Sept. 14, 1 88 2] 



NA TURE 



493 



than Egypt was recently seen in the endemic outbreak which 

 carried off some of the labourers during the formation of the St. 

 Gothard Tunnel. Many disputes and misunderstandings at first 

 prevailed respecting the role of this Entozoon. Having been 

 called "tunnel trichinosis," this disorder got sadly mixed up 

 with affections having a totally different character and history. 

 Similarly, the blood-letting habits of Bilharzia and Anchylostoma 

 having produced analogous symptoms, the two disorders were 

 called Egyptian chlorosis, intertropical anaemia, and so forth. 

 Recently our knowledge of the geographical distribution of the 

 Anchylostoma has been extended by the discovery of Prof. 

 McConnell, who finds that the parasite is more or less prevalent 

 in India, Wherever it is to be found, its power for mischief is 

 the same, and its mode of entrance into the human frame can 

 only occur through the medium of water. 



As regards dangers arising from external attacks by water 

 parasites, little need be said. Troops invading foreign lands are 

 now better furnished than formerly in the matter of clothing and 

 other protective aids ; still there are points worth mentioning, 

 especially as in the heat of a campaign the distress from thirst 

 often compels the soldier to drink the filthiest of waters. One 

 quotation will suffice During the invasion of Egypt by 

 Napoleon, the French soldiers were much distressed, and often 

 laid themselves flat on the ground to drink. Their mouths and 

 nostrils were thus attacked by leeches. The species responsible 

 for these assaults is the ffcemopis sanguisorba of Savigny. These 

 free parasites not only attacked the men, out also their horses, 

 camels, an d cattle. 



On the Brown Cn/ora'ion of the Southampton Water, by Arthur 

 Angel], Ph.D. — The author has found that this coloration is 

 very irregular, and even occurs in isolated patches ; he showed 

 that the coloration is due to a brown organism (Pemiinium 

 puscuin) ; he has been able to obtain from it brown and green 

 solutions, which both give the spectroscopic appearances charac- 

 teristic of chlorophyll. He discussed its probable animal or 

 vegetable nature, but favoured the latter view. 



Department of Anatomy and Physiology. 



Dr. Fraser proceeded to the description of his results on the 

 early development of certain rodents, illustrating his remark by 

 drawing on the board. He showed that the guinea-pig, instead 

 of standing isolated among mammalia by its peculiar form of 

 development, shared iliis isolation among rodents with the rat 

 and the mouse. He traced the history of the ovum from the 

 sixth day after union of the sexes, up to the formation of the 

 circulation. Dr. Fraser, whose work is still incom- 

 plete, but who is at pre- ent busy with the earliest condition of 

 the ovum, offered no explanation of this important result. He 

 insisted, however, upon the hypoblastic layer being external 

 from the close of segmentation, and that the inversion of the 

 layer therefore existed in these three animals from the earliest 

 segmentation phenonie a. 



Prof. Allen Thompson made some remarks upon the general 

 excellency and result of the work as changing our ideas on the 

 mammal an development, and stated that as Kolliker had just 

 found the hypobla tic layer in the amnion of the rabbit, we 

 umt be prepared for great changes in our received opinion on 

 this subject 



On the I/ontologies of the long Flexor Muscles of Ike Feel of 

 Mammalia, by G. I-. I lobson, M.A., M.B.. — Dr. Dobson dealt 

 with the homologie- of the following muscles: — Flexor Digi- 

 tortmi fibularis = Flexor ballucis longus ; 2. Flexor Digitorum 

 tibialis = Flexor Digitorum longus; 3. Tibitalis positicus. He 

 explained by mean.- of drawings how these muscles partially or 

 totally supplanted one another in different animals. From the 

 examination of a Urge number of animals he found the flexor 

 fibularis existing in all and exhibiting but few modifications, 

 while the other two were subject to much variation, or might be 

 absent. He deduced from his dissections that the variation of 

 the flexor tibialis had not been properly understood, its real 

 homologies having been named tibialis portions aecessorius 

 secundus, or internus, while it was supposed the muscle had 

 undergone fusion with the flexor fibularis. 



On the Nature of the " Telson" and " Caudal fusca of i/u Crus- 

 tacea," by M. M. Harti g, M.A., D.Sc. — Dr. Hartog sent a short 

 paper to explain that the telson in the higher Crustacea is equivalent 

 to the la-r segment of the Nauplius body, together with an im- 

 mensely developed po taual portion composed in varying pro- 

 portions of the supra-anal plate and the adnate fuscal processes. 

