May 23, 1889] 



NATURE 



95 



lavas, the latter being sometimes amygdaloidal and sometimes 

 flaggy and aphanitic. The aphanilic rocks approach in character 

 the porphyiiic " schalsteins " of Nassau. Some of the rocks 

 are much altered ; the felspars are blurred, as if changing to 

 saussurite, like the felspars in the Lizard gabbros. In other 

 cases greenish aphanitic rocks have, by the decomposition of 

 magnetite or ilmenite, become raddled and earthy in appearance, 

 so as to resemble tuffs. The beds are clearly interca'ated in the 

 Devonian group of rocks, and the term Ashprington Series is 

 applied to them by the author. Alrhough this series probably 

 contains some detrital beds, there are no true grits in it. Strati- 

 graphically the series appears to come between the Great Devon 

 Limestone and the Cockington Beds, the evidence being dis- 

 cussed by the author, however, not so fully as he had intended, as 

 the paptr was not completed. The President said that the 

 thanks of the Society were especially due to Dr. Geikie for 

 having rescued this paper from oblivion. Dr. Geikie, after 

 alluding to the melancholy interest attaching to the paper, said 

 that he had himself urged the author to formulate his ideas 

 upon the structure of the country. The present communication, 

 however, was all that was found among his papers in a condition 

 for publication. But it is imperfect, and no materials remained 

 from which it could be completed ; still it was too valuable a 

 piece of work to leave unpublished. There were two principal 

 points in this last work of Mr. Champernowne : (i) the non- 

 intrusive character of the beds in question ; (2) their geological 

 horizon, regarding which, though, owing to the faulted nature of 

 the country, it is rather obscure, Mr. Champernowne's surmises 

 may turn out to be correct. There was no allusion in the paper 

 to the compression and shearing the rocks had undergone, to 

 which he (Dr. Geikie) attributed much of the schistose structure 

 both of the sedimentary and igneous rocks of the region. The 

 flaky beds of which the author speaks can be traced into the 

 more massive rocks. The flattening out of the amygdaloids was 

 a striking proof of this mechanical deformation. Some remarks 

 on the paper were also offered by Mr. Rutley, Dr. Hatch, Mr. 

 Worth, and Mr. W. W. Beaumont. 



Zoological Society, May 7. — Prof. Flower, F.R.S., Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The Secretary read a rep irt on the additions 

 that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month 

 of April 1889, and called attention to a young male Sinaitic 

 Ibex {Capra sinaitica), from Mount Sinai, presented by Sir 

 James Anderson ; and to a young male of the Lesser Koodoo 

 [Strepsiaros iniberbis), from East Africa, presented by George 

 S. Mackenzie. — Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks on a 

 living specimen of an albino variety of the Cape Mole {Geoiyc/ms 

 capensts), lately presented to the Menagerie by the Rev. George 

 H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S. — The Secretary read a letter addressed 

 to him by Dr. E. C. Stirling, of Adelaide, containing a copy of 

 his description of a nevv Australian burrowing Mammal, lately 

 published in the Tran.-actions of the Royal Society of South 

 Australia, and promising to send to the Zoological Society a 

 more complete account of the same animal. — Mr. Seebohm ex- 

 hibited and made remarks on the skin of a male example of 

 Fhasianus chrysomelas, which had been transmitted in a frozen 

 state from the Trans-Caspian Provinces of Russia. — A com- 

 munication was read from Colonel C. Swinhoe, containing 

 descriptions of seventy-five new species of Lidian Lej idoptera, 

 chiefly Heterocera. — A communication was read from Rev. O. P. 

 Cambridge, containing the description of a new Tree Trap-door 

 Spider fro.n Brazil, proposed to be called Dend>icon rostratriim. 

 — Mr. F. E. Beddard read some notes on the anatomy of an 

 American Tapir [Tapirus terrcsti is), based on a specimen lately 

 living in the Society's Collection. — A communication was read 

 from Prof. Bardeleben, of Jena, on the pra'pollex and prsehallux 

 of the Mammalian skeleton. '1 he author recorded the presence 

 of a two-segmented nail-clad prsepollex in Pedetes, and that of a 

 two-segmented pisiform (post-minimus) in Bathyergns. He also 

 stated that he had discovered vestiges of the pr^ehallux and prce- 

 pollex in certain keptilia. He then passed to the consideration of 

 the Mesozoic Theriodesmus of Seeley, and denied the existence 

 of the scapho-ltmare of that author, while he produced good 

 reason for believing the same observer's second csntrale to consist 

 of two elements, and his prseaxial ceniraleio be the basal element 

 of a praehallux. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas read the description of a 

 new genus and species of Muridse from Queensland, allied to 

 Hydromys, which he proposed to call Xeromys myoides. 



