7IO 



NATURE 



[November io, 1923 



Industrial Api>lication8 Section, October 24. — 

 Prof. F. J. ("lu;^nire, president, in the chair. — Marie 

 C. Stopes : The microscopy of recent coal research, 

 liarly workers like Dawson and Huxley tiiwl.fl id 

 treat " coal " a.s if it were a uniform 

 Uciii ( .iiosc disputes, and apparent conii 

 (.1 ;^trating that " coal ' was made of spores, 



ot , mg that " coal " was made of wood, others 



of bark. Kecent work has shown differences between 

 the finer bands even in the .same lump of coal, where 

 only a few millimetres apart one zone may show a 

 prci>onderance of spores, another a preponderance of 

 leaf or stem tissue, and another a uniform glue-like 

 texture. The four main types composing bituminous 

 coal are fusain, durain, clarain, and vitrain. Prof. 

 Seyler has shown similar zones in anthracite by an 

 opaque method of examination by reflected light. 



Zoological Society, October 23, — Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward, vice-president, in the chair. — E. A. Spaul : 

 Experiments on acceleration of metamorphoses of 

 frog-tadpoles by injection of antcrior-lobc pituitary- 

 gland extract and iodine. — A. Subba Rau and P. H. 

 Johnson : Observations on the development of the 

 sympathetic nervous system and suprarenal bodies 

 in the sparrow. — H. C Abraham : A new spider of 

 the genus Liphistius from the Malay Peninsula, and 

 some observations on its habits. — Mr. A. Smith : A 

 review of the lizards of the genus Tropidophorus on 

 the Asiatic mainland. — J. G. H. Frew : On the larval 

 anatomy of the gout-fly (Chlorops iaeniopus Meig.) 

 and two related acalyptrate muscids, with notes on 

 their winter host-plants. — A. Loveridge : (i) Notes 

 on mammals collected in Tanganyika Territory, 1920- 

 1923. (2) A list of the lizards of British East Africa 

 (Uganda, Kenya Colony, Tanganyika Territory, and 

 Zanzibar), with keys for the diagnosis of the species. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, October 22. — F. O. Bower : Re- 

 marks on the present outlook on descent. At the 

 moment we seem to have arrived at a phase of nega- 

 tion in respect of the achievements of phyletic 

 morphology. So far from presenting a tree with a 

 single trunk, the results of comparison offer us what 

 appears little better than a bundle of sticks. The 

 prospects appear depressing to young aspirants, and 

 it is said that phyletic morphology leaves them cold, 

 liut this depends very largely upon the mode of 

 presentment. How, then, are we to proceed in 

 inquiry as to the origin of living things ? Surely by 

 a contmued study of morphology in its broadest sense. 

 Mr. Tansley, in his address to the British Association 

 at Liverpool, advocated the study of " process of 

 development," that is, physiological inquiry : but 

 he rightly recognises how " process and structure 

 continually act and interact." Structure may be 

 held as the record of process. Any school based 

 primarily on " process " and with " record " relegated 

 to the background might turn out good statisticians, 

 but it would probably fail in converting them into 

 historians. Provided, however, that the study of 

 " process " and " record," that is, of physiology and 

 morphology, be co-ordinated, all may be well with 

 the future of phyletic morphology. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, October 23. — 

 H. Clay : The economic aspect of the Ruhr problem. 

 The Ruhr is the richest coalfield in Western and 

 Central Europe. Before the War, its output was 

 60 per cent, of the coal and 80 per cent, of the coke 



NO. 2819, VOL. I 12] 



output of Germany ; it was the chief centre of the 

 steel indu.«tr\' and the chief source of the coal-tar 

 used by the dye industry and of sulphate of ammonia 

 ii»;i.rl iti MM 11 lilt lire. Territorial cfiange-^ imdcr tin- 



iced the relative imp<)i 

 I ' s national economy, 



tion by the French, coupled with pa.H.sive rcsLstancc, 

 rapidly reduced the economic activity of the Ruhr. 

 Reparations deliveries of coal almost ceased, and 46 

 F'rench blast-furnaces out of 116 were damped down 

 between January and April. The Ruhr jx- vis 



maintained by subsidies from licrlin. -i- 



tion of industry caused by the separation ul the Kuhr 

 and the demoralisation caused by the depreciation 

 of the currency have steadily reduced t' ■ m v 



of German industry, until it can no loi m < 



at world-prices. Unemployment is grownup , n «» 

 certain to increase if the Berlin (or any other) Govern- 

 ment succeeds in floating a new, stable currency and 

 checking inflation. It Ls unlikely that any German 

 Government will be in a position to pay any reparations, 

 so far ahead as it is practicable to look. The Frcii' li 

 are unlikely to gain any economic benefit from th<ir 

 occupation of the Ruhr. The policy, so far as its 

 objects were economic, has paid insufficient regard to 

 two fundamental truths ; first, that the wealth of a 

 country is not a stock of goods that can be seized, but 

 the output of an organisation that continues only so 

 long as the organisation functions ; and, second, that 

 the direction and activity of the industrial organisa- 

 tion responds only very slowly and incompletely to 

 political dictation. 



Sheffield. 



Society of Glass Technology, October K 



Sheen and W. E. S. Turner : The effect oi lilauia on 

 the properties of glass. Batches were calculated on 

 the basis of the formula, 6SiO,, .yNa,0, yTiO,, where 

 X +y =2. The first six members of this series gave 

 glasses readily; i.e. where the value of y varied from 

 01 to 06. Above 0-8 (i.e. 13 per cent. TiO,) it was 

 found difficult to melt the glass at 1400° C. Wlicn 

 compared with the corresponding lime and magnesia 

 glasses, the titania-containing glasses had somewhat 

 lower annealing temperatures, durability similar to 

 that of magnesia glasses, and thermal expansion 

 slightly less than that of Ume glasses. Heat-resist in.!:: 

 properties were also indicated. — A. Cousen : 1 he 

 estimation of selenium in glass. Twenty grams of 

 finely powdered glass were dissolved slowly in hydro- 

 fluoric acid and, after standing in the cold, the products 

 of decomposition, with the exception of selenium, 

 were dissolved by pouring into excess of boiling 

 water. The selenmm itself was filtered off on a filter 

 pulp pad in a Gooch crucible. From the pad the 

 selenium was removed by treating with a dilute 

 chlorine solution (about 1/300 N). To the filtered 

 solution was added i c.c. of 5 per cent, gum arabic 

 and 5 c.c. of \ per cent, phenyl hydrazine hydro- 

 chloride, the whole being made up to 50 c.c. Colloidal 

 selenium was obtained, a yellow colour slowly 

 developing. After half an hour this colour was 

 matched against a standard solution of sodium <f>i< mtc 

 similarly treated. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, October 15. — M. Albin Haller 

 in the chair. — A. Lacroix : The notion of doliomorph 

 type in lithology. The term " doliomorph " is applied 

 to lithologic types, which, from the chemical point of 

 view, do not correspond with their mineralogical 

 composition. According to the usual mode of 

 expression, quartziferous rocks, rocks with free silica. 



