484 



NATURE 



[March 29, 1877 



J. H. Collins, F.G.S. The black colour, is due to minute crystals 

 of schorl. — On quartz including oxides of iron, by William Vivian. 

 — On the magnetic constituents of minerals and rocks, by J. B. 

 Hannay. — On the water contained in minerals, by J. B. Hannay. 

 — On the Nordenskjoid iron masses from Greenland, by K. T, 

 V. Steenstrup, translated by Mr. Rohde, one of the Danish 

 expedition. The author contends that the iron is a natural 

 constituent of the basalt, and not of meteoric origin. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, March 13. — Mr. George 

 Robert Stephenson, president, in the chair. — His Majesty the 

 King of the Belgians was elected by acclamation an honorary 

 member. The paper read was on the transmission of motive 

 power to distant points, by Mr. H. Robinson, M. Inst. C.E. 



Manchester 



Literary and Philosophical Society, December 4, 1876. — 

 Charles Bailey in the chair. — Notes on a botanical excursion in 

 the Aberdeenshire Islands in July, 1876, by Mr. Thomas Rogers. 



December 26, 1876. — A notice of some organic remains from 

 the schists of the Isle of Man, by E. W. Binney, president, 

 F.R.S., &c. 



January 9. — E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., president, 

 in the chair. — On the poisonous properties of yew-leaves, 

 by James Bottomley, D. Sc. — On the luminous sulphides of 

 M. Ed. Becquerel, by William Thomson, F.R.S.E. — On the 

 types of compound statement involving four classes, by Prof. 

 W. K. Clifford, M.A., F.R.S. Communicated by Prof. W. S. 

 Jevons, M.A., F.R.S. 



January 23. — Results of the monthly observations of the mag- 

 netic dip, horizontal force, and declination made at the magnetic 

 observatory of the Owens College, from Januaiy, 1874, to 

 December, 1876, inclusive, by Prof. Thomas H. Core, M. A. 

 Communicated by Prof, Balfour Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S. 



Geneva 



Physical and Natural History Society, February i. — 

 M. Alphonse Favre presented a geological map of the Canton 

 of Geneva on the scale of -2^^uTr> intended to enlighten agricul- 

 turists on the management of the soil for their various crops. — 

 Prof. Schiff described the researches he had made on the pro- 

 perties of nicotine as a poison, and on the part played by the 

 liver in such poisoning. 



February 15. — M. E. Renevier, professor at Lausanne, exhi- 

 bited to the Society his geological map of Vaudoises Alps, on 

 the scale of -o^j^inr) ^s also several sections which complete it. 

 It includes principally the mass of the Diablerets and the neigh- 

 bouring spurs on the right bank of the Rhone. — Prof. Wartmann 

 showed a small apparatus intended to prove the impulse which 

 an induction spark in a rarefied gas is capable of giving in the 

 direction of its length. — M. Raoul Pictet described various ex- 

 periments made by himself, and proving the great facility with 

 which sulphuric acid is diffused through caoutchouc. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, March 19. — M. Peligot in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read : — Observations of 

 temperature at the Museum of Natural History, during 1876, 

 with electric thermometers placed at depths of i metre to 36 

 metres under ground, as also in air and under grass-covered and 

 bare ground, by MM. Becquerel. Tne results are nearly the 

 same as were obtained before. General Morin, remarking that at 

 only 10 to 12 metres depth he found a nearly constant tempera- 

 ture of 11°, suggested the use of underground air, drawn through 

 pipes, to produce a constant temperature where it might be 

 required (as for conservation of meat, &c.) — On the decomposi- 

 tion of bioxide of barium in vacuo, at the temperature of dark 

 red, by M. Boussingault. The whole of the oxygen could be 

 thus extracted. On removing the source of heat the bioxide was 

 reconstituted. Bioxide of barium, then, cannot exist in vacuo at 

 a dark red heat. — Physical and mechanical actions of incandescent 

 and strongly compressed gases from combustion of powder. 

 Application of the facts to certain characters of meteorites and 

 bolides, by M. Daubree. The facts of experiment seem to 

 explain : — (i) the alveolar cavities or cupules in meteorites; (2) 

 the peculiar clouds, smoke, or dust, which follow the disappear- 

 ance of the incandescent mass ; (3) the dust of cosmic oiigin 

 which is thus expanded in our atmosphere, not only by combus- 

 tion and volatiUsation, but by pulverisation at 'a high tempera- 

 ture. — On the fundamental invariants of the binary form of the 

 eighth degree, by Mr. Sylvester.— On the palseontological origin 



of trees, shrubs, and bushes inaigenous in the south of France, 

 that are sensitive to cold in severe winters, by M. Martins. He 

 considers them to be the survivors of the flora which covered 

 those parts during the Terdary period. We have here plants 

 exotic as regards time, while other plants are exotic as regards 

 space. At Montpellier and Marseilles the annual average of 

 absolute minima of temperature are — 9'23° and — 5 "95° respec- 

 tively. — On the experiments made at Pregny by the canton of 

 Geneva, by M. Bouley. He had erroneously given the Swiss 

 Federal Government the credit of the experiments. — M. Hebert 

 was elected member in the section of Mineralogy in room of the 

 late M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville. — On the phosphorescence of 

