December i, 19 io] 



NATURE 



161 



ducing marked bicoloured forms. In the absence of yellow 

 plastids the flowers do not " burn," unlike most known 

 salmon or scarlet varieties. — Dr. R. N. Salaman : 

 Demonstration of Mendelian laws of heredity in the 

 potato. — Prof. Wood : The feeding value of mangels. 

 Reference was made to a former communication on the 

 composition of thi five types of mangels. The present 

 paper describes a series of feeding trials designed to ascer- 

 tain if the percentage of dr}* matter is a fair index of 

 feeding value. Nine experiments are discussed, and the 

 result arrived at is that the percentage of dry matter does 

 indicate the feeding value. — F. H. A. Marshall : Some 

 causes of sterility in cattle. Sterility in some cases was 

 shown to be probably due to a deposition of lipochrome 

 in the ovarian interstitial tissue, associated with follicular 

 degeneration. — F. H. A. Marshall and K. J. J. 

 Mackenzie : Caponising. It was shown that in a case 

 of incomplete caponisation, where pieces of testis of vary- 

 ing sizes had become transplanted on to the intestine and 

 in other abnormal positions, spermatozoa were formed in 

 the testicular grafts in spite of the fact that they were 

 virtually ductless glands ; also that the development of the 

 secondary male characters and sexual desire were 

 almost normal, as in the cases described by Foges 

 and Shattock and Seligmann.— F. W. Foreman : Notes 

 on protein hydrolysis. During the hydrolysis of the pro- 

 tein of Linseed the following points worthy of special 

 mention were noted : — (i) By a modification of the ordinan,' 

 method it was found possible to separate practically the 

 whole of the glutaminic acid as the hydrochloride in the 

 early stages of the hydrolysis. (2) The very high content 

 of valin compared with leucin. (3) The low percentage of 

 tyrosin. C4) The discovery of a basic lead salt of tyrosin, 

 and the possibility of introducing a trustworthy method 

 for the estimation of tyrosin in a mixture of amino-acids 

 obtained from a protein by hydrolysis by precipitating it 

 as this basic lead salt. — K. R. Lewvin : Nuclear relations 

 of Tarameciunx caudatum during the asexual jieriod. The 

 micronucleus of Paramecium caudatum is not necessary to 

 continued multiplication by fission. By merotomy an 

 amicronucleate race was obtained which maintained itself 

 for seven weeks. This result was not due to fusion of 

 mega- and micronuclei under the stimulus of operation. 



Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, November 22. — Prof. T. Johnson 

 in the chair. — Prof. VV. Bro«wn : Mechanical stress and 

 magnetisation of nickel. The author gave the results of 

 experiments on magnetism and torsion of nickel wires 

 when the wires were of different degrees of magnetic soft- 

 ness and of different lengths and diameters, which show 

 several peculiarities in the behaviour of nickel as com- 

 pared with iron when tested under the same conditions. — 

 Prof. T. Johnson : A seed-bearing Irish pteridosperm — 

 Lyginodendron Oldhamium, Willm. The author records 

 the presence in Ireland of the Pteridospermeae, and gives 

 an account of S{>ecimens of Sphenopteris Hoeninghausi, 

 Brgt., in the botanical division of the National Museum, 

 Dublin, and especially of one specimen of this in the 

 Geological Survey collection. This specimen shows not 

 not only the connection of S. Hoeninghausi with the stem 

 of Lyginodendron, but also the direct continuit>- of the 

 fossil known as Calymmatotheca Stangeri with Lygino- 

 dendron rachis. In addition the author describes the 

 presence of a Lagenostoma seed in one of the cupular 

 rosettes of Calymmatotheca. The specimen furnishes the 

 evidence of direct continuity in support of the views of 

 Oliver and Scott on the synthetic reconstruction of the 

 Palaeozoic pteridosperm Lyginodendron Oldhamium. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, November 21. — M. Einile Picard 

 m the chair. — M. Francotte was elected a correspondant 

 n the section of anatomy and zoology in the place of the 

 ite M. Van Beneden. — J. Guillaume : Observations of 

 erulli's comet made at the Observatory of Lyons. Data 

 re given for November 12 and 16. The comet is of about 

 he tenth magnitude ; a small tail was visible on 



NO. 2144, VOL. 85] 



November 16th. — M. Luixet, J. Guillaume, and J. 



