2l6 



NATURE 



\yan, la, 187S 



they would appear to have beea used for secondary inter- 

 meats, or been otherwise disturbed. The absence of human 

 bones mit^ht be due to atmospheric influence, as in many 

 other cases of burial by inhumation. There was black mould at 

 the bottom of all the little pits. Coarse potsherd*, flint im- 

 plements, and burnt pebbles, were also found in the neighbour- 

 hood of the small pits near the surface, and may possibly 

 mark the spots where flint-workers of an earlier period were 

 interred. A discussion followed in which several members took 

 part. 



Institution of Civil Ensrineers, December 18, 1877. — 

 Annual General Meetin?. — Mr. George Robert Stephenson, 

 president, in the chair. — The numbers of the several classes of 

 members oa November 30, 1877. were: — Honorary members, 

 16; memhers, 925; associates, 1,670; and students, 448; to- 

 gether, 3,059, as against 2,844 at the same date last year, showing 

 an increase at the rate of about 'j\ per cent. The income proper 

 for the year had amaun ed 109,903/ 5f. 3^., the life com jositiuns 

 and admission fees and building fund (all regarded as capital), to 

 2.113/ 13^., and the dividends on tru^t funds to 462/. 16/. 6/, 

 The general expenditure had reached 10,278/ 2J., and the pay- 

 ments on account of trusts were 486/. %s. 5^. The disbursements 

 were thus 374/. l6x. <ji. in excess of the income. The funded 

 property (including the cash balance) belongmg to or under the 

 control o( the Insdtution, was now 38,773/ 4^. \\d. — Mr. John 

 Frederic Bateman, F.R.S., was elected president. 



Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, January 7. — Mr. C. 

 Brooke, F.R.S., in the chair. — It was announced that exactly 

 one hundred members had joined dur ng the past year. — A 

 paper on limitations in nature was read by Mr. S. R. Pattison, 

 FG.S. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, December 17, 1877. — Sir William Thomson, 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. Alexander Buchan read the report of 

 the deputation froii the Society to Upsalato assist in celebrating 

 the four hundiedth anniversary of the University of Upsala. — Mr. 

 J. B. Hannay then read a paper on a new method of determining 

 the cohesion of liquids by the size of its normal drop, which he 

 considered was that obtained by allowing the drops to succeed 

 one another as rapidly as possible. He found that the weight 

 of the drop of liquid dropping from a column of the same liquid 

 increases at the rate at which the drops follow one another. 

 ThiS, he thought, was due (i) to the fact that the rate of flow of 

 liquid through the neck of the drop Was faster when drops suc- 

 ceeded rapidly, and (2) because ihe flow lasted for a longer time. 

 He found also that cohesion decreases with rise of temperature, 

 but rather quicker than the density. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, December 31, 1877.— M. Peligot 

 in the chair. — M. Faye presented the Annuaire du Bureau des 

 Longitudes for 1878. — The following papers were read : — On the 

 constitution of the solar surface and on photography regarded as 

 a means of discovery in physical astionomy, by M. Janssen. 

 Photography has two advantages over optical observation. If 

 the time of exposure be accurately determined, so as to prevent 

 superposition, or what may be called photographic irradiation, 

 the true relations of luminous intensity of the object are expressed. 

 Further, when the luminous action is very short the photo- 

 graphic spectrum is reduced to a narrow band near G j thus very 

 tolerable photographic images of the sun may be had with 

 simple lenses of long focus, and chemical achromatism is much 

 more easily realised than optical. M. Janssen has so arranged 

 that the time of luminous action can be reduced to ^-^ of a 

 second in summer. The images are more latent and require slow 

 development, &c But they throw new light, especially on the 

 solar granulations, which are iound more or less of spherical 

 form ; the irregular grains are made up of small spherical ele- 

 ments. The state repembles that of our clouds. These spheri- 

 cal elements and their distribution probably result from a 

 breaking up by gaseous currents. The luminous power of the 

 sun, then, resides chiefly in a small number of points of its sur- 

 face, and the spots are not the principal element of the variations 

 that star undergoes. — Constitution and brecciform structure of 

 the meteoric iron of Santa Catharina (Brazil) ; deductions from 

 its characters, concerning the history of meteoritic rocks, and 

 especially the habitual association of carbon with sulphide of 

 iron, by M. Daubr^e. The association rtferred to may be ex- 

 plained by the action of sulphide of carbon on iron. If an 



iron bar be thus treated at a red temperature, it gets coated 

 with a crystalline substance which has the characters of 

 pyrrhotine. — On the order of appearance of the first ves- 

 sels in shoots of Faniculutn vulgare and dulce, by M. 

 Trecul. — Note on waves and eddies of various kinds in a 

 canal whose current is alternately intercepted and renewed, and 

 in which the depth can be varied, by M. de Caligny. — Oa the 

 condensation of gases supposed incoercible, by M. Cailletet. 

