504 



NA TURE 



{April ^, 1877 



munication was read from the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, in which 

 he gave the descriptions of some spiders collected by the Rev, 

 G. Brown in Duke of York Island, New Britain, and New Ire- 

 land. Two of these appeared to be undescnbed, and were 

 named Argiope brotvni and Sarotes vulpinus. — Prof. A. H. 

 Garrod read a paper containing notes on the anatomy of the 

 Musk Deer {Moschus moschiferus) . — A communication was read 

 from Mr. Edward Bartlett, containing remarks on the affinity of 

 Mesites and the position which it should occupy in a natural 

 classification. From an examination of structure of the feathers, 

 Mr. Bartlett had come to the conclusion that Mesites was an 

 aberrant form of the Ardeine group. — Dr. Giinther, F.R.S., 

 read a paper containing an account of the fishes collected by 

 Capt. Feilden during the last Arctic Expedition. Amongst 

 these were several of great interest, especially a new species of 

 Charr, for which the name Salmo arcturus was proposed. This 

 Charr was discovered in freshwater lakes of Grinnell-land, and 

 was stated to be the most northern fresh-water fish known to 

 exist— Mr. Edward Newton, C.M.G., exhibited and read a 

 paper on a collection of birds made in the island Anjuan or 

 Johanna, one of the Comorro group, by Mr. Bewsher, of Mau- 

 ritius, whereby the number of species now known to have 

 occurred in that island was raised to thirty-five, of which four- 

 teen were first observed there by that gentleman. Five of these, 

 namely, Zosterops anjuanensis, Tchitrea vulpina, Ellisia longi- 

 caudata, Jurdus bezvsheri, and Turtur comorensis, were de- 

 scribed as new. 



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

 M.A., president, in the chair.— Capt. Fellowes, R.E., George 

 Jinman, Angus Mackintosh, M.D., Robert W, T. Morris, Rtv. 

 Edward Vincent Pigott, David S. Skinner, L.R.C.P., and 

 Henry St. John Wood were elected Fellows of the Society,— 

 The following papers were read :— Results of meteorological 

 observations made at Patras, Greece, during 1874 and 1875, by 

 the Rev. Herbert A. Boys. This is in continuation of a lormer 

 paper read before the Society in 1875. The period embraced in 

 the two papers— January, 1873, to June, 1875— covers a whole 

 winter compressed into about thirty days, a very long and showery 

 spring, an excessively hot summer, a dry winter of extreme cold, 

 a summer of most prolonged drought, a remarkably wet and 

 snowy winter, a very late beginning of hot weather, and the 

 coldest day and night, and the lowest barometer reading for 

 many years.— Contributions to the meteorology of the Pacific — 

 Fiji, by Robert H, Scott, F.R.S. this paper contains a dis- 

 cussion of all published information as to the climate of Fiji 

 which the author has been able to discover.— Local diurnal range, 

 by S. H. Miller, F.R.A.S.— This was followed by another paper 

 on the same subject, by William Marriott, F.M.S., which dis- 

 cussed the questions of whether the tables of corrections lor 

 diurnal range, at present used by a large number of observers, 

 are trustworthy,- and whether they are applicable to different 

 places in the United Kingdom. The conclusions arrived at were 

 that the present corrections could not be considered as accurate, 

 that no strictly comparable records exist for instituting a satis- 

 factory inquiry, and that it is very undesirable to .apply any cor- 

 rections whatever to the observations to deduce means from them, 

 — Mr. Negretti exhibited several new instruments. 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, March 26. — M, Peligot in the chair. 

 — The following papers were read : — Remarks on the presence 

 of benzine in coal gas, by M. Berthelot. The illuminating por- 

 tion of the Parisian gas consists mostly of vapour of benzine, 

 forming about 3 per cent, of the whole volume. Fuming nitric 

 acid was employed in the analysis, producing nitrobenzine. — On a 

 recent communication of Mr. Weddell regarding the advantage 

 to be realised in replacing quinine by cinchonidine, by M. Pas- 

 teur. Mr. Weddell having stated that cinchonidine was disco- 

 vered by M. Pasteur, the latter says this is attributing too much 

 to him, and defines his researches on the subject in 1853. — On 

 the digestion of albumen, by M. van Tieghem. The relation of 

 the albumen to the embryo in seeds was studied by two methods 

 — observing isolated albumen subjected to germination and ob- 

 serving the dissolutionj of albumen during germination, of the 

 entire seed. There are two modes of digestion ; the oleaginous 

 and aleuric albumen has an activity of its own, it digests 

 itself, and the embryo only absorbs the products of this interior 

 digestion ; it is a " nurse" to it. The amylaceous and cellulosic 

 albumens, on the contrary, are passive ; they are digested by the 

 embryo, each in its fashion, and the products of this external 

 digestion are then absorbed by it ; they are to it only a nutri- 



ment. — On preventive and early trepanation in vitreous fractures 

 complicated by splinters, by M. Sedillot.— Observations of the 

 satellites of Saturn, at the Observatory of Toulouse in 1876, with 

 the large Foucault telescope, by M. Tisserand. These relate to 

 the first five satellites only. From observations of three of them 

 the apparent diameter of Saturn's ring is inferred to be 4o"'5i. — 

 On a theorem relative to the expansion of vapours without ex- 

 ternal work, by M. Him. — On the theory of plane elastic plates, 

 by M. Levy. — The president of the Vine-growing Society of the 

 Pyrenees Orientales sent a document affirming that it is the 

 American plants that have brought phylloxera into France ; 

