Abstract
LONDON. The Royal Society, January 18.—Sir Charles Sherrington, president, in the chair.—J. Bar croft: Observations on the effect of high altitude on the physiological processes of the human body. Three principal factors appear to have a positive influence in acclimatisation, (a) The increase in total ventilation, which usually raises the alveolar oxygen pressure ten or twelve millimetres higher than it would otherwise be; (b) The rise in the oxygen dissociation curve so that at any oxygen pressure the hæmoglobin will take up more oxygen than before; (c) The rise in the number of red corpuscles, and correspondingly in the quantity of hæmoglobin. These factors are not independent variables. Blood has been found to give, at the alveolar carbon dioxide pressure of the Andes (about 27 mm. carbon dioxide): (1) A reaction which is apparently almost unchanged, or even more acid, as measured by the ratio of combined to free carbon dioxide; (2) A more alkaline reaction by the platinum' electrode; (3) An oxygen dissociation curve which rises apparently out of proportion to the change in reaction. On making the ascent. there was a marked increase in the number of reticulated red cells; after the descent these cells fell to below their normal percentage. In the natives the ratio of reticulated to unreticulated red cells was not greatly increased, but the absolute number of reticulated cells per cubic millimetre was about 50 per cent. greater than normal. We argue a hypertrophy in the bone marrow. There were no nucleated red cells. The increase in red blood corpuscles is such as to cause an absolute increase in the amount of oxygen in each cubic centimetre of blood in the majority of cases, in spite of the decrease in saturation. A number of mental tests of the ordinary type were performed at Cerro and at sea-level. These revealed no particular mental disability. The pressure of oxygen in the blood was so nearly the same as that in the alveolar air that we attribute the passage of gas through the pulmonary epithelium to diffusion.—E. W. MacBride: Remarks on the inheritance of acquired characters. During the last fifteen or twenty years a series of experiments have been carried out by Dr. Paul Kammerer at Vienna, which tend to show that acquired qualities, or, in other words, modifications of structure induced by modified habits, are inheritable. One of the most interesting of his experiments was to induce Alytes, a toad which normally breeds on land, to breed in water. As a result, after two generations, the male Alytes developed a horny pad on the hand, to enable him to grasp his slippery partner. Mr. J. Quastel, of Trinity College, Cambridge, when in Vienna, saw and photographed one of these modified males; the animal has also been seen by Mr. E. Boulenger.—C. F. Cooper: Baluchitherium osborni (? syn. Indricotherium turgaicum, Borrissyak). Baluchitherium osborni is an aberrant rhinoceros, apparently the largest known land mammal. The remains were first found in Baluchistan. Further fragments have been found in Turkestan, and, recently, in China. While resembling the rhinoceroses more than any other of the Perissodactyla, Baluchitherium is still isolated and of uncertain zoological position. Adaptations to weight have brought about a superficial resemblance to the limb bones of elephants. Some of the foot bones and neck vertebrae resemble those of the horse; due possibly to descent from a small eocene form, Triplopus, which likewise shows an intermingling of horse and rhinoceros characters. In some structures, notably the excavations of the vertebral canal to ensure a combination of lightness and strength, Baluchitherium stands alone among mammals.—J. A. Gunn and K. J. Franklin: The sympathetic innervation of the vagina.—H. G. Cannon: On the metabolic gradient of the frog's egg.—Basiswar Sen: On the relation between permeability variation and plant movements.—H. L. Duke: An inquiry into an outbreak of human try-panosomiasis in a Glossina morsitans belt to the East of Mwanza, Tanganyika Territory.—Louis Dollo: Le Centenaire des Iguanodons (1822–1922).
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Societies and Academies. Nature 111, 134–136 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111134a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111134a0