Srpt. 4. 1879] 



NATURE 



451 



upctitioii of organic and inorganic deposits, of the carboniferous 

 1. 1 Illation, nnil the rcniarlialile crust movements which enahled 

 ;!icMi to accumulate, are without subsequent examples. 



In conclusion, 1 must remind you that the volumes of the 

 " tieolopical Kecord" (jive the literature of the carboniferous 

 foruiatiim year by year, and lliat lately a ma({iiirieeiit contribu- 

 tion to the subject has apoeared in the memoirs of the (Jeological 

 Survey of England and Wales in the form of a great volume on 

 the geology ol the Yorkshire coal fields, by I'rof. Green, one of 

 our vice-presidents, and Mr. Russell. A very concise and excel- 

 lent geology of the West Riding has also recently been published 

 by Mr. Davis, who is amongst us to-day, and Mr. Bauermann 

 ■lias contributed a capital article on coal to the " Kncyclopivdia 

 liritannica." 



THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION 



MontpellUi-, Sunday 



THE French A^sociation for the Advancement of Science met 

 at Montpellier on August 28. 'I'he president this year is M. 

 Bardoux, the late Minister for I'ublic Instruction, who bfts been 

 succeeded by M. Eerry. 



Ilis address was devoted entirely to generalities on the ncces- 

 sity of providing a good education for the young. He did not 

 touch upon the great qnestion which agitates the public mind in 

 France in connection with the Ferry Dill. It may be inferred 

 from the strong encomiums passed on M. Jules Simon, that M. 

 Bardoux must be ranked among the opponents to the Eerry Hill. 



M. I.aissac, mayor of Montpellier, and M. Cazellc, prefect 

 of th; Herault, rejilied to M. liardoux. M. Saporta, the 

 ceneral secretary, gave an address summarising the results of the 

 Wst year's mcelin:^, and M. Georges M.isson read a financial 

 statement which showed that the capit.al of the Society amounts 

 to aljout 3fjo,ocx3 francs. The subsidies paid for research last year 

 amounted to 10,000 francs. 



These addresses being the only ones which were given in the 

 name of the Association, and as the presidents of sections ^ave 

 no official addresses, it will be quite impossible to have any idea 

 of the opinions of the meeting on the topics of the day. 



Although but a small city, Montpellier is famous in the annals 

 of science, and in former years its university was deemed a rival 

 to I'aris. liut in latter years Monti)ellier has lost much of its 

 presli^'f, although it had the honour to be the birthplace of 

 Anguvte Comte. The growing academy of Toulouse disputes with 

 Montpellierthe prceminencein south-eastern F'rance. Meanwhile 

 the impending meeting of savants at I'erpignan on the occasion 

 of the inauguration of Arago's statue at the end of September 

 will throw the Montpellier meeting somewhat into the sh.ade, 

 -ind deprive it of a number of constant and iiidueiitial members. 

 The interest of the meeting will consist principally in excursions 

 professing to promote ends of great moment f<jr the \s elfare of 

 the region, viz., the extinction of phylloxera, the construction of 

 an irrigation canal from the Rhone, the local meteorology and 

 botany, which are strongly represented by M. Charles Martins, 

 a brilliant writer, and the director of the celebrated Montpellier 

 plant-gardens. A specimen of the Erench Atlantic cable now in 

 course of Ijeing placed, will l;e exhibited and explained by M. 

 OaricI, the general secretary of the Council, and the scheme of 

 tlie Erench Company explained for the first time. Experiments 

 will l)c made on electric lighting and the telephone. 



The I'rench scientific caravan, officered by MM. Quatrcfages, 

 Mortillct, and Uroca, to be sent to the Congress of Anthropology 

 ot Moscow, is to arrive in Montpellier before the end of the 

 meeting. M. Bergeron, one of , the I'rench lavanls, who was 

 present at the Sheffield meeting, has arrived in order to tell the 

 French Association of what was done by her elder sister. 



THE SWISS NATURALISTS 



^HE sixty-second annual meeting of the Swiss naturalists was 



ojiened on July 10 at St. Gall. The attendance was com- 



ttively large, no less than two hundred Swiss and twenty-one 



■ I W7'a«/j being present. Among the latter we notice I'rof, 



(Paris), Mr. Eorrer (San Francisco), Ilerr Nordlinger 



Jfart), Dr. Kichthofcn, and many others. 



On Monday, the nth, the first |mblic meeting was o|iened at 

 'the Grossrathhaus, Ijefore a large audience of visitors and ladles, 

 bjr Dr. Kecbsteiner (St. Gall), who gave an address on the 

 ''Kent progress of science ; aUo iwlnting out the im[K)rtaDce of 



the neighbourhood of .St. (Jail for the study of geology, and 

 discussing the viiriety and importance of chemical processes in 

 the life of nature. A second lecture was given by I'rof. C. Vogt 

 (Geneva) on the archn-opleryx, the interesting reptile-bird whicli 

 has provoked so animated a iliscnssion among anatomists, and 

 of which we possess only two specimens — that of the British 

 Museum and that newly discovered at Solenhofen, (iermany. 

