Feb. 8, 1877] 



NATURE 



27 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, January 25. — "Description of the Living 

 and Extinct Races of Gigantic Land Tortoises, Parts iii. and iv. 

 The Races of the Aldabra Group and Mascarene Islands " 

 (conclusion), by Dr. Albeit Giinther, F, R. S . 



In continuation of, and concluding, the researches into the 

 history of the Gigantic Land-Tortoises, read before the Royal 

 Society on June 20, 1874, and published in the 165th 

 volume of the "Philosophical Transactions," the author treats 

 in Parts iii. and iv. of the Tortoises of the Aldabra Group and 

 Mascarenes. 



By the addition of the valuable materials obtained by one of 

 the naturalists of the Transit of Venus Expedition to Rodriguez, 

 and by the Hon. Edward Newton in Mauritius, as well as by the 

 aid of supplementary information received from other sources, 

 the author has been enabled to show in the present parts of his 

 paper that the round-headed division of Tortoises is confined to 

 Aldabra and never extended to the Mascarenes proper ; and that 

 the Tortoises from the latter islands can be externally, though 

 not osteologically, distinguished as a tvhole from the Galapagos 

 Tortoises, as will be seeu from the following synopsis : — 



Nuchal plate absent. Frontal portion of the skull flat. 



Fourth cervical vertebra biconvex. Pelvis with broad sym- 



physial bridge. 



A. Gular plate double ; sternum 



of moderate extent Galapagos Tortoises. 



B. Gular plate single ; sternum 



short ... '.. Mascarene Tortoises. 



a. Carapace thin, thickened towards the margins ; centre 

 of the last vertebral plate raised into a hump, which is 

 separated from the penultimate vertebral by a trans- 

 verse depression : Tortoises of Mauritius ( T. triser- 

 rata, T. inepta, T. indica, T. leptocnemis). 



b. The entire carapace extremely thin and fragile, all the 

 bones very sltnder : Tortoise of Rodriguez (T. vost?icEri). 



II. Nuchal plate present. Frontal portion of the skull convex. 

 Third cervical vertebra biconvex. Pelvis with narrow sym- 

 physial bridge. Gular plate double. Carapace thick. Al- 

 dabra Tortoises ( T. elephantina, T. daudinii, T. ponder osa, 

 7. hololissd). 



Linnean Society, January 18. — Prof. AUman, president, in 

 the chair. — Three new Fellows were elected, viz., Dr. W. 

 Miller Ord, Thos. Routledge, and S. D. Titmas. — An interest- 

 ing and scientific memento of the ill-fated Polaris Expedition 

 was exhibited by Mr. R. Irwin Lynch. This consisted of a pot 

 of growing wheat which had been sown from the grain left in 

 Polaris Bay, 81° 38' N., by the American Expedition. Capt. 

 Sir George Nares, in a letter to Dr. Hooker, says that the grain 

 in question had been exposed to the winter frosts, 1872-76; 

 notwithstanding the intense cold it had been subjected to, the 

 above sample grown at Kew gave 64 per cent, as capable 

 of germination. A grain of maize, among the wheat, which 

 also sprouted, possessed even greater interest, inasmuch as 

 being a truly tropical plant. — The amphibious and migratory 

 fishes of India formed the subject of a paper by Dr. Francis 

 Day. He first instanced many forms which respire air direct, 

 can live for long periods after their removal from water, and 

 are but little affected by a bandage being placed round their 

 gills, preventing the use of that organ. The Saccobranchus was 

 shown to have a distinctly amphibious circulation, venous blood 

 being sent by the pulmonary artery to the respiratory sac, and 

 arterial blood being returned from it to the aorta. He ques- 

 tioned the accuracy of the swim-bladder of fishes, being the 

 homologue of the respiratory bladder of amphibia, and ob- 

 served that in the Saccobranchus both a respiratory sac and 

 a swim-bladder co-existed ; the one along the muscles of 

 the back, the other more or less ? inclosed iu bone but posses- 

 sing a pneumatic duct. — Mr. G. J. Romanes read a second notice 

 on varieties and monstrous forms of MeduscC. He expressed 

 surprise that among the jelly fish — at least the naked-eyed group, 

 with their lowly grade of organisation and proneness to exhibit 

 the phenomena of gemmation — examples of monstrous and mis- 

 shapen forms are comparatively rare. In those cases met with, 

 especially in Aurelia aurita, the deviations from the normal type 

 nearly always occur in a multiplication or in an abortion or 

 suppression of entire segments. This affects the segments of the 

 umbrella in a symmetrical manner, whilst the ovaries and manu- 

 brium, to a certain extent, may or may not be implicated. 



