August 25, 1892] 



NATURE 



403 



house fire was a large contributor to the evil and a most difScuIt 

 one to contend against. He suggested filtering the air for the 

 house through cotton wool filters and had found that it could be 

 applied with great success. Mr. Warrington criticised the 

 methods of analysis and would like to see the determinations 

 extended so as to show in what quantity the respective sulphur 

 compounds existed in the air. Dr. Rideal had found the method 

 of determining sulphurous acid most reliable and preferable to 

 the Gas Referee's test used for the estimation of sulphur in coal 

 gas. Messrs. Hartog, Fairley, Thomas, Dr. Clowes and the 

 President also spoke on the paper, and Dr. Bailey replied to 

 various points which had come up in the discussion. 



Subsequently, Prof. W. H. Perkin described methods of 

 synthesis with the aid of butane and pentane tetra-carboxylic 

 ethers the constitution of the methylene ring compounds being 

 illustrated by Prof. Crura Brown by means of a very ingenious 

 set of models. 



A number of papers were carried over to the last day of the 

 meeting mainly dealing with atomic weights and analytical 

 work. Amongst these. Prof. Ramsay and Miss Aston contri- 

 buted the atomic weight of boron {«) by determination of the 

 water of crystallization in borax {b) by conversion of anhydrous 

 sodium borate into sodium chloride. The value obtained was 

 iO'966. Mr. Hartog drew attention to the results just published 

 of a determination of the atomic weight of boron by the late Dr. 

 Abrahall. 



Prof Ostwald read a communication on the assumed potential 

 difference between metals in the solid and in the molten state. 

 His experiments failed to detect any such difference of po- 

 tential ; it is at any rate below rTV?r of 3- volt. Prof. McLeod 

 showed that the iodides of sulphur, SI^ and S.jl.i, if they existed 

 at ail as chemical compounds, were of a most unstable nature ; 

 the only evidence of definite combination having taken place in 

 Sjlo was that it melted at a lower temperature than either of its 

 constituents. 



BIOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



CO many important and interesting papers were sul 

 the Organizing Committee of D this year that it 



submitted to 

 was found 

 necessary to divide the section into the three departments of 

 Zoology, Botany, and Physiology. The plan of adjourning for 

 lunch at half-past one, and resuming work again at two, with 

 some attractive papers for the afternoon, was tried and found a 

 success. Practical demonstrations and exhibitions were also 

 given in the afternoons in the laboratories above the lecture- 

 room. 



On Thursday, August 4, after the president's address, the 

 following series of reports by committees appointed at the 

 Cardiff meeting was submitted: (i) The Zoology and Botany 

 of the West India Islands ; (2) the Naples Zoological Station ; 

 (3) Zoology of the Sandwich Islands.; (4) Botanical Laboratory 

 at Ceylon ; (5) Migration of Birds ; (6) Plymouth Laboratory ; 

 (7) Deep-Sea Tow-net ; (8) Protection of Wild Birds' Eggs. 

 All of these committees have this year been re-appointed with 

 or without grants. Three papers were then taken in the after- 

 noon, viz. : (i) Renewed experiments on the modification of the 

 colours of Lepidopterous larvre, with exhibition of specimens, 

 by E. B. Poulton, F.R.S. ; (2) Prof. Preyer, of Berlin, on the | 

 physiology of protoplasm ; and (3) Prof. Hartog on the alleged 

 personality of the segments of the nucleus, and Weismann's 

 "Idant" theory of heredity. Prof. Preyer attributed an 

 important part to the absorption of oxygen by the protoplasm in 

 the formation of pseudopodia. Prof. Hartog contended, from 

 previously ascertained facts, and from his own recent researches, 

 that the view that the segments that constitute the young nucleus 

 persist during its maturity ii untenable, and that Weismann's 

 "Idant" theory of heredity being founded thereon must 

 necessarily fail. 



On Friday, in the Botanical Department, important papers 

 were read by Dr. Scott (on Secomlary Tissues in Monocoty- 

 ledons), Prof. Goebel (on the Simplest Form of Mosses), Prof. 

 Errera (Physiological Action at a Distance), Prof. Bower 

 (Morphology of Spore-bearing Members in Vascular Crypto- 

 gams), and others ; these will be noticed elsewhere. 



