Feb. 25, I 



NATURE 



407 



MM. A. Bartoli and G. Papasogli. To M. Millet's statement 

 that he failed to find mellic acid and its derivatives in the 

 electrolysed ammoniacal solution, it is pointed out that the 

 failuie was doubtless due to the fact that his experiments were 

 not conducted under the same conditions as those of the authors. 

 — Note on a combination of acetic ether and chloride of mag- 

 nesium, by M. J. Allain le Canu. — On the influence of 

 the acid oxalate of ammonia on the solubility of neutral 

 oxalate, by M. R. Engel. — On the 7-bromo and iodobutyric 

 acids, XCH.,— (CHo)„— CO(OH), by M. Lpuis Henry.— Note 

 on the affinities of the Eocene floras of the West of France with 

 those of North America, by M. Louis Crie. The attention of 

 geologists and botanists is here directed to certain fossil plants 

 occurring in the Eocene sandstones of West France, which pre- 

 sent evident affinities to several species of the lignitic group 

 described and figured by M. Leo Lesquereux in his " Contribu- 

 tions to the Fossil Flora of the Western Territories " (Washing- 

 ton, 187S). Pleris Fyemsis, Crie, Ly^odium Fyeense, Crie, 

 Lygodium Knul/iissii, Heer, Asfh-niiini Cmoinanense, Crie, and 

 others are compared respectively with Pteris pseudopennaformis, 

 Lesq., Lygodittm Dentoni, Lesq., Lygodium muropteroides, 

 Lesq., Gyiunogramma Haydenii, Lesq., &c. — Note on the sub- 

 ject of atmospheric disturbances — M. F.aye's theory of whirlwinds, 

 by M. Jean Luvini. It is shown that the slight convergence of 

 the current towards the centre of great cyclones, as appears 

 determined by observation, would be more opposed to the 

 theory of absorption than to M. Faye's gyratory theory. A 

 slight convergence near the ground is in fact a natural conse- 

 quence of the principles regulating the movement of fluids. 



Berlin 

 Physiological Society, December 11, 1S85. — Dr. Gad 

 spoke of an apparatus executed by him and set up in the 

 demonstrating-room, designed to show the play of the valves of 

 the heart. A short canula of 7 cm. in diameter was tightly fixed 

 into the left auricle of a large bullock's heart, and the free end 

 was closed in a water-tight manner by a plate of looking-glass. 

 At the side of the canula was a short tube connected by an elastic 

 tube with an upright bottle. A similar canula of 3 cm. in 

 diameter was fastened into the aorta close over the semi-lunar 

 valves, and its lateral tube conducted by an elastic pipe into a 

 funnel through which the water flowing from the ventricle 

 reached the bottle. A third canula was fastened into the apex 

 of the heart, and connected with a thick-walled elastic ball, by 

 the compressions and elastic expansions of which the vigorous 

 operations of pressure and expansion required for the circulation 

 of the water filling the apparatus were achieved. In the ventricle 

 was placed a small Edison lamp, the conducting wires to which 

 were, by means of a water-tight tube at the side of the third 

 canula, directed outwards. When the elastic ball was rhythmic- 

 ally compressed, then the alternating play of the cardiac valves 

 was seen through the two first canulre, and, by means of a suit- 

 able mirror before the canulas, might be exhibited to a large 

 class. — Dr. Goldscheider reported on the results of an in- 

 vestigation into the nerve-endings at the pressure and tempera- 

 ture points, the existence of which he had demonstrated. In 

 the expectation that specific terminal organs of the cutaneous 

 nerves must, if they existed, be met with at the pressure points 

 and points of cold and warmth, Dr. Goldscheider had cut out of his 

 forearm, at the isolated pressure points and temperature points, 

 small wedges of skin, and prepared them with arsenic acid and 

 auric chloride, embedding in paraffin. Of the preparations 

 he made a series of sections which in most cases showed longi- 

 tudinal sections through the cutaneous nerves. The micro- 

 scopical examination revealed that no Paccinian or Meissner 

 corpuscles were situated either at the pressure or at the tempera- 

 ture points. On the contrary, the speaker found regularly at 

 the pressure points, which he had previously marked by the 

 prick of a needle, a bundle of meduUated nerve-threads 

 approaching close to the boundary of the corium. At this point 

 the bundle split into two branches proceeding in opposite direc- 

 tions, and then further ramifying. 1 hese two divisions made their 

 way mostly between the corium and epidermis, and but seldom 

 penetrated as far as the second layer of the epidermis cells. So 

 far as ends of the nerves were visible, they were situated 

 between the cells and were pointed. On the temperature points 

 a bundle of nerve-fibres were likewise seen to rise, but in this 

 latter case they ended in a pretty narrow net of very fine, non- 

 medullated threads, and never reached the epidermis. In the 

 neighbourhood of the nets of the temperature nerves blood- 



capillaries were regularly met with. Dr. Goldscheider was of 

 opinion that the cutaneous nerves possessed no specific terminal 

 organs, but simply merged into narrower or wider nets, and that 

 the sensitive points for pressure and temperature were situated 

 at the spot where the terminal division of the nerve-bundles 

 occurred. — Dr. Benda supplemented the address he delivered at 

 the last meeting on spermatogenesis by hypothetical considera- 

 tions regarding the significance of the microscopical figures 

 found by him. 



