

April 28, 1898] 



NATURE 



623 



total reflection, a phase-change is produced. If the space be- 

 tween the two plates in Prof. Porter's experiment were filled 

 with a substance of higher refractive index than glass, a con- 

 firmation, or otherwise, of this result might be obtained. — Dr. 

 S. P. Thompson then exhibited a model apparatus made by the 

 Helios Company to illustrate the three-phase method of trans- 

 mitting power. It consists of a small generator, driven by hand, 

 and a small motor. The generator may be separs^tely excited 

 by a secondary battery ; it has three independent coils. The 

 six ends of the coils are connected to six commutator rings. The 

 motor has three corresponding pairs of opposite coils ; these can 

 be grouped in various ways for connection to the brushes of the 

 generator. The six coils are on a hinged frame, so that, if 

 necessary, they can be laid down flat, for other rotation experi- 

 ments. Two armature* ire provided, either of which may be 

 used. The first is an iron wheel with peripheral copper bars 

 arranged like a squirrel-cage ; the other is a simple iron disc 

 without added conductors. — The President proposed votes of 

 thanks, and the meeting was adjourned until May 13. 



Zoological Society, April 5. — Lieut. -Colonel H. H. 

 Godwin- Austen, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. — Prof. 

 Sydney J. Hickson, F.R.S., read a paper on the species of 

 corals of the genus Millepora. The author stated that thirty- 

 nine species of the genus Millepora had been described. A 

 prolonged investigation of the characters hitherto used for the 

 determination of the species had proved them to be all un- 

 satisfactory. An examination of the soft parts of a great many 

 specimens of several forms of growth and from widely distant 

 coasts had revealed no features that could be used for separating 

 species. In the author's opinion, therefore, there was only one 

 species of this genus now living, and that the individuals of this 

 species were capable of assuming a great variety of form, ac- 

 cording to the conditions in which they lived. — A communication 

 was read by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner containing an account of 

 the perforate corals collected by him in the South Pacific. 

 Fifty-one species were treated of, of which fifteen were described 

 as new. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas read the description of a new 

 Dik-dik allied to Madoqua kirkii, but much larger, which had 

 been obtained by Mr. H. S. H. Cavendish in the region of 

 Lake Rudolf, and was proposed to be called Madoqua 

 (avendishii. — Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., made some remarks 

 on the geographical races of the Banting {Bos sondaicus), and 

 suggested that the Burmese and Manipur forms of this animal 

 should be given subspecific rank, for which he proposed the 

 respective names of Bos sondaicus birmanicus and B. s. woodi. 



Entomological Society, April 6. — Mr. R. McLachlan, 

 F.R.S., Vice-President and Treasurer, in the chair. — On behalf 

 of Mr. Greenshields, Mr. Jacoby exhibited specimens of the 

 longicorn beetle, Micropsalis durnfordi, Burm., from Patagonia. 

 Mr. Greenshields, who was present, stated that this species, 

 remarkable for the great development of the palpi, was originally 

 taken by Darwin ; his own examples were taken hiding in thorny 

 bushes in a dry watercourse. — Mr. Champion exhibited European 

 examples of Harpaltis frohlichi, a newly- discovered British 

 species. — Mr. B. O. Bower showed living larvae of Caradrina 

 ambigua, an insect which had recently occurred in England in 

 countless numbers. They were bred from ova laid by a female 

 taken on the South Devon coast, and fed indiscriminately on 

 low plants. — Mr. M. Burr read a paper supplementary to Mr. 

 Green's previous communication on Dyscritina, and definitely 

 referred the imagos to the genus Diplatys, D. longisetosa, 

 Westw., being a good species, and Mr. Green's new form 

 proving to be D. nigriceps, Kirby. — Dr. Chapman read a paper 

 on the larva of Eriocephala allionella, which he stated to be 

 essentially similar to that of E. calthella, previously described 

 by him. 



Linnean Society, April 7. — Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited specimens 

 of the Asiatic partridge, Perdix daurica, of which a large con- 

 signment had been lately received in London. Mr. W. E. de 

 Winton, who brought another specimen of this bird for ex- 

 hibition, made some remarks on the geographical distribution 

 of the species, and expressed the opinion that it had been im- 

 properly described by certain writers as Manchurian, its true 

 habitat lying to the west of the Khinghan Mountains in Mongolia. 

 — Mr. J. E. Harting also exhibited the skin and skull of a wild 

 cat. Felts cattts, recently obtained near Speanbridge, in Inver- 

 ness-shire. He pointed out the present restricted range of the 

 animal, which had not only disappeared entirely from England 

 and Wales, but was no longer to be found in Scotland south of a 



line drawn from Oban to Ben Lui, along the southern and 

 eastern boundary of Perthshire, and thence northward to Nairn . 

