Jan, 2, 1879] 



NATURE 



211 



nearly with the teeth of Mastodon angustidens, but the characters 

 are not sufficiently well preserved to differentiate the species with 

 certainty. The same formation has furnished teeth of a Phoca, 

 to which the specific name rugosidens has been given by^Prof. 

 Owen. Large teeth referable to the Phocidae are found in the 

 nodule seams of the calcareous sandstone and in the sand bed ; 

 . the marl bed has also furnished a portion of a jaw. The Wood- 

 ■ is'ardian Museum contains a part of a jaw of Squalodon, evidently 

 from a nodule-seam of the calcareous sandstone (found by Scilla 

 circ. 1670). The sand bed and calcareous sandstone have 

 furnished remains of more than one species of Delphinus, and 

 large-sized Cetacean vertebrae are found in nearly all the beds, 

 especially the sand bed. Halitherium has been obtained from 

 the sand bed, marl bed, calcareous sandstone, lower limestone, 

 and (?) upper limestone. One specimen of Ichthyosaurus gau- 

 dettsis, Hulke, has been furnished by the calcareous sandstone ; 

 the same has also furnished Melitosaums champsoides, Crocodiltis 

 gaudensis, and Sterrodus melitensis. Myliobates toliapicus and 

 allied species have come from all the deposits except the upper 

 limestone. Otobates subcotrversus from the sand bed and marl. 

 The squalidae are abundant from all the deposits except the first. 

 There are ten species belonging to the following genera : — 

 Carcharodon, Carcharias, Oxyrhina, Hemipristis, Corax, 

 OJontaspis, Lamtia. Remains of Noiidanus, Platax, and 

 Diodon have also been found. — Dinosauria of the Cambridge 

 greensand, Parts I.-VII., by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.L.S. 

 F.G.S. The author stated that this paper was founded upon 

 the collection of more than 500 dinosaurian bones pre- 

 served in the Woodwardian Museum, for the opportunity 

 of studying which he was indebted to the kindness of 

 Prof. T. McKenny Hughes. He described the conditians under 

 which the specimens occur, and accounted for the apparently 

 worn state of the bones as the results of exposure to the air, and 

 subsequent maceration. — I. Note on the axis of a dinosaur from the 

 Cambridge greensand. — II. On the vertebral characters of Acan- 

 thopJiolis horridus, Huxley, from the base of the chalk-marl near 

 Folkestone. — III. On the skeleton of Anoplosaurus curtonotus, 

 Seeley. — IV. On the axial skeleton^of Eucercosauriis tanyspondy- 

 iuSf Seeley. — V. On the skeleton of Syngonosaurus macrocercus, 

 Seeley. — VI. On the dorsal and caudal vertebrce of AcanthophoHs 

 stereocercus, Seeley. — VII. On a small series of caudal vertebrae of 

 a dinosaur, Acanthopholus eucercus, Seeley. 



'Cambridge 



Philosophical Society, November 18. — Prof. Liveing, 

 president, in the chair. — The following communication was 

 made to the Society : — Some results of the two last total solar 

 eclipses, by Dr. A. Schuster. Every scientific investigation 

 passes through a preliminary stage, in which a general sur\-ey of 

 the facts is taken, and by means of which the most hopeful line 

 for futiu-e inquiry is determined. Eclipse observations may be 

 said to have just passed through that preliminary stage. The 

 present is therefore a fitting time for a general survey of what 

 has been done, and a discussion of what remains to be done. 

 Eclipse observations may be divided into three classes : spectro- 

 scopic observations, polariscopic obser\'ations, and general ob- 

 servations on the outline and shape of the corona, which can 

 best be carried on by means of good photographs, i. Spectro- 

 scopic observations. — The spectrum of the corona consists : of 

 a continuous spectrum, in which the dark Fraunhofer lines are 

 faintly seen ; of the spectrum of hydrogen gas, and of an im- 

 known line in the green. The pressure of a continuous spec- 

 trum indicates the presence of solid or liquid particles, and is 

 most likely partly due to matter falling into the sim. During the 

 last eclipse the first systematic attempt to determine the height 

 to which the continuous spectrum extends was made by Prof. 

