28 



NA TURE 



[March^^3, 1910 



I 



ages and educational antecedents of London students. As 

 regards the ages of cadets, the largest groups (159 and 151 

 respectively) fall in the age limits nineteen to twenty and 

 twenty to twenty-one. Of the 783 cadets, 127 were 

 educated abroad — ^48 in India, 48 in other British 

 dominions and colonies, and 31 in foreign countries. The 

 educational results achieved in the contingent appear to be 

 satisfactory, 232 cadets having already entered for Certifi- 

 cate A and 3 for Certificate B granted by the War Office 

 for military subjects. The first camp was held at Salis- 

 bury Plain in August, and the first inspection by Major- 

 General Sir F. W. Stopford, which was held during camp, 

 produced a highly satisfactory report. 



It is announced in Science that a department of experi- 

 mental breeding has been established in the college of 

 agriculture of the University of Wisconsin. Dr. L. J. 

 Cole, of the Sheffield .Scientific School at Yale, has been 

 appointed an associate professor of experimental breeding. 

 Dr. Cole will take up his new work shortly, and will 

 conduct investigations in the subject of experimental breed- 

 ing, with special reference to the laws of heredity and 

 improvement of animal life. 



Sir George Greenhill contributes some impressions of 

 a visit to Berlin and its educational establishments to the 

 Engineer for February 25. The chief object of his visit 

 was to accept an invitation to examine the Militartechnische 

 Akademie, an establishment devoted to the instruction of 

 officers in the science and manufacture required in modern 

 warfare. Sir George seems to have been deeply impressed 

 with this splendid and efficient institution, which is such 

 as we have not in this country. Sixty officers are under 

 instruction for a course of four years, more complete than 

 is required now for a degree in honours at Cambridge, 

 and their zeal and interest is said to be enthusiastic ; it is 

 considered bad form not to give the very best for the 

 glory of the Fatherland. Of special interest was the 

 modern ballistic laboratory established in the last four or 

 five years, under the direction of Prof. C. Cranz. This 

 includes lecture and experimental rooms filled with the 

 most modern apparatus, and alongside a bomb-proof range 

 of 60 metres. Sir George Greenhill seems to have taken 

 delight in showing Prof. Cranz how to apply the six-point 

 contact principle as required for a rifle rest, using for the 

 purposes of demonstration some nails and a broomstick 

 with broom, as a rifle was not for the moment at hand. 

 The principle was given very clearly about 1867 in Thom- 

 son and Tail's " Natural Philosophy," but, as Sir George 

 truly remarks, is too scientific for the official expert to 

 grasp. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, February 24. — Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., president, in the chair. — Sir William Abney : 

 colour-blindness and the trichromatic theory of colour 

 vision. — W. Cramer and H. Pring^le : Contributions to 

 the bio-chemistry of growth. The total nitrogen meta- 

 bolism of rats bearing malignant new growths. The 

 nitrogenous metabolism was determined in rats before and 

 after transplantation with a rapidly growing spindle- 

 celled sarcoma. The results show that less nitrogen is 

 necessary to build up a certain weight of tumour tissue 

 than is necessary to build up an equal weight of somatic 

 tissue of the host. No evidence could be obtained that 

 the tumour cells had a higher affinity for nutritive material 

 than the growing cells of the host, or that they secreted 

 substances having a toxic action on the nitrogenous meta- 

 bolism of the host. The conclusion was arrived at that 

 the cells of the new growth derived the nitrogenous 

 material necessary for the building up of new tissue by a 

 sparing of the protein metabolism, so that a smaller amount 

 was utilised as a source of energy and a larger amount 

 for the building up of new tissue. — W. Cramer and H. 

 Pring^le : Contributions to the bio-chemistry of growth. 

 The distribution of nitrogenous substances in tumour and 

 somatic tissues. Estimations were carried out of the total 

 nitrogen content of rapidly growing transplanted tumours 

 (carcinoma and sarcoma), and of tV.e tissues tjf the animals 



NO. 2105, VOL. 83] 



1 



bearing these tumours. The results, which confirm, those 

 arrived at by observations on the nitrogen metabolism of 

 tumour-bearing animals, show that the nitrogen percentage 

 of rapidly growing tumours is smaller than that of the 

 tissues of the host or that of the tissues of normal animals. 

