454 



NA TURE 



[March 8, 1906 



In obtaining the photographs a colour screen and Cramer 

 isochromatic plates were employed, and the camera was 

 made movable so that numerous successive photographs 

 might be obtained on the same plate, thereby greatly in- 

 creasing the chance of obtaining at least one well defined 

 photograph at each observation. About 700 images of the 

 planet were secured in this way during the short time that 

 it was favourably placed for such work during the opposi- 

 tion of 1905. 



December 7, 1905. — " On Mathematical Concepts of the 

 Material World." 'By Dr. A. N. Whitehead, F.R.S. 



January 25. — " Galvanic Cells produced by the Action of 

 Light. — The Chemical Statics and Dynamics of Reversible 

 and Irreversible Systems under the Influence of Light." 

 (Second Communication.) By Dr. Meyer Wilderman. 

 Communicated by Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S. 



Februarv 15. — " The Chemical Constitution of Proto- 

 plasm as shown by the Rate of Tissue Disintegration." 

 Bv Dr. H. M. Vernon. 



If a kidney be perfused with saline solution for five to 

 eight (lavs, it is found that from 2S per cent, to 60 per cent, 

 of the tissues pass into solution. These constituents consist 

 of proteid and proteid disintegration products, and contain 

 a good deal of the peptone-splitting ferment erepsin. 

 Sometimes the passage of the kidney tissue from life to 

 death is quite gradual, with no accompanying disintegra- 

 tion. At other times it takes place suddenly, and the 

 proteid and ferment washed out of the kidney may very 

 quickly increase four- to twenty-fold, and then dwindle 

 away again. Sudden and very marked disintegration is 

 invariably produced by adding ether or chloroform to the 

 perfusion liquid. Sudden death produced by perfusion with 

 NaF does nut lead to any sudden disintegration. The rate 

 of disintegration is extremely responsive to changes in the 

 perfusion liquid, e.g. substitution of 1 per cent, saline for 

 4 per cent, saline caused a thirty- to sixty-fold increase in 

 the disintegration both of ferment and proteid groups. On 

 the other hand, if already perfused saline were sent through 

 the kidney a second time, the proteid disintegration might 

 be diminished to a seventh its previous value, but the 

 ferment disintegration increased even twenty-fold. 



After the first few hours' perfusion, a roughly constant 

 amount of nitrogen continues to break away from the 

 tissues in a non-proteid form, though the proteid breaking 

 away at the time may vary as 1 to 1300. It is produced 

 by autolysis. Almost the whole of the nitrogen is present 

 in the tissues as potential proteid, and may be made to 

 break off as actual proteid ; but if the kidney be perfused 

 with saline containing 01 per cent, of lactic acid — which 

 has no action on ordinary proteid — more than half the 

 unstable potential proteid of the tissues is split up. 



These results seem to indicate that the difference between 

 living and dead tissues is one of degree rather than of kind, 

 for the dead tissues show great lability, and their self- 

 decomposition is greatly augmented by stimuli. 



Anthropological Institute, February 13. — Prof. W 

 Gowland, president, in the chair. — Two clay images used 

 by tin- A-Kikuyu of British East Africa in harvest cere- 

 monies, and a slide showing four remarkable dance armlets 

 used by the natives on these occasions : Secretary. The 

 images were about 9 inches in height, and were very 

 rude representations of the human figure ; they appear to 

 be greatly venerated by the natives ; the two specimens 

 shown were, so far as is known, the only ones that have 

 reached Europe. — Selection of slides showing rude stone 

 monuments in Glamorganshire: A. L. Lew/is. The author 

 described the monuments at Tinkinswood, near Cardiff, the 

 fine cromlech at St. Lythian's which bears close re- 

 semblance to that at Kit's Coty House. At Pontypridd 

 there is a curious group of stones consisting of a rocking 

 stone, surrounded by two circles and two small curved 

 avenues forming the head and tail of a serpent. This 

 group has been considered by many to be ancient, and 

 ingenious theories have been woven round it, but Mr. 

 Lewis was able to prove conclusively that the stones 

 had not been in position for very much longer than fifty 

 years. Mr. Lewis also showed slides of the dolmen at 

 Lanyon Quoit. — Notes on Deluge legends, tracing their dis- 

 tribution : N. \Y. Thomas. 



