May 2, 1878] 



NATURE 



27 



Period of Conjunction of Mercury and Jupiter . 



(0° denoting Conjunction — 62, sets for Kew — 43 sets for 

 Trevandrum. ) 



Kew, 



Between 



o 



30 



60 



90 



120 



ISO 



180 



210 



240 



270 



300 



330 



and 



30 



60 



90 



120 



ISO 

 180 

 210 

 240 

 270 

 300 

 330 

 ■^60 



+ 633 

 + 759 

 + 652 

 + 328 

 -119 



-S04 

 -678 

 -677 

 -548 

 -322 

 — 10 

 + 343 



Trevandrum. 



+ 453 

 + 270 

 + 129 

 -118 



-384 

 -467 



-487 

 -407 

 — 122 

 + 223 

 + 415 

 + 503 



Zoological Society, AprU 16.— E. W, H. Holdswortli, 

 F.Z.S., in the chair. — Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks 

 on a typical specimen of the new fox lately described by Mr. 

 Blanford as Vulpes canus, from Baluchistan. — The Secretaiy 

 exhibited, on behalf of Mr. A. Anderson, F.Z.S., a bamboo 

 stick with leather thong attached to it, such as is used in India 

 for driving" plough-cattle with, which had been taken out of a 

 uest of the common Fish Eagle {Haliaetus leiicoryphus), in 

 December, 1876. — Prof. Westwood communicated a memoir on 

 the Uraniidas, a family of lepidopterous insects, with a synopsis 

 of the family and a monogi-aph of one of the genera, Coronidia. 

 These insects were remarkable for their extreme beauty and the 

 difficulty w^hich had attended their systematic classification. 

 Their relations with other gi-oups of lepidopterous insects were 

 discussed at considerable length, and their nearest affinities were 

 shown to be with certain other moths belonging to the great 

 division of the Bombyces, whilst their connection with the 

 Hesperian butterflies, the Pseudo-sphinges, Erebideous Nocta; 

 and Ourapterygeous Geometre was disproved by their general 

 structure, the venation of then- wings and their transformations. 

 A synopsis of the species of all the genera was given, and 

 a complete monograph with figm-es of the genus Coronidia. 

 —Mr. Gwyn Jeffi-eys, F.R.S., F.Z.S., read the first part of 

 his work on the MoUusca, procured in the expeditions of 

 H.M. S.S. Lightnitig and Porcupine. It would be recollected 

 that these expeditions immediately preceded that of H.M.S. 

 Challenger, but were restricted to portions of the North 

 Atlantic, including the Mediterranean. The Brachiopods 

 formed the subject of the present paper. A table of 

 all the Brachiopods known to. inhabit the European seas 

 was given, comprising ten genera and twenty-two species, 

 of which latter four \\ere for the first time described and 

 six figured. The table also particularised the geological and 

 bathymetrical range of all the species. Two plates accompanied 

 the paper, and were furnished by Mr. Davidson.— Mr. G, E. 

 Loder, F.Z.S., exhibited and made remarks on a mounted 

 head of the Rocky Mountain Bison, remarkable for its soft, 

 dark, and long hair on the forehead. This specimen had been 

 obtained near Denver, Colorado.— A communication was read 

 from the Marquis of Tweeddale, F.R.S., containing the eighth 

 of his contributions to the ornithology of the Philippines. The 

 present paper gave an account of some Luzon birds in the 

 Museum at Darmstadt, which had been sent to him for examina- 

 tion by Prof. Koch of that place. — A communication was read 

 froni Dr. O. Finsch, C.M.Z.S., containing description of a new 

 species of finch from the Feejee Islands, which he proposed to 

 \\sxae Amblynura kleinschmidti 3.itev Mr. Kleinschmidt, by whom 

 it had been found in the interior of Viti-Levu. — Dr. M. Watson 

 read a paper containing a description of the generative organs of 

 the male spotted hysena (Hycena crocuta), and a detailed com- 

 parison of them with those of the female of the same animal. — 

 Messrs. Sclater and Salvin read a report on the collection of 

 birds made during the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger at the 

 Island of Juan Fernandez, at various points along the coast of 

 Patagonia, and at the Falkland Islands. — A second paper by 

 Messrs. Sckter and Salvin gave descriptions of three new species 

 of birds from Ecuador, proposed to be called Buarrcmon 

 leucopis, Neomorphus radiolosus, and Aramides calopterus. 

 Wellington, N.Z. 

