August 9, 1906] 



NA TURE 



J675 



demesne of St. Edmundsbury, Lucan. The water is super- 

 saturated with nitrogen, and as it rises to the surface of 

 the spring large bubbles of that gas mixed with small 

 quantities of carbon dioxide are constantly evolved, giving 

 it the appearance somewhat of ebullition ; hence the name 

 of the " Boiling Well " by which it is marked on the 

 Ordnance maps. The dissolved gases were found lo be 

 as follows, expressed in volumes at o° C, and 760 mm. 

 bar., per 1000 volumes of the water : — carbon dioxide, 

 14077 ; oxygen, 00 ; nitrogen, 27-13. The water contains 

 about ninety grains of mineral matter per gallon. The 

 chief constituents are : — calcium bicarbonate, 35-2 grains ; 

 sodium chloride, 4124 grains; magnesium chloride, 94 

 grains ; and magnesium sulphate, 3-24 grains, per gallon. 

 It also contains small quantities of ferrous bicarbonate, 

 potassium chloride, and traces of lithium chloride and of 

 barium sulphate. It is probable that the excess of nitrogen 

 which this water holds in solution was derived from the 

 fermentative decomposition of nitrates; i-8 parts nitric 

 nitrogen per 100,000 parts of the water would, on decom- 

 position, yield 14 c.c. nitrogen, at 0° C, and 760 mm. 

 bar., which represents about the quantity in excess of the 

 gas in solution. The fact that after several days of strong 

 frost, and at a time when the temperature of the air was 

 32° F., that of the water, as it rose lo the surface of the 

 spring, was 6o°-S F., shows that the water must rise 

 from a considerable depth below the surface of the ground, 

 and this suggests an explanation as lo how the water holds 

 so large an excess of nitrogen in solution. .\ careful 

 examination was also made of the water to ascertain 

 whether it contained any matters which would render it 

 unfit to be drunk, but wilh negative results. 



Edinburgh. 



Hoyal Society, July 2. — Prof. Crum Brown, vice-presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The use of soluble Prussian blue in 

 investigating the reducing power of animal tissue : Dr. 

 D. Eraser Harris. The method of experiment was to 

 inject the blood vessels of either decerebrate cats and 

 rabbits or the isolated surviving kidney or liver of pig or 

 sheep. In the latter cases the blue of the potassio-ferric- 

 ferrocyanide is in the capillaries reduced to the pale green 

 or colourless compound, the di-potassio-ferrous-ferrocyanide 

 — a vital reduction expressed, not by a deoxidation, but by 

 change of trivalent iron into divalent iron. Irrigation witli 

 H,0, restored the blue colour. In the experiments on the 

 kidney, when the pressure of injection rose to too mm. of 

 mercury, a colourless, gelatinous artificial urine dropped 

 from the ureter, and the pelvis of the kidney was filled 

 with colourless gelatin ; this leuco inaterial at once be- 

 came blue on irrigation with H,0,. Various considerations 

 showed that the green or leuco condition resulted neither 

 from the action of the alkaline salts of blood and tissues 

 nor from putrefaction, but proved the existence within the 

 blood of " reducing substances." The leuco compound ten 

 years after formation WMthin capillaries can still be, by 

 the HjO;, restored to the blue condition. The least perfect 

 reduction is in the great vessels, the most perfect in the 

 thin-walled capillaries, i.e. in those vessels which are 

 supplying material for anabolism to the living cells endowed 

 with a high reducing capacity. — The viscosity of solutions, 

 part i. : C. Ranken and Dr. W. W. Taylor. The paper 

 contained an account of the apparatus, and also the 

 measurements of aqueous solutions of electrolytes and non- 

 electrolytes at various temperatures and concentrations. 

 Of the substances examined, mercuric cyanide is the only 

 one with a temperature coefficient smaller than that of 

 water. Dilute solutions of carbamide at low tempera- 

 tures have " negative relative viscosity," being probably 

 the first example of a non-electrolyte in water which is 

 known to exhibit it. — Two lecture experiments in illus- 

 tration of the theory of ionisation : Dr. \\\ W. Taylor. 

 (i) To show that the ionisation of an acid is diminished 

 by addition of salts of an acid ; addition of dilute nitric 

 acid or of strong solution of potassium nitrate does not 

 coagulate albumen ; together they do so immediately. 

