Dec. 28, 1876J 



NATURE 



191 



quantities of it were found in the deserted camps, and unless pre- 

 ventive measures are promptly taken, from the wholesale destruc- 

 tion now going on, it will speedily share the fate of the Maca- 

 aamia. 



At the two meetings of the St. Petersburg Chemical 

 Society, September 28 and October 19, many papers of interest 

 were read. We notice among them a valuable report of M. 

 Bogussky on his researches into the velocity of chemical reactions 

 and on its dependence upon the degree of concentration of the 

 solutions ; a paper of M. AlekseelT on the mutual solubility of 

 soluble liquids, the conclusions of which were, however, warmly 

 criticised ; a paper of Prof. Butleroff on the di-isobutylene, 

 classing this body among the homologues of the etylene series ; 

 and of M. Kovalefsky on the amount of mechanical power disen- 

 gaged during chemical reactions, those of the sulphates of copper 

 and zinc having been begun with in the course of researches 

 undertaken by the author. 



Mr. Thomas Southwell, of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society, writes with reference to our notice of Mr. 

 Marsham's " Indications of Spring" (Nature, vol. xv. p. 128), 

 that this remarkable series of observations commenced in the 

 year 1 736, is still continued by the Marsham family. In 1 789 

 Robert Marsham communicated his observations to the Royal 

 Society, they were read on April 2 and printed in extenso, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions of that year. Robert Marsham died in 

 1797, and the observations were continued by his son Robert to 

 the year 1810. From that time till 1836, no record was kept, 

 but in the latter year a third Robert Marsham resumed them, by 

 whom, and his son, the present Rev. H. P. Marsham, they have 

 been continued to the present time. 



The experienced Arctic cruiser, Mr. Lamont, writes to the 

 Times of Tuesday in reference to Dr. Petermann's recent letter 

 to the Geographical Society, expressing his decided conviction, 

 founded on his own extensive experience and that of many other 

 practical Arctic men, that all round the North as round the 

 South Pole, there lies an eternal mass of ice a thousand miles in 

 diameter, and perhaps miles thick in the centre. He does not 

 believe that either "ship, sledge, man, beast, bird, or balloon, 

 will ever get across it." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Bonnet Monkeys {Macactis radiatus) from 

 India, presented by Mr. Peter Varwell and Mrs. Leopold Evans ; 

 a Chinese Eyebrowed Thrush {Leucodiopiron canorum) from 

 China, presented by Mrs. Arabin ; a Short-eared Owl i^Otus 

 hrachyotus), European, presented by Mr. Josh. Lee ; three Golden 

 Or\o\&% {Oriolus galbtda), a Redwing ( 7«rrt'?« iliacus) European, 

 presented by Mrs. A. H. Jamrach ; a Dunlin {Tringa cinclus), 

 European, presented by Mr. F. Cresswell ; a Snowy Owl [Niciea 

 nivea) fiom Lancaster Sound ; a King Parrakeet [Aprosffiictus 

 scapulatus) from New South Wales ; a Greater Sulphur-Crested 

 Cockatoo {Cacatita galeriia), from Australia, deposited. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Poggendorff''s Annalen der Physik'und Chemie, No. Ii, 1876. 

 — On the nature of elastic reaction, by M. Braun. — On the 

 gliding of gas on glass walls, by M. Warburg. — Report on 

 experiments of Dr. Root of Boston, on penetration of platinum 

 by electrolytic gases, by M. Helmholtz. — Researches on the heat 

 phenomena in the galvanic battery, and on electromotive 

 forces, by M. Edlund. — Electro-magnetic properties of unclosed 

 electric currents, by M. Schiller. — On the reply of M. Schlosser 

 and the asserted preferability of ebonite for the discs of influence- 

 machines, by M. Holtz. — Observation on the division, among 

 two acids, of the positive metal in a galvanic battery, by M. 

 Fuchs. — On phenomena of motion in electrified surfaces of 

 mercury, by M. Hervng. — On the galvanic behaviour of gold, 

 and a new kind of Nobili rings, by M. Schiel, 



The Naturforscher (November, 1876). — From this number we 

 note the following papers of interest : — On the transparency of the 

 water of Lake Leman, by F. A. Forel. — On the meteoric iron of 

 Nentmannsdorf, near Pima (Saxony), by F. E. Geinitz. — On the 

 absorption of albumen by the leaves of Dionea musciptila, by A. 

