October 13, 1904] 



NATURE 



593 



phase of activity only. In the second method the general 

 gaseous exchanges of the body were watched during states 

 of rest and activity of the organ to be investigated. This, 

 however, was inapplicable to the glands of the body on 

 account of their small size. The third method was that of 

 measuring the blood gases, combined with an estimation 

 of the rate of flow of blood through the gland. 



Three glands have been studied by this method up to the 

 present, the submaxillary, the pancreas, and the kidney. 

 In the submaxillary gland the problem was very complicated, 

 since the blood became concentrated, losing a tenth of its 

 water or even more, and a considerable quantity of the 

 carbonic acid left the gland in the secretion. After due 

 allowance had been made for these disturbing factors, it 

 appeared that the O intake and the CO, output were in- 

 creased from three- to four-fold during stimulation of the 

 chorda tympani nerve. .As to how far these changes might 

 be due to concomitant vascular changes was studied by 

 examining the gaseous e.xchanges of an atropinised gland 

 •luring stimulation of the chorda. It was found that this 

 led to no increase in the amounts of O withdrawn, though 

 an increased output of CO, was observed. 



In the pancreas, which had been ^ludied in conjunction 

 with Prof. Starling, there was often no increased flow of 

 blood synchronouslv with a secretion following an injection 

 of secretin. They invariably found an increased absorption 

 of O. Usually this increase was considerable ; thus from 

 eight comparisons the mean quantity of O taken up by the 

 resting gland was 1-5 c.c. per minute, and by the active 

 gland 5-5 c.c. per minute. These results were entirely in 

 harmony with those brought forward by Prof. Brodie for 

 the kidney. 



It seemed, then, that glandular activity was accompanied 

 by a large and instantaneous consumption of O, but that 

 it was not necessarily accompanied by an increased CO, 

 output. 



.\nother point indicated was the magnitude of the gaseous 

 metabolism of glands. In the submaxillary and in the 

 pancreas, when at rest, about o 025 c.c. to 0035 c.c. of O 

 per minute per gram of gland substance was absorbed. In 

 the kidney Prof. Brodie had given one instance in which 

 the organ was using as much as one-fifth of the total 

 quantity of O taken in by the lungs, and it was common 

 to find the O consumption of the kidney during diuresis to 

 amount to one-tenth of the total taken by the whole body. 



Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt suggested that the theories 

 advanced as to the part played by oxygen offered some 

 explanation of the fact, often experienced clinically, that the 

 administration of oxygen gave relief to patients not only 

 in cases where the heart and lungs were affected, but in 

 many others also. He had long since given up the idea 

 that o.xygen was effective in these cases simply on account 

 of the more favourable conditions under which the re- 

 spiratory functions were placed. This was evidenced, for 

 instance, by the tenacity with which the patients adhered 

 to the treatment ; for example, in cases of the vomiting of 

 pregnancy, where its administration was often of great 

 service. 



Sir John Burdon-Sanderson, in bringing the discussion 

 10 a close, remarked that it had been an exceedingly fruitful 

 one, and none the less so because the points under discussion 

 had not been settled, but were still under investigation. It 

 seemed clear to him that oxygen played two parts in meta- 

 bolic processes, one of which was prominent in muscle, and 

 was responsible for the final oxidation of explosive material, 

 while the other, which w'as more accentuated in glands, was 

 akin to a building up process, as it was involved in the 

 elaboration of new material. 



T 



GEOLOGICAL NOTES. 



HE puzzling and commonly fragmental remains styled 

 by von Gumbel Lithiotis are the subject of an elaborate 

 monograph by Dr. Otto Reis {Abhaiidluiigcn der k.k. geol. 

 Rcichsanstalt, Bd. xvii.. Heft 6, 1903). After being con- 

 sidered as plants, from algae to palms, for some twenty 

 years, they settled down in 1890 as bivalve molluscs allied 

 to oysters. Von Gumbel 's revision, to this effect, is now 

 revised by Dr. Reis, who points out that certain long ridges 

 in the hinge-area represent teeth. Two genera, Cochlearites 



NO. 1824, VOL. 70] 



ant' Lithiotis, are established, forming the Lithiotidse, a 

 subfamily of the Spondylida?. The minute structure of the 

 shells is carefully described. 



