492 



NATURE 



[September 13, 1S94 



July 20. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, President, in llie chair. — 

 Mr. \V. T. Por'er, of Boston, spoke on spinal respiratory tracts, 

 and gave an account of the following interesting experiments : — 

 On unilateral section of the cord at the level of the nucleus of 

 the phrenic, the movement of the diaphragm on the same side 

 ceases or becDmes very weak, whereas it continues unaltered on 

 the other side. If now the phrenic nerve on the uninjured side 

 be cnt through, the diaphragm on this side becomes relaxed, 

 while at the same time, on the other side with the unilateral 

 section, the movements of the diaphragm begin again and are 

 continued quite normally. Prof. Koenig had been able, in con- 

 junction with Miss Koettgen, to investigate the absorption of 

 light by visual-purple from a freshly extirpated human eye. \ 

 portion of the solution was examined in an unaltered condition, 

 and the remainder after it had been converted into visual-yellow 

 by the action of green light. The curves of the transmission 

 of light for a solution of visual-purple were found to be identical 

 with the luminosity curves of the totally colour-blind, and of bi- 

 and tri-chromatic eyes where the intensity of light is so small 

 that colours cannot be perceived. The curve for a solution of 

 visual-yellow was the same as the luminosity curve of a red- 

 green colourblmd eye. From the above. Prof. Koenig deduced 

 the probability that visual-purple serves for the perception of 

 undefined colourless grey, while visual-yellow serves for the 

 perception of blue. Since both visual-purple and, hence also, 

 visual-yellow are absent from the fovea centralis, this part of the 

 retina should be colour-blind for blue. The speaker brought 

 forward a series of facts in support of this view, and a discussion 

 followed. 



July 27. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, President, in the chair. — 

 Prof. Koenig first spoke about an "experimentum crucis " as 

 to his theory of the significance of visual-purple which had 

 been suggested during the discussion at the end of the 

 last meeting, and declared it to be irrelevant. Dr. Greef 

 described the neuroglia cells of the retina and chiasma of the 

 optic nerve as prepared by Golgi's method, and which were 

 called spider-cells, owing to their small elongated bodies and 

 long slender processes. A comparison of these cells in different 

 classes of vertebrate animals had shown that they are most 

 numerous in man, and possess the longest and slenderest pro- 

 cesses, while they are less numerous and have shorter and 

 thicker processes the lower one goes in the vertebrate scale. 

 The function of the cells appears to be to isolate the indi- 

 vidual nerve-fibres. Prof. Kossel had further investigated the 

 products of the decomposition of nucleic acid, and obtained 

 a much simpler chemical composition for thymin, based on its 

 elementary analysis, than in his previous researches. He had 

 also discovered a new base, which he called "cytosin," and 

 whose re.ictionsJhe described in detail. Prof. Kossel further de- 

 scribed a new and simpler method for determining urea in urine, 

 consisting in a modification of Bunsen's well-known method, 

 and which had proved itself trustworthy as applied to solutions 

 of urea of known composition. Dr. Kniger h.id isolated a new 

 base of the xanthin group from human urine, which, while it 

 differed materially in its reactions from the xanthin bodies, but 

 showed much resemblance to guanin, he had named epiguanin. 

 Dr. Lilienfeld gave an account of his further researches on 

 diglycocollamide esters. By combining diglycocollamide with 

 leucic acid, as also with tyrosinic and aspar.iginic acids, he 

 obtained various substances which all gave proteid reactions. 

 One of the compounds so closely resembled ordinary peptone, 

 both in appearance and in all its reactions, that he had pro- 

 visionally given it the name of synthetised peptone. Me 

 reserves for himself the further investigation of this interesting 

 group of synthetic products. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, July 25. — Prof. David, President, in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read : -(1) Observations on 

 the femoral gland of Omilhorhynchui and its secretions, 

 together with an experimental inquiry concerning its inxic 

 action, by C. J. Martin and K. Tidswell. The gland is a 

 compound racemous variety with large alveoli possessing a 

 wide lumen, and somewhat recalling the appearance of a mam- 

 mary gland. The alveoli communicate with duels which 

 eventually join at the hilus of the gland to form the duct lead- 

 ing to the ipur. The gland is surrounded by a capsule of 

 fibrous tissue, exterior to which is a thin layer of smooth muscle 

 fibre". .\ marked difference in the minuii; ".tructure of the 

 gland was noted in anim.ils killed in June and those in .\pril 

 respectively, the former showing the appearance characteristic 



NO. 1298, VOL. 50] 



of an actively secreting gland, whereas the Litter suggested that 

 of a mammary gland when it h.id undergone retrogressive 

 morphosis, Examination of the poison showed it to consist 

 princip.illy of albuminous bodies, and the introduction of these 

 into rabbits produced very marked poisonous results. When 

 injected under the skin, local swelling, and great general 

 depression and rise of temperature followed, but in three days 

 the animal was well again. When the poison was introduced 

 directly into the vascular system, small quantities [\ grain* 

 caused death in under half an hour. Larger doses so introduced 

 produced almost immediatedeath, by producing ne.arly universal 

 clotting of the blood whilst travelling in the blood-vessels. 

