December 22, 1910] 



NATURE 



261 



Geological Society, December 7.— Prof. W. W. Watis, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. A. S. Woodward : 

 Recent excavations in the cavern of La Cotte, St. 

 Brelade's Bay (Jersey), made during the present year by 

 the Jersey Society of .Antiquaries. According to the report 

 of Mr. E. T. Nicolle and Mr. J. Sinel, shortly to be 

 published by the Jersey Society, the cave has yielded 

 evidence of human habitation and traces of Pleistocene 

 Mammalia. About a hundred flint implements of the 

 Mousterian type have been obtained, besides part of a 

 molar of Rhinoceros antiquitatis, and both teeth and 

 antlers of Rangifer tarandus. Human remains and teeth 

 of Bos ha%'e also been examined and determined by Dr. 

 C. W. Andrews and Dr. A. S. Woodward, to whom the 

 whole of the collection of mammalian remains was re- 

 ferred. This being the first discovery of typical Pleistocene 

 Mammalia in the Channel Islands, the Jersey Societ\- 

 hopes to proceed with the excavations as soon as possible. 

 — Dr. .A. Strahan : The occurrence of recent shelly 

 Boulder-clay and other glacial phenomena in Spitsbergen. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, November 28. — Sir George 

 Darwin, president, in the chair. — Prof. Pope : Demonstra- 

 tion of natural colour photography of interference figures. 

 —Dr. Fenton and W. A. R. Wilks : (i) Colloidal form 

 of N'astvogel's osazone ; (2) a method of characterising 

 certain ureides. — H. O. Jones and D. I. James : The 

 racemisation of malic and tartaric acids by heat. — Miss 

 A. Homer : A note on the action of aluminium chloride 

 on benzene. — Dr. Forsyth : Some theorems concerning 

 uniform functions of two complex variables, together with 

 some simple properties of such functions. — Dr. Young : 

 Note on the fundamental theorem of integration. — H. C. 

 Pocklingrton : (i) The determination of the exponent to 

 which a number belongs, the practical solution of certain 

 congruences, and the law of quadratic reciprocity ; (2) the 

 divisors of certain arithmetical forms, the primes of 

 certain forms, and the arrangement of quadratic and some 

 other residues. — L. Doncaster : Note on spermatogenesis 

 of Abraxas grossulariata. — F. Norton : The discharge of 

 positive electricity from sodium phosphate heated in 

 different gases. A strip of platinum foil was covered with 

 sodium phosphate and heated in a partial vacuum by 

 means of an electric current. The positive leak from the 

 heated strip to two parallel platinum plates, one on either 

 side of it, was measured, when the following gases were, 

 in turn, contained by the apparatus : — air, oxygen, carbon 

 monoxide, hydrogen. It was found that the positive leak 

 in oxygen was about the same magnitude as the leak in 

 air. In carbon monoxide gas the leak was several times 

 greater than the leak with the strip at the same tempera- 

 ture in oxygen or air at the same pressure. In hydrogen 

 the leak was irregular, being when first tested about ten 

 times as great as in carbon monoxide, but after heating 

 for some hours it had diminished to less than the value 

 in carbon monoxide under the same conditions. The fact 

 that the positive leak is increased by admitting carbon 

 monoxide into the apparatus is in accordance with the 

 view that the positive ions from heated solids consist of 

 molecules of this gas. — ^J. A. Crowther : The distribution 

 of secondary Rontgen radiation round a radiator. The 

 distribution of the secondary rays round a radiator under 

 the action of a beam of primary Rontgen rays has been 

 measured both for the " scattered " and for the " homo- 

 geneous " secondary rays. The scattered radiation rises 

 to a maximum on both sides of the radiator in the line 

 of the incident beam, and falls to a minimum at right 

 angles to that direction. The maximum in the forward 

 direction of the primary beam is considerably greater than 

 that in the reverse direction. The homogeneous secondary 

 rays are uniformly distributed round the radiator. — J. 

 Satterly : The radium content of salts of potassium. 

 Three years ago Campbell and Wood discovered that the 

 salts of potassium were radio-active, giving off /3 ravs. 

