596 



NA TURE 



[April 20, 1905 



adding silicon, thereby increasing the fluidity and reducing 

 the tendency to form blow-holes ; he also gave reasons why 

 increased permeability might be expected from this, as the 

 addition of silicon probably acts by reducing the combined 

 carbon in the iron, leaving the pure iron with a sponge 

 or network structural formation calculated to give great 

 freedom for molecular movement. 



On the subject of coil winding, he showed by diagrams 

 that at present the space occupied by insulation may be 

 reduced by winding the copper upon the coils in the form 

 of thin strip on edge, and insulating the portions from one 

 another by a paint or varnish of sufficient dielectric 

 strength, high heat conductivity, and power of retaining 

 its dielectric strength at temperatures of 200° C. The 

 thinness and fragility of the copper strip, however, demand 

 that this should be done by a machine which will roll the 

 copper to the section and curvature just as it is ready to 

 be wound on. The difficulty was alluded to of designing 

 the cores and windings of high-speed turbo-generators, 

 owing to the trouble of resisting mechanical stresses due 

 to centrifugal forces, and at the same time of subdividing 

 them sufficiently to prevent the formation of eddy currents. 



It was pointed out that although recently the develop- 

 ments of electrical storage have not been much discussed, 

 it would be better to go on improving the lead couple 

 accumulator we now have instead of waiting for the 

 invention of some new storage couple which we may 

 never obtain. The combination of the internal combustion 

 engine driving a generator and worked by suction gas 

 plant for long hours, thereby charging a battery of accu- 

 mulators, is, if combined with a small steam plant capable 

 of taking the peak load, probably the most economical 

 method of producing energy for the short hours of light- 

 ing. Portable storage is much required for the modern 

 automobile, and some progress has been made, but much 

 still remains to be done. The lecturer did not believe that 

 much could be gained from Edison's newly invented 

 couple. 



The utilisation of single phase alternating currents for 

 railways is already within reach, the choice of systems 

 lying between the Finzi type of series motors and the 

 Winter and Eichsberg compensated repulsion motors. 

 Electric traction can supersede existing steam haulage for 

 passenger work at the present schedule speeds with 

 economy and advantage. It is not quite certain that 

 electric haulage will supersede steam haulage for high- 

 speed passenger work, as, although undoubtedly electric 

 haulage can work trains at 100 miles an hour, the steam 

 locomotive can be improved to work at the same speed 

 with equal safety. Engineers will not attack the long 

 distance haulage of goods for years to come, at least not 

 in our present state of knowledge of the cost of generating 

 electrical energy. The successful development by elec- 

 trical means of change speed and torque gear is much 

 needed by the mechanical engineer, not only for railway 

 work, but for rolling mills and similar purposes. 



The measuring instruments used by electrical engineers 

 have made great strides towards perfection, but there are 

 some problems still unsolved, notably the power measure- 

 ments of alternating currents. 



Although there have been recently many attempts to 

 improve the efficiency of electric lamps, both of the arc 

 and incandescent type, yet much remains to be done. By 

 using a beam of violet-blue light of considerable intensity 

 it is nearly certain that many substances hitherto con- 

 sidered opaque, but which owe their opacity to the diffused 

 refraction of the red and yellow rays, will be rendered 

 transparent. 



.\ problem of great importance will be the discovery of 

 a direct method of producing cold by electric means, as by 

 such methods cold storage will be facilitated in the larders 

 of private houses. 



Electric smelting has made great advances, and although 

 it presents many unsolved problems, much may be hoped 

 for in this direction. 



The problem which is of the greatest interest to the 

 world in general is the satisfactory development of power 

 schemes by which the population can be sent back to the 

 land. The solution is more difficult in this countrv, where 

 we have no power supply from natural water power, but 

 progress may nevertheless be expected. 



NO. 185 I, VOL. 71] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



.At the graduation ceremony of Glasgow University on 

 Tuesday, the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon 

 Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S. 



It is announced by Scioicc that gifts of 20,000!. to 

 Rochester University for the construction of a scientific 

 building, and of 10,000!. to Norwich University, Vermont, 

 half for a library and half for an engineering department, 

 have been announced. A donation of 50,000!. has been 

 made to Northwestern University by Mr. Milton H. 

 Wilson, a resident of Evanston, and one of the trustees 

 of the institution. 



Replying to a discussion on university education in 

 Ireland which was raised on the Civil Service Estimates 

 in the House of Commons on April 13, Mr. Balfour gavei 

 it as his opinion that Ireland is not provided for adequatelyj 

 in respect of universitv education. The decline in the 

 number of students in Trinity College he ascribes to the 

 great revolutions in the system of land tenure, which have 

 diminished substantially the resources and the numbers of 

 the class that send students to that institution. There is 

 also a diminution of attendance at the Queen's College, 

 Belfast, which is largely due to the influence which the 

 Royal University is exercising on education in its higher 

 forms by substituting a mere system of examination for 

 a university training. Another reason for the falling off 

 at the Queen's College is that the institution is without 

 the funds necessary for complete equipment. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 16. — " C)n the Absence or Marked 

 Diminution of Free Hydrochloric Acid in the Gastric Con- 

 tents in Malignant DisivT^e of Organs other than the 

 Stomach." I>v Prof. Benjamin Moore, in collaboration 

 with Dr. W. Alexander, Mr. R. E. Kelly, and Mr. H. E. 

 Roaf. 



It has long been known that free hydrochloric acid is 

 absent or reduced in amount in the great majority of cases 

 of cancer of the stomach. 



The absence of the acid in such cases has been attributed 

 to local action, to continued irritation of the mucous mem- 

 brane of the stomach by the presence of the growth, to 

 retention of the food in the stomach acting as an irritant 

 and causing gastritis when the growth has narrowed 'he 

 pyloric opening, or to alkaline products thrown out at the 

 seat of the growth and neutralising the acid. 



The facts that the acid is not nearly so frequently 

 absent in gastritis due to causes other than cancer of the 

 stomach, and that the acid may be absent in cases of 

 cancer and where there is no marked gastritis, and where 

 the growth is confined to a small part of the mucous 

 membrane, the remainder being normal, led to the surmise 

 that the absence of free hydrochloric acid in the gastric 

 secretion might not be due to local conditions in the 

 stomach, but to a general condition of the blood wnich 

 rendered it difiicult or impossible for the oxyntic cells of 

 the cardiac glands to secrete the acid. 



To test this view, the amount of free hydrochloric acid 

 in the gastric contents was determined in seventeen case^ 

 of malignant disease in which the growths were situated 

 in regions remote from the stomach, such as tongue, 

 cheek, floor of mouth, rectum, prostate, breast, and 

 uterus. 



As a result of the determinations it was found that freej 

 hydrochloric acid was either entirely absent (two-thirds ofl 

 the cases) or greatly reduced in quantity. This shows thae 

 the absence of free hydrochloric acid in cancer of the ' 

 stomach is not due to local action in that organ, but, on 

 the other hand, that cancer, wherever occurring, is associ- 

 ated with diminution or absence of the acid from the- 

 gastric secretion. 



Such a result can only arise by an alteration in thd 

 blood, which increases the difl'iculty of separating free- 

 hydrochloric acid by the secreting cells. 



It is pointed out in the paper that the most probable 

 alteration in the blood plasma increasing the difficulty of 



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