October 14, 1920] 



NATURE 



231 



Societies and Academies. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, St'plcmtxT 20. — -M. Leon 

 Guignard in tlie chair.— H. Lecomte : The radial 

 secretorv canals of wood. The usual direction of 

 these canals in the tissues of the stem and root is 

 parallel to the length of the organ, but a system of 

 radial secretorv canals may, in a large number of 

 plants, be superimposed on the longitudinal system. 

 These radial canals have been noted by Tr^cul and 

 others, but have hitherto been regarded as excep- 

 tional cases. In the genera Pinus, Picea, and Larix 

 the radial canals are now found to be present in all 

 cases, and numerous examples were also found in 

 other species.— P. Humbert : Hypercylindrical func- 

 tions in space of n+2 dimensions. — J. Soula : Remarks 

 on the investigation of the singular points of a func- 

 tion defined by a development in Taylor's series. — 

 J. Andrade : The geometrical interpretation of the 

 Resal-Caspari method.— .A. Vironnet : Values of the 

 flattening of the earth obtained by calculation and by 

 measurement. — A. Buhl : The formula of Stokes in 

 .•ipace-time.— M. Flajolet : Perturbations of the mag- 

 netic declination at Lyons during the second half of 

 1919 and the first half of 1920. The observations 

 are tabulated in six groups between calm days 

 and perturb.-itions greater than 30'. On .\ugust 11, 

 1919, and March 4, 1920, the disturbances were very 

 large and outside the scale of the recorder. — H. 

 Coupln : The resistance of seedlings to starvation. 

 The seedlings of seventeen species of plants grown 

 in the dark in distilled water lived from fifteen to 

 sixty days. — F. Vlis : The production of difference 

 spectra of toxin cultures. Further study of the 

 changes produi-ed in the absorption spectra of toxin 

 cultures by heating and by the addition of antitoxin. 

 — C. Leballly : The prevention and treatment of 

 aphthous fever by the serum or blood of cured 

 animals. FIxperiments were made on more than 'five 

 hundred animals. The immunity produced by the 

 injection was of very short duration, in some cases 

 less than fifteen days. Good results were obtained in 

 the treatment of infected animals, provided that the 

 injections were made as soon as possible after the 

 disease was recognised. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society ol South Africa, August 18. — Dr. .^. 

 Ogg. vice-president, in the chair.— P. .\. van der BijI : 

 Note on Lysurus Woodii (MacOwan), Lloyd. The 

 fungus described was found in a rhubarb trench in 

 Natal. It is entirely distinct from the genus .Vnthurus. 

 - C. Pljper : .\ prehistoric rock-sculpture from the 

 North-Eastern Transvaal. Circular and semicircular 

 stone markings are described, with photographs, from 

 t\v Lijdenburg district, not far from stones engraved 

 with cup-and-ring markings, which the author has 

 previouslv described.— J. Moir : Colour and chemical 

 constitutfon, part xii. The calculation of colour from 

 the tautomeric theorv. Assuming that fh«> tauto- 

 merism C-C-OII — ►C'H'C-O has the value A 94, the 

 tautomerism C-C-NII, — >.C!I'(''NH the value A9S, 

 and the tautomerism ('•C'CH, — yCH'C-CH the value 

 \ 103, it is shown that the molecuk- of a coloured sub- 

 stance ran generally be dissected into tautomeric 

 pieces, loaded with non-tautomeric portions which 

 have very little effect on th<» colour (A 7 to 20 only). 

 On adding up the values of all the pittes the result 

 agrees doselv with tlv A obs<Tved in the coloured 

 substance. Vcllow and orange substances have 3 or 

 4 tautomerisms, pink and purple substances 4 or 5, 

 and blue and green substances 5 or 6. 



NO. 2650. VOL. 1061 



Sydney. 

 Royal Society of New South Wales, August 4.— Mr. 

 James Nangle, president, in the chair. — Dr. W. G. 

