i88 



NATURE 



\yune 19, 1879 



Entomological Society, June 4. — H. W. Bates, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., vice-president, in the chair. — The following elections 

 took place : — Mr. J. Walhouse, F.R.A.S., Maida Vale, as 

 an Ordinary Member, Seiior Antonio Augusto de Carvatho 

 Monteiro, Lisbon, as a Foreign Member, and Mr. C. H. 

 Goodman, Lesness Heath, as a Sub^icriber. — Mr. McLachlan 

 called attention to a notice lately published by M. F. A. Forel, 

 concerning certain sculptured markings on cretaceous pebbles 

 from the shores of Lake Leman, in which the author has come 

 to the conclusion that the markings were mainly due to the action 

 of larvaj of ttichoptera, which formed galleries on the surface. 

 Mr. McLachlan exhibited plaster casts of two small blocks, one 

 of Jurassic limestone, the other of ordinary white chalk which 

 had been placed in the lake by JL Forel for some month.s, and 

 which showed markings that apparently confirmed the theory 

 that such were due to the agency of trichopterous larva;, of 

 which some specimens in alcohol were also exhibited. — Mr. J. .S. 

 Baly communicated a paper entitled " An attempt to point cut the 

 differential characters of some closely allied species of Chrysomela, 

 chiefly those contained in Suffrian's nth group ; also descriptions 

 of some hitherto uncharacterised forms belonging to the same 

 and other genera of the family." — The following papers were com- 

 municated by Prof. Westwood : — "A decade of new Cetoniida;," 

 and " On some unusual monstrous insects." — Mr. W. L. Distant 

 read a paper entitled " Contributions to our knowledge of thehemip- 

 terous fauna of Madagascar." — Sir Sydney Saunders communi- 

 cated some notes received from M. Jules Lichtenstein, describing 

 the metamorphoses of the blister-beetle Canthciris versuatoria, 

 which he had recently succeeded in rearing from the egg. — Mr. 

 Meldola communicated a translation of a paper by Dr. Fritz 

 Miiller, recently published in Kosmos, entitled " Ituna and 

 Thyridia ; a Remarkable Case of Mimicry in Butterflies." 



Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, June 16. — The pre- 

 sident, the Earl of Shaftesbury, in the chair. — Capt. F. Petrie 

 (the Honorary Secretary) read the report. It appeared that the 

 Society had lost twenty by death, and twelve members and 

 eighteen associates by resignation, since the last annual meeting, 

 but that eighty-six new members had joined in that time. The 

 total number of members is now 785. The address was delivered 

 by Dr. Radcliffe, and took the form of an inquiry into the 

 present position of physical science. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, June 16. — Prof. Maclagan, vice-president, in 

 the cliair. — The following communications were read : — Atomi- 

 city or valence of elementary atoms : is it constant or variable ? 

 by Prof. Crum Brown. — On the action of heat on salts of 

 primethyl-sulphine, part iv., by Prof. Crum Brown and J. 

 Adrian Blaikie, D.Sc. — Comparison of the salts of methyl- 

 diethyl-sulphine, and of ethyl-methyl-ethyl-sulphine, by Prof. 

 Crum Brown and J. Adrian Blaikie, D.Sc. — On the bursting of 

 fire-arms when the muzzle is closed by snow, earth, grass, &c., 

 by Prof. George Forbes. — On some new bases of the leucoline 

 series, part iii., by G. Carr Robinson and W. L. Goodwin. 



Boston (U.S.A.) 



American Academy of Arts and Sciences, May 14. — 

 Hon. Charles Francis Adams in the chair.— Dr. H. P. Bowditch 

 presented a new form of plethysmograph differing from those of 

 Mosso and von Basch in the method adopted for securing a 

 constant level of the fluid in the receptacle connected with the 

 apparatus which contained the body whose changing volume was 

 to be measured. The method consisted in suspending the recep- 

 tacle (a large sized test tube) to a delicate spiral steel spring of 

 which the length and strength were so adjusted that the weight 

 of the fluid flowing into the test tube caused an elongation of the 

 spring precisely equal to the rise of the fluid in the test tube 

 itself. Thus the absolute level of the fluid in the receptacle 

 remained unaltered, and a constant pressure was maintained 

 upon the surface of the organ to be measured. An index 

 attached to the lower end of the spring recorded upon a 

 revolving cylinder covered with smoked paper the flow of 

 the fluid into and out of the receptacle. — Mr. N. D. C. 

 Hodges gave two new proofs of the dimensions of molecules, 

 one based upon the properties of water and aqueous vapour, the 

 other upon superficial tension and considerations of the depth of 

 the superficial layer of molecules upon sheets of platinum. — 

 Prof. Pickering exhibited a new form of photometer for mea- 

 suring the light of a nebula or comet, by comparison with a star 

 thrown out of focus. The method employed eliminated the 

 effects of moonlight or twilight. He also proposed to denote 



the light of these bodies in stellar magnitudes. Thus a portion 

 of a nebula would be of the twelfth magnitude, if of the same 

 brightness as a twelfth-magnitude star spread over a circle cne 

 minute in diameter. — Prof. John Trowbridge presented two con- 

 tributions from the Physical Laboratory of Harvard College, one 

 on the vibration of elliptical plates, and one on a new method of 

 studying wave-motion and vibrations on the surface of mercury. 