 Fraustadt. — On the simultaneous occurrence of sugar and oxalate 

 of lime in plants, by G. Kraus. — On electrical dust figures in 

 space, by E. Lommel. — On some experiments with plants 

 in coloured light, by G. Kraus. — On the dependence of 

 the co-efficient of interior friction of gases from tempe- 

 rature, by A. von Obermayer. — On ascending air-currents, 

 by Herr Crompton. —On microscopical inclosures in South 

 African diamonds, by E. Cohen. — On the deterioration of air 

 through artificial light, by Friedrich Erismann. — On the mecha- 

 nics of breathing and the circulation of matter in the animal body, 

 by E. PflUger. — On the chemical composition of beech-leaves 

 and fir-needles in different states of development, by L. Dulk, 



Morphologischcs yahrbuck, vol. ii. part 3. — On the skin and 

 dermal sense-organs of Urodela, by F. Leydig, with four plates. 

 — On the metamorphosis of Echiurus, by W. Salensky, one 

 plate, giving four stages of development. — On the exoskeleton 

 of fishes, part I ; a long and valuable paper, by O. Hertwig, 

 with six plates, dealing with the exoskeleton of Siluroids and 

 Accipenseroids. — Prof. Gegenbaur has another contribution on 

 the morphology of the limbs of vertebrates. — R. Wiedersheim 

 discusses "the most ancient forms of the carpus and tarsus found 

 in existing amphibia." 



Zeitschrift fUr wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. xxvii. Part 3. — 

 On the development of the lower jaw in Mammalia, by Dr. J. 

 Brock ; a histological memoir. — ^An account of the anatomy of 

 Rhynchelmis limo sella, with four plates, by Franz Vejdovski. — 

 On the organisation and minute structure of the Daphnidse and 

 other Cladocera, by Dr. C. Claus, with four plates. — Description 

 of a new hydroid polyp related to Allman's family Pennaridae, 

 by F. E. Schulze. 



Tnt. yournal de Physig^ue for 'NoYsmhcr, 1876, contains papers 

 on illumination of transparent and opaque bodies, by M. Lalle- 

 mand ; application of very thin kyers of gold to cathetometers 

 and other instruments of measurement, by M. Govi. — On the 

 distribution of magnetism in cylindrical bars, by M. Bouty. — On 

 the physical properties of gallium, by M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Mathematical Society, December 14. — Lord Rayleigh, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. R. F. Davis, B.A., and 

 Mr. H. Weston Eve, M.A., head-master of University College 

 School, were elected members. — Prof. H. J. S. Smith, F.R. S., 

 read a paper on the conditions of perpendicularity in a parallelo- 

 pipedal system (the subject was of interest to crystallographers 

 as well as to mathematicians). — Mr. Glaisher, F.R.S., gave an 

 account of a paper by Prof. Cayley, F.R.S., on the condition 

 for the existence of a surface cutting at right angles a given set 

 of lines. " In a congruency or doubly infinite system of right 

 lines, the direction-cosines o, )3, y of the line through any point 

 X, y, z, are expressible as functions of x, y, 2, and it was shown 

 by vSir W. R. Hamilton in a very elegant manner that in order 

 to the existence of a surface (or what is the same thing, a set of 

 parallel surfaces) cutting the lines at right angles, ad x + fidy + 

 ydz must be an exact differential; when this is so, writing 



V=zl{adx + $'dy + ydz)[we have V = 'c, the equation of 



the system of parallel surfaces, each cutting the given lines at 

 right angles." The author obtains his results from the analyti- 

 cal equations of a congruency, viz. ,x=mz+p, y=nz+q, 

 where m, n, p, q are functions of two parameters, and m, n, are 

 given functions of p, q. The condition he gets for the exist- 

 ence of the set of surfaces is — 



/, I «\dm . . n^dn , (dm dn\- 



(i + «2j -_ — (i+iw'') —- ■\-mn( — — — 1 =0. 



dy dx \a X d y/ 



He verifies his results in the case of the ellipsoid. — Prof. 

 CHfford, F.R. S., communicated two notes on the orthogonal 

 transformation, and additions to former papers on transformation 

 of elliptic functions. — Mr. Tucker read portions of papers by 

 Mr. F. W. Frankland (New Zealand), on the simplest con- 

 tinuous manifoldness of two dimensions and of finite extent, 

 (communicated by Mr. Spottiswoode, F.R.S.).— On the theory 



