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The present paper is a continuation of a memoir read at the Académie des Sciences of Paris, in 1839, and entitled, “Effets de diverses substances salines, injectées dans le systême circulatoire. After some preliminary remarks on the mode in which the experiments were conducted, and on the assistance derived from the hæmadynamometer of Poiseuille (or instrument for measuring the pressure of the blood circulating in the vessels), the author gives a list of the various saline substances of which he noted the effects when they were severally injected either into the venous or the arterial systems, arranged according to the nature of those effects. He finds, in general, that all the salts having the same base exert similar actions when introduced directly into the blood. He carefully inquires into the phænomena apparently arising from the direct contact of each of the substances above enumerated with the animal tissues; and more particularly into the effects produced on the heart, on the muscular and the nervous tissues, and on the pulmonary and systemic capillaries.

THE length of the dormant period during which a certain class of scientific discoveries has to remain unrecognised before they are made available is a subject that may form an interesting chapter in the history of science. I will cite one or two examples, in one of which I am personally interested, as illustrating my meaning, particularly as I think they will enable me to point out the cause of this strange anomaly at a time when so much attention is being given to original research, and yet which will leave the results of original research to lie dormant for years after they have been realised. As illustrating the fact that most important laws may remain for many years dormant, I have but to cite the law of Avogadro, which remained unnoticed for fifty years, until the investigations of Dumas proved it to be a most important aid in chemical research. The law of Dulong and Petit on the connection between the specific heat and the atomic weight of the elements had to pass through a dormant period of more than twenty years before it was resuscitated by the experiments of Regnault. More than forty years ago I announced a new law connecting the physiological reactions of inorganic substances with their isomorphous relations. This law, although founded on an extensive series of experiments, and since verified by the investigation of the action of the compounds of more than forty of the elements, has up to the present time remained entirely dormant, not having been noticed, as far as I am aware, by any writer on physiology. A French chemist, M. Rabuteau, has recently very cavalierly consigned it aux baggages du passe, apparently under the idea that it is a revival of the hypothesis that connected the action of poisons with the more or less acute angles of their crystals. Now, however, the important part played by these inorganic substances as physiological reagents is beginning to be recognised (see Ringer, Journal of Physiology, January and August, 1883; Brunton and Cash, Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xxxv.).

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YOUR correspondent, Mr. C. J. B. Williams, is wrong in the statement he makes in NATURE, vol. xxviii. p. 103, concerning the cold in California in the month of March. The month was the warmest March we have had for some years, the mean temperature being 3°.5 above the average, and 2°.8 above the average for the whole of the Pacific coast. February, on the contrary, was a very cold month, the mean temperature being 3°6 below the average. I believe it will be found that the mean temperature of a hemisphere is not affected by sunspots. That the seasons, however, are influenced by the state of the sun's surface I have no doubt, but this only in a secondary manner. In a paper read before the California Academy of Sciences in 1870 (see Proceedings, vol. iv. p. 128), I pointed out that our extreme seasonal climates were caused by the prevalence of broad belts of north and south winds which would extend continuously from east to west for 1500 or 2000 miles, and would blow over the same surface for months together, causing extreme seasons with temperatures above the average where the south current prevailed, and cold winters where there was a northerly current.

The authors describe a teaching program for first-Year medical students that uses videotape and simulated patients. The program helps students acquire the skills necessary for good professional relationships with patients, overcome anxieties in confronting patients, adopt a comfortable professional self-image, and begin involvement in clinical medicine in order to facilitate inter-relationships between preclinical and clinical sciences.

I AM glad to see that Mr. Taylor Kay has again brought forward the question of a subject index to scientific periodicals. I say again, because the proposal to make such an index was suggested by me in a short letter in NATURE, vol. xviii. p. 251, and more fully at the first meeting of the Library Association at Oxford, in October 1878 (Transactions of Library Association, 1878, p. 85). Dr. Garnett also read a paper before the same Association on this subject in 1879, which was fully printed in NATURE, vol. xx. p. 554. In my original letter I suggested making the index from the papers themselves, and not from the Royal Society's Catalogue; my reason for this was the difficulty that must be experienced in indexing many papers, should the indexer have nothing but the title in front of him. Reference to the paper is absolutely necessary in many instances, especially when the title does not fully set forth its contents. Dr. Garnett, however, pointed out that much labour might be saved if the Royal Society would give two copies of its Catalogue of Scientific Papers, which might be cut up to form the copy of the subject-index. There can be no doubt that Dr. Garnett is right, because, by his plan, however many papers it might be necessary to refer to, the amount of labour as regards manuscript would be very materially diminished. The greatest difficulty of all is the money. Mr. Taylor Kay takes comfort in a Treasury Minute of November 1864, and hopes, from that, that help might be obtained from the Government. I am afraid, however, it will damp his ardour to be told that the Government have refused to bear the cost of printing the Catalogue for the decade 1874-83, although the matter is all ready for the press. It seems to me that, as suggested in my original paper, the co-operation of the learned Societies is the only way in which the necessary funds can be obtained.

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[2-N-Methylphenylalanine]-α1–19-ACTH has been synthesized by the solid-phase method and its steroidogenic potency has been measured. The result indicates that the introduction of an N-methyl substituent at Position 2 does not increase steroidogenic response, even though the resultant peptide was shown to be more resistant to exopeptidase digestion.

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Blake James. Remarques sur le climat de la Californie. In: Le Globe. Revue genevoise de géographie, tome 10, 1871. pp. 111-123.

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The tridecapeptide amide, α-melanotropin, has been synthesized by the solid-phase method. The protected tridecapeptide was cleaved from a phenolic resin with ammonia, and the amide was reduced with sodium in liquid ammonia. Chromatographic purification gave the highly purified and fully active hormone.

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As some interest seems to be excited as to the nature of the animal that forms the long calcareous axis that has been received from Barraud's Inlet, I forward you a copy of a short notice I read on the subject before the California Academy of Sciences, July 17, 1871. I also enclose a piece of the stem with some of the soft parts still adhering to it, as it is possible its examination by competent observers will determine if I correctly referred it to the sponges.

(1838). On the electrical currents produced during the processes of fermentation and vegetation. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science: Vol. 12, No. 77, pp. 539-541.

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