 According to the first, which was very incoini>lete, this Jurassic 

 animal was considered as a bird, having a beak, nails, and 

 feathers ; while the Solenhofen specimen, quite complete, and of 

 which I'rof. Vogt exhibited very good photographs, jirovcs 

 undoubtedly that we have to do with a bird-like reptile of the 

 size of a pigeon, which had both scales and feathers, a beak 

 provided with teeth, armed wings, bird like feet with nails, and 

 a reptile tail consisting of twenty vertebra-. This discovci'y 

 gave to I'rof. Vogt the occasion to make a brilliant address on 

 the origin of species, the adaptation of organisms to the medium 

 they inhabit, and the way in which this adaptation goes on from 

 the pcrijihery to the centre. 



Two other lectures were given by M. Victor Eatio, on the 

 phylloxera, and by M. Kaoul I'ictet on the synthetical theory of 

 calorific iihenomena. The naturalists then went to the tradi- 

 tional breakfast served on pajier table-cloths with paper 

 napkins, in the beautiful hall of the Kornliaile, the walls of 

 which are decorated with four oictures, by M. Kirchofer, which 

 represent the country of St. Gall during the periods of the lignite 

 {Si/iii-/h/,v/i/,'), of the molasse, of the glacial epoch, and of 

 prehistoric man. At two began the sittings of the tections. In 

 the Section of Physics I'rof. I lagenbach opened a very interesting 

 philoso|)liicnl diseussicm on "centrifugal force," in which discus- 

 sion he was followed by Prof. Mousson (/uiieh), who made a 

 valuable communication on the structure of solid bodies, and 

 on the molecular phenomena which produce the |>henomenon of 

 heat. I'rof. I'ictet (Geneva) explained his researches into the 

 mechanical theory of heat. On the following day Professors 

 Eorel (Morges) and I.. Soret (Geneva), the indefatigable students 

 of the oscillations of the level of the Lake of Geneva, gave, in 

 the Sectiim of Physics, very interesting communications on that 

 subject, and especially on the rhythmical oscillations described 

 as inches. — M. Dufour having communicated the results of his 

 measurements on the glacier of the Rhone, according to which 

 the lower extremity of this glacier has receded no less than eighty 

 metres (260 feet) (luring the last two years, a long discussion on 

 the causes of the oscillations of glaciers was engaged between 

 MM. Dufour, Eorel, Mousson, and Hagenbach. I'inally we 

 notice in tlie .Section of Physics the communications, by M. II, 

 Dufour, (m the diffusion of gases; by Prof. Hagenbach on tie 

 forms of hail j and by Prof, CoUadon (Geneva) on his theories 

 on the optical projierties of ice. 



The sixty-third meeting will take place next year at Brieg, in 

 the Valley of the Kbone, 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of Physiology (vol. ii. No. 2, Issued July).— On 

 the ellect of the respiratory movements on the pulmonary circu- 

 lation, by 11. P. Howditcli ami (j. M. Garland.— On absorption 

 without circulation, by li. F. I.autenbach. — On protagon, by 

 Arthur (Jamgee and Ernst DIankenhorn, — On a few furtlier ex- 

 l)eriinents with i)ituria, by Sydney Ringer and William Murrcll. 

 — On the antagonism between pilocarpine and extract of Aminita 

 muscaiid, by .Sydney Ringer and William Murrell. — On some old 

 and new experiments on the fibrin-ferment, by Arthur (ianigce. 

 — On the elTect of two succeeding stimuli upon muscular contrnc 

 tion, by Henry Sewall. — There is added a list of titles of books 

 and papers of physiological interest published since Decemb r 

 31, 1878, to date. 



yournal of the Royal Microseojiienl SocUfy (Aue«st),— Trant- 

 actions.— On a new species of excavating sponge {/IM/ona mil- 

 lari), and on a new s|)ccles of Raphldotneca (A', affinis), by II. 

 J. Carter, F.R.S.— On a new genus and species of foraininifera 

 (Aphrosina infoniiis), and on the si)iculeH of an unknown sponge, 

 by II. J. Carter, E.R.S.— On the theory of illuminating appara- 

 tus employed with the microscope, by Dr. 11. V.. I'ripp.— Ob- 

 servations on Nolommala Werneekii and its parasitism in the 

 tubes of Vaucberia, by I'rof. Balbianl ; translated from the An- 

 nalts del Scieneii Nalurellei (/.oologie), 1878.— The record of 

 current researches reUtinjj to Invertebrata, cryptogamia, micro- 

 scopy, Ike, 



