2l6 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 30, 1886 



tion with the maximuni tension of the saturated sohitions. — Heat 

 of formation of the metliylate and ethylate of potassa, by M. de 

 Forcrand. — On the wines and brandies extracted from straw- 

 berries and raspberries, by M. Alph. Rommier. By the process 

 here described raspberries are made to yield a wine with over 

 18 per cent, of alcohol instead of the normal 2 or 2 '5 per cent., 

 while the brandy distilled from it retains a highly aromatic 

 flavour. A still more palatable wine, with l6 per cent, of alco- 

 hol, is obtained from the fine strawberries grown in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, the corresponding brandy also pre- 

 serving the flavour of the fruit. — (Dn the zymotic properties 

 of certain virus : fermentations of nitric substances under 

 the influence of non-aerial virus, by M. S. Arloing. The 

 object of this communication is to sliow that the virus of non- 

 aerial microbes stimulates the fermentation of albuminoid sub- 

 stances. — Note on the multiplication of Zt-iicop/i/ys fatiita, 

 Ehrenherg, by M. E. Maupas. In a favourable medium, a 

 single individual of these Infusoria, which multiply by fissiparity, 

 is found to increase to over a million in five days. Certain 

 hitherto unobserved irregularities in the process of segmentation 

 are here described. — On the phosphorescence of the Geophili, 

 by M. Mace. As studied on a Gcophiliis simplex, Gervais, this 

 phenomenon appears to be analogous to that of certain Cheto- 

 ptera: described by Panceri and Jourdan. — On the typical ner- 

 vous system of the dexter and sinister Prosobrancha;, by IM. E. 

 L. Bouvier. — Fresh anatomical and physiological studies on the 

 Glyciphagi, by M. P. Megnin. — The diseases of the olive, by 

 M. L. Savaslano. A brief description of the various forms of 

 hyperplasia and tumours by which this plant is affected. — Re- 

 marks on the to-called Calcifugal vegetation, by M. Ant. 

 Magnin. A theory is advanced to explain the presence of these 

 plants in the limestone region of the Jura. — On two rocks in 

 the Velay and Lyons districts, containing beryl and apatite, by 

 M. Ferdinand Gonnard. — On an experiment undertaken to de- 

 termine the direction of the currents of the North Atlantic, by 

 Prince Albert of Monaco. The author describes a second ex- 

 cursion on board the HironJcUe, during which 510 bottles were 

 thrown into the sea along a course about 500 miles long, and 

 nearly parallel with the twentieth meridian west of Paris. The 

 operation was begun on August 29 and completed on September 

 5, 1886, and some of the floats have already been picked up at 

 various points on the European seaboard ; but the general results 

 are reserved for a future communication. — The periodical showers 

 of shooting-stars and the seismic disturbances of the years iSSj, 

 1884, and 1S85, by M. Ch. V. Zenger. During these years, 

 both orders of phenomena are shown to coincide, while they 

 are also frequently accompanied by hurricanes, cyclones, electric 

 discharges, and auroras. 



Berlin 

 Physiological Society, October 29. — Prof, du Bois- 

 Reymond in the chair. — Dr. J. Munk reported on experiments 

 instituted by him in the course of the last two years with a view 

 of arriving at an experimental decision between the two theories 

 of the secretion of urine : the filtration theory of Ludwig, and 

 the secretion theory of Heidenhain. According to the first 

 theory, the blood-pressure prescribed the measure for the urine 

 secretion ; according to the second theory, the urine got secreted 

 from the secretory epithelial cells of the kidneys, and the 

 quantity of the matter secreted was dependent on the rate of 

 movement of the circulation of the blood. The speaker had 

 instituted his experiments on excided but living kidneys, through 

 which he conducted defibrinised blood of the same animals, 

 under pressures which he was able to vary at pleasure be- 

 tween 80 mm. and 190 mm. Fifty experiments on dogs whose 

 blood and kidneys were, during the experiment, kept at 40° C, 

 yielded the result that the blood of starving animals induced 

 no secretion of urine, which, on the other hand, showed itself in 

 copious quantities where normal blood was conducted through 

 the kidney. If to the famished blood was added one of the sub- 

 stances contained as ultimate products of digestion in the blood, 

 such, for example, as urea, then did the secretion ensue. The 

 fluid dropping from the ureter contained more urea than 

 did the blood. That fluid was therefore no filtrate, but a secre- 

 tion. An enhancement of the pressure of the blood flowing 

 through the kidney had no influence on the quantity of the secre- 

 tion passing away. An increased rate of movement on the part 

 of the blood, on the other hand, increased in equal degree the 

 quantity of urine. On a solution of common salt or of mere 

 serum sanguinis being poured through the kidney, no secretion 



followed. All these facts, involving the exclusion of the possi- 

 bility of a central influence being exercised from the heart or 

 from the nervous system on the kidneys, were deemed by the 

 speaker arguments proving that the urine was secreted by the 

 renal epithelial cells. A series of diuretics was next tried, in 

 order to establish whether they operated in the way of stimulus 

 centrally on the heart or peripherally on the renal cells. Digi- 

 talis was a central diuretic. Common salt, on the other hand, was 

 a peripheral diuretic. Added in the portion of 2 per cent, to the 

 blood, it increased the quantity of urine eight- to fifteen-fold. 

