December 23, 1920] 



NATURE 



555 



the Upper Albian is offered. The specific descriptions 

 deal with sixty different forms belonging to twelve 

 i^enera. Some of these represent new, indetermin- 

 ible, or doubtful species; but the genus to which 

 I. inflatus itself belongs includes 50 per cent, of the 

 total number of specimens. An analysis shows that 

 half the number represent local types, some also 

 *:curring in the .Albian of North Africa; but all the 

 ypes common with Madagascar and India also occur 

 in the European Gault — that is to say, what inter- 

 mixture of Indian or American elements there is 

 must have taken place via Thetys. The Ammonites 

 do not include a single Ccnomanian form. Some new 

 facts of importance obtained from the study of various 

 unworked collections in the British Museum from 

 Angolfi Vl'dria, South and East .Africa, and other 

 localii iicorporated in this paoer. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, November 2c>. — M. Henri 

 Deslandrts in the chair.— H. Le Chatelier : The phase 

 rule. Some recent criticisms of the phase rule are 

 based on misconceptions. A summary of Gibb's 

 den-onstration is given and some particular cases are 

 examined in detail.— C. E. Guillaume : Cause of Ihf 

 instability of nickel-steels : its elimination (s-^e 

 p. .!;45).— C. Sauva(?eau : New observations on Ecto. 

 carpus padinae. The megaspores of this parasite on 

 Padina pavonia can live and reproduce outside the 

 plant actinp as host ; an alternation of generations 

 between a summer parasitic plant and a winter plant 

 of independent life is not improb.ible, although as 

 vet unproved. — M. J. L. Breton was elected a free 



\cademician in succession to the late M. Ad. Carnot. 

 — R. Birkeland : The solution of the general equation 

 of the fifth degree.— B. Gambler : The imaginary 

 npplication of two real or imaginary surfaces. The 



orresponding real cyclic systems or triply orthogonal 

 -.ystems.— G. Reboul : .\ new property of substances 

 feebly conducting electricity. If a photographic plate 

 '"■ covered with a sheet of Mack paper and placed in a 



!,irk box, and if two insulated electrodes with a poten- 

 tial difference of 1000 volts are brought into contact 

 with the paper for a period of twenty-four to forly- 



• ight hours, on developing the plate the fibres of the 

 ;ipfr are found to be reproduced, and the equi- 



i otentiai lines also appear. If the oaper is divided, or 

 replaced bva sheet of metal or of mica, the effect is nil 

 or confined to the electrodes. The effect can be modified 

 by altering the conductivity of the sheet of paper. — 

 S. ProcoplB : The electrical dichroism of smoke and the 

 dichroism of diffraction gratings. — S. Porternak ; Tim 

 constitution of the paramolvbdates. K, Cornubert : 

 The spectrothemical study of the a-allyl and o-allyl- 

 mcthylcyclohexanones. The results are in agreement 

 with the theory of .Auwers on the influence of the 

 <louble jjroups on the value of the molecular refrac- 

 tion.— f". DufraJaie : Remarks on the so-called di- 

 "•nzcvlniethnne of J. WIslicenus. The author con- 

 siders that the substance regarded by 1. Wisllrenus as 

 dibenzovlmethane is, in reality, an etlrln- ■ \ide of 

 the constitution 



C.H..CH— CH.CO.C.H.. 



P. I.andriea : Researches on the arid and polyarid 



alts of monoba.sic acids : the potassium and lithium 



libenzoatcs.- -Mile. Augusta nnre : The 1-uferian 



imestonc in llie Yonne. F.. Pa«»ematd ; The persist- 



■ lice of Rhinoceros Mercki in an I'pjX'r Mnustrrian 



• li'posii in the Basses-Pyr^ni^es. — .\. OBllllermond : 

 New researches on the vacuole apparatus in plants. 

 The vacuolar system in the embryonic cells of the 

 higher plants frequently presents forms resembling 



NO. 2669, VOL. IO6I 



mitochondria. These pseudo-mitochondrial forms do not 

 show the histo-chemical characters of mitochondria, 

 and should be- definitely separated from the chon- 

 driome. The author considers the views of M. 

