July 4. 1889] 



NATURE 



239 



can be identified far beyond East Anglia, and where tliere is no 

 fn>.sil evidence, and they throw a considerable light on important 

 physiographical changes. The author described the composition 

 of the shingle, which, unlike the glacial deposits, contained 

 pebbles of southern origin. The paper concluded with a list of 

 fossils, excluding those of the Forest- bed (the stumps of which, 

 the author considered, were frequently in the position of growth). 

 Should the Forest-bed eventually prove to be newer than the 

 Chillesford beds, it was maintained that the former must be in- 

 cluded in the Westleton series, and its flora and fauna added to 

 the list, whilst if, on the contrary, the Forest-bed should be 

 proved synchronous with the Chillesford beds it must be relegated 

 to the Crag. The second part of this paper will treat of the ex- 

 tension of these beds into and beyond the Thames Valley, and 

 on some points connected with the physical history of the Weald. 

 The reading of this paper was followed by a discussion, in which 

 Mr. B. H. Woodward, Mr. J. A. Brown, and Mr. Topley took 

 part. 



June 19.— Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — The following communications were read : — On tachy- 

 lyte from Victoria Park, Whiteinch, near Glasgow, by Frank 

 Rutley.- — The descent oi Sonninia and of Ham mat oc eras, by S. 

 S. Buckman. — Notes on the Bagshot Beds and their stratigraphy, 

 by H. G. Lyons. — Description of some new species of Carboni- 

 ferous Gasteropoda, by Miss Jane Donald ; communicated by 

 J. G. Goodchild. — Cjslec/iinus crassits, a new species from the 

 Radioiarian marls of Barbados, and the evidence it affords as to 

 the age and origin of those deposits, by J. W. Gregory. — The 

 next meeting of the Society will be held on Wednesday, 

 November 6. 



Zoological Society, June 18. — Prof. Flower, F.R.S., Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The Secretary exhibited (on behalf of Mr. 

 J. F. Green) a very fine example of the (Common Eel, obtained 

 from a pond in Kent, and measuring upwards of 4 feet in 

 length. — Mr. B. B. Woodward exhibited, and made remarks on, 

 a drawing representing a living example of jErope kajffra, a car- 

 nivorous snail from the Cape Colony. — Mr. Woodward also 

 exhibited an example of a fossil shell from the Eocene of 

 the Paris Basin [Neritina schmideliana), and a section of it 

 showing the peculiar mode of its growth. — Mr. Eadweard Muy- 

 bridge, of the University, Pennsylvania, exhibited a series of 

 projections by the oxyJiydrogen light, illustrative of the con- 

 secutive phases of movements by various quadrupeds while 

 walking, trotting, galloping, &c., and of birds while flying. — 

 A communication was read from Prof Henry H. Giglioli, con- 

 taining the description of a supposed new genus and species of 

 Pelagic Gadoids from the Mediterranean, proposed to be called 

 Eretmophorus kleinenbergi. — Lieut. -Colonel H. H. Godwin- 

 Austen, F. R. S., read the first of a proposed series of papers 

 descriptive of the land-shells collected in Borneo by Mr. A. 

 Everett, with the descriptions of new species. The present 

 paper treated of the Cyclostoinncece. — Captain G. E. Shelley 

 read a list of birds collected by Mr. H. G. V. Hunter in Masai 

 Land during the months of June, July, and August 1888. The 

 collection (which Mr. Hunter had presented to the British 

 Museum) consisted of examples of ninety-four species, seven of 

 which were described by the author as new to science. — Mr. P. 

 L. Sclater, F. R. S., gave a further description of Hunter's Ante- 

 lope (Danialis hunteri) from specimens obtained by Mr. PL C. 

 j V. Hunter on the River Tana, Eastern Africa. — Mr. F. E. 

 j Beddard read a paper on the fresh-water and terrestrial Annelids 

 ! of New Zealand, with preliminary descriptions of new species. — A 

 communication was read from Mr. H. W. Bates, F.R.S., con- 

 taining descriptions of some new genera and species of Coleo- 

 pterous insects collected by Mr. Whitehead during his recent 

 visit to Kina Balu, The collection was stated to comprise an 

 unusual proportion of new and remarkable forms. — This meeting 

 closed the session. The next session (1889-90) will begin in 

 November 1889. 