 Such clotting naturally soon put an end to all circulation. In 

 summing up, the authors compared the action of Platypus poison 

 with that of the venom of Australian snakes, supposing the 

 latter to be diluted 5C0D times. — Notes on Australian "ship, 

 worms," by C. Hedley. .\ large species of "sliipworm" or 

 " cobra " from South .\u5tralia, perhaps the largest yet dis- 

 covered, was described and figured under the lille of 7V;v..''.' 

 cdax. The type of T. antantiia. Button, from New Zealand 

 was also figured to demonstrate that the supposed recognition 

 of this species from the coast of Queensland was erroneous. — On 

 five interesting shields from Northern Queensland, by K. 

 Etheridge, jun. — .\dditional notes on the Pal.vontology of 

 Queensland. Part i. Palaeozoic, by the same. 



BOOKS and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Books. — The Works of Hert.- .tnii some of Lis Successors: Prof. O. 

 Lodpe (/-".V..-r.v/.;« Co., Ltd.). — GL-iseow and West of Scotland Technical 

 College Calendar, iS.?4-95 (Glasgow, Anderson). — Catalogue of the Michigao 

 Mining School. iS92--)4 : Anoouncements, 1895-^6 (Houghton, Michigan). 

 — Tr.ittato di Materia Medica : Prof. P. Giacos.1 ^Torino, Bocca).— PoniS 

 and RociC P.:)oIs : H. Schcrren (Religious Tract Society).— Heat treatr.: 

 Experimentally: L. Camming (Longmans). — Theoretical Mechanic - 

 Solids; A Thornton (Longmans). 



Skkials.— Geological Magatine. SeDlember(K. PauV. — Publications of 

 the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol 6, No. 35 (S.in Francisco).— 

 American Meteorological Journal, September (Ginn).— Engineering Maga- 

 zine, September (Tucker).— Tufis C, liege Studies. No 2 ( I'ufls College, 

 M.issachusells).— Brain, Part 67 (Macmillan).— Medical Magazine. Sep- 

 tember (Soulhwood). — Science Progress, September (Scientific Press). — 

 American Journal of Science, September (New Haven). — Bulletia de 

 i'Academte Imp^riale dcs Sciences dc St. Pelersboiirg, nouvelle serie iv., 

 Nos. X and a (St. Pelersbourg). 



CONTENTS. PACE 



Bacteria in Water. Ky Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S. ... 469 



Ritter's "Asia." Russian Addenda. By P. K. . . . 471 



Elements of Cometary Orbits. By W. J. L 473 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Frye : " Primary Geography " 473 



Taylor: " Theoretical Mechanics " 474 



Thurston: " The -Vnimal as a Machine and a Prime 



Motor, and the Laws of Energetics" 474 



Calvert: " The .Nborigines of Western /Vustralia " . 474 

 Letters to the Editor:— 



A Remarkable Meteor, (///uji-rj/,-,/.)— Edward F. 



Linton; T. B. Cartwright ; Thos. Ward . . 474 



Drought at .\ntigua,— C. A. Barber 475 



On Sprinc Rains in Geneva. (/fj'M Diapam.)— 



ABM 475 



Interesting Marine .\nimals. — Prof. W. A. Herdman, 



F.R.S 475 



Symmetry of "Aurelia aurita." — Dr. H. C. Sorby, 1 



F R S ... 476 1 



Mars as he now appears. — By W. J, Lockyer . . . 476 'j 

 The Archoplasm and Attraction Sphere. (Illus- I 



tra!(J.) r.y I. E. S. Moore 47» | 



Hermann voii Helmholtz 479 ' 



Notes A^ \ 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The ll.irvest Moon 4°4 



Eclipse of the .Moon 4*4 



M. Tisserand on Satellite-Orbits 4S4 



The Distribution of Nebui.-e and Star-Cluslers ... 484 

 The American Association for the Advancement of 



Science 4o4 



The Displacement of the Rotational Axis of the 



Earth. { ll'tr) /'la-ram.) By Prof. Foerster . . . 4W 



Science in the Magazines 4»9 , 



Scientific Serials 4*9 1 



Societies and Academies 490 ■' 



Books and Serials Received 49' 



