332 



NATURE 



[August 25, 192 1 



Sydney. 

 Royal Society of New South Wales, July 6.— Mr. E. C. 

 Andrews, president, in the chair. — W. R. Browne : 

 Note on the relation of streams to geological structure, 

 with special reference to "boathook bends." The in- 

 fluence of geological structures on the courses of 

 streams, as illustrated by certain rivers of New South 

 Wales, is discussed, and it is suggested that what 

 Dr. Griffith Taylor has termed "boathook bends " in 

 rivers are in many cases to be attributed to the 

 presence of directive geological structures rather than 

 to river-piracy and the breaching of divides.^ — Marie 

 Bentivoglio : Notes on cassiterite crystals from New 

 England district, New South Wales, and Stanthorpe, 

 Queensland. The crystals were taken directly from 

 hand-specimens of igneous rocks obtained from 

 Stannum, Pheasant Creek, Mandoief Station, and 

 Stanthorpe. Crystal habit varies i with locality. 

 Almost all the crystals are twinned, the twinning 

 occurring on the e(ioi) face, according to the usual 

 law. Doublets are the commonest grouping, but 

 triplets and quartuplets were also observed. — Dr. E. E. 

 Turner and F. H. H. Wilson : The decomposition of 

 dimethyl oxalate by acetic acid. Pure methyl acetate 

 may be prepared by the action of 80 per cent, acetic 

 acid on dimethyl oxalate, the theoretical quantities of 

 reactants being used. The yields obtained are virtually 

 theoretical. — Dr. L. A. Cotton : The Kurrajong earth- 

 quake of August 15, 1919. The special feature of the 

 Kurrajong earthquake is the f>eculiar Y-shaped 

 character of the isoseismals. One arm of the Y and 

 its stem lie subparallel to, and superimposed over, the 

 line of structural weakness shown by the Kurrajong 

 fault and the Glenbrook monocline. The other arm 

 of the Y is not known definitely to coincide with a 

 fault zone. The direction corresponds to a major 

 direction of tectonic weakness — the Permo-Car- 

 boniferous geosyncline — and also to numerous large 

 faults in the Maitland district. It is suggested that 

 the earthquake was caused by block faulting in which 

 the south-eastern corner of a crustal block has foun- 

 dered. This would account for the peculiar form of 

 the isoseismals. The shape of the boundary of the 

 sound area confirms the Y-shaped form of the iso- 

 seismals. 



Books Received. 



Revelation and Science : A Reply to Higher Critics 

 and Darwinists. By John Leslie. Pp. 156. (Aber- 

 deen : W. Jolly and Sons, Ltd.) 3s. 6d. 



Calculations in Organic Chemistry. By Prof. V. K. 

 Bhagwat. Pp. xi+138. (Bombay: S. Govind and 

 Co.) 



British ((Terra Nova) Antarctic Expedition, igio- 

 1913 : Terrestrial Magnetism. By Dr. Charles Chree. 

 Pp. xii+548 + lx plates. (London: Harrison and 

 Sons, Ltd.) 



Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland. 

 Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great 

 Britain. Vol. xvii. : The Lead, Zinc, Copper, and 

 Nickel Ores of Scotland. By G. V. Wilson. With 

 Contributions by Dr. John S. Flett. Pp. vi+159 + 2 

 plates. (Southampton : Ordnance Survey Office ; 

 London : E. Stanford, Ltd.) ys. 6d. net. 



Die Grundiagen der Geometrie : Als Unterbau fiir 

 die Analytische Geometrie. By Prof. Lothar Heffter. 

 Pp. iv4-27. (Leipzig and Berlin : B. G. Teubner.) 

 i8marks=i-25 shillings. 



Imperial Institute. Indian Trade Enquiry : Re- 

 ports on Jute and Silk. Pp. ix+90. (London : John 

 Murray.) 55. net. 



Proceedings of the ' Aristotelian Society. New 



NO. 2704, VOL. 107] 



Series. Vol. xxi. Containing the Papers read before 

 the Society during the Forty-second Session, 1920-21. 

 Pp. iv-l-246. (London : Williams and Norgate.) 256-. 

 net. 



Liquid and Gaseous Fuels and the Part they Play 

 in Modern Power Production. By Prof. Vivian B. 

 Lewes. Second edition. Revised and edited by 

 John B. C. Kershaw. (The "Westminster" Series.) 

 Pp. xiv+353. (London : Constable and Co., Ltd.) 

 12^. 6d. net. 



The .A.ngami Nagas, with some Notes on Neigh- 

 bouring Tribes. By J. H. Hutton. Pp. xv-l-480. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 405. net. 



The Fourth Dimension. By Prof. E. H. Neville. 

 Pp. vii+56. (Cambridge : At the University Press.) 

 5s. net. 



Zentralblatt fiir die gesamte Landwirtschaft mit 

 Einschluss der Forst- und Teichwirtschaft, der Tier- 

 Pathologie und Medizin. Edited by Prof. Richard 

 von der Heide and Robert Lewin. Erster Band. 

 1920. Pp. 524. (Leipzig : Gebriider Borntraeger.) 

 90 marks. 



First Principles of the Electrical Transmission of 

 Energy : A Survey of the Physical Basis of Electrical 

 Transmission, its Methods and Phenomena from the. 

 Standpoint of the Electron, for Students and Practical 

 Engineers. By Prof. W. M. Thornton. (Pitman's 

 Technical Primer Series.) Pp. xii+ii6. (London: 

 Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd.) 25. 6d. net. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



University and Civil Service Salaries 801 



Famous Chemists 802 



History of Persia 804 



The Kinetic Theory and the Quantum. By 



C. G. D 804 



Beast and Man in India 805 



Our Bookshelf 806 



Letters to the Editor:— 



The Natural History of Man.— Sir G. Archdall 



Reid, K.B.E. . . 808 



Magnetic Double Refraction of Smokes. — Dr. R. 



Whvtlaw-Qray . • 810 



The Contractile Vacuole.— Prof. W. M. Bayliss, 



F.R.S 810 



A Correction. — Prof. J. Arthur Thomson .... 811 



Wrightson's Hypothesis of Audition. — Dr. H. Hart- 

 ridge . ... ... . . 811 



The Generation of Heath-fires. — Edwd. A. Martin 811 



Cornalith. — R. Hedger Wallace .811 



Pulverised Coal as a Combustible. By Sir R, A. S. 



Redmayne, K.C.B .812 



Remarks on Gravitational Relativity, IV. By Sir 



Oliver Lodge, F.R.S .814 



The Edinburgh Meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion. By Prof. J. H. Ashworth, F;R.S 818 



Obituary: — 



Prof. Edmond Perrier 819 



A. T. Simmons 820 



Notes 820 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Recent Meteoric Display 825 



Detection of Encke's Comet 825 



Study of the Moon's Surface 825 



The Distances of the Globular Clusters 825 



New Facts of Colour Vision. By Dr. F. W. 



Edridge-Green, C.8.E 826 



Regional Geology. By G. A. J. C 827 



Artificial Farmyard Manure 828 



West Indian Zoology. By Prof. J. Stanley 



Gardiner, F.R.S 829 



Thomas Wharton Jones, F.R.S • • • • 829 



University and Educational Intelligence . ... 830 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers . 831 



Societies and Academies 831 



Books Received ... 832 



