January i8, 1900J 



NATURE 



285 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL 



The latest issue of the Memoirs (Trudy) of the Society of 

 Naturalists at the St. Petersburg University, Section of Geology 

 and Mineralogy (vol. xxvii., fasc. 5, 1899), will be found most 

 interesting for mineralogists and petrologists — the more so as 

 each paper, in Russian, is followed by a full, detailed summing 

 up in German. The volume is edited by K. von Vogdt, and 

 contains three important papers. The first, by M. Boris Popoff, 

 is upon the elipsoidal inclusions contained in that most interest- 

 ing granite, the Rappa-kivi ("rotten stone") of East Finland. 

 It is an excellent, very well-written analysis of the different 

 porphyr-like inclusions which are found in the granite — some of 

 them surrounded by an oligoclase-envelopment and with defined 

 outlines, while the others are devoid of that envelope, and in 

 this case have an undefined or a wave-like surface. To explain 

 the appearance of the different sorts of inclusions being mixed 

 together in this granite, the author resorts to the hypothesis of 

 a slow motion of the crystallised ovoids, formed in different parts 

 of the mass, but consequently moving about within it during the 

 cooling of the mass. The second paper is a note on a variolite 

 found on the left bank of the Lower Yenisei. The third paper 

 is a detailed work (353 pp. in Russian, and 37 pp. of German 

 rt'suvie), by B. Polenov, on the massive rocks of the northern 

 parts of the Vitim plateau of East Siberia. The author has most 

 carefully worked out the beautiful collection of samples of rocks 

 which was brought in, in 1865, by the mining engineer, I. A. 

 Lopatin. A most elaborate descriptive catalogue of this 

 collection has already been published a couple of years ago by 

 B. Polenov. Now he gives a summary of the geological con- 

 clusions which may be drawn out of this collection. He begins 

 his work by a most valuable sketch of the geological structure 

 of the plateau, based on Lopatin's, Kropotkin's and Tchersky's 

 explorations; this sketch (28 pp.), unfortunately, is not 

 summed up at all in German. The remainder of B. Polenov's 

 work (325 pp.) is given to a careful discussion of the various 

 rocks entering into the composition of the plateau — namely, the 

 oldest granites with their subordinate syenites and gabbro- 

 norites ; the younger group of plagioclase rocks — syenites, 

 diorites, and diabase rocks ; and the youngest group of basalts 

 which cover the plateau on immense stretches ; and, finally, the 

 metamorphism phenomena which have been going on in all these 

 rocks. A number of plates accompany the papers. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, December 7, 1899. — "Vapour-density of 

 Bromine at High Temperatures." By E. P. Perman, D.Sc, 

 and G. A. S. Atkinson, B.Sc. Communicated bv Prof Ramsay, 

 F.R.S. 



The authors have determined the vapour-density of bromine 

 at temperatures ranging from 600° to 1050° by a modification of 

 the Dumas method, from which it differs in the following 

 particulars : — 



(i) The globe was filled with bromine by repeated exhaustion 

 and admission of bromine vapour. 



(2) The bromine was drawn off by repeated exhaustion and 

 admission of air, collected in a solution of potassium iodide, and 

 estimated by titration with sodium thiosulphate solution. 



(3) The globe remained in position (in a muffle furnace) the 

 whole lime. 



Temperature was determined by means of a Le Chatelier pyro- 

 meter. The chief results are as follow : — 



1040° 755 mm. 76 o 



319 7y9 



189 73*3 



47 71-8 



By plotting the results at atmospheric pressure on a curve, it 



13 seen that dissociation begins at about 750° C. 



NO. 1577, VOL. 61I 



These results are in accordance (as far as they can be com- 

 pared) with those of V. Meyer and Crafts, but in opposition to 

 those of J. T- Thomson, who found dissociation to take place at 

 about 100" C. on continued heating. 



December 14, 1899. — "Observations on the Morphology 

 of the Blastomycetes found in Carcinomata." By Keith W. 

 Monsarrat, M.B., F.R.C.S.E. 



