November 21, 1901] 



NA TURE 



93 {1901) Sagittac. Herr F. Schwab, of Ilmenau, announces 

 variability in the star B.D. + i9'-3975 :— 



R.A 

 Decl 



.= 19^ .4 26 b^) 

 .= + 19 25' -4 J ^ ^ ' 



The variability is of the Algol type. Normally the star is 

 about 6"5 magnitude, decreasing to nearly 9"o magnitude, re- 

 maining here for some time and then rapidly increasing. At 

 present there are not sufficient observations for stating a value 

 for the period, but the light curve is similar to that of U Cephei, 

 period 17 days. The last observed minimum was November i 

 at'6-30G.M.T. {Astronomische NachrichUn, Bd. 157, No. 374S). 



Determination of Orbital Elements. — In the Astro- 

 nomical Journal (vol. x.'tii. No. 510, pp. 43-52) Mr. F. C. 

 Moulton gives a general analysis of a method of determining 

 the elements of orbits of all excentricities from the data supplied 

 by three observations of position, and illustrative examples of 

 the application of the equations derived to the cases of elliptic 

 and parabolic orbits. 



THE INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF 

 PHYSIOLOGISTS AT TURIN. 

 T^HE fifth Triennial International Congress of Physiologists, 

 ■'■ which met at Turin in September, was the largest meeting 

 of the kind that has a.ssembled. The fine Institute of Physiology, 

 under the direction of Prof. Angelo Mosso and belonging to 

 the University, was put at the disposal of the Congress. In the 

 neighbouring Institute of Histology was installed a museum for 

 the exhibition of apparatus and preparations pertaining to 

 physiology. The collection was extensive and important. 



The number of communications announced for the sessions of 

 the Congress was large enough to necessitate the institution of 

 special accessory sittings. Sections were formed for Chemical 

 Physiology and for Psycho-physiology. It is impossible in the 

 space at our disposal to even mention all the material brought 

 before the Congress, or to deal with any of the contributions fully. 

 Preference was rightly given to communications illustrated by 

 actual experiment or by actual preparations. A fuller verbal 

 report has appeared in a special issue of the Archives Italiennes 

 de Biologie (tome xxxvi. fasc. i.) 



Among the communications coming under the head of 

 Chemical Physiology the following may be noted. 



Dr. Victor Henri (Paris) reported observations on the law of 

 the quantitative action of sucrase. If a represent the quantity 

 of saccharose at outset, and x the quantity inverted in a period 

 equal to /, the action does not proceed in conformity with the 



logarithmic law admitted by authors, K = — log . The 



/ a — X 



value of K does not remain constant during the reaction. The 

 law in accordance with which the reaction proceeds corresponds 



with a formula, K, = _ log 



The constant of inversion 



Ki varies with the concentration of the solution of saccharose 

 a. The product aK, increases with a for weak concentrations 

 (below 5 per cent.); it remains constant for concentrations of 

 medium strength (5 per cent, to 25 per cent.) and diminishes 

 when a increases above 25 per cent. The fact of having acted 

 several hours and of being in a solution laden with invert sugar 

 does not exert appreciable influence upon the activity of the 

 sucrase. 



Dr. Frederic S. Lee (New York) reported observations made 

 by himself and Dr. C. C. Harrold on the influence of the in- 

 gestion of sugar upon rigor mortis. The prolonged administra- 

 tion of phloridzin to fasting cats causes the muscles to pass into 

 rigor within a few minutes after death. If before death dextrose 

 be given to such phloridzinised animals, the oncoming of rigor 

 is delayed. The absence of carbohydrate from the muscle 

 favours development of rigor mortis ; it is, on the other hand, 

 unfavourable to contraction. 



Dr. F. S. Locke (London) demonstrated by a striking ex- 

 periment the action of dextrose upon the activity of the mam- 

 malian heart. The heart removed from a freshly killed rabbit 

 was washed free from blood and suspended freely, and arrange- 

 ment made for recording its contractions by means of a lever 

 attached to the apex. Kept at a temperature of 35° C, and fed 

 with a modified Ringer's fluid, the contractions giadually grew 



NO. 1673, "^'*^L. 65] 



feeble and uUimitely very weak. If then oxygen under pressure 

 were introduced into the fluid feeding the coronary arteries, 

 the beats rapidly increased and remained good for an hour or 

 so, and then once more diminished and failed. Dextrose then 

 added to the feeding fluid to the extent of i per cent, restored 

 the beat once more and it continued with hardly noticeable 

 failure for ten hours or so. The beating fails at once if for the 

 dextrose in the feeding fluid the oxygenated Ringer solu- 

 tion without any dextrose is substituted ; but the beat is at once 

 restored on returning again to the sugared fluid. Sucrose, 

 Irevulose and other sugars as yet tried fail to give evidence of 

 this restorative power. The author must be congratulated upon 

 the able and complete manner in which he demonstrated these 

 important facts. 



