i66 



NA TURE 



[December 19, 1901 



difl'erences of reaction from the "motor" area of the Rolandic 

 region that we hesitate to include it with the so-called " motor" 

 cortex. Spatially it is wholly separate from the Rolandic 

 "motor" area by a field of " inexcitablc " cortex. As to the 

 occipital lobe, only from the extreme posterior apex of the lobe 

 and from its actual calcarine region has faradisation yielded any 

 movement (eyes), and then not easily. 



The spinal degeneration resulting from ablation in the pre- 

 central gyrus of the above-mentioned "hand" area, discovers 

 in the anthropoid cord the human feature of a perfectly large 

 direct ventral (Turcksbiindel) as well as crossed pyramidal 

 tract. The relative sizes of these tracts seem about the same as 

 in man. 



"The New Biological Test for Blood in Relation to Zoological 

 Classification," by George H. F. Nuttall, M.A., M.D., Ph.D. 

 (Cambridge). 



Attention is directed to experiments which prove the value of 

 the biological test for blood in relation to zoological classifica- 

 tion. The test is made by means of antisera, which are pro- 

 duced by injections of blood into various animals. If human 

 blood, for example, is injected intraperitoneally into rabbits, the 

 serum of the latter animals, after a course of such treatment, 

 acquires the property of producing a precipitation when it is 

 added to dilutions of human blood. By means of such anti- 

 serum a positive reaction may be obtained with solutions of dried 

 human blood. The anti-serum for human blood also acts on 

 the blood of monkeys. The bloods of eighteen species of 

 monkeys, representing the four families Hapalidx, Cebida;, 

 Cercopithecida? and Simiida;, all reacted to human anti-serum. 

 The bloods of the first two families (New World apes) gave less 

 reaction than those of the two latter families (Old World apes). 

 Upwards of 200 bloods from other animals gave no such reac- 

 tion with human antiserum. In other words, the test has 

 established the existence of a blood relationship, as Dr. Nuttall 

 terms it, between the apes and man. It will be [remembered 

 that Darwin considered the Old World apes to be more closely 

 related to the Ilominidx than the New World apes, and the 

 degree of reaction obtained with the latter bloods certainly 

 supports this view. Among the bloods which gave no reaction 

 with human anti-serum were those of two species of Lemur. 



Similarly, dog anti-serum only produced a reaction in the 

 blood of four other species of Canidce. The anti-serum for 

 ox and sheep blood only produced reactions in the bloods of 

 other true ruminants (negative with Tragulus and Camelus), 

 the anti-serum for horse blood only reacted with the blood of 

 the horse and donkey, iS:c. These investigations are being 

 prosecuted upon an extended scale. 



Hitherto purely morphological characters have served for 

 purposes of classification in the animal kingdom. We now 

 possess a test whereby chemical differences may be determined 

 between the bloods of different animals, as also, to a certain 

 extent, between the bloods of related species, the differences in 

 the latter case being quantitative. Dr. Nuttall believes that it 

 will be possible by means of this test to determine certain rela- 

 tionships which have hitherto been considered obscure. It is 

 certainly a remarkable fact that a fundamental chemical character 

 has persisted in the bloods of all the Anthropoidea, in spite of 

 the widely divergent modes of life and the different character of 

 the food. Limited space prevents a consideration of the 

 chemical nature of the reaction, but we might add that it is at 

 present but imperfectly understood. 



Physical Society, December 13. — Prof. S. P. Thompson, 

 president, in the chair.— The following papers were read by the 

 secretary : — On circular filaments or circular magnetic shells 

 equivalent to circular coils, and on the equivalent radius of a 

 coil, by I'rof. T. R. Lyle. It is shown that we can represent 

 the magnetic action of any coil by replacing it by one or more 

 filamentary circuits in which currents circulate bearing a simple 

 relation to the actual current in the coil. If the axial and radial 

 dimensions of the coil in question are the same, then the 

 external magnetic action can be represented by that of one 

 filamentary circuit. If the axial breadth is greater than the 

 radial depth we must employ two filaments (of equal radii 

 separated by an axial distance, and if the opposite condition 

 holds, two circular filaments of different radii lying in the same 

 plane perpendicular to the axis of figure of the coil. In the 

 case of coils in which the axial and radial dimensions are equal, 

 a modification of Bosscha's method is described which yields 

 the equivalent radii directlyasthe result of length measurements. 