Chemical Society, February i. — Prof. Abel, F.R.S., pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — Dr. H. E. Armstrong read a paper on 

 Kekule's and Ladenburg's ben/.ene symbols, in which he dis- 

 cussed the relative value of the two symbols as a means of ex- 

 pressing the known reactions of benzene and its derivatives, ex- 

 pressly pointing out how Ladenburg's prism symbol was more 

 ia accordance with our knowledge of the quinones ; but that up 

 to the present time, although it might be considered proved that 

 in benzene six carbon atoms were linked together in a closed 

 chain, we had no evidence to show the manner in which the 

 atoms were united. Subsequently Mr. W. H. Perkin read a 

 paper on the formation of coumarine and of cinnamic, and of 

 other analogous acids from the aromatic aldehydes. These acids, 

 of which twenty are described in the paper, were obtained by the 

 action of a metallic salt and acid anhydride, such as sodic acetate 

 and acetic anhydride on an aromatic aldehyde ; the latter part of 

 the paper contained an account of the acids obtained from 

 coumarin. 



Anthropological Institute, January 30. — Annual meeting. 

 — Col. A. Lane Yovl, F.R.S,, president, in the chair. — The 

 Treasurer presented his Report, which showed that the finances 

 of the Society were in a satisfactory condition. The President 

 delivered his anniversary address. It gave a short resume of the 

 papers that had been read during the past year. From the 

 Report of the Council it appeared that there had been an 

 increase of members in 1876 over deaths and retirements. The 

 following Officers and Council were elected to serve for 1877 : — 

 President, John Evans, F. R. S. Vice-presidents : Prof. George 

 Busk, F.R.S., Hyde Clarke, Col. Lane Fox, F.R.S., A. W. 

 Franks, F.R.S. , Francis Galton, F.R.S. , E. Burnet Tylor, 

 F.R.S. Directors and Hon. Sees. : E, W. Brabrook, F.S.A., 

 Capt. Harold Dillon, F.S.A. Treasurer, J. Park- Harrison, 

 M.A. Council : J. Beddoe, F.R.S., J. Barnard Davis, F.R.S., 

 W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., W. L. Distant, Robert Dunn, 

 I\R.C.S., Charles Harrison, F.S.A., H. H. Howorth, F.S.A., 

 Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.G.S., Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., A. L. 

 Lewis, Sir John Lubbock, Bart, M. P., F.R.S., R. Biddulph 

 Martin, F. G. H. Price, F.R.G.S., J. E. Price, F.S.A., Prof. 

 Rolleston, F.R.S., F. W. Rudler, F.G.S., C. R. Des Ruffieres, 

 F.R.S.L., Lord Arthur Russell, M.P., Rev. Prof. Sayce, 

 M.R.A.S., M.J. Walhouse, F.R.A.S. 



Victoria Institute, January 5. — Dr. C. Brooke, F.R.S., in 

 the chair. Mr. David Howard, F.C.S., read a paper upon the 

 structure of geological formations as an evidence of design. 

 After which, a paper by Principal Dawson, F.R.S., on the 

 recent discovery of numerous flint agricultural implemen's in 

 America was read. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, January 30. — Mr. George 

 Robert Stephenson, president, in the chair. — The paper read 

 was on the combustion of refuse vegetable substances for raising 

 steam, by Mr. John Head, Assoc. Inst. C.E. 



Berlin 

 German Chemical Society, January 15. — A. W. Hofmann, 

 vice-president, in the chair. E. Mulder wishes to substitute the 

 following expression, M — d, for the usual expression of the law 

 of Arvogadro, M — 2d, by accepting as the atomic weight of 

 hydrogen not l, but 0-5. — I. Boguski and N. Kagander, in con- 

 tinuing their researches on the quantity of carbonic acid evolved 

 in a given time by the action on marble of acids of different 

 strength, arrives at the conclusion : that the velocities of the evolu- 

 tion of carbonic acid are inversely proportional to the molecular 

 weights of the acids employed. — A. Christomanos recommended 

 several modifications of the usual methods of analysis of chrome- 

 iron-ore. — A. Basarow described for lecture purposes a miniature 

 torpedo, containing only three grams of gunpowder, and suffi- 

 cing to throw up water from a pail to the height of twenty 

 or thirty feet. — F. Frerichs proposed, for organic analysis, 

 to heat the compound in sealed tubes with oxide of mer- 

 cury, and to determine the volumes of CO3 and of O. — 

 C. Gottig has found that the ordinary method of forming alde- 

 hydes from acids by distilling their calcium-salts with formiate 

 of lime, holds good for the production of ethyl-salycylic alde- 

 hyde, but not of salicylic aldehyde. — A. Ladenburg has observed 

 slight differences in the two bodies, N(C2H^)3.C7H-I (iodo- 

 benzyl-tri-ethylamine) and N(C2H5)„C7H7.C.^H5l (iodo-ethyl- 

 diethyl-benzylamine), the former, treated with HI yielding 

 iodide of benzyl, while the second does not yield, this product. 

 He thinks, therefore, that these two compounds are isomeric, 

 that nitrogen is triaiomic, and NH3.HCI a molecular combina- 



