6oS 



NA TURE 



[October lo. 1907 



proof Strains, and for the results obtained with them, 

 reference must be made to the original paper. Their 

 importance and their bearing on the treatment of human 

 trypanosomiasis by atoxyl is obvious. 



Under the heading "Treatment with two •or more 

 Drugs," a number of tables are given showing the results 

 of treatment with atoxyl and various mercury compounds, 

 and atoxyl and iodipin. Of the mercury compounds used, 

 the succinlmidn appears to be the best ; it has the great 

 advantage of being unirrilating to the tissues, and it will 

 mix with atoxyl without precipitation, and without inter- 

 fering with the action of the latter. 



The results with atoxyl and iodipin are sufficiently 

 encouraging to suggest a further trial of this combination. 

 Several of the animals treated are alive, and apparently 

 well, some as long as five months after inoculation ; the 

 duration of the disease has been very greatly prolonged 

 in the great majority of cases, and in some the .■lulhors 

 have confidence that a cure has been effected. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, Seinemlier 30. — M. Henri Becquerel 

 in the chair. — Is the use of arscnious acid a preventative 

 against trypanosomiasis? A. Laveran and .\. Thiroux. 

 The authors have repeated the experimental work of 

 Loeffler and liiihs, and come to the conclusion that the 

 use of arsenious acid for trypanosomiasis is not advisable, 

 although in certain cases it may have a useful effect. It 

 cannot be used like quinine against malaria, as the neces- 

 sary doses of quinine in the latter case are small, not 

 toxic, and can be administered without inconvenience 

 during several months, whilst the doses of arsenious acid 

 which must be administered, either in man or in animals, 

 judging from the doses necessary with the guinea-pig, 

 would be quickly followed by poisonous symptoms. In 

 animals used for food, in particular, the prolonged use 

 of arsenic would have the result of rendering the ficsh 

 poisonous. — Researches on the laws of action of light on 

 glucosides, enzymes, toxins, and anti-bodies : Georges 

 Dreyer and Olav Hanssen, The authors have examined 

 the action of light on two glucosides, saponine and 

 cyclamine ; three enzymes, yeast, trypsine, and papayotine ; 

 two toxins, ricine and abrine ; and one immuno-serum. 

 eoli-agglutinine. All these are weakened by the action of 

 light, the ultra-violet rays retained by glass being the 

 chief cause. The action progresses regularly under the 

 action of continuous lighting, the change following very 

 exactly the law of monomolecular reaction. — Transformers 

 with magnetic leakage and secondary resonance for wireless 

 telegraphy : MM. Gaiffe and Gunther. — Observations on 

 the affinities and evolution of the Chicoracea:' ; L^on 

 Dufour. — The pluricarpell.iry oiigin of the pistil in the 

 Laurace;e : Marcel Mirande. — Tlie function of the spleen 

 in trypanosomiasis ; .\. Massaglia. Trypanosomes col- 

 lected from the spleen present the same characters as 

 those collected from other parts of the body. This viru- 

 lence of the trypanosome does not disappear more rapidly 

 in the spleen of animals killed by the trypanosome than 

 in the blood of these animals, and the extract of the 

 spleen does not destroy, in vltyo, the trypanosomes. The 

 course of the disease surra is the same in a dog from 

 which the spleen has been removed as in the normal 

 animal. — Researches on the chemical nature of the funda- 

 mental colouring material of the urine : S. Dombrowski. 

 The urochrome is isolated from the urine by precipitation 

 with copper acetate, and from its analysis is shown to 

 contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and oxygen. 

 The sulphur is easily removed by alkalis ; the presence of 

 sulphur shows that this body is not derived from the 

 coloured part of ha-moglobin or urobilin, as has been 

 asserted up to the present. — Sodium chloride as a sensi- 

 tising substance for vegetable ferments : C. Gerber and 

 Mile. S. Ledebt. Sodium chloride, in small proportions, 

 accelerates the coagulation of milk by vegetable ferments. 

 It determines the phenomenon when the ferment is present 

 in too small quantities to act alone. 



New Souni Wales. 



