244 



NATURE 



[jMly 22, 1875 



be had to all the forces of nature, bolh internal and external to 

 the surface in producing liie contour as it now exists. — The York- 

 shire Oolites, Fart If., by W. II. Hudleston. 



Entomological Society, July 5.— Sir Sidney Smith Saun- 

 ders, C. M.G., president, in the chair. — Mr. Dunning re- 

 marked that the Ormthoptera bred by Mr. Sealy from larva; 

 trtken at Cochin, South India, and exhibited by him at a recent 

 meeting had been identified as O. miuos. — Mr. Bond exhibited 

 two specimens of a Curculio, sent from Nova Fribourgo, Brazd, 

 which were attached to the same twig and were both attacked 

 by a fungus. Mr. Janson said that they belonged to the genus 

 Jlylopus, and were well known to be subject to such attacks. — 

 The President exhibited a lock taken irom a gate at Twickenham 

 entirely filled with the cells of a species of Osinia, which Mr. 

 Smith said was, most probably, O. btc»rnis, of which he had 

 known several instances in locks. He also exhibited an example 

 of the minute Hylechthrus rubri, one of the Stylopidic, parasitic 

 upon Ptosopis rubicola, recently obtained from briars imported 

 from Epirus, and remarked upon a method of expanding the 

 wings of Stylopidie. He also exhibited a scries of J/alictus 

 iiitidiuiculus , st)lopized, and recommended entomologists on the 

 south coast to search in August lor stylopized IlalicU, especially 

 among thistle-;. Finally, he remarked on the parasites of Osmia 

 and Anlhidium, and enumerated eleven insects attacking the 

 same species of Osmia in its different stages — some devouring 

 the egg and pollen-paste, some the larvte, and others attacking 

 the bee itself. — Mr. Champion exhibited a series of recently 

 captured individuals of Chrysoviila ctrealis, from Snowdon, its 

 only known British locality. Mr. M'Lachlan stated that he had 

 recently seen this species in the Department of Saone-et-Loire, 

 in France, in great numbers, each ear of wheat having several 

 of the beetles upon it, and remarked on the singular nature 

 of its sole habitat in Britain. — The Secretary exhibited nests 

 of a trap-door spider, sent from Uitenhage, rear Port Eliza- 

 beth, Cape Colony. The nests were not (as is usual) in 

 the eirth, but in cavities in the bark of trees; and the 

 "trap-door " appeared to be formed of a portion of the bark, 

 thus rendering it most difficult to detect the nests when in 

 a closed condition. — Mr. Charles V. Riley, State Entomologist 

 of Missouri, exhibited sundry insect pests that do so much 

 damage in the State, including the Army-worm {Leucania 

 impuncta), and the Rocky Mountain Locust {Caloptenus spretus), 

 and entered at some length into the habits of the latter insect 

 and the vast amount of destitution caused by it ; stating that in 

 a short jieriod it devoured almost every living plant, leaving 

 nothing but the leaves of the forest trees, and converting a fruit- 

 ful country into an absolute desert. From a knowledge of the 

 habits of the insect, and believing in its inability to exist in a 

 moist climate, he had predicted that its ravages would not extend 

 beyond a certain line, and he had seen these predictions fulfilled. 

 Having noticed that hogs and poultry grew excessively fat from 

 devouring locusts, and considering that the use of them as food 

 for man would tend to relieve some of the distress occasioned 

 in the devastated districts ; he had caused a number of them to 

 be prepared in various ways, and they were found to be well 

 suited for food, especially in the form of soup. — Mr. Riley also 

 stated that he was very desirous of taking a supply of cocoons of 

 Microgast;r giomeratus to America to lessen the ravages of the 

 larvae of the genus Pieris on that continent, and would be greatly 

 obliged to any entomologist who could assist him in obtaining 

 them. — The following papers were communicated : — Descrip- 

 tions of new Heteromerous Coleoptera belonging to the family 

 Blapsidw., by Prof. J. O. Westwood.— Description of a new 

 species of Mjriopod, from Mongolia, by Arthur G. Butler. — 

 Descriptions of new Coleoptera from Australia, by Charles O. 

 Waterhouse. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, July 12. —M. P'remy in the chair. — 

 W. Chevreul communicated the fourth extract from his third 

 memoir "on the explanation ol numerous phenomena which are 

 a consequence of old age." — Are the disasters caused by the 

 hurricane oi i860 near Reunion referable to the laws of Cyclones ? 

 Ly M. Faye. — M. J. Bertrand called the aitention of the Academy 

 to a passage in the second edition of P. Secchi's work on the sun, 

 and made some critical remarks thereon. — Note by M. G. A. 

