376 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— I. 



obtain information as to its effect on the normal individual doing a fair amount of 

 mental and physical work, the writer adopted it over a period of about twenty months. 

 The dietary, which has been somewhat modified and simplified as experience dictated, 

 is based on the idea of restricting, as far as possible, the ingestion of foodstuffs rich 

 in fat-soluble vitamins of animal origin. In practice this means the disuse of meat 

 (except pork in various forms, including ham, bacon, sausages, &c.), and of eggs, 

 butter and cream, the necessary amount of vitamin being obtained mainly from 

 vegetables, especially water-cress, and fruit. White fish of all kinds are allowed, so 

 that the dietary is by no means a ' vegetarian ' one only. Moreover, it can be 

 completely satisfactory from the physiological point of view, and with the exercise 

 of a little care may be made both sufiiciently varied, and tempting to the appetite. 



It might be thought that in a wasting disease such as cancer is apt to become 

 in its later stages, a dietary depleted of what are commonly regarded as specially 

 nutritive foods would prove insufficient to sustain life. But this suggestion is 

 negatived by the fact that patients on changing over to this dietary, provided that 

 they are not practically moribund at the time, or that the course of the disease is 

 not specially rapid, so far from losing flesh still further, almost invariably increase in 

 weight. After some weeks or months a state of equilibrium usually tends to become 

 established, which may persist until such time as dissolution is imminent, when a 

 sudden and rapid fall in weight not infrequently supervenes. 



This method of treatment would seem also to be specially indicated after opera- 

 tion, with the object of preventing, if possible, recurrence of the disease. 



Investigations on a somewhat extensive scale, concerned with the dietary and 

 cancer statistics of various ' enclosed ' monastic communities at home and abroad, 

 have been carried out, extending over a series of years, with the object of obtaining 

 reliable information bearing on the subject-matter of the paper. 



Prof. Francis E. Lloyd. — The Feeding Habits of Vampyrella Lateritia. 



The feeding habits of Vampyrella lateritia as at present understood have already 

 been set forth by the author (Papers Mich. Acad. Sci. Arts and Letters 7, 395^16, 

 1926). The present purpose is to review the work of Gobi (Scripta Botanica Horti 

 Universitatis Petrogradensis, Fasc. 16, 1925), whose views have not been made generally 

 available. Aside from points of agreement as to preliminary movements, Gobi held 

 that the attack of the animal on the food plant (Spirogyra or Mougeotia spp.) consisted, 

 after attachment, of the formation of a food-receptive vacuole formed from sap taken 

 up from the attacked cell by plasmolysis induced by the animal. Penard held that 

 suction was exerted. It will be argued that the cytolytic action of the animal on the 

 cell wall of the food plant affords an explanation in harmony with all the observed 

 facts. That true suction occurs after the breaking of the food cell seems undeniable, 

 and evidence will be offered to support the view that the form of the food receptive 

 vacuole (in the present sense) is such as to enable suction to be exerted by the animal. 

 Illustrated by lantern slides and motion pictures. 



Friday, August 2, 

 Joint Discussion (Sections G, I) on Problems connected with Deep-mine 

 Ventilation (Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S. ; Dr. A. Mavrogordato ; 

 Dr. A. J. Orenstein ; Dr. H. Pirow ; Dr. J. H. Dobson ; Mr. M. 0. 

 TiLLARD ; Mr. B. C. Ranson ; Mr. B. C. Polkinghorne, and Mr. 

 H. Mitchell). 



Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S. — The Reports by Messrs. Tillard and Ranson on 

 temperature conditions in the Village Deep Mine, and by Messrs. Mavrogordato 

 and Pirow on the physiological effects of these conditions, give a clear picture of 

 the temperature difficulties met with in very deep mining on the Rand. No mine 

 in Great Britain is more than about half the depth now reached on the Rand, but 

 the conditions which I have myself met with are sometimes even more formidable 

 as regards both dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures. This is partly because the 

 rock-temperature in Great Britain usually rises about 1° F. for every sixty or seventy 

 feet below surface, as compared with 1° for about 220 feet on the Rand ; but largely 

 also because oxidation of coal, pyrites, and timber contributes greatly to the rise of 

 temperature, which does not seem to be the case in Rand mines. I shall first refer 



