Feb. 3, 1876] 



NA TURE 



279 



bonic anhydride was evolved. He considers that this acid, 

 assisted by the force of growth and the movement of the 

 cytioplasm, are sufficient to account for the presence of the 

 tubes. Finally, the author draws attention to the probable simi- 

 larity of external conditions in the Silurian and present times, 

 and to the wonderful persistence of form of this low member of 

 the Protista. — How Anglesey became an Island, by Prof. A. C. 

 Ramsay, F.R. S. The author described and illustrated by sec- 

 tions draw n to scale the contours of the island of Anglesey and 

 the adjacent parts of Camar%onshire, and noticed that the whole 

 island may be regarded as a gritty undulating plain, the higher 

 parts of which attain an average elevation of from 200 to 300 feet 

 above the sea-level. Similar conditions are presented by the 

 country for seme miles on the other side of the straits, and in 

 both the general trend of the valleys is north-east and south- 

 west. The rock surfaces, when bare, show glacial strije running 

 generally in a direction 30° to 40° west of south. The author 

 indicated that the great upheavals of the crust of the esrth form- 

 ing mountains took place long before the commencement of the 

 Glacial epoch, and that ordinarj' agents of denudation had ample 

 time for the formation in mountain regions of deep valleys, down 

 which, during the Glacial epoch, glaciers would tjJce their course. 

 He noticed the evidence of this local glaciation furnished by the 

 striation of the Welsh mountains, from wl ich he inferred that 

 these mountains as a whole were not overridden by a great ice- 

 sheet coming from the north, and he described the course of the 

 glaciers flowing from the north-west slopes of Snowdonia as 

 being in the directions west, north-west, and north. These 

 glaciers, however, did not reach the region now occupied by the 

 Menai Straits, but spread out in broad fans on the north-western 

 slopes of the hills now overlooking the Straits, a fact indicated 

 by the directions of the glacial striae in these parts. Anglesey, 

 therefore, was not glaciated by ice-masses coming from Snow- 

 donia ; and as the striations on that island point directly towards 

 the mountains of Cumberland, the author inferred that these 

 markings were produced by a great ice-flow coming from that 

 region, reinforced probably by ice-streams from the north of 

 Scotland, and which were large and powerful enough to prevent 

 the glaciers of Llanberis and Nantifrancon from encroaching on 

 the territory of Anglesey. The author described the rocks bor- 

 dering the Straits as consisting of nearly horizontal Carboniferous 

 strata, which, from appearances, must once have filled the whole 

 of the region now occupied by the Straits. He considered that 

 the softer shaly, sandy, and marly beds, remains of some of 

 which are still to be seen on the coast, were swept away by the 

 action of the great glacier coming from the north-east, forming a 

 valley now occupied by the sea ; and in support of this view he 

 cited the valley of Malldraeth Marsh, running across Anglesey, 

 parallel to that of the Menai Straits, about four miles to the 

 north-west, which a very slight change in conditions would con- 

 vert into a fjord, diffiering from the Straits only in being closed 

 at the north-east end. 



Meteorological Society, Jan. 19. — Dr. Mann, president, 

 in the chair. — The report of the Council showed that a large 

 amount of work had been done, and that the number of 

 Fellows had greatly increased. The first-class observing stations, 

 which were organised in 1874, have been in reg'olar working 

 order during the past year, their number has been increased, and 

 several have been reinspected. A very interesting account of aU 

 that has been done in organising the stations, with the conditions 

 to be fulfilled by the observers in respect to instruments and ex- 

 posure, the mode of inspecting, and a concise description of each 

 station, with a ground plan on an uniform scale, has been pre- 

 pared by Mr. Symons. An arrangement has been entered into 

 with the Meteorological Office by which the Society has agreed 

 to furnish, for a consideration, copies of observations from a 

 definite number of stations. Various instructions for observers, 

 prepare<i by the Station Committee and the Assistant-Secretary, 

 are also given. The joint Committee of Delegates from this 

 and other Societies, appointed to draft complete instructions for 

 the observation and registration of natural periodical phenomena, 

 have finished their labours and sent in their report. A code of 

 rules entitled * ' Instructions for the Observation of Phenological 

 Phenomena " has been prepared and published. The Rev. T. 

