Sept. 28, 1876] 



NATURE 



477 



factorily on the whole, though there is reason to fear that its 

 provisions have been disregarded in certain places. A few 

 prosecutions in the coming year may be useful. The East 

 Riding Justices have, with the assent of the Home Secretary 

 extended the close time on the Yorkshire coast from August 

 I to August 15. 



Dr. M'Kendrick read the report of the committee On Intes- 

 tinal Secretion and Movement. The conclusions to which the 

 Committee had come were — First, that the application of various 

 soda and potash salts to the intestinal mucous membrane pro- 

 duced a more or less profuse secretion, that caused by sulphate 

 of magnesia, acetate of potash, sulphate of soda, and tartrate of 

 potash and soda being most abundant ; second, that the presence 

 in the intestines or in the blood of atropia, morphia, chloral, &c., 

 did not prevent the abstraction of sulphate of magnesia ; third, 

 that the splanchnic nerves were, as usually admitted, the vaso- 

 motor nerves of the intestines, but either had no centrifugal fibres 

 to their muscular coats or affected them only indirectly by dimi- 

 nishing their supply ; fourth, the secretory nerves of the intes- 

 tines had the small ganglia of the solar and superior mesenteric 

 plexuses for their centres, and this secretion was unaffected by 

 the splanchnics, the vagi, or the dorso-lumbar parts of the 

 cord ; fifth, destruction of the lumbar part of the cord after 

 extirpation of the solar plexus produced haemorrhage, or hyper- 

 aemiaof the intestinal mucous membrane, which was absent after 

 the division of the splanchnics, destruction of the semilunar 

 ganglia and solar plexus, or division of the mesenteric nerves 

 themselves ; and sixth, the splanchnics were the afferent nerves 

 for peristalsis of the intestines, the efferent stimulus probably 

 reaching its intraparietal ganglia through the lumbar cord and 

 the abdominal sympathetic, the effect of the former being inhibi- 

 tory and the latter stimulating to these ganglia. 



Mr. Heywood read the Report of the Commiteee on the 

 Metric System. It pointed out that while the House of 

 Commons had legalised the metric system for contracts and 

 general purposes, no provision was mide for the verification of 

 the standards by the authorities, the consequence of which was 

 that they could not be used in this country as they were liable to 

 be seized. The Committee recommended that steps should be 

 taken to have the we'ghts and measures verified in the same 

 manner as those of the imperial system. They regretted the 

 striking out of the Education Code of the clause introduced by 

 Mr. Forster referring to the metric system, and hoped it would 

 be re-introduced. The report also entered into the question of 

 the decimalisation of coinage. 



The Report of the Commiitee on the Use of Steel for Structural 

 Purposes, stated that after repeated correspondence with the 

 Board of Trade, with the view of getting them to settle the con- 

 ditions under which steel may be used, Colonel Yolland, R.E., 

 Sir John Hawkshaw, F.R.S., and Mr. W. H. Barlow, F.R.S., 

 had been appointed by the Board of Trade to endeavour to 

 arrange these conditions. 



Mr. Symons, secretary of the Rainfall Committee, read their 

 Report to Section G. for the past year, from which it appeared 

 that the rainfall of 1874 was slightly below the average, owing to 

 a rather dry spring and exceedingly dry summer. The most re- 

 markable feature of the year was the heavy fall of rain on 

 October 6, when the average fall over England and Wales was 

 slightly above i inch in the 24 hours, and the fall at most 

 stations in North Wales and the Lake District was upwards of 5 

 inches. So heavy a fall over so large an area was rare. The 

 rainfall of 1875 was greatly above the average in England 

 (especially in the Midland Counties), and irregular in Scotland 

 and Ireland. A very heavy rainfall occurred in Wales and 

 Southern England on July 14, the fall in 24 hours exceeding i 

 inch at 252 stations, 2 inches at 109, 3 inches at 39, 4 inches at 

 7, and 5 inches at 3 stations. The Committee reported last year 

 the success of their efforts to improve the geographical distribu- 

 tion of rainfall stations in Ireland, showed that the gauges started 

 at the cost of the Association had been supplemented by many 

 others established at the cost of private individuals, and gave a 

 map showing the present complete distribution of stations. 