Prof. Albertoni (Bologna) communicated observations on 

 absorption of various sugars from the stomach and intestine. 

 The sugars (glucose, saccharose, lactose) were not absorbed in 

 the ratio of their osmotic tensions. The absorption of lactose, 

 whether in low tension or high tension solutions, was always 

 less than for glucose or saccharose. In the intestine he always 

 found a fluid of higher osmotic tension than the blood. During 

 the absorption of sugar he found a slight increase of the osmotic 

 tension of the blood. 



Prof. Rohmann (Breslau) brought forward observations on 

 the absorption of sugars from the intestine. Equal quantities 

 of equally concentrated solutions of hexoses (glucose, galactose, 

 mannose, fructose, and of pentoses (arabinose and xylose) placed 

 in the small intestine (Vella's fistula) showed at the end of an 

 hour loss by absorption of the different stereoisomeric sugars to 

 very different extents. The absorption is, therefore, dependent, 

 not only on the osmotic tension, but also on the configuration of 

 the molecule of the sugar. The absorption of the disaccharides 

 (.saccharose, lactose and maltose) was further studied in respect 

 to the extent to which their cleavage into monosaccharides went 

 forward. It was found that a considerable though variable pro- 

 portion of these disaccharides was absorbed without cleavage 

 occurring in the intestinal canal. But an extract of the intestinal 

 mucosa could produce the cleavage ; probably the portion 

 absorbed without being split up later underwent cleavage in the 

 mucosa itself. 



Dr. Nicloux (Paris) had studied the conditions of passage of car- 

 bonic oxide from the blood of the mother to that of the foetus. 

 He had employed for the determination of the quantities of 

 the gas in the blood an accurate and delicate method elabo- 

 rated in his previous experiments. When the percentage of CO in 

 the air respired by the mother lay between xrrJiTo and j-jj^tt, the 

 quantities in the blood of mother and fcetus increased pari fas fu 

 with increase of the percentage in the air respired, and the per- 

 centage in the fcetal blood was sensibly the same as in the 

 maternal. With a percentage of above i^Vrr of the gas in the 

 respired air the identity of the percentage in the foetal and 

 maternal blood disappeared. This indicated a dissociation of 

 the carboxy -hemoglobin of the maternal blood at the placenta 

 as a condition of passage across it. A simple experiment sup- 

 ports this view. A carp is placed in water to which has been 

 added some oxycarbonated blood (dog's). The blood of the fish 

 comes to contain a percentage of CO six or seven times greater 

 than that of the medium of immersion. The animal shows no 

 toxic effect from the immersion. 



Dr. Pugliese (Bologna) had with Prof. Aducco found that the 

 addition of sodium chloride to the water taken by fasting 

 animals considerably increased their resistance to inanition. 

 When the tissues of animals as similar as possible in other re- 

 spects, but in the one case having water only, in the other salt 

 and water, were analysed, the tissues under the latter condition 

 were found to contain relatively the more water. A.lso the 

 amount of water daily excreted by the animals receiving salt 

 water was less than the amount of water excreted by those re- 

 ceiving water without salt. 



Prof. A. Walther (St. Petersburg) demonstrated the action of 

 Pawlow's enterokinase on fresh pancreatic juice as tested by 

 digestion of measured quantities of fibrin. The conversion of 

 the zymogen in the fresh juice into trypsin is not an oxidation 

 process, for the enterokinase does not give the reactions of the 

 oxidases, nor can the zymogen in the juice be rendered active by 

 oxidising agents. The zymogen in the pancreatic juice is 

 therefore not the same substance as Heidenhain's zymogen 

 in extracts of the gland-tissue. The action of the enterokinase 

 upon the zymogen is probably a hydrolytic one. From the 

 fresh pancreatic juice a proteid (globulin ?) can be precipitated 



