26 



NATURE 



[March 4, 1920 



Hotel, when the proposals for the reconstruction and 

 re-equipment of the engineering laboratories at 

 University College, London, will be explained by the 

 treasurer. Sir Ernest Moir, and others. It will be 

 remembered that an appeal for loo.oooi. towards this 

 object was recently issued. Already more than 

 33,oooZ. has been collected — that is, about one-third 

 of the total sum required. It is urgently necessary 

 that the whole fund should be subscribed by June at 

 the latest, in order that the buildings may be put in 

 liand. Further donations should be sent to H.R.H. 

 Prince Arthur of Connaught at 42 Upper Grosvenor 

 Street, W.i. 



In School Hygiene (vol. xi., No. i, February) Dr. 

 A. A. Mumford puts forward an interesting scheme for 

 the investigation and standardisation of the phvsical 

 efficiency of children which is characterised by the 

 breadth of view we should expect from the author of 

 the " History of the Manchester Grammar School." 

 ■Grading his subjects in six age-groups from two ro 

 eighteen, he indicates the materialistic tests which are 

 appropriate, A boy of about thirteen, for example, 

 should be able to run 100 yards in 14 seconds ; for the 

 oldest boys Flack's manometer test of expiratorv force 

 is of value. But realising, as medicine has come to 

 realise more and more in recent years, the influence 

 of the mind on the bodv, he emphasises the necessity 

 of studying the emotional incentives to bo found in the 

 imagination, and would have the school medical officer 

 pay attention to sulkiness as much as to adenoids. 

 "In the discussion of the paper Dr. Lempriere, of 

 Haileybury, describes the quick, practical utility of 

 height- weight ratios as indices of physical progress. 

 Athletes are taller and heavier than the average, 

 "crocks" shorter and lighter; it is, perhaps, charac- 

 teristic that nothing is said about the physical qualities 

 of the scholars and dunces. 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 

 Royal Society, February 19.— Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 president, in the chair. — B. Moore and T. A. Webster : 



Studies of photosynthesis in fresh-water algae. (i)The 

 fixation of both carbon and nitrogen from the atmo- 

 sphere to form organic tissue by the green plant-cell. 

 (2) Nutrition and growth produced by high gaseous 

 dilutions of simple organic compounds, such as 

 formaldehyde and methylic alcohol. (3) Nutrition and 

 growth by means of high dilutions of carbon dioxide 

 and oxides of nitrogen without access to atmosphere. 

 The primeval living organism, like the inorganic col- 

 loidal systems which were its precursors, must have 

 possessed^ the power of fixing carbon and nitrogen, 

 and building these up into reduced organic compounds 

 with uptake of energy. The source of the energy was 

 sunlight. This power is still possessed by the lowliest 

 type of synthesising cell existing, namely, the uni- 

 cellular alga. A synthesising cell must have existed 

 prior to bacteria and other fungi, since these can 

 -exist only upon organic matter, and the primeval 

 world^ before the advent of life could contain no 

 organic matter. Their specific reactions show that 

 even the ultra-microscopic filter-passinj? organisms are 

 higrhlv organised nroducts on the path from the in- 

 organic towards life, and hence it follows that there 

 IS a lotift intermediate range of evolution. The first 

 synthesising systemi dieting upon light was thus prob- 

 ably an inorganic colloidal system in solution, capable 

 of adsorbinj? the simple organic substances which 

 It synthesised. It is therefore futile to search for 

 the origin of life at the level of bacteria and torulae. 

 NO. 2627^ VOL. 105] 



As complexity increased with progressive evolution, 

 more and more rapid transformers for the capture of 

 the energy of sunlight came into existence. Such 

 transformers are found in the green cell for fixation 

 of both carbon and nitrogen. The earlier trans- 

 formers in the inorganic colloidal systems can only 

 utilise light of short wave-lengths; the later trans- 

 formers in the living cells are adapted to utilise longer 

 wave-lengths ; and the very short wave-lengths, which 

 are lethal, are cut off bv their colour-screens of chloro- 

 phyll,., etc.— W. M. Bayliss : The properties of col- 

 loidal systems, iv. : Reversible gelation in living 

 protoplasm. With intense dark-ground illumination it 

 is possible to see that the apparently clear pseudo- 

 podia of Amoeba are filled with numerous very minute 

 particles in Brownian movement, thus affording 

 further evidence of the liquid, hydrosol nature of 

 simple protoplasm. By electrical stimulation this so! 

 can be reversibly changed into the gel state, evidenced 

 bv the sudden cessation of the Brownian movement. ^ — 

 F. J. Wyeth-: The development of the auditory ap- 

 paratus in Sphenodon punctatus. This memoir con- 

 tains, a detailed and fully illustrated account of the 

 development of the auditory apparatus and associated 

 structures in the New Zealand Tuatara. As this 

 important type is on the verge of extinction, it was 

 thought desirable to treat the subject fully, although, 

 as might be expected, the developmental history agrees 

 closely with that found in other reptiles. The work 

 was carried out chiefly bv means of wax-plate recon- 

 struction models. The third and fourth visceral clefts 

 are closed by a backwardlv growing operculum, but 

 separate dorsal and ventral openings of the clefts 

 were not observed. The existence of two pairs of 

 head-cavities was confirmed, those of each pair com- 

 municating with each other by transverse canals. 

 The vascular system was found to exhibit a number 

 of primitive features. The region investigated in- 

 cludes cranial nerves vi.-xii., the development of which 

 was worked out in detail. The general development 

 of the internal ear and auditory nerve is thoroughly 

 normal. The development of the cristae and maculae 

 acusticae from the primitive neuroepithelium is given 

 in detail. A well-marked macula neglecta is found. 

 As regards the much-debated question of the origin 

 of the columellar apparatus, evidence is brought for- 

 ward in support of the contention that this is 

 essentially a derivative of the hyoid arch, and it is 

 maintained that the auditory capsule contributes at 

 most a portion of the foot-plate of the stapes. 



Linnean Society, February 19.— Dr. A, Smith Wood- 

 ward, president, in the chair. — Major H. C. Gunton : 

 Entomological-meteorological records of ecological 

 facts in the life of British Lepidoptera. The author 

 believed that interesting facts would be obtained by 

 recording and plotting the results of observations 

 made bv a number of entomologists in various locali- 

 ties. The scheme exhibited was derived from his 

 notes from February to December, iqig, within a 

 radius of four miles from Gerrard's- Cross, Bucks', 

 which includes oak and beech woods, heath, marsh, 

 and cultivated land. Special signs are used to denote 

 the occurrence of species of macro-Lepidoptera on 

 sallow-bloom in the spring, ivy in the autumn, sugar, 

 and light. Thirty-five species of butterflies and two 

 hundred and forty species of moths are thus tabulated 

 and correlated with meteorological data. The dia.grarh 

 places many facts before the eye, as the long con- 

 tinuance of certain species, the presence of more than 

 One brood, and the like. Sugar scarcely appeals when 

 honey-dew is abundant, and artificial li<?ht is ineffec- 

 tive during bright moonlight. Other problems, as of 

 immigration, still await solution. 



