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trial chemistry? Are not such considerations as economy of energy in its various forms, high yields, and the avoiding, or, if unavoidable, the utilisation of bye-products the fundamental principles which we try to instil into the mind of the young chemist about to begin his career as a manufacturer? The history of applied chemistry is teeming with examples where the survival of the fittest means neither more nor less than a victory of economy.

We all know that that marvellous creation of human ingenuity, the closed ring of industrial chemical processes working in connection with Leblanc's method of producing soda, is practically extinct on the Continent and materially reduced in its importance in England. This fate it had to suffer, because it was a wasteful processwasteful in its utilisation of material and wasteful in its consumption of energy. The skill and resource exerted in its invention and constant improvement will for ever be gratefully remembered; but they were unable to check the progress of the Solvay process, which is economical in its use of energy, and of the electrolytic methods for splitting up the alkaline chlorides, which produce no bye-products.

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The progress of industrial chemistry does not always depend on the introduction of more perfect, but also more complicated, machinery and plant into the factories. Of course, every chemical process requires thorough working out from a mechanical point of view, and many of the most brilliant successes of our modern chemical industry are mainly due to a clever adaptation of mechanical means to a chemical end; but, taken as a whole, the real progress of the chemical industry does not so much consist in the improvement of the apparatus as in the simplification of the fundamental chemical reactions. More than once a seemingly insignificant chemical alteration of an industrial process has produced the same or a better effect than the introduction of the most ingenious and costly plant.

That the great principle of economy is not only applicable to the material necessary for carrying out chemical reactions, but perhaps even more to the energy consumed by them, is a distinctly modern idea. It is not so very long since we have begun to have, if I may say so, a conscience for fuel. Previous generations took it for granted that industrial work consumed coal, and that the necessary coal had to be provided and to be paid for. We are now awake to the fact that the quantity of fuel required for an industrial process is very much dependent on the way in which it is made to do its work.

Of course, the calorimetric effect of any given fuel is a constant, and it is also true that we can never utilise more than a certain proportion of it; but this proportion may vary considerably. It was alarmingly small almost through the whole of the nineteenth century, and we may congratulate ourselves upon its present ascendent tendency. A striking example of the transformation of our views about fuel and its proper use is the history of the smoke question. There was a time, both in England and on the Continent, when smoke was considered a necessary evil which had to be suffered. After a while smoke began to be looked upon as a nuisance, and war was declared against it by those who suffered from its disagreeable properties; but now we know that smoke is a waste, and that nobody has better cause to wage war against it than he who produces it. A smoking chimney does not only carry visible unburned carbon into the atmosphere, but in nine cases out of ten also invisible carbonic oxide and methane, with all the latent energy they contain. Smoking chimneys are thieves, and their misdeeds should not rise unavenged to heaven.

But even chimneys that are innocent of incomplete combustion may be guilty of stealing energy if they allow the gases of combustion to escape into the atmosphere with a higher temperature than is necessary to activate the draught. The lost energy of such gases may be trapped and recovered by the regenerating and recuperating apparatus now so largely used by many industries. Regenerative gas-heating is not only a sure prevention of smoke, but also the most powerful means of economising heat, and therefore one of the greatest acquisitions of modern industry. It is perhaps not saying too much that the saving of national wealth effected by it may amount

to a sum sufficient to pay the aggregate national o of all the civilised nations. Uncivilised nations are be with neither national debts nor heat-regenerating

ances.

My last comparison between biology and applied istry I should like to choose from a chapter which might call biological sociology, though I am not at that that name is commonly given to it. It treats of wonderful phenomena of symbiose and aggregation.

Symbiosis is, as we now know, of very frequent & rence. Plants or animals of totally different nature organisation, or even plants and animals, may com for joint life and activity with the object of helping protecting each other in the great struggle for existe What neither of them would be able to fulfil or ot by its own strength and power they can do with and certainty in their faithful allegiance. Gregar ness-the flocking together of organisms of the same k -arises from the same spirit of mutual help and pro tion.