 Almost all the observers have proved good ones, and the returns 

 had been forwarded with regularity. The period was too short 

 to yield precise results, but a good system had been inaugurated 

 and was in full operation. The Committee felt they had done 

 service to rainfall work. When they commenced their labours, 

 the weakest part of rainfall observations was the defective geo- 

 graphical distribution of the stations. This defect had now been 



materially lessened. By the grants of the Association nearly 

 250 gauges had been erected in districts hitherto without 

 observations. 



Mr. Bramwell asked what the Committee meant to do in the 

 future. 



Mr. Symons said he understood the Association wished to 

 discontinue its grant to the Committee, and that the connection 

 between the two should now cease. This he very much regretted, 

 because if anything happened to himself he did not see how the 

 work of the past could be maintained. Mr. Symons added that 

 we had now in this country a system of observations which was 

 the admiration of all countries. America and other countries 

 were copying us. The system now embraced something like 

 2,000 stations, so scattered that it was scarcely possible to drop 

 a man down in any place where he would be more than four or 

 five miles from a rain-gauge. The consequence was, that when 

 hydraulic and waterworks questions turned up, data were almost 

 always available which did not exist ten years ago for ascertain- 

 ing tfie quantity of water which could be collected from any 

 given gathering ground. With reference to the future mainten- 

 ance of the system it simply rested with himself. 



It was ultimately stated by the President that the Sec- 

 tional Committee considered the time had now arrived 

 when this work should be taken up in a larger public 

 spirit, and consequently that the grant hitherto made should 

 now cease. This recommendation was made in the confident 

 expectation that those who had hitherto so greatly benefited 

 by the laborious and successful work carried on by Mr. 

 J. S. Symons for the Association, would come forward and 

 make the work of the Rainfall Committee their own. The 

 Committee had also to record its most hearty thanks to that 

 gentleman for his valuable services, which had proved so im- 

 portant to many branches of science, and had redounded to the 

 credit of the British Association. 



Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher gave the report of the Committee on Mathe- 

 matical Tables. He stated that the whole of the theta function 

 tables 0° to89° (360 pp.) were now completed, and a copy taken 

 from the stereotype plates was exhibited to the Section. He also 

 gave an interim report of the Committee on mathematical notation 

 and printing. The Committee had met and agreed to several sug- 

 gestions with regard to notation, but it seemed desirable to post- 

 pone the report till next year, when the report on printing would 

 be ready. 



Mr. R. B. Hayward read the report of the Committee 

 upon the improvement of geometrical teaching ; it stated that 

 the Committee approved generally of the syllabus issued by the 

 Association for the improvement of geometrical teaching, although^ 

 they criticised some few portions of it. 



SECTION A. — Mathematical and Physical. 



One of the papers which excited the most attention was by 

 Prof. Osborne Reynolds, On the Resistance encountered by Vortex 

 Rings, and the Relation between the Vortex Rings and the Stream- 

 lines of a Disc. It was illustrated by many most interesting 

 experiments relating to the motion of vortex rings in a large 

 trough of water. The following is an abstract of the paper : — 



The comparatively small success which has attended nearly all 

 attempts to refer the various movements of fluids to fundamental 

 laws may, I think, be attributed principally to our being in 

 ignorance of many most important circumstances of motion 

 attending the phenomena with which we wish to deal. 



We can see the way in which the surface of a fluid moves, but 

 of the internal motions observation affords us no idea, we having 

 no sense by which to perceive them. Accordingly, such steps 

 as have been made towards success for the most part relate to 

 surface phenomena, or to movements which have been rendered 

 apparent by accident. My object, on the present occasion, is to 

 describe certain results which have been obtained by colouring 

 portions of the water within a tank so as to render them visible. 

 These results are somewhat striking, and I venture to think that 

 they are in some respects in advance of what has been hitherto 

 taught ; but they are now brought forward rather as illustrations 

 of tne importance of the method of study than on account of 

 their own value. 



The Cause oft/ie Resistancetothe Motion of Solids through Water 

 not known. — The development of the theory of stream lines with 

 which the name of the late Prof. Rankine is so intimately con- 

 nected, has been a great advance, from the theoretical side, in the 

 study of fluid motion. This theory, however, only applies 



