390 



NATURE 



November 17, 192 1 



phurous. — Papers communicated through fellows : — 



J. Peris: 'Sur les fonctions permutables " (in 



French). — M. De Angelis : Crystalline forms of tri- 

 methylphloretin, 



C,H,03(CH3),.CO-CH(CH,)-C.H,OH. 



— E. Sereni : Biochemistry of preparations from the 

 central system of the frog. — An address was presented 

 to Prof. Ernesto Mancini in commemoration of the 

 fortieth anniversary of his nomination to the office of 

 Chancellor of the Academy. 



June 5.--Special meeting attended by the King. — 

 The following prizes were awarded : — Royal prize for 

 mathematics to Prof. Guido Fubini, of Turin ; Royal 

 prize for social and economic sciences to Prof. Gino 

 Arias, of Genoa. Of the two prizes ofTered bv the 

 Minister of Public Instruction for physics' and 

 chemistry, one is awarded to Prof. Eligio Perucca and 

 the other divided between Prof. Giuseppe Crestani and 

 Mario Tenani. Two similar Ministerial prizes for 

 philology are divided between Profs. Carlo Calcaterra, 

 Massimo Lenehantin, De Gubernatis, Alfonso 

 Omodeo, and Augusto Rostagni. The Carpi prize is 

 awarded to Dr. Enrico Carano for his work on the 

 embryology of Asteraceae ; the Sella prize to Dr. 

 Antonio Sellerio, of Palermo; and the prize of the 

 Morelli Institute to Dr. Camiilo Ausenda. Prof. G. 

 Vitelli gave an address on the composition of 

 Homeric poems, and congratulatorv addresses were 

 exchanged with the British Academy. 



June 19.— F. D'Ovidio, president, in the chair. — 

 Papers by fellows : — G. Castelnuovo : Abelian func- 

 tions, iv. : .Applications to algebraic series of groups 

 on a curve.— C. Somigliana : Depth of glaciers, iii. 

 Determination of the profiles corresponding to expres- 

 sions for the surface velocity of the second and third 

 degrees as functions of the lateral co-ordinate. — F. 

 Severi : Integrals of the first series of an algebraic 

 surface, vii.— L. De Marchi : Thermal gradient and 

 ■vertical acceleration in the atmosphere. In this paper 

 the author investigates the vertical motion of the air 

 as dependent on temperature conditions, condensation 

 of raindrops, and other causes, and gives numerical 

 values for the estimated velocity and acceleration 

 under given assumed conditions. .\part from its 

 meteorological significance, this investigation has an 

 important bearing on. another application which is, 

 and has for a long time been, awaiting systematic 

 study. While the vertical velocities of the air in the 

 author's paper fall short of the values that would be 

 necessary to maintain a bird in continuous horizontal 

 gliding flight, they certainly suggest that under 

 different conditions upward air-currents mav be set 

 up which are sufficient for the sustentation of gliding 

 birds. Such conditions one would expect to occur in 

 a country where the earth's surface is exposed to the 

 action of tropical sunshine in daytime and is cooled 

 at night bv radiation in a cloudless sky. It is much 

 to be hoped that the author's work will pave the wav 

 for further study of this interesting question. — C. De 

 Stefani : Fossil sponges, viii. The localities under 

 examination are at Crocetta, Casa Bisognaschi, and 

 under the Casa Doria. — Communicated by fellows : — 

 L. Brusotti : Small variation of a real algebraic plane 

 curve.--G. De A. D'Ossat : Solubility of leucite 

 in agricultural soil. These investigations show that 

 leucite is not only soluble in water, but when mixed 

 with soil it gives rise to reactions capable of liberating 

 potash in considerable quantities — a result of great im- 

 portance in its application to agriculture, as it is cal- 

 culated by Washington that in Italy nine billion tons 

 of potash contained in volcanic rocks are capable of 

 being rendered available by this method. 



