January 4, 19 12] 



NATURE 



137 



I 



The annual meeting of the Association of Public School 

 Science Masters will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, 

 January lo and ii, at the London Day Training College, 

 Southampton Row. The president this year is Sir J. J. 

 Thomson, and the meeting promises to be of unusual 

 interest. The e.xhibition of scientific apparatus, books, 

 and new experiments will probably be the largest the 

 association has yet brought together, and several subjects 

 :n the programme should promote lively discussion. 

 During Wednesday afternoon Messrs. M. D. Hill and 

 E. J. Lewis will read short papers on " Chemistry and 

 Physics as a necessary Introduction to Biology " and 

 " Plant Biology " respectively. Dr. Ludlam will also dis- 

 cuss the educational value of " Qualitative analysis." 

 Sir J. J. Thomson will deliver his address on Thursday 

 at eleven, and will be followed by Mr. C. E. Ashford, on 

 " The Place of Electrostatics in a Science Course." On 

 Thursday afternoon there will be a discussion, commenced 

 by Mr. G. F. Daniell, on " Practical Examinations in 

 Science." Mr. A. Vassall will also read a short paper on 

 " Educational Psychology." On Wednesday evening there 

 will be a dinner at the Trocadero in conjunction with the 

 Mathematical Association. The secretary asks us to state 

 that the discussions and exhibition are open to anyone 

 interested in science teaching. 



The following courses of advanced lectures, which are 

 free to students, in scientific subjects have been announced 

 for delivery in connection with the University of London 

 during the first term of 1912. Eight lectures on " The 

 Self-government of the Pueblo Indians under Spanish and 

 American Administration " will be given by Miss Barbara 

 Freire-Marreco at the London School of Economics and 

 Political Science on Thursdays at 3 p.m., beginning on 

 January 25. Five lectures and one demonstration on 

 " Genetics " will be given by Prof. F. Keeble at the 

 Imperial College (Royal College of Science) on Thursdays 

 at 5 p.m., beginning on January 18. Dr. W. N. Shaw, 

 F.R.S., will lecture on " The Meteorology of the Globe " 

 at the Meteorological Office, South Kensington, on 

 Fridays at 5 p.m., beginning on January 19. Four lectures 

 on " Recent Work in Physiology relating to the Circula- 

 tion and to the Nervous System, with Special Reference 

 to the Human Subject," will be given by Dr. A. D. 

 Waller, F.R.S., in the Physiological Laboratory, South 

 Kensington, beginning on Tuesday, January 23, at 5 p.m. 

 Fourteen lectures on " The Haemoflagellates " will be 

 given at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, 

 Chelsea, by Prof. E. A. Minchin, F.R.S., on Tuesdays 

 and Fridays at 5 p.m., commencing on Tuesday, 

 January 16. Four Chadwick lectures on " Water and 

 Water Supply " will be given by Sir Alexander R. Binnie 

 at the Institution of Civil Engineers on Thursdays, 

 beginning on February i, at 5.30 p.m. Five lectures 

 entitled " A Study of Johne's Bacillus of Cattle and the 

 Lepra Bacilli of Man and Rats " will be given, under the 

 will of the late Mr. Thomas Brown, by Mr. F. W. Twort, 

 superintendent of the Brown Animal Sanatory Institution, 

 in the Theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields, W.C., on Monday, January 8, and the four 

 following days, at 4 p.m. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Dublin. 

 Royal Dublin Society, December 19, 191 1. — Mr. R. Lloyd 

 Praeger in the chair. — Prof. James Wilson : The inherit- 

 ;mce of the dun coat-colour in horses. In a previous paper 



-the inheritance of coat-colour in horses — published in 

 iijio (Sc. Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc), it was shown that 



he ordinary colours fit into each other like a nest of 

 '"hinese boxes, chestnut being innermost, and then, coming 



n succession, black, bay, brown, dun, and grey and roan. 



