472 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1109 



trated, perhaps, by detailing a specific in- 

 stance. 



WTien a cell, in consequence of injury, is 

 made the subject of an acid intoxication by 

 any of the direct or indirect means enumerated 

 in the last paragraph, the acid makes some of 

 the proteins of the affected cells swell, while 

 another group (the globulins) is dehydrated 

 and precipitated. The combination of swell- 

 ing with precipitation yields what the pathol- 

 ogists call " cloudy swelling." But as the 

 pathologists have long noted, a persistence of 

 cloudy swelling is followed, almost as a rule, 

 by a " fatty degeneration " of the affected 

 cells. On the basis of our remarks this coal- 

 escence of the oil droplets into the larger vis- 

 ible ones of " fatty degeneration " is depend- 

 ent upon the removal, through the action of 

 the acid, of some of the stabilizing effects of 

 the proteins, soaps and other hydrophilic col- 

 loids contained in the cells. The increased 

 swelling represents a dilution of the hydro- 

 philic colloids of the cell, while the clouding 

 represents a dehydration of certain others. 



These studies on emulsions contribute toward 

 the explanation of yet another pathological 

 observation. When any tissue, as a portion of 

 the brain, through some such pathological dis- 

 turbance as a thrombosis is deprived of its 

 normal blood supply, the affected member 

 shows first a cloudy swelling accompanied or 

 succeeded by a " fatty degeneration," and 

 then a " softening " of the tissues. How at 

 least a portion of this (and we are inclined to 

 think the major portion in such tissues as the 

 brain) is brought about is illustrated in the 

 changes in viscosity observable in the prepa- 

 ration of an emulsion or its subsequent de- 

 struction. Seven per cent, potassium soap 

 and cottonseed oil, for instance, are both rela- 

 tively mobile liquids, but when mixed In 

 proper proportion they yield an emulsion so 

 stiff that it will stand alone. This is the 

 analogue of the twenty-five per cent, emul- 

 sion of fat and lipoid in hydrated protein 

 which we call the brain. If the oil-in-soap 

 emulsion is broken through the addition of a 

 little acid it yields an impure mixture of oil, 

 water and precipitated colloid material — the 



analogue of the liquid contents found in any 

 area of brain " softening." 



Application may also be made of these stud- 

 ies to the problem of the giving off of such 

 essentially fatty secretions as make up ear 

 wax, vernix caseosa, sebum, the fatty secre- 

 tions of plants, etc. These all represent a 

 transition from the normal type of oil in hy- 

 drophilic coUoid emulsion to that of hydro- 

 philic colloid in oil emulsion. A homely 

 analogue of this type of change is seen in but- 

 ter-making, which consists of changing cream 

 (essentially an emulsion of oil in hydrophiUe 

 colloid) into butter (a fat into which are di- 

 vided about fourteen per cent, of water). 

 Similarly, the essentially fatty secretions from 

 the body as well as the fat contained in the 

 adipose tissues of the body, all prove to be 

 fats containing some seven to fifteen per cent, 

 of water emulsified in them. 



The details of these observations wiU be pub- 

 lished in the Kolloid-Z eitschrift. 



Martin H. Fischer, 

 Marian O. Hooker 



EiCHBERG Laboratory op Physiology, 

 University of Cincinnati 



GRAVITATION AND ELECTRICAL ACTION' 



In former publications the present writer 

 has suggested that there is an intimate rela- 

 tion between gravitation and electrical action 

 at a distance, or what has been called statical 

 effects. There can be no doubt of the truth of 

 the statement that the attraction between two 

 masses of matter depends not only upon the 

 amoimt of matter in the two masses, and their 

 distance from each other, but also upon their 

 electrical potential. 



The gravitation constant has been deter- 

 mined by finding the attraction between two 

 spheres of metal. In these determinations the 

 electrical potential of the masses has been 

 ignored. It has been assumed that there are 

 no electrical charges on the two masses, if 

 their potential is that of the earth. 



Assume that two spheres, having radii B^ 

 and R, composed of metal having a density p, 



1 Extract from a forthcoming number of the 

 Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. 

 Louis. 