The research was undertaken to confirm, if possible, the ob- 

 servations of Sanfelice, Roncali and others on the presence of 

 organisms of the order Blastomycetes in Carcinomata, and to 

 study the morphology of the same. 



The observations may be arranged under four headings : — 



(i) Isolation by Culture. (2) Staining Reactions. (3) 

 Histology. (4) Tissue Reactions following Inoculation. 



I. Isolation. Out of a large number of Carcinomata examined 

 a positive result has up to the present been obtained only in the 

 case of one Carcinoma of the breast. In this case a growth was 

 obtained on glucose agar of an organism, the morphological 

 characters of which are described below. The method of 

 making inoculations on to media was by making numerous in- 

 cisions into the growth with a sterile knife and inseminating the 

 scrapings from the edges of these. The organisms grow readily 

 both cerobically and anrerobically at 37° C. 



II. Staining Reactions. In the lesions produced by inocula- 

 tion of the organism, the staining reactions were studied by a 

 variety of methods, of which a modification of the method of 

 Cladius for bacteria gave the most distinctive results, after 

 fixation in Flemming's solution. By using this method for human 

 Carcinomata both extra- and intracellular forms of cancer-bodies 

 are distinctively stained. 



III. The morphological characters of the organism are as 

 follows : Fresh specimens from cultures are spherical, from four 

 to ten micros in diameter, and in most cases take an aniline 

 chromatin stain diffusely. From this type there are all varia- 

 tions up to that in which no chromatin at all is to be observed.. 

 There is a capsule varying in density ; multiplication takes . 

 place by budding. In certain cases, however, spore formation, 

 takes place. This was observed only in secondary nodules in- 

 certain organs, which followed growths in the peritoneum 

 produced by inoculation. It consists in a thickening of the 

 capsule, the breaking up of the chromatin of the cell into dis- 

 crete particles, and the escape of the latter through a dehiscence 

 in the capsule. There is no regularity in this process, no 

 simultaneous division of the cell contents into a definite number 

 of spores, and no simultaneous shedding of the same, as in the 

 case of members of the Blastomyces Group. 



IV. Tissue Reactions. Intraperitoneal injection in guinea- 

 pigs has alone been used so far. One c.c. of a 48-hours old 

 culture was injected in each case. Stated briefly, the results 

 consisted in a production of "tumours" of endothelial 

 elements in the peritoneum, and secondary nodules in lungs, 

 liver, spleen and kidneys of a similar type. When brought in 

 contact with endothelium, the organism is capable of stimulating 

 proliferation and causing the production of new growths locally 

 and in organs distant from the seat of inoculation. 



Geological Society, December 20, 1899. — W. Whitaker, 

 F.R.S. , President, in the chair.— Dr. P. L. Sclater exhibited a 

 large diagram of a new bore lately made for the Zoological 

 Society of London, in the bottom of the old well in the Society's- 

 Gardens, Regent's Park. The section was a valuable addition*, 

 to the literature of the water-supply from wells in the surround- 

 ing district. — On some effects of earth-movcHient on the Car- 

 boniferous volcanic rocks of the Isle of Man, by G. W. 

 Lamplugh (communicated by permission of the Director- 

 General of the Geological Survey). The author, since the 

 completion of his survey of the Isle of Man, has studied the 

 coast-section in the Carboniferous volcanic series between 

 Castleton Bay and Pojlvash, with the result that he has dis- 

 covered evidence that the strata have undergone much deforma- 

 tion in pre-Triassic times. In the western part of the outcrop 

 the volcanic material consists almost wholly of tuff, in places 

 bedded and fossiliferous ; in the eastern part exists a chaotic 

 mass of coarse and fine fragmental volcanic material, traversed 

 by ridges of basaltic rock, and containing entangled patches of 

 dark limestone. The author now considers that the larger len- 

 ticles and most of the smaller blocks of limestone have been torn 

 up from the underlying limestone- floor during a sliding forward 

 or overthrusting of the volcanic series upon it. The phenomena 



