
May 12, 1923] 
NATURE 
655 

chemical equilibrium, deprived only of the factor C. 
A food is described containing all the nec 
constituents except factor C. The animals fed wi 
this ration, plus 3 c.c. of lime juice (factor C), made 
- normal growth. All the other animals fed with the 
same ration, minus factor C, after a short period of 
rapid growth, developed scurvy and died.—E. Lesné, 
Christou, and Vaglianos: The passage into the milk 
of the C vitamins introduced by other means than 
the mouth.—E. Fernandez Galiano: The rhythmic 
contractions of Vorticella—A. L. Herrera: The 
imitation of plasmodia and chromatic structures by 
sodium silicate coloured with ivory black and drops 
of alcohol in diffusion. If drops of absolute alcohol 
are allowed to diffuse into a syrupy solution of 
sodium silicate coloured with ivory black, remarkable 
imitations of cells, nuclei, and chromatic structures 
are produced. The structure can be _ preserved 
fairly well by washing the card with weak alcohol 
to remove traces of alkali—A. Policard: The 
mineralisation of histological sections by calcination, 
and its interest as a general histochemical method. 
The method, described in detail, permits the localisa- 
tion of the mineral elements in the positions they 
occupy in the living tissue—René Jeannel: The 
evolution of the copulatory apparatus in the genus 
Choleva. The sexual characters in this genus, both 
in the male and female, are more trustworthy than 
the external characters in defining the species.— 
Lucien Semichon: The preparation of wine by 
continuous fermentation: selection of the ferments 
by the alcohol already formed. Natural fermentation 
is due to elliptical yeasts, wild and apiculated yeasts, 
Dematium, spores of cryptogams, and various bacteria, 
all of which are objectionable except the first. 
Sterilisation of the must, followed by the introduction 
of a pure yeast culture, is economically impracticable. 
In a must containing 5 per cent. of alcohol the 
growth of the elliptic yeasts is favoured and the 
objectionable organisms do not develop freely. In 
practice, the addition of this amount of alcohol is 
not possible, but the same result can be obtained 
by a process of continuous fermentation. A portion 
of the must is started fermenting with a cultivated 
‘ag and after the necessary amount of alcohol 
as been produced, fresh must is added at a constant 
rate. The method has been successfully applied on 
the large scale.— Auguste Lumiére and Henri 
Couturier: Barometric depression and anaphylactic 
shock. Guinea-pigs, sensitised by egg albumen, are 
partially protected against anaphylactic shock by 
placing under a bell jar in an atmosphere at about 
half the normal atmospheric pressure. The mortality 
in the animals thus treated was 40 per cent. against 
80 per cent. when the animals were allowed to 
remain under normal pressure after the second 
injection.—Jules Amar: The law of vivireaction in 
pathology. 
April 16.—M. Albin Haller in the chair.—Emile 
Picard: The singularities of harmonic functions.— 
Charles Richet: The spleen, a useful organ, but 
not essential. An account of experiments on 
the comparative effects of starvation of dogs with 
and without the spleen. Animals can survive for 
long periods after removal of the spleen : the experi- 
ments prove that animals without the spleen 
require more food to maintain their normal weight, 
and die more quickly than normal animals when 
deprived of food. —M. d’Ocagne: Normals of 
quadrics along their lines of curvature. Charles 
Nicolle, Et. Burnet, and E. Conseil: The micro- 
organism of epizootic abortion, distinguished from 
that of Mediterranean fever by the absence of patho- 
NO. 2793, VOL. 111] 
genic power for man. Micrococcus melitensis (the 
organism of Maltese fever) and Bacillus abortus 
present striking similarities in their morphological 
characters, cultures, and pathogenic power towards 
the animals commonly used in laboratory experi- 
ments; but B. abortus proves to be innocuous to 
man. Cultures injected into five voluntary subjects 
caused neither fever nor any other trouble: haemo- 
cultures remained sterile and the agglutinating power 
was generally not developed.—Georges Bouligand : 
The singularities of harmonic ftunctions.—Gaston 
Bertrand: The problem of Dirichlet and the potential 
of the simple layer—G. C. Evans and H. E. Bray: 
Poisson’s integral generalised.—André Planiol: The 
influence of velocity and of temperature on the 
friction losses in explosion motors. The engine was 
driven by an electric motor and the power used 
measured electrically : in one set of experiments the 
air port was fully open, in another the air admitted 
was reduced to a minimum. The frictional losses 
were found to be a linear function of the turns per 
minute, the rate of increase being much larger than 
was expected. Experiments were also made on the 
effect of varying the temperature of the cooling 
water.— Wladimir de Belaevsky: A problem of 
elasticity in two dimensions.—M. Mesnager : Observa- 
tions on the preceding communication.—Antonio 
Cabreira: A method of obtaining the geographical 
co-ordinates at any height of a star——Charles Nord- 
mann and C. Le Morvan: Observations of the 
Pleiades with the heterochrome photometer of the 
Paris Observatory. A new method for determining 
stellar parallax by photometry. The photometric 
measurements given show that, for the stars of the 
Pleiades studied, there exists a clear relation between 
the intensity distribution in the visible spectrum 
and the absolute magnitude of the star.—P. Noaillon : 
Superficial circulation—M. Hadamard: Remarks on 
the preceding communication.—Albert Pérard : Study 
of some mercury and krypton radiations with the 
view of their applications in metrology. The results 
of a large number of comparisons with the red cadmium 
line are given, with the view of detecting the presence 
of satellites ot feeble intensity. None of the lines 
compared (neon, krypton, mercury) behaved as a 
simple symmetrical line-—Léon and Eugéne Bloch: 
Spark spectra of higher order. Reply to a claim for 
priority by M. Duaoyer.—M. A. Catalan: Spectrum 
series and ionisation and resonance potentials of 
chromium and molybdenum.—L. Simon and 
A. J. A. Guillaumin: The determination of carbon 
and hydrogen by the use of a mixture of sulphuric 
acid and silver bichromate. The principle of the 
method is the determination of the carbon dioxide 
produced by heating a known amount of substance 
with a measured excess of the oxidising mixture, 
and the determination of the excess by the addition 
of an easily combustible substance (potassium 
methylsulphate), and a second measurement of carbon 
dioxide. Results of the application of the method 
to ten organic substances of varying types are given. 
—M. Lespieau: Some derivatives of the glycerol 
(OH)CH, . CH(OH) .C:C.CH,(OH).—A. Wahl and 
W. Hansen: Isoindigotine and indine. Isoindigotine 
has been proved to be identical with Laurent’s 
indine—M. E. Denaeyer: The rocks collected by 
MM. Chudeau and Villatte in the central Sahara.— 
E. Schnaebelé: The tectonic origin of the valleys 
of the eastern slopes of the Vosges.—Louis Besson : 
Observation of a parhelion of 90°.—René Souéges : 
The embryogeny of the Valerianacee. The develop- 
ment of the embryo in Valerianella olitoria.—Pierre 
Georgévitch: The réle of the centrosome in kinesis. 
—Mlle. Lucienne Blum: Modification of plants 
