4o6 



NATURE 



\_Feb. 27, 1890 



F.R.S., then read a paper on the stamens and setae of Scirpecc, 

 illustrated by diagrams, which elicited a detailed criticism from 

 Mr. J. G. Baker, to which Mr. Clarke replied. — A paper was 

 then read by Mr. B. D. Jackson, which had been communicated 

 by the late Mr. John Ball on the flora of Patagonia, prefaced by 

 some feeling remarks by the President, on the loss which the 

 Society had sustained through the recent death of this able 

 botanist. 



Zoological Society, February 18. — Dr. St. George Mivart, 

 F. R. S., Vice-President, in the chair. — Mr. Tegetmeier exhibited 

 and made remarks on two Cats' skulls, out of the large quantity 

 of remains of these animals recently brought to this country 

 from Egypt. — ^Mr. G. A. Boulenger read a report on the 

 additions made to the Lizard collection in the British Museum 

 since the publication of the last volume of the British Museum 

 Catalogue of this group. A list was given of 91 species new or 

 previously unrepresented in the collection. Ten species and 

 three genera were described as new. — Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., 

 read some notes on a Guinea-fowl from the Zambesi, allied to 

 Nuniida cristata, and gave a general account of the recognized 

 species of this group of Gallinaceous birds. — Dr. Mivart, F. R. S., 

 read some notes on the genus Cyo)i, mainly based on an 

 examination of the specimens of this genus of Canidse contained 

 in the British Museum. — Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., read a 

 paper containing the characters of some new species of the 

 family Formicariidas. — Dr. Augustine Henry read some notes 

 on the Mountain Antelopes of Central China {Nemorhedus 

 ■ar gyrochates ■sxi^ N. henry anus). \\l~^ 



Royal Meteorological Society, February 19. — The follow- 

 ing papers were read : — Observations on the motion of dust, 

 as illustrative of the circulation of the atmosphere, and of the 

 development of certain cloud forms, by the Hon. Ralph Aber- 

 cromby. The author has made numerous observations on the 

 motion of dust in various parts of the world, especially on deserts 

 ■on the west coast of South America. He finds that the 

 wind sometimes blows dust into streaks or lines, which are 

 analogous to fibrous or hairy cirrus clouds ; sometimes into 

 transverse ridges and furrows, like solid waves, which are 

 analogous to certain kinds of fleecy cirro-cumulus cloud ; some- 

 times into crescent-shaped heaps with their convex side to the 

 wind, which are perhaps analogous to a rare cloud form called 

 *' mackerel scales" ; sometimes into whirlwinds, of at least two 

 if not of three varieties, all of which present some analogies to 

 atmospheric cyclones ; sometimes into simple rising clouds, with- 

 out any rotation, which are analogous to simple cumulus-topped 

 squalls ; and sometimes into forms intermediate between the 

 whirlwind and simple jrising cloud, some of which reproduce in 

 a remarkable manner the combination of rounded, flat, and hairy 

 clouds that are built up over certain types of squalls and 

 showers. Excessive heating of the soil alone does not generate 

 whirlwinds ; they require a certain amount of wind from other 

 ■causes to be moving at the time. The general conclusion is, 

 that when the air is in more or less rapid motion from cyclonic or 

 other causes, small eddies of various kinds form themselves, and 

 that they develop the different sorts of gusts, showers, squalls, 

 and whirlwinds. — Cloud nomenclature, by Captain D. Wilson- 

 Barker. The author proposes a simple division of cloud-forms 

 under two heads, viz. cumulus and stratus, and recommends that 

 a more elaborate and complete division should be made of these 

 two types. A number of photographs of clouds were exhibited 

 on the screen in support of this proposal. — An optical feature of 

 the lightning flash, by E. S. Bruce. It has been stated in the 

 Report of the Thunderstorm Committee of the Royal Meteoro- 

 logical Society, that there is not the slightest evidence in the 

 photographs of lightning flashes of the angular zigzag or forked 

 forms commonly seen in pictures. The author, however, believes 

 that this is an optical reality, as the clouds on which the projec- 

 tion of the flash is cast are often of the cumulus type, which 

 afford an angular surface. In support of this theory he exhibited 

 some lantern slides of lightning playing over clouds. 