There is a great deal in human life and institutions. our morals, politics, and science, which reminds us the human race, as an intrinsic part of animated nat has also inherited its all-pervading tendency for combi forces; and what is thus apparent in the doings of kind in general cannot be absent in the special fiec activity which forms the object of our exertions. various forms of chemical industry are essentia symbiotic. They depend upon each other for their suc and progress. A solitary chemical factory in a COUT otherwise devoid of chemical industry is a pract impossibility. Chemical works come in shoals if come at all. The maker of acids and alkalis wants chemical enterprises to use his products, and these, ag are constantly on the look-out for customers. The varied and numerous the factories are, the more t prosper, in spite of their complaints of growing c petition.

The chemists themselves are gregarious. They fe societies and academies and institutes and syndicates the score, and who can deny the fact that brilliant res have been achieved by such combinations of fore If we remember, in terms of unmeasured gratitude, great originators of our science and its applications, = cannot forget the help rendered to its progress by institutions as the Royal Society and Royal Institut the French, Italian, and German academies, the leadchemical societies, and the innumerable universities in parts of the world, the rapid growth and extension which is the true gauge of our progress.

Last, but I hope not least, in this list of brilliant agg gations stand our congresses as a new, but most success": creation. They represent a modern form of symbic effort amongst chemists, which is the more remarka because it is international. They proclaim the great tr that science knows no boundaries and frontiers, that it the joint property of all humanity, and that its adheren are ready to flock together from all parts of the we for mutual help and progress. It is the great truth claimed by one of our past presidents, Marcellin Bert lot "La science est la bienfaitrice de l'humanité entière -which our congresses might write on their banner. it expresses the spirit which led to their foundation a ensures their success.

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arleton College, Northfield (Minn.), in 1877, but retains e co-editorship of Popular Astronomy. Dr. H. Wilson, as co-worker, has been appointed to the professorship. DR. C. GORDON HEWITT has accepted the appointment entomologist to the Dominion of Canada in succession the late Dr. James Fletcher, and has resigned, in conquence, his post as lecturer in economic zoology in the niversity of Manchester. He will leave England in eptember to take up his new duties at Ottawa.

WE learn from the Westminster Gazette that the heirs the late Herr Heinrich Lanz, head of the Mannheim hgineering firm, have given a million marks for the tablishment of an academy of sciences at Heidelberg, hich will stand in the same relation to the university s the similar institutions in Leipzig and Göttingen stand the universities in those cities.

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Ar the meeting on June 28 of the council of the University of Paris, the rector, M. Liard, announced, tearn from the Revue scientifique, a gift by M. Henry Deutsch of 500,000 francs, and an annual grant of 15,000 rancs, towards a scheme for the creation of an aeroechnical institute. He also announced a donation from 4. Basil Zakaroff of 700,000 francs for the foundation of chair of aviation in the faculty of sciences of the Iniversity.

THE Belfast University Commissioners have made the ollowing, among other, appointments to professorships and lectureships in the Queen's University of Belfast:>rofessor of economics, Mr. Thomas Jones; professor of botany, Mr. D. T. Gwynne-Vaughan; lecturer in organic hemistry, Dr. A. W. Stewart; lecturer in physics, Dr. Robert Jack; lecturer in bio-chemistry, Dr. J. A. Milroy; ecturer in geology and geography, Dr. A. R. Dwerryhouse; lecturer on hygiene, Dr. W. James Wilson. NEW buildings in connection with the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol, were opened by Lord Reay on June 24. The college will, for the future, provide the faculty of engineering in the newly established University of Bristol, and in consequence of this arrangement certain changes in the curriculum and time-table will n all probability come into effect at the beginning of next session. These probable modifications are outlined in a short illustrated prospectus of the day classes of the college which was published recently. There are departments for the study of many branches of engineering, ncluding civil, mechanical, electrical, mining, and motorar engineering, the last-named subject being in charge of special professor.

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A NEW departure has been made in connection with the aculty of engineering of the University of Liverpool. A pecial course on refrigeration has been introduced into ne honours school of mechanical engineering. eneral theory and actual testing of refrigerating machines = included in the course on heat engines, but, in the nal year of an honours student's four years' work, a ourse of lectures and laboratory work on heat engines nd refrigerators is provided. In addition, a special ptional course has been arranged on refrigerating machinery and cold storages, comprising the design of efrigerating machinery, the construction of cold storages, e-making plants, and the general practice of refrigeration. his experiment, which constitutes, it is stated, the first ttempt in this country to establish special instruction on efrigeration, will be watched with interest.

