Nachweis von Reflex-Bluten bei Lampyriden (Coleoptera) mit Hilfe der „Tracer”-Methode

Summary The very short time (5–9 min) between injection of radiophosphorous into the hemolymph of adult fireflies (Lampyridae) and outflow of radioactive droplets after irritation demonstrates with certainty that reflex-bleeding is involved. Labelling the secretions of dermal glands would require much more time (several h or even 1 day.

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Institut für Angewandte Zoologie der Universität Bonn. Die Untersuchungen wurden 1972 während eines Aufenthaltes vonW. J. Kloft als Visiting Professor an der University of Florida durchgeführt.     

Umwandlung von radioaktivem Cortexon in Aldosteron durch Nebennieren-Enzyme

Summary Cortexone labeled in the 21-position with C¹⁴ yielded radioactive Aldosterone through incubation with beef adrenal homogenate. Its activity, due entirely to the 21 carbon atom, showed that about 48% of the Aldosterone had arisen from a direct conversion of cortexone without intermediate degradation. The low yield by weight in this conversion suggests, however, that cortexone is not the only natural precursor for Aldosterone in the adrenal.The radioactivity of the corticosterone obtained showed that about 84% of it originated from added cortexone. Lack of radioactivity of the hydrocortisone confirmed that it does not essentially result from cortexone.

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134. Mitteilung über Steroide. Auszugsweise vorgetragen am 3. August 1955 anlässlich des 3. Internat. Kongresses für Biochemie in Brüssel. 133. Mitteilung sieheE. Vischer, Ch. Meystre undA. Wettstein, Helv. chim. Acta38, 1502 (1955).     

Die Einlagerung von radioaktivem Schwefel in die Flügel von Acrididen nach Applikation von35S-Natriumsulfat-und35S-l-Cystinlösungen

Summary Psophus stridulus L. andOedipoda coerulescens L. were fed or injected with solutions of Na ₂ ³⁵ SO₄ and³⁵S-l-cystine. The radioactive radiation pattern of the wings was found to depend on the time of application. Differences in radiation intensity were found to correspond to the red, blue and dark areas.     

Sur l'apparition d'organes variés dans l'ectoblaste, à la suite de la centrifugation de la blastula et de la gastrula chez les Amphibiens

Summary The centrifugation of the Amphibia blastula or gastrula produces in the ectoblastic area the appearance of complexes of ecto- and mesoblastic organs. Experiments of explantations and cultivationin vitro and also of grafts on a normal embryo demonstrate that those very abnormal secundary embryos are formed without any intervention of the normal organizer. The ectoblastic cells that undergo this increase of morphogenetic potential are characterized by a great concentration of ribonucleic acid in their cytoplasm (this part of work in collaboration withJ. Brachet). Those secundary embryos vary greatly in their frequence, their nature, and their location, depending on the stage in which the centrifugation was done. It is supposed that the nature of the organs formed is dependent on the degree of potency attained by the ectoblast at the time when the reaction arises that is produced by the cellular trauma.     

Utilization ofd-tyrosine by vertebrate skin tyrosinase

Résumé Certaines espèces de vertébrés inférieurs convertissent lad-tyrosine radioactive en mélanine par la tyrosinase de la peau. On pense que l'utilisation normale de lad-tyrosine est importante pour la mélanogenèse intégumentale.

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This investigation was supported by U.S.P.H.S. Grant No. CA-07273-04 GM from the National Cancer Institute and White Laboratories, Inc.     

Conformational control of bond migration in the D-homo rearrangement of 17-hydroxy-20-keto steroids

The concept of conformational control of bond migration in the trnsition state to theD-homo-annulation of 17-hydroxy-20-keto steroids appears to provide a unified rationale for the observed phenomena.Contribution from Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N. J., presented before the North Jersey Section of the American Chemical Society byN. L. Wendler as part of a lecture entitledStereochemical Effects Attending D-Ring Rearrangements in Steroids, February 3, 1959.     

