Feb. 27, 1879] 



NATURE 



403 



at once drilled in hopes of repeating the phenomena in the lec- 

 ture next day, but owing to sparks springing round we did not 

 succeed in perforating the glass, and therefore saw only the faint 

 return of light described by Dr. Kerr. 



Some more glasses have been prepared and their terminals 

 insulated, and I now propose to make another attempt to repeat 

 the new effects before the Royal Society, 



Zoological Society, February 18. — Prof. W. H. Flower, 

 F U.S., president, in the chair. — The Secretary exhibited, on 

 behalf of the Rev. T. O. Morris, an example of Bcmbyx querelas 

 with malformed antennae. — Mr. Sclater exhibited a new hum- 

 ming bird from Northern Peru, which he had received for identi- 

 fication from M. L. Taczanowski, C.M.Z.S., and which he pro- 

 posed to name Thaumalius taczanawskii. — Mr. Sclater exhibited 

 a li\ing amphisbasnian (Bronia brasUiaHo) lately received by 

 the Society from Monte Video. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. E. L. Layard, C.M.G., F.Z.S., containing a note on 

 Pachycepkala icterouies, Peale, with the description of a supposed 

 new species of the genus from Ovalau, Fiji group, proposed to 

 be called P. neglecta. — A communication was read from Dr. A. 

 Giinther, F.R.S., containing a description of four new species 

 of chameleons from Madagascar, proposed to be called Ch. 

 malpke, Ck. brei'icortiis, Ch. giiiaris, and Ck. globifer. — A com- 

 munication was read from Mr. Edgar A. Smith, F.Z.S., con- 

 taining a description of a large collection of moUusca from 

 Japan, formed by Capt. H. C. St. John, R.N., of H.M.S. 

 Sylvia. — Messrs. Godman and Salvin read descriptions of a 

 number of new species of butterflies from Central and South 

 America. — A second communication from the same authors 

 gave an account of a collection of butterflies made by the Rev. 

 G. Brown in New Ireland and New Britain. — Mr. A. G. Butler 

 gave an account of the Heterocera contained in a collection 

 from the same locality. — A communication was read from Mr. 

 \V. A. Forbes on the systematic position of the genus LaiAamus, 

 in which, from a study of its pterylosis, osteology, and other 

 points in its external and internal structure, he showed that this 

 parrot must be referred to the neighbourhood of the Platycercidte. 

 — Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe read a note on Heliodilus saumagnei, 

 Grandidier, of which a specimen had recently been acquired by 

 the British Museum. — Mr. Sharpe likewise pointed out the 

 characters of a second species of the genus Dronueocercus, from 

 Madagascar, proposed to be called D. seebohmi. — A communi- 

 cation was read from Mr. A. Boucard, C.M.Z.S., containing 

 descriptions of two supposed new species of South American 

 birds. — Dr. F. Day read some remarks on the occurrence at 

 Southend of the little gurnard, Trigla paciloptera. 



Meteorological Society, February 19. — Mr. C. Greaves, 

 president, in the chaii. — Eleven new Fellows were elected and 

 thirteen candidates proposed. — The following papers were read : — 

 Diurnal variations of barometric pressure in the British Isles, 

 by Frederick Chambers. The object of this paper is to show 

 that differences of types of the diurnal variations of pressure at 

 inlr-nd or sea-coast stations are due to the superposition, on a 

 common type of diurnal variation at all the stations, of a distinct 

 diurnal variation of barometric pressure, such as is required to 

 satisfy the convection-current theory which explains die well- 

 known diurnal land and sea breezes. To show this, all that is 

 necessary is to take the differences of the corresponding hourly 

 inequalities of the barometric pressure at pairs of inland and 

 coast stations, and to exhibit these differences in the form of 

 curves, which are then found to closely resemble the carves of 

 diurnal variation of air temperatmre. — On a standard cistern 

 siphon barometer, by Frederick Bogen. — On the relation exist- 

 ing between the diu-ation of sunshine, the amount of solar radia- 

 tion, and the temperatiire indicated by the black bulb thermo- 

 meter in vacuo, by G. M. Whipple, B.Sc., F.R.A.S. The 

 author has instituted a comparison between the duration of sun- 

 shine, as determined by Campbell's sunshine recorder, and the 

 amount of solar radiation, as ascertained from the readings of 

 the black bulb thermometer in vacuo, for the year 1877, at the 

 Kew Observatory. It is evident that there is a close relation 

 between these phenomena, but owing to the great range of the 

 black bulb thermometer, the exact nature of the connection is 

 not immediately evident. The author says that it may be safely 

 concluded that the measure of solar radiation as given by the 

 black bulb thermometer is only to be considered at any place as 

 an indication of the relative presence or absence of cloud from 

 the sky at the locality, and so its use as a meteorological instru- 

 ment may with advantage be set aside in favour of the sunshine 

 record, which has not the elements of uncertainty attached to it, 



inseparable from the former instrument. — Results of meteoro- 

 logical observations made at Buenos Ayres, by William B. 