NO. 2716, VOL. 108] 



The following papers were received during the 

 vacation : — Papers by fellows :— C, Somigliana : Depth 

 of glaciers, iv. (4th order profiles).- O. M. Corbino : 

 Effect of magnetic field on heat conduction. — B. 

 Grassi : A biological race of Anopheles which do not 

 attack man ; a very singular case of anophelism and 

 paludism without malaria. In 1906 Prof. Giacomo 

 Rossi, of the Higher School of Agriculture at Portici, 

 directed attention to Orti di Schito (between Torre 

 Annunziata and Castellamare) as an example of ano- 

 phelism without malaria. The author on visiting the 

 district found a "truly phenomenal" abundance of 

 both .4. claviger and .4. tnacMZi/)e>mts, sometimes rising 

 in clouds at sunset and literally swarming in pigsties; 

 on the other hand, malaria had been unknown for 

 years. This result is now explained by the discovery 

 that in this particular district the .'Xnopheles never attack 

 human beings. Observations extending over several 

 visits both by the author and his assistants showed 

 no case of anyone being bitten by the Anopheles, 

 except when almost forced to do so by being previously 

 kept in a state of starvation. On the other hand, the 

 inhabitants of Schito were frequentlv bitten bv Culex. 

 The author suggests that this peculiar biological race 

 of Anopheles acquired their present habits during a 

 period (about 1860-70) when large flocks of cattle 

 were kept in the marshy districts with very few men 

 in charge of them.^ — Prof. B. Morpurgo : Consequences 

 of nephrectomv in Siamese moles. — O. M. Corbino : 

 Theory of Thomson effect.— G. Bruni and C. Pelizzola : 

 Presence of manganese in grey rubber and cause of 

 "tackiness" (peciosita). .-Xnalysis of various rubbers 

 showed that good examples contained only an average 

 of 016 milligram of manganese in 100 grams of 

 rubber. In examples presenting strong uniform 

 tackiness the proportion of manganese was 20 milli- 

 grams per 100 grams, while in intermediate cases, 

 where the tackiness was slight and irregular, the 

 proportion was usually from i to 375 milligrams per 

 100 grams. It thus appears probable that the decom- 

 position of the rubber is in part due to the action of 

 the manganese as an oxidising agent, this action 

 being cvclic.^ — The following papers were communi- 

 cated through fellows : — G. Abetti : Determination of 

 longitude bv wireless telegraphy. — E. G. Togliatti : 

 Varieties of three dimensions and fourth order that 

 are loci of at least infinity-squared lines. — Dr. B. 

 Peyronel : Menispora microspora, n. sp., one of the 

 Hvphomycetae with mesoendogenous conidia. A new 

 fungus forming minute spots on the bark of the chest- 

 nut, remarkable for the mode of formation of its 

 conidia. — F. Sibirani : Bertrand's curves. — A. Tanturri : 

 New expression of Bernoulli's numbers. — G. Abetti: 

 Comparison between visual and photographic observa- 

 tions of nebulae. In 1876-79 a number of draw- 

 ings of nebulae were made by G. Tempel at Arcetri 

 with an Amici equatorial of 28-cm. aperture and 

 5;-2Q metres focal length. The author compares nine 

 of these with photographs made by Pease with the 

 60-in. reflector of Mount Wilson. The agreement is 

 very marked, thus confirming the accuracy of the 

 drawings, but there appears evidence of relative dis- 

 olacements of the stars and nuclei in the interval 

 between the observations, attributable to proper 

 motions. — G. Stefanini : Geology of Cyrenaica, ii. — 

 E. Perncca : Measure of differences of contpct poten- 

 tial by the Lippmann-Pellat method. — M. La Rosa: 

 Conductivitv and thermo-electric power in a magnetic 

 fie^d on the electron theory. — G. Agamennone : The 

 world's earthauakes in IQ16. Taking as starting 

 point H. H. Turner's British Association report, the 

 niifhor tabulates statistics showing how manv of the 

 "large" earthquakes were observed at each of the 



