62 
NATURE [ Mov. 11, 1869 
lines, of which a few characteristic individuals were mapped with 
difficulty. These were afterwards found in the spectrum of calcic 
chloride, with which some gas-carbon electrodes had been im- 
pregnated ; but with electrodes of a different material the lines 
did not reappear. Perfectly pure titanic chloride, however, 
readily furnished them; and titanium was also obtained, by a 
chemical process, from the ash of the coal which had yielded the 
gas-carbon. A direct comparison of the numerous and delicate 
titanium lines with those of Fraunhofer, under high dispersive 
power, left no doubt whatever that titanium must now be added 
to the list of solar metals. 
PHYSIOLOGY 
Gases of the Secretions 
PFLUGER has investigated the“gases of urine, milk, bile, and 
Saliva. The quantity of nitrogen gas is very much alike in all, 
being in urine ‘9, in milk °75, in bile *5, in saliva *75 per cent. 
in volumes. The quantity of oxygen, on the contrary, varies 
much more, being in urine °075, in milk ‘095, in bile ‘1, in saliva 
*5 percent. Pfliiger attributes the larger quantity of oxygen in 
saliva to the fact that in the much less rapid secretions " bile, 
&c., the epithelium of the secreting passages consumes, during 
secretion, a large portion of the oxygen contained in the secreted 
fluid. In the more swiftly secreted saliva, the oxygen escapes in 
a large measure this consumption. The quantity of carbonic 
acid varies according to the reaction of the secretion. In alkaline, 
bile, and saliva, it reaches 561, and 64°7 per cent.; in neutral or 
acid urine, milk, and bile, it sinks as low as 13°7, 7°6, § per cent. 
respectively.—[Archiv. fiir Physiol. ii. 156.] 
According to Bogoljubow, the carbonic acid of the bile depends 
largely on the quality and quantity of food taken. It seems to 
diminish during the stay of the bile in the gall bladder.— 
[Centralblatt f, Med. Wissen. 1869, No. 42.] 
Changes in Milk 
KEMMERICH brings forward observations to show that in 
standing milk, especially at blood-heat, an increase of the casein 
takes place at the expense of the albumen. We also confirms 
the statements of previous observers, that in milk (and cheese) 
the quantity of fat increases on keeping. He attributes, however, 
this “ripening of the cheese,” to the action of fungi.—[Archiv. 
fiir Physiol. ii. 401.] 
Effect of Alcohol on Animal Heat 
Cuny Bouvier affirms as the result of experiments on rabbits 
(apparently carefully conducted with due sense of sources of 
error) that alcohol lowers the temperature of the body, in small 
doses to a slight in large doses to a very marked degree. —[Archiv, 
fiir Physiol. ii. 370.] 
Metamorphosis of Muscle 
O. Nassb, extending the previous observations of MacDonnell 
and others, affirms that g/ycogen is a normal constituent of 
muscle, the quantity existing in frog’s and rabbit’s muscle 
amounting to 3—5 percent. of the wet mass. Healso states that 
in living quiescent muscle sugar is totally absent, or present in 
inappreciable quantity only. The conversion of glycogen accom- 
panies rigor mortis, whether natural or artificial, and is also 
brought about by muscular contraction. Nasse further shows 
that muscular contraction and rigor mortis are accompanied by a 
consumption of the total carbo-hydrates of the muscle. The 
amount of sugar (or glycogen) lost under these circumstances is 
insufficient, however, to account for the acid (paralactic) produced 
at the same time; indeed the two processes run by no means 
parallel, and apparently are not connected. —[Archiv, ftir Physiol. 
ii. 97. ] 
Vertebrate Epidermis 
F. E. SCHULTZE describes various modifications of the upper- 
most layers of the epidermis in vertebrata, distinguishing between 
cuticular thickenings of living cells and cornification of dead ones. 
