534 



NATURE 



{April 2"], 1876 



alike to the water and to the tube in its passage. The result 

 of the calculation, however, led to no nearer approximation ; 

 and finally, experiment* with other materials for the tube and 

 other gases (namely, coal-gas and carbonic anhydride) were 

 made without resulting in any marked difference from the 

 results obtained with air and glass. 



Mathematical Society, April 13.— Prof. H. J. S. Smith, 

 F. R. S., president, in the chair. — Prof. Henrici, F. R.S., having 

 taken the chair, the President gave an account of a note — " Sur 

 une theoreme d'Eisenstein " — by M. Charles Hermite. This is 

 the celebrated theorem, considered by M. Heine, on the deve- 

 lopment in a series of the roots of an algebraic equation 

 / ( y, x) = o. M. Heine has added the very important remark 

 that we can make all the coefficients of such a development, 

 supposed commensurable, integers, with the exception of the 

 first by changing x into k x (Crelle, Band 48, p. 267). M. 

 Hermite's communication gives a simplified proof of this. 

 — Prof. Smith then spoke on the aspects of circles on a 

 plane or on a sphere. He pointed out the connection be- 

 tween his results and those obtained by Prof. Cay ley in 

 his researches on trees. He next made some remarks on a 

 problem in crystallography. — Mr. Tucker read part of an ab- 

 stract (drawn up by Dr. Hirst, F.R.S.) of a paper on correlation 

 in space, by Prof. Rudolf Sturm, of Darmstadt, The paper is 

 connected on the one hand with Sturm's previous one on projec- 

 tivity in space {Math. Amu, voL vi.), and on the other with Dr. 

 Hirst's papers on the correlation of two planes, and two space. 

 (Proc. Of Math. Soc, vols. v. andvi. ) 



Chemical Society, Prof. Andrews, F.R.S., in the chair. — 

 A paper on the manufacture of sulphuric anhydride, by Dr. R. 

 Messel and Dr. W. Squire was read by the latter. The 

 authors prepare the anhydride by decomposing ordinaiy sulphuric 

 acid at a white heat into water, oxygen, and sulphurous anhydride, 

 removing the water by suitable means and then passing the 

 mixed gases over platinised pumice heated to low redness ; the 

 oxygen and sulphurous anhydride then reunite to form sul- 

 phuric anhydride. — After this paper there was an adjourned 

 discussion on Dr. H. E. Armstrong's paper on systematic 

 nomenclature read at the last meeting, in which Prof. Odling 

 replied at length to the criticisms on the article recently pub- 

 lished by him on the same subject in the Philosophical Magazine. 



Royal Astronomical Society, April 12. — Mr. Wm. 

 Huggins, D.C.L., president, in the chair. —J. Bagnold Smith, 

 Sir David Solomons, W, T. Smedley, Wm. Durrad, Wm. 

 Allsup, and the Rev. Joseph Ferguson were elected Fellows of 

 the society. — Mr. Penrose described an instrument for calcu- 

 lating the sides and angles of spherical triangles. It consisted 

 of two wooden semicircles which could be fixed at any an^le, 

 and a graduated arm moving on a universal joint which slid 

 along one of the semicircular arcs. The graduated arm was 

 made use of to measure the cord of the third side of the triangle. 

 Mr. Penrose showed how the instrument might be made use of 

 for roughly checking calculations in spherical trigonometry. He 

 thought that it would also be of use in expeditiously reducing 

 observations in which no great degree of accuracy was required. 

 The instrument was very portable and might be made still more 

 so if the graduated semicircles were divided on brass instead of 

 on wood, as in the instrument he showed. A pacer by the Rev. 

 T. W. Webb was read describing some observations of the two 

 exterior satellites of Uranus which had been made by Mr. Isaac 

 Ward of Belfast. Mr. Ward's instrument is a refractor of 

 only 4 "3 inches aperture, but he had apparently succeeded on 

 some dozen evenings during the months of January, February, 

 and March, in picking up both the outer satellites Titania and 

 Oberon. A table was given comparing the position angles and 

 distances as estimated by Mr. Ward with those taken irom Mr. 

 Marth's ephemeris of the satellites. It was stated that the esti- 

 mates of Mr. Ward had been made without any previous relcr- 

 ence to the ephemeris, the coincidences were such that there 

 stemed little room left for doubt that Mr. Ward had in each 

 instance been successful in picking up the satellites. Mr. LasscU 

 said that he had not seen the satellites with his own nine-inch. 

 It was quite possible that the extraordinary sharpness of Mr. 

