March 23, 1893J 



NATURE 



50: 



immune to anthrax by inoculation with the lymph and blood of 

 frogs which had been subjected to various treatment. Previous 

 observers had succeeded in conferring immunity with the use of 

 similar substances. The object of the investigation, however, 

 was to ascertain the changes in the character and relative number 

 of the white cells of the blood after protective vaccination and 

 after the introduction of virulent anthrax. From four to several 

 hours after the injection of the vaccine a great increase in the 

 number of the white cells is noticeable ; and the most remark- 

 able feature is the augmentation in number of the coarsely 

 granular (eosinophile) corpuscles. The relative proportion in 

 the numbers of the different varieties of cells is therefore altered, 

 so that instead of forming only from 2 to 4 per cent, of the total 

 number of white cells, the eosinophile corpuscles now constitute 

 about 10 to 25 per cent. This increase persists only a short time, 

 and on the third day the cells may have returned to a normal 

 condition ; and at this stage hyaline cells ingesting granular cells 

 may be detected in numbers in certain localities. Although the 

 blood has thus apparently returned to the normal condition, it 

 is found that the state of eosinophile leucocytosis is rapidly 

 reproduced on the introduction of virulent anthrax. After 

 inoculation with a virulent culture of the microbes, the eosino- 

 phile cells appear in great numbers, so that they may form 50 

 per cent, of the white corpuscles, and in one instance an even 

 higher percentage was found. These cells are not only increased 

 in number but are also larger and have larger granules. Similar 

 changes were observed in guinea pigs rendered immune by Dr. 

 Haffkine to the common bacillus. In non-vaccinated rabbits 

 the introduction of anthrax causes profound leucocytosis, but the 

 cells are all very small and the eosinophile corpuscles are only 

 slightly increased in number. General infection occurs in 36 to 

 48 hours, rapidly followed by death. — On numerical variation in 

 digits, in illustration of a principle of symmetry, by Mr. W. 

 Bateson. An ace )unt was given of cases of variation in number 

 of digits so occurring that the parts are symmetrical about a new 

 axis in the limb. Of these the phenomena seen in the bones of 

 a number of polydactyle cats were chiefly important. The nor- 

 mal hind foot of the cat has four toes, each bearing a claw retracted 

 by an elastic ligament to a notch on the external side of the 

 second phalanx. This circumstance differentiates digits formed 

 as lefts from those formed as rights. As extra digits are added 

 on the internal side of the limb the symmetry changes. The 

 limb being taken as a right, the variations seen are as follows : 

 (l) Hallux present, making five digits : index is then intermediate 

 between right and lejt. (2) Six digits present, internal having 

 two phalanges : the three external digits are then normal rights, 

 the next two are formed as lefts ; the internal, having a non- 

 retractile claw, is indifferent, (3) Six digits present, internal 

 having three fully-formed phalanges and rectractile claw : 

 the three externals are then normal rights, and the three 

 internals are formed as left diiiits, thus forming two groups in 

 bilateral symmetry about an axis passing between the digits 

 having the relations of index and medius. Several cases of 

 "double hand" in Man forma similar progressive series, and 

 analogous facts in other animals were instanced. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 13. — M. Loewy in the chair. 

 — On the true theory of waterspouts and tornadoes, with special 

 reference to that of Lawrence, Massachusetts, by M. H. Faye. 

 The tornado which ravagnd the town of Lawrence on July 26, 

 1891, was observed to de-cend to the earth and reascend four 

 times during its passage over a tract of country seventeen miles 

 long. Alter each temporary ascent to the clouds no effect was 

 produced on the land just below. This fact tends to confirm M. 