Mathematical Society, May 9.— J. J. Walker, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following communications were 



made : — On the solution in integers of equations of the forn[> 

 X* -»-y* -J- As* = o, by S. Roberts, F. R.S. — On the concomitants- 

 of Kary quantics, by W. J. C. Sharp. — Note on the G function 

 in an elliptic transformation annihilator, by J. Griffiths. — On the 

 complete elliptic integrals K, E, G, I, by Dr. J. Kleib.r, Prival- 

 docent of the University of St. Petersburg. — On the motion of 

 an elastic solid strained by extraneous forces, by Signer Betti 

 ("by symmetrical algebraic analysis, the author obtains an expres- 

 sion, in terms of the rotations of the element, for the unbalanced 

 couples acting on each element of a solid when strained by given 

 forces ; and he points out that the result is in accordance with 

 a form of the elastic equations given by Sir W. Thomson "). — On 

 cyclotomic functions, § iii. the cyclotomics belonging to the 

 /-nomial periods of the /th roots of unity, where / is a prime 

 number, by Prof. Lloyd Tanner. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, April i. — Sir W. Thomson, President, ir> 

 the chair. — Prof. Tait communicated some of the results obtained 

 from a series. of experiments on impact of various bodies. — Sir 

 W. Thomson exhibited and described new forms of magneto- 

 static current- and volt-meters, and an electro-static voltmeter 

 with a multiple voltaic pile to facilitate graduation. — Mr. A. 

 Crichton Mitchell gave an account of the properties of manganese 

 steel. — Dr. W. Peddie described an improved method of measur- 

 ing small rotations of the plane of polarization by ordinary 

 apparatus. — Prof. Tait read a paper on the relations between 

 line-, surface-, and volume-integrals. He showed that the well- 

 known relation between line- and surface-integrals can be deduced 

 directly fro^n a particular case of the equally well-known relation 

 between surface- and volume-integrals. 



April 15. — Prof Sir Douglas Maclagan, Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — The Keith Prize for 1885-87 was awarded to Mr. J. Y. 

 Buchanan for a series of communications on subjects connected 

 with ocean circulation, compressibility of glass, &c. — The Mak- 

 dougall-Brisbane Prize for 1884-86 was awarded to Dr. John^ 

 Murray for his papers on the drainage areas of continents, and 

 ocean deposits, the rainfall of the globe, and discharge of rivers,, 

 the height of the land and depth of the ocean, and the distribution 

 of temperature in the Scottish lochs as affected by the wind. — The 

 Makdougall-Brisbane Prize for 1886-88 was awarded to Dr. 

 Archibald Geikie for numerous communications, especially that on> 

 the history of volcanic action during the Tertiary period in the 

 British Isles.— Prof. Swan read an obituary notice of the late Mr, 

 R. M. Smith. — Dr. E. Sang read a paper on the resistance of the 

 air to the motion of an oscillating body with special reference to 

 its effect on time-keepers. — Mr. A. Johnstone communicated a 

 paper on a new and easy method for the rapid and sure de- 

 tection of mercury. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, May 13. — M. Des Cloizeaux, 

 President, in the chair. — The thionic series, by M. Berthelot. 

 In this paper the author studies the action of the acids on- 

 the thiosulphates, which throws quite a new light on the 

 constitution of the salts of the thionic series, by deter- 

 mining the limits of the heat of neutralization of thio- 

 sulphuric acid. The liberated sulphur reacts with the thio- 

 sulphuric acid before it decomposes, forming complex thionic 

 acids. — On mesocamphoric acid, by M. C. Friedel. — 

 The author has prepared this substance by a process differei t 

 f.om that of Wreden, by whom it was first described, and some 

 of whose statements are here rectified. Instead of being an 

 inactive, non-decomposable acid, it is found to be decomposable 

 by simple crystallization. — On the photographic spectrum of the 

 great nebula of Orion, by Dr. W. Huggins. In 1882 the author 

 obtained a photograph of the spectrum of this nebula, revealirg 

 a new luminous ray with wave-length about A3730. Two recert 

 photographs taken in 1888 and 1889 enable him to determine 

 more accurately this wave-length, as well as to describe a certain 

 number of other luminous lays which occur in the ultra-violet 

 region of the spectrum of the same nebula. These photograpl s 

 are figured in a drawing which accompanies the present note. 

 The wave-length of the bright ray discovered in 1882 is heie 

 determined at A3724. Dr. Huggins considers it probable thrt 

 nebulae yielding a spectrum, of luminous rays, with a very fail t 

 continuous spectrum, which is probably formed in part by 

 luminous rays in close proximity, are at or near the beginning 

 of the cycle of their celestial evolution, while those resembling 

 the large nebula in Andromeda have already reached a more 



