448 



NA TURE 



lA/arck 6, 1884 



to be attaclsed ; (2) that they recover spontaneously, by M. P. 

 Gibier. — Note on the electric reaction of the sensory nerves of 

 the skin in ataxic animals, by M. M. Mendels-^ohn. — On the 

 treatment by elccti icity of the elephantiasis prevalent amongst 

 the Arabs, by MM. Moiicorvo and Silva Araujo. — On the 

 piison of the toad and other batrachian^, by M. G. Calmels. — 

 Un the sexual differences of the Corbaus bifasciatus, and on the 

 pretended eggs of this coleipterous insect injurious to the ever- 

 green oak, by M. A. Laboulbene. — On the coincidences ob- 

 served between the solar phenomena witnessed in 1831 and 1SS3, 

 by M. A. Witz. 



Berlin 

 Physiological Society, February 1. — Dr. W.Wolff had had 

 occasion to make an intimate study of the electrical plates of the 

 torpedo, in the course of which he came upon a series of facts 

 w^hich served to explain the still very diver.-^e views of authors on 

 the structure of the electrical organ, and so confirmed his con- 

 ception of the subject. The electrical organ of the fish in 

 question consists, as is well known, mostly of hexagonal 

 columns extending from the dorsal usually to the ventral side, 

 though occasionally not so far. They were embedded in sheaths 

 of ligamentous texture, in which were found the nerves and vessels 

 of the organ, and consisted of single plates of o'oi2 millimetres 

 thickness piled one above the other, without any intermediary 

 substance ; detai;hed cells of connective ti-sue, each with two 

 or three fine offshoots, were now and again found between 

 the plates, vhich themselves, in the main consisting of elastic 

 fibres, were ea'-ily capable of being coiled in at the edges. 

 In the plates, between the fibres were found detached round 

 granules of a diameter equal to the thickness of the plates. These 

 granules were for the most part enveloped each in a transparent 

 sheath. On the lower side of the plate were seen punctit'orm 

 organs consisting of small, powerfully refracting granules of a 

 semi-liquid gelatinous consistence. Hitherto they had been for 

 the most part regarded as the terminal organs of the nerves, and 

 in the descriptions given of them by different authors the most 

 diverse structures were imputed to them. According to Dr. 

 Wolff, however, these were all accidental productions. The 

 granules had no relation whatever to the nerves, their only 

 function being probably that of making the plates cohere. The 

 nerves ran in the .sheaths of connective tissue belonging to the 

 columns, and there split up into bundles of primitive fibers 

 bending each to a single plate, in order to spread out on its 

 lower side, dividing, as they constantly did, in a dichotomous 

 manner. Soon the medullary sheath terminated either at a 

 dividing spot or in the course of a twig, and all that remained 

 was but the axial cylinder with the Schwann sheath. The 

 dichotomous partition having been pushed forw ard to the most 

 delicate filaments capable of being recognised, the Schwann 

 sheath passed over into the membrane of the plate, while the 

 axial cylinder in all probability came .suddenly to an end. — 

 Prof. Kronecker handed in a treatise for the Procudiiigs, in 

 which he rebutted as unjustifiable the claims of priority advanced 

 by M. Arloing in Paris against Herren Kronecker and Meltzer 

 in the matter of the stoppage of the movements of swallowing. — 

 Dr. Moeli gave a report on changes occurring in the cortex 

 of the cerebrum of guinea-pigs, which he had observed after 

 cutting through the capsu'a interna of the thalamus. Conjectures 

 he had made on the course of the fibres in the cerebrum led him to 

 cut through the fibrous courses of the corona (Stabkraiiz) 

 radiating from the thalamus and running to the cerebrum at a 

 point as far as possiljle from the cerebral cortex, and after a 

 considerable time to examine the changes that had been produced 

 in the cortical tissue in consequence of this cutting. By this 

 examination he found that a large part of the fine filaments of 

 the cortical substance had degenerated and faded away. A 

 part of the ganglia, on the other hand, had continued un- 

 changed, while aU' ther part h.ad been essentially altered. Alto- 

 gether Dr. MceU distinguished in the cortex four speciee of 

 ganglia: (i) round, (2) fusiform, (3) pyramidal, and (4) small 

 and round, with short appendages. The first two, slightly 

 tinged with colouring matter, remained unchanged on the side 

 operated on, and like those on thx sound side. The pyramidal 

 and caudated cells, on the other hand, which were strongly 

 tinged wiih colouring matter, had shrunk on the side operated 

 on, and were greatly altered from those on the sound side. 