 Hirn relative to the memoir of M. Kretz on elasticity in moving 

 machines. — Theory of perfect numbers, a memoir by M. J. Car- 

 yallo. — Magneto-chemical phenomena produced in rarefied gases 

 in Geissler tubes illuminated by means of induced currents, by 

 M. J. Chautard. The author describes the effect of magnets in 



modifying the spectra of certain elements and compounds. De- 

 terminations of the wave-lengths of these modified s()ectra have 

 been made for chlorine, bromine, iodine ; the chloride, bromide 

 and fluoride of silicium, boric fluoride, hydrochloric acid, anti- 

 monious chloride, bismuthous chloride, mercuric chloride, and 

 the two chlorides of tin. The light of .sulphur and selenium is 

 immediately extinguished on " making " the- magnet. Oxygen 

 does not undergo much change. Nitrogen is modified in the 

 red and orange. Ttie hydrogen tube showed the D line on 

 " making " the magnet, the line instantly disappearing on break- 

 ing contact. The author explains this phenomenon by supposing 

 that the gas is projected suddenly against the side of the tube on 

 magnetisation and carries away sodium particles. — On the 

 "square mirror," an instrument for tracing right angles on 

 the earth, and for use in the rapid measurement of great 

 distances, by M. Gaumet. — On fused boric acid and its 

 tempering, by M. V. de Luynes. The hardness of this 

 substance (between 4 and 5) is between fluor spar and 

 apatite. The powdered glass combines energetically with 

 water, the temperature of the mixture rising to 100°. The 

 used acid poured on to a metallic surface gives rise to the forma- 

 tion of a vitreous plate, of which the lower surface is more 

 expanded than the upper, producing in consequence a bending 

 of the plate which is sometimes sufficient to rupture it. Poured 

 into oil, the fused acid forms small tailed drops, which break 

 under the same conditions as " Prince Rupert's drops." A plate 

 of the boric acid glass, with parallel faces, acts on polarised 

 li^ht like "toughened" glass, but preserves its property under 

 conditions which destroy the polarising power of glass. The 

 fused; acid, placed in water, undergoes hydration by lamina; 

 producing a true exfoliation. — On the laws of the exchanges of 

 ammonia between the seas, the atmoiphere, and continents, by 

 M. T. SchlcEsing. — Descrii:)tion and analysis of a mass of 

 meteoric ore which fell in Dickson County, Tennessee, by M. 

 Lawrence Smith. Its composition is Fe, 9i'i5 ; Ni, 8-oi ; Co, 

 072; Cu, 0"o6. Heated in vacuo, two volumes of gas were 

 given off, composed of H, 7i'04; Co, I5'03; Co^, I3'03. — 

 Planet 146 Lucine, discovered at the Observatory of Marseilles 

 by M. Borrelly, June 8, 1875 ; ephemeris calculated by M. E. 

 Stephan. — On the temporary magnetisation of steel, by M. 

 Bouty. — Theory of storms ; conclusions. A note by M. H. 

 Peslin. — Estimation of carbon disulphide in the alkaline sulpho- 

 carbonates of commerce, by MM. Delachanal and Mermet. — On 

 the preparation of tungsten and the composition of wolfram, by 

 M. F. Jean. — On some new derivatives of anethol, by M. 1". 

 Landolph. — Researches on emetine, by M. A. Glenard. — Dif- 

 ferential ophthalmoscopic signs of disturbance and contusion of 

 the brain, by M. Bouchut. — Of the causes of the spontaneous 

 coagulation of the blood on issuing from the organism, by M. B\ 

 Glenard, — On the hailstorm which burst over Geneva and the 

 Rhone valley on the night of July 7-8, by M. Colladon. — On 

 clouds of ice observed during an aerostatic elevation on July 4, 

 by M. W. de Fonvielle. 



CONTENTS Page 



The Life of Language. By M. M 225 



Dakwin on Carnivorous Plants, II. By Alfred W. Bennett, 



Y.'LS. {H^itklilusirations) 228 



Our Book Shklf: — 



U.S. Geograpliicat Survey 231 



Mohr's " Victoria Falls of the Zambesi " . . . . ' 231 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Spectroscopic/?-(?V/i-2V« of Rain with a Iligli Barometer.— By Prof 



PiAZzi Smyth 231 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Triple-Star, South 503 232 



Lalande 23726 (Corvus) 233 



Hoiizonlal Refraction on Venus 233 



The Sun's Parallax 233 



Science in Siam. By Dr. Arthur Schuster 233 



The Resting-Spores OF the Potato Fungus. By Worthingto-v 



G. Smith {With lilnstration) 234 



Electrical Resistance Thermometer a.nd Pvkometer. By C. 



William Siemens, F.R.S. (M^iV/4///?«/m/«V;«j) 235 



The Gigantic Land Tortoises of the Mascarene and Gala- 

 pagos Islands. By Dr. Albert GuNTHER, F.R.S 238 



Notes 240 



Scientific Serials 242 



Societies and Academies 24a 