Linnean Society, Augu.st 2f?.— Mr. A. H. Lucas, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — .\ preliminary record of the occur- 

 rence of Chlamvdoselachus in the waters of New South 

 Wales : D. G. Stead. The record was based 



tions of a specimen cast ashore some time since in Rose 

 Hay, Port Jackson, comprising the skull and about 150 

 vertebra;. The specimen measured inore than 10 feet in 

 length. Only one species of the genus is known, C. 

 anguinetts, Garman, froin the Sea of Sagami, Japan, as 

 well as from deep waters in the vicinity of Madeira, the 

 .Azores, and the coast of Norway, while the length of 

 the largest specimens hitherto known appeared to be 

 about 5 feet. — ^The resistance of the vegetation of 

 .Australia to bush-fires, and the antiquity of the Australian 

 aboriginal : Dr. J. B. Cleland. The object of the paper 

 is to suggest that, if it can be proved that the vegetation 

 of Australia has been modified in the course of ages so 

 as to have become more tolerant of bush-fires, and as a 

 result of the frequency of such fires, and if the frequency 

 of such fires can be regarded as due mainly to the agency 

 of man, then there would seem to be some grounds for 

 attributing considerable antiquity to the presence of fire- 

 producing man in that region, and therefore, presumably, 

 to the ancestors of the vanishing aboriginal Australian. 

 — The geology of the VV'arrumbungle Mountains, N.S.W. : 

 H. I. Jensen, In this paper the physiography of the 

 Warrumbungle Mountains district is described, and it is 

 shown that many of its peculiarities are due to arid 

 erosion. The mountains may be looked upon as forming 

 a dissected lava conoplain surrounded by an arid erosion 

 peneplain. 



NO. rgSo, voT.. 76] 



jpon po 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Highland Sport 585 



Sociological Science. By F. W. H 586 



Our Book Shelf :- 



Mill : " Briiish Rainfall, 1906. On the Distribution 

 of Rain in Space and Time over the British Isles 



during the year igo6 " 5^7 



" Le Feste Giubilari di Augusto Righi " 587 



Verfasser : "The Half-tone Process"' 5^7 



Horner : " The .Alphabet of the Universe : Notes for 



a Universal Philosophy " 5^7 



Maxwell-Lefroy : " The More Important Insects 



Injurious to Indian Agriculture " — F. V. T. . . . 588 

 Letters to the Editor — 



The "Friar's Heel' or "Sun Slone."— T. Story 



Maskelyne 588 



The Double Drift Theoiy of Star Motions.— Prof. 



Ernest H. L. Schwarz 588 



The Origin of Radium.— Dr. Bertram B. Boltwood 589 



Excretion from Plant fioots. — Dr. J . Walter Leather 589 



Pleochroic Hales.— Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S 589 



.l/iis aiiinifoiinis in Great Britain.— Robert Gurney 589 

 When the Reindeer lived at Mentone. (IHustnxtdi.) 



By William \A/right 590 



Medical Education and Some of Its Problems . . . 592 



Science in the East. By Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S. ... 593 



Prof. Charles Stewart, F.R.S 594 



Notes 595 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Physical Nature of Meteor Trains 59^ 



The Pulkowa Eclipse Expedition to Turkestan, 



January. 1907. (llliis/raleci.) 598 



Daniel's Comet 599 



The Spectroscopic Binary o Draconis 599 



Engineering at the Finsbury Technical College. 



{Illtislralal.) By Prof. E. G. Coker 599 



Forthcommg Books of Science 600 



University and Educational Intelligence . . 604 



Societies and Academies 606 



SuPl'LE^tENT. 



Denatured Alcohol iii 



Water and Water Power iv 



Comparative Anatomy of the Labyrinth. By A. K. v 



British Wild Life. By R. L v 



Popular Ornithology, By O. V. A vi 



An Unfrequented Italian Coast. By Prof. G. H. 



Bryan, F.R.S viii 



Science and Practical Breeding. By W. H ix 



A New Dictionary of Solubilities. By W. A. D. . ix 



A Textbook of Oceanography x 