 From this Dr. Mceli concluded that there was a centripetal pro 

 pagation of the degeneration from the cut fibres to their central 

 ganglia. — Dr. J. Munk took a survey of the various views held 

 on the resorption of fat, and called to mini that in former experi- 



ments he had demonstrated how sebacic acids might, in the process 

 of nourishment, take the place of neutral fat, but that even in the 

 chyle neutral fats were alone to lie found. By many physiologists 

 the absorption of neutral fats from the food was disijuted, and it 

 was sought to derive the whole deposition of fat from decom- 

 posed albumen. Dr. Munk considered the arguments adduced 

 \\ support of this view as not pertinent, and had repeated the 

 lundamental experiment, which consisted in the absorption of a 

 heterogeneous, and therefore easily demonstrable, neutral fat. 

 He gave a dog, which through a long course of starvation had 

 lost almost all the fat of its body, a large quantity of rape seed, 

 and only so much albumen as was just necessary for the preser\'a- 

 tion of its life. After having been kept on this artificial foxl 

 for a length of time, the dog was killed, and the fat of the skin, 

 together with that of the ventral cavity, was melted in one lot, 

 and compared with the fat of a dog that had been normally fed. 

 The very appearance of the two kinds of fat under the tem- 

 perature of the sitting-room was greatly dift'erent. The fat of 

 th(! dog fed on rape seed was clear and fluid, and had but a little 

 sediment of a firmer fat,' while the fat of the normally fed dog 

 formed a soft opaque mass. Chemically analysed, the first 

 yielded some So per cent, of sebacic acid, w hile the normal fat 

 contained but 68 per cent, of sebacic acid. Finally, Dr. Munk was 

 able to demonstrate the presence of erucic acid in the fat of the 

 rape-seed fed dog, though in a somewhat impure state, a fact 

 which conclusively proved the ab.sorption of rape seed, and 

 therefore of alimental fit. Dr. Munk stated that at the next 

 meeting of the Society he would communicate further experi- 

 ments regarding the formation and deposition of the fat in the 

 animal body. — After their addresses Dr. Wolff and Dr. Moeli 

 gave demonstrations in the demonstrating hall of the Physiologi- 

 cal Institute. 



CONTENTS Page 



Recent Text-Books on Technology. By Prof. T. 



E. Thorpe, F.R.S 425 



Marine Engineering 421 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Anderson's " Guide to the Calcutta Zoological 



Gardens " 426 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Earthquakes and Air-Waves. — General Richard 



Strachey, C.B., F.R.S. ; Maxwell Hall ... 427 

 The Remarkable Sunsets. — Edward J. Bles . . . . 427 

 Instinct. — George J. Romanes, F.R.S. ; Wm. 



Brown 428 



" Mental Evolution in Animals." — F. J, Faraday ; 



G. J. Romanes, F.R.S 42S 



Natural Snowballs. — Prof. Samuel Hart .... 428 

 Common Domestic Duck Diving for Food. — Dr. 



John Rae, F.R.S 428 



Circular Rainbow 'seen from a Hill-top. — Dr. W. 



Hale White . .' 428 



Girton College. — Certificated Student 428 



Anthropological Notes in the Solomon Islands. 



By Surgeon H. B. Guppy 429 



On the Classification of the Ascidiae Compositae. 



By Prof. W. A. Herdman 429 



A Meteorological Laboratory (With Ilbistrations) . 431 

 Science in Rome. By Prof. A. H. Keane ... 433 



Niels Henrik Cordulus Hoffmeyer 434 



Notes 4.s5 



The Six Gateways of Knowledge. By Prof. Sir 



William Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S 438 



The Geological Position of the Human Skeleton 



found at Tilbury 440 



Notes on the Volcanic Eruption of Mount St. 



Augustin, Alaska, October 6, 1883. By George 



Davidson, Assistant U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 441 



The Origin of the Scenery of the British Islands. 



By Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., Director-General of 



the Geological Survey 442 



University and Educational Intelligence 443 



Scientific Serials 443 



Societies and Academies 444 



I 



