September 29, 1904] 



NATURE 



547 



■" Through Town and Jungle : Fourteen Thousand Miles 

 Awheel among the Temples and People of the Indian Plain," 

 by W. H. and F. B. Workman, illustrated ; " British Bird 

 Life, 'J bv W. P. Westell, illustrated; and "Gardening for 

 the Million," by A. Pink. 



Messrs. Whittaker and Co.'s announcements are as 

 follow: — "Insulation of Dynamo Electric Machinery," by 

 H. W. Turner and H. M. Hobart ; ".Armature Construc- 

 tion," by H. M. Hobart; "Steam Turbines," by H. M. 

 Hobart and T. Stevens; "Concrete-Steel," by W. Noble 

 Twelvetrees ; " Practical Wireless Telegraphy," by Prof. 

 Mazzotto, translated from the Italian by S. Bottone ; " Per- 

 centage Tables for Elementary Analysis," by L. F. Gutt- 

 mann ; and new editions of " The .Alternating Current 

 Circuit and Motor," by W. P. Maycock ; " Electricity in its 

 Application to Telegraphy," by T. E. Herbert; "Central 

 Station Electricity Supply," by A. Gay and C. H. Yeaman ; 

 " The Management of .Accumulators," by Sir D. Salomons; 

 and " The Optics of Photography and Photographic 

 Lenses," by J. T. Taylor, revised by P. F. Everitt. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Mr. George H. Carpenter, of the Science and Art 

 Museum, Dublin, has been appointed professor of zoology 

 in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. 



At the inaugural ceremony in connection with the 

 University of Leeds on Thursday, October 6, the following 

 honorary degrees, among others, will be conferred : — D.Sc, 

 Lord Rosse, Lord Kelvin, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Sir 

 James Kitson, M.P., Sir William Henrv Broadbent, Sir 

 Arthur \A'. Riicker, Dr. Thorpe, C.B., Dr. C. G. Wheel- 

 house, Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, Mr. J. P. Teal, Dr. 

 H. Jackson, Prof. Miall, Dr. Tempest .Anderson, and Prof. 

 A. W. Mayo Robson. 



The inaugural lecture of the new session of the London 

 School of Economics and Political Science will be given by 

 the director, Mr. H. J. Mackinder, on Monday, October 3, 

 on " The Need of Scientific Method in .Affairs." The 

 arrangements for the session include courses of lectures on 

 all branches of economics, sociology, and cognate subjects 

 of decided value in the development of a scientific spirit in 

 commerce and industry. -Among the lecturers are Mr. A. L. 

 Bowlev, Dr. E. Cannan, Mr. H. S. Foxwell, Prof. A. C. 

 Haddo'n, Mr. A. W. Pollard, and Dr. E. A. Westermarck. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 

 for Ireland proposes to establish for the year 1904-5 a 

 limited number of commercial scholarships, tenable for one 

 year only (value 100/. each), at such schools as the depart- 

 ment may approve ; also one scholarship for persons 

 engaged in the woollen industry, and one for those engaged 

 in the leather and tanning industries. These scholarships 

 will be tenable at some higher institution, to be approved 

 by the department, in which these industries are taught. 

 They will be of the value of So!.- each, and may be renewable 

 for second and third years at the discretion of the depart- 

 ment. Candidates for the scholarships must apply for forms, 

 which should be returned to the department duly filled in 

 not later than October 5. 



It is announced in the British Medical Journal that Lord 

 Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Chancellor of McGill 

 University, Montreal, has presented the sum of 10,000/. 

 to the medical faculty. This is in addition to a gift 

 of 20,000/. which Lord Strathcona made to the medical 

 faculty about two and a half years ago. The whole 

 of that sum was expended in alterations and ex- 

 tensions of the buildings of the faculty ; these were so 

 extensive that they practically amounted to rebuilding. Two 

 new lecture rooms, and three laboratories for chemistry, 

 physics, and hygiene respectively were erected, and other 

 alterations and additions made which greatly increased the 

 working power of the faculty. These buildings, which were 

 opened by the Prince of Wales about two years ago, cost 

 some 7500/. more than was expected. The further 

 sum now given by Lord Strathcona is intended to cover the 

 deficit and to assist the general work of the medical school. 



