April 29, 1866J 



NA TURE 



62- 



biuiniinous schists and other formations of corresponding age in 

 ]•' ranee. — On the fluorescence of the earths provisionally named 

 Za and Z/3, by M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In opposition to the 

 views of Mr. Crookes, the author endeavours to show that these 

 are really two distinct earths, not one substance identical with Mr. 

 Crookes' YtjO.,, whose different fluorescent bands become 

 diversely modified by the presence of foreign bodies. — On M. 

 Marignac's earth Ya, by M. Lecoq de Boisbaudian. At the 

 author's suggestion, M. Marignac, discoverer of this rare earth, 

 has at last definitely named it gaiioliniiim (symbol Gd). — A 

 second note on the origin of the electric discharge of lliunder- 

 clouds, by M. Daniel Colladon. A remarkable coincidence is 

 pointed out between the author's observations and some electric 

 phenomena observed at the same time near Shrewsbury, and 

 reported in the Monthly Meteorological Magazitic for Sejitember 

 1S85. — On a mathematical essay by Prof. Battaglini, presented 

 to the Academy l)y M. de Jonquieres. This is a reprint from 

 tlie Gioniali lii Malciitaticlu; containing a demonstration of the 

 tlieoiy of Cremona transformations, with some fresh develop- 

 ments of the same theory. — On the blight known as ladies 

 iikiosJes, which attacks the peach-trees in the fruit gardens of 

 Montreuil and other districts near Paris, by M. Prillieux. The 

 cause of this local disease i^ traced to a parasite of the order 

 Coryneum. .':olutions of salts of copper or diluted sulphuric 

 acid are proposed as remedies. — On the results of direct astro- 

 nomic observation compared with those obtained from MM. 

 Henry's photographic system, by M. Flammarion. The dis- 

 crepancies between M. Wolf's chart and MM. Henry's j^hoto- 

 graphs are attributed to errors of observation on the part of M. 

 Wolf, and the author concludes that the photographic record is 

 far more accurate and altogether more trustworthy than direct 

 observation. The ten stars marked on M. Wolf's chart, but 

 which do not appear on the photographs, are stated to have no 

 existence in the firmament. — On the reduction of the Abelian 

 integrals, by M. H. Poincare. — Theorem on the binary forms, 

 by M. d'Ocagne. — On the thermo-electric properties of the 

 iodide of silver, by M. H. Le Chatelier. — Note on the vanadates 

 of ammonia, by M. A. Ditte. The paper deals with neutral 

 vanadate, bivanadate, yellow and red trivanadate, and other 

 combinations formed by ammonia and vanadic acid. — Trans- 

 formation of the protochloride of chromium into a sesqui- 

 chloride : mechanism of tlie dissolution of the sesquichloride of 

 anhydrous chromium, by M. Recoura. — On the acid fermenta- 

 tion of glucose, by M. Boutroux. The cause of fermentation is 

 traced to a micrococcus greatly resembling the organism already 

 described by the author under the name of Micrococcus ollongiis. 

 — A further survey of the vegetation of South Tonquin, by MM. 

 Ed. Bureau and A. Franchet. The paper deals with a collec- 

 tion made in the hilly district south-west of the Song-Ivoi 

 delta, by the Abbe Bon, and presented to the Paris Natural 

 History Museum by the Abbe Hy. It comprises 857 species 

 grouped in 124 families, and tends to confirm the im- 

 pression that the flora of Tonquin has no special features, but 

 forms a transition between those of China and India. — A new 

 example of alternating generations in the fungus family (Cron- 

 artixin asclepiadeiim and Peridermiuin Pini cottico.'um), by M. 

 May. Cornu. — On the acrogenous development of the repro- 

 ductive bodies in the fungus family, by J. de Seynes. — On the 

 Iheoiy of earthquakes, by M. Stanislas Meunier. A number of 

 fresh observations are advanced in support of the author's view 

 that underground disturbances and eruptions are primarily due 

 to the infiltration of surface-waters. — On the geology of East 

 Tonquin, by M. E. Jourdy. From a protracted study of this 

 region the author infers that in the interior the Carboniferous 

 underlies the Triassic formation, while on the coast the Coal- 

 Measures, here of infra-Liassic age, rest directly on the Car- 

 lioniferous limestone in one of its folds. — On the disappearance 

 of the nuclear chromatic elements and progressive appearance 

 of the chromatic elements in the equatorial zone, by M. Ch. 

 Degagny. — On the mycosic nature of tuberculosis, and on the 

 bacillary evolution of its pathogenic fungus, Microsporon fitrfur, 

 by MM. Duguet and J. Hericourt. 