Leukozytenemigrationsfördernde Wirkung von Crotonöl

Summary Various croton oil fractions were studied with regard to theirin vitro effect on leucocytes and their irritative action. It was discovered that there exist fractions exerting a stimulating effect on leucytic migration and an irritative action and other fractions having a leucocytic stimulating effect without pronounced irritative action. The co-carcinogenic fractions ofDanneel have no promotory effect on the migration of leucocytes.     

Ein chemisch und pharmakologisch neuartiger Antagonist von pathophysiologisch bedeutsamen Aminen,Kininen und kininbildenden Faktoren

Summary CIBA 21 401-Ba, a glucofuranoside derivative (ethyl-3,5,6-O-benzyl-d-glucofuranoside), antagonizes in vitro the smooth-muscle action of a large number of biogenic amines and polypeptides, the accelerated migration of leucocytes induced by endotoxin, and the Schultz-Dale phenomenon. In vivo, the compound shows anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects and improves the survival rate of infected mice treated with suboptimal doses of a sulphonamide.     

Localization of bovine pancreatic polypeptide (BPP)-like immunoreactivity in rat pancreatic monolayer culture

Summary Antiserum to bovine pancreatic polypeptide (BPP) has been used for immunofluorescent staining in the light microscope. With this technique it is possible to detect the presence of specific cells in monolayer culture from neonatal rat pancreas which contain BPP or a closely related peptide.This work was supported by a grant (No. 3.553.75) from the Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique. We are very grateful to Dr.R. E. Chance, Eli Lilly, for his generous gift of BPP and anti-BPP serum. We are also very obliged to Dr.R. H. Unger for providing glucagon, to Dr.J. Rivier and Dr.R. Guillemin for somatostatin, to Dr.N. Yanaihara for secretin, to Dr.W. Gepts for gastrin and to Dr.A. J. Moody for GLI.     

Reconstruction of a Greek table of chords

Summary R. R. Newton has shown that Ptolemy's table of solar declinations (Almagest I, 15) was not computed from Ptolemy's own table of chords. Newton explains this by assuming that Ptolemy copied his table of declinations from an earlier source, and that originally the table has been computed by means of a less accurate table of chords.In the present paper I shall venture a tentative reconstruction of the method of computation of this ancient table of chords. The clue to this reconstruction is a recursion formula which allows a rapid calculation of the chords belonging to arcs of 1°, 2°, ... in a circle. This recursion formula, which was suggested to me by a verse in the ryabhtya of ryabhata, can be deduced from a theorem of Archimedes concerning a certain sum of chords in a circle. I suppose that this recursion formula was used by Apollonius of Perga in order to obtain a table of chords, and that this table of chords was used by a Greek author (possibly Apollonios himself or Hipparchos) to calculate the table of solar declinations used by Ptolemy. If this hypothesis is adopted, the errors in Ptolemy's table can be explained.     

Gastric mucus effusion elicited by oral copper compounds: Potential anti-ulcer activity

Summary In rats, both Cu(I) and Cu(II) show an irritancy profile not shared with Cu^o or Zn(II) or Ni(II). The gastric response to Cu(II), i.e. copius fluid and mucus secretion, can protect the stomach from the acute ulcerative effects of aspirin or physical stress administered subsequently.to whom all enquiries should be addressed, Supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Austr.) and University of Tasmania Research Commitee.Acknowledgments: ProfessorsW. R. Walker (Newcastle, Austr.) andL. Field (Nashville, Tenn.) for gifts of Cu(I) and Zn complexes;Dr. J. R. J. Sorenson (Cincinnatti, Ohio) for illuminating discussion; Drs.D. D. Perrin (Canberra) andR. P. Agarwal (Washington D. C.) for providing stability constants and much helpful advice.     

