Abstract
LONDON. Royal Society, February 16.—Sir Charles Sherring-ton, president, in the chair.—L. Hill, D. H. Ash, and J. A. Campbell: The heating and cooling of the body by local application of heat and cold. When the hands are heated or cooled by water the amount of heating or cooling is large, but not constant for a given range of temperature. The degree of heating or cooling is obtained from the temperature of the skin over the median vein at the elbow, the thermometer used being coiled and insulated from the air. Loss of 20 to 25 kilo-calories of heat from the hands in thirty minutes, i.e. a loss almost equal to the basal metabolism, does not appreciably affect the body metabolism.—J. B. Cohen, C. H. Browning, R. Gaunt, and R. Gulbransen: Relationships between antiseptic action and chemical constitution, with special reference to compounds of the pyridine, quinoline, acridine, and phenazine series. Certain acridine derivatives, salts of diamino-acridine and the methochloride of this base, are extremely potent antiseptics. Pyridine and quinoline derivatives (“fragments” of the acridine molecule), a number of acridine derivatives, and some phenazine compounds were also investigated, but none approximate to diamino-acridine in antiseptic properties. Dealing with the acridine group, the presence of amino-groups increases antiseptic power, and effectiveness in serum Is a characteristic of compounds with unsubstituted amino-groups, and especially of their methochlorides. Other radicals replacing the methyl group in the methochloride do not alter the antiseptic action, but substitution of alkyls in the amino-group tends to diminish antiseptic action, while acetylation or replacement of the amino-group destroys it. Antiseptic action on organisms of different types shows marked irregular variation.—D. T. Harris: Active hyperasmia. The lingual nerve contains true vaso-dilator and the sympathetic vaso-constrictor fibres; both are equally Independent of the intervention of metabolites. Experiments show that increased blood-supply during muscular activity is due entirely to the products of metabolism, and of the metabolites estimated carbon dioxide and α-hydroxy organic acids were increased. Vaso-dilator nerves are concerned with the control of body temperature; active hyperaemia in the dog's tongue may be induced by reflex excitation of the vaso-dilator nerves through the stimulation of heat receptors in the skin.—B. B. Sarkar; The depressor nerve of the rabbit. The depressor nerve of the rabbit is connected in part with a special collection of ganglion-cells in the vagus, distinct from the ganglion of the trunk, which may extend into the superior laryngeal or the vagus trunk. These cells probably give rise to the afferent fibres of the depressor. The nerve is usually formed by two branches, one from the superior laryngeal and one from the vagus, and is connected with the inferior cervical ganglion, the root of the aorta, and the base of the heart. The left nerve of the pair is generally larger and contains more fibres than the right. The depressor contains medium-sized and very fine myelinated fibres, and others which are non-myelinated. Probably it is not wholly formed of afferent fibres, for these fine myelinated and non-myelinated fibres presumably belong to the autonomic nervous system and are efferent.—A. Lipschütz, B. Ottow, C. Wagner, and F. Bormann: The hypertrophy of the interstitial cells in the testicle of the guinea-pig under different experimental conditions. Partial castration often causes enormous hypertrophy of the interstitial tissue. This hypertrophy is not compensatory, for the tendency to hypertrophy of interstitial cells is more marked in fragments with improved blood-supply. Hypertrophy appears to be independent of the internal secretory function of the testicle in its relation to the organism as a whole, and is a response to local conditions.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 109, 255–259 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109255b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109255b0