 ' Eastman, assisted by Mr. Pritchett. The result was rather 

 remarkable, for although the corona was not equal in intensity 

 in the four directions, the spectrum disappeared nearly at the 

 same distance all round the sim. The importance of obtaining 

 photographs of the spectrum was pointed out. The various 

 attempts that have been made were mentioned, and the result of 

 the Siamese photc^raphs was compared with that of a photo- 

 .graph of the spectrum obtained by Dr. Henry Draper during the 

 late eclipse. The comparison proves that during the late 

 «clipse, the line spectnmi was much fainter. All observers agree 

 on this fact, and Prof. Young's opinion, which is decisive" on 

 that point, was quoted. The idea of connecting this fact with 

 the minunum of sun-spots through v.hich we are at present pass- 

 ing is obvious. • 2. Polariscopic obser\-ation5. — Polariscopic 



observations tend to show that close to the sun the polarisation 

 is small, that it increases up to a distance of a few minutes, and 

 then rapidly diminishes. The author has made a calculation as 

 to what the polarisation ought to be, and has come to the result 

 that in whatever way the scattering matter is distributed, as long 

 as it vanishes nowhere, the polarisation ought rapidly to increase 

 with the distance from the sun. The only way to accoimt for 

 the discrepancy between this result and the actual fact is by 

 assuming that as we move away from the sun, more light is re- 

 flected in the ordinary way and less light is scattered. Matter 

 falling into the sun and being gradually broken up by the heat 

 would account for all the "facts. 3. General outline of the 

 corona. — It has often been remarked that the corona shows an 

 approximate symmetry round the sun's axis. The author supports 

 the view that the greater extension in the direction of the sun's 

 equator is due to meteor streams which approximately circulate 

 in that plane. He quotes in support of this a fact noticed 

 by him during several eclipses, which indicates that a cer- 

 tain departure from this symmetry takes place in such a 

 way that the corona is wider and more extended on one 

 side of the axis than on the other, and he gives evidence 

 that this departure firom symmetry takes place in a direc- 

 tion fixed in space. The statement made by several ob- 

 servers that there is a connection between sun-spots and the sun's 

 corona has induced the author to look carefully over photographs 

 and drawings of the corona made diu-ing the last eight eclipses. 

 He has found that during this time the general outline has varied 

 gradually and systematically in a cycle corresponding to that of 

 the sun-spots. The following hypothesis, which seejcs to account 

 for many facts, was brought forward by the author. A meteor 

 stream is circulating roimd the sun in a very eccent ic orbit. A 

 number of meteors in their perihelion passage are falling into 

 the sun, owing to the increased chances of collision amongst 

 themselves, disintegration ow ing to rise of temperature and entry 

 into the solar temperature. The local increase of temperature 

 caused by the fall must give rise to currents on the smface of 

 the sun, and may give rise to cyclones which we call sun-spots. 

 If the meteors have a period, so that every eleven years an in- 

 creased quantity passes the perihelion, a greater number of sun- 

 spots would form, and at the same time we should observe a 

 difference in the shape of the corona, which may well be of such 

 a nature as is actually observed. Dr. Schuster also exhibited to 

 the Society Grant's small calculating machine, for the multipli- 

 cation of eight figures by eight ; he explained its construction, 

 and compared it w ith that of Thomas of Colmar, which is in 

 general use. Grant's machine is much smaller than Thomas's, 

 but does not perform subtraction directly, as is the case with the 

 latter. 



Boston, U.S.A. 



American Academy of Arts and Sciences, December 

 II, 1878. — Hon. Charles Francis Adams in the chair. — Prof. 

 Alexander Graham BeU presented a paper upon the use of the 

 telephone in tracing equi-potential hues and surfaces. The 

 results of prerious observers, especially those of Prof. Adams, 

 w ere referred to, and Prof. Bell showed that these lines could 

 be traced more readily with a telephone than with a galvano- 

 meter. He made use of a steel-band telephone, which could be 

 clasped about the head, lea\'ing the hands free to perform the 

 experiments. In this way the lines were traced in solids and 

 liquids. By the use of metal exploring rods the equi-potential 

 lines could be traced in the earth about one's feet, or in the 

 neighbourhood of metallic deposits, and might lead to the dis- 

 covery of metallic deposits or peculiarities in the homogenity of 

 the earth. — Prof. John Trowbridge read a paper upon the 

 resvilts of measurements conducted by himself and Prof. W. H. 

 Hill, of the United States Torpedo Station, at Newport, R.I., 

 upon the heat produced by the rapid magnetisation of iron, 

 nickel, and cobalt. The nickel and cobalt contained from 

 T% to ^T of I per cent, of iron, which was inappreciable in the 

 electro-dynamic experiments. The work done was measured in 

 metre grammes, and gave the result that the molecular heating 

 of equal volumes of iron, nickel, and cobalt can be expressed in 

 metre grammes as follows : — Iron = 2381 "43, cobalt = i9o6'5o, 

 nickel — Iii2"ii. 



P.\RIS 



Academy of Sciences, December 16, 187S. — M. Fizeau in 

 the chair. — The following papers were read : — Obsen-ations on 

 M. Pasteur's note on alcoholic fermentation, by M. Berthelot. 

 He describes an arrangement he made for effecting simultaneous 



