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ABSTRACT LONDON. Royal Society, June 2.—Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president, in the chair.—L. S. Dudgeon, P. N. Panton, and H. A. F. Wilson: The influence of bacterial endotoxins on

phagocytosis (preliminary report). Extracts were prepared from most of the common pathogenic organisms by grinding them up in the presence of sterile sand or glass, and adding a definite

amount of sterile salt solution; this was then centrifugalised at high speed, and the final supernatant layer employed as the endotoxin. _The Action of the Endotoxic Substance on the

Leucocytes_.—The authors' experiments, although limited, failed to indicate that there was any direct action on the leucocytes, as in no instance was there any appreciable variance from

the control experiments. _The Action of the Endotoxic Substance on the Serum_,—The following facts were evident as a result of these experiments:—(1) that the endotoxic substance was

capable of exerting a specific action on the serum in a large proportion of cases; (2) that the endotoxic substance was unaffected by heat; (3) that dilution of the endotoxic substance

correspondingly diminished its toxic effect upon the serum, but in a few instances, when diluted, it appeared to play the part of “stirhulin,” so that the degree of phagocytosis was far

greater than in the control experiments.—Prof. H. E. Armstrong; and E. Frankland Armstrong: The origin of osmotic effects. III.—The function of hormones in stimulating enzymic change in

relation to narcosis and the phenomena of degenerative and regenerative change in living structures. When a leaf of cherry-laurel is exposed to the vapour of an anaesthetic, hydrogen cyanide

is at once liberated; as this is easily detected by means of Guignard's sodium-picrate paper, the liberation of the cyanide affords a delicate indication of the occurrence of enzymic

change in the leaf. Not only the o common anaesthetics, but most organic vapours, appear to act as excitants, _e.g._ toluene, volatile alcohols, and especially ethereal salts of acids of the

acetic series. Ammonia is very active, and it is noteworthy that even carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and benzaldehyde condition the breakdown of the cyanophoric glucoside in laurel

leaves. When solutions are used, it is found that weak solutions of mineral acids, alkalies, and most salts are inactive, but the simpler organic acids, mercuric chloride, cadmium iodide and

sodium and potassium fluorides all pass into the leaf from solutions. Apparently, the behaviour of the laurel leaf resembles very closely that of the barley grain (_cf._ Adrian J. Brown,

Roy. Soc. Proc., B, 1909, vol. lxxxi., p. 82). It is proposed to divide substances other than colloids into two subclasses, according as they will or will not pass through differential septa

such as occur in the barley grain and the laurel leaf; also to apply to the former the term hormone introduced by Starling. The change brought about by hormones may be attributed largely,

but not entirely, to the influence they exercise in causing alterations in concentration of the fluids within the leaf. Experiments, are adduced showing that water actually passes into the

leaf, together with the hormone; also that not only is hydrogen cyanide liberated and water absorbed, but that the amount of reducing sugar in the leaf is increased. The hypothesis is

advanced that when substances which are not attractive to water are introduced into the living cell they exercise stimulative effects that are primarily mechanical, molecules sf the hormone

being interposed between the molecules in Ihe cell and the activity of the medium raised by the change in the osmotic stale, so that a flux of water from other regions takes place. Possibly

the mere dilution thus diffected is determinative of change; contact being established between hydrolyte and hydrolyst, degenerative changes are set up which tend to increase in intensity as

the products of change in turn exercise a similar stimulative influence; gradually enzymes are set free which can attack the various hydrolytes stored in the cell. The phenomena of change

in living structures, especially muscle and nerve tissue, are considered from this point of view; also the phenomena of narcosis, the regulation of respiration, and the physiological effect

of alcohol and of drugs generally. It is pointed out, also, that the hypothesis may afford an explanation of a number of more recent observations on plant metabolism. Partially sterilised

soils, for example, which Russell has shown to be so fertile, are rich both in carbon dioxide and ammonia: it is suggested that these are two factors of prime importance as stimulants of

plant growth; for a similar reason, sulphate of ammonia may have special value in Comparison with other nitrogenous fertilisers. The deleterious effect of grass growing over the roots of

fruit trees may be more or less due to the removal, which the grass effects, of ammonia; and the consequent withdrawal of the stimulus which this hormone affords to the roots of the

trees.—Dr. R. O. Kleeman: The direction of motion of an electron, ejected from an atom by ultra-violet light. Experiments were carried out to see whether the kathode radiation from

substances exposed to ultra-violet light moves initially in the direction of propagation of the light. The amount of kathode radiation from a platinum film deposited on a quartz plate in a

discharge tube was measured with the film facing the source of ultra-violet light, and with it facing in the opposite direction. It was found that if the intensity of the pencil of light

used is denoted by unity, the intensity of the light, after passing through the quartz plate and film is 0.55; and if we denote by unity the intensity of the kathode radiation from the film

when it faces the source of light, the intensity of the radiation when the film faces in the opposite direction is 1.15. Since the intensity of the light decreases as it passes through the

quartz plate and platinum film, it follows that the larger leak in the latter case than in the former would not be obtained if the kathode rays Were ejected equally in all directions, but

