January 26. 191 1] 



NATURE 



429 



Humphries and Prof. C. A. Smith : Some tests on 

 white anti-friction bearing metals. The authors, being 

 persuaded that friction tests on bearing metals as usually 

 conducted are for many reasons inconclusive, have 

 endeavoured to stimulate a search for a series of static 

 tests which shall be conclusive. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society. December 13, 

 1910. — Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — Miss 

 Margaret C. March : Preliminary note on Unio pictorum, 

 U. tumidus, and Onodonta cygnea. The form of the 

 British Unionids can be shown to be dependent on current 

 and soil, and is therefore useless for systematic purposes 

 when taken alone. The umbonal markings of these 

 animals, merge into one another, and are therefore useless 

 specifically. Phylogenetically they show that U. pictorum 

 is most archaic, Anodon least, Tumidus being intermediate. 

 The edentulousness of American Anodons illustrate? 

 heterogeneric homaeomorphy. The ornament and dentition 

 of Unionoids show relationship to Trigonids, and a descenl 

 from a pre-trigonid ancestor. — D. M. S. Watson : Notes 

 on some British Mesozoic crocodiles. The author discussed 

 some systematic and nomenclatural difficulties, recording 

 the occurrence of a new variety of Metriorhynchus hastifer 

 in the Corallian of Headington, of M. hastifer itself in the 

 Kimmeridge clay of Britain, and discussing Petrosuchus 

 laevidens and Steneosaurus Stephani. — Prof. F. E. Weiss : 

 Sigillaria and Stigmariopsis. The author exhibited some 

 specimens of axes of Sigillaria associated with Stigmarian 

 bark. From the repeated occurrence of these specimens it 

 was suggested that they represented the base of the aerial 

 or the subterranean axes of Sigillaria, probably of the 

 Eusigillaria type. The secondary wood was more copiously 

 developed than is general in the aerial axes. The primary 

 wood was of Sigillarian type, so that these Stigmarian 

 axes have centripetal primary wood, and their pithcasts 

 would be striated like those described for Stigmariopsis. 

 It was noticed that in some instances small axes were 

 found in contiguity, and apparently in continuity, with the 

 main axes. These smaller axes resemble the ordinary 

 Stigmarian axes very nearly, and do not show the centri- 

 petal primary wood of the main axis, but only a few fine 

 tracheids in the pith region. 



January 10. — Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. 

 — H. S. Holden : An abnormal fertile spike of Ophio- 

 glossum vulgatum. The spike in question exhibited a 

 branching structure comparable to a certain extent with 

 the condition normally characterising Oph. palmatum. 

 The various features of the vegetative anatomy all serve to 

 demonstrate that the condition described has arisen by a 

 process of chorisis or splitting, thus confirming the work 

 of Prof. Bower on the group to which the genus belongs. — 

 Dr. A. N. Meldrum : The development of the atomic 

 theory : (4) Dalton's physical atomic theory. The physical 

 atomic theory, otherwise the theory of " mixed gases," is 

 specially interesting because it marks a stage in the de- 

 velopment of Dalton's ideas. Both it and the experiments 

 connected with it arose out of the meteorological observa- 

 tions and studies of his early life. It reveals him as a 

 student of Newton, and as the upholder of a physical 

 atomic theory years before he formed the chemical one. 

 Dalton's theory of mixed gases was an attempt to explain 

 the diffusion of gases, especially of the oxygen and nitrogen 

 in the atmosphere. He ascribed diffusion to physical 

 forces, and not to chemical union, then the accepted 

 explanation in nearly all quarters. In the course of the 

 mixed gases controversy, Dalton had the support of 

 William Henry only, whilst his opponents, who held that 

 the diffusion of gases was due to chemical affinity, in- 

 cluded C. L. Berthollet, John Gough, Thomas Thomson, 

 and Humphrey Davy. The water vapour in the atmo- 

 sphere is a special case of the mixed gases question. 

 Dalton made observations of the dew-point, and used them 

 as a measure of the water vapour in the atmosphere. In this 

 way he raised " hygrometry to the rank of an exact science." 

 Dalton expresslv alluded to the hypothesis now associated 

 with the name of Avogadro as a possibility, but rejected it 

 on the ground that, if it were true, the density of a com- 

 pound gas must be greater than that of its constituent 

 elements, which was not always thp case. He knew that 

 nitric oxide and water vapour are lighter than the oxygen 

 thev contain. 



NO. 2152, VOL. 85] 



Pabis. 



