August 17, 19 16] 



NATURE 



515 



measured by the reduction of the alkalinity of the 

 water. — J. Amar : The dynamographic path. The 

 apparatus described permits of a graphical record 

 being traced of the movement and forces exercised 

 by the limbs in walking. It has been applied to the 

 <;'^'!dy of models of artificial limbs, and of pathological 



~fs of injured or missing limbs.— C. Galaine and 



Houlbert : The removal of flies from houses. The 



-ible part of the spectrum for flies appears to be 



nprised between the green and the orange. Mak- 

 ing use of this fact, coloured glass, especially 

 blue, is suggested for hospitals, and for protecting 

 food in restaurants and shops, without restricting the 

 free access of air. — E. Flenrcnt : A method of preserv- 

 ing bread destined especially for prisoners of war. 

 The method suggested by the author in 19 15 has been 

 tried in practice, and its value has been confirmed. — 

 J. Roubinovitcb : Ocular compression in the examina- 

 tion of the oculo-cardiac reflex. 



Washington, D.C. 

 j National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings No. 7, 

 i vol. ii.). — L. B. Loeb : The mobilities of gas ions in 

 high electric fields. The results, though at variance 

 with those of most observers at low pressures for 

 j negative ions, are in good agreement with recent 

 j results of Wellisch, and likewise lead to the conclu- 

 i sion that the •"cluster" theory is no longer tenable. — 

 ; H. H. Donaldson : The relation of myelin to the loss of 

 I water in the mammalian nervous system with advanc- 

 j ing age. There is no evidence that the cell bodies 

 I and their unsheathed axons suflfer any significant loss 

 { of water ; the progressive diminution in the water 

 j content of the brain and spinal cord is mainly due 

 : to the accumulation of myelin, the formation of which 

 I is a function of age, the most active production occur- 

 : ring during the first twentieth of the life span. — R. W. 

 I Hegner and C. P. Russell : Differential mitoses in the 

 i germ-cell cycle of Dineutes nigrior. The most 

 conspicuous difference discovered between the 

 i origin of the oocyte in Dineutes nigrior and in 

 Dytiscus is in the number of differential mitoses; in 

 Dineutes nigrior there are only three, whereas in 

 Dytiscus there are four. — E. S. Larsen and R. C. 

 Wells : Some minerals from the fluorite barite vein 

 near Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado. A description of 

 specimens of the unusual mineral gearksutite, of a 

 peculiar kaolinite, and of a new fluoride-sulphate, 

 creedite.— P. D. Lamson : The processes taking place, 

 in the body by which the number of erythrocytes per 

 unit volume of blood is increased in acute experimental 

 polycythaemia. It is concluded that the liver acts as a 

 reservoir for erythrocytes. The process by which the 

 liver increases the number of the er>'throcytes is 

 thought to be a loss of plasma from the liver capil- 

 laries, together with a constriction of these vessels, 

 driving the erythrocvtes on into the blood stream. — 

 I. S. Kleiner and "S. J. Meltzer : The influence of 

 morphin upon the elimination of intravenouslv injected 

 dextrose in dogs. Morphin increases the elimination 

 through the kidneys of intravenously injected dextrose 

 and retards the return of the sugar content of the 

 blood to its previous level. — C. P. Olivier : The work 

 of the American Meteor Society in 1914 and 1915. 

 From the 554-5 observations of meteors, 139 radiants 

 have been deduced with sufficient accuracy to calcu- 

 late parabolic orbits for the meteor streams they repre- 

 sent.— A. J. Dempster : The light excitation by slow 

 positive and neutral particles. Ven,' slow positive rates 

 are still able to excite light with a speed corresponding 

 to fewer than 5 volts. The neutral rays can also 

 excite light at very slow speeds ; the excitation may 

 occur directly because of the collision of a neutral 



NO. 2442, VOL. 97] 



particle with a neutral molecule of the gas. — C. D. 

 Perrine ; An apparent dependence of the apex and 

 velocity of solar motion, as determined from radial 

 velocities, upon proper motion. The position of the 

 solar apex and of the solar velocity appear to vary with 

 the proper motion of the stars used in the determina- 

 tion. Such variations point ultimately to some form 

 of rotary or spiral motion among the stars. — C. Bams : 

 Channelled grating spectra obtained in successive 

 diffractions. A brief abstract of work presented by 

 the author to the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 

 — R. Pearl : The effect of parental alcoholism (and 

 certain other drug intoxications) upon the progeny in 

 the domestic fowl. Out of twelve different characters 

 for which there are exact quantitative data, the off- 

 spring of treated parents taken as a group are superior 

 to the offspring of untreated parents in eight char- 

 acters. The results with poultry are in apparent con- 

 tradiction to the results of Stockard and others with 

 mammals, but the contradiction is probably only 

 apparent. — G. H. Parker : The effectors of sea- 

 anemones. It seems clear that among the muscles in 

 sea-anemones there are not only independent effectors 

 and tonus muscles associated with nerve-nets, but 

 neuromuscular combinations that exhibit true reflex 

 action.— G. H. Parker : Nervous transmission in sea- 

 anemones. There is evidence not only for the assump>- 

 tion of independent receptors, but of relatively in- 

 dependent transmission tracts, a first step in the kind 

 of differentiation so characteristic of the nervous organ- 

 isation in the higher animals. — G. H. Parker : The 

 responses of the tentacles of sea-anemones. The 

 tentacles, in contradistinction to such appendages as 

 those of the arthropods and vertebrates, contain within 

 themselves a complete neuromuscular mechanism by 

 which their responses can be carried out independ- 

 ently of the rest of the animal. — A. van Maanen : 

 Preliminary evidence of internal motion in the 

 spiral nebula Messier 10 1. The mean rotational 

 motion is 0-022'' left-handed ; the mean radial 

 motion is 0007'' outward. There is perhaps a small 

 decrease of the rotational motion with increasing 

 distance from the centre. The annual rotational com- 

 ponent of 0022" at the mean distance from the centre 

 of 5" corresponds to a rotational period of 85,000 years. 

 — Symposium on the exploration of the Pacific : — (a) 

 W. M. Davis : The exploration of the Pacific; (b) J. F. 

 Hayford : The importance of gravit\' observations at 

 sea on the Pacific; (c) L. J. Briggs : A new method of 

 measuring the acceleration of gravity at sea; (d) C. 

 Schnchert : The problem of continental fracturing and 

 diastrophism in Oceanica; (e) J. P. Iddings : The 

 petrology of some South Pacific islands and its signifi- 

 cance ; (/) G. W. Litllehales : In relation to the extent 

 of knowledge concerning the oceanography of the 

 Pacific : {g) C. F. Marvin : Marine meteorology and the 

 general circulation of the atmosphere; (/j) W. H. 

 Dall : The distribution of Pacific invertebrates ; (i) 

 W. G. Farlow : The marine algae of the Pacific ; (/) 

 i J. W. Fewkes : The Pacific as a field for ethnological 

 and archaeological investigation; (fe) H. A. Pilsbry : 

 Mid-Pacific land snail faunas; {I) D. H. CampbeU : 

 Some problems of the Pacific floras. The symposium 

 contains a summary of some of the results obtained 

 in past exploration of the Pacific and an outline of 

 the importance to many sciences of further systematic 

 and continuous exploration of the Pacific. 



C.'VPE Town. 



Royal Society of South Africa, June 21. — Dr. L. 



Peringuey, president, in the chair. — J. D. F. Gilchrist : 



Protective resemblance in post-larval stages of some 



South African fishes. In Hemiramphus calabaricus 