Interactions between mechanics and differential geometry in the 19th century

Conclusion 79. This study of the interaction between mechanics and differential geometry does not pretend to be exhaustive. In particular, there is probably more to be said about the mathematical side of the history from Darboux to Ricci and Levi Civita and beyond. Statistical mechanics may also be of interest and there is definitely more to be said about Hertz (I plan to continue in this direction) and about Poincaré's geometric and topological reasonings for example about the three body problem [Poincaré 1890] (cf. also [Poincaré 1993], [Andersson 1994] and [Barrow-Green 1994]). Moreover, it would be interesting to find out how the 19^th century ideas discussed here influenced the developments in the 20^th century. Einstein himself is a hotly debated case.Yet, despite these shortcommings, I hope that this paper has shown that the interactions between mechanics and differential geometry is not a 20^th century invention. Klein's view (see my Introduction) that Riemannian geometry grew out of mechanics, more specifically the principle of least action, cannot be maintained. On the other hand, when Riemannian geometry became known around 1870 it was immediately used in mechanics by Lipschitz. He began a continued tradition in this field, which had several elements in common with the new view of mechanics conceived by the physicists and explicitly carried out by Hertz.Before 1870 we found only scattered interactions between differential geometry and mechanics and only direct ones for systems of two or three degrees of freedom. For more degrees of freedom the geometrical ideas were in some interesting cases taken over by analogy, but these analogies did not lead to formal introduction of geometries of more than three dimensions.     

A history of the axiomatic formulation of probability from Borel to Kolmogorov: Part I

This paper, the first of two, traces the origins of the modern axiomatic formulation of Probability Theory, which was first given in definitive form by Kolmogorov in 1933. Even before that time, however, a sequence of developments, initiated by a landmark paper of E. Borel, were giving rise to problems, theorems, and reformulations that increasingly related probability to measure theory and, in particular, clarified the key role of countable additivity in Probability Theory.This paper describes the developments from Borel's work through F. Hausdorff's. The major accomplishments of the period were Borel's Zero-One Law (also known as the Borel-Cantelli Lemmas), his Strong Law of Large Numbers, and his Continued Fraction Theorem. What is new is a detailed analysis of Borel's original proofs, from which we try to account for the roots (psychological as well as mathematical) of the many flaws and inadequacies in Borel's reasoning. We also document the increasing realization of the link between the theories of measure and of probability in the period from G. Faber to F. Hausdorff. We indicate the misleading emphasis given to independence as a basic concept by Borel and his equally unfortunate association of a Heine-Borel lemma with countable additivity. Also original is the (possible) genesis we propose for each of the two examples chosen by Borel to exhibit his new theory; in each case we cite a now neglected precursor of Borel, one of them surely known to Borel, the other, probably so. The brief sketch of instances of the Cantelli lemma before Cantelli's publication is also original.We describe the interesting polemic between F. Bernstein and Borel concerning the Continued Fraction Theorem, which serves as a rare instance of a contemporary criticism of Borel's reasoning. We also discuss Hausdorff's proof of Borel's Strong Law (which seems to be the first valid proof of the theorem along the lines sketched by Borel).In retrospect, one may ask why problems of geometric (or continuous) probability did not give rise to the (Kolmogorov) view of probability as a form of measure, rather than the study of repeated independent trials, which was Borel's approach. This paper shows that questions of geometric probability were always the essential guide to the early development of the theory, despite the contrary viewpoint exhibited by Borel's preferred interpretation of his own results.     

Die physikalische Kieme der Wasserinsekten

Summary The air stores carried by a number of aquatic insects have: a) a hydrostatic function (Brocher, Oortwijn-Botjes, Thorpe, andCrisp); b) the function of an oxygen store (Ege, de Ruiter et al.) and c) the function of a physical gill (Strauss-Durckheim, Ege, etc.). The fact that oxygen is taken up from water with the aid of an air bubble was demonstrated forNotonecta by comparing the life time of insects with and without physical gill (while replenishing the oxygen store from the air was prevented) byEge, and forCorixa byPopham, whileVlasblom determined the oxygen uptake from water with and without air bubble forNotonecta, Naucoris, Corixa, Sigara andNepa. Nepa andSigara can take up considerable quantities of oxygen by cutaneous respiration.During the summer, the gill function of the air store ofNotonecta andNaucoris is of importance only when a water current passes along the animal, caused by ventilation movements of the legs (de Ruiter et al.). At low temperatures, however, the metabolic rate is so low that in many instances the physical gill provides the oxygen required without ventilation movements.An apparatus for the simultaneous determination of oxygen uptake from air and water (Wolvekamp andVlasblom) gave results that provided a means of evaluating the importance of the physical gill function.In some cases, the air store, although in direct contact with the water, does not need to be replenished. InAphelocheirus andElmis, the negative pressure in the bubble, caused by oxygen consumption and the diffusing out of part of the nitrogen, is compensated for by the mechanical resistance of a feltwork of thin hairs and the surface tension of the boundary layer of the water (Thorpe andCrisp). In the African beetle,Potamodytes, the unprotected air bubble is permanent because the strong river currents produce a lowered pressure around the animal according toBernoulli's principle (Stride).     

