The Kingdom of ManLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
The Kingdom of Man
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
African trypanosomiasis; Human beings; Science -- History
_Bacillus radicola_, the parasite which infests the roots of
leguminous plants and causes the growth of nodules whilst
assisting the plant in the assimilation of nitrogen: (_a_)
Nodule of the roots of the common Lupine, natural size; (_b_)
longitudinal section through a Lupine root and nodule; (_c_)
a single cell from a Lupine nodule showing the bacteria or
bacilli, as black particles in the protoplasm, magnified 600
diameters; (_d_) bacilli from the root nodule of the Lupine;
(_e_) triangular forms of the bacillus from the root nodules of
the Vetch; (_f_) oval forms from the root nodules of the Lupine;
(_d e f_) are magnified 1,500 diameters.]
_Physiology of Plants and Animals._--Since I have not space to do
more than pick out the most important advances in each subject for
brief mention, I must signalize in regard to the physiology of plants
the better understanding of the function of leaf-green or chlorophyll
due to Pringsheim and to the Russian Timiriaseff, the new facts as to
the activity of stomata in transpiration discovered by Horace Brown,
and the fixation of free nitrogen by living organisms in the soil
and by organisms (_Bacillus radicola_) parasitic in the rootlets of
leguminous plants (see fig. 32), which thus benefit by a supply of
nitrogenous compounds which they can assimilate.
Great progress in the knowledge of the chemistry of the living
cells or protoplasm of both plants and animals has been made by the
discovery of the fact that ferments or enzymes are not only secreted
externally by cells, but exist active and preformed _inside_ cells.
Büchner’s final conquest of the secret of the yeast-cell by heroic
mechanical methods--the actual grinding to powder of these already
very minute bodies--first established this, and now successive
discoveries of intracellular ferments have led to the conclusion
that it is probable that the cell respires by means of a respiratory
‘oxydase,’ builds up new compounds and destroys existing ones,
contracts and accomplishes its own internal life by ferments. Life
thus (from the chemical point of view) becomes a chain of ferment
actions. Another most significant advance in animal physiology has
been the sequel (as it were) of Bernard’s discovery of the formation
of glycogen in the liver, a substance not to be excreted, but to be
taken up by the blood and lymph, and in many ways more important
than the more obvious formation of bile which is thrown out of the
gland into the alimentary canal. It has been discovered that many
glands, such as the kidney and pancreas and the ductless glands, the
suprarenals, thyroid, and others, secrete indispensable products into
the blood and lymph. Hence myxœdema, exophthalmic goitre, Addison’s
disease, and other disorders have been traced to a deficiency or
excess of internal secretions from glands formerly regarded as
interesting but unimportant vestigial structures. From these glands
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