Abstract
LONDON. Royal Society, November 20.—J. Barcroft, M. L. Anson, A. E. Mirsky, and S. Oinuma: The correlation between the spectra of various haemoglobins and their relative affinities for oxygen and carbon monoxide. Hartridge's reversion spectroscope was used, and it was found that if A be the position of maximum intensity of the?-oxy-haemoglobin spectral band and that of CO-hsemoglobin in mammalian blood, and the equilibrium constant of the equation CO +HbO2COHb +O2, Log? =0-05 (A-B), A and? being in angstrom units. The relation is also true of the recrystallised haemoglobins. Log? is a measure of the change in free energy involved in the reaction. The value of (A-B), called in the paper “the span,” varies from 43 to 56 angstrom units in the mammals observed. The variation in individuals in the same species is very marked, and seems to be due to specificity of the globin portion of the molecule. Brown and Hill's observations on effect of temperature on blood have been treated along similar lines.—H. R. Hewer: On certain abnormalities occurring in the pituitary of the frog. Three types of abnormalities are described in the pituitary of the frog: (a) Proliferation of cells in the pars nervosa; (b) formation of non-ciliated cysts in the hypophysial region; (c) formation of ciliated cysts in the same region as in (b). Probably the non-ciliated and ciliated cysts are similar if not identical in origin. The cilia are therefore incidental, and possibly derived from the epithelium enveloping the anterior lobe.—A. Howard: The effect of grass on trees.—J. W. Pickering and F. E. Taylor: Blood coagulation, anti-coagulants, and haemolysis. Most substances which inhibit the clotting of blood also inhibit haemolysis. The anticoagulants employed were potassium oxalate, sodium citrate, “peptone,” leech extract, neutralised thymus, and yeast nucleic acids, novarsenobillon, cobra venom, egg-white, and sugars. A general correspondence between anti-coagulants and substances antilytic to platelets does not exist. The phenomena in protection against haemolysis and clotting are parallel up to the stage of thrombin formation in the latter process, and experimental evidence shows that the inception of the clotting of blood, like haemolysis, is essentially the lysis of a colloidal complex, and that both these phenomena are inhibited in a similar manner by certain protective substances. These results support the view that the inauguration of the clotting of blood arises from the disassociation of a protective colloid with the clotting complex of the plasma.—R. J. Ludford: The distribution of the cytoplasmic organs in transplantable tumour cells: with special reference to dictyokinesis.—E. Ponder: On the balloon-like structure of the mammalian erythrocyte. In the case of the human erythrocyte, the experimentally obtained figures agree in a striking manner with the figures deduced by considering the cell as a balloon-like body with a membrane for which Poisson's ratio is about the same as for most known substances. From this result it may be deduced that Rollett's view of the structure of the erythrocyte is at variance with the facts, and therefore untenable.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Societies and Academies. Nature 114, 809–811 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114809a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114809a0