Huygens at work: Annotations in his rediscovered personal copy of Hooke's Micrographia

It is well known that Hooke's wave theory of light, set forth in his Micrographia of 1665, is viewed as a step towards Huygens's famous theory of light. This view depends mostly on some short remarks given by Huygens in his Traité de la Lumi`ere (1690) and the earlier Projet du Contenu de la Dioptrique (1673). Huygens's personal copy of Micrographia was believed to be lost until found at Braunschweig (Brunswick) University Library by the author three years ago. It is annotated at Observ. IX (pp. 47–67) only, where Hooke deals with his wave theory of light and colours. This article provides a short review of Hooke's theory, and an interpretation of Huygens's annotations, which show clearly the first steps towards the opinions he was to express in his Traité de la lumi`ere, particularly methodological ones. Furthermore, a short comparison is here drawn with Huygens's annotations in his copy of Ango's L'optique divisée en trois livres, which show similar patterns of reasoning.     

On de Movire's solutions of the problem of duration of play 1708–1718

Summary I attempt to solve the enigma of how de Moivre derived his recursion formulae and the formulae for the probability of a duration of exactly n games. I believe that he obtained the latter probability by differencing Nicholas Bernoulli's formula for the probability of ruin and that he obtained the recursion formulae by a simple algebraic method and induction.     

Establishment of a cell line (XTC-2) from the South African clawed toad,Xenopus laevis

Résumé On décrit une méthode pour l'établissement d'une culture de cellules du crapaud a griffes sudafricain,Xenopus laevis, afin de l'infecter avec des arbovirus. Les cellules (XTC-2) ont subi une culture continue pendant 3 ans. Elles ont un nombre diploïde de chromosomes. Elles furent cultivées aux températures de 22°C et de 28°C dans un milieu de culture dilué de NCTC 109 avec 10% de sérum de veau foetal.

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We thank ProfessorD. S. Bertram, Director of the Department of Entomology at the School, for his continued interest; Mr.A. O. Langi for technical assistance and Dr.L. Hamilton, Middlesex Hospital Medical School, London, for supplying theXenopus tadpoles. We are especially grateful to the Wellcome Research Laboratories, Beckenham, for supplying medium NCTC 109, and to Mr.D. J. Richmond of the Laboratories for responding to our request for medium promptly and willingly. The work is supported in part by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Great Britain.     

A chromosome study ofScarites occidentalis (Coleoptera,Caraboidea)

Summary Scarites occidentalis has 2n=41 (females 2n=42), n=19+X₁X₂Y. This multiple sex-chromosome system and other karyotypic characteristics suggest that this species andS. buparius share a recent common ancestor in which the sex trivalent was probably originated.Thanks are due to Dr N. Virkki for his valuable comments and his help with the English, to Dr Ramos and Dr Aparicio for discussion and advice, to Dr F. Hiraldo and M. Mañez for collecting the specimens. This work has been supported by a postdoctoral fellowship of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.     

Seasonal variations in the fertilizing capacity ofBufo arenarum (Amphibia Anura) spermatozoa

Resumen La capacidad fecundante de los espermatozoides deBufo arenarum decae más rápidamente en verano que en invierno. Ello probablemente sea debido a la presencia, durante el invierno, de factores testiculares de protección.

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This work was supported by a grant from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas de la República Argentina and by the Population Council grant No. 71.68 awarded to the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas to be administered by the Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán.

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The author is most grateful to Dr.F. D. Barbieri for his kind discussion and helpful advice in the course of the present study.     

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Botanist

It is argued that Hugo de Vries's conversion to Mendelism did not agree with his previous theoretical framework. De Vries regarded the number of offspring expressing a certain character as a hereditary quality, intrinsic to the state of the pangene involved. His was a shortlived conversion since after the ‘rediscovery’ he failed to unify his older views with Mendelism. De Vries was never very much of a Mendelian. The usual stories of the Dutch ‘rediscovery’ need, therefore, a considerable reshaping.     

