98 



NATURE 



[November i6, 



) 1 1 



Zoolosrical Society, October 24. — Sir John Rote 

 Bradford, K.C.MJi., i-.R.S., vicf'-presidont, in iht- chair. 

 — Hruci- !■'. CumminK* : Distant orientation in Hatrachia, 

 based on observations and experiments made by the author 

 in North Devon. Two species of newts had b<'en used for 

 the experiments, and the results obtained lent support to 

 the hypotlusis that these batrachians possessed a hominjj 

 faculty, but no "ery definite instinct for detectinj* water, 

 even from a short distance. Of the factors discussed in 

 connection with amphibian migration, it was sugf»ested 

 that in rt-gard to newts a combination of their ht)minfj 

 faculty and their marked tendency to walk downhill was 

 chiefly of assistance to them in finding water in which to 

 breed. — Oldfield Thomas : Mammals collected in the 

 provinces of Sze-chwan and Yunnan, western China, by 

 Mr. Malcolm .Anderson, for the Duke of Bedford's 

 exploration of eastern Asia. The paper fornv d No. xv. 

 of the series, and would be the last on Mr. Ander- 

 son's specimens, as he was now returning finally to 

 America. During his work on the exploration he had 

 obtained 2700 specimens, besides many birds, and had 

 quite revolutionised our knowledge of the area explored. 

 The present collection, given, as before, to the National 

 Museum by the society's president, consisted of ifio speci- 

 mens, belonging to thirty-three species. — E. P. Stebbingr : 

 Game sanctuaries and game protection in India. The 

 author discussed the question of the formation of game 

 sanctuaries and what had been already done in this 

 direction in various parts of the country. Suggested 

 additions to the proposed New Indian Game Act were 

 given, and " close seasons " for certain species recom- 

 mended as being necessary for the preservation of the game 

 of the country. 



Challenger Society, October 25.— Dr. G. H. Fowler in 

 the chair. — Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson : The scales of 

 the herring as an index to age. In the herring, the rings 

 or zones borne by the scales, which are const.nnt in number 

 for the same individual, and are undoubtedly cuir. I,ii. d in 

 some way with the size and age of the fish, ai.- nut, in 

 the writer's opinion, so simply related to the years of life 

 that the age of an individual fish can be determined with 

 accuracy from an inspection of the scales. In any random 

 sample of herring the frequencies of individuals at centi- 

 metre lengths and of numbers of rings each forms a proba- 

 bility curve grouped about a single mode. Either, then, 

 the shoal is composed of herrings of uniform age and 

 number of rings, or of various ages and ring numbers 

 mixed in a definite and remarkable manner. While, on 

 the usual hypothesis of each scale ring indicating a year 

 of life, the facts may conceivably be e.xplained as due to 

 selective action of the net, the writer considers that it is 

 more probable that the members of a herring shoal are of 

 the same age. — Dr. W. T. Caiman : Phototropism and the 

 distribution of marine organisms (opening of discussion). 



British "svchol"ci-al '■ocietv, November 4. — Dr. 

 Beatrice Edsell and W. Legge Symes : A preliminary 

 note on visual flicker. — Dr. F. Golla : The vestibule and 

 the concept of space. — J. Kay : (i) .Apparatus for 

 McDougall's dotting test; (2) apparatus for weight 

 discrimination. 



Mathematical Society, November 9.— Dr. H. F. Baker, 

 president, in the chair.— J. E. Campbell : The invariants 

 of the linear partial differential equation of the second 

 order in two independent variables. — Colonel R. L. 

 Hippisley r Closed linkages. — H. Hilton : Invariants of 

 a canonical substitution.— G. T. Bennett : The svstem of 

 lines of a cubic surface. — G. H. Hardy and J. E! Little- 

 wood : The relation^ between Borel's and Ceshro's 

 methods of summation. 



Cambridge. 

