November 25, 1897J 



NATURE 



93 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Chemical Society, November 4. — Prof. Dewar, President, 

 in the chair. The following papers were read : — On the 

 properties of liquid fluorine, by i*rofs. Moissan and Dewar 

 (see page 82). — ^The liquefaction of air and the detection of 

 impurities, by Prof. Dewar. The author has devised an apparatus 

 for ascertaining the proportion of any gas in air that is not con- 

 densible at about -210^ C. under atmosphere pressure, or is not 

 soluble in the liquid air produced ; the air to be examined is 

 cooled in a tube immersed in a reservoir, which can be con- 

 tinuously replenished with liquid air boiling under diminished 

 pressure. The gas which does not condense under these con- 

 ditions can be subsequently collected and examined, or the 

 liquefied portion of the air can be boiled in the condensing tube 

 and the gas collected over mercury. On thus condensing 70 

 litres of the gas issuing from the King's Well at Bath, which 

 Rayleigh has shown to contain o 12 per cent, of helium by 

 volume, a liquid was obtained which, when boiled, gave off first 

 a gas containing about 50 per cent, of helium. It is concluded 

 that helium is less soluble in liquid nitrogen than hydrogen is in 

 liquid air, and that by proceeding as above helium can be 

 separated from a gas in which it is present to the extent of only 

 one part per thousand ; it would seem, further, that hydrogen and 

 helium have about the same volatility. — The absorption of 

 hydrogen by palladium at high temperatures and pressures, by 

 Prof. Dewar. The author, after summarising his previous work 

 on the absorption of hydrogen by palladium, describes experi- 

 ments made with the object of ascertaining whether the metal 

 absorbs the gas at high temperatures and pressures ; palladium 

 does not absorb hydrogen under atmospheric pressures at above 

 145° C. A rod of palladium, weighing 119 grams, and occupy- 

 ing loc.c, was placed in a gas-tight steel cylinder, connected 

 with a manometer, a compressed hydrogen cylinder, and a blow- 

 off cock ; the vessel containing the palladium could be heated in 

 a bath of fusible metal. It was found that the palladium absorbed 

 ■ over 300 times its volume of hydrogen at 420" under 80 atmo- 

 spheres pressure, whilst it absorbed 300 times its volume of the 

 gas at 500°. under 120 atmospheres. The experiments have led 

 '^ to the deduction of a number of interesting thermal constants for 

 the absorbed hydrogen. — On some yellow vegetable colouring 

 matters, by A. G. Perkin. The Rhus rhodanthema, a tree in- 

 digenous to New South Wales, contains fisetin, CijHj^Og, 

 and a glucoside of fisetin, CsgHjoOig resembling fustin, 

 the fisetin glucoside present in R. cotinus. — Naphthylureas, 

 by G. Young and E. Clark. The mononaphthylureas 

 may be prepared by treating the naphthylamine hydrochlorides 

 with potassium cyanate, and readily become converted into the 

 symmetrical dinaphthylureas. — Benzoylphenylsemicarbazide, 

 preliminary notice, by G.Young and H.Annable. Benzoylphenyl- 

 semicarbazide exists in three different forms, melting at 202- 

 203°, 205-206°, and 210-211° respectively. — Sulphocamphylic 

 acid, by W. H. Perkin, jun. From the results of an investiga- 

 tion of sulphocamphylic acid, the author assigns the following 

 probable constitutions to isolauronolic and isolauronic acid 

 respectively : — 



CMe.CMe.,.CH., CMe.CMe„.CHo 



and 



CH,.C.COOH 



CO- 



-C.COOH 



Geological Society, November 3. — Dr. Henry Hicks, 

 F. R.S., President, in the chair. — The Secretary announced that 

 Lady Prestwich had presented to the Society a half-length por- 

 trait in oils of the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, painted by Mr. 