Anthropological Institute, February 11.— Dr. Garson, 

 Vice-President, in the chair.— Mr. T. W. Shore read a paper on 



■ characteristic survivals of the Celts in Hampshire. He con- 

 sidered the round huts of the charcoal-burners a survival of the 

 huts which were common in the Celtic period ; and some of the 

 industries of the Celtic period appear to have survived in 

 Hampshire to the present day, such as that of osier-working or 



ibasket-making. There can be little doubt that HaylTng, 



anciently spelt Halinge, has derived its name from'the Celtic 

 word //«/=: salt ; the salt works which still exist there are in all 

 probability an example of a survival of a Celtic industry. Several 

 instances were given of earthworks which must be ascribed to 

 the Celts, and it was suggested that the mounds upon which 

 many ancient churches in Hampshire are built may have been 

 sacred sites of the same people. Reference was made to the 

 peculiar orientation of many Hampshire churches, 20° north of 

 east, and it was explained as a survival of a reverence for the 

 May Day sunrise from Celtic pagan time to Saxon Christian 

 time, and under a modification to a later date. — Dr. Garson ex- 

 hibited and described some skulls dredged from the bed of the 

 Thames by Mr. G. F. Lawrence, who afterwards gave an 

 account of the strata in which they were found. 



Mathematical Society, February 13.— J. J. Walker, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Mr. S. Roberts, F.R.S., 

 read a paper concerning semi-invariants. — Mr. Tucker (Hon. 

 Sec.) communicated papers by Prof K. Pearson, on ether-squirts ; 

 by Prof. G. B. Mathews, on class-invariants ; and a note on the 

 imaginary roots of an equation, by Prof. Cayley, F. R. S. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, February 17. — M. Hermite in the 

 chair. — Observations of minor planets made with the great 

 meridian circle and Jardin's meridian circle at the Paris Ob- 

 servatory during the first three months of 1889, by Admiral 

 Mouchez. Comparisons with published ephemerides have been 

 made in the following cases : Victoria (12), Astrasa (5), 

 Parthenope (11), Hebe (6), and Eugenia (45). — On the move- 

 ments of planets, supposing their attraction represented by one 

 of the electro- dynamic laws of Gauss or Weber, by M. F. 

 Tisserand. The author has investigated the motions of Mercury 

 and Venus on the hypothesis that they were not governed by 

 Newton's law of gravitation, but by one of the above named. 

 The change of the longitude of perihelion for a given time 

 would be about twice as great, using Gauss's law, than by using 

 Weber's. Taking the velocity of light as 300,000 kilometres per 

 second, it is found that, on the hypothesis of Weber's law, the 

 major axis of Mercury's orbit would have a direct motion of 

 14" '4 in a century ; for Venus the variation would be only 3"'o. 

 Using Gauss's law, the value for Mercury becomes 28" '2. — 

 Posthumous article on polyhedrons by Descartes ; a note 

 by M. de Jonquiemes, in which he shows that Descartes 

 not only knew and employed the relation S -f F = A -I- 2, 

 but that he announced it explicitly, and prior to Euler. — 

 On a new reviving plant, by M. Ed. Bureau. Two specimens 

 of a supposed new plant which revived when placed in water, 

 similar to the Rose of Jericho, have been investigated. The 

 change, however, is not simply hydration, as in the latter plant. 

 The specimens, which were found in Arkansas, prove to be 

 the Polypodium incanuin. Pluck, but the above property does 

 not appear to have been previously observed in it. — On the 

 distribution of pressures and velocities in the interior of liquid 

 sheets issuing from weirs without lateral contraction, by M. 

 Bazin. — On some objections to the theory of deep vertical circu- 

 lation in the ocean, by M. J. Thoulet. It is concluded that the 

 circulation of water between the equator and the Poles only 

 aff"ects a depth of about a thousand metres. Below this the 

 water is in a state of repose. The conclusion has been arrived 

 at from a consideration of deep-sea sediment and the observa- 

 tions of the density of water at great depths given in the Chal- 

 lenger Report. — On the St. Petersburg problem, by M. Seydler. 

 Two solutions are given of this " probability " problem. — On 

 the regular surfaces of which the linear element is reducible to 

 the form of Liouville, by M. Demartres. — On the surfaces of 

 which the linear element is reducible to the form ds- = F(U -f V) 

 {du- + dv"-), by M. A. Petot. — Summary of the observations of 

 the total solar eclipse of December 22, 1889, by M, A. de la 

 Baume Pluvinel. — Note on the calculation of the compressibility 

 of air up to 3000 atmospheres, by M. Ch. Antoine. In the 

 expression p-j = D (/3 -f /) (the pressure, /, being given in 

 atmospheres, and the volume, z', in litres), for air 



^= 273-6 - s'A 

 If up to 40 atmospheres D = 2"835, 

 and beyond 40 atmospheres D = 2'835 + o"ooi8 (J> - 40), 



the table given for air at <f = 0° is found to agree well with the 

 experimental results of Regnault and Amagat. — Extension of the 

 theorems relative to the conservation of the flux of force and of 

 magnetic induction, by M. Paul Janet. — Upon batteries with 