might occur if they have a component in the direction of propagation of the light.—Sir William Crookes: Scandium, part ii. This is a continuation of the paper read in April, 1908, in which,

after describing the mode of extracting scandia from the mineral wiikite, the principal salts, twenty-three in number, were described, their formula; and analytical results being given in

detail. The scandia used in the preparation of some of the salts now described was not absolutely pure. Chemically, no other earth could be detected in it, but the spectrograph revealed

traces of yttria and ytterbia. These traces could have been removed by one or more operations, but the author thought it advisable to leave them in, for the following reasons: in each

operation of purification some loss is unavoidably incurred, and when chemical reactions are insufficient to find the other earths it is not worth diminishing his lessening stock of scandia

for the sake of academic purity. The chief reason, however, for leaving these traces in is that they might afford evidence of a difference of behaviour between one earth and another in the

presence of some of the acids used. After each quantitative determination the scandia was dissolved in acid, and a spectrogram taken to see if yttria or ytterbia were present. The residual

earth was then collected from the mother-liquor, and a photograph taken of its spectrum. A comparison of the pair of spectra shows at once if any separation has been effected between the

earths present. When separation is apparent, further experimentation on a larger scale is reserved to a future occasion. The following salts are described, and details of their analyses

given:—scandium borate, scandium mono-chloroacetate, scandium lactate, scandium fumarate, scandium αβ-dibromopropionate, scandium citrate, scandium orthochlorobenzoate, scandjum

metanitrobenzoate, scandium phthalate, scandium, tetra-chlorophthalate, scandium 2-nitrophenyl-4′-tolylamine-4-sulphonate, and scandium

octamethyltetraminodihydroxy-paradixanthylbenzenetetracarboxylate. More than once the author has been asked why he chose such out-of-the-way acids wherewith to prepare scandium salts. He

gives his chief reason. Attempts on several occasions have been made to discover a means of separating some of the “rare earths” from their companions by forming compounds with weak organic

acids. Thus, in 1897, Kosmann employed citric acid in the separation of thoria. Urban used acetylacetonate of sodium for the same purposel Metzger tried maleic acid, cinnamic acid, picric

acid, phthalic acid, and fumaric acid. In 1904 Neish tried many organic acids for the separation of the rare earths, chiefly thoria. Among other acids he tried gallic, tannic, citric,

salicylic, oleic, linoleic, paratoluic, oxyisophthalic, benzoic, meta-, ortho-, and para-nitrobenzoic, and fumaric. Of fibre has a mechanical and not a nervous function, and that, in

connection with the sub-commissural organ, it forms an apparatus for automatically regulating (in lower types) the flexure of the vertebral column; this function is supposed to have become

obsolete with the assumption of the erect position and the loss of the tail. Zoological Society, May 24.—Dr. Hemy Woodward, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—D. G. Lillle: Observations

on the anatomy and general biology of some members of the larger Cetacea. This paper was the outcome of seven weeks spent at the Irish whaling station during the summer of 1909. The object

of the visit was to make a preliminary survey of the opportunities which are now offered for a study of the larger Cetacea by the recent establishment of whaling stations off the shores of

the British Isles. A list was given of the species captured at the Irish station during the two years of its existence, with notes on the species _Balacnoptera musculus_, Linn., _B.

sibbaldii_, Gray, and _Physcter macrocephalus_, Linn., which were seen by the author. The paper also contained i observations on the occurrence of hairs in whales, the auditory organ of the

Balsenoptera, the asymmetry of the odontocete skull, and a few remarks upon the habits of whales. In conclusion, attention was directed to the present difficulty in obtaining information as

to their method of copulation, period of gestation, rate of breeding, &c., and a means of overcoming this difficulty was suggested.—C. F. Rousselet: Collection of rotifera made by the

third Tanganyika expedition, 1904–5. Amongst the speci mens brought back by Dr. W. A. Cunnington were a number of tubes containing fine surface plankton nettings from Tanganyika and other

lakes of that region. These the author searched for rotifera, and the result was con tained in the present paper. From Lake Tanganyika only eleven species were obtained, all already known in

other parts of the world, whilst the River Lofu, which enters the lake at its south-western corner, yielded twenty-three species, one of which is a very remarkable new kind. In Lake Nyassa

only six species were found, and a single gathering of Victoria Nyanza yielded nine species. This collection is interesting and important from the fact that no previous record of rotifera

from Lake Tanganyika had been made, and very few species were known from the Central African region.—J. Ritchie: (1) The hydrpids of the Mergui Archipelago, collected by Mr. J. J. Simpson

and Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown; (2) the hydroids of Christmas Island, collected by Dr. C. VV. Andrews, F.R.S. The chief interest of these two papers was faunistic. In the former thirty species

were recorded, in the latter thirteen. It was apparent that the hydroid fauna of the eastern Indian Ocean, of which hitherto_ little had been known, lacked distinctness, and that its closest

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_Societies and Academies_ . _Nature_ 83, 446–450 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083446a0 Download citation * Issue Date: 09 June 1910 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083446a0 SHARE THIS

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