July 14, 1910] 



NATURE 



63 



pines of the Landes. The caterpillars march in single file 

 from the nest tree over the sand on fine days in late 

 March and early April, ending the last day's procession by 

 burrowing for pupation. The general impression left by 

 observation of processions is that the larvae in head-to-tail 

 contact act as one individual, and as such their course of 

 action is very difficult to disturb by artificial interference 

 in respect both of direction of march and general behaviour. 

 Though removal of the leader hardly, if at all, checks the 

 progress of a procession (in a procession of six, for 

 instance, the leaders were removed successively and placed 

 at the rear of the procession si.K times in fourteen minutes 

 without the procession stopping), the " circulating mass " 

 seems invariably formed on the initiative of the leader. 

 The reason for this frequently occurring event, as, indeed, 

 also the stimuli which determine the behaviour of a pro- 

 cession, remains obscure, while no explanation is forth- 

 coming of the remarkable temporary independence of some 

 larvse. As in the observations by T. G. Edwards, no 

 irritation of the skin by the poison hairs of the larvae, in 

 spite of frequent handling, was experienced (Fabre lays 

 much stress on the inconvenience he suffered from this 

 source, so the liability to irritation probably varies in 

 different individuals). — Dr. Graham-Smith : The habits 

 of Musca domestica. — Dr. N. H. Swiellengrebel and 

 C. Strickland : The development of Trypanosoma leivisi 

 in the rat flea (Ceratophyllus fasciatus). A development 

 of T. lewisi was found to take place first in the mid- 

 gut, later in the hind-gut and rectum of the flea. The 

 forms observed resembled very much the forms of T. 

 lewisi in an artificial culture, except that the later stages 

 in the flea, a return to a trypanosome form (" small 

 trypanosomes "), are never found in culture. No such 

 developmental forms were found in a large number of 

 control fleas. — Dr. F. Ransom : The absorption of tetanus 

 toxin. — H. Aclcroyd : The fate of uric acid in the dog. — 

 Dr. Cobbett : The absence of living tubercle bacilli from 

 old tuberculous lesions. The author has on several 

 occasions, while working for the Tuberculosis Commission 

 at Stansted, as well as in Sheffield and Cambridge, found 

 that old caseous and calcareous deposits, which were un- 

 doubtedly of a tuberculous nature, might contain no 

 tubercle bacilli capable of infecting the guinea-pig. — W. E. 

 Oixon : The action of potash salts taken by the mouth. 

 The non-toxicity of potash salts taken by the mouth was 

 shown to be due to the very easy excretion of these salts 

 tiy the kidneys, so that their concentration in the blood 

 was but slightly increased. — Prof. Sims Woodhead : The 

 results of steriUsation experiments on the Cambridge water. 

 Sterilisation by chlorine and chlorine compounds had given 

 most startling results. In a series of preliminary experi- 

 ments, carried out in the laboratory, it had been found 

 that one part of available chlorine to two million parts of 

 water was sufficient to kill all non-spore-bearing bacteria 

 cf the Bacillus coli type, and therefore of the typhoid 

 bacillus type, and probably also of the cholera bacillus 

 type, within half an hour even in the presence of the 

 appreciable amount of organic matter that was necessarily 

 added along with the cultures of Bacillus coli. Water to 

 which had been added some hundreds of the Bacillus coli 

 per c.c. was found after treatment to contain not a single 

 living colon bacillus in 50, 60, and 100 c.c. (The un- 

 important spore-bearing organisms were not killed.) 

 Having obtained these results in the laboratory, a large 

 experimental plant capable of sterilising more than 

 80,000 gallons of water per twelve hours, erected at 

 Fulbourn, was used, and three sets of experiments were 

 carried out, one a preliminary series in which the 

 apparatus was run at intervals as required, and then two 

 series of experiments in which the apparatus was run for 

 twelve hours daily for more than a fortnight in each series. 

