March 8, 1877J 



NATURE 



421 



to the dilution of the gas by the nitrogen, the oxidation of lumini- 

 ferous material, and the depression of temperature produced by 

 the diluting gases, such as nitrogen, carbonic oxide, and aqueous 

 vapour. 



Meteorological Society, February 21.— Mr. H. S. Eaton, 

 M.A., president, in the chair. — William Adams, Thomas Black, 

 Robert W. Munro, and R. Bowie Wallcott, M.D, were elected 

 Fellows ; and Mons. U.J. Leverrier, Director of the Observatoire 

 National, Paris, an honorary member of the society. — The Pre- 

 sident gave an inaugural address. After referring to the various 

 theories advanced to account for changes of climate, he observed 

 that in drawing deductions from a long series of observations of 

 the temperature of the air, it is important to ascertain whether 

 the conditions of the surrounding district have altered, otherwise 

 changes in[reality due to local causes may be erroneously assigned 

 to secular variation. The climate of London has thus been 

 modified by the consumption of fuel and the vast population. 

 He estimated that the heat developed from the present annual 

 consumption of 5,000,000 ton-; of coal on the metropolitan 

 registration area of 118 square miles, and from all other artificial 

 sources, would suffice to raise the temperature of a stratum of 

 air 100 feet in depth resting on that area 2°'5 every hour. The 

 effect of the growth of the population of London from 900,000 

 at the commencement of the century to 3,500,000 at the present 

 time, and of the still greater increase in the comparative consump- 

 tion of coal was manifested by the rise in the average temperature 

 of the air at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which place was 

 year by year becoming more surrounded by a network of houses 

 and population. For this reason Greenwich was not a suitable 

 place for a Meteorological Observatory of the first order. 

 Mr. Eaton subsequently referred to some of the practical diffi- 

 culties experienced in pursuing the study of dynamical meteoro- 

 logy. — The following papers were then read : — Barometrical 

 and thermometrical clocks for registering mean atmospheric 

 pressure and temperature, by William F. Stanley ; solar thermo- 

 radiometer ; and on an improvement in minimum thermometers 

 for terrestrial radiation, by James J. Hicks. 



Anthropological Institute, February 27. — Mr. John Evans, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. A. H, Keihl, was elected 

 a member. — Mr. M. J. Walhouse read a paper on non-sepulchral 

 rude stone monuments. Adverting to the extravagant Uruidical 

 and Dracontian theories formerly connected with megalithic 

 remains, he observed that perhaps at present speculation had 

 gone to another extreme in refusing to see in them any purposes 

 other than sepulchral. In this paper he adduced examples, 

 many from his own observation of cairns, cromlechs, torlithons, 

 stone-circles, and other megaliths, which he considered could 

 not have been connected with burials, and he advocated the 

 non-sepulchral intention of open-sided dolmens such as Kitscoty 

 House, and those at Rollright and Drewsteignton, comparing 

 them with similar structures now used in India as rude temples 

 for sacred stones and images. The paper concluded with some 

 observations on stone-worship, especially as now practised in 

 India. Many existing instances were described, and passages 

 quoted from classic authors, denoting its prevalence in antiquity. 

 Some speculations were also brought forward as to the causes of 

 rough stones having been so frequently taken for objects of wor- 

 ship. Col. A. Lane Fox, Mr, Hyde Clarke, the President, and 

 others, took part in the discussion. 



Entomological Society, January 17. — Anniversary Meeting, 

 — Sir Sidney Smith Saunders, C.M.G., vice-president, in the 

 chair. — An abstract of the treasurer's account and the Report of 

 the Council for 1876 were read. — The following were elected 

 members of council, viz.. Prof. Westwood, Sir Sidney S. 

 Saunders, and Messrs. H. "W^ Bates, Champion, Dunning, 

 Grut, Meldola, Stainton, Weir, Douglas, E. Saunders, Rev. A. 

 E. Eaton, and Rev. T. A. Marshall. — The following officers 

 were elected, viz.. Prof. Westwood, president, J. Jenner Weir, 

 treasurer, Rev. T. A. Marshall, librarian, and Messrs. F. Grut 

 and R. Meldola, secretaries. — The president, in consequence of 

 an accident, was prevented from attending, and the delivery of 

 his address was imavoidably postponed till the next meeting. 



February 7. — Prof. Westwood, president, in the chair. — W. 

 Denison Roebuck, of Leeds, was balloted for and elected a sub- 

 scriber. — The president nominated Messrs. J. W. Douglas, J, W. 

 Dunning, and H. T, Stainton as vice-presidents for the ensuing 

 year. — The president delivered the address, postponed from the 

 last meeting, on the progress of entomology during the past year. 

 — Mr. F. Bond exhibited a specimen of the North American 

 butterfly, Danais Archippus, taken in September last near Has- 



sock's Gate, Sussex, being the third specimen taken in this country. 