Berlin 

 Physiological Society, February 12. — Dr. Miillenhoff 

 informed the Society that a treatise of the great astronomer 

 Kepler had quite recently come under his notice, containing, 

 under the title of " Neujahrsgeschenk, oder der sechsstrahlige 

 Stern des Schnees " ("New Year's Present, or the Six-rayed 

 Snow- Star"), a very clear and accurate description of the struc- 



ture of the bee's cell. Kepler described the bee's cell as a rhom- 

 bendodecahedron in which one trihedral pyramid was replaced 

 by a straight terminal surface. The speaker further set forth 

 the observations he had made on the way in which bees filled 

 and preserved in their cells honey and pollen. The bee, 

 which, according to the most recent determinations of Dr. 

 Loew in the Botanical Gardens of Berlin, was able to force 

 its way into most flowers, lia\ing first completely filled its 

 capacious honey-stomach, crept into the cell, and, with its 

 tongue, licked a small spot of the posterior uppermost edge 

 many times, and on this spot, so moistened, it deposited a 

 honey-drop. On this honey-drop other bees next discharged 

 their honey till the whole cell was filled with the viscid liquid. 

 Eight bees sufficed to fill one cell. Eacli deposited honey-mass 

 got covered with a kind of pellicle that at a small spot was 

 bitten through by the next succeeding bee, which then laid its 

 honey at this opening, the honey penetrating into the interior. 

 The filled cell was closed with a wax lid. The pollen brushed 

 off the blossoms by the bees was, by admixture of a little honey 

 or water, converted into a dough-like substance, and pressed 

 into cells intended only for working bees till they were half 

 filled. The rest of the cells were then filled with honey in the 

 same manner as were the pure honey-cells. Finally these too 

 were closed. When the cell was filled either with honey or 

 with pollen-dough and honey, a drop of formic acid secreted 

 from the poison-gland was infused through the lid by means of 

 the sting. This formic acid, as had been proved by numerous 

 experiments, preserved the honey, as also every other solution of 

 sugar, from fermentation. Indeed formic acid in the propor- 

 tion of i/io per cent, was altogether a very good preservative. 

 Pollen, which was not covered with honey, got very soon 

 mouldy. — Dr. Benda made further communications re-pecting 

 spennatogenesis, first premising that the observations of his own 

 which he communicated at the last meeting (vide N.^ture, 

 l''ebruary 1 1 , p. 360) had been published some months prior to that 

 date by an English investigator, Herbert Brown. The simil- 

 arity between the drawings of Mr. Brown and his own was 

 striking. If he had thus been forestalled in the discovery of the 

 new facts by his English contemporary, he had yet been able to 

 observe a series of further details beyond the limit of what had 

 hitherto been ascertained, ,=everal of whicli he communicated. — 

 Dr. Gad had been engaged for a number of years in experiments 

 on respiration, and both in those experiments carried out by 

 himself and in those executed by his students he had obtained 

 the same results. The problem was to establish whether the 

 centres situated in the medulla oblongata and above it in the 

 brain automatically discharged the movement of inspiration and, 

 expiration or only stimulated one group of respiratory muscles,, 

 actions which were to be characterised as normal excitations 

 due to automatic activity and proceeding from the blood, not 

 operating in a reflex manner. These centres were usually 

 called automatic, but in the opinion of the speaker they would 

 be more correctly described as autochthonous, seeing they were 

 excited only at the particular place and spot, and not set in 

 motion by any stimulus derived from the outside. To study the 

 normal activity of these centres Dr. Gad examined the respira- 

 tory processes in the primaiy stage of dyspncea, when the 

 medulla oblongata was ill-supplied with air. The bad ventila- 

 tion was brought about either by the animals having breathed 

 the air so long that they were obliged to inhale air that was now 

 grown vitiated, or having to breathe a mixture of nitrogen with 

 less oxygen than was contained in atmospheric air, or a mixture 

 of atmospheric air with carbonic acid ; or the normal exchange of 

 gas was restricted by tracheostenosis, or by heavy bleedings, or 

 by the Kussmaul-Tenner experiment, in which, as was known, 

 the flow of arterial blood to the brain was dammed off. In 

 all the cases above enumerated, only augmented inspiration was 

 always obsen-ed — never increased expiration. In the Kussmaul- 

 Tenner experiment a lassitude of the inspiration set in veiy soon 

 before the spasms had yet begun, a circumstance which called 

 forth the appearance of an enhanced expiration. The method 

 adopted in these experiments was considered by the sjjeaker un- 

 objectionable. Into the trachea of the rabbits there was fixed a 

 cannula, which, by means of a double-direction tap, might be 

 connected with the outer air or with very large gas repositories. 

 The animal found itself in a small closed air-proof box com- 

 municating with a small, shallow box, the upper lid of which 

 consisted of a movable mica ])late, with recording lever. Each 

 inspiration of the animal raised the lid, and consequently the 

 recording lever, which marked on a rotating drum the cun-e of 