Merlin : Occultations observed during the total eclipse of 

 the moon of November 16, 19 10, at the Observatory of 

 Lyons. — L. Montangrerand : Observation of the total 

 eclipse of the moon of November 16, 1910, made at the 

 Observatory of Toulouse. — M. Lebeuf : The total eclipse 

 of the moon of November 16, 1910, observed at the 

 Observatory of Besan^on by MM. Chofardet and Goudey. 

 — M. Bourget : Observations of the total eclipse of the 

 moon of November 16, 1910, made at the Observatory of 

 Marseilles. — Robert Jonckheere : The total eclipse of the 

 moon of November 16-17, 1910, at the Obervatory of 

 Hem. — E. Cartan : Isotropes capable of development and 

 the method of the mobile trihedron. Eugfene Fabry : 

 Order of the singular points of a Taylor's series. — A. 

 Chatelet : The theory of numbers. — T. Lalesco : 

 Resolving nuclei. — Marcel Brillouin : The discontinuous 

 movement of Helmholtz. Curved obstacles. — M. Villat : 

 The resistance of fluids limited by a fixed indefinite wall. 

 — MM. Claude, Ferrie, and Driencourt : Telephonic and 

 radio-telegraphic comparisons of chronometers by the 

 method of coincidences between Paris and Brest. The 

 difference between the two sets of comparisons by tele- 

 phone and by wireless telegraphy is less than o-oi sec. ; 

 if necessary, the accuracy could be increased. — G. A. 

 Hemsalech : The modifications undergone by the lines of 

 the spark spectrum in a magnetic field. A development of 

 work described in a previous paper. Three classes of 

 phenomena are shown to exist : a general effect in- 

 dependent of the direction of the lines of force of the 

 magnetic field ; a longitudinal effect, produced when a 

 spark is parallel to the lines of force ; and a transversal 

 effect, produced only with very slow discharges, when the 

 spark is perpendicular to the lines of force. In the present 

 paper observations on the first two of these effects are 

 described and discussed. — G. A. Andrault : A rapid 

 graphical method for measuring the slipping of induction 

 motors. — Francisque Grenet : Study of the porosity of 

 Chamberland filters. The dry filter, placed vertically, is 

 completely filled with mercury, and a fine steel tube passed 

 through a close-fitting stopper is connected with a cali- 

 brated glass capillary tube. On plunging the filter into 

 distilled water, the air in the capillaries of the porous pot 

 is driven inwards, causing a rise of the mercury in the 

 glass capillar}'. Filter tubes of different makes showed 

 large differences in the pressures thus measured, varying 

 from 18 cm. to 2 metres of mercury. These pressures 

 measure the diameters of the pores of the filter. — 

 J. de Kowralski and J. de Dzierzbicki : The progressive 

 phosphorescent spectrum of organic compounds at low 

 temperatures. Figures are given for the bands of benzene 

 and nine of its homologues, for phenol, cresols, and 

 xylenols and benzyl alcohol. The results show that pro- 

 gressive phosphorescence is a property which depends 

 essentially on the constitution. — Charles Moureu and 

 J. Ch. Bong^rand : Propiolic compounds. Cyanacetylene. 

 Methyl propiolate, CH'C.COXHj, was converted into 

 propiolamide, CH:C.CO.(NH,). By the action of phos- 

 phorus pentoxide upon this amide, cyanacetylene, 

 HC -C — CN, is obtained. This forms a mobile liquid 

 boiling at 425° C, solidifying in ice to a mass of crystals 

 melting at 5° C. The physical and chemical properties of 

 this compound are given in detail. — Casimir C^p^de : An 

 improvement of the binocular microscope, increasing the 

 illumination of the objects under observation. — Marcel 

 Mirande : The effects of tarred roads on vegetation. It 

 has been found experimentally that the vapours given off 

 by tar such as is used for treating roads act injuriously 

 on green plants. In the open country the vapours given 

 off by a tarred road would be insufficient to damage 

 vegetation, but in shut-in streets damage to trees planted 

 on the edge of the pavement may be expected. — ^Jules 

 Amar : Respiratory exchanges after work has been done. 

 The amount of oxygen used by a human subject was 

 measured, first, when at rest, then during work, and 

 finally at regular intervals after cessation of the work. 

 The original vconsumption of oxygen was reached in from 

 six to eight minutes after the work was stopped. The 

 rate of decrease of oxygen absorption varied with each 

 subject. — Ch. Gravier : The battle for existence in the 



