March 29, 1877] 



NATURE 



483 



remainder of the fauna, belonging to the deposit itself, consists of 

 species proper to the Chalk Marl rather than to the Upper Green- 

 sand. The object of the paper was to indicate certain additions to, 

 and corrections in, the list of fossils upon which these conclusions 

 were supported. The following Gault species were indicated as 

 not previously identified in the Cambridge Greensand : — Nautilus 

 arcuatus, Desh.; iV. ifiayualis, Sow. ; Turrilitcsdcgans, D'Orb. ;(?) 

 T. eniericiamts, D'Orb. ; OrnitJiopus histocheila, Gardn. ; 

 Brachystoma avgnlaris, Seeley ; Turbo pictdianus, D'Orb. ; 

 riaitotoniaria regina, Pict. and Roux ; (?) P. iiu?-iatm, Pict. and 

 Roux ; Pecten rauliniarius, D'Orb. ; P. subaadus, D'Orb. ; and 

 Lima rauliniana, D'Orb. The author described as new spe- 

 cies : — Turrilites nobilis, Nautilus, sp. nov., Natica levistriata, 

 Nerita nodulosa, and Lima interlineata, and noted several cor- 

 rections in the nomenclature adopted in his former list. — On the 

 beds between the Gault and Upper Chalk, near Folkestone, by 

 F. G. Plilton Price, F.G. S. The author described the characters 

 presented by the beds between the Gault and Upper Chalk near 

 Folkestone, indicated the fossils contained in them and their range 

 in this division of the Cretaceous series, and discussed the classi- 

 fication of the deposits and their equivalence with those recognised 

 by other writers. 



Anthropological Institute, March 13. — Mr. John Evans, 

 F. R.S., president, in the chair. The President exhibited a hafted 

 bronze celt, with its original wooden handle (which was covered 

 with brass plates), found near Chiusce.— Mr. Biddulph Martin 

 exhibited some pottery, shells, and olher remains from a sup- 

 posed kitchen midden at Smyrna, which, the president pointed 

 out, was of comparatively modern date. Some flint arrow-heads, 

 scrapers, «Scc., from Ditchley, were exhibited by Capt. Dillon. — 

 Mr. Hyde Clarke then read a paper on the Himalayan origin of 

 the Magyar. The object of this paper was to show that lan- 

 guages of Nepal, &c., in the Himalayas, formerly called Sub- 

 dravidian, are to be classified as Ugrian, and include Finnish, 

 Magyar, Lap, and Samoyed affinities. In connection with the 

 extension of the Ugrian area and possible centre to High 

 Asia, the author entered on the question of the origin of 

 the Magyars. After referring to the Magyar, Khun, &c., 

 in the Himalayas, he proposed as a solution that the attack 

 on Pannonda had been made by Avar or Khunzag traders 

 from the Caucasus speaking a Vasco-Kolarian language, and 

 with a main body of Ugrians, the language of whom prevailed 

 on tlfe extinction of the former. The author dissented from the 

 Ugrian classification of Accad and Etruscan, giving other pre- 

 historic examples for the Accad words in Lenormant, claimed 

 by him and M. Sayous as Ugrian. Messrs. Berlin, Salymos, 

 Rees, the President, and others, took part in the discussion. — 

 The Director then read the following papers by Mr. Hector 

 McLean : — On the Scottish Highland language and people, and 

 on the Anglicising and Gaelicising of surnames. 



Physical Society, March 3.— Prof. G. C. Foster, president, 

 in the chair. — -The following were elected members of the Society : 

 — Mr. J. A. Fleming, Mr. P. le Neve Foster, and Mr. S. Hall. 

 — Prof. Foster showed experimentally the polarisation <;f heat 

 rays, employing two large Nicol's prisms of 2^- inch aperture, and 

 a thermopile surrounded by a double jacket and connected with 

 a Thomson galvanometer as arranged by Mr. Latimer Claik for 

 showing very slight indications to an audience. When the prin- 

 cipal sections of the prisms were at 90° to each other only a 

 slight movement, doubtless due to an initial heating of one side 

 of the pile, was observed ; and the amount of the deflection was 

 found to increase steadily up to about sixty divisions on the 

 scale as the above angle was diminished. Prof. Foster exhibited 

 the results of experiments made to determine the intensity of a 

 source of heat by this means, and they were very concordant. — 

 Mr. Latimer Clark then explained the arrangement of the gal- 

 vanometer used. The image of an arrow-head or other form of 

 index projected by means of a limelight at the further end of the 

 room traverses a telescopic object-glais about two feet distant from 

 the lamp and falls on a square silvered plate of glass suspended 

 from the needle of a Thomson galvanometer, which is rendered 

 steady in the ordinary way by a platinum spade in water. The 

 reflected image then traverses the whole length of the room and 

 falls on a large scale placed in front of the audience, and, by such 

 an arrangement, the instrument may be at any distance from the 

 scale, and yet the image will not be unduly magnified. A 

 method is employed for bringing the needle rapidly to rest. A 

 few thermo-electric couples are placed above the lamp chimney, 

 thus being kept constantly hot, and the terminals are united by 

 a wire which is coiled several times round the galvanometer ; 



