March 2, 1905] 



NATURE 



429 



university. The hospital should be a school only in the 

 sense of being a school of applied science where general 

 principles of science are applied to a specific technical 

 purpose. But if the medical student is to be no longer 

 provided with instruction in scientific fundamentals at the 

 hospitals, there must be forthcoming — if London is to remain 

 a great medical and surgical centre — funds enough to pro- 

 vide other institutions where this teaching may be given. 

 University College and King's College have long done work 

 of this kind, but the accommodation which they are able 

 to provide is quite inadequate for the instruction of the 

 students of all the hospitals, and other colleges are required 

 where general education of a university standard may be 

 obtained. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, January 26. — "On the Comparison of the 

 Platinum Scale of Temperature with the Normal Scale at 

 Temperatures between 444° and — igo° C, with Notes on 

 Constant Temperatures below the Melting-point of Ice." 

 By Prof. Morris \V. Travers, F.R.S., and A. G. C. Gwyer. 



The authors conclude that, as might be expected, it is 

 possible to apply the parabolic formula of Callendar and 

 Griffiths to the re-calculation of the differences between the 

 platinum scale of temperature and the scale of the gas 

 thermometer, though the range through which it is ap- 

 plicable, and value of the constant ?, precludes the possi- 

 bility of employing it except for interpolation. A standard 

 scale of temperature, based on Callendar's three fixed points, 

 using standard wire, and taking 1.5 for the value of f, 

 would lead to absurd results at low temperatures ; and the 

 converse may be said of the authors' own observations. The 

 results referred to in this paper may be summed up as 

 follows : — 



Nature of gas thermometer. Observer. 5 



Constant pressure air (o" to 444°) ... Callendar and Griffiths 1*50 



Constant volume nilrogen( -23° t0445') Chappuis and Harker 1*54 



Constant volume nitrogen standard- 

 ised by constant pressure air at 444° 



tsoo" to 1000 ) Harker i"5i — i"4g 



Constant volume hydrogen (- 190° Eo 



34') Travers and Gwyer ... 1*90 



February 2. — " On the ' Blaze-currents ' of the Gall 

 Bladder of the Frog. " By Alice M. Waller. Communicated 

 by Dr. Augustus D. Waller, F.R.S. (From the Physi- 

 ological Research Laboratory of the University of London.) 



This investigation was inade in continuation of Dr. 

 Waller's work on blaze-currents. A blaze-current, as defined 

 by Dr. Waller in previous communications to the Royal 

 Society and in his lectures on the signs of life, is a current 

 of action, an electric current aroused in living tissues by 

 stiinulus ; the term " blaze " has reference to the vitality of 

 the tissue, to a chemical exchange going on within it ; a 

 muscle at rest is smouldering, a muscle in action is blazing. 

 Dr. Waller's apparatus and method of work were employed ; 

 the apparatus consists essentially of a keyboard containing 

 four keys, opening respectively to an induction coil, a com- 

 pensator, the object to be studied, and a galvanometer or 

 electrometer, .^ny accidental current in the object is com- 

 pensated so that the galvanometer key can be opened 

 without altering the zero, then the object is stimulated by a 

 single break induction shock, the galvanometer key is 

 opened, and the after-effect observed. 



-As seen in previous work by this method, the direction of 

 blaze-current varies in different living objects or tissues, e.g, 

 in a plant the blaze-current is either post-anodic or homo, 

 drome or it runs from younger to older tissue, in the crystalline 

 lens from anterior to posterior surface, in skin from within 

 outwards. The tissues and organs of the frog were systematic- 

 ally examined, and it was found that the liver gave responses 

 either antidrome or from surface to hilum, and the g'all 

 bladder gave surprisingly large electrical Variations, as much 

 as i/io volt, always antidrome, in a way that one is accus- 

 tomed to regard as due to polarisation currents in non- 

 living matter. These polarisation currents were proved to 

 be physiological by their abolition on submitting the organ 

 to strong chloroform, boiling or electrocution by tetanisa- 

 tion. The effect is local, it can be destroyed bv tetanus at 



NO. 1844, VOL. 71] 



two spots, and was found to persist at other parts of the 

 round bladder. 



Employing Waller's A. B. C. method, in which a three- 

 way switch is employed so that the anode and kathode of the 

 exciting current can be separately interrogated, it is found 

 that the blaze at each pole is post-kathodic or antidrome. 

