December 28, 191 1] 



NATURE 



O^J 



I record, the leaflet points out, the opinion that universities, 

 !' in making provision for the training of agricuhural 

 experts, are doing not only a national but an imperial 

 work, and onf» of the recommendations was to the effect 

 that it would assist in the provision of suitable agricultural 

 experts for the development of British tropical and sub- 

 tropical colonies it a readership or lectureship on tropical 

 igriculture were established at one or more British uni- 

 versities. Nothing has yet been done to carry out this 

 proposal. Mr. Simpson urges the pressing necessity for 

 the step, and suggests that the Imperial College of Science 

 I and Technology should by all means be the first place at 

 I which such an urgently needed lectureship is instituted. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December 20. — Dr 

 II. N. Dickson, president, in the chair. — W. garden : 

 Solar halos and brocken spectres. The author described 

 some phenomena round the sun which he had observed at 

 St. .Moritz in the Engadine. These included (i) brilliant 

 lolours not arranged in rings ; (2) a series of rings ; (3) the 

 large halo of 22° radius ; and (4) parhelia, &c. He gave 

 a description of a complicated system of halos and parhelia 

 which he had observed on one occasion at Silvaplana in the 

 Hngadine. — W. H. Dines : The statical changes of 

 l):-essure and temperature in a column of air that accom- 

 pany changes of pressure at the bottom. It appears on 

 investigation that the changes will depend on the mannrr 

 in which the change at the earth's surface is produced, 

 and also upon the initial vertical distribution of tempera- 

 ture. Furthermore, it is necessary to assume that the air 

 column is bounded laterally by some rigid boundary, other- 

 wise the pressure produced at any given height could not 

 be maintained. The place of such a boundary is probabiv 

 taken in nature by the lateral acceleration of strong winds, 

 although we do not know how such winds are originated. 

 W'e do know, however, that in the lower strata the differ- 

 nces of pressure that occur are, on the average, just 

 iialanced by this acceleration, and we may reasonably infer 

 that it is also the same ar higher levels. Mr. Dines stated 

 that the term " ascending current of a cyclone " has been 

 used, but it appears to be incorrect. The actual pheno- 

 mena seem rather to be a bulging upward of the strata 

 between i or 2 km., and the isothermal a bulging down- 

 ward of the strata above the isothermal, accompanied with 

 a lateral expansion of the strata below the isothermal. 



Manchester. 



Literary ond Philosophical Society, December 12. — 

 Prof. F. E. Weiss, president, in the chair. — L. E. Adams : 

 The duration of life of the common and lesser shrew, with 

 some notes on their habits. The author shows that his 

 recent observations on the moults and habits of shrews 

 confirm his theory that all adult shrews die in their second 

 autumn. His conclusion is based on the following 

 ' vidences : — (i) all individuals examined during and shortly 

 after December were sexually immature ; (2) the genitalia 

 are not atrophied as winter approaches; (3) adult shrews 

 do not moult into winter pelage ; (4) the measurements of 

 a large number of shrews show that a maximum size is 

 reached in summer. In his notes on habits, from observa- 

 tion of a captive shrew, he refers to the extraordinarv 

 appetite, the nature of the food accepted or rejected, the 

 mode of burrowing, and the limited power of sight. — T. A. 

 Coward : A note on the little owl. Carina noctua 

 'Sropoli), and its food. Mr. Coward contends that the 

 irlier records of the occurrence of this bird in Britain are 

 i'lmdod on doubtful evidence, and do not justifv its 

 inclusion in the British list as an occasional wanderer from 

 the Continent. The bird is charged with being destructive 

 to game. The examination of regurgitated pellets throws 

 no light on this assertion, but provides interesting informa- 

 tion about its food. The author referred also to the food 

 of the southern little owl, C. glaux, mentioning especially 



the discovery of portions of a galeodes in its pellets. He 

 suggests that the inorganic matter in the pellets may be 

 due to the bird's habit of eating earthworms. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, November 20.— Prof. Hudson Beare. 

