908 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 858 



three of the four necessary factors in the process 

 are present in the circulating blood, but that this 

 fourth which initiates the process in shed blood 

 is furnished by the tissues outside the blood or 

 by the disintegration of corpuscular elements in 

 the blood itself. This fourth factor is an organic 

 substance of the nature of a kinase which in eon- 

 junction with the calcium salts of the blood serves 

 to activate the prothrombin, also present in the 

 blood, to thrombin. The thrombin then acts upon 

 the fibrinogen and converts it to fibrin, which con- 

 stitutes the essential phenomenon of clotting. In 

 opposition to this theory the author gave experi- 

 mental evidence to show that in normal blood the 

 fluidity is due to the constant presence of an anti- 

 thrombin, and that in shed blood the tissue ele- 

 ments furnish a substance, thromboplastin, which 

 neutralizes the antithrombin and thus allows clot- 

 ting to take place. In the vertebrates below the 

 mammals, the thromboplastin is furnished by the 

 cells of the outside tissues and without their co- 

 operation clotting would not occur. In the mam- 

 mals thromboplastin is furnished by elements in 

 the blood itself, the platelets, so that the blood 

 may clot promptly without cooperation on the 

 part of the outside tissues. In human beings the 

 condition known as hemophilia, in which there is 

 delayed clotting and danger of fatal hemorrhage, 

 the defect is due not to a lack of kinase in the 

 tissues as a whole, the view usually taught at 

 present, but to an excess of the antithrombin nor- 

 mally present in the blood. 



Abnormal 'Forms of Life and their Application: 

 Alexis Caerel, of the Rockefeller Institute. 

 The author stated the results of some remark- 

 able experiments on the tenure of life in certain 

 tissues when removed from the body and kept in 

 cold storage. 



The Cyclic Changes in the Mammalian Ovary: 

 Leo Loeb, of the St. Louis Skin and Cancer 

 Hospital. 



In the mammalian ovary cyclic changes of a 

 very far-reaching character take place. They con- 

 cern the follicles, corpora lutea and ova. There 

 exists in the ovary a mechanism (in the corpus 

 luteum) regulating those changes. The corpus 

 luteum prolongs the sexual cycle not by retarding 

 the maturation of the follicles, but by preventing 

 the rupture of the mature follicles. My recent 

 observations make it very probable that a partial 

 parthenogenetic development of some ova accom- 

 pany those cyclic changes in the follicles in a cer- 

 tain percentage of animals. 



The Origin of the Porpoises of the Family Del- 

 phinidw: F. W. True, of the U. S. National 

 Museum, Washington, D. C. 

 Among the fossil remains of cetaceans obtained 

 a short time since by the National Museum from 

 the Miocene formation of Maryland, is a nearly 

 complete skeleton of a porpoise, which, on exam- 

 ination, proves to be a delphinoid form, that is, a 

 species which may be referred to the family Del- 

 phinid^, but has tuberculate teeth. This impor- 

 tant specimen enables us to solve, in part, the 

 hitherto unsolved problem of the origin of the 

 typical porpoises of to-day. It now appears un- 

 questionable that they were derived from forms 

 having teeth with tuberculate or serrate crowns, 

 rugose enamel, and anterior and posterior longi- 

 tudinal ridges. This form of teeth is indicated in 

 the recent delphinoid genus Stano, in which the 

 crowns have rugose enamel, and, as I have lately 

 discovered, traces of anterior and posterior ridges. 



Fhylogenetic Association in delation to the Emo- 

 tions: Geokge Crile, professor of clinical sur- 

 gery. Western Reserve University, Cleveland, O. 

 Helios and Saturn: Moeris Jastrow, Jr., of the 



University of Pennsylvania. 

 On the Religion of the Sikhs: Maurier Bloom- 

 field, of Johns Hopkins University. 

 An Ancient Protest Against the Curse on Eve: 

 Paul Haupt, of Johns Hopkins University. 

 In the biblical legend of the fall of man, which 

 symbolizes the first connubial intercourse, the Lord 

 pronounced a curse on Eve, saying, ' ' I will greatly 

 multiply thy sorrow and thy sighing. In pain 

 thou wilt bear children. Nevertheless, thy desire 

 shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over 

 thee" (Genesis 3:16). 



We all know what the forbidden fruit in the 

 Garden of Eden means.' He who eats of it loses 

 his child-like innocence, his eyes are opened; just 

 as Adam and Eve perceived that they were naked. 

 Not to know good and evil, that is, what is whole- 

 some and injurious, means to be like a child. 



We find this phrase in the eighteenth book of the 

 Odyssey, verse 228. In the Bible it is used also of 

 the second childhood. BarzUlai of GUead an- 

 swered David, when the king asked him to follow 

 him to Jerusalem, "I am this day fourscore years 

 old, and can no longer discern between good and 

 evil" — that is, My intellect is impaired by old 

 age, I have become again like a child. 



An ancient protest against the curse on Eve in 

 Genesis 3:16 is found in the story of Cain and 

 Abel, where we read, "And unto thee shall be his 



