2S8 



NA TURE 



[July 20, 1891 



upon the composition of the phlegms, by M. L. Lindet. — 

 Greater assimilability of the nitrogen from recently formed 

 nitrates, by M. P. Pichard. — On the composition of lime-tree 

 "honey," by M. Maquenne.^On anew terrestrial Gregarina of 

 the melolonthid larvte of Provence, by M. Louis Le^er. — On 

 the role of the reserved secondary tissues of arborescent mono- 

 cotyledons, by M. H. Jacob de Cordemoy. 



Berlin. 



Physiological Society, May 19. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, 

 President, in the chair. — Dr. Benda, in continuation of his re- 

 marks at the last meeting, spoke on certain questions connected 

 with cell-division, dealing first with the value of double-stain- 

 ing. He then made a communication on the extra nuclear 

 origin of the nuclear spindle and its relation to the centrosoma, 

 and lastly on the median cell discovered by Flemming, which 

 appears after the equatorial transverse division has become 

 formed in the dividing cell. — Prof. Gad gave an account 

 of experiments made by Dr. Rosenburg on the transplant- 

 ing of slips of small intestine into the bladder. The experi- 

 ment was successful ; the functions of the bladder remained 

 normal, and investigation showed that the muscular coat of 

 the intestine had grown into that of the bladder, while the mu- 

 cous membrane had grown up through the flattened epithelium 

 of the organ. 



June 9. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, President, in the chair. — 

 Dr. Loewy had gone carefully into the methods of blood-titration, 

 and concluded that the most convenient and certain way of 

 determining the alkalinity of blood is to dilute it with a solution 

 of magnesium sulphate and to add acid until a drop of the 

 mixture just reddens litmus. In connection with this Prof- 

 Zuntz gave an account of some experiments of his own and of 

 Prof. Lehmann on the nature and compounds of the acids and 

 bases of blood. He drew special attention to the results of 

 passing carbon dioxide through blood whereby the alkalis leave 

 the corpuscles and pass into the plasma as the result of a split- 

 ting up of their compounds with proteids and their conversion 

 into diffusible carbonates. — \V. Townsend Porter communicated 

 the results of his experiments on the coordinating centres of the 

 cardiac ventricle. Starting from the fact that the function of the 

 centres is suppressed when the blood-supply is cut off, he had 

 ligatured the coronary artery, supplying the septum, in a number 

 of animals. In all cases the animals lived for many hours and 

 even days after the operation, from which fact he considered he 

 had disproved the existence of any coordinating centre in the 

 septum. 



Physical Society, June 2. — Prof, von Helmholtz, President, 

 in the chair. — Dr. Rubens gave an account of experiments he 

 had made, together with Dr. du Bois, on the permeability of 

 metallic wire gratings to polarised heat rays. As is well 

 known. Hertz's experiments on electric oscillations brought them 

 into close relationship to the properties of light-vibrations, as 

 shown by reflection, refraction, and polarisation. The fact that 

 metallic gratings act as polarisers towards electric waves, inas- 

 much as the waves can only pass through when the wires of the 

 grating are parallel to them, has no analogue in the case of light, 

 since linearly polarised light can pass through a grating whatever 

 be its position. On the assumption that this difference is de- 

 pendent simply on the fact that light waves are too small for the 

 gratings employed, the authors had experimented with the longer 

 heat-rays and gratings of extremely narrow aperture. The latter 

 were made of the finest wire (gold, silver, copper, and iron), the 

 intervals betiveen the wires being '0025 mm, and the rays of a 

 zirconium flame, up to W. L. 6jn were examined. The ocular of 

 the spectroscope carried a very sensitive bolometer. It was 

 found that with each of the gratings the ultra-red rays behaved 

 like electric waves ; those rays which vibrated at right angles 

 to the plane of polarisation passed through a grating placed 

 parallel to their plane, in threefold extent, as compared to the 

 amount which passed when the grating was at right angles. 

 This result was obtained with different metals with varying wave- 

 lengths of the rays, e.g. with silver by W. L. above 2/x. — Dr. 

 Krigar-Menzel reported on the present state of the experiments 

 he is making together with Dr. Richarz on the diminution of 

 weight at increasing altitudes. A balance is provided at each 

 arm with two pans, one above the other at a distance apart of 

 2 •2 m. With this balance two weights are determined, of which 



NO. 1238, vol.. 48] 



one lies in the upper pan, the other in the lower. The weigh- 

 ings are then repeated on both sides, and thus the difference of 

 the weights when in the upper and lower pans is ascertained. 