Victoria Institute, July i. — Annual Meeting. — Sir George 

 Stokes, Bart., P. R. S., President, in the chair. — After the read- 

 ing and adoption of the Report, an address by Prof Sayce was 

 read by Dr. Wright. It gave a description of what has become 

 known as to the conquests of Amenophis III., the palace and its 

 archives, which have only lately been discovered, and which 

 Prof Sayce went last winter to investigate on the spot. Of the 

 tablets and inscriptions, he said : — "From them we learn that in 

 the fifteenth century before our era — a century before the 

 Exodus — active literary intercourse was going on throughout 



the civilized world of Western Asia, between Babylon and 

 Egypt and the smaller States of Palestine, of Syiia, of Mesopo- 

 tamia, and even of Eastern Kappadokia. And this intercourse 

 was carried on by means of the Babylonian language, and the 

 complicated Babylonian script. This implies that, all over the 

 civilized East, there were libraries and schools where the 

 Babylonian language and literature were taught and learned. 

 Babylonian, in fact, was as much the language of diplomacy and 

 cultivated society as French has been in modern times, with the 

 difference that, whereas it does not take long to learn to read 

 French, the cuneiform syllabary required years of hard labour 

 and attention before it could be acquired." A vote of thanks 

 was passed to Prof Sayce for his address, to Dr, Wright for 

 reading it, and to the President. 



Pari?. 



Academy of Sciences, June 24. — M. Des Cloizeaux, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — On the condition of matter near the criticai 

 point, by MM. L. Cailletet and E. Colardeau. The series of 

 experiments here described, and carried out for the purpose 

 of testing the views of Cagniard de Latour, Andrews, Ramsay, 

 and other physicists, tend to show that the critical temperature 

 of a liquefied gas is not that at which the fluid is totally eva- 

 porated abruptly within the space containing it, for the liquid 

 state persists beyond this temperature ; nor is it the temperature 

 at which a fluid and its saturated vapour have the same density ; 

 but it is the temperature at which a fluid and the gaseous atmo- 

 sphere above it become capable of being mutually dissolved in 

 any proportion, so as to form, when shaken, a homogeneous 

 mixture. This interpretation of the critical point supplies some 

 interesting data on the unbroken continuity of the liquid andi 

 gaseous states of matter. — On the heat of formation of thtr 

 hyponitrites, by M. Berthelot. M. Maquenne's experiments on 

 the hyponitrites, here communicated to the Academy by M. 

 Berthelot, seem todecidethequestionof theformulaof hyponitrous 

 acid, which corresponds with the percentage composition suggested 

 by Divers, but \s\\\\ twice the molecular weight. The complete 

 analysis of the salts of calcium and strontium removes all further 

 doubt on this point. — Restoration of the skeleton of Dinoceras, 

 by M. Albert Gaudry. The specimen here described is that of 

 Marsh's D. 77iirabile, copies of which have been supplied both to 

 the British Museum and to the new gallery of palaeontology in 

 the Paris Museum. — On the mastodons found at Tournan, Gers, 

 by M. Albert Gaudry. The numerous remains of mastodons 

 recently found by M. Marty in the Middle Miocene of Tournan, 

 all belong to M. angustidcns. Amongst them is the most per- 

 fect head of any mastodon yet brought to light in Europe. This, 

 with some other important parts, has been secured for the Paris 

 Museum, and affords facilities for determining the specific dif- 

 ferences between M. angiistidens of the Miocene and the M. 

 americamis of the Quaternary epoch. — On the occlusion of 

 gases in the electrolysis of the sulphate of copper, by M. A . 

 Soret. Having already shown [Comptes rendus, November 5, 

 1888) that certain relations exist between the quantities 

 of gas occluded in electrolytic copper and the conditions 

 of temperature and acidity of the electrolyte, the author 

 has carried out some further experiments leading to more 

 accurate results, and throwing some light on the action of 

 the electrolysis in this particular case. He finds that the 

 electrolytic copper contains carbon dioxide and hydrogen, 

 the latter of which is in most cases present in largest pro- 

 portion (five-sixths may be taken as an average), and in all 

 cases when the electrolyte is acid ; further, that the brittleness 

 of the deposit of copper is related to the presence of carbon dioxide. 

 — On the compounds of ruthenium and ammonia, by M. A. Joly. 

 The author has already shown that the constitution of the red 

 chlorides of ruthenium was more complex than was supposed by 

 Claus. It results from his further researches that the chloride 

 and all bodies derived from it contain an atom of nitrogen more 

 than was indicated by Claus, and that their formula might be 

 written thus : Ru . NO . OH . Xo(4NH3).— On the presence of 

 sulphate of soda in the atmosphere, and on the origin of 

 saline dust, by M. P. Marguerite-Delacharlonny. Some facts 

 are here adduced which may give a more general and perhaps a 

 more correct explanation of the presence of the sulphate of soda 

 in the atmosphere than that of M. Parmentier. — Camphor and 

 borneol of rosemary, by M. A. Haller, A new method is 

 described for separating these substances. — Mean altitude of the 

 continents and mean depth of the oceans, by M. A. de Tillo. 

 From the author's minute researches it results that the numerical 



