April 24, 1890] 



NATURE 



599 



4 miles, its width varying from 3 or 4 to 250 yards. The author 

 made a careful survey of the track of the whirlwind, and de- 

 scribed the damage done by it to trees, buildings, &c. — On the 

 possibility of forecasting the weather by means of monthly 

 averages, by Mr. A. E. Watson. The author is of opinion that 

 the averajje values of meteorological phenomena are constant 

 quantities, and that any variation from them is sure to be met by 

 a compensating variation in the opposite direction. 



Zoological Society, April 15. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger, in 

 the chair. — Mr. A. Smith-Woodward, read a paper on some new 

 fishes from the English Wealden and Purbeck Beds, referable to 

 the genera Oligopleurus, Strobilodus, and Mesodon. Detailed 

 descriptions of several fossils of these genera, now in the British 

 Museum, were given. Olizoplettrus was stated to be represented 

 by a single species in the Wealden of the Isle of Wight, occurring 

 also in the Purbeck of Dorsetshire ; and the latter formation had 

 yielded at least one species both of Sirolnlodiis and Mesodon. 

 Previous researches had already indicated a close connection 

 between the fish-fauna of the English Purbeck Beds and that of 

 the Upper Jurassic Lithographic Stones of France, Bavaria, and 

 Wiirtemberg ; and the new forms now described tended to demon- 

 strate that alliance even more clearly. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger 

 read the second of a series of reports on the additions to the 

 Batrachian Collection in the Natural History Museum. Since 

 1886, when the first report was made on this subject, examples 

 of 74 additional species of Batrachians had been acquired. 

 Amongst these was a remarkable new form allied to the family 

 Engystomatidas, proposed to be called Genyophryne thomsoni, 

 based on a single specimen obtained by Mr. Basil Thomson on 

 Sudest Island, near South-East New Guinea. The form was 

 stated to be unique in having teeth in the lower, but none in the 

 upper jaw. — Mr. Frank E. Beddard read a paper on the structure 

 of Psop/iia, and on its relations to other birds. The author was 

 inclined to consider Psophia most nearly allied to Cariama and 

 Ckunga, and more distantly to Rhinochettis, but entitled to stand 

 as a distinct family in the group of Cranes and their allies. — Mr. 

 Henry Seebohm gave an account of a collection of birds from the 

 northern part of the province of Fokien, South-Eastem China. 

 Several interesting species were represented in the series, 

 amongst which was a new Hemixos, proposed to be called H. 

 canipennis. 



Linnean Society, April 3.— Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., Presi- 

 , dent, in the chair. — Prof. P. Martin Duncan exhibited a trans- 

 verse section of a coral, Caryophyllia clavus, showing septa and 

 irregular theca between them. — Mr. B. D. Jackson exhibited 

 some seeds of Mystacidium filicormi, an epiphytic Orchid for- 

 warded from South Africa by Mr. Henry Hutton, of Kimberly. — 

 A paper by Prof. W. II. Parker, on the morphology of the 

 GallinacecE, in the unavoidable absence of the author was read 

 by Mr. W. P. Sladen ; and a discussion followed, in which Dr. 

 St. George Mivart, Prof. Duncan, and Mr. J. E. Harting took 

 part. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April 14. — M. Hermite, President, 

 in the chair. — On the theory of the optical system formed by a 

 telescope and a plane mirror movable about an axis, by MM. 

 Lccwy and Puiseux. One of the problems studied is to deter- 

 mine the exact co-ordinates of a star with a telescope and a 

 plane mirror placed in front of the object-glass. —On the elements 

 of peritoneal serum, by M. L. Ranvier. The humour was 

 obtained from the domestic rabbit, the rat {Mus decumamis), and 

 the cat. Microscopical examination of the preparations showed 

 the presence of red globules of blood (hrematics) whatever pre- 

 cautions were taken. It is therefore considered as a normal 

 element, physiological, not accidental, of peritoneal serum. 

 Colourless spherical lymphatic cells, having dimensions from ao^u 

 to 100^, are also described ; the volume, structure, and re- 

 actions of these cells from the three animals, however, is found 

 to vary.— On the artificial production of silk, by M. Emile Blan- 

 chard. — /I'/fMw/ of solar observations made at the Royal Obser- 

 ' vatory of the College of Rome during the first three months of 

 1 the year 1890, by M. P. Tacchini.— Observations of sun-sp its 

 I made in 1 889 at the Lyons Observatory, by M. Em. Marchand. 

 f. The first three months of this year are also included in the list. 

 V Tables are given showing the number of days without spots, the 

 ' duration and latitude of spots, and their mean total surface (umbra 

 and penumbra) expressed in millionths of the sun's visible surface. 