THE programme of the Summer School of University Extension Students, which is to be held this year at Oxford from July 30 to August 23, covers a sufficient ange of subjects to appeal to the most diverse tastes. ure science scarcely takes the prominent place accorded Dit in previous years; we notice, however, that one ection of the work arranged is entitled "Italy's Contribu

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tion to Science,' and will include lectures on Galileo, Vesalius and others, by such well-known authorities as Prof. Osler, Prof. A. Macalister, and Mr. Marconi. In addition to the general course on Italy, lectures and classes have been organised for economic and political science, and a special class on practical map-making will be conducted by Mr. N. F. Mackenzie. Application for tickets, and all inquiries in connection with the meeting, should be addressed to Mr. J. A. R. Marriott, University Extension Office, Examination Schools, Oxford.

WE learn from the Pioneer Mail that a vesting order relating to the Tata Research Institute has been issued. The order recapitulates the bequests of the late Mr. Tata, and enumerates other gifts which have been made for the purposes of the institute; it then proceeds to outline the scheme for the government of the institute. The Viceroy is to be an ex-officio patron, and the heads of local Governments of India are included as vice-patrons. There will be also a court of visitors, on which the Government of India and the Government of Mysore will be represented, and Messrs. Tata, the sons of the benefactor, will be members during their lives. The director-general of education, the directors of public instruction to local Governments, and professors of the institute will be exofficio members. There will be a council of twelve, a senate, and a standing committee of the court of visitors. The council, on which four professors will serve, will be the executive body of the institute, its proceedings being subject, however, to review by the standing committee referred to. There are now, we learn from the same source, ample resources at the disposal of the governing body of the institute. The sum available for initial expenditure includes building grants of 5 lakhs and 2 lakhs respectively from the Mysore Durbar and the Government of India respectively, with 1 lakhs from the Madras Government to be spread over three years, and there are in all 13 lakhs practically in hand. As the endowment is on a liberal scale, the financial future of the institute is assured. It may be added that the actual buildings are estimated to cost Rs. 6,57,000.

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THE new buildings of the University of Birmingham were opened by the King and Queen yesterday as we went to press. The following message upon this development of university work has been sent by Mr. Chamberlain to the Birmingham Gazette :-" The University formally opened by their Majesties in person to-day is the crowning point of the work undertaken by our city, and endows us with an institution we have long contemplated. His Majesty's consent to perform the opening ceremony is one more example of his constant interest in all that concerns the welfare of his subjects. It singularly enhances the importance of the occasion and distinguishes with his plished. Nothing in the history of education in this Royal approval the work which has thus been country is more surprising than the recent growth of Formerly university institutions. Our ancestors were satisfied with the three universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham in the whole of England and Wales; now in the last twenty years we have added to them other universities to provide for the wants of the towns and districts which are of provincial importance, and we have found that with the growth of these bodies has come the demand for instruction of the higher kind. Accordingly in many towns a fully equipped university has been established, and higher education has been placed within reach of all. By the generosity of our citizens and the munificence of some personal friends we in Birmingham have been enabled to provide and equip the principal technical departments of our university on a scale which previously has been unattempted in this country; but what we have accomplished is only the beginning. Much still remains to be done. The buildings are complete, and the endowments are altogether inadequate; the foundations have been laid, but the building up of the structure lies with the citizens of Birmingham."

A SCHEME is being developed to provide an interchange of University students between the United Kingdom. Canada, and the United States. The object is to provide opportunities for as many as possible of the educated youth of these countries to obtain some real insight into