 — -The president exhibited a specimen of the singular butterfly 

 Bhutanitis Lidderdalii, Atkinson, from Bhotan. He also read a 

 letter which he had received from Baron v. Ohten Sacken re- 

 ferring to his pape: on the Dipterous genus Systropus, published 

 in the last part of the Transactions of the Society, in which he 

 had stated that a species in Natal {S. crudelis) had been bred 

 from a cocoon resembling that of Limacodes, and pointing out 

 that Systropus macir, the common species in the United States, 

 had been bred from the cocoon of Limacodes hyalinus, and was 

 a remarkable instance of community of habit among insects of 

 the same genus in far-distant regions. — The president read some 

 remarks he had received from M. Ernest Olivier, of Moulins, 

 respecting insects of the Dipterous genus Bombylius, frequenting 

 the nests of a bee of the genus Antkophora, at Pompeii. — Mr. 

 McLachlan exhibited a case of a Lepidopterous larva sent by 

 Dr. Kirk, of Zanzibar, who had found it on a species of Mimosa. 

 He considered it to be allied to Psyche and Oiketicus ; and it 

 was remarkable on account of its form, which bore a striking 

 resemblance to that of a flattened Hedx. It app-ared to be con- 

 structed of a substance resembling /)«/?>/• 7nachi, wi'h a smooth, 

 whitish, external coating. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse exhibited 

 some remarkable varieties of British Lepidoptera, viz., Chryso- 

 phanus phlceas, Polyommatus Adonis, P. Alexis, and Agrotis 

 txclamationis. — Dr. Buchanan White forwarded an extract from 

 the Medical Examiner o\ December 21 last, containing an account 

 by Dr. Tilbury Fox of an extraordinary case of " Pruritu?:," 

 which afflicted every member of a family and household, includ- 

 ing even the dog and cat. A specimen of the insect causing it 

 had been submitted to Dr. Cobbold, who had pronounced it to 

 be a species of Trombidium, which was believed by Dr. Fox to 

 have originated from certain plants in the garden, and that the 

 cat and dog which appeared to have been the first affected, were 

 agents in conveying the parasites to the human members. — The 

 following papers were read, viz. : — Notes on the African Satur^ 

 nida: in the collection of the Royal Dublin Society, by W. F. 

 Kirby. — Descriptions of new genera and species of Phytophagous 

 beetles belonging to the family Cryptocephalidcr , together with 

 diagnoses and remarks on previously-described genera, by Joseph 

 S. Baly. — Descriptions of new species of Phytophagous beetles 

 belonging to the family Eumolptdcc, including a monograph of 

 the genus Eumolpus, by Joseph S. Baly. 



Physical Society, February 17. — Prof, W. G. Adams, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. T. W. Philips, C.E., was elected a 

 member of the society. — Prof. Guthrie exhibited, for Mr. C. J. 

 Woodward, an apparatus he has devised for showing to an 

 audience the interference of transverse waves. A light frame, 

 capable of moving in a vertical plane, carries a horizontal strip 

 of tin about two ieet in length, cut in the form of the ordinary 

 sine wave, and which supports, by means of a roller, a light 

 wooden block carrying an ink recorder in front of a sheet of 

 paper. This block slides in a vertical slot in a piece of wood, 

 which can be moved horizontally, supported by a roller on 

 another similar strip of tin fixed parallel to the first, and verti- 

 cally below it. The movable frame rests on a castor attached to 

 this block. If the relative positions of the waves be now varied, 

 and the blocks moved along them, the path traced by the ink 

 recorder will represent the wave due to their combination. — Mr. 

 S. P. Thompson exhibited some galvanometers in the form of 

 magic-lantern slides which he has arranged for exhibiting their 

 indications to an audience. The instruments are, however, only 

 capable of indicating comparatively powerful currents, and he 

 hopes to succeed in arranging forms of greater sensitiveness. 

 The index-needle is usually formed of cardboard, and two small 

 steel needles are attached to it parallel to its axis. It is pivoted 

 lightly between glass plates, and influenced by the current travers- 

 mg coils of wire placed beyond the circle in which it rotates. The 

 best effects were obiained by means of two curved elcctro-mag- 

 nets surrounding a small steel magnet, but this form is inappli- 

 cable to quantitative determinations, on account of the residual 

 magnetism of the iron cores. A gold leaf electroscope formed 

 on this principle was capable of detecting very small charges of 

 statical electricity. — Mr. WilsQn then showed an arrangement for 

 exhibiting convection-currents in heated water. It consists of a 

 small glass cell with parallel sides. In the base of the wood dividing 

 the sides is cut a slight depression, to expose a brass tube which 

 traverses it horizontally, and is open at one end, while the other 

 is bent at right angles and connected with a flask containing 

 water. The brass tube, where it is exposed in the cell, is sur- 

 rounded with a jelly formed of gelatine containing rose aniline, 



