February 24, 1898] 



NA rURE 



407 



F. RS., described a new species of sea-snake from Borneo, 

 which he proposed to name Hydrophis Jloiueri, after Mr. Stanley 

 Flower, its discoverer. Mr. Boulenger also gave an account of 

 the reptiles and batrachians lately collected by Mr. W. F. H. 

 Rosenberg in Western Ecuador. Seventy-seven species were 

 enumerated, of which twenty-three, viz. eleven reptiles and 

 twelve batrachians, were described as new. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, January 24. — Mr. F. Darwin, 

 President, in the chair. — A new method in combinatory 

 analysis with applications to Latin squares and associated 

 questions, Major P. A. Macmahon, R.A. , F. R.S. The author 

 applies the theory of symmetric functions to obtain solutions, 

 hitherto unachieved, of problems in combinatory analysis as- 

 sociated with the question of Latin squares. — On Abelian func- 

 tions in connection with two-dimensional fluid motion, H. F. 

 Baker. — On the production of a cloud by the action of ultra- 

 violet light on moist air, C. T. R. Wilson. If the light from 

 an arc lamp be brought to a focus, by means of a quartz lens, 

 within a vessel containing moist dust-free air, a bluish fog be- 

 comes visible in the course of a few minutes along the path of 

 the light. The cloud particles remain in suspension for hours 

 after the light has been cut off. The phenomenon is shown 

 even in unsaturated air, but the faint blue haze which then 

 develops takes much longer to form. When the radiation is 

 not sufficiently intense to show these effects, a dense fog can 

 still be obtained by bringing about slight supersaturation by 

 expansion. These clouds, unlike those obtained by Tyndall 

 [Phil. Trans., 160, p. 333, 1870) and by Aitken {Edin. Trans., 

 39, I. p. 15, 1897) by the action of light on various vapours, 

 are due to the ultra-violet rays alo^e ; for if a thin sheet of 

 glass or mica (substances which are opaque to these rays) be 

 interposed, not a trace of fog or rain is formed even when a 

 high degree of supersaturation is brought about by expansion. It 

 is possible that the small particles to which the blue of the sky 

 is due are the result of this action of the ultra-violet rays, of 

 which sunlight, when it first enters our atmosphere, doubtless 

 contains a plentiful supply. — On the use of logarithmic co- 

 ordinates in physics, J. H. Vincent. The paper divides all 

 curves into " translatants " and "non-translatants." As ex- 

 amples of the former, Mr. Boys' chart of wave and ripple 

 velocities is referred to, and an impedance chart is constructed. 

 Non-translatants are not in general suited to this method of 

 plotting. By suitable devices the logarithmic homologue of the 

 equation for the propagation of waves on a frozen sea is drawn, 

 although this is a non-translatant. The paper concludes with 

 suggested uses of tri-dimensional logarithmic coordinates and 

 semi-logarithmic coordinates.— On the diffuse reflection of 

 Rontgen rays. Prof. J. J. Thomson. The paper contains the 

 theory of the electromagnetic effects produced by suddenly 

 setting an electrified body in motion. It is shown that a thin 

 pulse of intense electromagnetic disturbance is generated which 

 travels outwards with the velocity of light. The magnitude of 

 the magnetic force at a point P due to the pulse is when the 

 velocity w of the particle is small compared with the velocity 

 of light equal to we sin e/2ar, where 2a is the diameter of the 

 particle O, e the change on the particle, r the distance PO, 

 and e the angle between OP and the direction of motion of the 

 particle. Using the theory of the Rontgen rays given by the 

 author in the Phil. Mag., February 1898, the result just quoted 

 is applied to find the intensity of the radiation scattered when 

 Rontgen rays are incident on a collection of positively and 

 negatively electrified bodies. The intensity of the scattered 

 rays in a direction making an angle 6 with the incident ray 

 varies as (i -f cos^ 61). So that the intensity of the scattered 

 light when 6 = would be twice that when = ir/2. Photo- 

 graphs taken by the scattered rays in these two positions 

 showed that there was little, if any, difference of intensity in 

 these directions. This result indicates that the scattered 

 Rontgen radiation is probably more nearly allied to fluorescence 

 than to the scattering of light by small particles. Experiments 

 were made on the absorption of the light diffusely " returned" 

 (to use Sir George Stokes' phrase) from lead and platinum by 

 thin sheets of platinum and red lead ; these showed that there 

 was no strong selective absorption by thin platinum of rays 

 scattered from platinum, or by lead of rays scattered from lead. 

 A mathematical investigation is given to show that in the case 

 of rapidly damped radiations selective absorption would not be 

 exhibited. 