 The mercury is covered with a very thin film of lycopodium dust, 

 and is illuminated by the electric spark produced by breaking a 

 circuit on the surface of the mercury.— Prof. C. Loring Jackson 

 and Mr. J. Fleming ^^hite announced a new synthesis of anthra- 

 cene. — Prof. Asa Gray presented the characters of new species 

 of plants from Mexico, collected by Dr. E. Palmer and Dr. C. 

 C. Parry. — Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, a research on complex inor- 

 ganic acids ; and Mr. Sereno Watson, a revision of the North 

 American liliaceze and descriptions of some new species of 

 other orders . 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, June g. — M. Daubree, president. — 

 The following papers were read : — Chronometric observatories 

 for the merchant marine, by M. Faye. — On the spherical regu- 

 lating spiral of chronometers, by M. Phillips. — On the bases 

 derived from aldehyde-ammonia, byM. Ad. Wurtz. — Determina- 

 tion of the height of the mercury in the barometer under the 

 equator ; amplitude of diurnal barometric variations at various 

 stations in the Cordilleras, by M. Boussingault. — Increase of 

 albumenoid matters in the saliva of those having albumenuria, 

 by M. Vulpian. — On the spectrum of nitrate of didymiura, by 

 MM. Laurence Smith and Lecoq de Boisbaudran. — On the spec- 

 trum of nitrate of erbium, by M. Lecoq de Boisbraudran. — 

 Observations made during the voyage of the frigate La Magi- j 

 cienne, by Admiral Serres. — The following papers were among the j 

 correspondence: — Observations of Comet II., 1867, made at the i 

 Observatory of Florence (Arcetri), by M. Tempel. — Transforma- 

 tion of a pencil of normals, by M. A. Mannheim. — On the use of 

 elliptic functions in the theory of the plane quadrilateral, by 

 M. G. Darboux. — On developments in series whose terms are 

 Laplace's functions Y «, by M. A. de St. Germain. — On 

 the laws of dispersion, by M. Mouton. — On Stokes's law, by 

 M. S. Lamansky. — On the absorption spectra of alizarin and 

 some colouring-matters derived from it, by M. A. Rosenthal. — 

 On the verglas of January 22, by M. de Tastes. — On the disso- 

 ciation of ammonium sulphide, by MM. R. Engel and Mortessier. 

 — Action of the vapour of water on carbonic oxide in presence of 

 a red hot platinum wire, by M. J. Coquillion. On some 

 derivatives of methyleugenol, by M. Wassermann. — On an 

 isomer of angelic acid, dimethyl-acrylic acid, by M. E. Duvillier. 

 — On the action of phenate of sodium in bacteriemic frogs, by 

 M. Bacchi. — Hematic lesions in chlorosis, the serious anemia 

 named progressive, and the anemia of nephritis, by M. Quin- 

 quand. — Researches on the localisation of arsenic in the brain, 

 by MM. O. CaiUol de Poncy and Ch. Livon. — Rectification in a 

 communication of March 17 last, by M. Feltz. — Erratic blocks 

 of the Valley of Lys (Haute-Garonne), by M. Gourdon. — Fall of 

 meteorites on May 10, 1879, in Emmet County, Iowa, U.S., 

 by Prof. Hinrichs. 



CONTENTS Pace 



Electric Lighting. By Prof. Sii.vanus P. Thompson 165 



The Dolomite Reefs of the Southern Tyrol and Venetia . . 167 



Health Primers 168 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Mechanical Theory of Earth-Heat.— J. P. Lesley .... 168 



Evolution Old and New.— S. Butlek 169 



The River Elbe. — T. Mellard Reade 169 



Electric Light.— F.J. M. P 169 



The Climbing Perch.— G. E. Dobson 169 



Oxygenated Rain. — Edward Solly i6g 



William Froude 169 



Karl Koch 173 



Messrs. De La Rue and MOllbr's Researches on the EtHCTHic 

 Discharge with the Chloride of Silver Battery. (With 



Illustrations) 174 



Northern Borneo 178 



VuLCANOLOGY IN ITALY IN 1878. By G. F. RoDWELL (With Illus- 

 tration) 179 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



The Occuttation of Antare-s July 28 x8o 



The Great Comet of 1874 181 



Geografhical Notes '8x 



Notes 182 



The Recent Honorary Degrees at CamsrJdge 184 



University ano Educational InteLligbncb 185 



Scientific Serials , 185 



Societies and Acabemies a86 



