552 



NA TURE 



[September 28, 1905 



(2) This immune substance is thermostable, resisting a 

 temperature of 60° C. for several hours. 



(3) In normal serum there is present a substance having 

 a similar action and which also resists a temperature of 

 60° C. for hours, and may persist in the serum of the 

 horse for years. 



(4) The experiments recorded in this paper tend to con- 

 firm the idea that the substances are identical, i.e. that 

 in normal serum there is present a small amount of the 

 immune substance having the property of preparing the 

 microbes for phagocytosis. 



(5) Cocci fully occupied by the substance from heated 

 immune serum when passed through fresh normal serum 

 do not remove the substance from normal serum, whereas 

 fresh cocci remove a large part of it. 



(6) The converse of the above is also true, viz. that 

 cocci fully occupied by the substance from normal serum 

 do not remove the substance from immune serum, whereas 

 fresh cocci do. 



(7) The thermostable substance in normal serum is no 

 doubt identical with the " fixatcur " or " substance 

 sensibilisatrice " of the French school and with Wright 

 and Douglas's "opsonin." 



Seeing that the terms " fi.Kateur " and " substance 

 sensibilisatrice " which have been employed by Metchni- 

 koff's school to include the property of preparing the 

 microbes for phagocytosis are used to designate a number 

 of other properties of immune serum, it may be convenient 

 to adopt Wright and Douglas's term of " opsonin " for the 

 particular property in question. The only danger attached 

 to such a course is that one might be led to regard the 

 " opsonin " as actually a different substance, and not 

 merely a property of immune serum. 



P.^RIS. 



Academy of Sciences, September 18.— M. Troost in the 

 chair. — Preliminary note on the total eclipse of the sun 

 of August 30 at Burgos : H. Deslandres. Details are 

 given of the instruments set up and the observations 

 attempted. Owing to clouds, the second and third 

 contacts could not be observed. The corona was seen 

 for a minute about the middle of totality. M. 

 Fabry succeeded in making a photometric measurement 

 of the total light of the corona, and an observation 

 of the brightness of one of its points. M. Bernard 

 also was successful in some photometric observations, 

 and M. d'Azambuja in measurements of the heat spec- 

 trum of the corona. Details of the work will be pub- 

 lished later. — Observation of the eclipse of August 30 : 

 H. Andoyer. The apparatus was installed at El-Arrouch, 

 32 kilometres from Philippeville, and the weather was very 

 favourable. The object was to obtain as manv direct 

 photographs as possible. Forty-four were obtained, eleven 

 during totality. — Observation of the solar eclipse of 

 August 30 at Athens : D. Egrinitis. The observations 

 were made under good atmospheric conditions. — On the 

 isolation of terbium : G. Urbain. In a preceding com- 

 munication the author has described the separation of a 

 rare earth characterised by a single absorption band 

 X = 488, corresponding to an element named Zs bv M. 

 Lecocq de Boisbaudran. This has been submitted to a 

 long series of further fractionations, first as a double 

 nitrate with nickel, and afterwards by precipitation w'ith 

 ammonia. The final product was 7 grams of an earth 

 apparently homogeneous, for which the author proposes 

 to reserve the name of terbium. The principal bands in 

 the absorptio'n spectrum are given, and the atomic weight 

 159-2 (0 = i6). 



New South Wales. 



Linnean Society, July 26.— \Tr T. Steel, president, in ihe 

 chair. — On dimorphism in the female of Ischnura li-'tern- 

 sticta, Burm. (Neuroptera : Odonata) : R. J. Tillyard. In 

 February last, at Cook's River, about a dozen beautifully 

 coloured examples of the pretty little dragon-flv, Ischnura 

 heterosticta, Burm., which appeared to be males, were cap- 

 tured, together with half-a-dozen females of the ordinary 

 diill blackish type. On examination it was found that, 

 with the exception of three, all the supposed males were iri 

 reality a second form of female (form B) closely resembling 

 the male. It is intermediate in shape between the male 

 NO. 1874, VOL. 72] 



and the typical female (form A), the abdomen being thicker 

 than in the male, but with -the tip distinctly, enlarged ; 

 while in colouring it almost exactly resembles the inale, 

 but bears not the slightest resemblance to the typical 

 female. Both forms; however, possess the pale ptero- 

 stigma on the forewing, whereas in the male this is black. 