 organic bodies, by Mr. Phipsoa. Apropos of a recent note, he 

 calls attention to his memoir on noctilucine, the first organic 

 body known to be phosphorescent by slow oxidation, like phos- 

 phorus in the mineral kingdom. — Propositions of algebra and 

 geometry deduced from cons '.deration of the cubic roots of unity, 

 by M. Appell. — On the curvature of surfaces, by M. Serret. — 

 On a problem comprising the theory of eliminition, by I\I. 

 Ventejols. — On the suspension of water in a vessel closed below 

 by a tissue with large meshes, by M. Piateau. — On a singular 

 fact of production of heat, by M. Olivier. — On the reform of 

 some processes of analysis used in the laboratories of agricultural 

 stations and observatories of chemical meteorology ; first part, 

 Ammonimetry, by M. Houzeau. His method is to use stable 

 vinous red litmus, which will reveal free ammonia in solution in 

 water containing only gxrTrkoT? and even 1:7^0 Vtnn) of its weight of 

 that substance. The proportion is determined by pouring into 

 the litmus-coloured liquor a weak titrated acid till disappearance 

 of the original red.— On the preparation of crystallised acetate 

 of magnesia, and on the fermentation of this salt, by M. Pa- 

 trouiliard. — On a simple mode of production of certain mono-, 

 bi-, and tri-chlorised acids, by M. Demar5ay. — Transformation 

 of normal pyro-tartaric acid into dibromo pyrotartaric and 

 dibromo-succinic acids, by MM. Reboul and Eourgoin, — Ac- 

 tion of chlorochromic acid on anthracene, by M. Haller. — On 

 the constitution of pseudo-purpurine ; continuation of researches 

 on the colouring matters of madder, by M. Rosenstiehl. Pseudo- 

 purpurine is sufficiently unstable to produce by its partial destruc- 

 tion the other colouring matters in madder (alizarine excepted). — 

 Experiments on muscular tonicity, by M. Carlet. A muscle gene- 

 rally contracts after section of a nerve, before final relaxation. 

 This is due, the author says, to the increased excitability of the 

 nerve. In rare cases, where the nerve is cut without excitation 

 (at one of Bridge's " nodes" perhaps), relaxation begins at once. 

 Elongation immediately after section is due to rigidity not flacci- 

 dity, the extensor muscles being stronger than the flexors. — On the 

 modifications in the egg of phanerocarpous medusae before fecun- 

 dation, by M. Giard. — On the age of elevation of the Margeride, 

 by M. Fabre. — On the formation of thunderstorms, by M.Zundel. 

 — Clinical and therapeutical researches on epilepsy and hysteria, 

 by M. Bourneville. From two analyses of i^ortions of liver 

 from an epileptic patient who had taken, in four months, forty- 

 three grammes of ammoniacal sulphate of copper (and died of 

 pulmonary tuberculosij 2 J months after cessation of the treat- 

 ment), the total amount of copper in the liver was estimated at 

 236 milligrammes and 250 mm. 



CONTENTS Page 



PaLMEN on the MlGK/iTION OF BiKDS 4^5 



Our Book Shblf : — 



Bottomley's " Dynamics ; or, Theoretic-1 Meclianics, in Accord- 

 ance with the Syllabus of the Scien-e and Art Department " , 467 

 Letters to the Eoitor ; — 



Evolution and the Vegetable Kingdom, t— J. S. G. ; Thomas 



Comber 45^ 



The Rocks of Charnwood Forest.— Rev. T. G. Bonney ; E. Hill 470 



Southern Double Stars. — Robt. L. J. Ellery 4;o 



Ship's Chronometers.— Parkinson ANB Frodsham l^lVith Illus- 

 tration) • . . . . 470 



Lowest Temperature. — Rev. R. Abbay 471 



Meteor. — W. Ainslie Hollis : J. H 4-1 



Dr. Schlismann on Mygen^ 4^1 



Fertilisation of Flowers by Insects, XVL By Dr. Hermann 



yi\i\A.v.v. {With Illustrations) 473 



Recently Proposed Improvejments in Musical Intonation, By 



Alexander J. Ellis, F.R S 475 



On Photo-Chhmical Processbs in ths Retina. Bv Prof. Arthur 



Gamgee, M.D., F.R.S " 477 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Cape Astronomicil Results, 1871-1873 47S 



Variable Stars 478 



Biela's Comet iu 1805 . 479 



Notes , . 479 



Socibtirs and Academies ... 482 