 Philosophical Society, August 18, 1877.— After the con- 

 firmation of the previous meeting's minutes, and the announce- 

 ment of Mr. B. T. Chaytor and Mr. Robert Govett as newly 

 elected members, the President (Mr. W. T, L. Travers, F.L.S. , 



M.H.R. ), read his paper on remarks as to the cause of the 

 warmer climate which existed in high northern latitudes during 

 former geological periods. This paper was a review of the pro- 

 gress recently made in our knowledge of the subject, and espe- 

 cially the bearing of Naysmith and Carpenter's examination of 

 the moon's surface, and the work by Mr. Mathieu Williams on 

 the " Fuel of the Sun." The author adopted the view that the 

 gradual condensation of water on the earth's surface, consequent 

 on the loss of its original cosmical heat, had produced the 

 succession of phenomena resulting in the present distribution of 

 life ; that in consequence of the cooling having taken place first 

 in the polar regions, it was there that the higher and latest- 

 formed organisms must have first appeared. He adduced as 

 proof of this the existence of fossilised vegetation within the 

 Arctic regions which had almost a tropical character, and other 

 evidence that during successive geological epochs the changing 

 character of the fauna and flora in other regions showed that the 

 climate had gradually become more and more temperate. Dr. 

 Hector would only speak as regards the geological aspect of the 

 author's paper. The fact that the oldest rocks we know are 

 either hydrated or formed by the action of water as sediments 

 proved that our geological records did not carry us back to a 

 time when very high temperature prevailed. It was only, there- 

 fore, necessary to inquire into the evidence of a minute secular 

 cooling afforded by the succession and distribution of animals and 

 plants during former epochs. He considered this evidence very 

 unsatisfactory, and not leading in the direction the author 

 required. The former existence of temperate plants in high 

 latitudes took place at a very late period in the earth's history, 

 and long after some temperate regions had possessed a 

 fauna and flora similar to that at the present time. There 

 had, in fact, been several repetitions of the abnormal 

 distribution of animals and plants on which the author 

 founded his argument, and consequently of the climate; so 

 that these changes could hardly be referred to the progressive 

 cooling of the globe as a whole. The inferences made had 

 chiefly been drawn from late tertiary strata, but inthe case of 

 Nev/ Zealand there was evidence that the same type of vege- 

 tation had survived since the early part of the cretaceous era, a 

 period twenty times as great as that which had elapsed since the 

 supposed sub-tropical fauna inhabited Central Europe, or the 

 temperate flora flourished in the Arctic regions. From this it 

 was surely to be argued that the cause had not been one ot 

 liniversal operation. Concerning the former Arctic flora the 

 real difficulty was not the question of temperature so much 

 as the absence of light m that region for six months of the 

 year if all other conditions of the earth remained as at 

 present, except a general higher surface temperature. Many 

 speculations had been put forward on this subject; one 

 of the latest, by John Evans, was that the earth was 

 solid with an oxydised crust, separated from the central 

 nucleus by a viscous layer of unequal thickness in which chemical 

 combination, or, as it may be called, the "rusting process," was 

 still active. The elevation of mountain masses by the fracture 

 of the crust would act like weights on a gyroscope and lead to a 

 gradual displacement of the outer crust with reference to the 

 axis of rotation of the interior bulk of the earth, which astro- 

 nomers required us to believe to be immovable. He also pointed to 

 recent researches of Prof. Duncan regarding reef-building corals, 

 which at the present time are confined to a narrow equatorial belt, 

 but in eocene times that belt appears to have had a distribution 

 oblique to the present equator. If this were established it would 

 offisr a still greater difficulty in the way of accepting the view 

 that the changes in distribution of climate were due to the secular 

 cooling of the earth as a prime cause. Mr. Carruthers thought 

 it not yet proved that there was a central heat, and certainly not 

 that it could influence climate. He thought the balance of 

 evidence was against the theory of central heat. If the earth had 

 once been hotter it would have become smaller in cooling, and 

 its velocity of rotation would have increased ; but this was con- 

 trary to fact, as the rotation had been retarded by about three hours 

 since exact observations were first made. With regard to what 

 had been said about the thickness of the earth's crust, the exist- 

 ence of tides proved that it must be so great as to be absolutely 

 rigid. He considered it quite possible for plants to live in 

 darkness if they remained dormant, like geraniums, which are 

 placed in a dark cellar during the winter. 



September i, 1877. — Mr. W. T. L. Travers, president, 

 in the chair. — Mr. Coleman Phillips read his paper on a 

 peculiar method of arrow propulsion as observed by the 

 Maoris. The author gave an interesting description of how 



