336

antitetanic serum-suffered from renal heart with

tachycardia and cardiac gallop. Yet they havebeen through the campaign for over three monthsand are still well. Such devotion, said M. FIESSINGER,is a magnificent page in the annals of France.We have every sympathy with the urgent desire

of him who, despite some physical condition thatmight prove a bar, desires to enlist, but a goodphysical standard of all is an absolute necessityfor the common safety of an army. Modern con-

ditions of war have made that standard much more

elastic ; place has been found in the ranks for thesmall man, for the man who is too tall (theoretic-ally) for his weight, for the man who wears glasses,and for much other first-class material that formerlycould not be employed; but there should be no

leniency shown towards the applications of thosewhose infirmities might prove a source of danger toothers. The recruit who deliberately concealshis epileptic history is not serving his countryreally; he cannot remain in the ranks while

subject to such a disease, and his detection

may be the sequel to a tragedy. It is possibleto condone the case of the healthy middle-aged man who confuses his chest measurementwith his age in entering himself as 37; manyvictims of cardiac disease do not themselves knowtheir plight, and if they are admitted to the armythe fault is not theirs; but those who conceal

conditions difficult to diagnose, which, if known,would rightly debar them from military service,make an error-even though a gallant one ; for theymight break down at a moment when upon theirefficiency depended the safety of many comrades.

The Physiology of the MinuteQuantity.

A GOOD many years ago chemists talked of

catalytic action, and the expression then was, as

most must confess, merely a convenient expression. IWhat it really meant was that a chemical

reaction between two agents was highly stimu-lated by a third, albeit this third body was

infinitesimal in quantity and unchanged. We now

possess a quite large number of examples in

which catalysis plays an important and even

essential part not only in inorganic chemical

changes but in life processes also. Taking anexample of pure chemistry first, the union of

hydrogen and oxygen in practically unlimited

quantity may be effected, as is well known, bymere traces of colloidal platinum, while withoutits intervention the elements might remain forever apart. The common and striking feature of

catalysis is that the quantity of the catalyst is

very small compared with the quantities of themain reacting substances, and this feature is alsoillustrated in the action of the organic cata-

lyst, the enzyme. The enzymes, in fact, bear

a close analogy to the ordinary inorganiccatalysts. Thus the enzyme invertase is capableof inverting 100,000 times its own weight of cane

sugar, and its activity is practically unimpairedthrough the process, particularly when the ultimateproduct is removed as fast as it appears.A more recent development of catalysis has been

made in plant physiology, which promises to be ofthe utmost importance to agriculture, while the

circumstances in which we live necessarily turnthe attention of thoughtful people to the pro-

ductivity of the soil. It has been found that minutetraces of certain mineral bodies may promote orhinder healthy plant growth, just as the presenceof a minute quantity of iodine in the thyroidgland determines its activity. In a suggestivemonograph forming one of the agricultural seriesissued from the Cambridge University Press/Dr. WINIFRED BRENCHLEY records the resultsof some experiments made at Rothamsted

experimental station on the influence of certainmetallic compounds on vegetable growth. Thetrials are by no means complete, but theyindicate that a very interesting and entirely’unexplored field is being approached. The

prospect at any rate is opened up of the possi-bility of utilising certain stimulating compoundsas artificial manures, and Dr. BRENCHLEY pointsout that as only small traces are beneficial, largeramounts being poisonous to the plant, it is obviousthat only small quantities would be needed. Again,the compounds are not usually very expensive andthus a considerable increase of crop for a rela-

tively small outlay might be anticipated if no

complicating factors intervened. In this interest-

ing investigation a very limited number of plantpoisons were investigated, but sufficient evidence

was adduced to show that even these few differ

considerably in their action upon plant life. While,to quote some examples, certain compounds of

copper, zinc, and arsenic are exceedingly poisonous,compounds of manganese and boron are far less

deleterious, so that a plant can withstand the

presence of far more of the latter substances thanof the former. The tested compounds of copper, zinc,and arsenic do not seem to stimulate growth, evenwhen they are applied in the smallest quantities,whereas very dilute solutions of manganese andboron compounds decidedly increase growth. A

differentiation, however, is shown even in thisstimulative action, for while manganese is the moreeffective in stimulating barley, boric acid is far

more potent for peas, the shoots being particularlyimproved. The minute quantity of manganesesufficient to produce stimulation is very remark-

able, since 1 part of the sulphate in lOp millionswas found to exercise a beneficial action. The

yields were increased in some experiments by asnuch as 41 per cent. in the case of spinach,L9’4 per cent. in the case of peas, 13’9 per cent. inthe case of flax, and 5’3 per cent. in the case)f barley. In some investigations carried outwith rice in Japan the harvest of grains was in-;reased by one-third owing to careful manganese1 Inorganic Plant Poisons an timulants. By Winifred E Brenchley,

D.Sc., F.L.S. Cambridge Unive ity Press.

