January 16, 19 19] 



NATURE 



399 



milk becomi ited in solids not fat while 11 



- ing in the uddei . I he second experiment show 



of I ppings" with a cow foi 



days. Iv. comparing the above with the results 

 from the injection ol pituitary extract and co 

 luteum, the conclusion is come to that fat is stored up 

 in the alveolar cells of the mammary gland, owing to 

 the back pressure of the milk in the udder, and thai 

 is there c\cn after milking a cow 

 ighlj . Bei ausi moi e is Ii Fl after the moi ning 

 milk, succeeding a al, than after an ev< i 



milking, as : Fat is produced in the evening 



a- in thi morning milk. 



Sydney. 

 Royal Societ) of .New South Wales, Novembei 6, tqi8. 

 Mr. VV. S. Dun, president, in the chair. — G. P. 

 Darnell-Smith : An account of some preliminary in- 

 vestigations nn a bacterial disease of tobacco. Blue 

 mould, due to the fungus osi yami, i- a 



disease in tobacco seed-beds, and has been 

 prevalent in New Smith Wales during the last 

 While the mould itself causes a withering 

 of the leaves, it has been found that the conducting 

 - ii the roots and stems invariably show signs 

 cay in plants that have been attacked. From the 

 tis-ues .if such plants pure cultures of a bacterium 

 have been obtained which has the form and main of 

 th" characters of Bacterium solanacearum. Cultures 

 of this organism inoculated into healthy plants have 

 ecovered again after two months. There seem 

 grounds for believing that the main difficulty in 

 rearing plants that have been attacked by blue mould 

 lies in the fact that they become infected with a bac- 

 terium identical with, or closely allied to, Bacterium 

 solanacearum, an organism which in America has 

 been shown to give rise to a wilt disease of tobacco. — 

 R. II. Cambage : Two new species of Eucalvptus. 

 One species was a Mallee from the hills near Pokolbin, 

 in the Maitland district, and the other a tree up to 

 50 ft. high, known as the willow gum, from the 

 summit of the Buffalo Mountains in Victoria, at an 

 m exceeding 4000 ft. 



Washing ion, D.C. 

 National Academy of Sciences, August, 1918 (Pro- 

 igs, vol. iv., No. Si.- C. B. Davenport: Hereditar} 

 ncy to form nerve tumours. The disease is not 

 communicable. It affects blood-relatives, both sexes 

 nearly equally, and occurs without a break in the 

 ns, about 50 per cent, of the individuals being 

 affected Apparently, therefore, the hereditary factor 

 in neurofibromatosis is dominant. — D. N. Lehmer : 

 Arithmetical theory of certain Hurwitzian continued 

 ns. Investigations on the successive values of 

 ators and denominators of convergents. — 

 \. I'.mch : Closed curves described by a spherical 

 ulum. Some geometrii properties of these curves 

 Oped. C. Drechsler : The taxonomic position 

 of the genus Actinomyces. \ morphological study foi 

 the purpose of determining the merits of various con- 

 tending views. II. Shapley : Studies of magnitudes in 

 star clusters viii. A summar; oi results bearing 

 on the, structure of the sidereal universe. A 

 summary of results leads to a simple interpreta- 

 tion of star-streaming. The stars of stream i. 

 belong i" thi large moving cluster surrounding 

 the sun, those ,,f stream ii. belong to the galactic 

 II. I.. I-'airchild : Glacial depression and post- 

 11 uplift of North-Eastern America. An illus- 

 ophysical theorv of isostacy. — C. B. 

 I.ipman and D. D. Waynick : \ bacteriological study of 



- lil of Loggerhead Key, Tortugas, Florida. A 



ioi of bacterial counts, nitrogen-transforming 



powers ol the soils, and nitrogen-fixing powers and 

 organisms, P. II. Cobb: Autonomous responses of. 

 the labial palps of Anodonta. The palp contains 

 within itself the neuromuscular organism necessary for 



the responses described, and therefore possesses an 

 autonomy more complete than ih.it of the vertebrate 

 heart.- F. C. Blake: The depth of the effective plane 

 in X-ra\ crystal penetration. In determining the 

 of Ii In means of X-rays, the "depth of the 

 effective plane" was 0-203 mm. for calcite with a 

 certain X-ray wave-length. An attempt is here made 

 to explain this theoretically. — E. P. Allis, jun. : The 

 myodome and trigemino-facialis chamber of fishes and 

 the corresponding cavities in higher vertebrates. — 

 1 1. !•'. Jones ■ The effect of in-breeding and cross- 

 In ceding upon development. A continuation ot work 

 by East and Haves on the naturally cross-pollinated 

 corn plant, Zca mays, L. 



September, n)i8 (Proceedings, vol. iv., No. 9). — 

 W. M. Davis: Metalliferous laterite in New Cale- 

 donia. Laterite ores of the serpentine highlands 

 seem to be local as to arei of development, and inter- 

 mittent as to time of origin and duration of occurrence. 

 — H. H. Donaldson : A comparison of growth-changes 

 in the nervous system of the rat with corresponding 

 changes in the nervous system of man. The five 

 events in the growth of the nervous system of the rat, 

 namelv, (1) increase in total weight, (2) decrease in 

 percentage of water, (3) accumulation of myelin, 

 (4) maturing of the cerebellum, and (5) attainment of 

 mature thickness of the cerebral cortex, all take place 

 it ages equivalent, or nearly equivalent, to those at 

 which they occur in man ; and hence, by the use of 

 equivalent ages, there is a satisfactory method for 

 making a cross-reference between the rat and man. — 

 R. W. Hegner : Variation and heredity during the 

 vegetative reproduction of Arcella dentata. Within a 

 large family of .1. dentata produced by vegetative re- 

 production from a single specimen there are many 

 heritably diverse branches. These diversities are due 

 both to very slight variations and to sudden large 

 variations or mutations. The formation of such here- 

 ditarily diverse branches seems to be a true case of 

 evolution observed in the laboratory, and occurring in 

 a similar way in Nature.— W. E." Ekblaw : The im- 

 portance of nivation as an erosive factor, and of soil- 

 llow as a transporting agency, in northern Greenland. 

 Nivation and solifluction, characteristic processes of 

 disintegration and denudation under sub-Arctic or 

 Arctic conditions, appear to be of prime importance in 

 the reduction of high relief of northern Greenland. — 

 1,. A. Miller: The a-holomorphisms of a group. A 

 solution of the problem : For what values of a is it 

 possible to construct non-Abelian groups which admit 

 separately an a-holomorphism ? 



October, 1918 (Proceedings, vol. iv., No. 10).— 

 Major R. M. Yerkes : Measuring the mental strength 

 .ii an army. A review of the psychological under- 

 takings in connection with the examination of the 

 lits for tin U.S. Army.— E. H. Hall: Thermo- 

 electric action with thermal effusion in metals: a 

 correction. Supplementary to an earlier paper.— E. J. 

 Wilczynski : Invariants and canonical forms. A general 

 proof in the sense of Moore's general analysis of the 

 hat the co-efficients of a unique canonical form 

 are invariants. E. L. Nichols and H. L. Howes : I ne. 

 of phosphorescence. Two types of phosphorescence, 

 known as persistent and vanishing, are distinguished 

 and discussed. The types are apparently independent, 

 and both mav occur with a single source of excitation 

 and in a single substance.— C. G. Abbot: The Smith- 

 sonian "Solar Constant" Expedition to Calama, 



-. 1 2568, v •■ . 102] 