 The fu-cal processes he regards as outgrowths of this telson not 



strictly comparable to limbs, but rather to the primitive-paired 

 outgrowths of the body-segments which have become limbs else- 

 where by the development of basal articulations and a proper 

 musculature. 



Considerations arising from Kadi's Discovery of the Bacillus 

 of Tubercido'sis, by F. J. Faraday, F.L.S. — Two great disco- 

 veries, Pasteur's discovery of the decreasing virulence of specific 

 disease germs when kept in the presence of oxygen, and Koch's 

 discovery of the bacillus of tuberculosis, have been made 

 within the past two years. The author suggests a possibly use- 

 ful relation between these di-coveries. Referring to the sugges- 

 tion of Dr. William Roberts, F.R.S., of Manchester, in his 

 address to the Medical Association in 1877, that disease germs 

 may be "sports" from harmless saprophytes which have 

 acquired a parasitic habit, he a-ks whether deprivation of 

 oxygen, or cultivation in gaseous mixtures from which the 

 normal supply of free oxygen present in good air is absent, may 

 not have an influence in converting harmless germs present in 

 the atmosphere into the bacilli of tuberculosis. He refers to 

 Carl Semper's researches on the influence of the environment on 

 animal modification, and to the fact that many larvae of insects 

 live in situations where the air is undoubtedly mixed with gases 

 which the higher vertebrata could not breathe without injury, 

 ai.d suggests that the adaptability of organisms, and their im- 

 pressionability by surrounding conditions, may increase as the 

 scale of life is descended. He also refers to a paper by Mr. 

 Frank Hilton, F.C.S., read before the Chemical Society, on 

 experiments with bacteria in various gases. Mr. Halton gave 

 the chemical results, but it would be interesting to know the 

 influence of cultivation in such media on the character of the 

 bacteria themselves. Dr. Angus Smith has argued that the 

 putrefying process, when carried on in confined places, such as 

 sewers, may develop disease germs which are not developed 

 v. hen the same process goes on in unconfined places ; typhoid 

 fever seems to be developed by processes in sewers, which, 

 carried on in the Clyde, for instance, do not originate any w ell- 

 marked disease. Analogous conditions may be presented in the 

 lungs of persons engaged in dusty trades, breathing vitiated 

 atmosphere in ill-ventilated rooms, or engaged in sedentary 

 occu| ations, and not taking healthy exercise ; and also in the 

 lungs of persons who are hereditarily narrow-chested, weakly, 

 and of feeble inspiratory habit. Innoxious germs present in the 

 atmosphere may be inhaled and retained in the lungs of sush 

 persons, and there by successive culture and deficient aeration 

 acquire a parasitic or deadly character. The author refers to 

 Pasteur's method of restoring the virulence of "attenuated" 

 germs by successive culture in the bodies of different animals, as 

 possibly explaining the communication of tuberculosis to persons 

 of sound constitution, the parasitic habit of the tubercle "sport " 

 being so strengthened and confirmed by successive culture under 

 the assumed favourable conditions as to enable it eventually to 

 establish itself under certain conditions in a milieu which would 

 not be suitable for the origination of the culture. He refers to 

 a new treatise by Dr. Ferdinand Kroczak, of Britnn, entitled 

 "Die Heilung der Tuberculose, " and shows that Dr. Kroczak's 

 arguments in support of the special treatment recommended by 

 him are in harmony with the hypothesis advanced. 



The decrease of mortality from consumption in the army since 

 the improvement of barrack ventilation, and the relief afforded 

 to patients by sea-voyages, the air of pine-woods, carbolic acid 

 inhalations, and other suggested remedies, is also referred to as 

 giving support to the hypothesis. 



On the Kidneys of Teleostei, by W. Newton Parker. In fol- 

 lowing the investigations of Prof. Balfour, who showed that in 

 Certain adult Teleostei, as well as in Lepidosteus and Accipenser, 

 die so-called "head kidney " contained no urniferous tubule-, 

 but was composed entirely of highly vascular lymphatic tissue, 

 the author finds that in some Teleostei the so-called "head- 

 kidney " has precisely the same structure as the rest of the kidney 

 in mesonephros. He nevertheless holds that Prof. Balfour's 

 view is correct, and explains the circumstance by supposing that 

 the mesonephros has grown forwards so as to take the place of 

 the larval pronephros. 



On the Perception of Colour in Man and Animals, by Dr. S. 

 D. Macdonald, R.N. — Dr. Macdonald read a paper, in which 

 he endeavoured to show the near relationship of perceptim of 

 sound and light, comparing different colours to different notes. 



On the Structure of the Muscular Tissue of the Leech, by T. W. 

 Shore. — The author described his research, summing up as 

 follows : — I. The muscle of leech consist of elongated tubes 