 (2) To show that a weak acid turns out a strong acid from 

 its salts; acetic acid solution or strong solution of 

 potassium nitrate does not coagulate albumen ; together 



NO. I919, VOL. 74] 



they do so. This can be shown not to be due to potassium 

 acetate. 



July 13. — Dr. K. 11. rr:K|uair, vice-president, in tlie 

 chair. — Obituary notice u( S. P. Langley : Dr. W. Peddle. 

 —The recent (-pidemic of trypanosomiasis in Mauritius ; 

 its cause and progress : Dr. .Mex. Edington and Dr. 

 J. M. Coutts. The authors believe that the infection did 

 not come from India with a cargo of cattle, as has been 

 stated, but that it had been already in the island in a 

 la'tent form. This belief Is further strengthened by in- 

 formation recently obtained that a case of trypanosomiasis 

 actually existed on the adjacent French island of R(5union 

 in .August, 1901, which antedated the earliest date in 

 Mauritius. Cattle which had been made immune to the 

 trypanosome were found to be still susceptible to the 

 Trypanosoma brucci — the parasite of the tsetse-fly, which 

 is thus proved to be specifically distinct. The parasites 

 lotally disappear in the blood of immunised cattle. In 

 goats' the infection is evinced by progressive emaciation 

 .-md death after about two months ; but although their 

 blood is virulent and produces trypanosomes in susceptible 

 animals, no trypanosomes could be detected in the blood 

 fluids or tissues of the goats. .According to the report for 

 1904 of the director of the Health Department of Mauritius, 

 Ihe epidemic is slowly but surely diminishing. The iinport- 

 ation of mules, which arc very susceptible to the disease, 

 lends more than anvthing else to maintain the disease in 

 an active form.— Note on the smolt to grilse stage of the 

 salmon, with exhibition of a marked fish recaptured : 

 W. I,. Calderwood. In 1Q05 the Tay Fisheries Company 

 marked about 6500 smolts by the attachment of a small 

 piece of silver wire to the dorsal fin. On June i, 190(1, 

 ihe first grilse marked with a wire was taken in the Tay. 

 Since then four other fish had been recaptured. The one 

 exhibited was 24 inches long; fully a year before, when 

 marked with the wire, it was about s inches long. Its 

 growth during its residence in the salt water was estimated 

 Mt from three to six ounces per month. — The effect nf 

 precipitation films on the conductivitv of electrolytes, 

 part i. : W. S. Millar and Dr. W. W. Taylor. The paper 

 contained an account of results obtained by_ use of the 

 alternating current and telephone method w'ith films of 

 .duminium hydroxide, chromic hydroxide, and cupric ferro- 

 ryanide. The solutions compared were the chlorides, 

 bromides, and sulphates of potassium, sodium, and 

 ammonium ; sodium ammonium tartrate, and soduun 

 anunonium racemate.— The theory of alternants in the 

 historical order of development up to 1S60, and the theory 

 of circulants in the historical order of developinent up lo 

 i860 : Dr. Thomas Muir.— The length of a pair of tangents 

 to a conic : Prof. Anglin. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 25.— M. H. Poincare in the 

 chair.— The president announced the death of >!. 

 Brouardel. — The toxic action and localisation of the radmm 

 emanation : Ch. Bouchard and \'. Balthaxard. The 

 presence in the peritoneum of the guinea-pig of 2 grams 

 of barium sulphate containing about 5 mgr. of radium 

 ■iulphate proved fatal to the animal. In a control experi- 

 ment with the same quantity of barium sulphate free from 

 r.adium, the animal suffered no inconvenience. The dis- 

 tribution of the radium emanation in the various organs 

 of the animal after death was determined by an electrical 

 method. The suprarenal capsules showed the largest pro- 

 portion of the emanation, the lungs, skin, liver, and 

 kidneys showing decreasing amounts. The author points 

 out that from the chemical" inerlness of the emanation this 

 selective action of the organs of the body is unexpected.— 

 The results of two deep borings in Picardy : J. Oosselet. 

 The boring at Saigneville was carried to a depth of 

 425-95 metres, the Devonian being encountered at a depth 

 of 408 metres. The strata met with are compared with 

 those encountered in the boring at P^ronne, the latter 

 having a depth of 500 metres.— The extension of vectorial 

 algebra with the aid of the theory of binary forms, with 

 applications to the theorv of elasticity : Kmile Waelsch. 

 — .\ class of integral series : Michel Petrowitch.— 

 Lagrange's projection .-ipplied tu the map of European 



