Sept. 27, 1883] 



NATURE 



535 



circulation of the blood, by Messrs. Ern. Legros and Grille. 

 From experiments made on the dog, cat, horse, pig, sheep, rab- 

 bit, and other animals, Magendie's dictum that pressure is 

 diminished during inspiration and increased during exoiration 

 appears to be normally true in the ca=e of the pig alone. — On 

 the existence and cause of a monthly periodicity of the aurora 

 borealis, by M. Terby. The paper is accompanied by a table 

 of magnetic disturbances at Brussels during the years 1870-82 

 arranged in monthly decade-. The existence of a monthly 

 periodicity is demonstrated, and from a series of remarkable 

 coincidences it is suggested that in this periodicity is reflected 

 the duration of the rotation of the sun round its axis. It is 

 further argued that the magnetic perturbations accompanying the 

 aurora borealis, which are closely associated with the appear- 

 ance of solar spots, are probably subject to the same vicissi- 

 tudes as the auroras, and to the same periodicity. — Two memoirs 

 on steam-engines, locomotives, breaks, and railway rollingstock, 

 by M. Delacy. — Remarks on the force of the word discovery as 

 applied to the Iguanodons of Bernissart, by M. P. J. van Bene- 

 den. The discovery of the large specimen recently exposed to 

 public view in the court of the Bru-sels Natural Hi tory 

 Museum, a full account of which appeared in Nature, Sep- 

 tember 6 (p. 439), is referred to M. Fages. But M. van Beneden 

 shows that he was the first to determine the conneciion of these 

 gigantic fossils with the Iguan xlon family. — On some remains 

 of fossil Cetacea collected in the phosphorated rocks between the 

 Elbe and Weser, by M. P. J. van Beneden. — The following 

 theorem is communicated by M. Catalan : a, x, y being integers, 

 every value of x satisfying the equation (a i + 1) x- = y* + 1, is 

 the sum of three positive squares, with the exception of x 1 = I 

 and x„ = 4/!- + 1 . — On some autographs of Gretry, the famous 

 composer of Liege, by M. Ed. Fetis. — On some desiderata in 

 the history of art in Belgium, by M. Ed. Mailly. 



Archives 0/ Physical and Natural Sciences, Geneva, August 15. 

 — On some remarkable movements occasionally accompanying 

 the fall of hailstones, by M. Daniel Colladon. — Mem ir on earth- 

 quakes and volcanoes, by Prof. F. Cordenons. In this first part 

 of a comprehensive study of underground phenomena the auth a 

 gives a general classification of seismic disturbances, and examines 

 the various hypotheses hitherto proposed to account for them. — 

 On the nomenclature of fossils in connection with the recent dis- 

 cussions on botanic nomenclature, by M. Alph. de Candolle. — 

 On the American ants (concluded), by M. H. de Saussure. — On 

 the movements of the ground recorded at the Neuchatel Obser- 

 vatory, by Dr. Hirsch. — Meteorological observations with tables 

 of temperature and barometric pressure made at the Observatory 

 "f Geneva and on the Great Saint Bernard during the month of 

 July. 



A'endiconti of the Reale Isliluto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere, 

 July 26, 1883. —Experimental studies on the parasite of tubercu- 

 1 >sis (Robert Koch's bacillus), by Prof. G. Sormani and Dr. E. 

 Brugnatelli. The conclusions of Char.dey Smith (Brit. Med. 

 Jour., January, 1883) regarding the detection of the bacilli of 

 tubercle in the breath of consumptive patients are nit confirmed. 

 Hence consumption would not appear to be infectious. — Cure of 

 pneumonitis effected by the cold water method of treatment, by 

 Prof. C. Golgi. — On the quaternary vegetable fossils recently 

 discovered by G. B. Dell' Angelo in tie Re district, Val Vegezzo, 

 by Prof. F. Sordelli. — Remarks on the various methods of dis- 

 tributing the current to a system of electric lamps, by Prof. R. 

 Ferrini. — On the Institution of International Law and its opera- 

 tions during the years 1879-83, by C. C. Norsa. — Meteorological 

 tables for the month of July prepared at the Royal Brera 

 Observatory, Milan. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Royal Society, June 21. — "Contributions to our Know- 

 ledge of the Connection between Chemical Constitution, Phy- 

 siological Action, and Antagonism." By T. Lauder Brunton, 

 M.D., F.R.S., and J. Theodore Cash, M.D. 