 This diminution in the nitrogen percentage was found to 

 be due to the fact that, weight for weight,, the cancerous 

 tissue contains only about three-fourths of the amount of 

 protein substances present in the tissues of the host. In 

 other words, with the same amount of protein a bigger 

 mass of tumour tissue than of host tissue can be built up. 

 The simpler abiuret nitrogenous products of cell meta- 

 bolism, however, are present in slightly greater amount 

 in the cancerous tissue. It is pointed out that these resu'ts 

 have a bearing on the mode of growth of cancerous tissue. 

 Since the tissue of a neoplasm can be built up with less 

 protein than the same weight of host tissue,^ the former 

 must grow more rapidly than the latter in circumstances 

 where both are using up nitrogenous material for mere 

 growth at the same rate. — A. Harden and W. J. 

 Youngr : The alcoholic ferment of yeast-juice. Part v., 

 the function of phosphates in alcoholic fermentation. The 

 two following equations were previously proposed by the 

 authors to represent the course of alcoholic fermentation 

 by yeast-juice : — 

 (i) 2C,H,20, + 2PO,HR2 = 2C02-l-2C,H,0-i- 



2h:o+c,h,„o,(po,r,), 



(2) deH,„0,(PO,R,), + 2H,0 = C,H,,0, + 2PO,HR 



These were founded on (a) the determination of the amount 

 of carbon dioxide and alcohol produced by the addition of 

 a known amount of phosphate in presence of excess of 

 sugar ; (b) the production of a hexosephosphate of the 

 composition CeH,oO^(P04R2)2 ; (c) the occurrence oi an j 

 enzymic hydrolysis of this substance with production of?! 

 free phosphate. In order to obtain further experimental} 

 justification for this view, several additional determinations 

 have been made, and these form the subject of the_ present 

 communication. The results which have been obtained are 

 as follows : — (i) When glucose or fructose is added to 

 yeast-juice in presence of excess of phosphate, a period of 

 accelerated fermentation occurs, during which the added 

 sugar undergoes the reaction (i) quoted above, one molecule 

 of carbon dioxide being evolved for each molecule of sugar 

 added. (2) When the available phosphate of a mixture of 

 ferment, coferment, and sugar is greatly reduced, the total 

 fermentation produced becomes very small. The addition 

 of a small amount of a phosphate to such a mixture pro- 

 duces a relatively large increase in the total fermentation, 

 even after allowing for the amount of carbon dioxide 

 equivalent to the phosphate added. (3) A hexosephosphate 

 when digested with yeast-juice is hydrolysed by an enzyme 

 (hexosephosphatase) with production of free phosphate, and 

 a sugar, which is capable of being fermented by yeast. 

 As the result of this hydrolytic action the hexosephosphate? 

 when treated with yeast-juice or zymin are finally converted 

 into carbon dioxide, alcohol, and free phosphate. _ In the 

 light of these results it becomes necessary, in discussing 

 the chemical changes which the molecule of sugar may 

 undergo in the process of fermentation, to take into con- 

 sideration the fact that two molecules of sugar are involved 

 in the reaction. 



Zoological Society, February 15.— Dr. S. F. Harmer, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — R. E. Turner: 



Additions to our knowledge of the fossorial wasps of 

 Australia. Many new species were described, belonging 

 chiefly to the families Thynnidae and Ceropalida;. The 

 Thynnidae had been collected chiefly by Mr. H. M. Giles 

 in South-western Australia, and many interesting notes 

 had been contributed by him on their habits. The sexual 

 differences were extreme, and hitherto few Western 

 Australian species had been correctly paired. The females 

 were wingless, and the mouth-parts extremely minute, sc 

 that only liquid food could be taken, and this was usuall) 

 disgorged by the male and placed in the mouth of th« 

 female. Mr. Giles had observed several cases of cross- 

 pairing, in which the male was carrying the female of 

 different species ; there could be no doubt as to the accuracy 

 of this observation, though it was possible that the malt 

 claspers might be used for carrying the female _ whet 

 coupling did not take place. The geographical distributioi 