 Woolnough : .\ geological reconnaissance of the 

 Stirling Ranges of Western .Australia. The Stir- 

 ling Range is an isolated mountain block situated 

 about sixty miles north of .Mbany. It is com- 

 posed of interbedded quartzites and slates, devoid 

 of fossils, and probably Proterozoic in age. While 

 locally folded, faulted, and overthrust, the rocks are 

 mostly horizontally stratified. The sedimentary 

 formations are surrounded by a vast expanse of 

 gneissic rocks, probably .Vrchseozoic in age. .After 

 discussing the various possible explanations of the 

 structural features observed, the author arrives at the 

 conclusion that the sedimentary rocks were originally 

 preserved in a long east-west fault trough, and suf- 

 fered peneplanation with the rest of the "Darling 

 Plateau " of Western .\ustralia. Later, on the uplift 

 of the peneplane, the old fault planes were re- 

 juvenated, with the result that the original senkungs- 

 feld was converted into a horst. A generalisation, 

 which may be of far-reaching importance, is sug- 

 gested, namely, that the granites of Australia lying 

 west of a line joining .Adelaide with Cloncurry are 

 all Pre-Cambrian in age.— R. H. Cambage and H. 

 Selkirk : Early drawings of an aboriginal ceremonial 

 ground. The rough drawings were made by Surveyor- 

 General Oxiey in his field-book at Moreton Bay in 

 1824, and show the plan of a spot, as Oxley writes, 

 " where the natives meet after a war with adverse 

 tribes to make peace." This appears to be the first 

 drawing showing the lay-out of a ceremonial ground 

 of this nature in .Australia, and has remained in 

 obscuritv for ninetv-six vcars. 



Books Received. 



Commercial .Vrithn^tic and .\ccounts. By H. H. 

 Green and T. Franknn. With .Answers. Pp. xi-f 

 337-t-xxxiv. (I^ondon : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 6s. 



Matter and .Motion. By the late Prof. J. Clerk 

 Maxwell. Reprinted with Notes and Appendices by 

 Sir Joseph I^armor. Pp. xv+ 163. (London : 

 S.P.C.K. ; New York : The Macmillan Co.) 5s. net. 



The System of .Animate Nature. The GifTord Lec- 

 tures Delivere<l in tho University of St. .Andrews in 

 the Years 1915 and 1916. Bv Prof. J. .Arthur Thom- 

 son. Vol. i. Pp. xi-t-34.S. Vol. ii. Pp. v-(-34(/-687. 

 (London : Williams and Norgate.) 3o,v. net. 



The Natural Historv' of South .Africa. Mammals. 

 By F. W. Fitzsimohs. Vol. iii. Pp. xiii-(-278. 

 Vol. iv. Pp. xix-(-27i. (London : Longmans, Green 

 and Co.) 12.^. 6d. each vol. 



Principles and Practice of Operative Dentistry. By 

 Dr. J. S. Marshall. Fifth edition. Pp. xxix+7ii + 

 xvi plates. (Philadelphia and London : J. B. Lip- 

 pincott Co.) 355. rwt. 



Pure Mathematics for Engineers. By S. B. Gates. 

 Parti. Pp. xi+rgi. Part ii. Pp. xi+f79. (London: 

 Hodder and Stoughton.) 4.1. 6d. net each vol. 



Reminiscences and .Anticipations'. By Prof. J. 

 Joly. Pp. 264. (London : T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.) 

 15.?. net. 



Memoirs of the 'Geological .Survev. Scotland. The 

 Economic Geolojrv of the Central Coalfield of Scot- 

 land. .\rea iv.. Paislev, Barrhead. Renfrew, and the 

 Western Suburbs of Glasgow North and South of the 

 CIvde. Bv L. W. Hinxnian, E. M. Anderson, and 

 R. G. Carruthers. Pp. iv+fio+viii plates. (Edin- 

 burgh: H.M. .Stationery OflRce; London: E. Stan- 

 ford, Ltd.) 6j. net. 



