596 



NATURE 



[April 24, 1879 



Dingle Beds" and "Glengariff Grits," by Prof. E. Hull, 

 F.R.S. The author has arrived at the following results : — First, 

 that " the Dingle Beds " are perfectly conformable to, and con- 

 tinuous with, the upper silurian beds of the Dingle promontory. 

 Secondly, that they are the representatives of "the Mweelrea 

 Beds and Salrock Slates," of West Gahvay and Mayo, the age 

 of which, as shown by the fossils, is upper silurian, and that 

 "the Dingle Beds " may therefore be regarded as of the age of 

 the Ludlow Rocks, but unusually developed — the view adopted 

 as far back as 1839 by Sir Richard Griffiths. Thirdly, that 

 throughout the south of Ireland "the Dingle and Glengariff 

 Beds " are disconnected from the succeeding conformable series, 

 consisting of {c) lower carboniferous slate ; (d) the upper old 

 red sandstone with Anadotita jukesii; (a) the lower old red 

 sandstones and conglomerate, as these three conformable forma- 

 tions are found resting upon, and against, the Glengariff beds 

 successively in a direction either from south to north, or from 

 South-west to north-east, owing to a conformable overlap against 

 the flanks of an old shelving shore formed of the Glengariff beds. 

 Fourthly, that at the close of the upper silurian period, and after 

 the deposition of " the Dingle and Glengariff Beds," these strata 

 were disturbed, upraised, and denuded, and were not again sub- 

 merged till the commencement of the old red sandstone (a), when 

 they were successively overlain by the beds of that formation 

 with the succeeding ones of the lower carboniferous period, 

 probably inducting the carboniferous limestone in some places. 

 Lastly, that it was during this period of upheaval that, as the 

 author believes, the mo.rine Devonian beds (llfra combe and 

 Morte series) were deposited, which accounts for their absence 

 in the Irish area, which was either a land surface or only 

 partially submerged. To this part of the subject the author 

 hoped to call the attention of the Society on a future occasion. — 

 On some three-toed footprints from the triassic conglomerate of 

 South Wales, by W. J. Sollas, F.G.S.— On the silurian district 

 of Rhymney and Pen-y-lan, Cardiff, by W. J. Sollas, F.G.S. 



Statistical Society, April 15. — Sir R. W. Rawson, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S., read 

 a paper on the geographical distribution of the Celtic speaking 

 population of the British Isles. He stated that four Celtic 

 languages are at present spoken in the British Isles, three of 

 which belonged to the northern Gaelic or Gadhelic, and one to 

 the southern or Cymraig branch. The former are Irish Gaelic, 

 Scotch Gaelic, and Manx ; the Cymraig branch, since the 

 extinction of Cornish, being now represented only by the Welsh, 

 Ireland. — The localities where Irish Gaelic is the language of 

 the majority, are comparatively limited and remote area';, where 

 the population is less dense than in the more fertile and English 

 speaking districts of the island. In 1851, 23 '3 per cent, of the 

 population spoke Irish, and in 1 871 15 '3 per cent. The success 

 of the labours of the "Society for the Preservation of the Irish 

 Language " was referred to, although it cannot be doubted that 

 Irish is on the decrease. Opinions differ as to the agencies to 

 which this decrease must be ascribed. The census on the whole 

 presented a very fair picture of the linguistic condition of 

 Ireland. Scotland. — Mr. Ravenstein said that not quite 9 per 

 cent, of the population could speak Scotch Gaelic, and that there 

 was no doubt it was dying out, although in the more remote 

 parts of the Highlands, and in the Hebrides, it still maintains 

 its ground. In the Isle of Man 25*6 per cent, of the population 

 still understood Manx. Wales (Cymraig). — Of all the Celtic 

 speaking races in the United Kingdom, the Welsh were the 

 most important, and in the maintenance of their own language 

 they showed by far the greatest amount of vitality. Including 

 60,000 Welsh in England, there are 1,006,100 Welsh speaking 

 people in Great Britain. The total number of persons in the 

 United Kingdom still speaking a Celtic tongue was : — 



Irish Gaelic 867,600 



Scotch ,, ... ... ... 309,250 



Manx ... ... ... 12,500 



Welsh 1,006,100 



Total 2,195,450 



or nearly 7 per cent, of the population of the British Isles. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, April 14. — M. Daubrrfe in the chair. 

 — The following papers were read : — Law of propagation of 

 expressive nervous affections and phenomena, by M. Rambosson. 

