December 25, 1919] 



NATURE 



427 



diameter with those composing its secondary spermato- 

 cyte complex. All chromosomes composing an indi- 

 vidual complex are not necessarily of the same 

 diameter. — J. M. H. Campbell, C. tj. Douglas, and 

 F. G. Hobson : The respiratory exchange of man 

 during and after muscular exercise. Support is given 

 to the view that muscular work may involve the 

 metabolism of a higher proportion of carbohydrate to 

 fat than is the case during rest. In the case of the 

 severer degrees of work, serious shortage of oxygen, 

 as indicated by the production of lactic acid, mav 

 lead in the earlier stages of the exercise to temporarv 

 great e.xaggeration of the hyperpnoea, accompanied b'v 

 washing out of preformed CO, from the body and an 

 abnormally high respiratory quotient, phenomena 

 which are absent in the case' of lighter work. — A. D. 

 Waller : The energy output of dock labourers during 

 heavy work. Part i. The paper contains the results 

 of observations on dock labourers by a simplified 

 method, which consists in measurements of the CO, 

 discharge at convenient internals throughout the 

 working day or night with the least possible inter- 

 ruption of work.— J. Gray : The relation of spermato- 

 zoa to certain electrolytes (ii.). The paper embodies 

 an attempt to apply the facts of recent chemistry to 

 the behaviour of the living cell. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, December 9.— Sir 

 Everard im Thurn, jjresident, in the chair. — J. H. 

 Hutton : Leopard-men in the Naga Hills. The Naga 

 tribes generally regard the tiger as having the same 

 origin as man, in that the first tiger and the first man 

 were brothers, sons of one mother. No clear distinc- 

 tion is drawn between leopards and tigers, the same 

 word being ordinarily used for both animals. The 

 practice of lycanthropy among the Naga tribes differs 

 from that followed in Indial Burma, and Malaysia, 

 in that no actual metamorphosis is believed to take 

 place, in which respect it seems to differ from the 

 form which lycanthropy takes in most parts of the 

 world. The Naga method is to project the soul from 

 the human body into the body of a leopard, usuallv, 

 but not necessarily, during sleep. By this process the 

 two bodies Ijecome intimately associated, and violent 

 emotions affecting the one bodv are perceptible to the 

 other. On the death of one,' the "other dies. The 

 acquisition of the powers of a Ivcanthropist is not 

 desired, but feared and disliked. The practice is 

 assumed involuntarily at the dictation of spirits whose 

 will the subject of it is more or less powerless to 

 resist. The closest parallel to the Naga practice seems 

 to be found in Nigeria, where there are beliefs 

 ("Golden Bough." vol. ix.) which resemble those of 

 the Naga tribes closely. In the Naga Hills and Assam 

 this particular form of lycanthropy seems to be con- 

 nected with migration from the north as distinct from 

 other immigrations from the east and south. 



Mnnean Society, December 11.— Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 w.ird. president, in the chair. — Prof. W. .A. Herdman : 

 Notes on the abundance of marine animals and a 

 quantitative survev of their occurrence. On a former 

 occasion the author considered the plankton food- 

 supply of edible fishes for the purpose of showing the 

 fundamental importance of a verv few organisms, 

 about half a dozen kinds of diatoms and the same 

 number of Copepoda. In the present paper he ex- 

 tended the same conclusions to the shallow-water and 

 littoral common animals which are the food of our 

 bottom-feeding fishes. — J. B. Gatenby : The germ-cells 

 and earl\- develooment of Grantio compressa. The 

 spermatids of Grantia are described for the first time. 

 They lie inside chambers formed of mesogleal cells. 

 The mitochondria (chromidia) and Golgi apparatus of 

 oocytes and other cells are described. 



NO. 2617, VOL. 104] 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, December 2.— Prof. 

 F E. Weiss, deputv chairman, in the chair. — C. E. 

 Stromeyer : A method bv which roots of numbers can 

 be easilv and rapidlv found by division sums.— L. \- 

 Meadowcrolt : .V dis'cussion of the theorems of Lani- 

 bert and Adams on motion in elliptic and hyperbolic 

 orbits. Lambert's theorem (1761) on the motion ot 

 a bodv in an elliptic orbit, under the influence of a 

 central gravitational force, can be stated m the fol- 

 lowing purelv geometrical form. The area of any 

 focal sector of an ellipse can be expressed in terms 

 of the focal distances of its extremities of the chord 

 which joins them, and of the axes of the ellipse To 

 T C Adams is due the most elegant form of the 

 proof The present author shows that this can te 

 translated from analytical into geometrical terms. .An 

 independent proof based on geometrical '"""^■de^f fio"* 

 is thus suggested. Such a proof is given, and also an 

 anaSous^p^oof for the corresponding theorem on _^he 

 •,rea of a focal sector of a hyperbola.— \\ . L. A Kins . 

 Morphogenesis of KeUculana lineala. After ? ;«-^'" « 

 of earlier work (including Day's)_ on variation in 

 Brachiopoda, bv using Day's specimens the author 

 harconstVucted' skeleton solid figures showing the dis- 

 r1but°on of length and width, and of length and 

 Heoth "mono- 04^ individuals of Re.Uculana Imerita. 

 XT*^ ;•; mm"a restricted locality in the Carboniferous 

 Ii?;l"t;nrof Nor ^Derbyshire. Day's conclusions 

 Limestone 01 . ^^.^^^^ ^^ ,^,^ ,^ .^.^^ f 



rlL^arXncdon to thri^^thmic relationship was 

 perfectly gradual and continuous. 



DlUI-lN. 



P«r rS S-T''G'='S^o„:^-ile!U?..s in 

 t^hrraf-sap^Tf '^^nnj-.ul^r. Detei^ination oi 

 the dissolved electrolytes ot the ce 1 b> means o con 

 ductlvitv measurements i* l^^gel.^' r'V^'torrWt on 

 influence of the viscosity of the so vent. C° ^ect^on 

 bv means of direct measurement of the relatne vis 



cosiuof the sap is shown to be ""-'- -^'""l^^^^iS 

 introducing a known concentration of an e tctrolx te 



no the sfp and by comparing X.^^^^^^^^^y^c^otr 

 sap with that in water, it is P°f ''^'^Jf ,°''fu" "^ ''°^r. 

 estimate of the amount of electrolytes in the sap cor 

 responding with the observed conductivitx of he sap 

 Flu'ctuatio^ns in the electrolyte content of the sap 

 appear to be in the inverse sense of those of the 

 soluble carbohydrates. It is suggested that the con- 

 centration of t'he dissolved electrolytes may be directh 

 or indirectly controlled bv the osmotic pressure of the 

 sao — L B' Smvth : The Carboniferous coast section 

 at Malahide. Between Malahide and Portmarnock, 

 Co.' Dublin, an outcrop of Carboniferous Limestone 

 rocks occurs, extending for about a mile along the 

 sea-shore, and having a general dip to the north. 1 his 

 exposure was mapped bv the Geological Surv-ey. Une 

 fault was shown, separating a smaller southern por- 

 tion from the rest. This southern part was considered 

 to be older than the remainder, and to have been 

 brought up bv the fault. It was assigned, chiefly on 

 lithotogical grounds, to the Lower Limestone. Shales. 

 The author maintains, on both structural and faunal 

 grounds, that it is really the voungest part of the 

 section, and belongs to Vaughan's "C " zone, the part 

 north of the fault being assigned to the " Z ' zone 



