258 NATURE 
for example, are organising a series of invitation 
demonstrations to be given at Cinema House, Oxford 
Street, London, on Wednesdays, June 5 and 12, 
and Saturday, June 15, at 11 a.m., to show the 
educational possibilities of kinematography. The 
first performance is exclusively for members of the 
medical profession, and the films shown will be purely 
technical; the second will be devoted to natural 
science, and the third to the educational uses of the 
kinematograph. Short addresses will be delivered by 
authorities associated with the particular subject of 
the demonstrations. Tickets may be obtained on 
application to the office of The Bioscope, 85 Shaftes- 
bury Avenue, W. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, May 2.—Sir Archibald Geikie, 
K.C.B., president, in the chair.—Dr. Marie C. 
Stopes: Petrifactions of the earliest European angio- 
sperms. The paper gives an account of the anatomy 
and the geological bearing of three new petrified 
angiospermic stems. These three fossils are all in 
the British Museum collections. Their age appears 
undoubtedly to be Lower Greensand (Aptian), and 
they are consequently the earliest angiosperms of 
which the internal anatomy is known. They are also 
of interest as coming from northern Europe at a time 
when angiosperms have hitherto been supposed not 
to have penetrated to that region. The three 
specimens differ so considerably in their structure 
that it seems justifiable to place them in three dis- 
tinct, new genera.—Dr. F. Keeble and Dr. E. F. Arm- 
strong: The distribution of oxydases in the plant and 
their véle in the formation of pigment. The methods 
of investigation in general use do not admit of the 
determination in detail of the distribution of oxydases 
in the tissues of plants and animals. Hence the hypo- 
thesis that pigments are produced by the action of 
oxydases in colourless chromogens, though rendered 
probable by recent researches, cannot be regarded as 
established. Methods are now described which allow 
of the macroscopic and microscopic recognition of 
plant oxydases. By the application of these methods 
it is shown that in the Chinese primrose (Primula 
sinensis) the distribution of oxydases in the tissues 
coincides with that of the pigments of the flower and 
other parts of the plant. Thus, the hypothesis with 
respect to the réle of oxydases in pigment-formation 
receives confirmation. It is proved that P. sinensis 
contains two peroxydases which differ from one 
another in their chemical reactions and in their 
localisation. It is proved definitely that dominant 
white flowers contain a substance which inhibits, but 
does not destroy, peroxydase. Experiments with 
recessive white flowers, the genetical behaviour of 
which indicates that they lack either peroxydase or 
chromogen, show that they contain peroxydase. Inas- 
much as recessive whites contain no inhibitor of 
oxydase, failure to form pigment is to be attributed 
to lack of chromogen. The distribution of peroxydases 
in P. sinensis is to be regarded as typical of that in 
flowering plants generally, and the method appears 
to be capable of wide application in the study of the 
distribution of oxydases.—Dr. B. R. G. Russell: The 
manifestation of active resistance to the growth of 
implanted cancer. (1) The reaction which is evoked 
by the implantation of transplantable tumours of the 
rodent varies widely with different tumour-strains. 
The reaction has been determined by exercising all 
the growths in a series of animals on a given day, and 
then testing the. suitability of the animals for the 
growth of a tumour-strain growing in 90 to Ioo per 
cent. of normal animals. Some strains do not affect 
NO. 2219, VOL. 89] 
[May 9, 1912 
the natural suitability of the animals, others render 
every animal resistant to re-inoculation, and the re- 
maining strains occupy intermediate positions. (2) 
The individuality of the animal inoculated may con- 
tribute to the development of the resistance, although 
not to so marked a degree as the tumour parenchyma. 
(3) Simultaneous inoculation of a tumour-strain which 
induces no resistance, and a strain which induces 
resistance, may be followed by marked inhibition of 
the growth of the former strain. (4) Mice bearing 
progressively growing tumours can be rendered re- 
sistant to re-inoculation, but the tumour first inocu- 
lated need not necessarily be affected. (5) Repeated 
inoculation of tissues, such as mouse embryo-skin, 
which renders animals resistant to subsequent inocu- 
lation, has not been shown to have a constant effect 
upon the growth of established tumours. (6) The 
conclusions drawn in (4) and (5) support the view 
previously expressed that immunity to cancer is 
directed mainly against the stroma-eliciting properties 
of the cancer cells—Dr. Wm. H. Woglom: The 
nature of the immune reaction to transplanted cancer 
in the rat. The paper discusses the reactions to 
tumour grafts displayed by normal rats and by those 
rendered resistant through preliminary treatment with 
tumour or embryo skin. The elaboration of a stroma 
and the provision of blood-vessels observed in normal 
rats is absent in refractory animais, irrespective of 
the method of immunisation.—T. Graham Brown and 
Prof. C. S. Sherrington: The instability of a cortical 
point. The reflex reactions obtainable from simple 
spinal preparations, even when elicited from one and 
the same receptive ‘“‘locus,’’ are subject to a certain 
amount’ of variability. The variability is somewhat 
greater when preparations which are decerebrate are 
employed. With loci in the motor region of the cere- 
bral cortex the variability is greater still. The experi- 
ments reported in this paper were undertaken to 
examine the nature and extent of the variability of 
response observable in the reactions from one and the 
same locus in the motor cerebral cortex. It is found 
that the inconstancy of response amounts under cer- 
tain conditions to an actual reversal of the effect of 
the cortical point as examined in the muscles of the 
limb. The factors determining this reversal of cor- 
tical effect are examined, and the reversal itself is 
studied by graphic registration. A prominent factor 
in the conditions underlying the reversibility of the 
cortical effect appears to be the quiescence or activity 
of points of cortex antagonistic in their effect to the 
particular point under examination.—Dr. J. W. W. 
Stephens and Dr. H. B, Fantham: The measurement 
of Trypanosoma rhodesiense. The paper contains the 
results of the measurements of 1000 Trypanosoma 
rhodesiense, 400 of which were measured from different 
hosts, namely, man, monkey, horse, dog, rabbit, 
guinea-pig, mouse, while the remaining 600 trypano- 
somes were measured from rats only. The authors’ 
chief conclusions are :—(1) That in the case of di- 
morphic trypanosomes, like T. rhodesiense, samples of 
twenty trypanosomes from a particular slide on a par- 
ticular day are too small, because the average length 
may vary by as much as 4°7#. (2) The day of infection 
on which the sample is taken is very important, as 
on one day to per cent. of stumpy forms may be 
found and on another day 95 per cent. The authors 
therefore recommend taking samples of trypanosomes 
from each day of infection of the host. (3) As the 
host from which the sample of trypanosomes is taken 
is probably also important, the authors suggest using 
the same animal throughout, e.g. a tame rat. 
Geological Society, April 17.—Dr. Aubrey Strahan, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—H. H. Thomas and 
Prof. O. T. Jones: The pre-Cambrian and Cambrian 
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