330 



NAl URE 



[November 4, 1920 



tion was part of the work of his body, but if he 

 could receive assurances that the Engineering and 

 National Employers' Federations would keep the 

 educational section of the Federation of British Indus- 

 tries fully informed, and that the two societies would 

 co-operate in the fullest possible wav, he would be glad 

 to withdraw the offer of the latter in favour of the 

 Employers' Federation. After a discussion the execu- 

 tive of the Engineering Training Association decided 

 to accept the offer of the Engineering and National 

 Employers' Federations, and details of the transfer 

 were delegated to the honorary organiser, Mr. A. E. 

 Berriman. 



Societies and Academies. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October ii.— M. Henri 

 Ueslandres in the chair. — The president announced 

 the death of Prof. Yves Delage.— G. Bigourdan : 

 Corrections of the normal time-signals emitted by 

 the Bureau international de I'Heure from January i 

 to March 19, 1920. Two tables give corrections of 

 the ordinary partly automatic signals and of the 

 beats I and 300 of the scientific signals. — Y. Delage : 

 The application of the Pitot tulx; to the determina- 

 tion of the velocity of ships and to the registration of 

 the distances traversed. The Pitot tube has been much 

 used for the determination of fluid velocities with 

 respect to immersed solid objects; it can also be 

 utilised to determine the velocity of an object moving 

 in still water, and its application to the measurement 

 of the speed of a vessel is described in the present 

 communication. Various devices are given for work- 

 ing the indicator at a distance from the Pitot tubo, 

 for_ rendering the indications independent of the 

 variations of the load of the vessel, and for arranging 

 that the movements of the needle shall be proportional 

 to V and not to V^ so that from the continuous curve 



the total distance traversed can be estimated. C. 



Monreu and G. Mignonac : The dehvdrogenation of 

 alcohols by catalytic oxidation under reduced pressure. 

 The central method described in a nrevious paper for 

 the preparation of aldehydes and' ketones bv the 

 catalytic oxidation of the' corresponding alcohols by 

 air in presence of reduced silver gives excellent results 

 for the alcohols of low molecular weight, but the 

 yield diminishes as the molecular weight of the alcohol 

 increases. By working under reduced pressure 

 (20 mm. to 40 mm.) this difficulty is removed.— P. 

 Termier: The mylonites of the' fourth BrianQon 

 dcax\\e.-'\\\f secretary announced the death of M. 

 Daniel Pauline GEhlert, corresoondant for the section 

 of mineralogy.— A. Chatelet : The enumeration and 



constitution of any .Abelian body whatever. L. 



Antoine : The possibility of extending the homceo! 

 morphy df two figures to their vicinity. — J. Andrade : 

 Friction and isochronism.— Ch. Mink: Waves of 

 .shock. The results of the study of a series of photo- 

 graphs of a stationary projectile placed in a stream of 

 air moving at the rate of 450 metres per second. 

 .'Vs the secondary waves are , stationary, thev can be 

 more easily photnpranhed and studied.— W. k. Loth : 

 A new method of navigation, permitting any vessel to 

 enter and leave our ("French^ ports without risk when 

 the usual means of determining the route are missini?. 

 \r\ armoured cable traversed bv an alternating current 

 with a musical freoiiencv is laid on the sea-floor alonf< 

 the track to be followed, and a tplpphonic receiving 

 apparatus of special de-^ign is carried bv the entering 

 vpcsel._ One nerson without SDeciali«ed knowled£?e can 

 brinf in a ship, as has been shown bv oractical trials 

 at Brest.— R. Dubrisav : Tt-n application of a new 

 NO. 2662, VOL. 106] 



method of physico-chemical volumetry. The solutions 



under examination are mixed with an equal volume 

 of phenol and the temperature of miscibility is deter- 

 mined. The method has been applied to the study ol 

 mixtures of solutions of sulphuric acid and sodium 

 hydroxide, and two angular points are shown on the 

 experimental curve corresponding to the formation of 

 NaHSO. and Na,SO,. It is noteworthy that when 

 the neutralisation curve of sulphuric acid is followed 

 by electrical conductivity or by cryoscopy no point 

 corresponding to the formation of NaHSO, is de- 

 tected.^P-^ Bngnon : Causes of the transversal course 

 of the libero-ligneous bundles at the nodes of the 

 Gramineae. — C. Beau : The trophic r6le of the endo- 

 phytes of orchids. — G. Astre : The biology of the mol- 

 luscs in the French coast dunes and its relations with 

 botanical geography. A discussion of the distribu- 

 tion of molluscs as affected by varying conditions of 

 dryness. Apart from some secondary modifications 

 of minor importance, the malacological fauna of the 

 dunes is not one which has evolved in view of adapta. 

 tion to a special medium, but a fauna already pre- 

 adapted on the Mediterranean coasts, and which has 

 simply extended its area of distribution. — P. 

 Wintreberf : The aneural conduction of the ectoderm 

 in the embryos of .Amphibians. — M. Caullery and F. 

 Mesnil :' The existence of asexual multiplication in 

 certain Sabellians (Potamilla ToreUi and Myxicola 

 dinarden^is). — T,. Besson : Relations between the 

 meteorological elements and the number of deaths 

 through inflammatory diseases of the respiratory 

 organs in Paris. The data covered i;22 weeks, and 

 .showed a clear relation between the number of 

 deaths and the mean temperature three weeks before. 

 From 0° C. to tj° C. the fall in the number of 

 deaths was proportional to the rise in temperature. 

 .Above 20° C. the deaths remained constant and 

 independent of the temperature. 



HOBART. 



Royal Society of Tasmania, September 13. — Mr. L. 

 Rodway, vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. VV. L. 

 Crowtber : The Tasmanian aborigines. The general 

 habits of the race were traced and the osteology 

 of the aborigines was described. — H. H. Scott and 

 C. Lord : Nototherium Mitchelli. The apendicular 

 skeleton, including the mamus and pes (hitherto 

 unknown). The paper dealt in detail with the osteo- 

 logical formations of the feet of the Nototheria. After 

 describing in detail the various characteristics of these 

 and other portions of the specimen under review, the 

 authors append various recapitulative notes on their 

 studies to date. In the course of these they point out 

 that their aim has been to show that the rhinoceros 

 type was not absent from the fauna of Australia in 

 ages past. True to the structural type of the country, 

 the animals retained the marsupial habit, simply 

 grafting on to it the results of that evolutionary trend 

 that has culmmated in other lands in the Perisso- 

 dactylan lengulates. For the scientific use of the 

 skeleton of Nototherium Mitchelli the authors are in- 

 debted to Mr. K. M. Harrisson, of Smithton, who 

 generously placed the specimens at their disposal for 

 the purpose named. Mr. Harrisson has also presented 

 the whole of the remains to the Tasmanian Museum, 

 Hobart, with a view to their future exhibition in 

 that institution. — W. L. Crowtber and C. Lord : A 

 descriptive catalogue of the osteological specimens 

 relating to Homo tatntanen'ii'! contained in the Tas- 

 manian Museum. For their introductory remarks the 

 authors state that during the course of the prepara- 

 tion of a paper dealing with certain recent valuable 

 additions to the Tasmanian Museum it became neces- 

 sary to revise the complete collection of the osteo- 



