778 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XL. No. 1039 



out any real genetic relationships with any known 

 subsequent fauna; that sueh resemblances as have 

 been shown are merely primitive or archaic, due to 

 heredity from common ancestors. The truth prob- 

 ably Ues between the two views. 



VIII. Physiology 

 A. J. CaeJjSON: Some New Observations on the 

 Physiology of the Stomach in Man. 



A. The relation of the stomach to the sensa- 

 tion of hunger. (1) Peripheral, and central con- 

 trol of the hunger mechanism. (2) Chemical con- 

 trol of the hunger mechanism. (3) The change 

 in the hunger mechanism with age. 



B. The relation of the stomach to appetite. 



(1) The qualitative difference between hunger 

 and appetite. 



C. The secretion of gastric juice in man. (1) 

 The chemistry of normal human gastric juice. 



(2) Factors influencing the rate and quantity of 

 the secretion. (3) The action of tonics or bitters 

 on (a) the hunger mechanism; (6) on the secre- 

 tion of gastric juice. 



Seiko Tashiro: On the Nature of Nerve Impulse. 

 Lack of fatigue, as measured by ordinary 

 methods, and absence of heat production during 

 continued stimulation in the nerve, have driven 

 some physiologists to consider that the nerve im- 

 pulse passes through the fiber without consuming 

 any material. With new apparatus which meas- 

 ures as little CO2 as 0.0000001 gm., we have 

 demonstrated that a living nerve gives off a 

 definite amount of CO, and that when it is stimu- 

 lated, this CO2 production is increased. These 

 new facts may be interpreted in two different 

 ways. Some believe that a living nerve should 

 be metabolically active like any other tissue, but 

 that the chemical change is not identical with the 

 nerve impulse, but is the result of functional 

 activity. Others consider that the progress of 

 chemical change itself constitutes the nerve im- 

 pulse. This latter view is supported by some re- 

 cent results, which show that CO, production from 

 the resting nerve under different conditions is 

 parallel to the physiological state of the nerve; 

 that the normal nerve impulse passes toward a 

 point of lower CO2 production; that the rate of 

 nerve impulse is closely connected with the rate 

 of CO, production and that factors which influ- 

 ence the rate of nerve impulse equally influence 

 the metabolism of the resting nerve. The nerve 

 impulse is probably a propagated chemical change, 

 the propagation being due to restoring the equi- 

 librium which was disturbed first at the point of 

 stimulus. 



THE PHILADELPHIA MEETING OF THE 



AMEBICAN ASSOCIATION FOE THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



The sixty-sixth, meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 and of the aiEliated scientific societies will be 

 held in Philadelphia beginning on December 

 28. We hope to publish next week full details 

 of the preliminary program. It may now be 

 noted that while the council of the associa- 

 tion and some of its sections and affiliated 

 societies will meet on Monday morning, the 

 first general session will be held in the Uni- 

 versity gymnasium on Monday evening. The 

 retiring president, Dr. Edmund B. Wilson, of 

 Columbia University, will introduce the presi- 

 dent of the meeting Dr. Charles W. Eliot, of 

 Harvard University, and will give the annual 

 address entitled " Some Aspects of Progress 

 in Modern Zoology." After the meeting there 

 will be a reception in the University Museum 

 by Provost and Mrs. Smith. 



The meetings of the sections and of most 

 of the affiliated societies will be in the build- 

 ings of the laboratories of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. Luncheon will be served daily 

 in the gymnasium and all those in attendance 

 are cordially invited to be present. The Hous- 

 ton Club is the headquarters at the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, and the Hotel Adelphia 

 is the hotel headquarters. 



An interesting event of the meeting will be 

 the first session of the newly established sec- 

 tion of agriculture, which will meet on Decem- 

 ber 30. The program will be a modest one, as 

 becomes a new section, and will be specialized 

 to cover some of the questions surrounding 

 the business side of agriculture and the life of 

 people living under it, rather than the strictly 

 production phases. The address of the vice- 

 president of the section. Dr. L. H. Bailey, late 

 director of the College of Agriculture at Cor- 

 nell University, will deal with " The Place of 

 Research and of Publicity in the Forthcoming 

 Country Life Development." The other main 

 feature of the program will be a symposium on 

 the general subject of " The Field of Eural 

 Economics." Special phases of the subject 

 will be presented by speakers invited to discuss 



