December 28, 1905] 



NA TURK 



are not followed, and the work is not what men of science 

 desire to encourage. It is satisfactory to know that at 

 Last in a large number of our secondary schools the science 

 periods are made the means of inculcating habits of careful 

 observation, persistent verification, and truthful reasoning. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 23. — "On the Effects of Alka- 

 li* s and Acids, and of Alkaline and Acid Salts, upon 

 < rrowth and Cell Division in the Fertilised Eggs of Echinus 

 esculentus. — A Study in Relationship to the Causation of 

 Malignant Disease.''' By Prof. B. Moore, Dr. Herbert E. 

 Roaf, and E. Whitley. Communicated by Prof. YV. A. 

 Herdman, F.R.S. 



The attention of the authors was attracted to the study 

 of the effects of small variations in reaction upon the 

 growth of cells from the biochemical point of view, as a 

 result of the observation that in malignant disease no 

 hydrochloric acid is in general secreted by the gastric 

 glands, no matter where the malignant growth is situated, 

 which pointed to an increased alkalinity of the plasma. 



In the course of investigations upon the rate of growth 

 nf ihe cell, when microscopic examination was made of 

 the cells in the fresh condition, the authors were struck 

 by the marked irregularities in size and shape of the 

 developing cell- in alkaline media, illustrated by cells in 

 fresh solution developing in sea-water, to which di-sodium 

 phosphate has been added, and also by marked tendencies 

 to nuclear proliferation. 



This led secondarily to a cytological investigation of the 

 cells when fixed and stained to show nuclear division, as 

 a result of which the authors have found the irregular 

 forms of mitosis described in the paper. These atypical 

 divisions, which have been produced by variations in the 

 medium similar to those which occur in the blood in cases 

 of malignant disease, closely resemble the pathological 

 divisions seen in the growths of malignant disease. 



The results of the experiments and their relationship to 

 the processes in malignant growths may be summarised 

 as follows : — 



(1) In nearly all cases of malignant disease the secretion 

 of hydrochloric acid by the gastric glands is stopped or 

 greatly reduced, and this effect is not due to local con- 

 ditions in the stomach, since it occurs wherever the growth 

 is situated, but is due to a change in the distribution of 

 salts in the plasma whereby the alkalinity is increased or 

 the concentration in hydrogen ions diminished. 



(2) Addition of small amounts of alkalies or alkaline 

 salts, such as di-sodium phosphate, to the medium in 

 which cells are growing and dividing causes at first an 

 increase in rale of growth and division, but as the amount 

 is increased there appears a marked tendency to irregu- 

 larity in size and shape of the resulting cells. Nuclear 

 division becomes in advance of cytoplasmic division, so that 

 the cells become multi-nucleated. As the alkali is further 

 increased, both cell division and nuclear division are 

 stopped. 



(3) Accompanying the increased stimulus to nuclear 

 division given by the dilute alkali, there are seen many 

 of the atypical forms of mitosis described in malignant 

 growths. The variations from the normal illustrated in 

 the drawings are : — (1) multiple nuclei in the same cell in 

 active division ; (2) multipolar mitosis, occurring both in 

 the single cell stage, and later in the development of the 

 organism ; (3) asymmetrical mitosis, leading to unequal 

 distribution of chromosomes to the two daughter cells ; 

 (4) reduction in length of the chromosomes as the strength 

 of alkali is increased until the chromosomes appear as 

 rounded dots, and accompanying the reduction in length 

 there is also a reduction in number to about one-half tin- 

 normal ; (5) in certain cases the chromatin becomes 

 arranged in circles, each of which shows a number of 

 thickenings. The circles are arranged in groups in the 

 cell, and appear to represent a stage in the anaphase, the 

 groups being placed at about the usual distance apart of 

 the centrosomes, and traces of the achromatic fibres being 

 ■occasionally visible. 



