282 



NATURE 



\yuly 27, 1876 



the fact that the barometer can only fall beyond the level due to 

 the above-named differences when more air is carried awray in 

 the upper regions than comes in below. In this case the gra- 

 dient is steeper at great altitudes than on the earth's surface, 

 depending upon the strength of the up-draught, which is strongest 

 in winter. — In the Kleinere Mittheilungen there is an article by 

 Dr. Hann, on the cyclone of October 15, 1874, in Bengal, and 

 one by Baron v. Friesenhof, on barometric maxima and minima 

 in 1873 and 1874. 



Nachrichten von der Konigl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 

 GottingeiJ, Nos. 22, 23, 24, 1875. — In these numbers will be 

 found an account of some comparative experiments by M. 

 Marme, on the poisonous action of arsenious acid and of arsenic 

 acid. Doses of the two acids containing equal amounts of 

 arsenic (or with a little more in the arsenic acid dose), and 

 diluted with water, were given to animals as similar as possible 

 in age, weight, &c., being introduced directly into the circula- 

 tion, or into the stomach, or the connective tissue. The symp- 

 toms are detailed. Without exception, the doses of arsenious 

 acid proved more rapidly fatal than those of arsenic acid. The 

 acid salts behaved similarly to the free acids. The fact is against 

 Munck and Leyden's view, that arsenious acid in the blood is 

 oxidised to arsenic acid, and that only as such it dissolves the 

 blood-corpuscles, and causes fattening of various tissues and 

 organs. The authors think it probable that when arsenic acid 

 is mtroduced into the blood it is reduced to arsenious acid, and 

 therefore its action appears more slowly. They further describe 

 some experiments on the use of toxical substances to counteract 

 arsenic acids. — M. Wohler describes the properties of a fluorine 

 mineral from Greenland, named " Pachnolith." — The remaining 

 papers are mostly on chemical subjects, the principal one being 

 by M. Hubner, on two nitro-salicylic acids and their employ- 

 ment in determining the nature of the hydrogen atoms in benzol. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Geological Society, June 21. — Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. Hector Maclean and Mr. 

 Samuel Trickett were elected Fellows, and Dr. L. Riitimeyer, 

 of Basle, a Foreign Correspondent of the Society. — The follow- 

 ing communications were read : — i. On the Ice-fjords of North 

 Greenland and on the formation of fjords, lakes, and cirques in 

 Norway and Greenland, by M. A. Helland. Communicated by 

 Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. The author described in great 

 detail his observations on the glacial phenomena of Greenland, 

 and applied their results to the consideration of the traces of 

 glacial action exhibited in Norway. His view of the course of 

 events in Norway is as follows : — Before the Glacial epoch 

 thousands of streams commenced the work of erosion and pro- 

 duced valleys. During the Glacial epoch these valleys were 

 enlarged and lake-basins were hollowed out. The descending 

 glaciers ground out fjords to their full length wlien the Glacial 

 epoch was at its highest, but as it declined the glaciers ground 

 out the inner part to a still greater depth, producing the present 

 characters of the marine fjords, and giving rise to lake-hollows 

 in other places. That the glaciers once extended beyond the 

 fjords is shown by moraine-matter being dredged up. Some of 

 the sea-banks and islands off Christiania-fjord are old moraines ; 

 and if Norway should be raised 400 metres, these banks would 

 show as moraines and plains before the lake-basins of the fjords. 

 2. On the drift of Brazil, by Mr. C. Lloyd Morgan. The 

 author described the position and mode of occurrence of large 

 boulders of gneiss and granite in the red drift of Brazil and on 

 the slopes of hills even at considerable elevations, and stated 

 that, like Prof. Agassiz, he could not see how these could have 

 been transported to their present positions except by the agency 

 of ice. He is inclined to believe that the drift, if of glacial 

 origin, was not formed by glaciers taking their rise in any of the 

 peaks indicated by him, but by an almost universal South- 

 American ice-sheet. — 3. Recent glacial and aqueous action in 

 Canada and the drift-uplands of the Province of Ontario, by the 

 Rev. Wm. Bleasdell. Communicated by the President. The 

 author described the glacial action which takes place every 

 winter in Canada, especially on the River St. Lawrence and its 

 large lakes. — 4. The glacial climate and the Polar ice-cap, by 

 Joseph John Murphy. The author agrees with Mr. CroU in 

 thinking that a Glacial epoch must be one of maximum eccen- 

 tricity of the earth's orbit, and that the northern and southern 



hemispheres during such an epoch must be glaciated alternately ; 