January 15. — Dr. Miillenhoff spoke of his observations 

 respecting the structure of bee-cells. Producing specimens 

 of combs and models, he handled the geometrical figure of 

 the cells, the fact of which had been recognised so far back 

 as the time of the Greek philosopher Pappus, and the measure 

 of which had been taken by Reaumur, the cells forming a 

 hexagonal colunm bounded on the side turned to the partition 

 wall by a trilateral pyramid, on the other by a plain terminal 

 surface. To account for the great regularity of the cells, Buffon 

 had propounded that they originated in the mutual pressure of 

 the wax-vesicles, and put this explanation to the proof by an 

 experiment in which he filled up a vessel with peas, and stuffed 

 the interstices with water, which caused the peas to swell. In 

 point of fact the round bodies got thereby converted into pre- 

 cisely geometrical figures with trilateral terminal surfaces. They 

 were, however, no hexagonal columns, but regidar rhombendo- 

 decahedrons. Dr. Mullenhoft' had now, by a long series of 

 observations in beehives, studied the structure of the bee-cells, 

 and had established that the bees, which, as was known, worked 

 closely compacted together, first stuck a little thick wax disk to 

 the wall, and then gnawed away at it till the plate had grown 

 so thin that under the all-sided pressure, in accordance with 

 the law respecting equilibrium figures of fluid membranes 

 discovered by Plateau, they assumed the form of a half rhom- 

 bendodecahedron with trilaterally pyramidal surfaces. The 

 bees then proceeded to build on the six free edges by attaching 

 to them small wax plates, and gnawing away at them till they 

 had grown so thin that under the pressure of the neighbouring 

 cells they took on the form of a hexagonal column. The column 

 was made so long that the queen bee, in laying her eggs, rested 

 with her jiosterior body on the floor of the cell, and, with her 

 anterior legs, was able to take hold of the free edge of the 

 column. The geometrically-regular figure of the bee-cells was 

 accordingly conditioned by physical laws, and not by any know- 

 ledge inherent in the bees of geometrical laws in respect of the 

 greatest economy of space and material. That without the co- 

 operation of the Plateau laws the bees were able to achieve no 

 regular cells was demonstrated by the queen-cells, which, con- 

 structed isolatedly, had the irregular form of a thimble. — Prof, 

 du Bois-Reymond gave a short summary view of the investiga- 

 tions he had carried out in the past summer into living torpedoes, 

 by means of which he had pretty well solved all the problems 

 which were at all capable of being submitted to experi- 

 mental test on the animals of the aquaria, which were very 

 much reduced in strength and exhausted by inanition. Having 

 first ascertained the direction of the cuticular current, he ex- 

 amined the polarisation-phenomena yielded by stripes of the 

 electrical organ under the influence of foreign currents. He 

 learned that homodromous currents, i.e. such as were directed 

 in the same way as the direction of the shock, gave always a 

 homodromous polarisation, while heterodromous currents never 

 produced heterodromous polarisation, and only occasionally 

 homodromous polarisation. This fact was capable of explana- 

 tion by assuming that what appeared as homodromous polarisation 

 was but a shock of the fish caused by the foreign current, a 

 shock which of course could only be homodromous ; or that the 

 electrically polar molecules directed by the foreign polarising 

 current were capable of being turned only in one direction. A 

 decision between these two explanations could not be arrived at. 

 Prof, du Bois-Reymond next examined the conductivity of the 

 electrical organ, and ascertained that it conducted homodromous 

 currents almost as well as did the muscle, but that it conducted 

 heterodromous currents much worse, so that the electrical organ 

 was almost half an insulator for heterodromous currents. The 

 conduction power of the electrical organ of the torpedo was con- 

 sequently irreciprocal. This irreciprocity of conduction ob- 

 tained only for strong currents and for those of short duration. 

 It was met; with, moreover, only in the living organ. The 

 defunct organ conducted considerably better than the living, and 

 was equally good for the conduction of homodromous and hetero- 

 dromous currents. The irreciprocity, finally, increased with the 