Newton and the classical theory of probability

Summary Probabilistic ideas and methods from Newton's writings are discussed in § 1: Newton's ideas pertaining to the definition of probability, his probabilistic method in chronology, his probabilistic ideas and method in the theory of errors and his probabilistic reasonings on the system of the world. Newton's predecessors and his influence upon subsequent scholars are dealt with in §2: beginning with his predecessors the discussion continues with his contemporaries Arbuthnot and De Moiver, then Bentley. The section ends with Laplace, whose determinism is seen as a development of the Newtonian determinism.An addendum is devoted to Lambert's reasoning on randomness and to the influence of Darwin on statistics. A synopsis is attached at the end of the article.Abbreviations PT abridged Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 1665–1800 abridged. London, 1809 - Todhunter I. Todhunter, History of the mathematical theory of probability, Cambridge, 1865 To the memory of my mother, Sophia Sheynin (1900–1970)     

Das Parallelenproblem im Corpus Aristotelicum

Summary In the Corpus Aristotelicum are numerous items suggesting that the assertion of the fifth postulate in Euclid's Elements had been preceded by attempts to demonstrate this postulate itself, or some equivalent fundamental proposition, within the rigorous frame of Absolute Geometry in Bolyai's sense. Thus geometers contemporary with Aristotle tried to solve the problem which became known commonly in later centuries as the Problem of Parallels.Probably these geometers first attempted a direct solution. Only one text at our disposal supports this hypothesis: (1) Anal. Prior. 65 a 4–7. My analysis below in Chapter I shows that a mathematical meaning can be read from this somewhat obscure text only if it is interpreted as an allusion by Aristotle to those geometers who believe they are demonstrating, obviously in an absolute way, the proposition Elem. I 29, equivalent to the fifth postulate, but do not realize that in the process they are using lemmas which result themselves from the proposition to be demonstrated. Such a lemma would assert the uniqueness of the parallels, existence of which was shown in an absolute way in Elem. I 27. My conjecture and reconstruction afford a natural explanation for an inconsequence singular for Book I of the Elements, namely, the presence of the proposition Elem. I 31 in the purely Euclidean part of the book, in spite of the fact that the assertion merely repeats the absolute proposition Elem. I 27 without explicitly containing any Euclidean element.It is probable that the failure of these direct attempts led to an indirect approach to the problem through reductio ad absurdum of some hypothesis contrary to what was to become Postulate V or to some equivalent proposition. Numerous texts survive from which it is clear that geometers contemporary with Aristotle followed fairly far the consequences of an hypothesis contrary to the fifth postulate, obtaining important results which are partly identical with some theorems of Saccheri. Some of these texts attest first of all that what Saccheri called the Hypothesis of the Obtuse Angle had been stated in an independent and explicit way and that the fundamental result, identical with Prop. 14 of Saccheri's Euclides ab omni naevo vindicatus (1733), had been obtained, namely, that within Bolyai's Absolute Geometry this hypothesis leads to the remarkable formal contradiction that parallels intersect. This conclusion followed from two different formulations of the Obtuse Angle Hypothesis: (2) Anal. Prior. 66a 11–14, if the exterior angle (formed by a secant which intersects two parallel straight lines) is smaller than the interior angle (opposite and situated on the same side of the secant), and (3) 66a 14–15, if the sum of the angles in a triangle is greater than 2R. Finally, an item in (4) Ethica ad Eudemum 1222b 35–36 shows us that by investigating the Obtuse Angle Hypothesis, the Greek geometers also discovered the quadrilateral in which the sum of the angles is equal to 8R; this quadrilateral, which does not appear even in Saccheri's book, is the maximal quadrilateral of the Riemann geometry, a quadrilateral degenerated into a straight line closed upon itself (Chapter IV 20).Nowhere in the Corpus does the Hypothesis of the Acute Angle appear in an independent formulation. Nevertheless in (5) Anal. Poster. 