 Thev tested the salts for radium and found none. In the 

 opinion of the author their test was not as accurate as 

 the occasion demanded, and he has performed some experi- 

 ments in which the presence of radium in potassium salts 

 is decisively proved. The amount, however, is extremplv 



XO. 2147, VOL. 85] 



small (3x10-'* gm. radium per gm. of potassium salt), 

 and does not interfere with Campbell and Wood's deduc- 

 tions. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, December 5. — Dr. Burgess, vice-president, 

 in the chair. — E. M. Wedderburn : Temperature observa- 

 tions in the Madiisee (Pomerania), with mathematical dis- 

 cussion of temperature oscillations. A joint expedition 

 with Prof. Halbfass, of Jena, was made in August to the 

 Madiisee, a lake 17 km. long and 43 metres deep. About 

 3000 observations were made, and a temperature oscilla- 

 tion (or seiche) with a period of about twenty-five hours 

 was observed, the oscillations at the two ends of the lake 

 being in opposite phase. In the mathematical discussion 

 of the oscillations of the bottom water in a lake of vary- 

 ing depth and breadth, the assumption was made that at 

 a certain depth there was a sudden change of temperature, 

 and therefore of density, and that the temperature was 

 constant throughout each of the layers separated by this 

 surface of temperature discontinuity. The period of the 

 temperature oscillations depends on the differential 

 equation 



dv- 



+ - 



P = o, 



r(p-p')2(f) 

 where v = jbix)dx, h(,x) being the breadth of the surface 



of temperature discontinuity at a distance x from the 

 origin taken in that surface ; P is a function of v alone ; 

 p' and p are the densities of the upper and lower layers ; 

 and 



where A'(«) and A(.ic) are the areas of cross-section of the 

 upper and lower layers. The equation is of exactly the 

 same form as that used by Chrystal in his discussion 

 of ordinary seiches. The period of temperature oscilla- 

 tion in the Madiisee, calculated according to this formula, 

 is 249. — E. M. Wedderburn and A. M. Williams : 

 Experimental verification of the hydrodynamical theory of 

 temperature seiches. To verify the theory given in the 

 last paper, laboratory experiments were made with a small 

 trough of rectangular cross-section and parabolic longi- 

 tudinal section. Paraffin oil represented the upper layer 

 of warm water, and water the lower layer of cold water. 

 The observed periods of oscillation in the lower liquid 

 agreed well with calculation from theory. In some experi- 

 ments the ends of the trough were truncated just above 

 the surface of separation. As was anticipated by theory, 

 this caused no appreciable alteration in the period of 

 oscillation of the lower liquid. — Dr. Sutherland Simpson: 

 Observations on the body temperature of the domestic 

 fowl during incubation. The rectal temperature of the 

 brooding hen was compared with the corresponding 

 temperatures of a non-brooding or control hen. The 

 modifications which were observed to occur during the 

 brooding until a few days after the hatching were such 

 as might be expected to occur because of the altered habits 

 of the hen, apart altogether from the- brooding condition. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, December 12. — M. Emile Picard 

 in the chair. — W'. Kilian and M. Gigrnoux : The fluvio- 

 glacial terraces of Bi^vre and Basse-Is^re. In a previous 

 paper an account has been given of the pebble beds and 

 terraces in the neighbourhood of La Valloire and Saint- 

 Rambert-d'Albon. The present paper deals with the con- 

 tinuation of these beds towards the east, and leads to 

 conclusions differing from the views now held as regards 

 the relations of the external moraines with the terraces. 

 — ^M. Amann and CI. Rozet : The total eclipse of the moon 

 of November 16, 19 10, observed at Aosta, Italy. The 

 contacts were observed under good conditions, the times 

 of the two observers being concordant. — M. Borrelly : 

 Observation of the Faye-Cerulli comet made at the 

 Observatory of Marseilles with the comet finder. Posi- 

 tions of the comet and comparison stars are given for 

 November 22, 23, and 26, and December i and 2. The 

 comet appeared to be between the eleventh and twelfth 



