OcToBER 16, 1902] 
NATURE 
611 
only very imperfectly understood and appreciated. Full | 
particulars may be obtained from the hon. secretary. 
THE Huxley memorial lecture was delivered on October 1 at the 
opening of the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School by Prof. | 
Welch, of the Johns Hopkins University, whose discourse was 
entitled ‘‘ Recent Studies of Immunity with Special Reference to 
their Bearing on Pathology.” After a tribute to the memory of 
Huxley and of Virchow, Prof. Welch proceeded to discuss the 
specific properties of the cells and fluids of the body in health 
and disease in their relation to immunity, referring to the various 
antitoxic, bacteriolytic, hemolytic and cytolytic functions exerted 
under certain conditions. He pointed out that whereas the 
tetanus and diphtheria bacilli elaborate toxins which can be 
separated from the organisms that produce them, such is not 
the case with other pathogenic bacteria, notably the typhoid 
bacillus, the toxin of which is believed to be intracellular and 
intimately associated with the bacterial cells. On this concep- 
tion, the disease symptoms present in typhoid fever are assumed 
to be due, not to the living and vigorous organisms, but to 
typhoid bacilli which have died and in consequence have set free 
their protoplasmic poisons. Prof. Welch doubts whether this 
theory affords a complete explanation of the toxic phenomena 
in typhdid and other similar infections, and advances an in- 
genious alternative hypothesis. The injection of bacterial cells 
stimulates certain cells of the host to generate one component 
of the toxin, the intermediary body, which although itself not 
poisonous, becomes so by bringing about the union between a pre- | 
existing toxophorous substance, the complement and the foreign 
cell which started the reaction. Similarly, Prof. Welch suggests 
that certain substances derived from the host may stimulate the 
invading organism and cause it to produce intermediary bodies 
which might have the power to link complements to cellular 
constituents of the host and thereby to poison the latter. That 
is to say, just as the cells of the organism react towards the 
invading bacterium, so Prof. Welch suggests does the bacterium 
react towards the cells of the host, a possible factor hitherto 
overlooked. Finally, it was pointed out that such researches as 
these can be carried out only by the experimental method, and 
that to impose unnecessary restrictions with regard to experi- 
ments upon animals is nothing short of a crusade against 
humanity. 
WE have received a valuable series of meteorological results 
made at Truro for the Royal Institution of that town. The tables 
are divided into two sets, (1) the monthly values for the separate 
years 1882-1900, and (2) the average monthly values for fifty-one 
years, 1850-1900, compiled by Mr. G. Penrose, curator of the 
Truro Museum. The establishment of the observatory was 
mainly due to the late Dr. Barham, who prepared the summary 
for the years 1850-1881. The mean of the daily maximum 
temperature is 58°°5 and of the daily minimum 44°°7, the 
extremes being 92° in June, 1893, and 8° in January, 1867. The 
mean annual rainfall is high, 40°5 inches. It is noteworthy 
that the Cornwall Institution possesses several long series of 
observations, dating from those of Dr. Borlase, of Ludgvan, 
1754-1772; Mr. James, at Redruth, 1787-1806; Mr. E. C. 
Giddy, at Penzance, 1807-1827. These are closely followed 
by Mr. Moyle’s, at Helston, and others. 
A REDETERMINATION of the density and coefficient of cubical 
expansion of ice at o°C. is given by Mr. J. H. Vincent in the 
Physical Review. The author, after comparing previous results, 
obtains a value agreei ng closely with that found by Nichols for 
the density, but considers that the coefficient of cubical expan- 
sion is from 4 to 5 per cent. less than the mean of the previous 
determinations. 
Mr. S. J. BARNETT contributes to the Physical Review a note 
on Gauss’s theorem, considered mainly with respect to electro- 
NO. 1720, VOL. 66] 
statics. It is pointed out that the ordinary demonstrations: 
apply only to the case of a single homogeneous isotropic medium, 
and that the theorem is usually implicitly assumed to hold good 
inallcases. Mr. Barnett now attempts to deduce the generality 
of the theorem in a logical manner. But in order to extend the 
validity to a region containing any number of homogeneous 
dielectrics, or to a medium of varying permittivity, the author has 
toassume that in a condenser containing two dielectrics, one in 
contact with one face and the other in contact with the other, 
the charges on the two faces are equal and opposite. The 
theorem is thus seen to be based on experimental evidence and 
not to be capable of proof by deductive methods alone. 
From the Report of the Survey of India for 1900-1, we 
notice that surveyors were engaged during the season in the 
determination of astronomical latitudes in Karachi, while 
another party was employed with satisfactory results on 
experimental work connected with the Jaderin base line 
apparatus. Tidal observations were continued as usual- 
Preparations for the commencement of a magnetic survey were 
continued during the year, and arrangements were made for the 
establishment of base stations at Bombay, Kodaikanal, Dehra 
Dun, Calcutta and Rangoon, at which magnetic observatories. 
are to be built and self-recording instruments installed. The 
recent introduction of electric tramways in Calcutta and their 
impending construction in Bombay have rendered it necessary to 
arrange for the construction of the new observatories far 
enough away from the two cities to be beyond the effects of 
| the electric current. 
Tue Bremer arc lamp, in which the arc is maintained between: 
a pair of inclined carbons saturated with certain mineral salts 
(see NATURE, this volume, p. 272), has recently been subjected 
to careful photometric tests by two independent observers, M. 
Laporte in Paris and Prof. Wedding in Charlottenburg. <A 
full discussion of the two sets of experiments is given in 
L’Eclairage Electrigue for October 4. The results are 
not in very close agreement, though both bring out the 
superiority of the Bremer lamp over ordinary arc lamps. This 
is especially noticeable if one only considers the mean hemi- 
spherical candle power for the lower hemisphere, since the 
construction of the Bremer lamp is such that, when used without 
a globe, practically all the light is thrown downwards. The 
distribution of light in this direction is also particularly good, 
being nearly uniform throughout an angle of 50° on either side 
of the vertical, The consumption of power in a 400-watt lamp: 
comes out at about 0°6 watt per spherical candle and 074 watt 
per hemispherical candle for the Bremer lamp with a globe, 
as against 1° and 0°65 for an ordinary lamp under similar 
conditions. 
WE referred in these columns a short time ago to the fact that 
an American company had been formed to work a process for 
the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Some further particulars 
of the apparatus used by the inventors, Messrs. Bradley and 
Lovejoy, are given in the Llectrical World and Engineer 
(N.Y.) for August 2 last. A cylindrical metal box is provided 
on its inner surface with six upright rows of fixed contacts, there 
being twenty-three contacts in each row. Each contact is 
connected through an inductance to the positive pole of a 
dynamo generating direct current at a pressure of 10,000 volts. 
A similar set of contacts is mounted on an inner rotating 
cylinder connected to the negative pole of the generator. As 
the inner cylinder rotates, the negative contacts come up to the 
positive and an arc strikes across ; this is gradually drawn out 
and finally extinguished as the negative contact moves past, and 
away from, the positive. The action may be likened to the 
rotation of the cylinder in a musical box. Air circulates. 
amongst the arcs, and is drawn off containing about 24 per cent. 