90a 33–34 this Hypothesis is mentioned along with the other two: namely, Aristotle states that the essence of the triangle consists in the sum of its angles' being equal to, greater than or less than 2R (Chapter V 27). The formulation of the fifth postulate in the Elements allows greater probability to the conjecture of independent existence of the Acute Angle Hypothesis as well. Indeed, in its original formulation the fifth postulate is redundant, since it unnecessarily specifies in which of the half-planes (bounded by the secant) the intersection of the two straight lines occurs; this specification is itself a theorem. The Acute Angle Hypothesis must have been formulated not only symmetrically to (3) Anal. Prior. 66 a 14–15, that is, the sum of the angles of the triangle is less than 2R, as results from (5) Anal. Poster. 90 a 33–34, but also symmetrically to (2) Anal. Prior. 66 a 11–14. In the latter case the following final conclusion should have been reached in order to reduce to absurdity the Acute Angle Hypothesis: Two straight lines cut by a secant are incident if the sum of the interior angles (on the same side of the secant) is smaller than 2R, and the incidence occurs on that side of the secant where the sum of the angles is less than 2R. In the frame of the Acute Angle Hypothesis, this end conclusion is relevant only if this final specification (concerning the half-plane where the incidence occurs) is explicitly emphasised. According to my conjecture, it was precisely the practical impossibility of reaching this conclusion as a theorem of Absolute Geometry that later determined Euclid to transpose this decisive end conclusion from the Acute Angle Hypothesis, without changing its wording, and to include it among the postulates (Chapter II 13).A queer passage of Proklos (In primum Euclidis Elementorum, ed. Friedlein p. 368, 26–369, 1) in which the Acute Angle Hypothesis is presented in the form of a Zenonian paradox reinforces the conjecture that this hypothesis was studied independently by the ancient geometers (Chapter VI 33). Thus failure to solve the Problem of Parallels preceded not only the later Non-Euclidean geometry but also Euclidean geometry itself.The general undifferentiated Contra-Euclidean Hypothesis appears in the following form in all the other texts examined: The sum of the angles in the triangle is not equal to 2R. This hypothesis is nowhere qualified by Aristotle as being absurd or impossible: On the contrary, he takes it always as being just as much justified a priori as is the Euclidean theorem Elem. I 32 which contradicts it. For instance in (6) Anal. Poster. 93 a 33–35 Aristotle puts the problematical alternative: Which of the two propositions is right (or, which of the two constitutes the Logos, the raison d'être of the triangle), the one that states that the sum of the angles in the triangle is equal to 2R, or on the contrary, the one that states that the sum of the angles in the triangle is not equal to 2R (Chapter V 28)?In a number of texts the theorem Elem. I 32 itself and the general Contra-Euclidean Hypothesis are treated as being a sort of principle, and stress is laid on the idea that the logical consequences of each of these items invariantly preserve its specific (Euclidean or non-Euclidean) geometrical content [(7) 1187 a 35–38 (Chapter IV 18); (8) 1222 b 23–26 (Chapter IV 19); (9) 1187 b 1–2 (Chapter IV 18); (10) 1222 b 41–42 Chapter IV 21); (11) 1187 b 2–4 (Chapter IV 18)]; (12) Physica 200 a 29–30: If the sum of the angles in the triangle is not equal to 2R, then the principles of geometry cannot remain the same (Chapter V 25); (13) Metaph. 1052 a 6–7: It is impossible that the sum of the angles in the triangle be sometimes equal to 2R and sometimes not equal to 2R (Chapter V 24). Finally, the most important item of this sort is to be found in (14) De Caelo 281 b 5–7: If we accept as a starting hypothesis that it is impossible for the sum of the angles in the triangle to be equal to 2R, then the diagonal of the square is commensurable with its side (Chapter III).Another group of texts reveal Aristotle's attitude as regard these Contra-Euclidean theorems: (15) 1222 b 38–39 (Chapter IV 20); (16) 200 a 16–19 (Chapter VI 30); (17) 402 b 18–21 (Chapter VI 31); (18) 171 a 12–16 (Chapter VI 32); (19) 77 b 22–26 (Chapter V 26); (20) 101 a 15–17 (Chapter VI 31); (21) 76 b 39–77 a 3 (Chapter VI 31). These passages reveal Aristotle's conviction that these paradoxical Contra-Euclidean propositions (which cannot be annihilated by reductio ad absurdum) are nevertheless inacceptable as bad, probably because their graphical construction requires curved lines for representing the concept of straight lines.Finally, another group of texts show that Aristotle sensed in a way the necessity of adding to the foundations of Geometry a new postulate, from which the proposition Elem. I 32 should follow rigorously.

