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NA TV RE 



[March 3; 1898 



Mce- Presidents, Profs. Liveing and J. M. Thomson, vice 

 Mr. L. Mond and Prof. Roberts-Austen ; as Hon. Secre- 

 tary, Dr. W. P. Wynne, vice Prof J. M. Thomson ; as 

 ordinary Members of Council , Messrs. E. J. Bevan, H. J. 

 Fenton, W. Gowland and D. Howard, vice Messrs. B. H. 

 Brough, J. W. Rodger, T. K. Rose, and Prof S. Young. 

 The following papers were read : — Observations on the influ- 

 ence of the silent discharge of electricity on common air, by 

 W. A. Shenstone and W. T. Evans. Air, when exposed to the 

 action of the silent discharge, first contracts considerably and 

 then expands to nearly its original volume; this is thus ex- 

 plained. Up to a certain stage in the ozonisation of atmo- 

 spheric oxygen, no nitric peroxide is formed, but after this point 

 is reached, nitric peroxide is produced, and ozone is rapidly 

 decomposed by the silent discharge in presence of nitric peroxide, 

 which is itself at the same time destroyed. — Some lecture ex- 

 periments, by J. T. Cundall. The author describes lecture 

 experiments illustrating the laws of conservation of mass and of 

 gaseous diffusion. — Note on the preparation and properties of 

 ^-chlorobromobenzene, by J. J. Dobbie and F. Marsden. 

 Orthochlorobromobenzene is a straw-coloured liquid boiling at 

 204° under 7J65 mm. pressure. — The ultra-violet absorption 

 spectra of some closed chain carbon compounds, by W. N. 

 Hartley and J. J. Dobbie. The absorption of ultra-violet rays 

 by diketohexamethylene, pyrrol, thiophene, furfurane, furfurol, 

 pyromucic acid and furfuramide has been examined ; the ab- 

 sorption is in some cases very intense, but no absorption bands 

 indicating selective absorption are observed. — Note on the 

 absorption bands in the spectrum of benzene, by W. N. 

 Hartley and J. J. Dobbie. — A chemical examination of the 

 constituents of Indian and American podophyllum, by W. R. 

 Dunstan and T. A. Henry. The constituents of Indian podo- 

 phyllum {Podophyllum emodi) and of American podophyllum 

 \P. peltatiim) are identical ; the chief constituent is podo- 

 phyllotoxin, CijHj^Os ; the latter on hydration yields podo- 

 phyllic acid CisHj^Oy, which forms a lactone, picropodophyllin, 

 which is probably the hydroxycarboxylic acid of dimethoxy- 

 methylphenyl-hydro-7-pyrone. An uncrystallisabie resin, podo- 

 phylloresin, was also isolated. — The volatile constituents of 

 the wood of Gotipia toinentosa, by W. R. Dunstan and T. A. 

 Henry. — On oxycannabin from Indian hemp, by W. R. Dunstan 

 and T. A. Henry. — On the condensation of formaldehyde with 

 ethylic malonate and on cis- and trans- tetramethylene- 

 dicarboxylic acids (l : 3), by E. W. Haworth and W. H. 

 Perkin, jun. The condensation of formaldehyde with ethylic 

 malonate in presence of acetic anhydride yields, in addition to 

 ethylic propanetetracarboxylate, ethylic methylenemalonate and 

 ethylic tetramethylenetetracarboxylate ; one of the fractions on 

 hydrolysis and elimination of carbon dioxide yields hexahydro- 

 trimesic acid. — Formation of ethylic dihydroxydinicotinate 

 from ethylic cyanacetate, by S. Ruhemann and K. C. Browning. 



Linnean Society, February 3. — Dr. A. Giinther, F. R S., 

 President, in the chair. — Prof. Stewart, F.R.S., exhibited (i) 

 specimens illustrative of the articulation between the upper and 

 lower jaw of a Skate, Paia batis, Linn., upon which remarks 

 were made by Prof Howes and Mr. Holt ; and (2) sections of 

 Puccinia graviinis showing the form of the teleutospores and 

 cecidiospores, upon which some observations were made by Dr. 

 D. H. Scott, F. R.S., confirmatory of the exhibitor's views. — 

 Mr. Thomas Christy exhibited a portion of an iron chain through 

 the links of which a Virginian Creeper had grown, and had be- 

 come naturally intertwined. — Mr. G. C Crick read a paper 

 on the muscular attachment of the animal to its shell in 

 some fossil Cephalopoda {Aminonoidea). Having first briefly 

 noticed previous descriptions and figures of what were believed 

 to be impressions of the muscular attachment of the Ammonoid 

 animal to its shell, the author pointed out the form and position 

 of the "shell-muscles" and of the "annulus" in the recent 

 Nautilus, and indicated the form of the impression of these 

 structures as seen upon an artificial internal cast of its body- 

 chamber for comparison with the fossil forms, in nearly all of 

 which any indication of the muscular attachment there may be 

 is similarly preserved upon the internal cast of that chamber. 

 Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S., and Mr. B. B. Woodward offered 

 some critical remarks. — Mr. W. C. Worsdell read a paper 

 on the comparative anatomy of certain genera of the 

 CycadacecE. In conclusion the author endeavoured to show 

 that certain characters in the vegetative structure of these 

 plants showed them to be nearly allied to, or descended from, 

 certain fossil fern-like plants, notably the Medullosese, and these 



characters were : the extrafascicular zones in the stem of Cycas, 

 which really represent the outer portion of the flattened con- 

 centric strands in the stem of the Medullosese, the? inner portion 

 of which has died out ; and various concentric structures men- 

 tioned in the paper. For the type of structure prevailing in the 

 ancestors of the Cycads would have been the concentric, 

 whereas in their descendants it is the collateral. - The 

 significant outcome of this study is to form, in the vegetative 

 characters of these plants, a connecting-link, over and above 

 that already afforded by the discovery of spermatozoids in 

 Cycas and Ginkgo, between "flowering" and "flowerless"' 

 plants. Dr. D. H. Scott, F. R.S. , in criticising the paper, re- 

 ferred to the importance of certain facts which had been 

 elucidated by the author and which he himself was able to 

 confirm. 



Anthropological Institute, February 22. — Mr. F. W. 

 Rudler, President, in the chair. — The Rev. II. N. Hutchinson 

 was elected a member. — Mr. Edge Partington exhibited repre- 

 sentations of two tattooed Maori heads, carved in Kawrie 

 resin. — Mr. Cantrill, of the Geological Survey, exhibited a 

 collection of objects, including a delicately-worked flint dagger 

 or knife, obtained during his recent exploration of a cairn in 

 Breconshire. — The Rev. Archibald E. Hunt, of the London 

 Missionary Society, read a paper on the natives of the Murray 

 Islands in Torres Strait, with whom he had lived for three 

 years. His studies had been directed along the lines indicated 

 by the volume of ethnological notes and queries issued by the 

 Anthropological Institute.— Prof. A. C. Haddon exhibited and 

 explained a large series of lantern slides illustrative of the 

 natives described by Mr. Hunt. 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, February 7. — Mr. F. Darwin, 

 President, in the chair. — Some zoological results of an expedi- 

 tion to Melanesia during the years 1894-97 (illustrated with 

 photographic slides), by Dr. A. Willey, the Balfour Student. 

 The paper dealt chiefly with observations relating to Nautilus, 

 Cteuoplana, Heteroplana, Avtphioxus, Balanoglossus and Peri- 

 pattis. An account was given of the habits, distribution, and 

 oviposition of Nautilus. The function of the tentacular ap- 

 pendages of Nautilus, the ciliation of the osphradia or branchial 

 sense-organs and of the accessory olfactory (pre-ocular and post- 

 ocular) tentacles, and the distribution of the pallial, siphuncular, 

 and genital arteries were described. In the metameric system 

 of Nautilus, where there are indications of two segments, at 

 least twelve paired structures are repeated. The sheathed 

 tentacular appendages of N'autilus and the arms of Dibranchiata 

 are probably to be regarded as pedal in nature and origin, not 

 only on account of their function, innervation and development 

 (Dibranchiata), but also from a general consideration of the 

 phenomena of cephalisation. The " cephalopodium" of Nautilus 

 and the Dibranchiata was contrasted with the cephalothorax of 

 Arthropods. Cteuoplana is probably to be estimated as a mor- 

 phological type hardly second in importance to such forms as 

 Ainphioxus, Balanoglossus, Peripatus, &c. It presents a transi- 

 tion from biradial to bilateral symmetry. Its pinnate tentacles, 

 like those of the Ctenophora, lie in what corresponds to the 

 sagittal plane of the bilaterally symmetrical Plathelminthes, and 

 are therefore not homologous with the sensory nuchal tentacles 

 of Polyclades as was suggested by Lang. The latter structures 

 are represented in Ctenoplana by the aboral ciliated sensory 

 tentacles which are paired about the axis along which the pinnate 

 tentacles lie ; and in the Ctenophora by the arcuate sensory 

 ridges and papillae (Beroidse) known as the polar plates, which 

 are similarly placed with regard to the aboral sense-organ. 

 Heteroplana was described as an anomalous Plathelminth in 

 which the structures of the left side of the body are aborted. 

 This condition appears to be normal for the animal, and not a 

 phase in regeneration. Amphioxus was referred to in connection 

 with the discovery of the West Indian subgenus Asymmetron 

 Andrews in New Guinea waters, and also at Lifu (Loyalty 

 Islands). The author's view that Ptychodera was a relatively 

 primitive type of Balanoglossus was confirmed by the structure 

 of his new genus Spengelia, which is a Glandiceps-Wke form 

 possessing synapticula or cross-bars in the walls of the branchial 

 sac, medial gonads, and vestigial roots arising from the collar 

 nerve-cord. A new Peripatus found in New Britain was de- 

 scribed. This form differs essentially from the groups which 

 comprise respectively the Neotropical, Australasian and Cape 

 species of Peripatus, and in some respects it is intermediate 

 between the Australasian and Neotropical types. 



KO. \Af9, VOL. 57] 