In the Department of Physiology there were the following: — 

 <i) Prof. Waymouth Reid gave a paper on Vital Absorption, 

 in which he showed that the older views of Dutrochet and 

 others as to the process being a physical one due to osmosis 

 roust be modified in the direction of showing that the vital 



activity of the cells composing the absorbing membrane must be 

 taken into account. We know that changes are wrought upon 

 substances during the process of absorption, such as the re- 

 generation of serum-albumen from peptone. In the case of the 

 intestine of the rabbit in full digestive activity, one can get 

 evidence of a stream passing from within outwards so long as 

 the tissues are alive. Scraping off the epithelium diminishes 

 the transfer or puts a stop to it. By the addition of pilocarpine 

 to the fluids used, it is possible to reverse the direction of the 

 stream. 



(2) Prof. Rosenthal, of Erlangen, read a paper on Animal 

 Heat and Physiological Calorimetry. The apparatus he made 

 use of has an air calorimeter. In fever, produced by injection 

 of putrid matter, he finds that heat production is not aug- 

 mented ; although in a few experiments he made on man he 

 found a small augmentation of heat production. 



(3) Dr. Lockhart Gillespie communicated a paper on Proteid- 

 hydrochlorides, ip which he stated that all proteids have an 

 affinity for hydrochlorides, and the lower proteids combine with 

 a greater percentage of HCl than the higher. These results 

 were supported by the amount of silver which is contained in a 

 series of the different proteid salts of silver, the ratio of silver 

 to albumen being highest, and that of silver to peptone being 

 lowest. The different stages of gastric digestion of a meal he 

 finds to be:— I, the amylolytic stage— no free HCl being 

 present, but some combined proteids — duration about ten 

 minutes; 2, combined hydrochloric acid (proteid-hydrochloride) 

 — acidity considerable, no free HCl, small amount of lactic acid 

 present— duration about half an hour ; 3, free HCl stage — 

 some free HCl, but mostly combined, lactic acid disappearing ; 



4, the chief absorption stage — acidity falling, but proportion of 

 free to combined HCl rising— fiom three to four or five hours ; 



5, evacuation — propulsion of contents of stomach into duo- 

 denum at fourth or fifth hour. 



(4) Dr. E. W. Carlier gave an account of the hibernating 

 gland of the hedgehog, which is situated along the cervicodorsal 

 and in the axillary regions, and attains its maximum dimensions 

 in October — i.e., just at the commencement of hibernation — and 

 its minimum shortly after the animal has awakened from winter 

 sleep. Histological examination shows that towards the close 

 of hibernation many of the cells change. The chromalion in the 

 nucleus diminishes, the fat stored in the cell gradually dis- 

 appears, and finally the whole cell breaks up. Dr. Carlier 

 considers that the hibernating gland is not merely a storehouse 

 for fatty matter, but actually secretes some nutritive material of 

 great service to the animal during its winter sleep. 



(5) Dr. G. Mann read a paper on the Functions, Staining 

 Reactions, and Structures of Nuclei, in which he endeavoured to 

 prove that the achromatic elements of a cell are the most im- 

 portant, and that the nuclear chromosomes are organs for the 

 assimilation of food, while the centrosome is a trophic centre for 

 the nucleus. 



In the Department of Zoology, the following papers were 

 read : — 



(i) Dr. Henry C. McCook (Philadelphia),on the Social Habits 

 of Spiders. This paper considered the claims of certain species 

 of the Araneae to possess in some degree the communal ten- 

 dencies of the Social Hymenoptera. The eminent French 

 araneologist, M. Eugene Simon, in his studies of South Ameri- 

 can spiders, finds a temporary sodality among certain orb- 

 weavers (Epeira Badelieri) at the cocooning season, which Dr. 

 McCook thought might be explained by the well-known fact 

 that female spiders when cocooning often choose the same 

 locality and mass their egg-bags, the one mother overlaying the 

 cocoon of another. But this is quite incidental, and occurs 

 with species which are known to be solitary. The close 

 grouping of Simon's Uloboriis republicanus was regarded as no 

 proof of a sodality, but simply showed an assemblage of snares 

 in proximity which is not uncommon. The gathering of males 

 in groups on the outer lines of the webs is quite what one sees 

 in other species with which there is no departure from the soli- 

 tary habit. The third example of supposed social spiders 

 {Anelosinus socialis) shows characteristics closely resembling 

 those of young spiders of various genera, who will weave 

 around themselves upon the foliage where they lodge a tept 

 of delicate spinning work within which they dwell for a short 

 space, and then scatter, every individual at once assuming the 

 solitary habit. If Simon's observations be here confirmed, we 

 shall have the transfer of this trait of young spiders in many 

 species to the adult period of at least one species. The fact 



NO. 119 1, VOL. 46] 



