176 



NATURE 



[Dec. 27, 1877 



mixture, and they harden almost immediately on exposure to"the 

 air ; but better results are obtained by slow drying in an air 

 bath heated up to 80° C, and allowed to cool. In proof of the 

 toughness of the films it was mentioned that a flat circular film 

 4 cm. in diameter, had supported a 50-gramme brass weight at 

 its centre. — Mr. Sedley Taylor then exhibited some experiments 

 in illustration of a paper on the colours exhibited by vibrating 

 liquid films which he has recently communicated to the Royal 

 Society. — Dr. Guthrie exhibited a simple lecture illustration of 

 the action of the telephone. Two similar coils of wire are 

 placed one on the end of a bar magnet, and the other on a soft 

 iron core. A tin disc about three inches in diameter is sus- 

 pended by two threads almost in contact with one end of this 

 latter, and when a similar disc is brought, at regular intervals, 

 against the end of the magnet which is provided with the coil, a 

 distinct movement of the first-named disc is observed which can 

 be easily increased by properly timing the movement of the 

 inducing disc. 



Anthropological Institute, November 27. — Mr. John 

 Evans, D.C.L., F.R»S., president, in the chair. — The elec- 

 tion of five new members was announced. — Major-Gen. A. 

 Lane Fox, F.R.S., exhibited various objects from Istria and 

 Scinde. — The Director read some notes on Socotra, by Capt. 

 Hunter, R.N., in which some of Lieut. Wellstead's statements 

 about that island were criticised. — A paper on the Zaparos, by 

 Mr. A. Simpson, was then read, in which many interesting 

 observations of these tribes of " Equador " were recorded. 

 Their wonderful tracking powers, abstention from heavy meats, 

 such as tapir and peccari, curious mode of training hunting-dogs, 

 were described. Their enjoyment in the destruction of life, 

 human or animal, with the exception of the alligator, which they 

 will not touch themselves, was very marked. The Napos do 

 not resemble them in this respect. The Zaparos are very dis- 

 united, and wander about in separate hordes, the worst of which 

 are the Supinus. Courtship is sometimes carried on by a silent 

 invitation by the suitor to his elect to cook his food. If rejected, 

 he tries elsswhere. The Zaparos are describel as of a happy 

 and cheerful disposition, very superstitious, believing in an evil 

 spirit, and very poor and almost nude. — A paper on the Malayo 

 Polynesians, by Rev. S. J. Whitmee, was then rea<1, in which 

 the author noted the high social position of women in the 

 Samoan group, as compared with their place among the black 

 Polynesians. The existence of hereditary ranks and titles among 

 the brown Polynesians seems to the author lo indicate a former 

 higher condition. The author re'^erred to the difficulties expe- 

 rienced by missionaries in obtaining the true versions of the 

 native poems and myths, and noted the custom of preserving the 

 myths in poetry as well as prose, the two versions acting one as 

 a check on the other, and so preserving the correctness one of 

 the other. In the discussion, Major-Gen. A. Lane Fox, Mr. 

 Blackmore, Mr. Hyde Clarke, and others, took part. 



Entomological Society, Decembers. — J. W. Dunning, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited specimens of 

 the rare species of Hemiptera-Heteroptera, Tetroxia beauvoisii, 

 and Oncocephalus subspinosus, from the West Coast of Africa. — 

 Mr. F. Smith exhibited a fine series of Macropis labiata, male and 

 female, captured near Norwich by Mr. I. B. Bridgman. — Mr. 

 Smith also exhibited a specimen of Rophites quinquespinosus, a 

 genus and species new to the British Hymenoptera, captured near 

 Hastings t>y the Rev. E. H. Bloomfield. — Mr. Meldola exhibited 

 three fine photographic enlargements of micro- photographs 

 (two being of parts of insects) taken by Mr. Edward Viles, of 

 Pendryl Hall, Wolverhampton. The photographs, which had 

 been exhibited at the recent exhibition of the Photographic 

 Society were 30 x 24 in. , while the original negatives were 3 in, 

 square. — Mr. Meldola likewise performed an acoustical expe- 

 riment illustrating the action of the stridulating apparatus in the 

 Phasma [Pterinoxylus], an account of which had been given to 

 the society by Mr. Wood Mason at the last meeting. — Mr. Wood 

 Mason made further remarks on the structure of the stridulating 

 organ in scorpions. — Mr. F. Smith mentioned a case of stridu- 

 lation occurring in a British species of Curculionidce {Acalles). — 

 Mr. Dunning called attention to a striking case of mimicry 

 recorded by Mr. Neville Goodman in the Proceedings of the 

 Cambridge Philosophical Society for February, 1877, the mimic 

 being a species of Laphria, and the model, the well-known 

 Egyptian hornet, Vespa orientalis. — Mr. F. Smith read a paper 

 containing descriptions of new species of hymenopterous insects 

 from New Zealand, collected by Prof. Hutton at Otago. — Mr, 



A. G. Butler communicated a paper on the Lepidoptera of the 

 Amazons, collected by Dr. James W. H. Trail during the years 

 1873 to 1875. — Dr. Sharp communicated the following papers : — 

 Descriptions of eight new species and anew genus of Cossonides, 

 from New Zealand, and descriptions of some new species and a 

 new genus of Rhyncophorous Coleoptera, from the Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



Manchester 



Literary and Philosophical Society, October 16. — Mr. 

