June 9, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



885 



strongly to a sulphur metabolism in the 

 nervous system, as even the liver, which is 

 supposed to play such an important role in 

 sulphur metabolism, contains only half as 

 much as the spinal cord. Results indicate 

 that the sulphur compound or compounds 

 exist in the nervous system partly com- 

 bined and partly free ; in the liver they are 

 not combined. Attempts to isolate and 

 purify for analysis a compound containing 

 sulphur have so far been only partially 

 successful on account of the extremely poor 

 yields. A barium salt was obtained, re- 

 sembling Thudiehum's compound, but con- 

 taining more nitrogen. With regard to 

 solubility and chemical reactions the com- 

 pound agrees best with Cloetta's uroproteic 

 acid. My barium salt contains, however, 

 twice as much sulphur as Cloetta found, 

 and, besides, a very considerable amount 

 of phosphorus, which either represents an 

 impurity in every case or was present in 

 Cloetta compound also, but not detected by 

 him. My compound calculated as the free 

 acid gives approximately the following 

 formula, CgoHijoNiaSsPO^o, as compared 

 with Cloetta's Ce8HiisN,oS05,+ wH.O. 

 The investigation will be continued as soon 

 as more material is available. 



The Excretion of Nitrogen hy the White 

 Bat According to Weight and Age: 

 Shinkishi Hatai. 



A cage for collecting urine and feces 

 separately was especially constructed for 

 the present work. The animals were kept 

 for three days in the cage and were fed 

 exclusively with Uneeda biscuit and water. 

 From the observations on 89 rats, which 

 ranged from 32 grams up to 382 grams, 

 the following results were obtained: 



1. The total amount of urine increases 

 with the body weight up to 120 grams, then 

 decreases very decidedly. From 180 grams 

 it again ascends up to 220 grams, where it 

 remains rather constant. 



2. The total amount of nitrogen is quite 

 independent of the amount of urine. It 

 increases constantly and continuoiisly as 

 the animals grow in weight. When the 

 total amount of nitrogen is plotted on base 

 line according to the body weight the curve 

 thus obtained presents an approximately 

 straight line. On the other hand, the curve 

 on base line according to age presents a 

 distinct period of rapid rise up to some- 

 where between 200 grams to 240 grams. 



3. About 91 per cent, of the total nitro- 

 gen in the case of the young and 89 per 

 cent, in the larger represent the urinary 

 nitrogen. 



4. The total amount of nitrogen elim- 

 inated by rats of different weights during 

 24 hours can be determined with a high 

 degree of accuracy by the formula 



]ogK^ 233+logB. W.X3 



where N = total nitrogen in milligrams 

 and B. W. = body weight in grams. 



Further Evidence of the Fluidity of the 

 Conducting Substance in Nerves: A. J. 

 Carlson. 



The pedal nerves of gasteropoda (Ario- 

 limax) and the ventral nerve-cord of 

 worms (Bispira) have relatively great elas- 

 ticity and may be stretched to nearly twice 

 their shortest length without impairing 

 their function or altering their condition 

 sufficiently to cause stimulation. This 

 stretching does not affect the intensity of 

 the impulse conducted through the nerves, 

 as shown by the muscular response. But 

 the time required for the impulse to travel 

 through the nerve increases in proportion 

 to the degree of stretching of the nerve in 

 such way that delay in time is directly 

 compensated by the additional length of 

 the nerve in the stretched condition, so that 

 the actual rate of propagation of the 

 nervous impulse remains the same in the 