 Pure dry nitrogen, compress d to 200 atmospheres at + 13°, 

 t >en suddenly expanded, condenses distinctly in small droplets ; 

 The liquid retires «rom the walls to the centre. Pure hydrogen 

 compressed to 280 atmospheres and exoanded, gave momentarily, 

 a very fine mist. Air was also liqu-^fird by a direct experiment. 

 M. Berthelot corroborated M. Cailletet's a'^count. — M. De 

 Lesseps announced that the personnel of the first scientific and 

 hospital station of the Interna'ional African A»sociati m had 

 reached Zanzibir. They had met Stanley and got useful 

 advice from him.— On a vtorm which occurred over the 

 soutti part of the Suez Canal on the night of October 23-24. 

 In a few hours an arcifioial lak'i of about five million cubic 

 metres was formed on the we»t side of the canal by the rains. — 

 Kinematics and dynamics of current waves on a liquid spheroid ; 

 application to the evolution of the ellipic protuberance about a 

 spheroid deformed by attraction of a distant star, by M. Guyon. 

 — On a new experiment on liquefacdon of oxygen, by M. Pictet. 

 The oxygen jet in the electric light showed a white central part 

 (of liquid or even solid elements) and an exterior blue part, indi- 

 cating return to tfie gaseous slate. — On a note by M. Boussiaesq 

 on conditions with limits in the problem of elastic plates by M. 

 Levy. — On a theorem of M. Vidarceau ; remarks and conse- 

 quences, by M. Gilbert. — On a new kind of bird of nocturnal 

 prey from Maday^ascar, by M. Milne-Edwards. This belongs to 

 the same zoological type as the white owls, bat has osteological 

 peculiarities. — The peripheric organs of the sense of space, by 

 M. Cyon. Having shown that there are intimate relations 

 between the semicircular canals and the centres of innervaion of 

 the muscles of the eye, he considers that sensations caused by 

 exdtation (through the otoliths) of the nerve terminations in 

 the ampullae of these canals, through movements of the head, 

 serve to form our notions of the three dimensions of space, — 

 On the evolution of red corpuscles in the blood of superior 

 animals, viviparous vertebrates, by M. Hayem. The red corpuscles 

 are developed from stnall, colourless, delicate, very alterable 

 elements termed hamatoblasts. — Experiments proving that there is 

 during life a figured ferment in typhoid human blood, by M. 

 Feltz. — On the cause of spontaneous alteration of eggs ; reply 

 to a reclamation of M. Gayon, by MM. Bechamp and Eustache. 



CONTENTS Pack 



Thb Salaries ob" ths Ofpicbrs in the British MusfiUM .... 197 



Jules Vernb 197 



Our Book shrlf :— 



Byrne's " Geometry of Compasses, or Problem* resolved by the 

 mere Descrip ion of Circles, and ' the Use of Coloured Diagrams 



and Symbols'" . 19^ 



" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society " . . . . 199 

 Lbttkrs to tHB Editor : — 



The Radiometer and its Lessons. — Geo. Fras. Fitzgerald . . . 199 

 Prof. Elmer on the Nervous System of Medusae. — George J. 



Romanes 200 



Mr. Crookes and Eva Fay. — William Crookks, F.R.S. . . . aoo 



Volcanic Phenomena In Borneo. — A. H. Everett ...... 200 



New Form of Telephone —Jambs M. Romanis (With Illmira- 



tions) aoi 



Shooting Stars. — W. F. Dknning 1 act 



Gentianaasclepiadea and Bees.— F. M. Burton ...... aoi 



Photography foreshadowed— Dr J. A. Groshans 202 



Average Annual Temperature at Earth's Surface — D. Traill . 202 

 On a Means for ConvbrtinG the Heat-Motion Possbssbd by 

 Matter at Normal fEMPEKATURX into Work. By S. Tolvbr 



Preston ( With Illustration) a • . 203 



Ararat. By Prof. Gkikib, F.R.S. {With lUuitration) 205 



Age of the Sun in Rslation to Evolution. By James Croll, 



LL.D , F R.S ao6 



On the Formation of Hailstones, Raindrops, and Snow- 

 flakes. By Prof OsbornbReynolds, F.R.S. (WtVA///wi/n»/«>«*) 207 

 Our Astronomical Column : — 



The South Polar Spot of Mars 209 



Prof. Newcomb's Lunar Researches . 2*9 



The Cordoba Observatory < 3*9 



Variable Stars sxo 



The Minor Planet Eva 210 



Thomas Vernon Wollaston 310 



Notes bis 



American Science ax} 



Univbksity and Educational Intxlligencb ai4 



SciBNTiFic Sxrials 3x4 



Societies and Acadhmibs "M 