In particular he describes curious laminated cuticular thickenings 
of the epidermic cells of various species of Aippocampus. These 
cells he proposes to call flame-cells, from their curious resem- 
blance to the flame of a candle. —[Max Schultze’s Archiv. v. 295. ] 
Development of Grey Matter of Brain] 
ACCORDING to Arndt, the grey matter of the convolutions of 
the rabbit at birth consists of nuclei imbedded in a protoplasmic 
matrix, studded with granules, and very faintly fibrillated. After 
birth the matrix becomes increasingly fibrillated, the granules 
ees 
partly coalesce and partly become dispersed. The nuclei become 
separated through a greater development of the matrix, and a 
nucleolus appears in them by coalescence of previously existing 
nucleolini. Part of this differentiated matrix is directly gathered 
round yarious nuclei to form the ganglionic cells and their 
branches, other parts become arranged in strands to form the 
axis cylinders of nerves, while the rest remains as the permanent 
granular faintly fibrillated matrix of the adult brain. Arndt tries 
to accommodate the ‘‘Cell theory” to these new facts.—[Max 
Schultze’s Archiy. vy. 317.] 
Regeneration of Spinal Cord 
Masivus and VAN Larr assert that if strong frogs be operated 
on in early or mid winter, complete reparation of structure with 
restoration of powers takes place, even when sections of the 
whole spinal cord 1-2 mm. in length have been removed. De- 
generation occurs first at either cut surface: the central end 
swells by deposition of new tissue into a hollow cup-shaped bulb ; 
the peripheral contracts into a cone fitting into the former ; and 
so union takes place. —[Centralblatt, Med. Wissen. 1869, No. 39.] 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
Syro-Egyptian Society, Nov. 2.—Mr. W. H. Black, F.S.A. 
in the chair. The latest communication from Dr. Livingstone, 
that he has found what he believed ‘‘ to be the true sources of the 
Nile, between 10° and 12° south (latitude) or nearly the position 
assigned to them by Ptolemy,” was received with much satisfac- 
tion ; and the passages in the Greek text of Ptolemy’s geography, 
relative to ‘‘the mountain of the moon,”’ from which the lakes 
“of the Nile receive the snows,” twice placed by him in 124 south 
Jatitude, were read; and the old traditional maps, showing’ a moun- 
tain range of about 10° of longitude in extent, with streams 
running northward into two lakes (as published in the Amster- 
dam edition of 1605), were compared therewith. A resolution 
was then passed, sympathising with Dr. Livingstone in his 
laborious researches, and congratulating the present age on this 
confirmation of ancient scientific literature by means of modern 
exploration. 
Mr. Black described the results of his own recent application 
of the symbolic and mathematic teaching of the great pyramid to 
the geometric geography of Africa ; stating the full conformity of 
that monument to the geodetic laws’and uses of other uninscribed 
megalithic monuments in Asia and Europe, which have been 
erroneously assigned,to religious and superstitious purposes. He 
promised to illustrate the subject further, and to demonstrate by 
diagrams the results then verbally described, at a future meeting 
of the society. 
Anthropological Society, Noy. 2.—Dr. Beigel, V.P., in 
the chair; the following new members were announced :— 
Fellows.-- Captain G. J. D. Heath; Dr. Samuel E. Maunsell, 
R.A.; Messrs. Thomas Milne, M.D.; E. W. Martin; Robert 
Watt ; Horace Swete, M.D.; Lieut. Wm. Francklyne; and 
Wi. Pepper.’ Hon. Fellow.—M. Le Baron d’Omalius d’Hal« 
loy. Corresponding Member.—Professor Dr. August Hirsch. 
Mr. Pike read a paper on the Methods of [Anthropological 
Research. He considered it useless to speak of methods of 
research without some previous definition of the objects of 
research, ‘The real difficulty in anthropology was to know what 
to observe, and how to verify. He believed that the science could 
advance only by a double method of observation—the observation 
of mankind individually and in’ masses, and that the conclusions 
suggested by the observation of masses, races, or nations must be 
verified by the observation of individuals, and wice versd. For 
this reason he thought it was a mistake to speak of ethnology as 
a science, as it consisted only of a series of disjointed obser- 
vations without conclusions, and without the means of verifying 
conclusions if made. Mr. Pike then reviewed at considerable 
length the ramifications of Anthropology into anatomy, physi- 
ology, psychology, and the various subdivisions of those studies, 
suggesting that all kinds of unsuspected correlations were yet to 
be discovered by a rigorous application of a scientific method. 
The relations of mind to body, of faculty to faculty, of one part 
of the body to another, were still removed but little from the 
realms of mystery from which only anthropology could thoroughly 
drag them away. Mr. Pike concluded by describing anthropology 
in one of its aspects as the only kind of philanthropy which could 
be of service to mankind—philanthropy founded upon science, 
