July 5, 1888] 



NA TURE 



2 39 



Society some notes on European migratory birds observed in 

 t country. — An extract was read from a letter addressed by 

 E. L. Layard to Mr. John Ponsonby concerning the occur- 

 ce of a West Indian Land-Shell (Stenogyra octona) in New 

 edonia. — Mr. Tegetmeier exhibited and made remarks on 

 feet of an Australian Rabbit, supposed to have acquired 

 arboreal habits. — Prof. Bell exhibited and made remarks on a 

 specimen of a tube-forming Actonian {Cerian/hns numbran- 

 aceus) in its tube ; obtained by Mr. John Murray at a depth of 

 70 fathoms in Loch Etive. — A communication was read from 

 Prof. W. Newton Parker, on the poison-glands of the fishes of 

 the genus Trachinus. This paper showed the existence of 

 glands in connection with the grooved dorsal and opercular 

 spines of the two British species of Weever. The glands were 

 stated to be composed of large granular nucleated cells, which 

 are continuous with those of the epidermis. An account of the 

 observations of previous authors, both as regards the structure 

 and physiology of the poison-organs of these fishes, was also 

 given. — A communication was read from Mr. H. W. Bates, 

 F. R. S., containing the description of a collection of Coleoptera 

 nade by Mr. J. H. Leech, during a recent visit to the eastern 

 side of the Corean Peninsula. — A second communication from 

 Mr. Bates treated of some new species of Coleoptera of the 

 families Cicindelidse and Carabidse from the valley of the Yang- 

 tze- Kiang, China.— Mr. J. B. Sutton read a paper on some 

 ibnormalities occurring among animals recently living in the 

 l Society's Gardens. — Prof. Bell read an account of a collection 

 )f Echinoderms made at Tuticorin, Madras, by Mr. Edgar 

 Thurston, Superintendent of the Government Central Museum, 

 Vladras. — A communication was read from Mr. F. Moore, con- 

 taining the second portion of a list of the Lepidoptera collected 

 jjy the Rev. J. H. Hocking, chiefly in the Kangra District of 

 [he North-Western Himalayas. The present paper contained 

 ■he descriptions of seven new genera and of forty-eight new 

 ■pedes. An account of the transformati >ns of a number of these 

 pecies was also given from Mr. Hocking's notes. 



Geological Society, June 20.— Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The following communications were 



aad : — On the occurrence of marine fossils in the Coal-measures 

 |f Fife, by Jas. W. Kirkby ; communicated by Prof. T. Rupert 



one-, F. R. S. — Directions of ice-flow in the North of Ireland, 

 Ijs determined by the observations of the Geological Survey, by 



I R. Kilroe ; communicated by Prof. E. Hull, F.R. S. — 

 : Evidence of ice-action in Carboniferous times, by John Spencer. 

 i r-The Greensand bed at the base of the Thanet sand, by Miss 



largaret I. Gardiner, Bathurst Student, Newnham College, 

 i ambridge ; communicated by J. J. H. Teall. — On the occur- 

 ence of Elcphas meridionalis at Dewlish, Dorset, by the Rev. 



I. Fisher. — On perlitic felsites, probably of Archaean age, from 

 Ike flanks of the Herefordshire Beacon, and on the possible origin 

 IF some epidosites, by Frank Rutley. The author has previously 



■ escribed a rock from this locality in which faint indications of a 

 I brlitic structure were discernible. In the present paper 



■ pditional instances were enumerated and a description was 

 ven. The perlitic structnre is difficult to recognize, owing to 

 ibsequent alteration of the rock. Decomposition-products, 

 )parently chiefly epidote, with possibly a little kaolin, have 

 ;en found in great part within the minute fissures and perlitic 

 acks. The author suggested, from his observations, that 

 Isites, resulting from the devitrification of obsidian, quartz- 

 sites, aplites, &c, may, by the decomposition of the felspathic 

 nstituents, pass, in the first instance, into rocks composed 

 sentially of quartz and kaolin ; and that by subsequent altera- 

 m of the kaolin by the action of water charged wjth bicarbon- 

 e of lime and more or less carbonate of iron in solution, these 

 ay eventually be converted into epidosites. He regarded it 



probable that the rocks are of later Archaean or Cambrian 

 e. — The ejected blocks of Monte Somma, Part I., stratified 

 nestones, by Dr. H. J. Johnston- Lavis. 



[Palseontographical Society, June 22.— Annual Meeting. 

 [Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair.— 

 he Report of the Council, presented by the Secretary, Prof, 

 filtshire, stated that since the date of the last annual meeting 

 ■"i volume for 1887 had been issued, and that the volume for 



■ present year was in progress. It would contain the following 

 Irts of monographs : the Stromatoporoids, Part II., by Prof, 

 ■leyne Nicholson ; the Cretaceous Echinodermata, Part I., by 



. W. P. Sladen ; the Jurassic Gasteropoda, Part III., by Mr. 

