June 25, 1903] 



NATURE 



189 



College, Columbia University, to purchase the three blocks 

 of land adjoining Columbia College. Mr. Joseph Pullitzer 

 has given 3000Z. for scholarships to the university. From 

 the will of Dr. Thomas VV. Evans, the City of Philadelphia 

 will receive about 800,000/. for the "• Thomas W. Evans 

 Museum and Institute Society." Mr. John D. Rockefeller 

 has offered to duplicate money raised by Acadia College, in 

 Wolfville, N. S., up to 20,000/. before January i, 1908; he 

 "has also offered to pay two-thirds of the cost of a building 

 for the University of Nebraska to be used for social and 

 religious purposes, on condition that the remaining third 

 of the 20,000/. be contributed within about a vear, and to 

 give Denison College, Newark, Ohio, 12,000/. if the in- 

 stitution will raise a like sum by January i, 1904, for the 

 construction of additional buildings. Chicago Yale alumni 

 give 500/. a year for the establishment of four Yale scholar- 

 ships. Dr. Elizabeth L. McMahon left 1600/. to found a 

 scholarship in Vassar College for daughters of deceased 

 physicians. Colby University, Maine, receives 1000/. by 

 the will of the late Robert O. Fuller, of Cambridge, Mass. 

 The will of Mrs. Susan Bevier gives 10,000/. to the 

 Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute. Mrs. 

 Helen F. Ackley has left to Wesleyan University a bequest 

 of 400/., the income from which is to be used for the benefit 

 of one or more women students. Mr. Andrew Carnegie 

 has given 50,000/. for an extension of the Mechanics and 

 Tradesmen's Institute, New York City. Dr. D. K. 

 Pearsons has given Winter Park, Florida, 10,000/., and 

 Kingfisher College, Oklahoma, 5000/. The late Ario 

 Wentworth, of Salem, Mass., left 20,000/. to the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology. Mrs. Vail, wife of Prof. 

 Vail, has given Hobart College' 1000/. The late Walter D. 

 Pitkins has bequeathed 2000/. to Yale University. Mr. 

 Francis L. Stetson, of New York, has given 5000/. to 

 V.illiams College. Mr. Robert C. Billings has given the 

 same sum to Wellesley College. Mr. Henry Denhart, of 

 Washington, 111., announces a further gift of 29,000/. to 

 Carthage College. He offers 20,000/. for the endowment 

 fund providing that the same amount be raised in the 

 college territory, half of the expense of any new buildings 

 erected up to 10,000/., and 5000/. cash. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, May 28.— "On the Adaptation of the 

 Pancreas to different Foodstuffs." Preliminary Communi- 

 cation. By F. A. Bainbridgre, M.B., M.R.C.P. Com- 

 municated by Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S. 



The author's observations have been made in the hope of 

 determining, first, whether the composition of pancreatic 

 juice (as regards its enzymes) varies in response to the 

 stimulus of different foodstuffs, and, secondly, by what 

 means this adaptation is carried out. The enzyme studied 

 was lactase, which converts lactose into galactose and dex- 

 trose, and the degree of inversion produced by the enzyme 

 was estimated by Pavy's method. 



It was found that when dogs were fed on milk for two 



or three weeks, their pancreatic juice contained lactase, 



whereas the pancreatic juice of adult dogs not fed on milk 



contained no lactase. It seemed clear, therefore, that a 



•definite foodstuff — lactose — caused the pancreas to secrete 



•an enzyme capable of producing (in the lactose) digestive 



changes ; in fact, the pancreatic juice varied in composition 



with different diets. It is believed by Pawloff and others 



; that this adaptation is carried out entirely by a nervous 



• mechanism, and that a given food reflexly excites the 



i pancreas to secrete a juice specially adapted for the diges- 



i tion of that particular foodstuff, and Weinland has adopted 



' this view as regards the lactase of the pancreas. 



However, Weinland 's observation that lactose injected 

 subcutaneously did not cause the formation of lactase by the 

 I pancreas suggested to the author that the intestinal mucous 



membrane must be concerned in the production of lactase, 

 and that possibly the process was chemical rather than 

 nervous. The author found that when an extract of the in- 

 testinal mucous membrane of a dog fed on milk was injected 

 into a second biscuit-fed dog, the pancreatic juice of the 

 latter contained lactase. On the other hand, when a watery 

 extract of the intestinal mucous membrane of a biscuit-fed 

 dog was injected intravenously into a second biscuitrfed 



NO. 1756, VOL. 68] 



dog, the pancreatic juice of the latter contained no lactase. 