 The standard of the London Water Board, that there shall 

 be no Bacillus coli in quantities of water less than 200 c.c, 

 was taken as the one to be aimed at. In every case, 

 however, quantities of 500 c.c. were examined, and after 

 certain preliminary difficulties had been surmounted, water 

 was obtained in which none of the observers could find 

 the Bacillus coli in 500 c.c. The amount of chlorine used 

 in these experiments varied from one part in a million to 

 one in six million parts of water. In the earlier experi- 

 ments, where up to one part of chlorine in four million 



NO. 2124, VOL. 84] 



parts of water was used, it was thought necessary^ to 

 neutralise any remaining chlorine by the addition of sodium 

 bisulphite. After further experiments, where smaller 

 quantities of chlorine were used, this addition was dis- 

 pensed with, as the water treated, though sterile, did not 

 retain the slightest taste of chlorine. It was suggested, 

 of course, that water so treated might have some effect 

 upon the human organism. All those who were working 

 at Fulbourn drank considerable quantities of this water, 

 and everyone who tried it accepted it as a first-class drink- 

 ing water. — F. J. M. Stratton and R. H. Compton : 

 Accident in heredity, with special reference to right- and 

 left-handedness. An examination of the manner in which 

 the inheritance of Mendelian characters would be affected 

 by the action of a constant environmental factor. The 

 assumption is made that a certain proportion of individuals 

 have their characters inverted in appearance by accidenta' 

 causes, and an application is made to the statistics dealing 

 with the inheritance of the mode of clasping the hands. 

 — R. H. Compton : Right- and left-handedness in barley. 

 A study of the two kinds of seedlings of barley, the folded 

 first leaves of which are related to one another as an 

 object to its mirror image. A considerable numerical 

 e.xcess of one kind is found in all the varieties studied. 

 The dimorphism in question is not found to be hereditary, 

 and it appears to be governed neither by the direction of 

 twist of the last foliage leaf below the spike nor by the 

 position of the seed on the spike. — F. T. Brooks : The 

 development of Gnomonia erythrostoma, the cause of the 

 cherry-leaf scorch disease. The present investigation con- 

 cerns an examination of the life-history of this fungus 

 from the cytological standpoint, very little work on the 

 Pyrenomycetes having hitherto been done from this point 

 of view. — Dr. A. C. Dixon : Jacobi's double-residue 

 theorem in relation to the theory of point-groups. — N. R. 

 Campbell : Discontinuities in light emission, ii. The 

 paper is a continuation of one recently presented to the 

 society under the same title. The main object of the 

 research has remained impossible to attain. The sub- 

 sidiary results do not lend themselves to summary. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, June 27.— M. fimile Picard in the 

 Lhair. — Ph. van Tieghem : A new classification of the 

 Inovuleae group. — J. Boussinesq : The conservation of 

 true masses in different phenomena, principally luminous, 

 where there appear fictitious variable masses. — Armand 

 Gautler : The action of a red heat on formaldehyde. 

 Experiments show products of decomposition to be carbon 

 monoxide, and hydrogen, with a trace of methane.-^B. 

 Galitzine : A new type of seismograph for the vertical 

 component.— Charles Nordmann : The brightness of 

 Halley's comet, and the composition of its light. — Jules 

 Bailiaud : Photographic observations of a small planet. 

 — L. Letombe : A geometrical study of distribution in 

 machines with separate distributors. — H. Larose: The 

 propagation of a discontinuity on a telegraphic line 

 furnished with a transmitter.— A. Debierne : The atomic 

 weight of the radium emanation. The author shows that 

 by the loss of an a particle, and consequent departure of 

 an atom of helium of atomic weight 4, the radium of 

 atomic weight 2265 becomes the emanation of atomic 

 weight 222-5. — G. A. Hemsalech : The duration of the 

 emission of spectral rays by luminous vapours in the 

 electric spark.— Gabriel Sizes and G. Massoi : A photo- 

 graphic record of the vibrations of a diapason. — Edmond 

 Bauer : The emission of gases. — E. Henriot : The rays 

 of potassium. — A. Besson and L. Fournier : The action 

 of hydrogen on sulphur chloride and thionyl chloride 

 under the influence of an electric discharge.— Witold 

 Broniewski : The electrical properties of aluminium-silver 

 alloys.— M. Kohn-Abrest : The nitrides and oxides 

 obtained from aluminium heated in air. — G. Urbain, 

 M. Blondei, and M. ObiedofT : The extraction of 

 germanium from blende.— L. J. Simon: The acid 

 character of oxalacetic ether.— M. Lespieau : The hydro- 

 genation of acetylene compounds. — A. B£hal : A new 

 tertiary menthol, and the passage of pinene into menthene. 

 — Andri Meyer : The condensation of phenyl-isoxazolone 

 with mesoxalic ester.— Ren6 Maire and Adrien Tison : 

 Some Plasmodiophoracesc.- C. Gessard : Blood fibrin.— 