 II. Iludleston ; the Inferior Oolite Ammonites, Part II., by 



Mr. S. S. Buckman. It was stated that the arrangement by 

 which members had been enabled to procure parts of finished 

 monographs as well as the complete monographs, distinct from 

 the annual volumes, had been found to work very efficiently. 

 It was further stated that the financial position of the Society 

 was much better than on the previous occasion. This was due 

 in part to a grant of ^50 made by the General Committee of the 

 British Association at the Manchester meeting, and in part to 

 the very considerable increase in the number of subscribers, 

 which had resulted from the efforts made during the past and 

 preceding year to bring before geologists, palaeontologists, and 

 all interested in science, the work which was carried on by the 

 Society. If the present improvement could be maintained, 

 there need be no fears for the future. — Sir R. Owen was re- 

 elected President ; Mr. Etheridge, Treasurer; and Prof. Wiltshire 

 Secretary. Messrs. W. E. Balston, C. J. A. Meyer, G. H. 

 Morton, and W. P. Sladen were elected members of the Council, 

 in the place of Messrs. S. S. Buckman, J. Evans, C. H. Gatty, 

 and W. C. Lucy, who retire by rotation. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, June 25. — M. Janssen, President, in 

 the chair. — On the canals of the planet Mars, by M. Fizeau. 

 The various circumstances connected with these appearances, as 

 lately described by MM. Perrotin and Schiaparelli, suggest a 

 strong analogy with certain phenomena of glaciation — parallel 

 ridges, crevasses, rectilinear fissures often of great length and at 

 various angles— observed in the regions of large glaciers in 

 Switzerland and especially in Greenland. This leads to the 

 hypothesis of a vast development of glaciation on the surface of 

 Mar-, where, the seasons being relatively longer and the tem- 

 perature much lower, the conditions must also be more favour- 

 able than on the earth for there manifestations. The reading of 

 the paper was followed by some remarks by M. J. Janssen, who 

 gave a guarded assent to M. Fizeau's "very ingenious and very 

 beautiful " theory. — On the vapour-density of the chloride of 

 aluminium, and on the molecular weight of this body, by MM 

 C. Friedel and J. M. Crafts. The recent experiments of MM. 

 Nilson and Pettersson tended to show that this substance should 

 receive the formula A1C1 3 rather than the double formula A1 2 C1,; 

 proposed by MM. Sainte- Claire and Troost. The fresh researches 

 of MM. Friedel and Crafts, undertaken to settle the point, lead 

 to the conclusion that the density corresponds to A1 2 C1 6 , which 

 would accordingly represent the molecular weight of the chloride 

 of aluminium. The experiments of MM. Louise and Roux on 

 methyl and ethyl aluminium are in harmony with this inference. — 

 Progress of the Roscoff and Arago Laboratories, by M. de Lacaze- 

 Duthiers. Both of these important biological stations have lately 

 been inspected by the author, who is able to speak most favourably 

 of their present state. Zoologists will find concentrated at 

 Banyuls during the winter and at Roscoff in summer all the con- 

 ditions best adapted for the study of the lower forms of animal 

 life. — Some remarks relative to the representation of irrational 

 numbers by means of continuous fractions, by M. Hugo Gylden. 

 From the points here discussed flows a thesis of great import- 

 ance connected with the convergence of certain trigonometric 

 series employed in the calculation of perturbations. The thesi; 

 is thus worded : The probability of finding a value for a beyond 

 a given limit is in inverse ratio to the number expressing this 

 limit. — On the degrees of oxidation observed in the efflorescing 

 compounds of chromium and manganese, by M. Lecoq de Bois- 

 baudran. In this first paper on the subject the author deals 

 mainly with the carbonate of lime in combination with an oxide 

 of chromium (or chromate of ammonia), and highly calcined in 

 the air. He shows that chromium produces with lime a fluor- 

 escence which seems to present no analogy with those yielded 

 by it in combination with alumina, gallina, or magnesia. — On 

 orthogonal substitutions and the regular divisions of space, by 

 M. E. Goursat. The divisions here determined may be con- 

 nected with the regular figures of space of four dimensions. 

 Thus may readily be found the six regular figures discovered by 

 Stringham. But the question may be pushed further, and, by 

 following Poinsot's method, in space of four dimensions the exist- 

 ence may be shown of regular figures analogous to the regular 

 s'arred polyhedrons of s-pace of three dimensions. These 

 results, here merely indicated, will be fully developed in 

 a memoir which will shortly be published. — On a theorem of 

 Kummer, by M. E. Cesaro. This is in connection with a recent 

 paper by M. Jensen, who is stated to defend himself from in- 

 accuracies of which he was not accused. In the author's com- 