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Aram Frenkian zum Gedächtnis

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Vorgelegt von J. E. Hofmann     

Zur Biosynthese des Cantharidins. I

Summary In contrast to the female, the adult males ofLytta vesicatoria (Coleopt. Meloidae) produced radioactive cantharidine on injection with¹⁴C-1-acetate and¹⁴C-2-mevalonate solutions. A partial degradation of the cantharidine showed that in the acetate experiment approximately of the activity occurred at C atoms 2 + 3 whereas with mevalonate approximately of the activity was at C atoms 8 + 9 and at C atoms 10 + 11. These results show that cantharidine is not formed by a tail to tail linkage of 2 isoprene units.

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Wir danken dem Schweizerischen Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung für die Unterstützung dieser Arbeit, Herrn Dr.J. Würsch (Physikalisch-chemische Abteilung der Firma F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. AG, Basel) für¹⁴C-2-Mevalolacton und unserer mikroanalytischen Abteilung (LeitungH. Frohofer) für die Aktivitätsbestimmungen.     

Diketopiperazines containing L-proline from Streptomyces lavendulae and their stereochemistry in solution

Summary l-Valyl-l-proline (I),l-leucyl-l-proline (II),l-phenylalanyl-l-proline (III) andl-isoleucyl-l-proline (IV) anhydrides were isolated from the cultures ofStreptomyces lavendulae No. 314 and, on the basis of¹³C-NMR and CD spectra, their stereochemistry in solution is described.Acknowledgments. The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Prof. H. Ogura, Kitasato University, for kind supply of the authenticl-valyl-l-proline anhydride and to Mr. A. Takakuwa, JASCO, for measuring the CD curves with J-40 automatic recording spectropolarimeter.     

Zur Pharmakologie von Convallatoxol,zugleich ein Beitrag zur pharmakologischen Strukturanalyse von g-Strophanthin

Summary A report is given of the positive inotrope effects of genins and glycosides with one methyl or aldehyde or carbinol group in the C₁₀ atom of the steroid stage, and of the influence of thel-rhamnose compared withd-digitoxose andd-cymarose. A structure analysis of the ouabain and convallatoxol is derived from the differences in the degree of abolition of the acute cardiac damage in the experiments.     

Prelude to dimension theory: The geometrical investigations of Bernard Bolzano

This paper treats Bernard Bolzano's (1781–1848) investigations into a fundamental problem of geometry: the problem of adequately defining the concepts of line (or curve), surface, solid, and continuum. Bolzano's interest in this problem spanned most of his creative lifetime. In this paper a full discussion is given of the philosophical and mathematical motivation of Bolzano's problem as well as his two solutions to the problem. Bolzano's work on this part of geometry is relevant to the history of modern mathematics, because it forms a prelude to the more recent development of topological dimension theory.