 Tripp, Assoc. Inst. C.E, 



Anthropological Institute, February 11.— Prof. W. H. 

 Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — The 

 election of Sir Henry Sumner Maine, K.C.S.I., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 as a Member, was announced. — Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., exhibited and described a scaphocephalic cranium from 

 Fiji, and Mr. A. L. Lewis exhibited a series of implements and 

 photographs from Australia. — Mr. John E. Price read a paper 

 on the Australian Aborigines, by Mr. D. Macallister. After 

 describing their social and domestic observances, traditions, and 

 religious notions, the author concluded that he had no doubt 

 that had the continent of Australia remained undiscovered by 

 Europeans for a few thousand years longer, the climatic and 

 general physical changes which would doubtless have occurred, 

 together with the contact at intervals with their more civilised 

 Polyne-ian neighbours, would have constituted an en^aronment 

 more favourable to progress than any which has ever existed, 

 and would have tended to an improved condition of the people. 

 As it was, the total absence from the continent of ferocious or 

 powerful animals, the comparative ease with which the poor 

 and limited quantity of their food was obtained, and their 

 national isolation, may have been a patent cause for the non- 

 progressive character of the people. — The director also read a 

 paper by Capt. W. E. Armit, F.L.S., on the customs of Austra- 

 lian Aborigines. 



Entomological Society, February 5. — Sir John Lubbock, 

 Bart., V.P.R.S., president, in the chair. — Messrs. H. W. 

 Bates, J. W. Dunning, and F. Smith, were nominated vice- 

 presidents for the ensuing year. — Mr. H. J. Elwes exhibited a 

 collection of lepidoptera from a small island at the mouth of the 

 River Amur. — Mr, Waterhouse exhibited a remarkable spider 

 from West Africa, Gasteracantka Cambridgei, Butt — A specimen 

 of Harpalus oblonguisculus, taken at Weymouth, was exhibited 

 by Mr. Champion. — The Rev. A. E. Eaton remarked on the 

 peculiarities in the neuration of the wings of most of the Epheme- 

 ridce, and exhibited drawings of wings of Trichoptera and 

 '1 ineina, to show the homologies in the neuration of the same, - - 

 The Secretary read a note from Dr. Fritz Miiller, recording a 

 remarkable case of mimicry in the Brazihan butterfly, Eueides 

 pavana, which mimics Acraa thalia. It is, however, in the 

 male sex of E. pavana that the greatest resemblance to the 

 Acrcea is found. — The following papers were also communicated : 

 On the lepidoptera of the Amazons, &c., Part iii., Noctuites, by 

 A. G. Butler. — Description of a new genus of rhyncophorous 

 coleoptera, &c., by C. O. Waterhouse ; and descriptions of the 

 species of the lepidopterous genus Kalhma, by F. Moore. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, February 18. — Mr. Brun- 

 lees, vice-president, in the chair. — The paper read was on the 

 construction of heavy ordnance, by Mr. J. A. Longridge, 

 M. Inst. C.E. 



Boston 



Society of Natural History, May 15, 1878. — The De- 

 vonian brachiopoda of the Province of Para, Brazil, by R. 

 Rathbun, late assistant geologist to the. Geological Commission 

 of Brazil. 



Philadelphia 



Academy of Natural Sicences, November 5, 1878. — De- 

 scriptions of Ichneiunonidje, chiefly from the Pacific slope of the 

 United States and British North America, by E. T. Cresson. 



November 12. — Descriptions of a new species of Delabella 

 from the Gulf of California, with remarks on other sp cies, by 

 R. E. C. Steams. 



November 26. — On the structure of the gorilla, by Dr. 

 Chapman, dealing with the muscles of the extremities as found in 

 a msile of two years old. 



Berlin 

 Chemical Society, February 10. — At tl-e close of Prof. 

 Kopp's remarks (see p. 387), Herr Frank exhibited a mass of 

 infusorial earth saturated with bromine. As this form of silica 

 will take up eight or ten times its own weight of bromine, he 

 claimed that this would be a convenient form of handling, 

 weighing, and using this corrosive liquid. The speaker also 

 stated that he had found petroleum to be a specific for the bums 

 and stains of bromine. — Herr Baumann then exhibited a specimen 

 of hydroquinon found in the form of hydroquinon-sulpho acid in 