 Even in much less doses, it was a powerful diuretic. In a similar 

 manner, if yet not so intensely, operated saltpetre and coffeine, 

 as also urea and pilocarpine. On the introduction, however, 01 

 the last substance into the blood, the rate of circulation was 

 accelerated in an equal measure as was the quantity of urine 

 increased, so that in this case the increase in the quantity of urine 

 was, perhaps, exclusively conditioned by the greater speed in 

 the movement of the blood. On the other hand, the quantity 

 of secreted urine was reduced when morphine or strychnine was 

 administered to the blood. In the case of the application of 

 strychnine, the rate in the current of the blood was retarded in 

 a proportion equal to the reduction in the secretion of the urine. 

 The speaker had, finally, demonstrated the synthesis of hippuric 

 acid and sulphate of phenol in the excided kidney as a function 

 of its cells, by adding to the blood pouring through the kidney, 

 in the first place, benzoic acid and glycol ; iu the second place, 

 phenol and sulphate of soda. In order that these syntheses might 

 make their appearance in the excided kidney, the presence of 

 the blood-corpuscles was not necessary, though, indeed, the 

 presence of oxygen in the blood was indispensable. 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED 



The Origin of Mountain Ranges : T. M. Reade (Taylor and Francis).— 

 The Six Inner Satellites of Saturn; Appendix i and 2; A. Hall (Wash- 

 ington). — Conchylien der Gosaumergel von Aigen bei ^SaUburg : Dr. 

 L. Tausch (Fischer, Wien). — Ueber die Fauna der Oolithe von Cap. 

 S. Vigdio : M. Vacek (Fischer, Wien). — Jahrbuch der k.k. Geolo- 

 gischen Reichsanstalt, 1886 (Holder, Wien).— Monthly Summaries and 

 Monthly Means for Year 18S5, Imperial Meteorological Observatory, Tokio. 

 — Report of the Mete0r0i0gic.1I Observations for Years 1876-85 at Imperial 

 Meteorological Observatory at Tokio. — The Arithmetic of Electrical Mea- 

 surements ; W. R. P. Hobbs (Murby).— Zoological Record, vol. xii., 1885 

 (Van Voorst).- My African Home : E. W. Fielden (Low).— Studies in Social 

 Life ; G. C. Lorimer (Low).— The Mechanics of Machinery : A. B. W. 

 Kennedy(Macmillan).-AStrain Indicator for Use at Sea: C. E_. Stromeyer. 

 — Report on the Progress and Condition of the Government Botanical Gardens 

 at Saharanpur and Mussoorie for Year ending March 31. i3S6 (Allahabad). 



CONTENTS PAGE 



Babington's " Birds of Suffolk" 193 



Intermittent Downward Filtration 195 



A Medical Index-Catalogue. By A. T. Myers . . 196 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



Sounding a Crater, Fusion-Points, Pyrometers, and 



Seismometers. — Dr. H. J. Johnston-Lavis . . 197 



The Recent Earthquakes. — Prof. J. P. O'Reilly . 197 



Barnard's Comet. — Dr. Wentworth Erck .... 198 



Electricity and Clocks. — Henry Dent Gardner . . 198 



Seismometry. — Thomas Gray 198 



The Recent Weather.— R. B. W 198 



Observations of Nebulae at Arc tri 198 



The Mathematical Tripos, III. By J. W. L. 



Glaisher, F.R.S 199 



The International Committee of 'Weights and 



Measures 203 



Notes 2C4 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Spectroscopic Method of Determining the 



Distance of a Double Star 206 



Names of Minor Planets '. 207 



Comet Finlay (1S86 <-) 207 



Comet Barnard (1886/) 207 



Astronomical Phenomena for the Week 1887 



January 2-8 207 



Notes from the Otago University Museum, IX. 



liy Prof. T. Jeffery Parker. (Illustrated) 208 



The Imperial Institute 210 



University and Educational Intelligence 212 



Scientific Serials 212 



Societies and Academies 213 



Books and Pamphlets Received 216 