NO. 1897, VOL. 73] 



Linnean Society, February 15. — Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — A lantern demonstra- 

 tion of the developmental changes in Zooglcea : Dr. H. C. 

 Bastian. Masses of Zooglcea in their early stage were 

 first shown, in which the constituent bacteria were plainly 

 recognisable. The growth of the masses, their alteration 

 in appearance and in reaction to staining fluids, together 

 with the progressive segmentation which they undergo, 

 were revealed by other specimens. Segmentation was 

 shown to progress until minute spherical or ovoidal units 

 were produced. During the first three to five days, while 

 these changes are occurring, the masses remain colourless 

 and the ultimate segmentation units develop into flagellate 

 Monads, or, more rarely, into equally minute Amoebae — 

 myriads of one or of trie other of these forms appearing 

 (ail of about the same size) where a few hours before they 

 were absent. Later, from fifth to tenth day, the ultimate 

 segmentation units of other masses appear as aggregates 

 of brown fungus-germs. Often the masses as a whole 

 become brown before segmentation has much advanced, 

 and the different stages were shown by yvhich the bacterial 

 aggregates are completely converted into masses of brown 

 fungus-germs, together with the development of hyphoe 

 therefrom. All the stages in the complete conversion of 

 the Zooglcea masses into Monads or Amceba; in the one 

 case, or into brown fungus-germs in the other, are clearly 

 recognisable, though it is impossible to say from the 

 appearance of the masses in their early stages which of 

 these three interchangeable forms of life will ultimately 

 be produced. — The structure of Isis hippuris (Linnaeus) : 

 J. J. Simpson. The species in question is the only one 

 remaining in the genus, the other eighteen formerly in- 

 cluded having at various times been removed to other 

 genera of Alcyonaria. It is widely distributed, being found 

 in Iceland, the Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans, 

 though no specimen was found in the Challenger collec- 

 tions. The investigation was conducted on a series of 

 specimens obtained by the Indian survey ship Investigator, 

 from the surf-line and from 20 fathoms in the Andaman 

 Sea. — Note on the distribution of the genus Shortia (Torr. 

 and Gray) : B. Daydon Jackson. By the aid of lantern- 

 slides, the distribution of the genus was indicated, and 

 various species described, with their distinguishing 

 characters shown. 



Zoological Society, February 20. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — A new drawing of the 

 skeleton of the Triassic rhynchocephalian, Rhynchosaurus 

 articeps, from the Keuper Sandstone of Shropshire : Dr. 

 A. Smith Woodward. — Breeding experiments with Lepido- 

 ptera : L. Doncaster and the Rev. G. H. Raynor. The 

 species used were Angerona prunaria and its var. sordiata, 

 and Abraxas grossulariata and its var. lacticolor. In 

 .1. prunaria the banding of the var. sordiata was dominant 

 over its absence in the type, but the speckling characteristic 

 of the type appeared in the heterozygote, so that the latter 

 was both banded and speckled. The characters appeared 

 to segregate in the typical Mendelian manner, but in 

 several families there was an excess of prunaria over 

 sordiata. In .4. grossulariata the var. lacticolor was a 

 Mendelian recessive, but was normally found only in the 

 female. By pairing a heterozygous male with a lacticolor 

 female, lacticolor males and females were obtained. 

 Lacticolor male x female gave only lacticolor ; lacticolor 

 males bv heterozygote females had given all males of the 

 type, all females lacticolor. — Tracheophone Passeres : 

 \Y. P. Pycraft. The author proposed to make the 

 Tracheophone Passeres one of four great divisions of the 

 passerine stem. The most primitive of the divisions would 

 contain the Eurylsemidae, Cotingida;, and Philepitta. The 

 second would be represented by the Tracheophonae, the 

 third by the Tyrannida? and Pittidae, and the fourth by the 

 rest of the Passeres. — A collection of mammals made by 

 Mr. C. H. B. Grant at Knysna, and presented to the 

 National Museum by Mr. C. D. Rudd : O. Thomas and 

 II. Schwann. The collection consisted of about 150 speci- 

 mens, belonging to 31 species or subspecies, of which the 

 most noticeable was Mrs. Rudd's golden mole (Amblysomus 

 corriae), the description of which had already been laid 

 before the society. A new generic name, Nototragus, was 

 applied to the grysbok, which differed from the other 



