442 
NATURE 
[JUNE 27, 1912 
views as to the inadequate character of the remunera- 
tion received by the great majority of men of science. 
Professors and investigators should have, he main- 
tains, adequate incomes, as large as is desirable for 
any social class, but above ail they should have 
opportunity to lead a life free from distracting or 
dishonourable compromises. If the maximum income 
of a university professor or man of science with a 
family should be from toool. to 2000l., no one, says 
Prof. Cattell, should receive more, except to cover 
greater risks. There is no occupation requiring rarer 
ability or more prolonged preliminary training, and 
there is none the services of which to society are greater. 
If there are to be money prizes—incomes of 4oool. or 
20,0001. or mcre—then they should be open to pro- 
fessors and investigators. Scientific ability is as rare 
as executive or legal ability, and is far more valuable 
to society. The lawyer who receives a fee of 160,000l. 
for enabling a group of promoters to get ten times 
as much by evading the intent of the law does not 
add to the wealth of societv. The man of science 
who increases the yield of the cereal crop by 1 per 
cent. adds 2,000,000]. a year to the wealth of the 
country and five times as much to the wealth of the 
world. The man of science who discovered and those 
who have developed the Bessemer process of making 
steel have, according to the estimate of Abram S. 
Hewitt, added 400,000,0001. yearly to the world’s 
wealth. There is no reason, he urges, except the 
imperfect adjustments of society why the lawyer 
should receive large rewards and the man of science 
a scant salary. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, June 20.—Sir Archibald Geilkie 
K.C.B., president, in the chair.—Dr. D. Ellis: An 
investigation into the life-history of Cladothrix dicho- 
toma (Cohn).—Leonard Hill and Martin Flack: The 
relation between secretory and capillary pressure. I., 
the salivary secretion. The authors find that when the 
salivary secretion from the submaxillary gland is ob- 
structed, and the salivary pressure during stimulation 
of the chorda tympani nerve rises above the arterial 
pressure, the outflow of venous blood from the gland 
continues. Under these conditions the gland feels very 
tense; by squeezing it the secretory pressure, which 
in some cases is nearly twice as high as the arterial 
pressure (e.g. 240 mm. Hg compared with 130 mm. 
Hg), is still further raised, while the flow of blood 
from the vein is stopped. Saye Ellis and J. A. 
Gardner : The origin and destiny of cholesterol in the 
animal organism. Part IX., on the cholesterol content 
of the tissues (other than liver) of rabbits under various 
diets and during inanition.—C. H. Martin: A note on 
the protozoa from sick soils, with some account of the 
life-cycle of a monad flagellate. On Russel and 
Hutchison’s hypothesis that soil sickness is due to 
ingestion of soil bacteria by protozoa, these should be 
found in sick soils, capable of either leading a trophic 
life with the fairly low percentage of water found in 
dry soils (viz. 20 per cent. by volume), or else with a 
capacity of readily encysting and of reproducing with 
enormous rapidity as soon as the soil becomes saturated 
with the necessary amount of moisture. To throw 
some light on this question, cultures were made on 
agar plates from three different sick soils. It was 
noticed that each small sample of each soil for each 
culture condition gave rise to a fairly constant specific 
fauna, whereas samples of the other soils under these 
conditions have also given rise to constant, but quite 
distinct, faunas.—E. W. Ainley Walker: Further 
ae es on the variabilitv of Streptococci in rela- 
. 2226, vor. 89] 
tion to certain fermentation tests, together with some 
considerations bearing on its possible meaning. Ob- 
servations have been continued on the variability of 
Streptococci in relation to Gordon’s tests. These tests 
consist, in the main, in growing the micro-organisms 
concerned in the presence of particular carbohydrates 
and noting whether an acid reaction is or is not pro- 
duced in the culture medium within a given period 
of time. It is believed by M. H. Gordon, who intro- 
duced the tests, that their application reveals the 
existence of distinct varieties among the micro- 
organisms grouped together under the term strepto- 
coccus. In previous communications evidence was 
presented to prove that this is not the case. Addi- 
tional evidence is now brought forward supporting 
the same contention and leading to the conclusion 
that there is at present no proof of the existence of 
more than one kind of streptococcus pathogenetic for 
man.—Dr. A. Harden and W., J. Penfold : The chemical 
action on glucose of a variety of Bacillus coli com- 
munis (Escherich) obtained by cultivation in presence 
of a chloroacetate (preliminary notice). The organism 
in question produces no gas when grown on glucose 
peptone water, aérobically, in a test-tube provided 
with a Durham gas tube; but when grown anaérobic- 
ally in presence of challx it yields an amount of 
hydrogen and carbon dioxide which is approximately 
0°25-0°3 of that given by the normal organism. The 
amounts of alcohol and acetic acid are similarly 
diminished and that of lactic acid increased. The 
organism retains the power of decomposing formates. 
—V. |. Harding: The action of enzymes on hexose- 
phosphate.—Prof. F. Keeble and Dr. E. F. Armstrong : 
The oxydases of Cytisus Adami. The investigation: 
was undertaken with a twofold object :—(1) To test 
Baur’s hypothesis that this graft-hybrid is a peridinal 
chimera composed of an epidermis derived from 
Cytisus purpureus and a body derived from C. labur- 
num; (2) to ascertain whether migration of oxydases 
may occur in plants. The results confirm Baur’s con- 
clusions, and indicate that oxydases may pass from 
one tissue to another. 
Geological Society, June 5.—Prof. W. W. Watts, 
vice-president, in the chair.—Prof. W. Boyd 
Dawkins: The further evidence of borings as to the 
range of the south-eastern coalfield and of the Palzeo- 
zoic floor, and as to the thickness of the overlying 
strata. Two experimental borings carried out under 
the author’s direction in 1910-11 led to unexpected 
results. Hitherto the Coal Measures were either 
horizontal, or dipping in the normal fashion without 
signs of faulting, and there was every reason to 
believe that the Coal-Measure trough would be struck, 
on the first site, at Chilham, about three miles south- 
west of Canterbury. Instead, however, of Coal 
Measures, Upper Silurian shales with Monograptus 
priodon formed the Paleozoic floor at 1072 ft. below 
O.D. In the second at Bobbing, near Sittingbourne, 
hard Silurian grits and shales occurred at 1070 ft. 
below O.D. In both borings the Silurian rocks are 
nearly vertical, and bear marks of crushing.—]J. W. 
Stather: Shelly clay dredged from the Dogger Bank. 
The Dogger Bank fishermen frequently get in their 
nets a tough peaty material, which they call ‘‘moor- 
log.’ In looking over some recently dredged. ‘‘ moor- 
log ’’ brought in by a Hull trawler, the author noticed 
that, adhering to the specimens of ‘‘moorlog,’” was 
a dark silty clay, full of marine shells. These 
specimens of ‘‘moorlog,’’ with the associated shelly 
clay, were dredged in lat. 55° 24’.N., and long. 
3° 10! E., at a depth of twenty fathoms. A collec- 
tion of these shells was submitted to Mr. Clement 
Reid, who stated that they are all assignable to very 
shallow-water species, and probably flourished just 