the life and customs of other nations at a time when their own opinions are forming, with a minimum of inconvenience to their academic work and the least possible expense, with the view of broadening their conceptions and rendering them of greater economic and social value. Lord Strathcona has consented to become president for the United Kingdom. The list of vice-presidents includes the names of the Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of many British universities, the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, and other well-known men. A large and representative committee has also been appointed. Additional objects of the movement are to increase the value and efficiency of present university training by the provision of certain travelling scholarships for practical observation in other countries under suitable guidance. In addition to academic qualifications, the selected candidate is what is popularly known as an "all-round" man, the selection to be along the lines of the Rhodes scholarships. It is hoped to afford technical and industrial students facilities to examine into questions of particular interest to them in manufactures, &c., by observation in other countries and by providing them with introductions to leaders in industrial activity. It is proposed to establish two students' travelling bureaux, one in New York and one in London; to appoint an American secretary (resident in New York) and a British secretary (resident in London), to afford every facility to any graduate who wishes to visit the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom for the purpose of obtaining an insight into the life of those countries. It is hoped to provide twenty-eight travelling scholarships, fourteen of these being available for universities in the United Kingdom, ten for universities in America, and four for universities in Canada. The total cost of the scheme, inclusive of the maintenance of two travelling bureaux and the provision of twenty-eight scholarships per annum, is estimated at 13,500l. for a period of three years, equivalent to an annual expenditure of 4500l., the relative annual expenditure being estimated at 2400l. in the United Kingdom, 600l. in Canada, and 1500l. in the United States. Promises of support may be sent to the hon. secretary, Mr. Henry W. Crees, at the University Club, Birmingham, and it is hoped that all interested in promoting the success of an educational scheme of far-reaching significance in the English-speaking world will contribute financially.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

LONDON.

Royal Society, June 24.-Prof. J. Cossar Ewart, vicepresident, in the chair.-Pressure perpendicular to the shear planes in finite pure shears, and on the lengthening of loaded wires when twisted: J. H. Poynting. When a solid is subjected to a finite pure shear the lines of greatest elongation and contraction are not the diagonals of the rhombus into which a square is sheared, but lines making, respectively, 1/4 with the diagonals of the square, where is the angle of shear, and these lines are at right angles to the order of e2. If we assume that a pressure P is put on along the lines of greatest contraction, and a tension Q along the lines of greatest elongation, we may put P=ue+ pe3, Q=ue-pe2, where u is the rigidity and p is a constant to the second order of e. For equilibrium a pressure R= (u+p)e is required perpendicular to the shear planes. This is zero only if p=-u, a supposition for which there is no apparent reason. To keep constant volume a stress may be needed S=qe perpendicular to the plane containing P and Q, a pressure if q is positive. Suppose that a wire is twisted by a torque with axis along the axis of the wire. To keep the volume constant at every point it would be necessary to apply the system of forces R and S from outside. If this system is not applied we may expect the wire to change in length and diameter by amounts calculable in terms of the elastic constants. The change in length should be an increase dl=Sa2021, where S is a function of the constants, given in the paper, a is the radius, and 9 is the twist in length 1. Such a lengthening has been found to exist for piano-steel, copper, and brass wires when loaded enough to straighten out kinks. For the