 The blaze lasts about two minutes ; it is often diphasic or 

 triphasic; a single break shock with coil at 5000— (Berne 

 scale) gave 4-0.0125 volt, then — o.oiio, then -l-oooio. 



The bladder was washed out and filled with salt solu- 

 tion, and the same effect obtained ; a piece was snipped off 

 and electrodes applied to mucous and serous surfaces, and 

 still antidrome blaze obtained, though there-was a tendency 

 to exhibit the usual mucous to serous blaze. 



The simplicity of structure of the gall bladder — a sphere 

 having a single row of columnar epithelium on the mucous 

 interior surounded by layers of smooth muscle fibre cells — 

 may account for the large and definite blaze-currents ob- 

 tained, but why the cells should exhibit negative polarisation, 

 antidrome rather than homodrome or positive polarisation, 

 is not yet apparent. 



Entomological Society, February i. — Mr. F. Merrifield, 

 president, in the chair. — Exhibitions : — Specimens of Oligota 

 granaria found in a granary at Holborn, the only other 

 localities reported hitherto being Shoe Lane, London, and 

 Scarborough : H. St. J. Donisthorpe. — An Erycinid 

 butterfly Mesosemia euniene pinned in its natural 

 position of rest to show its resemblance to the head of a 

 small mammal, such as a mouse : W. J. Kaye. — A variety 

 of the female of Lycaena melanops named by him 

 var. wheeleri : Dr. T. A. Chapman. As a mere 

 aberration it was interesting, but it was of value as 

 showing that the position in the genus for long accorded 

 to the species, whether by accident or design, close to the 

 Arion-Euphemus group, was correct. The considerable ex- 

 tension of the blue in this specimen showed up certain black 

 spots on the upper surface of both upper and lower wings, 

 strictly similar to these characteristics of the Arion- 

 Euphemus group. — A living 9 H- defoliaria, taken as late 

 as February i, at rest on north side of oak-tree, and another 

 9 taken January 28 in the same wood at Bexley. A 

 (^ Notodonta ziczac X Q .V. dromedarius, with two 

 hybrids, the colour of the hybrids being that of drome- 

 darius, while the markings were those of ziczac : F. 

 Enock. — A living specimen of Acridium aegyptium, L., 

 found in a cauliflower in Bloomsbury, and probably im- 

 ported from Italy : O. E. Janson. — Two specimens of 

 Malacliius barnvillei, Puton, captured by Mr. Thouless at 

 Hunstanton, Norfolk, in June, 1899, a recent addition to 

 the British list : G. C. Champion. — c? and 9 specimens of 

 Machiinus rusticus, Mg., a rare Asilid. taken in cop. at 

 Freshwater, Isle of Wight, on August 13, 1903 : H. W. 

 Andre>ws. — A 9 example of Panorpa cognata taken at 

 Byfleet Canal on August 23, 1904 : W. J. Lucas. The 

 insect occurs at Folkestone, and is said to be found in the 

 New Forest. It is a little difficult at times to identify the 9 

 alone, but Mr. K. J. Morton also had identified the specimen 

 exhibited as P. cognata. For comparison he also exhibited 

 9 9 of P. communis and P. germanica. — Papers : — A 

 revision of the genus Criocephalus, with notes on the 

 habits of .isemum striatum and Criocephalus ferus : Dr. D. 

 Sharp, F.R.S., and T. G. Smith. — .Another entomological 

 excursion to Spain (with descriptions of two new species of 

 Hemiptera by Dr. O. M. Reuter) : Dr. T. A. Chapman 

 and G. C. Champion. — On the matrivorous habit of the 

 species of Heterogynis. Ramb., and on the pupal suspen- 

 sion of Thais : Dr. T. .\. Chapman. — Notes on New 

 Zealand Lepidoptera : E. Meyrick, F.R.S. 



Zoological Society, February 7. — Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — A second collection of fishes 

 made by Mr. S. L. Hinde in the Kenya District of East 

 .Africa : G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. Examples of five 

 species were contained in the collection, three of which 

 were new to science. — On some points in the anatomy of a 

 theriodont reptile : Dr. R. Broom. — Field-notes on the 

 mammals of Southern Caineroons and the Benito : G. L. 

 Bates. — A collection of Heterocera from the Fiji Islands : 

 G. T. Bethune-Baker. Of the species enumerated eleven 

 were new to science. — A contribution to the knowledge of 