NO. 1478. VOL. 57] 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, February 14. — M. Wolf in the 

 chair. — On certain singular examples of successive approxima- 

 tions, by M. Emile Picard. —On the masses of the planets, by 

 M. E. Roger. — Remarks on a note by M. Anceaux. Of the three 

 laws given in this note, the first only is rigorously exact, the 

 second is an approximation, and the third a consequence of the 

 two others. — Rhum^ of the solar observations made at the Royal 

 Observatory of the Roman College during the second half of 

 1897, by M. P. Tacchini. Observations are given for the dis- 

 tribution of sunspots, protuberances, and faculK — On the ex- 

 tension of the decimal system to the division of the day and the 

 circle ; advantages and practical methods, by M. J. de Rey 

 Pailhade. — On the singular Abelian functions, by M. G. 

 Humbert. — On some general algorithms, and on iteration, by 

 M. Lemeray. — On the surfaces which admit an infinite, discon- 

 tinuous group of birational transformations, by M. P. Painleve. 

 — Deformation of metals, by M. Mesnager. — ^Direct measure- 

 ment of the period of the Hertzian oscillations, by M. L. 

 Decombe. Photographs of the explosive spark from a revolving 

 mirror showed that it is possible to fix on a gelatino-bromide 

 plate oscillations of which the period is less than a five-millionth 

 of a second. The necessary conditions were a very high velocity 

 of rotation of the mirror, the employment of a collimating lens, 

 in the focal plane of which the spark is placed, of very small 

 focal length. The results obtained confirmed the theory of 

 Poincare and Bjerknes, according to which the radiations emitted 

 are of one wave length only. — Emission of secondary rays in air 

 under the influence of the X-rays, by M. G. Sagnac. It is 

 shown experimentally that air through which the X-rays are 

 passing gives off secondary radiations capable of affecting an 

 electroscope. This phenomenon is comparable to the emission 

 of light by a liquid containing a small quantity of a fluorescent 

 substance in solution during the passage of a luminous bundle. — 

 On a new contact-breaker for induction coils, by M. V. Cremieu. 

 The ordinary form of contact-breaker used in induction coils is 

 attended with the inconvenience that the oppositely induced 

 electromotive forces are not symmetrical. This difficulty is 

 overcome by the apparatus described, but at the expense of a 

 larger amount of energy, since to obtain a spark of a given 

 length the electromotive force of the primary circuit must be 

 double that required by the ordinary form. — On a crystallised 

 hydride of dicamphene, by MM. A. tard and G. Meker The 

 dry hydrochloride of terebenthene is fused and sodium added ; a 

 hydrocarbon C20H34 can be obtained from the product of the 

 reaction. It is noteworthy as being one of the few terpenes ob- 

 tainable in the crystallised state. — Action of cyanamide upon 

 bromanil in presence of potash, by M. H. Imbert. The sub- 

 stance obtained appears to be the potassium salt of dicyanimino- 

 dibromo-dioxyquinone. — Researches on organic phosphorus, by 

 M. J. Jolly. The experiments given tend to show that phos- 

 phorus does not exist in the organic molecule in an unoxidised 

 state. — The production of carbon monoxide in the blood after in- 

 halations of chloroform, by M. L, de Saint- Martin. In at- 

 tempting to confirm the statement of MM. Degrez and Nicloux 

 that prolonged inhalation of chloroform produces carbon monoxide 

 in the blood, the author finds that normal blood, treated in a 

 vacuum at 40°, with an organic acid, also gives off small quan- 

 tities of carbon monoxide — On the oxydase of Botrytis cinerea, 

 by M, J. Laborde. A study of the effect of this oxydase upon the 

 fermentation of grapes, with especial reference to the decolorisation 

 of the wine. — Tuberculosis and pseudo-tuberculosis, by MM. 

 Bataillon and Terre. The authors have previously described a 

 form of the tubercle bacillus capable of existing in cold-blooded 

 animals, such as the frog. A third form of this bacillus, origin- 

 ally human, has now been obtained after a passage of three days 

 in the frog. On solid media this form grows rapidly at tem- 

 peratures between 12° and 48°, and is distinguished from the 

 form previously described by three points : appearance of 

 cultures, power of easily developing at high temperatures, and 

 rendering beef-broth turbid. The colonies on the potato are 

 brownish, and the bacilli are not stained by the methods of Gram 

 or Ehrlich. Experiments on animals led to the conclusion that 

 many cases of pseudo-tuberculosis are in reality true tuberculosis, 

 having as a cause one of the numerous forms of Koch's bacillus. 

 — The parasites of cancer and sarcoma, by M. F. J. Bosc. As 

 a result of the examination of numerous tumours it was found 

 that the abnormal formations foreign to the tissues could be 

 grouped under five morphological types : microbial forms, 

 granulations, cellular forms of very variable origin, encysted 