. The interest aroused by the publication of " Bau und Bild 

 Osterreichs, " recently reviewed in these columns, has called 

 from Dr. Friedrich Katzer a series of papers [VerhandUtngcn 

 der k.k. geol. Reichsaiistalt, 1904, pp. 123, 150, 177, and 

 193), in which he hopes to fill some of the gaps still remain- 

 ing in our knowledge of Bohemian geology. His work 

 covers such widely diverse subjects as the zoning of the 

 north-eastern coalfield under the Riesengebirge, and the 

 magnetite-ores, occurring as separation-products in garnet- 

 amphibolite, in the neighbourhood of Kutna Hora. 



In the Verhandlungen der k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt for 

 1904 Herr R. Zuber (p. 200) explains his views as to the 

 analogy of the Flysch deposits of Europe and those form- 

 ing in tropical climates, with a heavy rainfall, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the mouths of rivers, whether these flow from 

 continental land or from the members of an archipelago. 

 Dr. H. Vetters (p. 134) interestingly connects the structure 

 of the Little Karpathians with that of the eastern Alps on 

 the one hand, and of the true Karpathians on the other. 

 The Flysch of the north side of the Alps thus reappears 

 from under the Vienna basin, and passes into the Karpathian 

 Sandstone series ; while the characteristic Karpathian 

 " Klippen " are also traceable in this connecting range. 

 The author regards the so-called Silurian grauwacke of 

 Hainburg, down against the Danube, and similar rocks of 

 the Leitha range, as in reality the equivalents of the Liassic 

 beds in the Little Karpathians. 



The Jahrbuch der k.k. geol. Rcichsanstalt of Vienna 

 usually contains more massive papers than the Verhand- 

 lungen, though it is difficult to discriminate between the 

 two in scientific value. In vol. liii. of the former (1903), 

 pp. 169-252, Dr. O. Ampferer describes, with numerous 

 sections, the Triassic and Jurassic mountains that form the 

 impressive broken country of crag and forest between Inns- 

 bruck and the Achensee. He illustrates his view of their 

 structure (plate x.) by a skilful drawing of a relief-model, 

 much in the American manner, thus emphasising the simpler 

 anticlinal and synclinal structure in the south, and the 

 great overfold of Trias upon a recumbent Jurassic synclinal 

 in the Gamsjoch area. It seems possible, as the author 

 points out, that the whole highland of Triassic rocks rests 

 upon an underfolded and underthrust knot of younger strata. 

 Dr. ."Vnipferer modestly regards his owi. researches as 

 supplementing, and correcting at certain points, those of 

 Prof. Rothpletz and his Bavarian colleagues. He adds, 

 moreover, details as to the glacial phenomena throughout 

 the district. Herr E. Fugger's paper in the same volume 

 (p. 295) describes the foothills of the Alps in the famous 

 Salzkammergut area, where the Flysch, with its dubious 

 fossils, forms the oldest series, and is confidently ascribed 

 to the Upper Cretaceous epoch. Dr. F. Ryba (p. 351) 

 revises and amplifies the list of fossil plants from the Cannel 

 Coal of Nyfan in Bohemia, and Dr. Waagen (p. 443) adds 

 to our knowledge of the small brachiopods characteristic of 

 the Tyrolese Trias. 



We have received the August number of the Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society, which contains a well 

 illustrated article on the history of volcanic action in the 

 Phlegr£Ean Fields by Prof. Giuseppe de Lorenzo ; an account 

 of the discovery of a human skeleton in Cough's Cavern, at 

 Cheddar, by Mr. H. N. Davies, who regards the remains 

 as of late Palaeolithic age, although in the discussion which 

 followed the reading of the paper this antiquity was 

 questioned ; and among other papers there is an important 

 one on the age of the Llyn-Padarn dykes in Carnarvonshire 

 by Mr. J. Vincent Elsden, who regards these deep-seated 

 intrusions as having taken place during the latest stage of 

 the Bala eruptions. 



The summary report of the Geological Survey Depart- 

 ment of Canada for 1903 has been issued by Dr. Robert 

 Bell, the acting deputy head and director. As usual, the 

 energies of the staff have been given mainly to investigating 

 and aiding the development of the mineral resources of the 

 country. Field work has been carried on in Yukon territory, 

 in British Columbia, in the Keewatin district, in Ontario, 

 Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. In connection 

 with the large output of coal which is now going on in 



