330 
The British Association at Sheffield. 
Hartog is of opinion that the formation of the spindle in karyo- 
kinesis is due, not to magnetism or any other previously recognised 
force, but to the action of a hitherto undiscovered force, which he 
terms Mitokinetism. This force, says Professor Hartog, has not 
been met with so far outside the living cell. 
The second paper was by Dr. E. Hindle, on “A Cytological 
Study of Artificial Parthenogenesis.” Ripe eggs were made to 
undergo artificial chemical fertilisation, and free swimming larvae were 
produced, indistinguishable in form and behaviour from those 
developed from normally fertilised eggs. The cytological changes 
undergone were carefully described, but unfortunately, owing to 
the author’s slides having gone astray, the descriptions were less 
easy to follow than would have been the case had the paper been 
illustrated. Dr. Hindle concluded his paper with the suggestion 
that the known facts of artificial parthenogenesis may perhaps be 
competent to explain the origin of cancer. 
Individual Papers. 
As these papers have been already noticed individually in 
Nature (Nov. 10th, p. 58), it is scarcely necessary in this article to 
do more than indicate in a general way the topics discussed during 
the various sittings; the papers themselves may be dealt with very 
briefly. The papers were as usual grouped as far as possible 
according to their topics. Physiology, morphology and cytology 
were the subjects most in evidence this year. Fungi also came in 
for a fair share of attention. 
On Thursday morning, in addition to the Presidential Address, 
various mycological papers were taken. Professor A. H. R. Buller 
opened the proceedings with a well illustrated paper dealing with 
“The function and fate of the cystidia of Coprinus atrainentarius.” The 
author supports Brefeld’s view that the cystidia act as props to keep 
the gills apart. Mr. A. E. Lechmere, in a paper on “ Asexual Repro¬ 
duction in a Species of Saprolegnia\” stated that in one undetermined 
species he had found methods of asexual reproduction which had 
hitherto been regarded as characteristic of six different genera of 
the family. Professor V. H. Blackman described “ Pseudomitosis 
in Coleosporium.” This is a form of nuclear division intermediate 
between mitosis and amitosis. A spindle, with polar radiations, 
&c., and a spireme are formed, but the chromatin is distributed to 
1 See the present number of this journal. 
