JUNE 30, 1 9 10] 



NATURE 



547 



for rabbit, 1-58; guinea-pig, 3-30; mouse, 6-70. — E. C. 

 Hort : Autotoxaemia and infection. The object of this 

 communication is to show that fever, loss of weight, and 

 changes in the antitryptic values of the blood serum, three 

 phenomena common to bacterial and protozoan infection 

 in man, can be reproduced in animals by the subcutaneous 

 injection of small quantities of distilled water. Elaborate 

 controls were set up throughout, and absence of sepsis 

 repeatedly proved by autopsy and by microscopical sections. 

 Fever. — Sixty guinea-pigs received single injections of boiled 

 distilled water in quantities varying from i to 10 c.cm. 

 Fever resulted in fiftj-. Thirty guinea-pigs received 

 multiple injections, always followed by fever except when 

 the injections were too closely crowded, or too large, when 

 subnormal temperatures resulted. Twelve rabbits received 

 single injections varying from 10 to 60 c.cm. Fever 

 followed in all. Ten rabbits received multiple injections. 

 All showed fever. Fever after each injection was always 

 rapid in onset, abrupt and fugitive in both guinea-pig and 

 rabbit. By appropriate spacing of injections continuous 

 fever can be produced, ceasing with the injections. 

 Hypersensitisation was frequently observed. Establishment 

 of a constant between weight of injection, animal injected, 

 and degree of fever induced has been so far impossible. 

 'Weight. — The effect of small single injections was incon- 

 clusive. Multiple injections always produced marked loss, 

 recovery ensuing on discontinuance of injections if few in 

 number. Antitryptic values. — Multiple injections produced 

 marked rise in values, strikingly parallel in gross effect 

 to the rise produced in the same species of animal by single 

 injections of diphtheria toxin, or of emulsions of living 

 bacteria. From these experiments it would appear that 

 however great the share taken by bacteria and protozoa in 

 initiating the disease-complex of infection, the net result 

 is, perhaps to a large extent, a state of true auto-intoxi- 

 cation. The results obtained suggest that such auto- 

 intoxication is in part directly due to absorption of deri- 

 vatives of the infected cells themselves, and only indirectly 

 to the absorption of bacterial products. 



Physical Society, June 10. — Prof. H. L. Callendar, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. W. E. Sumpner 

 and W. C. S. Phillips . A galvanometer for alternate- 

 current circuits. The galvanometer described is the result 

 of an attempt to construct a measuring instrument by 

 means of which inductances and capacities can be com- 

 pared by bridge methods as accurately as it is possible to 

 compare resistances. The instrument is like a moving 

 coil galvanometer in almost every respect, except that its 

 field is due to a specially constructed electromagnet excited 

 by an alternating voltage. — A. E. Garrett : Positive 

 electrification due to heating aluminium phosphate. 

 Many of the results obtained, in particular (a) with vary- 

 ing pressures and constant temperatures, (b) at atmospheric 

 pressure in which after removal of all free ions by a field 

 sufficient to produce a saturation current, a current of 

 equal values for ions of both signs was found at an elec- 

 trode placed behind that on which the saturation voltage 

 acted, and (c) the loss of charge of a Faraday cylinder 

 when screened from the action of free ions, indicate that 

 one of the products due to heating aluminium phosphate 

 is in the form of neutral pairs or doublets which after- 

 wards split up into negative and positive ions. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, lun^M — Prof Gowland, 

 past-president, in the chair. — P. A. Talbot : The Ekoi cJF 

 southern Nigeria. The Ekoi dwell by the border of the 

 German Kamerun. Their land, between its maze of 

 -ivers, is one stretch of dense " bush," whch reaches even 

 :o the summit of the hills, of which the greater part of 

 'lie country consists. The whole existence of the race 

 mirrors the twilight and mystery of the bush, peopled to 

 the native's fancy by strange, half-human shapes, such 

 as were-leopards and the genii of trees and rocks. Magic 

 is the keynote on which the lives of the Ekoi turn. 