 vice-president, in the chair.— Dr. John Brownlee : Point 

 binomials and multinomials in relation to Mendelian dis- 

 tributions. The author showed how the moments about 

 the centre of gravity for any distributed expression such as 

 might arise in Mendelism could be calculated. The general 

 theorem is that if the distributed expression consists of a 

 series of factors, and if the moments of the complete ex- 

 pression be denoted by fi^, /x^, /j.^, and those of the factors 

 of which it Is made up by 



then 



Cif Cs' C i- C'-2< Ci- C'i, &c., 



NO. 2200, VOL. 88] 



By this means the moments of any complex expression 

 such s i3-f i)"(i t ^)"'(i -hi)'-, u. Ill, >■ \>. n^ inuger.>, could 

 easily be calculated, and any continuous curve which arose 

 in the crossing of two characters which were capable of 

 quantitative measurement could be analysed, (i) For pure 

 Ijiending or ns .-u.ri as ^I -t- 1 )'li +0+ . . . -f i)*" arise; 

 (2) for blending with partial dominance, iforms like 

 (i + o-I-2 + o-ho+ 1)"; (3) for dominance, forms like either 

 i,j-fi";, having the dominant elements all coming from 

 • •■ e >'■ e, or (3+ i)''(i + 3 •' if so many come from both 

 blendings ; for both these forms the second moment is 

 identical if p + q = n, and thus the standard deviation would 

 afford a true measure of comparison even between 

 symmetrical and asymmetrical distributions ; {4) if coupling 

 occurred either internal or external there arise forms like 

 (I 4- 2(>i - 1) + I )^ (;/ - I + 2 + M - I)*", wheie « - 2^ — \\. 

 Gordon and G. H. Gulliver : The influence of the ratio 

 of width to thickness upon the apparent strength and 

 ductility of flat test bars of soft steel. The bars were 

 rectangular in section, with a uniform thickness of a 

 quarter of an inch, and widths varying from half an inch 

 to four inches. Neither elasticity nor ultimate strength 

 was appreciably influenced by change of section, but the 

 ductility as measured by the percentage of extension was 

 found to vary considerably. For a fixed gauge-length of 

 8 inches the extension increased as the ratio of width to 

 thickness varied from 2 to 7, remained sensibly constant 

 as the ratio varied from 7 to 12, and then rose as it varied 

 from 12 to 16. The extreme difference of extension was 

 10 per cent., or nearly one-half the extension of the 

 narrowest bar. For a variable gauge-length equal to 

 ii-3v^area, similar results were obtained, but the extreme 

 difference of extension was only 2 per cent., or about one- 

 fourteenth of the extension of the narrowest bar. These 

 peculiarities wore found to be connected with the changes 

 of section in the neighbourhood of the constriction. — Prof. 

 Sutherland Simpson: Observations on the body tempera- 

 tures of some diving and swimming birds. The large 

 number of birds examined included the storm petrel, 

 cormorant, razorbill, guillemot, grebe, gannet, gull, kitti- 

 wake, &c. There were eighteen different species found in 

 the Orkneys, the Firth of Forth, and in and around 

 Cayuga Lake, New York, U.S.A. In all cases in which 

 the sex was determined the rectal temperature was slightly 

 lower in the male than m the female. Of the orders 

 examined, the highest temperatures were found in the 

 Longipennes, the lovkfest in the Tubinarcs. The series 

 arranged accoi'ding to body temperature did not run 

 parallel with the zoological series.— Dr. Thonin>i Muir : 

 The theory of . irculants from 1861 to 1880. 



December 4.— Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S., vic.-prosident, 

 in the chair. — Dr. J. Stephenson : lirrtiicluura sowcrbyi, 

 Beddard, and on a new species of Limnixlrilus with dis- 

 tinctive characters. From specimens found in India the 

 author was able to add to our knowledge of the former 

 species, of w)iich only a limited number of specimens had 



