158 



NATURE 



\_Dee, 23, 1875 



on the subject. He finds, inter alia, that in the case of a com- 

 pound insulating plate between two armatures, the electrification 

 of the two extreme plates is the same as that of a single plate 

 [i.e. positive on the side of the positive armature, negative on 

 the side of the negative), and the persistent electrification of the 

 intermediate plates is also the same ; but at the moment of sepa- 

 ration these plates may appear positive and negative on both 

 their faces. — M. Righi contributes a mathematical note on the 

 laws of electromotive forces, and there is the usual amoimt of 

 matter abstracted from other serials. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, Dec. 9. — On the Development and Lepas 

 fascicularis and the " Archizoea " of Cirripedia, by the late R. 

 von Willemoes-Suhm, Ph. D. The author shows that the Archizoea 

 gigas of Dohrn is the nauplius of Lepas australis, a form closely 

 allied to L. fascicularis. The life history of the latter is described. 



Preliminary remarks on the Development of some Pelagic 

 Decapoda, by the late R. von Willemoes-Suhm, Ph.D. The 

 genera described are Avifihion,Sergestes, and Leucijer. The first 

 passes through a true Zoea stage, Ampkion itself being, as Dohrn 

 has shown, adult. The larvae of Leucifer and Sergestes pass 

 through an Amphion stage. The form Elaphocaris of Dohm is 

 proved to be the larva of a Sergestes. The form Erichthina of 

 Dana is proved to be the larva of a Leucifer. 



Dec. 16. — On the Structure and Development of the Skull 

 in the Batrachia, by W. K. Parker, F.R.S. The author 

 makes some corrections in his memoir on the skull of the 

 frog, specially showing that the hyoid arch does not 

 coalesce with the mandibular. The skull of Dactylethra and 

 Pipa are described. The indications of vertebral segmentation 

 in the cephalic part of the notochord are demonstrated in a manner 

 which has much theoretical interest in relation with the theory 

 of Goethe and Oken. 



On the development of the spinal nerves in Selachians, by F. 

 M. Balfour, B.A, The author shows that both the roots of the 

 spinal nerves arise as outgrowths from the involuted epiblast of 

 the neural canal, the posterior first, and by the more complicated 

 process. 



Chemical Society, Dec. 16. — Prof. Abel, F.R.S,, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Dr. C. R. A. Wright read a paper by him- 

 self and Mr. G. H. Beckett, on narcotine, cotamine, and hydro- 

 cotamine (Part iii.), in which the authors brought forward 

 experimental evidence of the constitutional formula for hemipinic 

 acid, opianic acid, and meconin. — Dr. H. E. Armstrong then 

 gave an account of researches by Mr. Harrow and himself, on 

 the action of alkaline sulphites on the haloid derivatives of 

 phenol, and on the action of nitric acid on tribromophenol. — 

 Mr. E. Neison subsequently made a communication on the 

 sebates of the alcohol series, after which papers were read by 

 the Secretary, on the compounds of ether with anhydrous 

 metallic chlorides, by Mr. P. P. Bcdem, and observations on 

 variations in the composition of river waters, by Mr. J. Andrews. 



Royal Astronomical Society, Dec. 11, 1875. — Prof. Adams 

 President in the Chair. — Mr. Burton read a paper on the Southern 

 nebulae 30 (Bode) Doradus and the nebulse about i\ Argus. 

 Mr. Burton had while stationed at Rodriguez on the Transit of 

 Venus Expedition made drawings of these rebulse with a \2\ 

 inch silver on glass reflector, and on his return had compared 

 them with Sir John Herschel's drawings. After a careful com- 

 parison he was not disposed to think that there had been any 

 great change in either of the nebulse since the date of Sir John 

 Herschel's observations. — Mr. Ellery, of the Melbourne Obser- 

 vatory, described the observations which they had made of the 

 same nebulce with their great Melbourne 4-feet reflector. He was 

 inclined to think that rapid change could be traced not only in 

 the details of the nebula but also in the relative positions and 

 magnitudes of the stars which appeared to be involved in them. 

 — Mr. Ellery also read a paper on the results of some experi- 

 ments with Huygen's parabolic pendulum for obtaining uniform 

 rotation. The instrument he had used consisted of a heavy 

 weight or bob attached by a thin flexible band of watch-spring 

 steel to the upper part of a piece of metal cut into the form of 

 the evolute of a parabola. This was attached to the upper part of 

 a revolving axis so that the contrivance formed a conical 

 pendulum, in which when the rate of motion was increased the 

 bob or pendulum flew away from the axis and wound the watch- 



spring band round the evolute of the parabola. He found that 

 with this contrivance a very uniform rate of motion was obtained, 

 and it seemed to be independent of the weight which was 

 placed on the bob of the pendulum and of variations in the 

 driving power used.— A paper by Mr. With on the structure of 

 Coggia's Comet was read. On the night of the 8th July, 1874, 

 an oscilatory motion of the fan-shaped jet in front of the 

 nucleus was observed. The fan seemed to tilt over from the pre- 

 ceding towards the following side and then for an instant appeared 

 sharply defined, then it became nebulous and all appearance of 

 structure vanished. These pulsations and appearances of structure 

 occurrea several times at intervals of from three to eight seconds. 