In this paper the authors show that the physiological action of 

 if ammonia varies considerably according to the acid with 

 which the ammonia is conbined. They all affect the spinal 

 cord, motor nerves, and muscles, and tend finally to paralyse these 

 structures. The course of poisoning viries : the chloride has at 

 first a stimulant action on the cord while with the iodide ibis is 

 less marked, and the paralysing action is more distinct. The 

 iodide, sulphate, and phosphate paralyse motor nerves more 



powerfully than other salts, the iodide being the most powerfu 

 of all. 



Nineteen salts of the conpound ammonias were investigated. 

 They affect the spinal cord, motor nerves, and muscles. 



There is a marked difference in action between ammonia and 

 the compound ammonias ; while ammonia causes well marked 

 tetanus, c impound ammonias as a rule produce symptoms of 

 motor paralysis, with the exception of those in which only one 

 atom of hydrogen is substituted by an alcohol radical. This 

 paralysis appears to be partly due to their action on the spinal 

 cord and nerve centres, and partly to a curara-like action on the 

 mot ir nerve-. 



Some of them apparently increase somewhat the excitability 

 of the spinal cord at first, but this is temporary, and is shown 

 rather by hyperesthesia or trem >r tha 1 by convulsion ; and 

 tetra-methyl and ethyl-ammonium salts differ from the di- or tri- 

 methyl or ethyl-ammonias in having a much greater tendency to 

 cause convulsions. 



The effect of theacid radical on the physiological action is less 

 marked in the case of the comp lund ammmias than in th; salts 

 of amnioaia itself. The iodides of the compound ammonias para- 

 lyse motor nerves more quickly than either chlorides or 

 sulphates. 



Salts of methyl, ethyl, amyl ammonium are more active than 

 the corres omling ones of the di- and tri-compounds, but the 

 tetra-comp junds are most active of all. 



In the next part of the paper the effect of the salts of alkalies 

 on muscle and nerve are c msidered. The substances investigated 

 were the chlorides of lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and 

 caesium. These differ from ammonia in having very little ten- 

 dency to stimulate the spinal cord, and the chief symptom of 

 poisoning by them is increasing torpor. Slight excitement of reflex 

 action is noted at first in the case of potassium and rubidium. 



The motor nerves are not paralysed by caesium or rubidium, 

 except in very large doses, but the other substances of this group 

 paralyse them to a greater or le.s extent. Lithium and potassium 

 are the most powerful. 



The contractile power of muscle (as shown by the height of 

 curve) is increased by rubidium, ammonium, potas-ium, and 

 cresium. It is unaffected by sodium excepting in large doses, and 

 is almost invariably diminished by lithium. 



The aciion of substances belonging to the alkaline earths and 

 earths is discussed in the next section. The substances investigated 

 were the chlorides of calcium, strontium, barium, beryllium, didy- 

 mium, erbium, and lanthanum. In regard to their action upon the 

 nervous system, these substances fall into two groups : (a) contain- 

 ing beryllium, calcium, strontium, and barium ; and (b) containing 

 yttrium, didymium, erbium, and lanthanum Group a has a ten- 

 dency to increase reflex action, as evidenced by spasm or tremor. 

 Group b, reflex action in the cord appears to be little affected, but 

 they appear to have a tendency to paralyse motor centres of the 

 brain in the frog. Group a all paralyse motor nerves to some 

 extent. Lanthanum has also a slight para'ysing action, but the 

 other members of group b have not, agreeing in this respect with 

 sodium and rubidium, and differing from all the others. The 

 contracture produced by barium is enormous, resembling that 

 produced by veratria, as the authors have shown in a former 

 paper. It is like that of veratria diminished by heat, cold and 

 potash, and may be abolished by these agents. It is not so well 

 marked when the drug is injected into the circulation, as when 

 locally applied to the muscle. 



The action of some of the more important of those drugs can 

 be graphically represented by a spiral, the terminal members of 

 which are potassium and barium, and these two are to a certain 

 extent connected by ammonium as an intermediate link. 



The alterations effected in the action of the different members 

 of these groups on muscle by the subsequent application of 

 another is next discussed, and it is shown that the effect of one 

 substance upon mu-cle may be increased or diminished by the 

 application of another. One of the most curious p lints is that 

 two substance* having a similar action may, instead of increasing, 

 neutralise each other's effect. 



Barium, calcium, strontium, yttrium, and beryllium cause a 

 great prolongation of the muscular curve or contracture. Some 

 relations are pointed out between the atomic weights of an- 

 tagonising elements of which the data are too limited to draw 

 from them any general rule, but the authors think that they may 

 possibly lead by and by to some useful result. Thus rubidium 

 in large doses has the same effect as barium in causing a veratria - 

 like curve, but barium destroys the effect of rubidium before pro- 

 ducing its own effect. 



