October 31, 1912 



NA'l URE 



the latter is 4° lont;;, and slender, having' a contortion 

 o'75° from the nucleus. On September 15 this con- 

 tortion was r4° from the head, and the tail, 5^° long, 

 was clearly double 25° from the head. 



Epheweris I2h. M.T. Berlin. 



1912 o (lru=) 6 (true) log r loa ^ M.IJ. 



h. m. 

 Oct. 31 . 16 2-1 ... -4-23 552 



Nov. 2 ... 16 3S ... -(-25 21-6 ... 9'96o5 ... o'ogSS ... 7-0 



4 ... 16 5-4 ... +26 45-8 



6 ... 16 7'0 ... -f-2S 8-3 ... 9'9S32 ... o'io52 ... 7-2 



8 ... 16 8'6 ... -1-29 295 



10 .. 16 io'3 ... -(-30 497 ... 00057 ... 0-1105 ■• 7'j 



12 ... 16 I2CI ... +^2 9-0 



14 ... 16 13 7 ... 4-33 27-8 ... 0-0280 ... 0-1145 ... 7-5 



Dr. Ebell calculated the brightness, by the formula 

 I /r-A=, on the assumption that on September 26 the 

 magnitude was 6'o, but Mr. Franks found it to be 

 a little more than 4-0 on October 11, while, in a good 

 skv. M. Gonnessiat estimated it as 5-5 for the whole 

 comet, on September 29. There appears to be definite 

 evidence for an intrinsic brightening while near peri- 

 helion. 



The Total Solar Eclipse of October 10. — A tele- 

 gram from Prof. Morize to the Astrononiische Nach- 

 richien (No. 4606) states that the observations of the 

 total eclipse at Christina (Minas Geraes, Brazil) were 

 spoiled by rain, although some selenium-cell observa- 

 tions of brightness were made by Dr. Ristenpart. 

 Prof. Perrine, cabling to Prof. Pickering from Brazil, 

 also states that rain prevented observations. A 

 further telegram, published in No. 4607 of the same 

 journal, announces that the eclipse was observed under 

 favourable conditions at Quito by Sefior Tufirio. 



International Standard Time. — The Revue genirale 

 des Sciences (No. ig) gives an outline of the present 

 state of the question of the international standardisa- 

 tion of time, and tlie programme prepared for dis- 

 cussion at the International Conference which met at 

 the Paris Observatory on October 15. The accepta- 

 tion by France of the international reseau removed 

 the last great obstacle to the unification of standard 

 times, and the general distribution of time-signals by 

 wireless telegraphy makes this unification more than 

 ever necessary. It has been found that signals sent 

 from different stations show inconsistencies amount- 

 ing to several seconds, not very serious in ordinary 

 aflairs, but fatal in matters demanding scientific pre- 

 cision. To remedy this state of affairs the Bureau des 

 Longitudes invited the International Conference to 

 reassemble in Paris, and drew up a tentative pro- 

 gramme of the matters for discussion. Under seven 

 main headings this programme practically exhausts 

 the debatable points concerning the determination of 

 time, the methods of keeping it, and of distributing 

 it by radio-telegraphy and otherwise, the precision 

 necessary for different purposes, and the general ques- 

 tion of how to organise internationally in order to 

 gain these ends. 



THE ORIGIN OF LWE. 



ONE of the most interesting of the recent meetings 

 of the British Association at Dundee was that 

 devoted by the joint sections of Zoology and Botany 

 to the discussion of the problem of the origin of life. 

 It should be remarked that this was not a discussion 

 of the President's address; it was arranged before 

 the subject of the presidential address had been made 

 known. The President (Prof. E. A. Schafer), who 

 occupied the chair at this meeting, explained at the 

 outset that his address had been written and printed 

 before he knew that this discussion was to take place. 

 NO. 2244, VOL. 90] 



Prot. E. A. .\linchin, in opening the discussion, 

 pointed out that the problem of the origin of life 

 involved two inquiries, both of which were 

 at nresent of a speculative order, namely : 

 (i) the nature and characters of the earliest living 

 beings, and (2) the manner in which the primordial 

 form of life took origin and maintained its existence 

 upon the earth. The first of these problems could be 

 considered with profit, but the second, owing to the 

 inadequacy of the data available, appeared to him to 

 be scarcely ripe for discussion. He observed that the 

 cell, which might be defined as an individualised mass 

 of protoplasm containing at least one nucleus, was 

 generally regarded as the simplest type of organism, 

 and as the vital unit in the composition of living 

 beings, whether plants or animals. It was improbable 

 that the earliest forms of life came into existence as 

 organisms composed of two distinct structural elements 

 —the nucleus and the cytoplasm (body-protoplasm). 

 Which of these — the cytoplasm or the nucleus — was to 

 be regarded as representing or containing the most 

 primitive elements of the living substance? By most 

 biologists the cytoplasm had been considered to repre- 

 sent the true living substance, and the earliest living 

 organisms — the so-called Monera — had been supposed 

 to be formless masses of protoplasm without nuclei. 



Prof. Minchin proceeded to advance reasons for 

 believing that the chromatin substance invariably pre- 

 sent in the nucleus, or occurring as grains (chromidia) 

 scattered in the cytoplasm, represented the primarv 

 and essential living matter. In support of tliis view- 

 he pointed out that chromatin is always present in 

 the bodies of living organisms of all kinds, that cells 

 cannot continue to live if deprived of their nuclei, that 

 in reproduction by fission the chromatin divides first 

 and is distributed among the daughter-individuals, that 

 the complex process of division of the nucleus known 

 as karyokinesis may be regarded as a mechanism 

 gradually evolved and perfected for ensuring an exact 

 quantitative and qualitative partition of the chromatin 

 between _ the daughter-nuclei— an indication that the 

 chromatin is of prime importance— that the chromatin- 

 substance plays an essential part in syngamy (fertilisa- 

 tion) and probably also in heredity (as carrier of the char- 

 acters of the organism), that the nucleus is essential 

 for the continuance of the secretory activities of the 

 cell, and, finally, that in some of the minutest living 

 organisms— e.^. spirochaetes and the male gamete of 

 the malaria parasite — the body appears to consist 

 mainly or entirely of chroma"tin, and cytoplasmic 

 elements are reduced to a minimum or are altogether 

 absent. Prof. Minchin quoted from a communication 

 received recently from a correspondent, who pointed 

 out that the protein molecules of the nucleus are 

 simpler in constitution than those of the cytoplasm, 

 and therefore may be regarded as more primitive. 

 Further, the amido-acids characteristic of the nucleus 

 areof the open-chain order and free from complexity, 

 while those of the cytoplasm are of the closed order 

 and could only have arisen from the type of acids 

 present in the nucleus. For these reasons Prof. 

 Minchin regarded the chromatin as the primitive living 

 substance, and held the view that the earliest forms 

 of Hfe were very minute particles of chromatin, round 

 which, in the course of evolution, achromatinic sub- 

 stances were formed. Within the cytoplasmic enve- 

 lopes thus produced the chromatin-grains increased in 

 number, and organisms of the degree of structural 

 complexity of a true cell arose finally by concentration 

 of the chromatin-grains into a compact organised 

 mass — the nucleus proper. 



As regarded the origin of the earliest living beings, 

 it was only possible to frame vague speculations, in 

 the present state of our knowledge, concerning the 