 Ward's eye might have enabled him to pick up the satellites ; 

 there were records which could not be doubted of persons who 

 had observed the satellites of Jupiter with the naked eye. He 

 thought that if any one else made use of the same telescope they 

 would certainly not be able to detect the satellites. — Mr. Green 

 drew the attention of observers to the visibility of the dark limb 



of Venus during the coming quadrature ; he had on many occa- 

 sions thought that he perceived the dark limb on a brighter 

 background, but on placing the bright limb of the planet behind 

 a dark bar in his eye-piece, he had entirely lost sight of the dark 

 limb. He wished that other observers would try the same 

 experiment during the coming quadrature. The meeting ad' 

 journed till May 12, 



Geological Society, April 5.— Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 F.R.S. , president, in the chair. — James Mansergh, M. Inst. C.E., 

 was elected a Fellow of the Society. — On the bone-caves of 

 Creswell Crags (second paper), by the Rev. J. Magens Mello. In 

 this paper the author gives an account of the continuation of his 

 researches upon the contents of the caves in Cresswell Crags, 

 Derbyshire. The further exploration of the Pin Hole cave 

 described in his former paper,i furnish a few bones of Reindeer, ,- 

 Rhinoceros tichorhinns, and other animals, but no more remains O 

 of the Arctic Fox, which were particularly sought for. Opera- 

 tions in this cave were stopped because the red sand in which 

 the bones were found towards the entrance became filled with 

 limestone fragments, and almost barren of organic remains. The 

 author then commenced the examination of a chambered cave 

 called Robin Hood's cave, situated a little lower down the ravine 

 on the same side. The secdon of the contents of this cave 

 showed a small thickness of dark surface-soil, containing frag- 

 ments ol Roman and mediaeval pottery, [a human incisor, a.d 

 bones of sheep and other recent animals; over a considerable 

 portion a hard limestone breccia, varying in thickness from a 

 few inches to about 3 feet; beneath this a deposit of ligh'- 

 coloured cave-earth, varying in thickness inversely to the brecc 

 overlying a dark-red sand about 3 feet thick, like that of tl; : 

 Pm Hi)le, but with patches of laminated red clay near the base, 

 and containing scattered nodules of black oxide of manganese, 

 and some quartzite and other pebbles, which rested upon a bed 

 of lighter-coloured sands containing blocks of limestone, pro- 

 bably forming part of the original floor of the cavern. The 

 hard stalagmitic breccia contained a great many bones, chiefly of 

 small animals, but with some of reindeer, and teeth of Rhinoceros 

 tichorhinus, hysena, horse, water vole, and numerous flint-flakes 

 and chips, and a few cores. Some of the flakes were of superior 

 workmanship. A few quartzite implements were also found in 

 the breccia. The cave-earth contained a few flint implements, 

 but most of the human relics found in it were of quartzite, and 

 of decidedly palseolithic aspect. There was also an implement 

 of clay-ironstone. The animal remains chiefly found in the 

 cave-earth were teeth of horse. Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and 

 hysena, and fragments of both jaws of the last-mentioned 

 animal. Bones and teeth of reindeer and teeth of cave-lion and 

 bear also occurred. The red sand underlying the cave-earth 

 contained but few bones, except in one place, where antlers and 

 bones of reindeer and bones of bison and hyjena occurred. At 

 another part a small molar of Elephas primigenius was found. 

 A large proportion of the bones had been gnawed by hycenas, to 

 whose agency the author ascribed the presence of most of the 

 animal remains found ; but he remarked that no coprolites of 

 hyaenas had been met with. The following ^is a list of the 

 animals whose remains occurred in this cavern : — Felis ho (van 

 spelaa), Hycena crocuta (van spelced), Ursus arctos, U. ferox, 

 Canis familiaris, C. lupus, C. vulpes, Elephas primigenius, 

 Equus caballus. Rhinoceros tichorhinus,- Bos bison, var. priscus. 

 Bos loftgi/rons, Capra hircus, Sus scrofa, domesticus, and ferox, 

 Cervus me^aceros, C. tarandus, Arviccla amphibius, and Lepus 

 timidus. — On the mammalia and traces of iii.an found in the 

 Robin Hood Cave, by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. The 

 author noticed the various species of animals discovered by Mr. 

 Mello during the researches, the results of which are given in the 

 pteceding paper, and drew certain conclusions from their mode of 

 occurrence as to the history of Robin Hood's Cave. He con- 

 sidered that the cave was occupied by hyaenas during the forma- 

 tion of the lowest and middle deposits, and that the great majo- 

 rity of the other animals whose remains occur in the cave were 

 dragged into it by the hyaenas. That they served as food for 

 the latter is shown by the condition of many of the bones. 

 During this period the red sand and clay of the lowest stratum 

 was deposited by occasional floods. The red loam or cave-earth 

 forming the middle stratum was probably introduced during 

 heavy rains. The occupation of the cave by hysenas still con- 

 tinued, but it was disturbed by the visits of palaeolithic hunters. 

 The remains found in the breccia indicate that the cave was in- 

 habited by man, and less frequently visited by hyaenas than 

 * See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, voL xxxi. p. 679. 