 W. E. Miller. — Mr. W. W. Watts gave details of some interest- 

 ing geological features recently exposed at the new sewerage 

 works at Carshalton, Surrey, now being made by the Urban 

 District Council. These excavations are situated at a spot 

 which on the Geological Survey map is coloured as London 

 clay ; and the features of the ground fully justified this colour- 

 ing. The excavations, however, have shown that there are 

 loamy and sandy beds of a light yellow colour, some 14 or 15 

 feet in thickness, and apparently occupying a hollow in the 

 London clay. At the base these sandy beds become dark and 

 clayey in some places, and include flints and pebbles, while 

 below this is the London clay. In the dark pebbly layer were 

 found a large skull, a piece of a tusk, and a number of smaller 

 bones, which Mr. E. T. Newton has determined to be a piece | 



of elephant-tusk, the skull (31 inches long) of Rhinoceros anti- 

 quitatis with some of its limb-bones ; while the smaller bones 

 represent two or perhaps three horses. Although the teeth of the 

 rhinoceros are wanting, the skull is otherwise very perfect ; and, 

 bearing this in mind, as well as the fact that certain of the limb- 

 bones were also found, and that Elephas is represented by the 

 tusk, and all three (it is said) at a depth of 14 or 15 feet, little 

 room is left for doubting that we have here at Carshalton a 

 Pleistocene deposit of a somewhat unusual character, and at a 

 spot where it was not before suspected. Mr. Whitaker, who 

 was responsible for the geological mapping of this district, 

 pointed out how the general configuration of the district gave 

 no clue to the presence of this deposit of loamy sand, which 

 occurred on a gentle slope, and that even now it was only pos- 

 sible to mark it on the map as an oval patch round the ex- 

 cavations with uncertain boundaries. The drift shown, more- 

 over, differs from that of the neighbourhood in that the latter 

 is essentially gravel, while the former is sand, with loamy beds, 

 but, as a rule, not stony, so that there are no surface-indications 

 of gravel. The mammalian remains are now preserved in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology. — Lieut. -General McMahon 

 having taken the chair, the President made a communication 

 regarding very similar deposits to those above described occur- 

 ring in north-western Middlesex. Some years ago he described 

 sections in glacial drift on the Hendon plateau exposed during 

 sewerage operations. More recently the sewers have been 

 carried on at lower levels between Hendon and Edgware, and 

 numerous remains of the mammoth and rhinoceros have been 

 found resting on an eroded surface of London clay, and covered 

 over by about 7 feet of stratified sands and gravels and brick- 

 earth. These deposits were found to spread out for consider- 

 able distances over the plain, and to be cut through also by the 

 Silke stream, a tributary of the Brent. This area has hitherto- 

 been supposed to consist almost entirely of London clay, but 

 the sections have now shown that the brick-earth which, in many 

 respects, simulates the London clay, is underlain by deposits- 

 which must be classed as of Pleistocene age. — The President 

 then resumed the chair, and Mr. H. B. Woodward called atten- 

 tion to a block of quartzite from Criccieth in Carnarvonshire, 

 which had been sent for exhibition by Mr. G. J. Day. The 

 rock contained a band of disrupted clayey material which pre- 

 sented on the surface of the block a rude resemblance to hiero- 

 glyphics. He thought that the curious structure had been pro- 

 duced on a sea-shore bounded by clay clifls, where a film of 

 mud had been spread over the sands ; and that the mud had 

 dried and curled up before other layers of sand had been ac- 

 cumulated on the top of it. Similar phenomena might be pro- 

 duced at the present day on the Cromer coast, where thin films 

 of mud were in places spread over the sands of the sea-shore. 

 It had been suggested that the appearances in the Criccieth 

 stone might have been produced in the original deposit during 

 the irregular solidification of the sand and its included layer of 

 mud. The rock itself w.as regarded by the President as probably 

 derived from the Harlech grits, in which he had observed some- 

 what similar features. — Mr. Bauerman, as one of the three 

 delegates appointed by the Council on behalf of the Society to 

 attend the recent International Geological Congress, held at 

 St. Petersburg, gave a short account of the work of the Con- 

 gress, dwelling more particularly on the excursion to the Ural 

 Mountains, in which he had taken part. — The following com- 

 munication was read : A contribution to the palaeontology of the 

 decapod Crustacea of England, by the late James Carter. This 

 paper deals mainly with the Brachyura. The author describes 

 several new species belonging to the genera Nephrops, Gebia, 

 Honiolopsis, Raniita, Mithracia, Neptuiius, Actaopsis, and 

 Goniocypoda. The genera Gebia, Raiiina, and Neptunus have 

 not been previously recorded from British rocks. Diattlax is 

 for the first time identified from the Tertiary strata, a single 

 specimen having been found in the Middle Headon. Platypodia 

 Oweiii, Bell, is now referred to the genus Diattlax ; and PaLco- 

 corystes Broderipi, Bell, to the genus Eiuorystes. As a result 

 of the care/ul study of large series of specimens in various col- 

 lections, the author is able to give much additional information 

 concerning the morphology of several species. 



Zoological Society, November 16. — Dr. Albert Giinther, 

 F. R.S., Vice-President in the chair. — The Secretary read some 

 notes, made by Mr. A. Thomson, Head-Keeper, on the breed- 

 ing of two species of Glossy Ibis (Plegadis guaraima and P. 

 falcinellus) in the Society's Gardens, and made remarks on the 

 differences in their plumages. The Secretary also exhibited an 



NO. 1465, VOL. 57] 



