June 5, 1919] 



NATURE 



277 



experimental transmission of Billiarzia infections of 

 man. In Egypt nearly 50 per cent, of the population 

 suffer from bilharziasis. Owing to the risk to which 

 the troops were exposed, the War Office, in conjunc- 

 tion with the Medical Research Committee, authorised, 

 in 1915, a special inquiry into the mode of spread 

 and prevention of the disease. The exhibit illustrat<^d 

 some results. It was shown that the vesical and 

 dysenteric lesions of bilharziasis are caused by two 

 different species of worms : that these worms require 

 fresh-water snails as intermediate host. Bilharzia 

 haematobia, which infects the bladder-wall, under- 

 goes metamorphosis in Bullinus dybowski, and Bil- 

 harzia mansoni, which infects the intestine, develops 

 in Planorhis boissyi. The infective stage enters 

 through the skin. 



Dr. E. J. Allen {for the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion) : Living marine animals, illustrating the fauna 

 of Plymouth Sound. The specimens were arranged 

 to illustrate the changing character of the fauna with 

 changing physical conditions, such as depth of water, 

 movement of water, nature of the soil, tidal expo- 

 sure, and varying salinity. 



Prof. E. W. MacBride : Artificially produced ab- 

 normal Echinoderm larvae, (i) Specimens of larvae 

 of Echinus miliaris, with a hydroccele {i.e. rudiment 

 of a water-vascular system) on each side. This 

 modific<ition is produced by subjecting the larvae when 

 three days old to the influence of water of increased 

 salinity, and then when a fortnight old re-transferring 

 them to ordinary sea-water and feeding them up. 

 (2) Specimens of larvae of E. miliaris devoid of a 

 hydroccele, but with spines on both sides. These 

 larvae are produced by starving them between the 

 ages of three and six days and afterwards feeding 

 them up. 



Mr. E. S. Goodrich and Mr. A. F. Coventry: Frog 

 and tadpoles obtained by artificial parthenogenesis. 

 Apparatus used and results obtained by the method 

 devised by Prof. E. Bataillon in 19 10, who discovered 

 that unfertilised eggs of a frog will develop if re. 

 moved from the oviduct and pricked with a very fine 

 needle. Some 80 per cent, of the eggs so pricked 

 undergo cleavage, a much smaller number pass 

 through later stages of embryo formation, and a very 

 small percentage develop into tadpoles and succeed 

 in metamorphosing into frogs. 



Mr. C. Tate Regan : Models of fishes illustrating 

 adaptive modifications in related genera, (i) Epibulus 

 (Labridae) differs from Cheilinus in the extremely 

 protractile mouth ; associated with this are remark- 

 able modifications of the skeleton ; the long movable 

 quadrate is unique among fishes. (2) Xiphasia (Blen- 

 niidae) has the specialised characters of Petroscirtes 

 (canines very large, gill-opening a small foramen), but 

 differs in its eel-shaped form, with the tail long and 

 tapering and the vertebrae increased in number from 

 fewer than 40 to about 125. 



Prof. E. B. Potdton: Families of the African 

 Papilio dardanus (merope) with the female parents. 

 All the families, from the following parts of Africa, 

 include non-mimetic males and the female forms 

 mentioned below : — (a) Two from West Africa, bred 

 by Capt. W. .\. Lamborn from mimetic black-and- 

 white hippocoon female parents. Female offspring all 

 hippocoon in one, half hippocoon and half the ances- 

 tral non-mimetic dionysos in the other — ^the mimetic 

 females constant, the non-mimetic variable. It is 

 probable that hippocoon is a Mendelian recessive, and 

 that the male parent was a heterozygote combining 

 hH)pocoon and dionysos. {h) One from the Sesse 

 Islands, N.W. Victoria Nyanza, bred by Capt. 

 G.^ D. H. Carpenter from a planemoides female, 

 mimicking large .^craeinae of the genus Plan?ma. 



NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 



The offspring include planemoides and, in larger 

 numbers, hippocoon. Another from the Kagera River 

 in ex-German East Africa just south of Uganda, 

 bred by the same naturalist from a rare female form 

 combining planemoides and trophonissa. The two 



j female offspring belong respectively to these latter 

 forms, (c) Three from the neighbourhood of Durban, 

 Natal, bred by Mr. G. F. Leigh, from the three 

 mimetic females of S.E. Africa — hippocoon, trophonius, 

 and cenea. In all three families the commonest local 

 form cenea was present in larger numbers than any 

 other form. 



Dr. J. S. Haldane : Army form of apparatus for 

 continuous oxygen administration. In cases of 

 poisoning by irritant gas, and in various other condi- 

 tions, one of the main dangers is due to the fact that 

 the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs becomes 

 inadequate to oxygenate the blood. It is, therefore, 

 necessary to add oxygen to the inspired air until a 

 sufficient degree of recovery takes place. With the 

 help of a reducing valve and graduated tap, a con- 

 stant stream of oxygen of the required amount is 

 delivered into the small bag attached to the face- 

 piece. This bag is emptied at each inspiration, none 

 of the oxygen being wasted. The administration can 

 thus be continued, if necessary, for several days, 

 as the consumption of oxygen is reduced to a 

 minimum. 



Mr. Joseph Barcroft : The treatment of chronic 

 cases of gas-poisoning by means of continuous in- 

 halation of oxygen. A hospital consisting of three 

 small wards, each made of glass, was established in 

 the Cambridge Physiological Laboratory. A model of 

 this was shown. In the glass rooms patients were 

 placed each for five days; they were allowed out for 

 exercise, etc., for about seven hours of each day. 



Sir Almroth E. Wright, Mr. L. Colebrook, and 

 Mr. A. Fleming. Methods employed in the study of 

 wound infections, (i) Investigation of the part played 

 by the white blood corpuscles. The experiments 

 showed that white blood corpuscles collected from the 

 blood in vitro, or freshly arrived in the wound, are 

 capable of killing great numbers of microbes— and 

 that thev fail to do so if injured by drying, or if an 

 excess of fluid enables the microbes to keep out of 

 their reach. (2) Investigation of the part played by 

 the blood fluids. The experiments showed that (i) the 

 unaltered blood serum provides a very unfavourable 

 medium for the growth of most of the types of bac- 

 teria met with in wounds, but that a few of these — 

 notably the streptococci and staphylococci — can grow 

 in it quite unchecked. (Sero-phytic bacteria.) (ii) If 

 the blood serum is corrupted, as it is in a wound, 

 bv abolishing its anti-proteolytic property, all the 

 other tvpes of bacteria are enabled to grow freely. 



I (Sero-saprophvtic bacteria.) (iii) If the alkalinity of 

 the blood serum is blunted off, as in the condition of 



' acidosis which is associated with "shock," the gas- 



I gangrene bacilli are enabled to grow freely. 



! Dr.- G. Sims Woodhead and Dr. Varrier Jones: 

 Quasi-continuous temperature recording apparatus 

 for clinical use, and specimens of records obtained. 

 The outfit consists of a resistance thermometer with 

 compensating leads, a galvanometer with " bridge " 

 and resistances, by means of which a wide range of 

 temperature changes mav be observed, and a Cam- 

 bridge thread recorder, which gives a quasi-continuous 

 (at half-minute intervals) and permanent record of 

 the temperature of the human or animal body. This 

 apparatus has been of use in determining^ the diurnal 

 variations of temperature of normal subjects and in 

 studving febrile conditions in disease, i.e. tuberculosis. 

 Continuous temperature records for seventy-two hours 

 are readily obtained. 