 He explained the cause of reversion in the colour of emancipated 

 house-cats to the wild type of Felis cafus, and referred to the 

 skulls of cats which had been exhumed on the site of the Roman 

 city of Silchester, which he thought disproved the view of the 

 late Prof. RoUeston {/ourn. Anat. and Physiol.) to the effect 

 that the domestic cat was not known to the Romans. — Dr. G. 

 Elliot Smith read a paper, entitled ' ' A contribution towards a 

 more exact knowledge of the anatomy of the brain in Eden- 

 tata." A full account of the brain of Orycteropus was first 

 given, and comparisons were instituted with that of a dozen 

 species representative of the leading Edentate families, including 

 Manis and Chlamydophorus. — A paper was read by Mr. H. 

 Farquhar, of Wellington, N.Z. , on some New Zealand 

 Acliniaria, in which he described a new genus, Hilcampactis, 

 and species Halcampactis mirabilis, together with the following 

 new species : Edwirdsia degans and neo-zelanica ; Corynacfis 

 Haddoni, mollis, and gracilis ; and Actinia tenebrosa. Hal- 

 campactis mirabilis he regarded as of special interest, since it 

 appeared to form a link between the Sngartidce and flal- 

 cavipidis, which had hitherto been widely separated by 

 systematists. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 20. — Mr. F. C. 

 Bayard, President, in the chair. — Major H. E. Rawson, R.E., 

 read a paper on anticyclonic systems and their movements. 

 Cyclones and anticyclones have long been recognised as 

 powerful weather controls, and their movements studied, but up 

 to the present very little has been written in this country upon 

 the progressive movements of the cores of the permanent high- 

 pressure areas which are found to be associated with certain 

 localities at different times of the year. The author referred to 

 previous investigations by Abercromby, Scott, Loomis, H. C.^ 

 Russell, and Buchan, and then proceeded to give the results of 

 an examination which he had made of all the available synop'ic 

 weather charts for the eleven years 1881 to 1891. During this 

 period there were 212 cases in which the centre or core of an anti- 

 cyclonic system was over the British Isles, and of these 130 were 

 due to the Atlantic system, 41 to the Scandinavian, and 17 to 

 the Greenland, 22 to the Atlantic and Scandinavian systems 

 extending and merging together, and 2 to the same thing 

 occurring in the case of the Atlantic and Greenland systems. 

 It is thus evident that we owe the greatest number of our anti- 

 cyclones to the Atlantic system. They occur in all months, but 

 more especially in January, June and 0:;tober, an 1 are least 

 frequent in April and November. When such anticyjl >nes move 

 away from our area the direction is very much influenced by the 

 season of the year, by far the largest number drift off in some 

 direction between north-east, through east to south, and take 

 the more southerly course in December, January and February 

 Some few between April and July move west or south-west, and 

 still fewer north or north-west. — The Hon. F. A. Rollo Russell 

 described the results of observations which he had made on haze 

 and transparency during 1897. He found that the greatest 

 clearness occurred with winds from the westward, and the least 

 clearness with winds from the eastward. The highest mean 

 visibility was 24 miles with the west winds, and the lowest 

 mean visibility was io'6 miles with north-east winds. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, April 18. — M. Wolf in the chair.— 

 Expression of tidal coefficients by means of a sum of periodic 

 terms, by M. Hatt. — On the reduction of double integrals of 

 algebraic functions, by M. ifcmile Picard. — On some derivatives 

 of tetra-methyl-diamido-benzophenone, by M. E. Grimaux. 

 The dinitro- and dibromo-derivatives are described, and colour- 

 ing matters produced from them. — Sugar and fat from the 

 point of view of their respective nutritive value, by M. A. 

 Chauveau. In these cases the subjects under experiment were 

 kept at rest ; the results were similar to those obtained in the 

 previous experiments, the sugar diet being always superior to 

 the thermally corresponding fat diet. — The committees were 

 nominated for awarding in 1898 the prizes bearing the names 

 of Wilde, Vaillant, Desmazieres, Montagne, La Fons-Melicocq, 

 Thore, Savigny, Monlyon (medicine and surgery), Breant, and 

 Godard. — On the ellipsoid of Jacobi, by M. P. S. Kriiger. — On 

 the motion of a heavy body of revolution, suspended from a 

 point on its axis, by M. E. Jahnke.— On the poten- 

 tial functions of the theory of elasticity, by MM. Eugene 

 and Fran9ois Cosserat. — On the transport of luminous 



NO. 1487, VOL. 57] 



