Abstract
PARIS. Academy of Sciences, July 26.—M. Henri Deslandres in the chair.—The president announced the death of Dr. Guyon.—G. Bigourdan: An economical means of utilising the energy of tides.—Ch. Deperet: An attempt at the general chronological co-ordination of Quaternary time.—L. Maquenne and E. Demoussy: The toxicity of iron (towards plants) and the antitoxic properties of copper in presence of ferrous salts.—F. Widal, P. Abrami, and N. Iancovesco: The proof of digestive haemoclasia and latent hepatism. A development of the method of detecting liver trouble described in an earlier communication. After the absorption of a glass of milk it is only necessary to determine the fall in the arterial pressure, the lowering of the number of white corpuscles, the inversion of the leucocytic coefficient, and other phenomena easily determined in the laboratory to discover the functional working of the liver. Numerous examples of the application are given, with especial reference to the disturbances caused by the administration of arsenic compounds in syphilitic cases.—A. Perot: Comparison of the wave-lengths of a line of the cyanogen band in the light of the sun and that of a terrestrial source. The solar wave-length is greater than the terrestrial wavelength, their difference in relative value being (2.22±0.10).10- 6. This difference is reduced by a correction for the descending movement of the absorbing centres to (1.6 ± 0.3). 10- 6. The figure calculated from Einstein's theory of generalised relativity is between the corrected and uncorrected numbers. A.—Schaumasse: Discovery and observations of the comet 1920b (Schaumasse). This comet was discovered on July 18 at the Nice Observatory. It is about the nth magnitude, and appears as a diffuse nebulosity of.2.5′ diameter. It may be the second periodic comet of Tempel.—G. Fayet: Probable identitv of the 1920b comet (Schaumasse) with Tempel's second periodic comet.—P. Chofardet: Observations of the periodic comet Tempel II. (Schaumasse) 1920a, made at the Observatory of Besancon with the bent equatorial. Three positions on July 20–21 are given. The comet wras of about the nth magnitude.—C. Raveau: The isotherms in the neighbourhood of the critical state. The adiabatic expansion of saturated fluids.—R. Dongier: The point-crystal or point-metal auto-detector telephone receiver.—F. Michaud: The correspondence of bodies in the solid state.—A. Pictet and P. Castan: Glucosane. Glucosane was readily obtained in a pure state by heating glucose under a pressure of 15 mm. to a temperature of 150-155° C. A study of its chemical reactions leads to the conclusion that it probably has a composition analogous with ethylene oxide.—A. Mailhe: The catalytic hydration of nitriles. If a mixture of steam and benzo-nitrile vapour is passed over thoria at 420° C, benzoic acid is produced by the hydrolysis of the nitrile. The generality of the reaction has been proved by applying it to seven nitriles.—G. Dubois: The discovery of a fossil-bearing layer in the Flanders clay at Watten (Nord). The fauna found in this layer confirms the stratigraphical identity of London clay, Cuise sands, and Flanders clay.—A. Carpentier: Some siliceous fossil plants from the neighbourhood of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Alsace).—L. Blaringhem: The heredity and nature of peloria in Digitalis purpurea.—R. Souèges: The embryogeny of the Compositæ. The first stages of the development of the embryo in Senecio vulgaris.—F. Chifflot: The gum-bearing secreting canals of the roots of the Cycadaceæ, and more particularly those of Stangeria paradoxa.—Em. Perrot: Biological notes on the Acacias producing gum, known as gum arabic, in the Egyptian Sudan.—H. Ricome: The action of gravity on plants.—L. Emberger: Cytological study of the Selaginella.—A. Guilliermond: New cytological observations on Saprolegnia.—G. Truffaut and N. Bezssonoff: Comparative study of the microflora and the amount of nitrogen in soils partly sterilised by calcium sulphide.—A. Lumiere: Are vitamines necessary to the development of plants? It is generally admitted that vitamines are necessary to the growth of plants. The author, whilst admitting the accuracy of the experiments on which this view is based, considers that the experimental results have been misinterpreted. Fresh yeast, rich in vitamines and rapidly curing polyneuritic troubles in pigeons, after heating to 135° C. for one hour, completely loses all its antiscorbutic properties, but still serves for the preparation of culture fluids, giving good development of fungi. Even after heating to incipient carbonisation to 250° C. these. extracts retain their fertilising properties.—A. H. Roffo and P. Girard: The effects of electrical osmosis on cancerous tumours of rats.—M. Fauré-Fremiet, J. Dragoiu, and Mile. E)u Vivier de Streel: The growth of the foetal lung in the sheep and the concomitant variations in its composition.—R. Sazerac: Culture of the tubercle bacillus on a medium of autolvsed yeast. It has been proved that both human and bovine tubercle bacilli will grow normally on this medium,, the detailed preparation of which is given. It contains, in addition to autolvsed yeast, $ per rent, of common salt and 4 per cent, of glycerol.—T. Nageotte: Osteogenesis, in grafts of dead bone.—A. Trillat: The influence of the presence of infinitesimal traces of nutritive substances in air-moisture on contagion.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 105, 794–796 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105794b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105794b0