337

stimulation. This stimulation is assumed to be

due by some observers to an increase in the

oxidising powers of the oxidising enzymes, so

that destruction of the hindering compoundscan be accomplished as quickly as they are

formed, growth thus continuing more rapidly.Manganese possibly intervenes as a catalytic agentin the material changes of which plants are theseat, and the metal thus participates in an indirectmanner in the building up of the tissues and in theproduction of organic matter. And this greataccelerated synthetic result is the outcome of an

application of a solution containing 1 part of thesalt in 100 million parts.In considering the experimental work that has

so far been done on the subject of poisoning andstimulation Dr. BRENCHLEY concludes that it is nottrue to maintain the hypothesis which some havedone that all inorganic plant poisons act asstimulants when they are present in very smallquantities, for while some poisons do increase

plant growth under such conditions others fail todo so in any circumstances. It is more probablethat some inorganic poisons act as stimulants whenpresent in small amounts, the stimulating concen-trations varying both with the poisons used andthe plants on which they act. The researches on

this subject have attracted considerable attention,and their development will be watched with thekeenest interest. The particular work on agri-cultural applications apart, it is obvious that as

these investigations are pursued they may helpto clear up much of the obscurity which surroundsthe remarkable action of small entities in the

human body. _____________

Annotations.

FAMILY RESEMBLANCES.

" Ne quid nimis."

HAD the " Slingsby Case " been tried in less

stirring times it certainly would have attracted agreater share of public attention, particularly fromthose who are interested in the inheritance of

physical characters. Mr. Justice Bargrave Deanerecognised a close degree of resemblance betweenthe boy defendant and his father, Mr. CharlesSlingsby, particularly in the case of the lower jaw ;Sir George Frampton detected a likeness betweenthe ears of the boy and his mother. On the day onwhich the learned judge gave his judgment a well-known anthropologist, an anatomist famous for hisaccuracy, descended in a lift with two men and aboy, all three of whom stared stolidly at theadvertisements on the wall. One of the menwas short and dark, the other fair and ofmedium height. The expert at once assignedthe little boy as son to the fair man from theirclose resemblance. As the lift gates swung openthe boy took the dark man by the hand, called him"dad," while the fair man went his own separateway. In telling us his experience he adds :" Another case of mis-identification came under

my notice on the evening of the same day. An

intelligent and experienced lady called on a friend

who took her up to the nursery to see the latestborn. The visitor found two nurses and twobabies, and exclaimed, ’Well, I need not ask whichit is; this one is your image.’ She then selectedthe wrong child." From such cases one mustconclude that general resemblances may provemisleading. But it is otherwise with particularfeatures, such as the Hapsburg lip. Medical menare well aware of such features; a nose, an eye, oran ear may have such a pronounced shape that afamily identifiéation may be made with certainty.Individuals with pronounced features are in the

minority. There is no question that suchfeatures may be and are inherited. In manyinstances the characteristic form is not apparentin the young; it becomes fully developed afteradolescence, and this is especially true in thecase of the nose, and is also the case withthe lower jaw. The boy defendant is 4 yearsof age; in the next 16 years his jaw will beremodelled over and over again to make room forthe permanent molar teeth, the teeth which willreplace his milk set, and to fit the growth of theupper jaw; it would be at maturity we shouldexpect a real, not an apparent, resemblance of thepaternal form of jaw to appear. The ear offers amore certain means of identification of likeness,but very few men have studied this complexstructure so closely as to be in a positionto offer an expert opinion as to degree oflikeness. In the photographs which have been

published of the parties in the Slingby case anexpert has little difficulty in recognising what wasapparently regarded as a striking feature of the"

Slings by " ear. The resemblance lies in thedegree to which the hinder border of the ear isfolded over so as to form a welt. It is well knownthat the folding of the ear margin is a resultof retrogression; the more the border is foldedover the greater is the degree of developmentalretrogression. There is no folding of the border ofthe ear in the more primitive apes ; in some of thehigher apes, especially in the orang, there is a highdegree of infolding, for the ear of the orang is moreretrograde than that of most human races. A con-siderable degree of infolding of the ear is so commonthat an anthropologist would give it only a slightvalue in working out resemblances. Sir GeorgeFrampton’s method of observation we do not.

know, but we must admit that sculptors havecertainly a right to express an opinion. It wasThomas Woolner who drew Darwin’s attention tothe presence of a nodule on the welt of the humanear which the great evolutionist recognised as a.

remnant of the ancient pointed tip. That all,

parties concerned in the Slingsby case should show’

a trace of the ancient tip is not a matter for,

surprise; the ear is exceptional which shows nosign of this ancient mark.

MEDICAL RECIPROCITY WITH BELGIUM.

THE Executive Committee of the General MedicalCouncil at its last meeting on Jan. 22nd had beforeit the recent Order in Council extending Part II. ofthe Medical Act of 1886 to the kingdom of Belgium.lThe committee considered evidence submitted toit by Belgian professors, graduates, and otherswith regard to the course of study and examina-tions which candidates had to undergo in order toobtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine in theuniversities of Belgium and the legal authorisation

1 THE LANCET, Jan. 16th, 1915, p. 143.