Abstract
LONDON. Royal Society, February 5.—H. M. Carleton: Growth, phagocytosis and other phenomena in tissue cultures of fcetal and adult lung. Invasion of the medium in a growing culture is the result of:-(i) Sheet-like epithelial outgrowth from the alveolar epithelium of cut alveoli. (2) Radiating growth of fibroblasts from the connective tissue of the lung. (3) "Membrane-formation,"in which the cells of the cicatricial epithelium detach themselves from the implant. Within the implant there occurs a swelling up, and a detachment of, the alveolar epithelial cells. Mitoses are frequent in these-even in cultures of adult lung. Sterile coal or carmine particles are actively phagocytosed by both foetal and adult lung in vitro. The alveolar epithelial cells are actively phagocytic, the dedifferentiated cells of the cicatricial epithelium less so.-F. W, Fox and J. A. Gardner: The origin and destiny of cholesterol in the animal organism. Part XIV.-The cholesterol metabolism in normal breast-fed infants. During the first week of life there is a daily average negative balance of 0-14 gram. This is to a large extent accounted for by the fact that the meconium is being got rid of. During the second and third week of life the average intake and output in the cases examined practically balance. At this stage the composition of the milk is in a transitional state from colostrum to true milk. In the last group of infants, from the seventh week to tenth month, there is an excess of intake over output, and the average positive balance is 0-069 gram per day. There must be some organ in the body capable of synthesising cholesterol, but the sterol present in the diet of infants is a source of supply which cannot be disregarded.-H. H. Thomas: The Caytoniales, a new group of angiospermous plants from the Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire. The fossils are the remains of megasporophylls with carpels, fruits, and seeds of two distinct types, and male inflorescences bearing stamens. They were found in the Gristhorpe Plant Bed in the Middle Estuarine Series, exposed on the Yorkshire coast in Cayton and Gristhorpe Bays. The species Gristhorpia Nathorsti gen. et sp. nov. had pinnate megasporophylls 4-5 cm. long, with an axis about i mm. wide; the sub-opposite pinnae terminate in small more or less spherical carpels 2-5 mm. in diameter. The carpels have a stigma at the base near the pedicel. Winged pollen-grains were found on some of the stigmas. The seeds had a well-developed megaspore membrane with an apical projection, above which was a micropyle lined with cutinised cells. Caytonia Sewardi possessed megasporophylls agreeing generally with those of Gristhorpia, but the stigma was a small basal flange. The carpels and fruits contained two rows of ovules or seeds, with hard woody or stony testas. The remains of the male inflorescences are of a type previously known as Antholithus sp. and now named Antholithus Arberi. They were probably borne on the same plants as Gristhorpia Nathorsti. The anthers were four-lobed sessile structures, of a form very like that found in many modern Angiosperms, and had a longitudinal de-hiscence. There are no traces -of perianth members or bracts. There is a constant association of megasporophylls and fruits with leaves of Sagenopteris Phillipsi (Brongn.). The comparative examination of the cuticular structure of the axes of Gristhorpia and Caytonia and of the petioles of Sagenopteris fronds, makes it probable that Sagenopteris must be regarded as the leaf of the Caytoniales.-Winifred Brenchley and H. G. Thornton: The relation between the development, structure and functioning of the nodules on Vicia Faba as influenced by the presence or absence of boron in the nutrient medium. In the absence of boron the vascular supply of the nodule is defective. The strands are often entirely absent, or weakly developed. In plants grown without boron the number of nodules that attain macroscopic size is much reduced. In the nodules without vascular strands, the bacteria do not swell out to form the so-called bacteroids. When weakly developed strands enter the nodule, the amount of tissue containing bacteroids is closely correlated with the extent of the strands. In the plants bearing these abnormal nodules very little nitrogen is fixed, the quantity fixed per nodule being, in one experiment, less than one-tenth of that fixed in normal plants. In the absence or weak development of vascular strands in the nodule, the bacteria tend to become parasitic. This change in relations between micro-organism and host is connected with loss or reduced supply of carbohydrate energy material normally brought into the nodule by the vascular strands.-A. S. Rau, F. W. R. Brambell and J. B. Gatenby: Observations on the Golgi bodies in the living cell. The so-called "neben-kern "of molluscan germ-cells is the Golgi apparatus, and it can be shown intra vitarn by Janus green and neutral red. It is visible in fresh cells infra vitam, and can be photographed. It stains heavily in the Lewis Janus green-iodine vapour method. The Golgi rods or batonettes are rigid bodies, which retain their shape when released from the cell. Neither the Lewis Janus green-iodine vapour method nor Janus green alone are specific for the mitochondria.-V. Nath: Cell inclusions in the oogenesis of scorpions. In forms the oocytes of which contain vitelline yolk there is copious discharge of nucleolar material preceding yolk formation. In other forms the nucleolus remains quite inactive. The Golgi elements in Palamnaus swell up enormously after fragmentation and give rise to yolk (Golgi yolk), which contains free fat like the Golgi yolk of Lithobius (Nath) and Helix aspersa (Brambell). The Golgi elements of Euscorpius and Buthus also swell up and form Golgi yolk which, however, retains the same chemical constitution as the Golgi elements. In the centrifuged oocytes of Euscorpius the vitelline yolk is thrown down and the Golgi yolk tends to go towards the opposite pole. The central area is occupied by the granular mitochondria, the unchanged Golgi elements and the nucleus. The mitochondria in all the forms studied are granular and do not take any part in vitellogenesis. Although there is a remarkable disparity, paralleled only in Paludina vivipara, in size of the granular rnita-chondria of oocytes, on one hand, and the very prominent, hollow, vesicular mitochondria of spermato-cytes on the other, the vesicular type is only a phase in spermatogenesis.-L. J. Harris: The combination of proteins, amino-acids, etc., with acids and alkalis and their combining weights, as determined by physico-chemical measurements.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 115, 249–251 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115249a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115249a0