Academy of Sciences, January i6. — M. Armand Gauiier 

 in the chair. — C. Quichard : Surfaces the normals of 

 which touch a quadric. — Gaston Darboux : Remarks on 

 the preceding communication. — E. Cahen : Prime {intigro- 

 entieres) series. — M. GIrardville : Increasing the stability 

 of aeroplanes by means of gyroscopes. The gjroscope 

 used in these experiments had a rotating mass of 58 

 kilograms, and a vekjcity of rotation of 6000 turns a 

 minute. Model aeroplanes, used as gliders without 

 motors, when fitted with the gyroscope governor were 

 found to be free from periodic oscillations, and re- 

 established equilibrium when disturbed. — ^J. A. Le Bel : 

 A singular heating of thin patinum wires. — A. Cotton : 

 The delicacy of intereference measurements and the means 

 of increasing them. Shadow interference apparatus. The 

 delicacy of the ordinary interference methods is much 

 increased by the use of polarised light, and means are 

 suggested for applying this to the determination of double 

 refraction. — ^Jacques Boselii : The resistance to the move- 

 ment of small non-spherical bodies in a fluid. Stoke's 

 theorem has been successfully applied to the study of the 

 movement of spherical bodies in a fluid ; in the present 

 paper the motion of red blood corpuscles has been studied. 

 Using the corpuscles of different shapes derived from the 

 blood of different animals, it has been found that, other 

 conditions remaining the same, the velocity of fall is 

 inversely proportional to the viscosity. — M. de Brosriie 

 and L. Brizard : The radiation of quinine sulphate, 

 lonisation and luminescence. As a working hypothesis it 

 is suggested that the scintillations, and perhaps the con- 

 tinuous light, are due to small electric discharges produced 

 at the moment of the sudden breaking of small crystals. — 

 M. Hanriot : Brown gold. This name is applied to the 

 product resulting from the action of acid upon a gold- 

 silver alloy. A study of the changes in volume produced 

 in this modification of gold by increase of temperature. 

 — G. Urbain : A new element accompanying lutecium 

 and scandium in the gadolinite earths. Celtium. From 

 the rare earths obtained by treating xenotime on the large 

 scale, impure ytterbium was extracted, and by the frac- 

 tionation of this a new element, lutecium, was isolated. 

 With the view of obtaining larger amounts of lutecium, 

 large quantities of gadolinite have been worked up. The 

 mother liquor resulting from a series of fractional 

 crystallisations from nitric acid contains a metal the 

 oxide of which is characterised by a ver\" low coefficient 

 of magnetisation. Spectrographic analysis revealed the 

 presence of lutecium, scandium, and traces of neoytter- 

 bium, calcium and magnesium, and a large number of 

 new lines due to a new element, for which the name of 

 celtium is proposed. — R. Fourtau : The metalliferous 

 layer of Gebel-Roussas (Egypt). A detailed description of 

 the zinc and lead deposits. — MM. Melchissedec and 

 Frossard : The buccal resonator. — M. Doyon, A. Moreli 

 and A. Pollcard : The isolation of hepatic antithrombine, 

 with a description of some of its properties. — Gabriel 

 Bertrand and F. Rogrozinski : Haemoglobin as a 

 peroxydase. The compounds of haemoglobin with oxygen, 

 carbon monoxide, and hydrocyanic acid, were compared 

 as regards their action as oxydases ; the catahtic power 

 of each of these compounds was found to be exactly the 

 same. — Aug. Michel : Autotomy and regeneration of the 

 bodies and el>"tra in the Polynoidians. — J. Granier and 

 L. Boule : The somatic kineses in Endymion nutans. — 

 L. Spillman and L. Bruntz : The eliminating rdle of 

 the leucocytes. The elimination of liquid substances 

 foreign to the organism is effected in three phases : 

 fixation, during which the liquids are fixed mechanically 

 by certain forms of leucocytes : transport, the white cor- 

 puscles carrying the fixed substances to the excretory 

 organs ; excretion, the excretory organs taking possession 

 of the products fixed by the leucocytes by a glandular 

 process. — H. CoMti&re : The Eucyphote shrimps collected 

 in iqio with the Bourse net by the Princesse Alice. — 

 E. RoMbaud : The biology ffid paecilogonic viviparity- of 

 the cattle-fly in tropical Africa (Musca corvina). — Ph. 

 Glang^eaud : The volcanic region of Forez and its rocks. 

 In the Forez region during the Miocene or early Pliocene 

 period more than eighty volcanoes were active. Th° lavas 

 from these show numerous ooints of similarity.' with those 

 of Limogne, Mt. Dore, and Velay. 



