December 2, 1897] 



NATURE 



119 



partridges {Perdix cineiea) were exhibited, which had been shot 

 by him on the Berwyn Mountains in Wales early in October 

 last. It was remarkable that in the covey, which consisted of 

 nine birds, no less than five of them were white, four only being 

 of the normal colour. — Mr. Hamilton Leigh exhibited the skull 

 of a red deer recently shot by him in Scotland, in which there 

 was a singular distortion of the pedicel, resulting from an ancient 

 fracture of the left temporal bone. — A paper by Prof. A. 

 Dendy, of Canterbury College, N.Z. , was read, on Pontobolbos 

 Manaarensis (gen. et. spec, nov.), a problematical cushion- 

 shaped marine object, measuring from 13 to 36 mm. in trans- 

 verse diameter, found attached to rocks in shallow water in the 

 Gulf of Manaar, of which he had received fifteen specimens 

 among a collection of sponges sent to him by Mr. Edgar 

 Thurston, Superintendent of the Madras Museum. The object 

 was found to be concentrically laminated and to contain cal- 

 careous material, and a " ground-substance," the various micro- 

 chemical reactions of which were carefully described, and which, 

 if protoplasmic, yielded no traces of nuclear structures. Minute 

 algce were also detected, and in the deeper layers foreign particles 

 in the form of sand-grains. The predominant component was 

 found to be a dense feltwork of minute filaments, for the most 

 part radially arranged and destitute of contents, which after pro- 

 longed study the author had come to regard as bacterial. Com- 

 parison was instituted between these filaments and certain 

 Schizophyta, and between the entire object and certain cal- 

 careous algoid " pebbles," described by Murray, from Michigan 

 and elsewhere, as also between it and the gigantic Rhizopod 

 Loftiisia (Carp, and Brady) ; and as an admittedly tentative 

 conclusion, the author, anxious to record the existence of so 

 remarkable an object, inclined to the belief that it may be a 

 symbiote involving some gigantic rhizopod undetermined and a 

 bacterial organism. Prof. Howes, in reading the paper, sub- 

 mitted some microscopic sections of the object which had been 

 made at South Kensington from material sent him by the author. 

 He pointed out that spicules apparently of sponges could be 

 detected among the foreign particles ; and remarked that to him 

 and his colleagues at the Royal College of Science it appeared 

 that while bacteria were present, algal filaments were over- 

 whelmingly predominant, and that the evidence for the supposed 

 presence of a gigantic rhizopod was exceedingly slender. In 

 this criticism he was supported by Mr. George Murray, who had 

 also examined the material, and who, after considering the com- 

 parison with the afore-mentioned "pebbles," put forward a 

 suggestion of probable similarity to the algal " pseudomorphs " 

 apparently parasitic on sponges, first recorded by Carter in the 

 Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist, for 1878. — Mr. F. Chapman read 

 a paper on Haddonia, a new genus of Foraminifera, from 

 Torres Straits. He explained, with the aid ot lantern-slides, 

 that Haddonia is a calcareo-arenaceous type, of the sub- 

 family Lituolina (of Brady). 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, November 22. — Demonstration of 

 the influence of uranium rays upon the formation of clouds, by 

 Mr. C. T. R. Wilson. The effect was clearly seen by the 

 members of the Society present. — Exhibition of models of the 

 regular and semi-regular solids, by W. W. Taylor. Mr. Taylor 

 exhibited and explained the construction of a large number of 

 solids, the star solids having very various forms. — Partial 

 differential equations of the second order, involving three in- 

 dependent variables and possessing an intermediary integral, by 

 Prof. Forsyth. The author discussed the theory of these 

 equations and developed it to the same extent as the corre- 

 sponding theory in the case of two variables had already been 

 developed. In particular, he dealt with the equations which 

 are the extension of the Monge-Boole form ; and he obtained a 

 class of equations which is the generalisation of the class dis- 

 covered by Goursat : they possess an intermediary integral, 

 though not of the general functional character appropriate to 

 the Monge-Boole equation. — The harmonic expression of the 

 daily variation of solar radiation, and the annual variation of 

 its coefficients, by Mr. R. Hargreaves. — On the fifth book of 

 Euclid's elements, by Dr. M. J. M. Hill. — Electrification of 

 newly prepared gases, by Mr. J. S. Townsend. This paper 

 contained an account of experiments which were applied to find 

 the charge on the individual carriers of the electricity in charged 

 gases, and also the velocity of the carrier when acted on by an 

 electric force. The results of experiments on diffusion show 

 that the charge will not diffuse through porous earthenware 



NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



with the gas. — On a chemical effect produced by the impact of 

 kathode rays, by Prof. J. J. Thomson and Mr. Skinner. 