 E. W. Binney, F. R.S., president, in the chair. — The Pre- 

 sident exhibited to the meeting some coal-measure plants 

 and other organic remains from Spain. From the cha- 

 racter of the fossil organic remains and the nature of the strata 

 he was led to believe that the coal-field of Puertollano was of the 

 same geological age as our true English coal-measures. — Mr, 

 M, P. Pattison Muir, F.R.S.E., exhibited and gave a descrip- 

 tion of a modified form of Hofmann's apparatus for determining 

 vapour densities. — Note on an edible clay from New Zealand, 

 by M. M. Pattison Muir, F.R.S.E. The author lately received 

 from Mr. R. E. Day, a small specimen of a clay which is greedily 

 eaten by the sheep in a certain district in New Zealand. The 

 clay was brought by Mr, Day from Simon's Pa=s Station, 

 Mackenzie Country, South Island. It there forms a range of 

 low bare hills : the sheep (merino sheep) eat very considerable 

 quantities of the clay without appearing to be any the worse for 

 it. It is supposed by the shepherds that the clay must contain 

 salt, and that it is to supply the deficiency of this article of food 

 that the sheep resort to the earth. The analysis shows that very 

 probably the shepherds are right: — Silica, 61 "25; alumina, 

 1797; ferric oxide, 5*72 ; calcium oxide, I "91; magnesium 

 oxide, 0*87 ; alkalies (as chlorides), 3 '69 ; organic matter, 177 ; 

 water, 7'3i = ioo'49. — On the decomposition of calcium sul- 

 phate by alkaline chlorides ; a contributim to agricultural 

 chemistry, by M. M. Pattison Muir, F.R.S.E. — On some 

 thionates, by H. Baker, student in the Owens College. Com- 

 municated by Prof. C. Schorlemmer, F, R.S. 



Vienna. 



Imperial Academy of Sciences, October 18. — Oa the 

 chemical nature of peptone and its relation to albumen, by M. 

 Herth. — On the addition of prussic acid to urea, and on the 

 action of trichloric lactic acid on urea, by M. Cech. — Trans- 

 formation of cyanamide into ammelide, by MM. Cech and Dehrmel. 

 — New discoveries on the negative helioropism of above-ground 

 parts of plants, by M. Wiesner. — On Fraunhofer's rings, 

 Quetlet's stripes, and allied phenomena, by M. Exner. 



October 25. — On the connection of « straight lines in the plane, 

 and on properties of the triangle and two propositions of S'einer 

 therewith connected, by M. Kantor, — On the structure and the 

 growth of some forms of mould-fungus, by M. Hassloch. — On 

 the development of the small pollen-plants of Colchicwn aulum- 

 nale L., by M. Tomaschek. — On the secular acceleration of the 

 mean motion of the moon, by M. v. Littrow. 



CONTENTS Pae 



The Metropolitan Sewage iS7 



Botany in Germany. By Prof W. R. McNab 158 



Moving Diagrams OF Machinery ico 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Oxygen in the Sun. — R. Meldola i6r 



Oxygen in Sea-water. — J Y Buchanan 162 



On some Peculiar Points in the Insect-Fauna of Chili. — R. 



McLachlan, F R.S 362 



Arctic Aurorse.^J. Rand Capron . 162 



Insects and Artificial Flowers.— F. M. Burton 162 



The Selective Discrimination of Insects. — i. B 103 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



The Total Solar Eclipse of a D. 418, July 19 1G3 



Variable Stars. 163 



Astronomical Phenomena in 1878 163 



Fertilisation OF Glossostigma. By T. F. Chehseman .... 163 

 A Telephonic Alarum. By Dr. W. C. Rontgen (_',Vith lUjtstra- 



tion) 164 



Bischoffsheim's Meridian Circle (W^»VA///«.j/?-a^io«j) .... 165 



Fetichism in Animals. By George J. Romanes 16b 



Ruhmkorff ^^9 



Liquefaction of Oxygen - 169 



Notes ,' ^" " V ' " " ^^° 



Certain Movements of Radiometers. By Prof. G. G. Stokbs, 



Sec.RS 172 



University and Educational Intelligence 17s 



SOCIETIBS AND ACADBMIKS . - ^75 