 — Notes on the older Tertiary foraminiferal rocks on the 

 west coast of Santo, New Hebrides : F. Chapman. The 

 examination of the oldest sedimentary rocks seen and 

 collected by Mr. -Mawson in the Island- of -Santo proves 

 them to be of Miocene- age (.Aquitanian. and Burdigalian). 

 A point of particular interest, brought out by the present 

 investigations'. is the association of Lepidpcyclina with the 

 excentric forms of ,Mio'gypsina in -. the New Hebrides. 

 From this it appears that faunas, distinct, in the European 

 area, were livjng- together in the New Hebrides Miocene 

 sea. A sim.iiar association of species occurs here as in the 

 Miocene limestones, of Christmas; Island, and also of 

 Madoura, and other parts of the Dutch East Indies, with 

 which the New Hebrides marine area was most probably 

 connected when these fossiliferous beach and shallow-water 

 deposits were laid down. — On. the occurrence of a bed of 

 fossiliferous tuff and lavas between the Silurian and Middle 

 Devonian at Cavan, .Yass, ; N.S.W., similar in age and 

 character to the Snowy River, porphyries of ^'ictoria ; A. J. 

 Shearsby. — The role of. agglutiriation in immunity : R. 

 Greig Smith. The research has shown that (i) normal 

 typhoid bacteria are incapable of being absorbed by the 

 leucocytes when these have been freed Trom adhering 

 serum ; (2) typhoid bacteria, when treated with active 

 agglutinating serum which has been heated- to destroy the 

 opsonins, are agglutinated and are, then englobed by the 

 leucocytes: (3) typhoid bacteria which have been grown in 

 agglutinating serum, heated or not heated, are also 

 absorbed ; (4) while active agglutinating serum prepares 

 the microbes for inception by the phagocytes, the so-called 

 chemical agglutinating substances do not possess this 

 property ; and fj) the role of agglutinin is, therefore, to 

 coat the bacteria with a precipitate which is positively 

 chemotactic towards the leucocytes : and thus, bv facili- 

 tating the absorption of the microbes, agglutination plavs 

 an active part in immunity. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



A Treatise on Plague. By Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S. . . 529 



Astronomicsl Stereograms c-j 



Physical Changes in Iron and Steel Bv A ^ 



McWilliam ' ^-2 



Our Book Shelf :— • • ■ • 3.i 

 Colajanni : " Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races 



superieures et Races infeiieure-i." — N. W. T. , . . 5:53 



Cattle: " Machine Om-struclion and Drawing " . . . 533 



Jamicson : " Graphs for Beginners". . . .'. 1(33 

 Letters to the Editor : - 



The Preservation of Native Plants and Animalf.— 



Prof. W. B. Benham 534 



The Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific 



Subjects. — Prof- John C. Branner 534 



Protective Coloration of the Inside of Ihe Mouth in 



Nestling Birds. — W. Ruskin Butterfield . ... 534 

 Helmert's Formula for Gravity.— Ottavio Zanotti 



Bianco ,,. 



The Fayum. [Illustrated.) By J. W. J 535 



The Royal Photographic Society's Exhibition . 536 



Prof. Leo Errera. By Prof. Jean Massart ... 53- 



Notes. (inuitraled.) l^'- 



Our Astronomical Column :— -J/ 



Astronomical Occurrences in October 542 



Nova Aquil.-e zai 



Ephemerisof the Variable Asteroid (167) Uida . . 542 



The Ultra-violet Chromospheric Spectrum 542 



The Formation of Ice and the Grained Structure of 



Glacieis. By Piof. G. Quincke. For. Mem. R.S. 543 

 The British Association : — 



Sec im L.— Educational Science.— Opening Address 

 by Sir Richard C. Jebb, Litt.D.. D.C.L., M.P., 



President (.if the Section 545 



University and Educational Intelligence 550 



Societies and Academies cji 