 Idiong, the practice of divination, is much resorted to, 

 and is clearly connected with ancestor worship, the 

 dominant factor in the religion of the race. The great 

 festival of the year is that of Eja, held at the time of 

 the new yams. Investigations have proved that these rites 

 are almost identical with many of the darker traits of 

 the old .Adonis-Attis-Osiris worship. Many beliefs and 

 customs of the Ekoi have come down from remotest 



NO. 2122, VOL. 8^1 



antiquitj-. They have a marvellous folklore, which at 

 times shows poetic feeling, at others a keen sense of 

 humour. There are legends to explain all customs and 

 beliefs. The land is full of societies, secret and otherwise, 

 the chief of which is the Egbo Club, which ruled the 

 country before the coming of the white man. Though a 

 polygamous people, the chief wnfe, not the husband, is the 

 head of the house, and women's rights as to property and 

 the custody of children are most strictly safeguarded by 

 native law. 



Zooloeical Society, June 14.— Dr. S. F. Harmer. F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair.— R. I. Pocock : The 

 cutaneous scent-glands of ruminants. The author pomted 

 out that the structure of the feet, whether furnished with 

 special glands or not, supplied valuable data for classifying 

 the genera of antelopes and deer, and showed that with 

 some modifications, such as the removal of Tetraceros from 

 the Cephalophinae to the Tragelophinae, of Dorcotragus 

 from the Antilopinae to the Neotraginae, and of Pantholops, 

 Saiga, and yEpyceros from the Antilopinae, the subfamiHes 

 usually admitted were valid groups. In the case of the 

 deer, it was interesting to note that Rucer\-us, Panolia, 

 E'aphurus, and Sika were closely allied to Cervus. Dama 

 being a totally distinct tjpe. Axis and Hyelaphus bek)nged 

 to another group, while Rangifer, Alces, and Capreolus, 

 as Sir Victor Brooke claimed, belonged to the section 

 typified by Dorcelaphus, Mazama, and other American 

 deer. — R. Lydokker : A wapiti and a muntjac. The 

 author described two wapiti antlers from Tibet as Cervus 

 canadensis -wardi, and a muntjac from An-wei, China, as 

 Cervulus bridgemani. The latter was characterised by its 

 dark blackish-o'ive colour, the black ears of the female 

 and the yellow ones of the male, coupled with the relatively 

 wide divergence of the antler-pedicles. — R. Lydekker : 

 Three African buffaloes. — Dr. A. Cabrera : Two new 

 antelopes. The author described a new species of 

 Damaliscus from British East Africa and a new chamois 

 from north Spain.— Dr. E. A. Wilson: Changes of 

 plumage in the red grouse (Lagopus scoticus) in health 

 and disease. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, June 20.— M. Emile Picard in the 

 chair. — H. Deslandres, L. d'Azambuja, and V. 

 Burson : An extraordinary solar filament. A detailed 

 account, with reproductions from photographs, of a fila- 

 ment which appeared on April 11. It had the peculiarity 

 of having large radial velocities, mostly ascending, which 

 at certain points exceeded 100 kilometres per second. The 

 solar disturbance of April 11 was not apparently accom- 

 panied with terrestrial magnetic disturbances. — ^J. 

 Boussinesq : The principles of mechanics and their 

 applicability to phenomena which appear to contradict 

 them. — E. Bouty : A new measurement of the dielectric 

 cohesion of argon. The determination of the dielectric 

 cohesion of argon is attended with difficulties which do 

 not arise in the case of the other rare gases. For a fixed 

 pressure, for no apparent cause, there are progressive 

 variations in the minimum difference of potential capable 

 of causing the discharge. By making two consecutive 

 measurements rapidly at widely different pressures this 

 difficulty is partly got over. The cohesion of argon was 

 finally found to be practically double that of helium, the 

 gas immediately preceding 'it in the periodic table. — 

 A. Chauveau and M. Contejean : The elimination^ of 

 nitrogenous waste in the act of renal secretion, the subject 

 having been deprived of food. The relation between this 

 elimination and that of water, the vehicle of the urinary 

 excreta. The reciprocal independence of the two pheno- 

 mena. The amounts of water and urinar>- nitrogen 

 excreted in the young subject are independent, and hence 

 variations in the quantity of urine secreted, in the course 

 of a series of experimental periods, introduce no difficulties 

 in the significance of the nitrogenous excreta carried away 

 by the urine. — M. Goiiy : The mutual action of two 

 kathodes in the magnetic field. In high vacua, when the 

 negative charges are connected by the lines of magnetic 

 force, thev produce an action of unknown nature, which 

 is shown by a marked lowering of the explosive fwtential 

 and by the production of the inter-kathodic light. — M. 

 Nicoiau : The variation in the motion of the moon. — 

 Edmond Bauer and Marcel Moulin : The luminosity of 