The data concerning dun were few, and its position was 

 merely suggested in a footnote. More data — 500 to 600 

 cases — have since been collated, and these confirm the 

 former placing. From this it follows that dun cannot be 

 a " reversion, since it can result only from dun matings 

 and occasionally from grey and roan. The author dis- 



ussed the history of the idea that dun is a reversion. It 

 probably originated in Lord Morton's quagga-crossing 



NO. 2201, VOL. 88] 



" experiments," and in Dr. Macdonald's criticism of these 

 (both published by the Royal Society). Hamilton Smith's 

 theory that horses are descended from five original stripes 

 did not require a reversion theory; but Darwin's theory, 

 expressed tentatively, that horses are descended from a 

 single dun-coloured and striped species, required one, and 

 to him mainly are we indebted for the opinion that dun is 

 a reversion. Darwin relied upon Lord Morton's descrip- 

 tion of the foals his chestnut mare bore after her quagga 

 hybrid, and on three other cases. Lord Morton said that 

 one of the chestnut mare's foals had a faint dun tint in 

 two places, and Darwin called two of them " partially 

 dun " — later writers have called them dun altogether. 

 These foals, however, were ordinary bays, and the other 

 three cases were undoubted misdescriptions. Data are 

 collected in the present paper from various stud-books, 

 and these are confirmed by the progeny of two homo- 

 zygous dun sires which were stationed recently on Clare 

 Island, on the coast of Mayo. — E. A. Newell Arbor : Con- 

 tributions to our knowledge of the floras of the Irish 

 Carboniferous rocks. Part i. — The Lower Carboniferous 

 (Carboniferous Limestone) flora of the Ballycastle Coal- 

 field, Antrim. Of the seven species recorded from this 

 coalfield, Adiantites antiquus (Ett.), Sphenopteris flabellata, 

 Baily, Lepidodendron Veltheiini, Sternb., and L. Volk- 

 mannianum, Sternb., are the more important. The 

 evidence of the flora points to the conclusion that the coal- 

 field is of Lower Carboniferous age, and that the rocks 

 belong to the higher, or Carboniferous Limestone, horizon 

 of the Lower Carboniferous. 



Calcutta. 



Asiatic Society of Bengal, December 6, 191 1 G. R. 



Kayo: A brief bibliography of Hindu mathematics. This 

 is a list of works dealing with the history of Hindu mathe- 

 matics. It is professedly incomplete, and it is difficult to 

 decide what ought and what ought not to be included. 

 This list requires amplification, particularly in the matter 

 of Sanskrit texts and manuscripts. The original Hindu 

 works do not go beyond the time of Bhaskard (twelfth 

 century a.d.), as, after this period, Hindu mathematical 

 works cease to have any historical interest. — Rev. H. 

 Hoston : Father A. Monserrate's " Mongolicae Legationis 

 Commentarius." This precious manuscript, after passing 

 successively through Fort William College, the Calcutta 

 Public Library, and the Imperial Library, was transferred 

 in 1903 to St. Paul's Cathedral Library, where the Rev. 

 W. K. Firminger discovered it. It must have belonged 

 formerly to one of the Jesuit houses of Goa. How it came 

 to Calcutta it is impossible to say. The earliest account 

 of northern India by a European since the days of Vasco 

 de Gama, the manuscript contains a detailed history of 

 the first Jesuit mission to Akbar, and more than 100 pages 

 are consecrated to Akbar's campaign against Kabul in 

 1 58 1-2. There is in it an excellent map, drawn to scale, 

 showing all the places passed through by Monserrate 

 between Goa, Surat, Agra, Labor, and Kabul (1580-2). 

 It appears from the preface that Monserrate was the 

 author of four distinct works :— (i) " Mongolica; Lega- 

 tionis Commentarius"; (2) a work on the geography and 

 natural history of India; (3) a history of his journey to 

 Ethiopia ; (4) a work on the geography and natural history 

 of Arabia.— Prafulla Chandra Ray and Rasik Lai Datta : 

 Contributions from the Chemical Laboratory, Presidency 

 College. AUylammonium nitrite. A short paper dealing 

 with the preparation and properties of aliylammonium 

 nitrite. The substance was made by double decomposition 

 of allylamine hydrochloride and silver nitrite. Allylamine 

 nitrite is a thick brownish liquid with the characteristic 

 smell of all alkylamine nitrites.— J itendra Nath Rakahit : 

 Contributions from the Chemical Laboratory, Presidency 

 College. Preliminary note on sodiumdiacetamide. This 

 note deals very shortly with the method of preparing 



CHj.Co'^ 

 Acetamide (purified by recrystallisation from benzene), 

 anhydrous thiophene, free benzene, and freshly cut metallic 

 sodium were boiled together under a reflex condenser for 

 twenty or thirty minutes, when a copious crop of white 

 crystals separated.— B. L. Chaudhurl : Fresh-water 