NO. 1887. VOL 73] 



" On certain Physical and Chemical Properties of Solu- 

 tions of Chloroform and other Anaesthetics. — A Contribution 

 in the Chemistry of Anaesthesia. (Second Communica- 

 tion.) " By Prof. B. Moore and Dr. Herbert E. Roaf. 

 Communicated by Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. 



The experiments recorded in the present communication 

 support the conclusion drawn in a previous paper by the 

 authors that anaesthetics form unstable compounds or 

 aggregates with the proteids of the tissue cells, and that 

 anaesthesia is due to a paralysis of the chemical activities 

 of the protoplasm as a result of the formation of such 

 aggregations. 



The comparative experiments with ethereal extracts 

 demonstrate that the action is upon the cell proteids and 

 not upon the lipoids. 



The compounds or aggregations so formed are unstable, 

 and remained formed only so long as the pressure of the 

 anaesthetic in the blood is maintained. 



The results of the experiments may be summarised as 

 follows : — 



(1) The solubility of all anaesthetics experimented with 

 is higher in serum than in water. 



(2) At a certain concentration, definite for each 

 anaesthetic, there occur opalescence and commencing pre- 

 cipitation of proteid. 



(3) At equal concentration of chloroform in water or 

 saline on the one hand, and serum, haemoglobin, or the 

 tissues (brain, heart, muscle, and liver) on the other, the 

 vapour-pressure is always higher in the former than in the 

 latter. 



(4) The curve connecting vapour-pressure and concentra- 

 tion is, in the case of water and saline, a straight line ; 

 while in the case of serum, haemoglobin, and the tissue 

 proteids it is a curve showing association, especially at 

 the higher concentrations. 



(5) Comparative determinations of vapour-pressure and 

 concentration, in serum and brain tissue and in ethereal 

 extracts of these equal in concentration of lipoid, show 

 that the proteid of the tissue combines with the anaesthetic. 



(6) Determinations of the effects of addition of chloro- 

 form upon the lowering of freezing point confirm the 

 results obtained by the vapour-pressure and solubility deter- 

 minations. 



(7) Determinations of the changes in electrical con- 

 ductivity caused by addition of chloroform indicate that 

 accompanying the combination of the anaesthetic with the 

 proteid there takes place a splitting off of electrolytes. 



(8) When the lipoids, extracted from serum or tissue-- 

 by ether, are made up into an emulsion with normal 

 saline, many of the lipoids take the form of bi-concave 

 discs. 



(9) The lipoid emulsions are very permanent, but 

 separate on the addition of anaesthetics or neutral salts, in 

 similar fashion to colloidal solutions. 



" A Note on the Effect of Acid, Alkali, and 

 certain Indicators in Arresting or otherwise Influencing 

 the Development of the Eggs of Pleuronectes platessa and 

 Echinus esculentus." By E. Whitley. Communicated 

 by Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. 



(1) The amount of variation from the normal concen- 

 tration of hydrogen and hydroxyl ions in sea-water which 

 the eggs of Pleuronectes will tolerate is very small. 



(2) A disturbance of the equilibrium towards the acid 

 side is much more fatal than the opposite. 



(3) A progressive development of resistance to an un- 

 favourable action of the environment takes place in pro- 

 portion to the age of the eggs. 



(4) Phenolphthalein is deadly to the eggs of Echinus 

 esculentus, but harmless to those of Pleuronectes, while 

 dimethyl quickly kills the latter, and appears, if anything, 

 to have a favourable influence upon the development of 

 the former. 



Anthropological Institute, December 5. — Prof. W. 

 Gowland, president, in the chair. — A Dyak witch doctor's 

 medicine chest : R. Shelford. The chest is cylindrical in 

 shape and about a foot high, and contains various charms, 

 including water-worn pebbles, a crystal, used for a kind 

 of crystal gazing, and a few simples which have .niu.il 

 curative properties. — Ruins in Rhodesia : D. Randall 