Rome and Theistic Evolutionism: The Hidden Strategies behind the ‘Dorlodot Affair’, 1920–1926

In 1918, Henry de Dorlodot—priest, theologian, and professor of geology at the University of Louvain (Belgium)—published Le Darwinisme au point de vue de l'Orthodoxie Catholique (translated as Darwinism and Catholic Thought) in which he defended a reconciliation between evolutionary theory and Catholicism with his own particular kind of theistic evolutionism. He subsequently announced a second volume in which he would extend his conclusions to the origin of Man. Traditionalist circles in Rome reacted vehemently. Operating through the Pontifical Biblical Commission, they tried to force Dorlodot to withdraw his book and to publicly disown his ideas by threatening him with an official condemnation, a strategy that had been used against Catholic evolutionists since the late nineteenth century. The archival material on the ‘Dorlodot affair’ shows how this policy ‘worked’ in the early stages of the twentieth century but also how it would eventually reach the end of its logic. The growing popularity of theistic evolutionism among Catholic intellectuals, combined with Dorlodot's refusal to pull back amidst threats, made certain that the traditionalists did not get their way completely, and the affair ended in an uncomfortable status quo. Dorlodot did not receive the official condemnation that had been threatened, nor did he withdraw his theories, although he stopped short on publishing on the subject. With the decline of the traditionalists’ power and authority, the policy of denunciation towards evolutionists made way for a growing tolerance. The ‘Dorlodot affair’—which occurred in a pivotal era in the history of the Church—can be seen as exemplary with regards to the changing attitude of the Roman authorities towards evolutionism in the first half of the twentieth century.     

Isolation and structure of amplexoside A. A new glycoside fromAsclepias amplexicaulis

Résumé A partir de la racine d'Asclepias amplexicaulis on a isolé un nouveau glycoside de la série prégnane, avec une potentialité d'action anti-cancer. Il possède l'aglycone: 12-cinnamoyl-20-O-acétylsarcostine. Les sucres asclépobiose et digitoxose se trouvent á C-3.

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Part V of Plant Investigations. Part IV, seeD. M. Piatak andK. A. Reimann, Tetrahedron Lett.,1972, 4525; b) This work was supported by grants from the American Cancer Society (IC-26) and its Illinois Division (Seiffert Trust Fund).

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We gratefully acknowledge samples of asclepobiose and sarcostin from Prof.T. Reichstein and his workers.     

Mutation inSchizophyllum commune for resistance top-fluorophenylalanine

Résumé Isolement de mutants résistants à lap-fluorophenylalanine et son analyse chezSchizophyllum communis.

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This is a part of the Ph. D. work carried at the Department of Botany, Queen Mary College, London University, and the author wishes to express here grateful appreciation to ProfessorE. A. Bevan for his guidance in this study.     

Variations of nucleic acid content in the salivary glands ofDrosophila hydei during late larval development

Résumé On a suivi la synthèse de l'ARN et de l'ADN dans les glandes salivaires chezDrosophila hydei. Les données biochimiques sur la teneur en acides nucléiques à différents moments du développement larval semblent indiquer que la synthèse d'une très grande quantité d'ARN a lieu dans les glandes avant la différentiation du troisième stade et aussi avant le commencement de la dernière vague de polyténisation des chromosomes.

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This investigation was supported by C.N.R. (Grant No. 115-0263-01222). We are very indebted to Prof.B. Battaglia for his interest to our work.     

Fluorescence of blood cells of the tunicatesPhallusia mamillata andCiona intestinalis

Zusammenfassung Von den Blutzellen derPhallusia mamillata Cuvier zeigen nur die stark vakuolisierten (compartment cells) im UV-Licht eine stabile blaue Fluoreszenz ( _max =5200 und 4600 Å). Sie ist in den Zellgranula lokalisiert. Bei den Blutzellen vonCiona intestinalis L. tritt dagegen eine gelbe Fluoreszenz ( _max = 5900, 5200 und 4600 Å) auf, die nur von den Vanadocyten ausgeht. Diese Fluoreszenz, welche auch von den Testazellen der Oocyten gegeben wird, geht innerhalb einiger Minuten in die blaue Fluoreszenz über.

