4 
TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 655 
The following Papers were then read :— 
1. The Neutralisation of Taste. By Professor Huco Kronecker. 
2. Demonstration of a Method for Measuring Phagocytosis. 
By Professor H. J. Hameuranr. 
3. On the Permeability of Cells and a New Melhod of Vilal Staining 
(with demonstration). Demonstration of a Method allowing the Per- 
manent Observation of the Results of Vital Staining. By Professor 
Lzon ASHER. 
By aid of this method it was found that the intensity of vital staining in 
gland cells is dependent on the functional state of the cells. Pilocarpin, which 
is a powerful stimulant of secretion, causes staining to begin much earlier and 
to be more intense than in a cell not experimentally stimulated, while Atropin, 
which paralyses for a time secretion, retards the onset of staining, and does not 
let it reach the degree it attains in a relatively resting cell. These facts 
demonstrate clearly (1) that the greater the activity of the cell, the more does it 
contain stainable substance, and the greater is the permeability of the cell for 
the stain; (2) that the same cause, which induces the cell to be more permeable 
for water and salts, also makes it more permeable for vital stains. The 
latter fact shows that the solubility in lipoids is neither the only nor the main 
factor for vital staining. Some other facts can.be observed which point in 
the same direction—viz., that Overton’s views on vital staining do not give a full 
explanation. 
The relationship between permeability of cells and functional state can be 
demonstrated in the case of sugar. Report on the exchange of sugar between 
blood and cells in the salivary gland. During activity sugar goes from the cell 
to the blood; during rest, in the opposite direction. This sugar does not arise 
from glycogen. The observations on the salivary gland prove that sugar, which 
is insoluble in lipoids, permeates the protoplasm of the cell. This fact is an 
argument in favour of the view that neither in other places is it necessary to 
invoke inter-epithelial permeability. 
Comparisons of the narcosis of heart muscle, rich in lipoids, and of the 
skeletal muscle, poor in lipoids, show that some narcotics do not follow the 
rule of Overton and H. Meyer. Alcohol and ether narcotise skeletal muscle in 
a lower concentration than the heart muscle. The entrance of a halogen atom 
into the molecule makes a substance markedly more narcotic towards the heart 
muscle than towards the skeletal muscle. This seems to show that chemical 
action may play a part in narcosis. 
4. Kinematographic Demonstration. By Professor P. Hear. 
5. The Horizontal-Vertical Illusion. By C. W. Vatentine, B.A. 
To most people a vertical line appears longer than a horizontal line of the same 
length. Three psychological theories of this illusion have been found unsatisfactory. 
In some recent experiments it has been found that the illusion was much greater for 
one eye than for the other. This suggests that a physiological factor is at work. 
Astigmatism could not account for these differences. For one subject was free 
from astigmatism, and by testing subjects with and without cylindrical lenses 
it was proved that astigmatism, much greater than that of the other subjects 
tested, did not cause any difference in the amount of the illusion. Now it has 
been found that a disc appears of different sizes according to the part of the 
peripheral field of vision it occupies, and there is evidence of magnification of 
the apparent size in the vertical periphery compared with the horizontal. Varia- 
