are separated by a 

 great gulf; but it is not impassable. The passage 

 from the open to the closed chain can be effected with 

 comparative ease by means of chemical reactions, 

 but the reverse process is difficult. The closed chain 

 is a very stable molecular form, and this it is which 

 Prof. Pictet connects with death. Life is, roughly 

 speaking, the passage of all open chains to the closed 

 form. Such closed chains may be, and indeed must 

 be, formed from time to time in the organism, and 

 constitute the life in death, from which the animal 

 tries to free itself by excretion. The plant can- 

 not do this, but it protects itself internally from these 

 dangerous products. Such are the essential oils, 

 turpentines, and camphors, which constitute so many 

 of our perfumes ; such, again, are the caoutchoucs 

 and tannins, the vegetable colouring matters, and 

 the deadly poisons hidden in various plants These. 

 Prof. Pictet tells us, are products of denutrition ; they 

 are like our so-much-talked-of uric acid. We find 

 them, not in the living cell, but packed away in dead 

 cells, and often wrapped round with protecting covers 

 to prevent them from harming the living plant. 

 Thus, he concluded, the serpent who bites his own 

 tail, which was the symbol of eternity with the 

 ancients, deserves to become for the modern bio- 

 chemist the symbol of death. 



Grace Chisholm Young. 



THE CONCH SHELL OF INDIA.^ 

 'T*HE conch or chank shell (Turbinella pvrum) is so 

 -'■ intimately connected with the religious . and 

 social life of the people of India that the monograph 

 on the subject prepared by Mr. J. Hornell, Superin- 

 tendent of Pearl and Chank Fisheries to the Govern- 

 ment of Madras, is welcome. He has gained in the 

 course of his official duties a knowledge of the in- 

 dustry in Madras, and he was recently deputed by 



1 Madras Fisheries Bureau. Bullftin No 7. " The Sacred Chank of 

 India: A Monograph of the Indian Conch (Tnrl<inella pyriim)." By J. 

 Hornell. Pp. viii+iSi + iS plates. (Madras: Govertiment Press, 1914.) 

 Price 3^. 