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piano wires tested S was of the order 1, and for the and brass wires of the order 15. The lengthening i steel wire 0-97 mm. diameter and 2-3 metres long twist of one turn in the length was about 0-0019 2 This lengthening on twisting should be taken into a in accurate determinations of the rigidity.-The motion of a revolving shaft and a suggestion as to angular momentum in a beam of circularly pol light: J. H. Poynting. When a shaft of circularis revolving uniformly, and is transmitting power unifor a row of particles originally in a line parallel to the will lie on a spiral of constant pitch, and the positie the shaft at any instant may be described by the p of this spiral. The motion of the spiral onwards me regarded as a kind of wave motion. Its velocity # given speed of revolution will only be the velocity (up) of twist waves, along the shaft f certain torque on the shaft. For any other torque velocity is forced," and forces from outside me applied to maintain it at every point where the twe changing. The group velocity of waves of this kin zero. Taking a uniformly revolving tube as a mecha model of a beam of circularly polarised light, and assum that the relation between torque and energy holding i the model holds also for the beam of light, the ang momentum delivered per second to unit area of an abs ing surface upon which the light falls normally is Pa where P is the pressure of the light and λ is its length. In light-pressure experiments P is detected torque produced on a disc at the end of an arm a I cm. The value is therefore about 100,000 times as g as the torque on the same disc, due to the ing momentum. If the angular momentum of cin polarised light only has this value, there does not a to be much prospect of detecting it at present.—The of a magnetic field on the electrical conductivity of fla Prof. H. A. Wilson. This paper contains an accom some experiments on the change in the conductivity Bunsen flame produced by a magnetic field. The car through the flame was horizontal, and the magnetic was also horizontal, but perpendicular to the current. T ratio of the potential gradient in the flame to the curr was taken as a measure of its resistance. The re show that R'R=AH2 + BH, where H denotes the r netic field, R the resistance, and A and B are conster The velocity of the negative ions can be calculated the term AH2, and the result is 9600 cm./sec. for per cm., which agrees with Mr. E. Gold's results obt by an entirely different method. The term BH is sumably due to the upward motion of the flame gases, its value is about fifty times greater than the value ca lated from the ionic theory.-Studies of the procs, operative in solutions; xi., the displacement of salts t solution by various precipitants: Prof. H. E. Armstron and Dr. J. V. Eyre. The thermal conductivity of air other gases: G. W. Todd. The paper gives an ac of a determination of the thermal conductivities of and other gases at atmospheric pressure. The conduct was obtained from observations of the steady flow of h between two horizontal circular metal plates maintain at different temperatures, the upper one at the temper of steam and the lower one at room temperature. upper plate was fixed, and the lower one could be r up and down so as to vary the distance between the If the temperatures of the plates are kept constant, quantity of heat passing per second from the upper to the lower, when the distance between them is 1 given by Q=K'x+R+ Ex, where the constant K sp portional to the thermal conductivity, R is the radiated, and Ex is the effect due to the edge. The lat is negligible when x is small compared with the radic the plates, so that the relation between Q and x is g by a rectangular hyperbola. Hence the relation ber Q and 1x is a straight line the slope of which gives from which the conductivity is determined. The section of this line with the axis of O gives the rake of the radiation. The value of the conductivity so obtain was independent of the nature of the surfaces of the pla and also independent of the dimensions of the plates. latter proving that convection currents were absent negligible. The conductivities of some gases other thi

ULY 8, 1909]

NATURE

were determined by comparing the rates of flow of through them with the rate of flow through air when plates were at a fixed distance apart. The paper confrom es with a calculation of the "radiation constant, termination of the absorption coefficient of the surfaces he plates when painted black, and the radiation R.possible ancestors of the horses living under domestica, part i. Dr. J. C. Ewart. By some naturalists it elieved that domestic horses are the descendants of a stocene species (Equus fossilis)-now represented by the horse (E. przewalskii) of Mongolia-by others, the ses living under domestication are said to be a blend a coarse-headed northern species allied to Prejvalsky's se, and a fine-limbed southern species which in prea blend of a oric times inhabited North Africa, or southern species ivalsky-like northern species and a ely allied to E. sivalensis of the Pliocene deposits of ia. The examination of the skull, teeth, and limb es of horses found at Roman settlements and in the nity of pile-dwellings indicates that domestic horses inally belonged to several distinct types, viz. (1) a e characterised by long limbs, by a long face, broad convex between the orbits, and strongly deflected on cranium, and by the crown of the fourth premolar g from before backwards about 2.5 times the length 'pillar"; (2) a type with the grinding surface of its " der limbs, a fine, narrow, slightly deflected face, and crown of the fourth premolar about three times the gth of its " pillar "; (3) a type with fairly slender bs, a long, narrow, somewhat deflected face, and the wn of the fourth premolar about twice the length of "pillar "; (4) a type characterised by short, broad acarpals, a short face, broad and flat between the its, and nearly in a line with the cranium, and by the wn of the fourth premolar being twice the length of pillar "; and (5) a type with short, wide metacarpals, face long and strongly deflected, and the crown of the pillar." rth premolar about 1.5 times the length of its " ly the varieties characterised by molars with short The illars are dealt with in this communication. sible ancestors of the short-pillared varieties are Equus lensis of Indian Pliocene deposits, E. stenonis of the ocene deposits of Europe and North Africa, and a new cies, E. gracilis. Arabs, barbs, thoroughbreds, and er modern breeds with a long deflected face, broad and minent between the orbits, and the limbs slender, seem have mainly sprung from E. sivalensis, while certain improved breeds with a deflected face, but very short Exmoor, illars," are probably related to E. stenonis. bridean, Iceland, and other ponies of the "Celtic " well as ponies found in the south of France, the West lies, and Mexico, characterised by a fine narrow skull, nder limbs, and the absence of ergots and hind chestts, are regarded as the descendants of E. gracilis, which ludes (1) the small species of the English drift described Owen as a fossil ass or zebra (Asinus fossilis); (2) the all species of French Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits own to palæontologists as E. ligeris, and the small ecies of North African Pleistocene deposits known as asinus atlanticus, and hitherto believed to be closely ated to, if not the ancestor of, zebras of the Burchell

