74 



NA TURE 



[July 14, 1923 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 



The Royal Statistical Society, May 19. — A. L. 

 Bowley : Death-rates, density, population and housing. 

 The death-rates and infant mortahty rates in the 

 urban districts of England in the years 1911-13 were 

 examined witla a view of testing their relationship 

 to the crowding of town populations. In Greater 

 London, for example, the death-rate in districts where 

 on the average there were 100 people to 100 rooms 

 tended to be 12-7; where there were no people to 

 100 rooms 13-9, and so on in arithmetical progression. 

 Six regions were considered separately, namely. Greater 

 London, South of England, Lancashire and the West 

 Riding, North-eastern coal district, Birmingham and 

 South Staffordshire, and the Nortli of England. In 

 the North, generally speaking, the death-rates were 

 higher and crowding and overcrowding more pre- 

 valent than in London and the South. — J. C. Dunlop : 

 The misstatement of age in the returns of the census 

 of Scotland. Age-periods, one including ages under 

 6 and the other ages 17 to 92, were discussed. A 

 considerable amount of error persists, but greatly re- 

 duced in quantity — a change at least partly ascribable 

 to an alteration of the wording of the age question in the 

 schedule issued to householders at the census of 192 1. 



Royal Meteorological Society, May 20. — Dr. C. 

 Chree, president, in the chair. — J. E. Clark and I. D. 

 Margary : Report on the phenological observations 

 in the British Isles, 1922. An exceptionally cool and 

 sunless summer was experienced after mid-June. 

 Before this a fairly mild winter followed by a cold 

 early spring made fruit blossom late. Heat and sun- 

 shine of exceptional intensity signalised the latter 

 part of May and early June, resulting in unusually 

 rapid flower and insect development. Ripening was 

 very late, however, especially in the north and High- 

 lands, much hay being ruined or not cut till late 

 September. The dry October and November enabled 

 southern farmers to get well ahead with ploughing 

 and sowing. The isophene flower chart shows little 

 divergence from the lines giving the 30 years average, 

 on account of the acceleration due to May and June. 

 The migrant records indicate a similar sudden speed- 

 ing up of their movements. As a consequence of the 

 previous favourable summer and autumn there was 

 a remarkable display of blossom and fair fruit crops 

 despite the untoward summer. — T. G. LongstafiE : 

 Meteorological notes from the Mt. Everest expedition 

 of 1922. A systematic record of temperature was 

 kept on the outward march, at the base camp at 

 16,500 feet, and at the various climbing camps. 

 Night temperatures were taken with minimum ther- 

 mometers exposed to the sky on wooden boxes about 

 one foot above the ground. Day temperatures were 

 taken with sling thermometers. The lowest night 

 temperature experienced on the outward march, 

 April 12 to May i, was 8° F. on April 13 and 19, at 

 a height of 14,000 ft. The mean reading was 15° F. 

 The lowest night temperature recorded during the 

 expedition was - 12° F. on May 27 at Camp III. at 

 a height of 21,000 ft. The notes refer only to April, 

 May, and part of June, and on the northern side of 

 the main Himalayan axis of elevation. Totally 

 different conditions prevail on the southern side, and 

 the change from one to the other is abrupt. On the 

 north side of Mt. Everest the snow-level is put at 

 20,000 ft., and glaciers descend to 16,500 ft. Owing 

 to extreme dryness, evaporation is very rapid. Above 

 25,000 ft. snow disappears quickly with melting. 

 Probably the constant high winds greatly assist this 

 phase. 



NO. 2802, VOL. I I 2] 



Optical Society, June 14. — Mr. T. Smith, vice- 



{)residcnt, in the chair. — S. G. Starling : Levels and 

 evcl bubbles. The factors affecting the efficienc\ 

 of levels of the bubble form are discu.ssed. Benzol 

 xylol, chloroform, alcohol, and ether are used in 

 levels ; the physical properties of these, and also 

 of petroleum ethers distilled at various ranges of 

 temperature, are given. A new method is described 

 of obtaining calibration curves, by photograph- 

 ing the image of the bubble in a plane mirror, 

 so that the position of the bubble upon the scalt 

 is obtained for successive tilts given to the tube 

 The relations between temperature and width and 

 depth of bubble are obtained, and the results apphcd 

 to an explanation of the " constant " bubble ot 

 Messrs. E. R. Watts and Son, Ltd., which has th' 

 same length at all temperatures. — E. W. Taylor ; 

 The primary and secondary image curves formed 

 by a thin achromatic object glass with the object 

 plane at infinity. The shapes of the primar>' an'! 

 secondary image curves formed by a thin simpl 

 lens of an object plane at infinity can be readily 

 determined. The image curves in the case of a 

 double object glass of ordinary thickness, and with 

 the inner curves approximately in contact, corre- 

 spond very closely to those of a simple lens of the 

 same power, and are only very slightly affected by 

 the use of different glasses. — T. F. Connolly : A neu 

 form of balloon theodolite. The instrument 1 

 designed primarily for the observation of driftin.L; 

 balloons where it is desired to follow closely and 

 consecutively the movements of the balloon and to 

 note periodically the time and the simultaneous 

 altitude and azimuth observed. The horizontal and 

 vertical circles are brought together in such a way 

 that a single index serves for reading both. A large 

 field achromatic magnifier is so arranged that a 

 " stand off " view is secured. The usual vernier 

 has been abolished and replaced by a single index 

 Estimations of the degree intervals are made on 

 each circle to o-i°. 



Geological Society, June 20. — Prof. A. C. Seward, 

 president, in the chair. — K. S. Sandford, A. S 

 Kennard, B. B. Woodward, and R. C. SpiUer : Tli 

 river-gravels of the Oxford district. Ancient rivci 

 terraces occur in the headwater region of the Thames 

 basin, west of the Chiltems, and maintain the same 

 curve as the thalweg of the present rivers with which 

 they are associated. There is no discontinuity of 

 the terraces of the headwater tributaries of the 

 Thames at their confluences near Oxford. Three 

 terraces are identified above the present flood-plain. 

 Below the lowest are flood-plain gravels, and a sunk 

 channel has been identified. Each terrace contains 

 a warm-climate fauna, with Elephas antiqiiiis. The 

 Proboscidea are represented by a suite of forms, 

 from Elephas antiqmis of archaic characters to the 

 Siberian mammoth. The warm-climate fauna hnger- 

 long in the area. Palaeolithic implements are scarce 

 unabraded specimens are of Acheulean culture. — 

 L. Dollo and P. T. de Chardin : The deposits of 

 Palajocene mammalia in Belgium. The four known 

 deposits in Belgium at Erquelinnes (Hainaut), 

 Orsmael (Brabant), Leval (Hainaut), and Vinalmont 

 (Li^ge), containing Palaeocene mammalia, are of 

 Sparnacian age (= Upper Landenian). They have 

 yielded remains of marsupials, Insectivora, Camivora, 

 rodents, Condylarthra, Amblypoda, perissodactyls. 

 and primates. No remains of Thanetian mammalia 

 have been discovered in Belgium, and therefore the 

 continuance into the Sparnacian of Belgium of the 

 genus Adapisorex recorded from the Thanetian of 

 Cemay is noteworthy. 