the circuit is closed at the moment when this subsidiary cur- 

 rent will tend to neutralise the motion of the needle. — • 

 Prof. Guthrie incidentally mentioned that the diflficulty experi- 

 enced in separating the fibres of a cocoon thread may be 

 obviated by boiling the thread in carbonate of potash, when the 

 natural resin is saponified and the fibres may be easily split. — 

 Mr, Wilson then explainel some difficulties he has met with in 

 constructing a Iloltz electrical machine, especially with reference 

 to the windows and armatures, and he exhibited two machines 

 which he recently made, from one of which a spark five or six 

 inches in length can be obtained ; this apparatus is so arranged 

 that it can be taken entirely to pieces and packed in a very 

 moderate-sized case. After carefully pointing out the difTercnce 

 between an ordinary machine and the Birch machine, he 

 proceeded to consider the theory of the Holtz machine, 

 and explained how he was led to construct an instrument 

 in which there were no windows, the armatures being 

 placed on the face of the fixed plate next to the moving 

 plate, but the result was not satisfactory. He then made the 

 larger machine provided with six fixed and six moving yjlates, 

 and the windows were replaced by holes \ inch in diameter 

 traversed by short pieces of tape glued to the paper armatures. 

 The initial charging of the armatures is effected by means of a 

 disc of ebonite fixed to the main axis of the machine, which is 

 lightly held by the fingers and caused to rotate. Electricity is 

 thus generated and points projecting towards it and communicat- 

 ing with points in the neighbourhood of the armatures cause 

 them to become charged ; after this, electricity is generated with 

 great rapidity. — Prof. MacLeod gave some details concerning 

 the working of a large Holtz machine which he drives by a 

 turbine. He finds that after it has been in action for nearly an 

 hour a much greater force is required to work it, and he suggested 

 a theory in explanation of this phenomenon. By keepmg the 

 machine dry under a glass shade reversing efTects are entirely 

 avoided as well as the necessity for varnishing the plates. 



Entomological Society, March 7.— J. W. Dunning, F.L.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — -Mr. Douglas exhibited a specimen 

 of the Longicorn Beetle, Mofiohamnms suior, brought to him 

 alive, having been captured in a garden in the Camden Road ; 

 also a melanic variety of Orthosia suspecta, taken at Dunkeld. — 

 Mr. Hudd exhibited some interesting varieties of British Lepi- 

 doptera taken near Bristol and in South Wales ; amongst them 

 were Lycatia alexis, Sphinx ligustri, and Boarmia repandata, the 

 latter a black variety. — Mr. Champion exhibited specimens of 

 Cardiopliorus rtifipes, a species new to Britain, taken by Mr. 

 J. Dunsmore, near Paisley; also a British example oi Aphodius 

 scrofa from the collection of Mr. Dunsmore, who unfortunately 

 had no note of its locality. — The Secretary exhibited a specimen 

 of an Isopod Crustacean which had been forwarded to him by 

 Mr. J. M. Wills, surgeon, s.s. City of Canterbury, who stated 

 that it was found occasionally parasitic on the flying-fish, and 

 generally close to the pectoral fins. Mr. Douglas read an extract 

 from a letter from Dr. Sahlberg, who had recently returned from 

 an excursion to the neighbourhood of the Yenisei River and the 

 extreme north of Siberia, from whence he had brought a large 

 number of insects, principally Coleoptera and Hemiptera. 

 Amongst the Hemiptera were one Aradus, one Calocoris, two 

 Orthotylus, one Orthops, one Pachytoma, one Anthocoris, one 

 Acompocoris, five Sa'da, and one Corixa, which appeared to be 

 hitherto unknown. The species of Salda were from the extreme 

 north, in Tundra territory. — The Secretary read a paper by Mr. 

 W. L. Distant, on the geographical distribution of Danais 

 archippus, a North American butterfly which has recently been 

 taken in the south of England. 



Mineralogical Society, March 14. — Mr. H. C. Sorby, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Thefollowingpapers were read: — 

 On a simple method for roughly detennining the index of refrac- 

 tion of small portions of transparent minerals, by H. C. Sorby, 

 F. R..S. — This can be effected by having a small graduated scale 

 attached to the body of the microscope, by means of which the 

 thickness of the crystal and the displacement of the focal point 

 can be easily measured. From these data the index of refraction 

 can be at once calculated with suflicient accuracy to make the 

 result valuable in determinative mineralogy. — On a serpentine 

 from Japan, by A. H. Church, M. A. — Notes on Vauquelinite from 

 Scotland, and Cantonite or Harrisite from Cornwall, by Thomas 

 Davies, F.G.S. — On an easily constructed form of reflecting 

 goniometer, by S. B. Hannay, F.C.S. — On a peculiar form of 

 quartz crystals from Australia, by Rev. J. M. Mello, F.G.S. — On 

 certain black quartz crystals from Boscaswell Down, Cornwall, by 