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By crossing experiments evidence has been obtained the wide distribution of horses of the E. gracilis type; it broad-browed Arabs and thoroughbreds, with the face arly in a line with the cranium, are mainly a blend of a uthern variety of E. gracilis (E. caballus libycus) and a rse of the forest or Solutré type, and that heavy eeds have not inherited their coarse limbs from a species sely allied to the wild horse of Mongolia.-The alcoholic *ment of yeast-juice; part iv., the fermentation of ucose, mannose, and fructose by yeast-juice: A. Harden d W. J. Young. (1) Mannose behaves towards yeastice, both in the presence and in the absence of added osphates, substantially in the same manner as glucose. ) Fructose resembles both glucose and mannose in its haviour, but in presence of phosphate is fermented much ore rapidly than these sugars, and the optimum concen(3) Fructose has ation of phosphate is much higher. e property of inducing rapid fermentation in presence of ast-juice in solutions of glucose and mannose, containing ch an excess of phosphate that fermentation is only pro

ceeding very slowly. No similar property is possessed by glucose or mannose. These properties of fructose indicate that this sugar when added to yeast-juice does not act merely as a substrate to be fermented, but bears some specific relation to the fermenting complex. All the facts are consistent with the supposition that fructose actually forms a part of the fermenting complex. When the concentration of this sugar is increased, a greater quantity of the complex would be formed, and, as the result of this increase in the concentration of the active catalytic agent, the juice would become capable of bringing about the reaction with sugar in presence of phosphate at a higher rate, and at the same time the optimum concentration of phosphate would become greater, exactly as is observed. -The electrical reactions of certain bacteria applied to the detection of tubercle bacilli in urine by means of an electric current: C. Russ. The aim of these experiments was to ascertain whether bacteria suspended in an electrolyte are transmitted during electrolysis to either electrode, with the view of the recovery of pathogenic bacteria from a pathoDuring electrolysis of certain logical fluid by such means. salts in which bacteria were suspended, the organisms were found to migrate to one electrode; in some instances there was no migration. The effect was noticed to occur with killed as well as with living bacteria. By testing certain organisms in the same (but a small) series of electrolytes some differences of effect were found, though To utilise this this line of inquiry was not pursued. bacterial movement, an electrolyte in which tubercle bacilli had shown marked kathodic aggregation was added to tuberculous urine, and the kathode arranged in the form After electrolysis tubercle bacilli of a bacterial trap. entered the trap, which was eventually withdrawn, and the organisms recognised in a stained film prepared from its contents. A series of such urines was tested in this way, and in each case tubercle bacilli were found in the trap. number of tubercle bacilli In the final experiment a (estimated at 500) were added to 100 c.c. normal urine, and their detection attempted by separate investigators by means of the centrifuge and current. By the centrifuge none were found, while the current recovered 128 bacilli. The results of this preliminary investigation may be summarised as follows:-Certain bacteria under the influence of a suitable current aggregate at one or other electrode. The aggregation varies with the nature of the electrolyte, and is probably due to affinity between the products of electrolysis and the bacteria. It occurs with killed as well The aggregation by electrical as with living bacteria. means of collection and examination. currents affords a The differences in behaviour of various bacteria are such as to suggest the possibility of utilising the method for purposes of specific discrimination, but in this particular the data hitherto obtained are not sufficient to warrant definite statements.-The effect of the injection of the intracellular constituents of bacteria (bacterial endotoxins) on the opsonising action of the serum of healthy rabbits: Dr. Bacillus typhosus, Micrococcus R. Tanner Hewlett. In this investigation the effect of the endotoxins of the pyogenes aureus, and B. tuberculosis on the opsonising action of the serum of normal rabbits has been studied. The endotoxins were prepared by the Macfadyen process, the rabbits were inoculated subcutaneously, and the speciHuman mens for counting the number of bacteria ingested by leucocytes were prepared in the usual manner. leucocytes were employed, and the counts were made on fifty cells. (A) Typhoid Endotoxin.-The results for this as agglutination and The amount of endotoxin are approximate only, O.I mgrm., prepared from bacteriolysis are complicating factors. endotoxin injected was avirulent strain. One day after injection a decided negative phase had developed (opsonic index about 0-2), two days after injection the index was rising (1.4), and attained a maximum on the third day (3.3), after which it fell. Dilution of the serum to 1 in 5 and 1 in 10 tended to increase phagocytosis. (B) Staphylococcus Endotoxin.-Endotoxin a dose of old laboratory strain in prepared from an 0.1 mgrm. produced a rise in the opsonic index to 1.6, Endotoxin (0.1 mgrm.) which persisted for some weeks. prepared from a recently isolated strain produced a rise to vaccine dose of staphylococcus An equivalent 2.5. (1000 x 106 cocci) produced a rise of the opsonic index to