 ^ Philosoohical Society, October 30.— Sir George Darwin, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., president, in the chair. — G. R. Mines : 

 Note on the mode of discharge of the Cuverian organs of 

 Holothuna nigra. The sea-cucumber, H. nigra, when 

 irritated emits white conical bodies, the Cuverian organs, 

 which rapidly elongate, shooting through the wat-^r while 

 remaining attached at their bases to the anim.Tl. and form- 

 mg long, intensely sticky tubes. These are then discon- 

 nected from the animal. The elongation of the Cuverian 

 organs has been attributed to internal water pressure by 



NO. 2194, VOL. 88] 



some, but by others to an intrinsic activity of m- 

 The former view is strongly supported by the fact 

 s'-nted in this communication. L'ndis<harg<'d Cu 

 organs removed from the body cavity of Holothuria < 

 made to elongate in a manner exactly nvmblin. 

 normal discharge by injecting them with sea water or 

 fluid. The natural discharge of the Cuverian org.) 

 always preceded and accompanied by a rise in the pr^ 

 within the body of the animal, and this pressure r- 

 the value needed to elongate an excised Cuverian 1 

 The arguments which have been adduced in favour 

 intrinsic activity of the Cuverian organs are show 

 further experiments, to lack cogency. .An account ' 

 work will appear shortly in The Quarterly Jrturr 

 Microscopical Science. — Oswald 11. Latter: Th' 

 of spermatozoa by Unio piclnrtnu. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, November 6. — M. Artrand < 

 in the chair. — E. H. Amag^at : The internal presst 

 fluids and the determination of the absolute zero, 

 previous paper the author has defined a function 



(T '^-/Y It is now >hown that the values of 



hydrogen, taken for pressures of i and 3 atmosphere^ 

 taking 273 as the temperature of melting ice on th< 

 lute scale, obey perfectly the law of the square ' 

 volume, and this is not the case if 273-1 or 272 

 assumed. It is possible to look at the problem fi 

 different point of view, and determine the absoluti /.■ : 

 from the condition that, starting with well-deterniiii' 

 coefficients of pressure under i and 3 atmosphere*, tl 

 values of ir should rigorously satisfy the law of the ^quat 

 of the volume. This gives from the data for hydr , . 

 272-983, for nitrogen 272009. and for o.xygen 2720' 

 the absolute zero. — C. Guichard : .A very extended cl 

 triple orthogonal svstems. — J. Meunier : The conditions • 

 production of the Swan spectrum, and on conclusions whi< 

 may be drawn relating to comets which possess this spe 

 trum. The Swan spectrum is regarded as essentially 

 spectrum of oxidation and explosive combustion, and ad<l 

 tional experiments on this point are described. The Swf 

 spectrum denotes not only the presence of a hydrooarbot 

 but also that of oxv^en, and hence oxytren must be prps**! 

 in comets showing this so^ctrum. — .A. Cuill«»t : An indu 

 tion-coil interrupter formed of a nrimary arc. — T. Ouyol 

 The differences of contact potential apparent between 

 metal and electrolytic solutions. — Jacques Danne ai 

 Victor Crtfmieu : The quantity of radium emanation di 

 enrjaged bv one of the springs at Colombi^res-sur-Or 

 H^rault. The amounts of emanation per 10 litres of gi 

 have been determined for three springs. One of thes 

 the Cr^mieu spring, is remarkable on account of the Ian 

 quantity of gas spontaneously evolved — 43.000 litres 

 twenty-four hours. The amount of emanation disendaC* 

 in twenty-four hours from this spring is more than doub 

 that of .Ax (Viguerie) ; and. moreover, since 9> per cen 

 of the gas from the Cr<^mieu snrinr* is carbon dioxide, tl 

 concentration in the radium emanation is readily increasi 

 twenty times by simple treatment with alkaline solution 

 — G. Ter. Gazarian : .A general relation between t! 

 nhvsical properties of bodies: application to der 

 The comparison of physical properties, either at 0° 

 at the boiling point, or at corresponding tempera lui 

 according to Van der Waals's formula, is not altogethj 

 satisfactory ; and in place of these the author propo*'* tl 

 following : at temperatures equally removed fror 

 critical temperatures, the quotients of the numbr: 

 presenting a property for any two bodies whatever 

 linear function of the temperature. This holds for 

 ties, viscositv coefficients, surface tension, the rectiiin' 

 diameter of Cailletet and Mathias, and the latent heat 

 vaporisation. The densities were compared at analogd 

 emperatures (defined as above) of ammonia and pent»B 

 carbon monoxide and pentane, benzene and pentane. acet 

 acid and pentane. — H. Duval : The molecular refraction 

 azo-compounds. The molecular refraction of solutions 

 azo-benzene was found to depend to a certain extent on ti 

 solvent. The ortho- or meta-position of a substitutii 

 group causes too sliglit .n variation in the refraction 



