548 



NA TURE 



[September 29, 1904 



render the serum inactive. It was, however, found, on 

 inuiiunisalion of a rabbit against guinea-pig's stomach 

 cells washed quite free from blood, that the hEEmolytic 

 power of the rabbit's serum for guinea-pig's red blood cor- 

 puscles was much increased, and therefore that the gastric 

 cells possess receptors to some extent in common with red 

 blood corpuscles. The gastrotoxin is thus shown to consist 

 of two factors : — (i) gastrotoxic, (2) hiemolytic. 



The hEemolytic factor is by no means the more important, 

 because the lesions produced were in the hitherto observed 

 cases limited to the stomach, the hasmolytic factor could be 

 e.xtracted from the serum leaving the gastrotoxic factor, 

 and in many cases no evidence of hx-molysis could be found 

 on microscopic examination of the lesions. 



In the case of the gastroto.xic serum produced by injection 

 of the stomach cells of the rabbit into the rabbit, it was 

 found that although the rabbit's stomach cells possessed an 

 affinity for the gastrotoxin, yet they completely failed to 

 extract the " immune body " when exposed to the action 

 of the serum in vitro. It is therefore concluded that prob- 

 ably this phenomenon, together with absence of autolysis, 

 may be explained by the presence of an " anti-immune 

 body " which is concomitantly formed by the rabbit to 

 protect itself from the effects of the poison which it is 

 manufacturing. 



This opens up a hitherto unexplored field in the pathology 

 of human gastric ulcer. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, September ig. — M. Mascart in the 

 chair. — On the production of sugar in the Ividney of- a dog 

 to which phloridzin has been administered : R. Lepine 

 and M. Boulud. It is shown that the sugar obtained in 

 experiments in glass does not give an exact measure of the 

 .sugar actually present in the blood in the veins. ^On the 

 depth of field and focal length of photographic objectives : 

 J. Thovert. Regarding the object of photography as the 

 reproduction of an object as seen by the eye, the limit of 

 angular definition of a photographic image should be about 

 1/3000. It is shown that this ideal cannot be attained for 

 lenses of short focal length. — On the chemical composition 

 and formula of adrenalin : Gabriel Bertrand, Three 

 formulae have been proposed for adrenalin, the active sub- 

 stance in the extract of suprarenal capsules. Starting with 

 118 kilograms of the fresh organs, from 4000 horses, 125 

 grams of crystallised adrenalin were obtained, and this 

 was submitted to an elaborate fractional precipitation. The 

 figures obtained by combustion analyses of the various frac- 

 tions were very concordant, and show that crystallised 

 adrenalin extracted from the suprarenal capsules of the 

 horse is a distinct substance and not a mixture. The 

 molecular weight was fixed by the lowering of the freezing 

 point of glacial acetic acid, and the formula of the sub- 

 stance fixed as C,H„NO,, this agreeing with the views of 

 .'\ldrich. — The nomenclature of the rosanilines : Jules 

 Schmidlin. — Tetraoxycyclohe.xane-rosanilines : a new class 

 of colourless derivatives : Jules Schmidlin. The formation 

 of this new class of compounds depends on a simple hydro- 

 lysis which rosaniline salts undergo in acid solution. The 

 conclusion is drawn from these experiments that the salts 

 of rosanilines contain four double linkages of the fatty type. 

 — Ultramicroscopic observations on solutions of pure 

 glycogen : Wilhelm Biitz and Madame Z. Gatin- 

 Qruzewska. Two sets of experiments are described. The 

 first set, agreeing with the results of Raehlmann, show that 

 an aqueous solution of glycogen contains particles of 

 dilTerent diameters, varying with the condition of the solu- 

 tions. In the second set, the effect on the size of the par- 

 ticles by precipitation with gradually increasing quantities 

 of precipitants was studied. 



New South Wai.e.s. 

 Royal Society, August 3. —Mr. C. O. Burge, president, in the 

 chair. — On Eucalyptus kinos, their value for tinctures, and 

 the non-gelatinisation of the product of certain species : 

 II. G. Smith. In this paper, which is the second of the 

 scries dealing with Eucalyptus kinos, the author shows 

 that the tannins in the exudations from the various Euca- 

 lypts vary largely in character, and that while some kinos 

 gelatinise in tinctures, others do not. There is a remark- 



NO. 1822, VOL. 70] 



able reguUu'it\- in the action of kinos froin allied species, 

 and the marked differences in the tannins themselves appear 

 to be the reason why they act so differently as regards 

 gelatinisation. There are three tannins at Ipast in Euca- 

 lyptus kinos, and all are determinable by reagents. — On 

 some hvdrographical data in relation to ocean currents : 

 H. A. Lenehan. A paper dealing with ocean drifts, prin- 

 cipally in the southern hemisphere. It contains a tabulated 

 statement of 182 records, the most important of which 

 travelled a distance of 11,350 miles between June ig, igoi, 

 and March 5, igo4, at a daily rate of 113 miles. There are 

 also eleven other drifts more than 3000 miles long. Two 

 charts accompany the paper, showing the positions where 

 the records were cast adrift and the places where found. 



GOTTIXGEN. 



Royal Society of Sciences. — The Nachrichten (pbysico- 

 mathematical section), part iv. for igo4, contains the follow- 

 ing memoirs communicated to the society : — 



July g. — W. Nernst : On the formation of nitrogen 

 dioxide at high temperatures. H. Gerdien : Measurements 

 of atmospheric electricity during two balloon ascents. 

 Wilhelm Biltz : Ultra-microscopic observations, i. The 

 precipitation of sulphur from thiosulphuric acid and of 

 selenium from selenious acid. 



June 25. — H. Minkowski : On the closest possible 

 parallelopipedal piling of congruent solids. 



July 23. — Eduard Riecke : Researches on the phenomena 

 of discharge in Geissler tubes, i. On the exhaustion of 

 Geissler tubes by the electric current. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Petroleum 525 



Chemistry of Alkaloids. By W. P. W 526 



Nickel Steels. By A. McW 526 



Our Book Shelf :— 



Besson :" Le Radium et la Radioactivite " 527 



Macnair :" Chemical Laboratories for Schools " . . 528 



Maclean : " Photo Printing" 528 



Valentiner : " (lEuvres scientifiques de L. Lorenz " . 528 



Thomson : " Botany Rambles " 528 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Average Number of Kinsfolk in each Degree. — Dr. 



Francis Galton, F.R.S 529 



The Mendelian Quarter. — Prof. Karl Pearson, 



K.R.S C29 



The «-Rays.— Prof. R. W. Wood 530 



Porpita in the Indian Seas. — Nelson Annandale . 531 

 On van 't HofFs Law of Osmotic Pressure. — 



Geoffrey Martin jji 



The Royal Photographic Society's Annual Exhibi- 



''°n 532 



Prof. N. R. Finsen 532 



Notes 533 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Astronomical Occurrences in October 1536 



Explanation of the Martian and Lunar Canals , . . 536 



Further Observations of the Recent Perseid Shower . 536 



Position of Saturn's Ninth Satellite 536 



Distribution of Nebulre in Relation to the Galaxy . . 536 

 Astronomy and Cosmical Physics at the British 



Association. By Dr. William J. S. Lockyer . . . 536 



Zoology at the British Association 538 



Geography at the British Association. {I Ilia:! rated) 541 



Conference of Delegates of Local Scientific Societies 542 



Eocene Whales. By R. L 543 



Forthcoming Books of Science 544 



University and Educational Intelligence 547 



Societies and Academies 547- 