 but he maintains in opposition to that writer that the glaciated 

 hemisphere must have its summer in aphelion. He intends this 

 paper to be a reply to Mr. CroU's objections to this theory as 

 put forth in his work on " Climate and Time." — 5. On the dis- 

 covery of plants in the Lower Old Red Sandstone of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Callander, by R. L.Jack and R, Etheridge, jun., 

 of the Geological Survey of Scotland. The plant-remains are 

 described as being of a very fragmentary nature. The authors 

 discuss the relationships of these remains with other described 

 Devonian forms, and regard them as most nearly allied to Psilo- 

 phyton princeps, Dawson. They describe the plant with doubt 

 as a species of Psilophyton. — 6. On an adherent form of Pro- 

 ductus and a small Spiriferina from the Lower Carboniferous 

 Limestone Group of the East of Scotland, by R. Etheridge, jun., 

 E.G. S., of the Geological Survey of Scotland. From the con- 

 sideration of the characters presented by the more mature valves, 

 the author stated that the nearest affinity of the species of Pro- 

 ductus appears to be with P. wrightii, Dav., but that it shows 

 peculiarities allying it to P. longispimis, Sow., P. scabriculus. 

 Mart., and P. undatus, Defr. He was not prepared to describe 

 it as a distinct species, but suggested for it the name of Pro- 

 ductus complectens, in allusion to its embracing habit, in case of 

 its proving to be distinct. The Spiriferina described by the 

 author was compared by him with S. cristate, Schl., var. oclo- 

 plicata, Sow., and with S, insculpta, PhilL, from both of which 

 it differs in certain characters ; but as only one specimen has 

 been met with, he refrained from founding a new species upon 

 it. The specimen is from Fullarton Quarry, near Temple, 

 Edinburghshire. — 7. Notice of the occurrence of remains of a 

 British fossil Zeuglodon {Z. wanklyni, Seeley) in the Barton Clay 

 of the Hampshire coast, by Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S. In 

 this paper the author described the remains of a species ef Zeug- 

 lodon obtained by the late Dr. A. Wanklyn from the Barton 

 Cliff, consisting of a great part of the skull, about the same size 

 as that of Zaiglodon brachyspondylus, Miiller. The species, 

 named Z. wanklyni in memory of its discoverer, differs from all 

 known species of the genus in the shortness of the interspaces 

 between the teeth. — 8. On the remains of Emys hordwellensis, 

 from the Lower Hordwell beds in the Hordwell Cliff, contained 

 in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge, 

 by Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S. The remains described by the 

 author consist of some fragments constituting the greater part of 

 the plastron and carapace of a species of Emys, for which he 

 proposes for the species the name of Emys hordwellensis. — 9. Ou 

 an associated series of cervical and dorsal vertebrae of Polyptycho- 

 don from the Cambridge Upper Greensind in the Woodwardian 

 Museum of the University of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, 

 F. L. S. The author described in detail the structure of the atlas and 

 axis and of the five succeeding (cervical) vertebra ; nine dorsal 

 vertebrse were also described. — 10 On Crocodilus icenicus 

 (Seeley), a second and larger species of crocodile from the Cam- 

 bridge Upper Greensand contained in the Woodwardian Museum 

 of the University of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S. 

 ir. On Macrurosaurus semnus (Seeley), a long-tailed animal 

 with proccelous vertebrse, from the Cambridge Upper Green- 

 sand, preserved in the Woodwardian Museum of the University 

 of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S., F.G.S. 

 (To be continued.) 



Geologists' Association, July 7. — Mr. William Carruthers, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Part ii. of the geology of Brigh- 

 ton, by Mr. Howell. — On the British Palaeozoic Arcadse, by J. 

 TiOgan Lobley, F.G.S. — It was admitted that any classification of 

 the Lamellibranchiate fossils of the Palaeozoic rocks must be liable 

 to considerable subsequent modification since the generic position 

 ofmanyspecies onaccountofimperfectpreservation cannot be given 

 with certainty. American palseontologists had added largely to 

 our knowledge of Palaeozoic Arcadse, and the recent investigations 

 of Mr. Hicks had extended the known stratigraphical range of 

 this family as well as of the class Lamellibranchiata. The author, 

 objected to the retention in Arcadae of sinupallial genera, and 

 proposed that these should constitute a new group, the Ledidcc. 

 After eliminating several of the generic names which had been 

 employed by authors, the genera allowed to stand were separately 

 described, and the species by which they were represented in 

 British Palaeozoic rocks enumerated. The stratigraphical distri- 

 bution of these species was shown by two tables, with which the 

 paper concluded. 



Entomological Society, July 5. — Prof. Westwood, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. Douglas exhibited some rare British 