 — Approximate rectification of an arc of a curve, by M. A. E. 

 rdlet.— Construction for the radius of curvature of symmetrical 



triangular curves, of plane anharmonic curves, 'and of asymptotic 

 lines of Steiner's surface, by M. G. Fouret. — A paper by M. A. 

 Ditte, on the action of nitric acid on aluminium, shows that this 

 acid acts upon aluminium in much the same way as sulphuric 

 acid. The slowness of the reaction is due to the formation 

 of a protecting covering of gas. As in the case of zinc, 

 when weak nitric acid is employed the gases produced consist of 

 nitric oxide and nitrogen, together with some ammonia ; 

 with 3 per cent, acid in presence of a little platinum chloride, 

 ammonia is almost the sole product. Just as with the sulphate, 

 the nitrate forms with aluminium in presence of water a basic 

 nitrate with liberation of hydrogen. — On the preparation of 

 hydrobromic acid, by M. A. Recoura. The author passes a 

 stream of H2S through bromine, and washes the gaseous HBr 

 produced by passing it through a solution of HBr containing a 

 little red phosphorus in suspension. The method admits of the 

 production of gaseous HBr at any desired rate, and without the 

 necessity of the continual watching required by the methods 

 formerly employed. — On the oxidation of hypophosphorous acid 

 by hydrogenized palladium in the absence of oxygen, by M. R. 

 Engel. In the precipitation of palladium by hypophosphorous 

 acid according to the method followed by Wurtz and Graham, 

 the author finds that the product, contrary to the state- 

 ments of those investigators, contains hydrogen. The spongy 

 palladium produced decomposes an unlimited quantity of phos- 

 phorous acid, hydrogen being evolved. — M. P. Cazeneuve 

 contributes a paper on the oxidizing and decolorizing proper- 

 ties of charcoal. — M. E. Jungfleisch, in a note on camphoric 

 acids, shows that the separation of several acids is possible 

 when advantage is taken of their differing solubilities. — A 

 note on the acid malonate, the quadromalonate, and the 

 quadroxalate of potassium, by M. G. Massol, gives the thermal 

 properties of these salts, and an analysis of the quadro- 

 malonate. — M. L, Lindet describes a method for the extraction 

 of raffinose from molasses, and for the separation of raffinose 

 from saccharose, the separation depending upon the greater 

 solubility of raffinose in absolute methyl alcohol, and its much 

 inferior solubility in 80 per cent, ethyl alcohol, as compared with 

 the solubility in each medium of saccharose. — On a pseudo- 

 typhoid bacillus found in river water by M. Cas^ederat. The 

 author has found in Marseilles drinking-water a bacillus having 

 a great resemblance to that of typhoid fever. The investigations, 

 so far as they have gone, seem to fully establish the identity of 

 the two bacilli. — On the microbes of hsemoglobinuria of the 

 bull, by M. V. Babes. An examination of the character of this 

 organism shows that it has no well-established place in the classi- 

 fication of microbes, and that the conditions of culture are not 

 yet well determined. Nevertheless, its special reactions, its 

 localization in the red globules, and its transmissibility to 

 animals, leave no room for doubt as to its pathological sig- 

 nificance. — Nutrition in hysteria, by MM. Gilles de la Tourette 

 and H. Cathelineau. It is noted that in hysteria, notwithstand- 

 ing nervous pathological manifestations other than permanent 

 affections, nutrition is effected normally. — On operation for 

 strabismus without tenotomy, by M. H. Parinaud. — On the 

 function of air in the physiological mechanism of hatching, 

 sloughing, and metamorphosis among Orthopterous insects of 

 the family Acridides, by M. J. Kunckel d'Herculais. — On a new 

 Lycopodium of the Coal-measures [Lycopodiopsis Derbyi), by M. 

 B. Renault, — Pebble impressions, by M. Ch. Contejean. The 

 paper refers to Tertiary pudding-stones found near Montbeliard. 



Berlin. 



Physiological Society, March 28. — Prof du Bois-Reymond, 

 President, in the chair. — Prof. Salkowski spoke on fermentative 

 processes which occur in animal tissues, employing chloroform- 

 water to discriminate between the action of ferments (organized) 

 and enzymes (unorganized). He had thus found that a fermentation 

 (zymolysis) occurs in yeast-cells, by which their cellulose is partly 

 c(mverted into a Isevo rotatory sugar and the nuclein into sub- 

 stances of the xanthin series. He had further isolated from 

 yeast-cells, apart from their cellulose, two other carbohydrates, 

 one belonging to the gum series and one resembling glycogen ; 

 either of these might have been the source of the above- 

 mentioned sugar. In a similar way he had studied the 

 fermentative changes which take place in liver and muscle, and 

 found them to yield a series of distinct products which could be 

 determined both qualitatively and quantitatively. He concluded 

 fr .m his researches that fermentative (zymolytic) processes are 

 continually taking place in living tissues, and play a most 



