Abstract
PARIS.
Academy of Sciences, Sept. 12.—M. Duchartre in the chair.—On the heat of combustion of glycolic acid, by M. Berthelot.—Note on several new facts relating to the physiology of epilepsy, by M. Brown-Sequard. If by epilepsy is understood a group of reflex convulsive movements, it is invariably induced in guinea-pigs by cutting one of the sciatic nerves. If, however, the section has been made in the lower part of the thigh, the convulsive manifestations often are confined to the side of the lesion, and the animal retains consciousness. This is due to the regeneration of the nerve, which takes place rapidly, and which stops the development of the disease, or even cures it altogether. Generally, the greater the number of nerve fibres severed, the stronger is the tendency towards epileptic fits. A set of absolutely decisive facts have shown that a violent attack can be produced which is due to the spinal marrow alone. This epilepsy as displayed in guinea-pigs is absolutely equivalent to the idiopathic or cerebral disease in man. Clinical as well as experimental facts show that epilepsy has no special seat in the brain, but that all parts of the nervous system, central or peripheral, may give rise to it.—The meadows in the dry summer of 1892, by M. A. Chatin.—Absolute positions and proper motions of circumpolar stars, by M. F. Gonnessiat.—On a problem of analysis involved in the equations of dynamics, by M. R. Liouville.—On a recurring series of pentagons inscribed in the same general curve of the third order, which can be constructed with the sole help of the straight-edge, by M. Paul Serret.—On the calorific distribution of the heat of the sun at the surface of the northern and southern hemispheres of the terrestrial globe, by M. le Goarant de Tromelin. It is sometimes thought that the fact of the sun being eight days longer in the northern hemisphere than in the southern, is the principal cause of the inequality of the distribution of heat in the two hemispheres. It can, however, be shown that the quantities of heat received by two symmetrical elements of the earth's surface, or by two caps symmetrical with respect to the earth's centre, are the same during the durations of the earth's journey comprised between two pairs of opposite vectors. Hence the total heat received by the northern hemisphere during spring and summer is equal to that received by the southern hemisphere during autumn and winter. The true cause of the difference of mean annual temperature in the two hemispheres lies in the difference of loss by radiation. By the law of cooling bodies, if two bodies have the same mean temperature, but different extremes, the one with the greatest extremes will lose most heat by radiation. Thus the southern hemisphere, which is nearer the sun in its summer and further away in its winter than the northern, will lose the greater quantity of heat.—Theory of a condenser interposed in the secondary circuit of a transformer, by M. Désiré Korda.—On the thermal variation of the electrical resistance of mercury, by M. Ch. Ed. Guillaume. The relation between temperature and conductivity was determined by comparing the resistance of a mercury standard of about one ohm at different temperatures with another standard maintained at a constant temperature, with a special arrangement to eliminate the resistances of the contacts. The formula deduced was—, and the value of the standard mercury ohm——On a ptomaine obtained from a cultivation of Micrococcus tetragenus, by M. A. B. Griffiths. This Micrococcus, found associated with human phthisis, gives rise to a ptomaine if cultivated on peptonised gelatine for several days. This ptomaine is a white solid, crystallizing in prismatic needles. It is soluble in water, giving a feeble alkaline reaction. It forms a chlorohydrate, a chloroaurate, and a chloroplatinate, all crystallizable. Nessler's reagent gives a green precipitate, tannic acid a brown one, slightly soluble. The formula appears to be C5H6NO2. It is a poison, and produces death in thiriy-six hours. It is undoubtedly the product of the decomposition of the albumin by the microbe.—On echinochrome, a respiratory pigment, by M. A. B. Griffiths. Mr. McMunn discovered a brown pigment in the perivisceral fluid of certain echiooderms in 1883. This was separated by desiccating the fluid and dissolving out by chloroform. The formula of echinochrome is C102H99N12FeS2O12. It serves a purpose in the body of the echinoderm analogous to that of hæmoglobine in the human body, but is not so highly developed as the latter. The respiratory pigments in the lower animals not only carry oxygen to the tissues, but also retain oxygen in combination till taken up by the cellules. Hence echinochrome, like hæmocyanine, chlorocruorine, and similar bodies, is more stable than hæmoglobine.—Physiology of the pancreas, experimental dissociation of the external and internal secretions of the glands, by M. J. Thiroloix.—Influence of some deleterious gases on the progress of anthrax infection, by MM. A. Charrin and H. Roger.—Contribution towards the aseptic method in hypodermic therapeutics, by M. Barthélémy.—On the construction of a luminous fountain with automatically variable colours, by M. G. Trouvé.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 46, 507–508 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/046507a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/046507a0