NO. 1822, VOL. 70] 



At University College, London, on October 3, Prof. 

 Norman Collie will give a public introductory lecture to the 

 faculty of medicine on " The Bearing of Chemistry on 

 Medicine." On October 18 Sir William Ramsay will com- 

 mence a course on the chemical aspects of the recent dis- 

 coveries connected with radio-active matter. A course of 

 lectures on spectroscopy and spectrum photography, by Mr. 

 E. C. C. Baly, will be given twice during the session, 

 beginning in November and February. 



.A LIST of courses of lectures and practical work at Herold's 

 Institute — the London Technical School of Leather Manu- 

 facture — has been received. The school is a monotechnic 

 equipped with every appliance requisite for the practical 

 manufacture, currying, dyeing, and finishing of all kinds 

 of leather. Students are urged to go through courses of 

 study of two or three years' duration, and every possible 

 facility is afforded to those who desire to carry out original 

 researches. 



The syllabus of classes at the Sir John Cass Technical 

 Institute, Aldgate, shows that much care has been devoted 

 to the organisation of the work of the institute, which is now 

 an educational centre for industrial classes, men and women, 

 of east London. The institute has now completed its first 

 two sessions, and a fairly definite line has been taken in the 

 science teaching, which is chiefly concerned with physics, 

 chemistry, and metallurgy, whilst these departments are 

 correlated to the department of arts and crafts in respect 

 to the teaching of art metal work, jewelry, and enamelling. 

 Metallurgy is one of the more special departments of the 

 institute, and we notice that a course is announced on 

 metallography. 



.At St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School the entrance 

 scholarship in natural science, of the value of 150/., has 

 been awarded to Mr. Ernest W. Withey, and the university 

 scholarship, of the value of 50/., to Mr. Charles E. White- 

 head, of Caius College, Cambridge. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, July 26.—" On the Production of a Specific 

 Gastrotoxic Serum. — Preliminary Communication." Bv 

 Dr. Charles Bolton. Communicated by Prof. Sidnev 

 Martin, F.R.S. 



This communication deals with the production of a gastro- 

 toxic serum by the injection of the mucous membrane of the 

 stomach (i) of the guinea-pig into the rabbit, (2) of the 

 rabbit into the rabbit, and (3) of the guinea-pig into the 

 guinea-pig. 



In each case the blood of the injected animal becomes 

 toxic ; in the first case for the guinea-pig, in the second 

 case for the guinea-pig, and in the third case for the 

 rabbit. 



The lesions produced by injection of the serum are in all 

 three cases the same. They consist of circumscribed areas 

 of necrosis in the mucous membrane of the stomach 

 associated with haemorrhage, the latter being secondary to 

 the necrosis, and to some extent also of hsemolytic origin. 

 At a later stage definite ulcers of the stomach are produced, 

 and in this process of ulceration the gastric juice is con- 

 sidered to play a prominent part. The remaining portions 

 of the alimentary canal are found to be normal. The gastro- 

 toxic serum does not produce any visible change in the 

 stomach cells which are exposed to its action in vitro. 



.An inquiry into the nature of the gastrotoxin has shown 

 that it consists of an "immune body," which is newly 

 formed in the blood and resists the action of heat, and a 

 " complement " which is contained in the normal blood and 

 is destroyed by heat. 



The specificity of the gastrotoxin was tested by mixing 

 various cells (such as liver, blood) with it previous to its 

 injection in order to determine whether guinea-pig's 

 stomach cells alone, or whether any other cells, could extract 

 the " immune body." -As the result of this, it was found that 

 guinea-pig's stomach cells alone in the first two cases were 

 able completely to extract the " immune body " and thus 