 A. Preston has discussed the first year's observations, and his 

 report is given in full. The Council have taken up the solar 

 radiation obser^'ations commenced by the Rev. F. W. Stow, but 

 they intend to compare the readings of the black bulb thermo- 

 aieter in vacuo with a bright bulb thermometer also in vacuo, 

 ]x)th mounted alike, instead of the maximum thermometer in 



the shade. The Council have also appointed a Permanent 

 Lightning Rod Committee to investigate and record accidents 

 from lightning, to inquire into the principles involved in the pro- 

 tection of buildings, to diffuse exact information regarding the 

 best form and arrangement for lightning conductors, and to 

 consider all phenomena of atmospheric electricity. The balance- 

 sheets show that the Society is in a very satisfactory condition. — 

 The President then delivered his address. In alluding to the 

 establishment of a carefully planned series of observing stations 

 by the Society he illustrated at some length the absolute neces- 

 sity of following out the inductive method of research in meteoro- 

 logy, and supported his argument by a reference to the historj- 

 of aU the leading branches of phvsical investigation, in which 

 the prophetic insight of inspired minds had invariably had to be 

 elaborated and perfected by the patient labour of subsequent 

 observation and experiment. He compared the meteorological 

 doctrine of high and low pressure areas of the atmosphere, and 

 of the movement of currents of the air, under the influence 

 of the barometric gradient, to the Newtonian doctrine of gravi- 

 tation in astronomical physics, to the Daltonian hypothesis of 

 atomic proportions in chemistry, to the dynamic theory of the 

 tides, and to Avogadro's law of the uniformity of the atomic 

 constitution of gases under like conditions of pressure and tem- 

 perature, and maintained that the perfection and practical appli- 

 cation of this law must be worked out by organised and carefully 

 thought-out plans of observation such as are now being used by 

 the Society, and also imder circumstances of higher opportunity 

 and greater faciHty by the Meteorological Office of the Govern- 

 ment. The President incidentally remarked that he believed the 

 recent researches into the vertical circulation of the water of the 

 ocean under the influence of the different specific gravities of its 

 distant parts was virtually tending to the establishment of the 

 same great influence, as being the moving spring of the physical 

 dynamics of both the ocean and the atmosphere. The President 

 also in allusion to the recent establishment of a Permanent 

 Lightning Rod Committee by the Society, gave a very interesting 

 account of a visit he had recently made to Prof. Melsens, of 

 Brussels, and described the experiments upon which the Professor 

 is engaged in investigating the molecular changes brought about 

 in conducting bodies by the passage through them of powerful 

 discharges of high tension electricity. He also gave an elaborate 

 account of the admirable system of defence against lightning, 

 which has been adopted at the Hotel de Ville of Brussels. Some 

 curious and notable instances of the molecular effects of lightning 

 discharge were exhibited during the delivery of the latter portion 

 of the address. — The following gentlemen were elected Officers 

 and Council for the ensuing year : — President, Henry Storks 

 Eaton, M.A. Vice-Presidents : Charles O. F. Cator, M.A., 

 Rogers Field, Assoc. Inst. C.E., John Knox Laughton, F.R.A.S., 

 Capt. Henry Toynbee, F.R.A.S. Treasurer, Henry Perigal, 

 F.RA.S. Trustees: Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S., Stephen 

 William Silver, F.R. G.S. Secretaries: George James Symons, 

 John W. Tripe, M.D. Foreign Secretarv, Robert H. Scott, 

 F.R.S. Council: Percy Bicknell, Arthur Brewin, F.R.A.S., 

 Charles Brooke, F.R.S., Cornelius Benjamin Fox, M.D., 

 Frederic Gaster, James Park Harrison, M.A., Robert James 

 Mann, M.D., F.R.A.S., William Carpenter Nash, Rev. Thomas 

 Arthur Preston, M.A., William Sowerby, F.L.S., Charles • 

 Vincent Walker, F.R.S., George Mathus Whipple, F.R.A.S. 



Anthropological Institute, Jan. 25. — Col. A. Lane Fox, 

 president, m the chair. — Annual Meeting.— The Report of 

 Council for 1875 was read. — The following were elected to serve 

 as Officers and Coimcil for 1876: — President, Col. A. Lane Fox, 

 F.S.A. Vice-presidents: Prof. Geo. Busk, F.R.S., John 

 Evans, F.R.S., A. W. Franks, F.R.S., Francis Gahon, F.R.S., 

 Geo. Harris, F.S.A., E. Burnet Tylor, F.R.S. Directors: E. 

 W. Brabrook, F.S.A., Capt. Harold DLUon. Treasurer, J. 

 Paik Harrison. Council: J. Beddoe, F.R.S., W. Blackmore, 

 Sir Geo. Campbell, K.C.S.I., Hyde Clarke, J. Barnard Davis, 

 F.R.S., W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., Robert Dunn, F.R.C.S., 

 David Forbes, F.R.S., Chas. Harrison, F.R.S.L., H. H. 

 Howorth, Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.G.S., Prof. Huxley, 

 F.R.S., A. L. Lewis, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., F. G. 

 H. Price, F.R.G.S., J. E. Price, F.S.A,, Prof. Rolleston, 

 F.R.S., C, R. Des Ruffieres, F.R.S.L., Lord Arthur RusseU, 

 M.P., M, J. Walhouse. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, Jan. iS.— Mr. G. R. 

 Stephenson, president, in the chair. — The following paper was 

 read : — On the ventilation and working of railway tunnels, by 

 Mr, Gabriel James Morrison. 



