Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON. Royal Society, February 19.—Sir J. J. Thomson, president, in the chair.—B. Moore and T. A. Webster: Studies of photosynthesis in fresh-water algæ. (1)The fixation of both carbon and nitrogen from the atmo sphere to form organic tissue by the green plant-cell. (2) Nutrition and growth produced by high gaseous dilutions of simple organic compounds, such as formaldehyde and methylic alcohol. (3) Nutrition and growth by means of high dilutions of carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen without access to atmosphere. The primeval living organism, like the inorganic colloidal systems which were its precursors, must have possessed the power of fixing carbon and nitrogen, and building these up into reduced organic compounds with uptake of energy. The source of the energy was sunlight. This power is still possessed by the lowliest type of synthesising cell existing, namely, the unicellular alga. A synthesising cell must have existed prior to bacteria and other fungi, since these can exist only upon organic matter, and the primeval world before the advent of life could contain no organic matter. Their specific reactions show that even the ultra-microscopic filter-passing organisms are highly organised products on the path from the in organic towards life, and hence it follows that there is a Ion** intermediate range of evolution. The first synthesising system ncting upon light was thus prob ably an inorganic colloidal system in solution, capable of adsorbing the simple organic substances which it synthesised. It is therefore futile to search for the origin of life at the level of bacteria and torulæ As complexity increased with progressive evolution, more and more rapid transformers for the capture of the energy of sunlight came into existence. Such transformers are found in the green cell for fixation of both carbon and nitrogen. The earlier transformers in the inorganic colloidal systems can only utilise light of short wave-lengths; the later transformers in the living cells are adapted to utilise longer wave-lengths; and the very short wave-lengths, which are lethal, are cut off by their colour-screens of chlorophyll, etc.—W. M. Bayliss: The properties of colloidal systems, iv.: Reversible gelation in living protoplasm. With intense dark-ground illumination it is possible to see that the apparently clear pseudopodia of Amoeba are filled with numerous very minute particles in Brownian movement, thus affording further evidence of the liquid, hydrosol nature of simple protoplasm. By electrical stimulation this sol can be reversibly changed into the gel state, evidenced bv the sudden cessation of the Brownian movement.— F. J. Wyeth: The development of the auditory apparatus in Sphenodon punctatus. This memoir con tains a detailed and fully illustrated account of the development of the auditory apparatus and associated structures in the New Zealand Tuatara. As this important type is on the verge of extinction, it was thought desirable to treat the subject fully, although, as might be expected, the developmental history agrees closely with that found in other reptiles. The work was carried out chiefly by means of wax-plate reconstruction models. The third and fourth visceral clefts are closed by a backwardly growing operculum, but separate dorsal and ventral openings of the clefts were not observed. The existence of two pairs of head-cavities was confirmed, those of each pair communicating with each other by transverse canals 1`dxscdffDFdf. The vascular system was found to exhibit a number of primitive features. The region investigated in cludes cranial nerves vi.-xii., the development of which was worked out in detail. The general development of the internal ear and auditory nerve is thoroughly normal. The development of the cristæ and maculæ acusticæ from the primitive neuroepithelium is given in detail. A well-marked macula neglecta is found. As regards the much-debated question of the origin of the columellar apparatus, evidence is brought forward in support of the contention that this is essentially a derivative of the hyoid arch, and it is maintained that the auditory capsule contributes at most a portion of the foot-plate of the stapes.