 In the next place a massive leaden block is built up between the 

 two pans and the weighings are repeated. Up to the present time 

 the weighings without the lead mass are alone complete. The 

 block is, however, in position, and a few preliminary weighings 

 have been made, from which it so far appears as if the presence 

 of the lead had done away with the difference of the weights when 

 in the upper and lower pans. 



[Note. — In the report of the Physical Society, Nature, 

 vol. xlviii. p. 144, column 2, five lines from the top — " the 

 vapours of these metals similarly gave an emission-spectrum 

 following on the absorption spectrum" — for "similarly" read 

 "neither," and for " following on " read " nor."] 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Books. — Heat ; M. R. Wright (Lontrman.s). — Aids in Practical Geology, 

 2nd edition : Prof. G. and J. Cole (Griffin). — An Introduction to the Study 

 of the Diatomacete : F. W. Mills (IlifFe). — Diagnostilc der Bakterien des 

 Wa^sers: Dr. A LustigfTena, Fischer). — Euclid's Elements of Geometrj-, 

 Books V. and vi. : H. M. Taylor (Cambridge University Press). — .Acoustics, 

 Sound (Advanced), enlarged edition : W. Lees (Collins). — A Study of the 

 Languages "f Torres Straits. Part i : S. H. Ray and A. C. Haddon 

 (Dublin). — The Arctic Problem : A. Heilprin (Philadelphia. Contemporary 

 Publishing Company) — Exploration of Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo: 

 J. Whitehead (Gurney and Jackson). 



Pamphlet.s. — Ueber die Typen der Kiistenformen : Dr. A. Philippson. — 

 Sir F. Ronalds, P'.R.S., and his Work in Connection with Electric 'j'ele- 

 graphy in 1816 (Simpkin). 



Serials. — Medical Magazine. July (Southwood). — The Lingualumina, 

 Parts I and 2 : F. W. Dyer (London) — Proceedings of the Society' for 

 Psychological Research, June (K. Paul) — The Book of the Fair, Part i ; 

 H. H. Bancroft (Chicago. Bancroft). — Botanische JahrblicherfurSystematik 

 Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeograohie. Sechzehnter Band, iv. u. v. Heft 

 (Williams and Norgate).— Annals of Scottish Natural History, July 

 (Edinburgh, Douglas). — Notes from the Leyden Museum, July (Leyden, 

 Brill.) 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Vertebrate Embryology. By Prof. E. Ray Lan- 



kester, F.R.S 265 



Rural Hygiene 266 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Dubois : " Die Klimate der Geologischen, Vergangen- 

 heit und ihre Beziehung zur Entwickelungsges- 



chichte der Sonne " 266 



Foussereau : " Polarization Rotatoire, Reflexion et 

 Refraction virtreuses. Reflexion metallique" . . . 266 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



The Non-Inheritance of Acquired Characters. — 



Dr. Alfred R. Wallace, F.R.S 267 



The Conditions Determinative of Chemical Change : 

 some Comments on Prof. Armstrong's Remarks. — 

 Prof. W. Ramsay, F.R.S. ; James Walker . 267 



The Corona Spectrum. — J. Evershed 268 



Lord Coleridge and Vivisection. — Prof. Percy F. 



Frankland, F.R.S 268 



Oyster-Culture and Temperature. — Prof. W. A. 



Herdman, F.R.S 261J 



The Diffusion Photometer.— Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S. . 269 

 Alphonse de CandoUe. By W. T. fhiselton-Dyer, 



C.M.G., F.R.S. . 269 



Carl Semper. By Dr. J. Beard 271 



Notes 272 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Ephemeris of the New Comet 276 



Comet Finlay (1886 VII.) 276 



Observations of the Planet Victoria 276 



Difference of Longitude between Vienna and Green- 

 wich . • 277 



Photographs of the Milky Way 277 



The Institution of Naval Architects 277 



Society of Chemical Industry 279 



The Plague of Field Voles 282 



The Zoological Society 283 



University and Educational Intelligence 284 



Scientific Serials 284 



Societies and Academies 284 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 288 