 A movement piurely physical may be transformed into one 

 physiological, and into one psychic or cerebral, being transmitted 

 to these different media ; and reciprocally, a psychical movement 



may be transformed with a physiological and a physical ; and 

 that without altering in nature, the same phenomena being 

 reproduced after all these transmissions and transformations, on 

 repassing into the same medium. — Studies on Collioure and its 

 environs, by M. Seriziat. — On the curve-place of positions of 

 centres of curvature of a left curve after its development on a 

 straight line, by M. Aoust, — On various experiments with an 

 oscillating pendulum having large amplitudes, by M. Dejean de 

 Fonroque. The pendulum being free to oscillate in all direc- 

 tions, the plane of oscillation becomes rapidly oriented in a 

 particular direction ; which- the author thinks is nothing but 

 the horizontal projection of the earth's trajectory,or the resultant of 

 the two great motions of translation of the earth, towards Hercules 

 and round the sun. The trajectory in question does not change sen- 

 sibly in direction, in the course of a day ; but in this time the in- 

 clination of the horizontal plane (passing through the point of 

 suspension) to this trajectory varies incessantly according to a 

 law easily determined, consequently its projection on this plane 

 must vary, also the direction of the pendulum. M, Comu, 

 while not accepting the causes assigned, thought the phenomena 

 worthy of attention. —Anomaly of magnetic observations of 

 Paris, by M. Flammarion, He does not allow M. Marie-Davy's 

 explanation. — Fossil fauna of the environs of Castres, by M. 

 Caraven- Cochin, He has discovered several carapaces of tor- 

 toises in the eocene sand^tone of the place, also jaws and teeth 

 of Lophiodon, scales and teeth of crocodiles (apparently three new 

 species), remains of various mammalia, &c. —On an alteration of 

 the cells of renal epithelium, at the commencement of Bright's 

 disease, by M. Cornil. He describes vacuoles in the cells of 

 the uriniferous tubes, filled with a ball or drop of granular albu- 

 minoid matter. — Researches on the Pyrenomycetes of St, Paul 

 and Amsterdam Islands, by M, Crie. — Considerations on the 

 Echinida of he Cenomanian formation in Algeria, by M. Cot- 

 teau. He finds remarkable relations of the system in Algeria 

 to that in France, 



GOTTINGEN 



"':. Royal Society of Sciences, February 12. — On the constant 

 batteries of Grove and Bunsen, by Herr Fromme. — Report on 

 ear diseases, by Dr, Burkner. 



March i. — On the reduction of Abel integrals to elliptical 

 and hyper-elliptical, by Herr Konigsberger. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



Scientific Worthies, XIV. — ^Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz 



{With Steel Plate Engraving) , 573 



Waterton's Life and Travels 57^ 



Our Book Shklk: — 



Lehmann's " Ueber ehemalige Strandlinien in anstehendem Fels 



in Norwegen" 578 



Berg's ■' Die Lust an der Musik" 578 



Letters to the Editok : — 



On the Spectrum of Brorsen's Comet. — Dr. William Huggins, 



F.R.S '. . 579 



The Migration of Birds. — Dr. AucrsT Weismann; Prof. Alfred 



Newton, F.R.S .579 



Colour in Nature. — Grant Allen ; Alfred R. Wallace ..." 580 



Nitric Acid Batteries. — John Henry Knight 581 



The Black Rat.— E. W. Claypole 58* 



Did Flowers Exist during the Carboniferous Kpoch ? — Alfred R. 



Wallace 582 



Blue Flame from Common Salt.— Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S. . 58a 



Cape Diamonds. — B. G. Jenkins 582 



Sense of Temperature. — Alfred H, Huth 58a 



Tides at Chepstow.— Dr. John Yeats 582 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Brorsen's Comet 5^2 



The Double-Star, South 190 583 



The Minor Planet Hilda 5*3 



Geographical Notes • 583 



Biological Notes : — 



The Eiu-ly Types of Insects 584 



Halosphaera, a new Genus of Unicellular Algae 584 



A New Algae 584 



Marine Flowering Plants 584 



American Aphides 58S 



New Birds from the Portuguese Possessions in Western Africa , . 585 



A Universal Catalogue _ 585 



A Mirror Baro.meter (?fzV;4 ///Kj^ratf<»«) 580 



Butterflies with Di>similar Sbxes. By R. Muldola , . . , 580 

 Sun-Spots and Commercial Crises, By Prof. W, Stanley Jevons, 



F.RS 588 



James NicoL, F.RS.E., F.G.S 59« 



Notes . . 59* 



On the Development of the Skull and its Nbrvks in the 

 Green Turtle (Cfielone midas), with Remarks on tha Seg.mbn- 

 TATioN SEEN IN THE Skull OF VARIOUS TvPKS iWtth Illustra- 

 tions) 593 



University and Educational Intklligknck 594 



Scientific >ieKiAt,.- 39* 



SOCIBTISS AND ACAr>KMIBS 595 