 These results suggest that, in consequence of the action of 

 the intestinal mucous membrane on lactose, some substance 

 is formed which passes by the blood-stream to the pancreas, 

 where it stimulates the latter to manufacture a specific 

 enzyme-Iactase. If this proves to be the case, the whole 

 process of adaptation must be chemical rather than nervous. 



"Hydrolysis of " Fats in vitro by means of Steapsin." 

 By Dr. J. Lewkowitsch and Dr. J. J. R. Macleod. 



Experiments which one of the authors (J. L.) had made 

 with lipase prepared from pig's liver had not led to a 

 higher hydrolysis of cotton-seed oil than 3 per cent. A 

 fresh series of experiments was, therefore, commenced 

 jointly by the authors with steapsin. Preparations of 

 steapsin were obtained by mincing 200 grams of fresh pig's 

 pancreas and triturating it in a mortar with twice the bulk 

 of water. The preparations were not incubated at the body 

 temperature, as previous experiments had proved that 

 steatolytically active preparations had lost considerably in 

 steatolytic power by being kept at 37° C. 



The experiments were carried out by triturating in a 

 mortar varying quantities of the steapsin preparations with 

 cotton-seed oil until an emulsion was obtained. Unless the 

 preparation and the oil form a thorough emulsion, no action 

 of the ferment can be expected. If the emulsions are 

 allowed to stand, hydrolysis commences after a few days, 

 and reaches in the course of a few weeks a very consider- 

 able amount. Hydrolysis up to 86 per cent, was obtained 

 after a lapse of a few months in the case of cotton-seed oil. 

 Lard has not given so high a percentage of hydrolysis, 

 although the opposite result would have been expected, 

 inasmuch as the consistency of lard favours the state of 

 emulsion. 



Steapsin does not seem to produce the reversible action 

 which other enzymes have been shown to exert. So far, 

 small quantities of acid or alkali do not appear to influence 

 the action of the ferment. 



The foregoing experiments prove for the first time that it 

 can be demonstrated by the usual quantitative methods of 

 fat analysis that steapsin is a very powerful fat-splitting 

 ferment. 



June II. — "The Measurement of Tissue Fluid in Man." 

 Preliminary Note. By George Oliver, M.D., F.R.C.P. 

 Communicated by Sir Lauder Brunton, F.R.S. 



The object of this preliminary note is to indicate a method 

 by which the tissue fluid in man may be measured, thus 

 enabling the observer to ascertain the conditions under 

 which it is effused and disposed of. 



In the course of some observations made with the view 

 of eliminating tissue fluid as a cause of variability in the 

 samples of blood obtained for examination, the author found 

 that the rolling of a tight rubber ring over the finger from 

 the tip to beyond the interphalangeal joints will, as a rule, 

 considerably raise the percentages of the blood corpuscles 

 and of the haemoglobin. The author could not arrive at any 

 other conclusion than that the ring not merely empties the 

 vessels, but likewise clears away any tissue fluid present 

 in the skin and subcutaneous tissues. The needle, in 

 puncturing the capillaries, liberates a certain portion of 

 lymph from the areolar tissue which surrounds them, and 

 this dilutes the blood. When, however, both fluids have 

 been dispersed as much as possible by the compression of 

 the firm rubber ring, a puncture made just before removing 

 tbp ring yields blood per se ; for the blood instantly returns 

 to the vessels, whereas an appreciable interval must elapse 

 before the lymph reappears, or is exuded afresh. The 

 author therefore inferred that the reading of the difference 

 in the percentage of the corpuscles, or of the haemoglobin, 

 before and after the use of the ring, provides a measure of 

 the tissue-lymph, and makes the study of the circulation 

 of it in man possible. 



This simple method having, furnished somewhat un- 

 expected, results, the author accepted theni at first with 

 reserve ; and, for some time, the data were allowed to 

 accumulate, until at last it was quite apparent that they 

 invariably fell into the same order. Inasmuch as the 

 method did not provide results which were exceptional or 

 erratic, or contradictory and unaccountable, trust on 

 it became gradually established by the mere repetition of 

 the observations'. . 