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This work has been carried out in the Stazione Zoologica, Napoli (director Dr.P. Dohrn) and in the Istituto di Biologia Generale e Genetica della Università di Napoli (director Prof. Dr.B. de Lerma). —M. de Vincentiis wishes to thank Dr,P. Dohrn for placing at his disposal a working place of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma. —W. Rüdiger thanks sincerely the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bad Godesberg, for providing grants, and Prof. Dr.H.-J. Bielig for his interest.     

Resilin in the lens cuticle of the firefly,Photinus pyralis Linnaeus

Résumé C'est la première fois que de la résiline a été identifiée dans la cornée dePhotinus pyralis Linnaeus.

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I am thankful to Dr.Horace O.Lund for providing facilities in his Department to carry out this work.     

Transmission of the ‘lymphoid tumour’ ofXenopus laevis by injection of cell-free extracts

Résumé La «tumeur lymphoïde» deXenopus laevis est transmissible par des filtrats acellulaires ainsi que par injection des surnageants de centrifugation des extraits de tissus cancéreux à des vitesses qui sédimentent les virus connus jusqu'à présent.

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This investigation was supported by the Fonds National Suisse pour la Recherche Scientifique No. 4411.

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I wish to thank Professor M.Fischberg for his interest in this work and the facilities he provided     

Morphological evidence for electrical synapse of ‘gap’ junction type in another vertebrate receptor

Résumé Une étude des organes tubéreux de grande taille chez un poisson électrique à faible décharge,Sternarchus albiforns a été effectuée en microscopie électronique. Elle a permis d'observer la présence, en plus de la synapse chimique, d'une jonction en «gap» de la synapse électrique.

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Acknowledgments. I am grateful to Dr.T. Szabo for his valuable suggestions. The work was carried out during the tenure of French Govt. Fellowship award to the author who is on leave from Department of Zoology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India.     

Books received

R. P. de Lamanon was trained in theology and philosophy, but he chose the career of a self-taught geologist/naturalist, later adding experimental physics to his skills. Recommended by Condorcet, Secretary to the Académie Royale des Sciences, for the post of ‘Naturaliste’ on La Pérouse's expedition, he carried out delicate measurements at sea requested by the Académie and made two important discoveries: the barometric tide at the equator, and the variation of magnetic intensity with latitude. Killed by natives of Samoa in 1787, his reports were long delayed in publication, inadequately presented, and some even lost. Except for brief recognition by von Humboldt many years later, Lamanon's pioneering measurements have been largely ignored or forgotten. This paper revives his memory.     

Enzymes of non-agglutinable vibrios and their possible role in the development of enterotoxic factor

Résumé Sachant que le facteur entérotoxique peut être développé dans les vibrions non-agglutinables par transfer animal, nous avons déterminé les activités enzymatiques (mucinase, protéase, lécithinase) de ces vibrions. Après ce transfert l'activité lécithinasique a augmenté, et cette activité est semblable à celle d'un virus (V. cholerae). Nous supposons que l'augmentation du facteur entérotoxique est causée par celle de l'activité de la lécithinase.

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Thanks are due to Dr.A. Mondal for help and Mr.Manzar Alam for his secretarial assistance.     

Isolation ofiso-butyropyrrothine along with thiolutin and aureothricin from aStreptomyces sp.

Résumé Une nouvelle espèce de Streptomyces (S. pimprina) produit l'iso-butyropyrrothine avec la thiolutine (l'acétopyrrothine), l'aureothricine (la propriopyrrothine) et un antibiotique antifongique du groupe du polyène (heptaène).

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Our thanks are due to Dr.M. J. Thirumalachar for his interest in this work.