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due to the experimental arrangement, but was a real e The fact that the B rays from uranium, actiniur are absorbed by matter according to an exponential shown to be a proof, not of their homogeneity, their heterogeneity. Groups of rays can be built up represent the properties of these rays with respe absorption. Further experiments were made on the c of velocity of the rays after passing through absor material, and it was found that the velocity of the contrary to the view expressed by H. W. Schm appreciably reduced as they penetrate matter. The absorption of the B particles when measured by the x tion method involves a considerable number of fa and, as might be expected, no simple relation co found between the absorption of the rays and their ve

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1.8, which fell subsequently to a point lower than that with either endotoxin. Estimations of the opsonic indexes made with the recently isolated strain gave results higher than those obtained using the old strain. With another endotoxin, varying doses (0.1, 0.01, and 0.001 mgrm.) all produced marked rise in the opsonic indexes, the rise corresponding with the dose. (c) Tubercle Endotoxin.-Injection of 0.002 mgrm. of endotoxin caused a rise in the opsonic index to 19 sixteen days after. A similar dose of German tuberculin R. produced hardly any effect. A large dose (1.0 mgrm.) of endotoxin caused a marked negative phase (index 0.5) forty-eight hours after injection, with a subsequent rise to 1.8. Endotoxin (1.0 mgrm.) prepared from tubercle bacilli previously extracted with ether also produced a negative phase, with a subsequent rise to 1.5. (D) Keeping Power of Endotoxin Solutions.-Experiments-Experimental researches on vegetable assimilation were performed with staphylococcus and tubercle endotoxin solutions which had been kept for seven weeks after preparation; there was little diminution in activity. Other experiments indicate that the solutions deteriorate but little for three to six months after preparation. (E) "Negative Phase."-Experiments indicate that endotoxin produces decidedly less negative phase" than a vaccine.-The occurrence of protandric hermaphroditism in Crepidula fornicata: J. H. Orton. Crepidula fornicata is a streptoneurous gastropod belonging to the family Calyp-gametangia embedded among paraphyses. The game. træidæ. Individuals of this species associate together permanently in linear series, forming chains." The chains may consist of from two to twelve individuals. The sex relations of the individuals were noted in about 300 chains. It was found that the individuals which occur at the attached ends of the chains are always females, those occurring near the top of the chains are males, while those about the middle often possess the secondary sexual characters of both sexes. In intermediate positions in the chains occur forms which, in their secondary sexual characters, are intermediate between females and hermaphrodites on the one hand, and between hermaphrodites and males on the other. Thus the chains present a transitional series, beginning with the males, which are the youngest individuals, and ending with the females, which are the oldest individuals. Microscopical examination of the gonad has shown that there is as complete a transitional series in the primary sexual characters as occurs in the secondary ones. All the adults are sedentary, but the young are able to move about freely. One thousand young ones have been examined, and found to be all males. There is, therefore, no doubt that all the individuals begin life as males, and change gradually in the course of their life-history into females. It is highly probable, from known descriptions of allied species, and from observation on species of allied genera, that protandric hermaphroditism is common in the Calyptræida. Further, it seems probable that the family will present a series in the evolution of protandric hermaphroditism. If such a series be found there is little doubt that a study of the earlier stages would lead to the discovery of the nature of the sexes, i.e. in Mendelian terms, whether the male is heterozygous and the female homozygous, or vice versa. Ten other streptoneurous hermaphrodites are known. It would seem, therefore, that one of the chief distinctions between the Streptoneura and the Euthyneura is beginning to break down.Sensitive micro-balances, and a new method of weighing minute quantities: B. D. Steele and K. Grant. The polarisation of secondary 7 rays: Dr. R. D. Kleeman.— The absorption of homogeneous B rays by matter, and on the variation of the absorption of the rays with velocity: W. Wilson. The experiments were made with the view of determining the manner in which the absorption coefficient of the B rays varies with the velocity. Radium, which gives out rays the velocities of which vary between very wide limits, was used as a source of radiation. A beam of rays from the radium passed into a magnetic field, by means of which approximately homogeneous rays could be brought into an electroscope. The velocities of the rays could be determined from the strength of the magnetic field. Screens of metal of different thicknesses were internosed in the path of the rays, and it was found that the law of absorption was not exponential, but approximately linear, except for large thicknesses of absorbing material. Various experiments were made to show that this was not