 all plantation of them is the signal of a fresh invasion. — On 

 the theory of frigorific machines, by M. Terquem. — On the 

 reflection of polarised light, by M. CrouUebois. He studies 

 one of the fringes discovered by Airy, and named by M. Billet 

 the courbi de se7nelle ; showing what may be inferred from it, as to 

 the physical constitution of a mirror {i.e., its positive, neutral, or 

 negative nature) ; the value of the angle of maximum polarisa- 

 tion (first constant), and the azimuth of renewed polarisation 

 (second constant). — On the transformation of crystallisable 

 sugar into inactive glucose in raw cane sugars, by M. Gayon. 

 Heat and moisture favour the transformation ; there is a real 

 fermentation, with carbonic acid given off. By the mere decrease 

 of crystallisable and increase of uncrystallisable sugar, the 

 yield in refining was diminished by 25 per cent, in one 

 sugar, and 33 per cent, in another. — On the composition of gun- 

 cotton, by M M . Champion and Pellet. The specimen analysed con- 

 tained (ashes deducted i 'Oi gr. per cent. ) free cellulose, I '00; dinitro- 

 cellulose, 6'oo j principal nitrated product (by difference), 93 'oo. 

 Supposing this product pentanitrocellulose, and calculating the 

 constituents on this hypothesis, we have, carbon, 26'54; hydrogen, 

 279 ; nitrogen, I2'5i ; oxygen, 58*16 ; which analysis confirms. — 

 Studies on the series of the quinolines ; transformation of leucoline 

 into anihne, by Mr. James Dewar. — On nitrototuquinone and chlo- 

 ranilic acid, by M. Etard. — On the sewage waters of Paris, by M. 

 Lauth. The facts cited prove that the sulphydric putrefaction of 

 such water may be avoided by addition of lime, or (a much more 

 important result) by simple aeration. Putrefaction only occurs 

 when the sewage water is kept out of contact with air. As such 

 conditions probably occur at the bottom of the Seine, the facts 

 related may be utilised for its sanitation. — On the fecundation of 

 the egg in the sea-urchin, by M. Perez. He questions M. Fol's 

 statement that the spermatozoids penetrate into the interior. — 

 Hailstorm at the Cape of Antibes on March 21, by M. Ferriere. 

 The storm came from the depths of the marine horizon ; its 

 movement was from west to east, and the hailstones, judging 

 from the orientation of the deposits, must have had a gyratory 

 motion. These facts seem to bear on M. Faye's theory. — 

 Chronic anaemia from stubborn nervous and digestive disorders 

 continuing for five years ; transfusion of blood and cure, by M, 

 Ore. Only forty grammes of blood were used. Puncture was 

 made without denudation of the vein. The transfused blood 

 acts by stimulating the organs rendered atonic, and by causing 

 z. proliferation of new globules. — On the antiseptic properties 

 of bichromate of potash, by M. Laujorrois. The addition 

 of -j-Q-j- to ordinary water will render this conservative of all 

 organic products without decomposition, even in free air. 



CONTENTS Page 



Thb Geological Survey of Ohio 48S 



Our Book Shelf : — 



"History of Nepal" 488 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The First Swallow at Menton.— Douglas A. Spalding .... 488 



Coal Fields of Nova Scotia.— R B 488 



Greenwich as a Meteorological Observatory. — H. S. Eaton . . 489 



Centralisation of Spectroscopy.— W. H. M. Christie 489 



Morphology of " Selaglnella."— Prof. W. T. Thiselton Dyer . 489 



Tungstate of Soda — Matthew W. Williams 489 



Traquair's Monograph on British Carboniferous Ganoids. — Dr. 

 R. H. Traquair 4^^ 



Alexander Braun 4^ 



The Loan Collection OF Scientific Apparatus 490 



The " Development of Batrachians w i thout Metamorphosis 

 {With I Ih(stratioiis) 



Typical Laws of Heredity. By Francis Galton, F.R.S. {With 

 Illustrations^ 



On the Structure and Origin of Meteorites. By H. C. Sorbv, 

 F.R.S 



Mendeleef's Researches on Mariotte's Law. By Prof. Mende- 

 leef 41 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Binary Stars 



The Annular Eclipse of the Sun, 1737, March I sd 



Notes S** 



Societies and Academies so^^ 



Erratum. — P. 466, col. 2, line 26, for "Garrell " read " Yarrell. 