 — Mr. Ranyard read a paper on the duphcate structure of 

 Coggia's Comet. He showed two drawings each made on 

 July 14, 1874, the one by Mrs. Newall with the great refractor 

 at Gateshead, and the other by Mr. With at Hereford. Both 

 drawings showed that on that evening there were two faint para- 

 bolic arcs, which intersected one another in front of the nucleus. 

 The axes of the arcs were parallel to one another, and were 

 separated by a distance of about 1°. During the earlier evenings 

 of July the parabolic arcs within the envelope of the comet had 

 been drawn by several observers as double and overlapping, but 

 the axes of the two sets of parabolic arcs were much less sepa- 

 rated than those of the arcs visible on the evening of the 14th. 

 Mr. Ranyard suj^gested that possibly a disruption was going on 

 similar in character to the disruption which took place in 

 Biela's comet as it approached perihelion in 1846. — Father Perry 

 showed some photographs of the transit of Venus which had 

 been sent to him from Manilla. They appeared to show the 

 body of Venus projected on a bright back-ground outside the 

 sun's limb. It was suggested, however, from other evidence, 

 that the photographs must have been taken from drawings. 

 Lord Lindsay and Mr. Brothers, after an examination of the 

 photographs, both inclined to the latter view. 



Meteorological Society, Dec. 15. — Dr. R. J. Mann, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — William Ellis, F, R.A.S., Kaufmann J. 

 Marks, Thomas Read, and Philip Wright, F.C.S., were elected 

 Fellows of the Society. The foUowing papers were read : — On 

 the registration of sunshine, by R. H. Scot^ F.R.S. This paper 

 is on the continuous record of sunshine and rainfall obtained at 

 Kew for September 1875 ; the latter by Beckley's rain-gauge, 

 the former by a method originally proposed by Mr. J. F. Camp- 

 bell, of Islay, F.G.S. This consists in the use of a sphere of 

 glass to concentrate the sun's rays, and a strip of cardboard is 

 placed on a frame concentric with the sphere and distant from it 

 by its ovra. focal length. The sun when it shines burns a hole 

 in the cardboard, the length of the trace being regulated by the 

 duration of the sunshine. It remains to be proved whether such 

 a record is of real practical value, as it affords no measure of the 

 heat of the sun. — On the rainfall at Calcutta, by R. Strachan, 

 These observations were made at the Office of the Surveyor- 

 General, and extend over a period of twenty-eight years, viz., 

 from 1847 to 1874. The most rain falls in July, but the heaviest 

 downfalls are most frequent in June, and heavy downfalls 

 are more frequent in August than in July. The greatest 

 number of days of rain is in July, but the number is almost the 

 same for August. December has the least frequency and amount 

 of rain. The dry season includes November to April, during 

 which on an average 6*04 inches of rain fall, on 12 days out of 

 181, or I out of 15 days. The wet season is from May to 

 October inclusive, during which 6i"6o inches of rain fall, on 84 

 days out of 184, or about i in 2 days. There is therefore ten 

 times as much rain in the wet season as in the dry, and nearly 

 seven times as many rainy days. The mean annual rainfall is 

 67'64 inches on 96 days. — On the use of the rotatory thermo- 

 meter {Thermometre Jronde) on board sliip, by R. H. Scott, 

 F.R.S. This paper showed that the mean of 76 days' observa- 

 tions made by Capt. Heggum, of the Roztlle, on a voyage from 

 Liverpool to Calcutta only differed by — 0° '4 from the mean of 

 the observations made in the ordinary way. — On the moon's in- 

 fluence in connection with our extremes of temperature, by 

 George. D. Brumham. — Mr, Scott exhibited a complete set of 

 instruments, with thermometer screen, &c., as used at the 

 Russian meteorological stations. 



Anthropological Institute, Dec. 14.— Col. A. Lane-Fox, 

 president, in the chair.— Mr. M. J. Walhouse read a paper on 

 the belief in Bhutas— devil and ghost— worship in Western 

 India. Although the lower castes and classes in India acknow- 

 ledge and reverence the Brahminical gods, their familiar house- 

 hold cultus is much more especially addressed to inferior super- 