respiration; v., a critical examination of Sachs' =
for using increase of dry weight as a measure of c
dioxide assimilation in leaves: D. Thoday.-The repr
tion and early development of Laminaria digitata
Laminaria saccharina: G. H. Drew. The proces
reproduction and early development in both L. đị
and L. saccharina are very similar. The plant &
gametophyte, and is monoecious. The reproductive
Occur as dark patches on the lamina, and
contain small spherical gametes, 0.003 mm. in diam
and a number of globules of an oily substance.
mature, the gametangia rupture at their distal esT
and liberate their contents. The liberated gametes &
two flagella of different lengths, which are inserted
together; they are phototactic, and move in the dire
of the longer flagellum. Cultures from the reprod.
areas were made in a culture solution consisting of var
salts dissolved in sea water. The solution was Stor
by heat, and all flasks, pipettes, &c., were sterilis
boiling. Division cultures containing the planogam
were made, and eventually cultures free from grow
the Ectocarpacea and other alga were obtained. I
cultures, stages of isogamous conjugation, resulting
spherical zygospore, were observed. Later a process
out from the zygospore, and expanded at its end, and
the cell contents passed along this process, formig
spherical mass at the expanded end. This became c
by a cell wall, and the remains of the zygospor
generated. The cell thus formed developed chromeo
increased in size, and divided, producing typically a
of cells each having an outer and an inner cell wall.
stage probably represents the sporophyte (2x) genere
Any cell of the chain may then rupture its outer cell
and by repeated divisions give rise to the laminaria :
which emerges from the ruptured exosporium. The v
plant consists of a flattened lamina made up of c
cells, having at its base a number of colourless unke
rhizoids. The stipe is developed from the basal part
lamina. The disc-shaped expansion develops at the
of the stipe and partially envelops the primary rhiz
the hapteres arise as outgrowths from this disc-
germicidal action of metals, and its relation to the
duction of peroxide of hydrogen: Dr. A. C. Rankin
Surface flow in calcite : G. T. Beilby.—A preliminary
Trypanosoma eberthi (Kent)-(Spirochaetae
Lühe), and some other parasitic forms from the in
of the fowl: C. H. Martin and Miss Muriel Roberts:
-The spectrum of magnesium hydride: Prof. A. Fow
The author has previously discovered that many o
band lines peculiar to the sun-spot spectrum are id
with lines composing the green fluting attribut
magnesium hydride by Liveing and Dewar. The p
paper gives the results of a further investigation of
spectrum with high dispersion, together with det
wave-length determinations. The principal results m
briefly summarised as follows:-(1) No sufficient
has been found for modifying Liveing and Dewar's
clusion that the spectrum is produced by the combin
of magnesium with hydrogen. (2) Lines are shor
short intervals in all parts of the spectrum from
extreme red to λ 2300, and definite groups of 3.
begin at 5621-57, 5211-11, 4844-92, 4371-2, and near 2.
(3) From photographs of the magnesium arc in hydr
at low pressures, taken with a 10-feet concave grating

on

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