 If the axial and radial dimensions are not equal, it is shown that 



NO. 1677, VOL. 65] 



the method is still applicable, provided that the ratio of the 

 resistances of the Bosscha comparison be altered in a ratio 

 depending on these dimensions. .Apparatus for carrying out 

 the experiment is described and applications to some classical 

 cases are given. It is also pointed out that the correction for 

 finite length of magnet in Bosscha's (or the present) method of 

 comparison is in general far from negligible. The formula; used 

 are based on the expansion of the potential of a coil for points 

 on its axis, and terms up to the fourth have been included, but 

 the effect of neglecting higher terms is not investigated. — The 

 secretary read a letter from Lord Rayleigh, in which he stated 

 that the length of the magnet used in detertnining the constant 

 of the current b.-ilance used in the determination of the electro- 

 chemical equivalent of silver was one-tenth of an inch, and the 

 error due to neglecting this was less than one part in ten 

 thousand. — On air-pressures used in playing brass instruments, 

 by Dr. E. H. Barton and Mr. S. C. Laws. It is well known 

 that in playing upon the " brass" or " wood-wind" instruments 

 of the orchestra the particular note, at any instant desired, is 

 produced by the simultaneous use of the mechanism of the 

 instrument and the corresponding " embouchure " through which 

 air at a suitable pressure is driven by the performer. The 

 object of the paper is to find how the air-pressure required to 

 sound the different notes varies with (i) the pitch of the note, 

 (2) its loudness, (3) the fingering or other manipulation of the 

 instrument, (4) on the instrument itself. I'xperiments were 

 made with the tenor trombone, the trumpet and the cornet, 

 and the pressures were taken by a water-manometer connected 

 to the performer's mouth by an india-rubber tube terminating in 

 a glass nozzle, which could be held by the side teeth. The 

 following inferences are drawn from the experiments : (l) Other 

 things being equal, the louder the note the greater the pressure. 

 (2) The higher the pitch of the note played on a given instru- 

 ment the greater the air-pressure used. (3) The curves formed 

 by plotting the logarithms of the frequencies of the notes as 

 abscissae and the pressures as ordinates are straight lines. 

 (4) The air-pressure required to sound any note with given 

 intensity is approximately proportional to its pitch defined 

 logarithmically. (5) Where alternative positions or fingerings 

 are used for the same note the pressures are practically the same. 

 (6) The pressures for identical notes on trumpet and cornet are 

 almost the same for any given intensity, but very much less than 

 those for the same notes on the trombone. (7) The pressures 

 used for loud low notes may exceed those for soft high notes. — 

 On a new hygrometric method, by Mr. E. B. H. Wade. In 

 this method a thermometer is wetted, not with water, but with 

 sulphuric acid of such a strength that the temperature of the 

 acid bulb is close to that of the dry bulb. The maximum tension 

 of the acid at any temperature is known from Regnault's work, 

 and two or more determinations with this instrument and with 

 a wet and dry bulb hygrometer at the same time enable the 

 constants of both instruments to be determined. If the difference 

 between the acid bulb and the dry bulb is less than 2°, the 

 constant remains fixed over a large range. Experiments show 

 that the readings of the instrument are not affected by ventila- 

 tion, and since the difference betweenjthe temperatures of the 

 bulbs is small, errors in the determination of the constant are 

 unimportant. 



Zoological Society, December 3. — Dr. W. T. Blanford, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. W. E. de Winton 

 exhibited a remarkably large specimen of the grey mullet 

 {Miis^l i/ielo), said to have been taken in the North Sea. — A 

 .series of papers on the collections made during the " Skeat 

 Expedition" to the Malay Peninsula in 1899-1900 w.as read. 

 Mr. V. G. Sinclair reported on the Myriapoda, and enumerated 

 the forty species of which specimens had been obtained. Of 

 these, nine were described as new to science. Mr. W. F. 

 Lanchester contributed an account of a part of the Crustacea, 

 viz. the Brachyura, Stomatopoda and Maerura, collected during 

 the expedition, and described six new forms. Mr. !•'. F. 

 Laidlaw enumerated the snakes, crocodiles and chelonians 

 which had been obtained, and described two new species based 

 on specimens in the collection. An appendix to these papers, 

 drawn up by Mr. W. W. Skeat, contained a list of names of the 

 places visited by the members 'of the " Skeat ICxpedition." — 

 Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., read a paper on the anatomy and 

 systematic position of the painted snipe (Rhynchaea), based 

 on an examination of specimens of this bird which had lately 

 died in the Society's menagerie. The author was of opinion that 

 Rhvnchaea was more nearly allied to the Parrid;*; than to the 