 Faye's theory, according to which tornadoes, waterspouts, and 

 cyclones have their origin not in hot convection currents from 

 the soil, but in disturbances in the higher strata of the 

 atmosphere. The observed cases of upward suction of heavy 

 objects are explained as effects of the reflection of downward 

 currents by the soil. — On an electric furnace, by MM. Henri 

 Moissan and Jules VioUe (see "Notes"). — The pancreas 

 and the nervous centres controlling the glycemic func- 

 tion ; experiments tending to exhibit the parts played by 

 each of these agents respectively in the formation of glyojse 

 by the liver, by MM. A. Chauveau and M. Kaufmann. — 

 Description of a new species of bilateral Holothuria [Georisia 

 ornata), by M. Edmond Perrier. — On the observation of the 

 shadows of Jupiter's satellites, by M. J. J. Landerer. — Oa the 



formuU^ for annual aberration, by M. Gaillot. — On the 

 transcendentals defined by the differential equations of the second 

 order, by M. Paul Painleve. — A theorem of infinitesimal 

 geometry, by M. G. Koenigs. — New semicircular interference 

 fringes, by M. G. Meslin. — Photography of certain phenomena 

 furnished by combinations of gratings, by M. Izarn. On placing 

 a lens with large radius of curvature upon a grating, broad rings, 

 concentric with the Newton's rings observed at the same time, 

 were seen and fixed photographically by means of a layer of 

 sensitised gelatine poured over the lens. On placing one 

 photographic copy of a grating upon another of the same 

 grating, a series of more or less rectilinear fringes was observed, 

 running on the whole transversely to the rulings, A similar 

 phenomenon is described by Brewster in the Philosophical 

 Magazine of 1856. — Photographic properties of cerium salts, by 

 MM. Auguste and Louis Lumiere. Cerium gives rise to two 

 principal types of salts, cerous and eerie. The former are very 

 stable, the latter are easily reduced, the organic salts being so 

 easily reduced that they cannot be isolated. The best 

 photographic results were obtained with eerie sulphate and 

 nitrate. Paper was soaked in aqueous solutions of these 

 salts and exposed to light under a transparency obtained from a 

 negative. Where the light penetrated, the eerie salt was re- 

 duced and the paper changed colour. The image was developed 

 by treating with some carbon compound of the aromatic series, 

 forming an insoluble pigment with the unreduced eerie salt, and 

 fixed by washing. In an acid solution the prints turned grey 

 with phenol, green with aniline salts and orthotoluidine, brown 

 with amidobenzoic acid, &c. The eerie salts are considerably 

 more sensitive than the corresponding ferric and manganic 

 salts. — Intense and rapid heating process by means of the 

 electric current, by MM. Lagrange and Hoho. A bar of steel 

 I cm. thick formed one electrode of a strong current passing 

 through an electrolyte. The other electrode had a large surface. 

 The healing was so rapid that, on breaking the current, the 

 liquid suddenly cooling the bar was found to have imparted a 

 brittle structure only to a superficial layer, the rest not having 

 been heated (see also the Bulletin of the Belgian Academy). 

 — On metallic osmium, by MM. A. Joly and M. Vezes (see 

 "Notes"). — Researches on thallium; redetermination of its 

 atomic weight, by M. Ch. Lepierre. — On the fluorides of zinc 

 and cadmium, by M. Poulenc. — Quantitative determination of 

 mercury in dilute solutions of sublimate, by M. Lej Vignon. — 

 Alkaline polyphenolicphenates, by M. de Korcrand. — Isomerism 

 of the amido-benzoic acids, by M. Oechsner de Coninck. — 

 Action of carbonic oxide upon reduced hoematine and upon 

 hsemochromogen, by MM. H. Bertin-Sans and J. Moitessier. — 

 The toxic substance which produces tetanus results from the 

 action of a soluble ferment produced by Nicolaier's bacillus, by 

 MM. J. Courmontand H. Doyon. — Action of cold on visceral 

 circulation, by M. E. Wertheimer. — On the affinities of the 

 genus Oreosoma, Cuvier, by M. Leon Vaillant. — On a new 

 mineral species from Bamle, Norway, by M. Leopold Michel. — 

 On a chloritoid schist of the Carpathians, by MM. L. Duparc 

 and L. M razee. 



Berlin. 

 Physical Society, February 10. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, 

 President, in the chair. — Dr. Raps exhibited and explained a 

 photogra.'hic registration-apparatus which he had constructed, 

 primarily for the purpose of obtaining a permanent record of the 

 readings of the voltmeter at central electric stations, but which 

 could also be used for meteorological and physical purposes. The 

 principle of the instrument is as follows. Parallel rays from an 

 incandescent lamparemade to fall on a narrow slit in front of which 

 is the recording needle of the voltmeter or other instrument. The 

 shadow of this needle then causes a white break in the dark image 

 of the slit as cast on to sensitised paper. The paper is moved 

 forward by clockwork, and the hour intervals are simultaneously 

 printed on it by means of a rotating glass disc. The apparatus 

 is arranged so as not to necessitate any dark chamber for its 

 use, or for the manipulation of the sensitised paper. Prof. 

 Kundt exhibited as lantern pictures two photographs of spectra, 

 of which one showed very marked col 'urs from the red to the 

 violet end, and a photogiaph of some green twigs with red 

 berries on them. The three photographs had been taken by 

 Lippmann in Paris, and sent to Prof, von Helmholtz. Prof. 

 Kundt then gave an account of some experiments carried on in 

 his laboratory on the influence of temperature on electromagnetic 

 rotation of light in iron, cobalt, and nickel. Trustworthy results 



NO. I 22 I, VOL. 47] 