 Dangeard with regard to the relation between these 

 forms and the chondriome of the animal cell as 

 erroneous. — L. Daniel : Researches on the grafting of 

 Solanum. — L. MacAuliBe and .A. Marie : The anthropo- 

 metric study of 127 Spaniards. — M. Baudouin : The 

 variations in the flattening of the tibia in infants and 

 adults of the Neolithic races. — .A. Pizard : Intra- 

 puberal castration in cocks and the generalisation of 

 the parabolic law of regression. — F. Vli« and J. 

 Bathellier : The numerical laws of the pedal 

 waves in the movements of Gasteropods. — P. 

 Wiptrebert : The comparative value and the deter- 

 minism of the principal signs of aneural myo- 

 tomic contraction observed in the embryos of 

 Scylliorhiniis canicula.—G. Trullaut and N. BeMsonofl : 

 The characters common to the /3 bacterium, symbiotic 

 with Clostridium pastorianum and B. aliphaticum non 

 liquefadens. The development of these two bacteria 

 suggests that they belong to similar races, possibly 

 to the same race.— G. Odin : .\ new method for the 

 diagnosis of .syphilis. Serum from the blood of the 

 subject is mixed with physiological serum and a small 

 proportion of sodium fluoride. The serum thus pro- 

 duced when injected into the patient increases all the 

 syphilitic symptoms and makes a crtain diagnosis. 

 The method has been applied lo iiKir. than a hundred 

 cases without a single failure. 



Books Received. 



The Backward Pcophs and our Relations with 

 Them. By Sir Harry Johnston. ( llir World of To- 

 day.) Pp. 64. (London: Oxford I niv.i>ity Press.) 

 2S. 6d. 



The Life of Horace Hrnr<li, i de Saussure. By 

 D. W. "Freshfield. Pp. \ii j 479. (London: E. 

 Arnold). 251. net. 



Home Mechanics Workshop Companion. Hy .\. 

 Jackson, jun. Pp. 222. (London : H. Frowde and 

 riodder and Stoughton.) 64, net. 



Home Soldering and Brazing. By R. F. Yates. 

 Pp. 122. (London: H. Frowde and Hodder and 

 Stouchton.) 4i-. 6d. net. 



Home Chemical Laboratory. By R. I'. Yates. 

 Pp. 127. (London: H. Frowde and llodder and 

 Stoughton.) +s. 6d. net. 



Soaring Flight : .A Siinple Mech.miral Solution of 

 the Problem. By Lt.-Col. R. de Villamil. Pp. 48. 

 (London : C. .Spon.) ts. (xi. net. 



Space and Time in Contemporary Ph\ - ^ An 



Introduction to the Theory of Relativity and luaMta- 

 Bv Prof. M. Schiick. Translated by H. L. 



tion. Bv I'rol. M. SchiicK. 1 ransiaieu o> n. i- 

 Brose. Pp. xi + 8q. (New York and London : Oxford 

 Universitv Press.) 6s. 6d. net. 



The Crt-ographv of Plants. By Dr. M. F It.rdv. 

 Pp. xii+327. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 

 net. 



Handbook of Splnninc T.sis for (Litton Growers. 

 Bv i)r. \V. L. Balls. Pp. 5.). (London : Macmdian 

 arid Co., Ltd.) jx. 6rf. net. . 



Some Investigations In the Theory of Man 1 rojec 

 tions. Bv A. F. Young. Pp. viii+7' ' -•— 



Royal Geographical .Society.) 6j. net. 



Der Rnlrofwlogische Gottesbcwcis. 

 .Schnippenkfitler. Pp. icmj. (Bonn : A. 

 K. Weber.) 15 marks. 



Plane Algebraic Curves. Bv Prof. 

 Pp. xvi + 3RS. (Oxford : Clarendon Press.) 28.«. net. 



Treatise on GrnernI and Industrial Organic 



( London : 



Bv Dr. J. 

 M^arcus and 



IL Hilton. 