 Aluminium is rapidly evaporated from the kathode by an 

 electric discharge in a highly exhausted vacuum tube in which 

 air has been replaced by mercury vapour. The metal is con- 

 densed over the walls of the tube in the form of a bright mirror. 

 An iron kathode gives a similar mirror in a mercury vapour 

 discharge tube. When the aluminium coating is dissolved off 

 the wall of the bulb by hydrochloric acid a gelatinous membrane 

 remains which gives the reactions of silica. When potassium 

 vapour is used the glass opposite the aluminium kathode is 

 roughened. In parts sheltered by screens from the discharge 

 the glass is not attacked. In potassium vapour the aluminium 

 kathode is not evaporated to any marked degree. Opposite the 

 kathode both in the mercury vapour and potassium vapour 

 bulbs a dark annular stain of the shape of the kathode is formed. 

 This stain resists the action of strong hot hydrochloric acid, 

 nitric acid, aqua regia and potash solution. The action of 

 hydrochloric acid removed it apparently by dissolving the glass. 

 The tests indicate carbon, but the quantity of the stain is too 

 small to make certain. The stain is also formed on screens of 

 mica, quartz and calcite. Monatomic gases appear to permit 

 the evaporation of aluminium, as Prof. Callendar has observed 

 its evaporation in an argon vacuum tube. — On the effect of zinc 

 and other metals on a photographic plate, by Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson. In the course of a discussion at the Cavendish 

 Physical Society on Dr. Russell's paper on the photographic 

 effect produced by certain metals, Sir George Stokes suggested 

 that possibly light might be thrown on the question as to 

 whether these effects were due to radiation or to the vapour of 

 the metals, if photographs were taken with a stream of air 

 flowing between the metal and the photographic plate. In 

 consequence of this suggestion a series of the photographs made 

 by zinc and amalgamated zinc (l) with nothing but air between 

 the zinc and the photographic plate, (2) when the zinc was 

 covered with a film of celluloid, were taken both with and 

 without an air blast. The photographs with the air blast were 

 found in both cases to be distorted, which is in favour of the 

 view that the effects on the photographic plates are due to the 

 vapour of the metals. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, November j6. — Mr. 

 J. Cosmo Melvill, President, in the chair. — Mr. Joyce showed 

 a small pocket form of voltmeter of the permanent magnet class. 

 It is contained in an old-fashioned watch case, the first example 

 having been made by Mr. Joyce in 1885. The present in- 

 strument is wound to read to three volts, a reading much required 

 in a cell tester for users of secondary batteries. In order to 

 make the case quite smooth outside, the terminals are formed of 

 two spring chucks contained inside the instrument and capable 

 of gripping any wire from No. 24 to No. 18 B.W.G. Instru- 

 ments have been made reading to 120 volts total. — The President 

 communicated a paper by Mr. Peter Cameron, entitled " De- 

 scriptions of two new species of Mutilla from South Africa," 

 the specimens being exhibited at the meeting. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, November 22. — M. A. Chatin in the 

 chair. — On the Leonids, by M. J. Janssen. No special increase 

 above the ordinary number of shooting stars was observed on the 

 night of November 13-14, either in Paris or at San Francisco. 

 It is suggested that next year arrangements should be made to 

 secure, impossible, the spectra of some of these bodies. — On the 

 automatic registration of the calorific intensity of the solar radia- 

 tion, by M. A. Crova. Two self- registering instruments of the 

 pattern previously described when placed side by side yield iden- 

 tical curves. Owing to the delicacy of adjustment, however, 

 this class of instrument is only suitable for an observatory, the 

 necessity for a more portable type leading to the construction of 

 the instrument described in the present paper. This consists essen- 

 tially of a thermo-electric couple, in circuit with a self register- 

 ing aperiodic galvanometer. The practical trials of this acti- 

 mometer at the Meudon Observatory, and on Mount Blanc, have 

 been quite satisfactory. — On certain questions relating to the 

 problem of Dirichlet, by M. A. Liapounoff. — On completely 

 orthogonal systems in any space whatever, by M. G. Ricci. — 

 On the theory of infinite transformation groups, and the integra- 

 tion of partial differential equations, by M. Jules Beudon. — On a 

 method of registering photographically thermal radiations, by M. 



