362 



NATURE 



[March 16, 1922 



Carboniferous. The mineralogical constituents of 

 the deposits are remarkably like those making up 

 rocks of similar age in the north of England, hence 

 it is inferred that the deposits on both sides of the 

 Atlantic were derived from the same land-mass. 

 The fish-remains are fragmentary ; they represent 

 three species closely related to those found in the 

 Lower Carboniferous of Scotland. A group of ribs 

 with the caudal fin and scattered scales belongs to 

 a Dipnoan fish ; a new species of Uronemus and some 

 specimens of a Palaeoniscid fish are also found: 



Zoological Society, February 21. — Prof. E. W. 

 MacBride, vice-president, in the chair. — Miss L. E. 

 Cheesman : (i) The position and function of the 

 siphon of the amphibious mollusc, Ampullavia 

 vermiformis. (2) The habits, in captivity, of the 

 fresh-water crab, Cardisoma armatum. — H. Blegvad : 

 Animal communities in the southern North Sea. — 

 C. Tate Regan : The Cichlid fishes of Lake Victoria. 

 — C. F. Sonntag : (i) On the vagus and sympathetic 

 nerves of the Edentata. (2) On the vagus and 

 sympathetic nerves of Hyrax capensis. 



Physical Society, February 24.— Dr. A. Russell, 

 president, in the chair. — H. Levy : The number of 

 radio-active transformations as determined by analysis 

 of the observations. The expression for the nth. 

 product of a series of radio-active transformations 

 is represented as the sum of n terms of the type 

 flf^g-Anf. When n is known, the coefficients a„ and 

 X„ can be determined. A criterion for determining 

 n, the number of transformations, by successive 

 evaluation of a system of determinants constructed 

 from the observations is given. The value of n is 

 found from the order of the particular member of 

 the system that vanishes. — C. H. Lees : A graphical 

 method of treating Fresnel's formulae for reflection 

 in transparent media. The directions of the reflected 

 and refracted rays having been determined by known 

 graphical methods, a construction, based on Fresnel's 

 formulae, is given for finding the amplitudes of the 

 electric vectors of these rays, ii and normal to the 

 plane of incidence. 



Aristotelian Society, March 6. — Prof. J. S. 

 Mackenzie in the chair. — S. N. Dasgupta : The 

 Logic of the Vedanta. The earhest Upanisads, 

 forming the concluding part of the Vedic literature, 

 were completed certainly before 500 b.c. The main 

 doctrine found in them is that self is the ultimate 

 reality. This self is not the Ego but pure conscious- 

 ness, which was regarded as supremely unchangeable. 

 The early Buddhist philosophy sought to prove that 

 everything was changing and that there was nothing 

 which could be regarded as permanent. The nihil- 

 istic school of Buddhism as interpreted by Nagarjuna 

 and Aryadeva (a.d. 100) demonstrated, by critical 

 and dialectical reasoning of the type which Mr. 

 Bradley has used, that our ordinary conceptions of 

 experience were absolutely relative and were there- 

 fore indefinite and indefinable. The idealistic 

 Buddhists accepted this position and held that all 

 worldly experience is due to mental construction. 

 The Vedanta, as explained by Sankara, and as 

 interpreted by Sriharsa and Madhusudana Sarasvati 

 and others, held that pure consciousness, as revealed 

 in immediate experience and as distinct from its 

 particular form and content, was self-contained and 

 absolutely real. Particular forms are relative and 

 mutually interdependent. They are definable either 

 as being or as non-being for they .participate in the 

 nature of both. They are the modifications of a 

 separate logical category called the indefinite and 

 have the same sort of logical status as illusions. They 

 appear as existent by virtue of their relation with 

 pure consciousness which is absolutely unchangeable 



NO. 2733, VOL. 109] 



and self-contained and immediate. Everything 

 which has any form or content is thus a joint mani- 

 festation of the absolutely real, i.e. the consciousness, 

 and the category of the indefinite. The nature of 

 all that is relative is that it has being in some sense 

 and it has no being in another, and it cannot there- 

 fore be regarded either as positive or negative. This 

 necessitates the acceptance of the indefinite as a 

 separate logical category which explains the logical 

 status of all that is relative. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, February 20. — M. Emile 

 Bertin in the chair. — E. Borel : Functions of a real 

 variable capable of differentiation without hmit. — H. 

 Douville : The Nummuiitic to the south of the 

 Pyrenees. — G. Gouy : The tensions and pressures 

 of Maxwell in magnets and dielectrics. Maxwell 

 has given two expressions involving the field (H) 

 and the induction (B), one for magnets and a second 

 for dielectrics. Only the first of these, a tension of 



( — ) BH along the lines of force and a pressure p 



in all directions of 



H'' 



appears to give exact 



results in all cases. — G. Julia : Functional equations 

 and conformable representation. — J. Remoundos : 

 The coincidence of Unes and the plane elastic curve. — 

 R. Lagrange : Some apphcations of the absolute 

 differential calculus. — B. Gambier : Point corre- 

 spondence between two surfaces with exchange of 

 conjugated into orthogonal systems and vice versa. — 

 M. Frontard : Cycloids of sliding of soils. — J. 

 Petitpas : The work expended in the mechanical 

 worlang of wood. — P. Bourgoin : The velocity of 

 combustion of colloidal powders. — A. de La Baume 

 Pluvinel : A coudee telescope designed for the appUca- 

 tion of the method of equal heights. — M. Baudouin : 

 The prehistoric material representation of the 

 Pleiades with ten stars in a rock basin in Epesses 

 (Vendee). This prehistoric engraving on a stone 

 basin is unique in that ten instead of the usual 

 seven stars are represented. — G. Perrier : The 

 differences of altitude of the stations of the meridian 

 arc of the Equator. Fifty-four of the stations on 

 this arc, now being measured, are at heights 

 between 3500 and 4500 metres, whilst towards the 

 south the triangles fall suddenly to the sea-level. The 

 reduction of the observations is discussed and it is 

 shown that a term commonly neglected in geodesic 

 operations must in these reductions be taken into 

 account. — MM. Courtines and Villey : Barovariometers 

 with capillary flow. The apparatus consists of a 

 glass bulb, thermally isolated by a vacuum, com- 

 municating with the outside air by a capillary tube 

 and furnished with a sensitive manometer indicating 

 variations in the external pressure. The conditions 

 under which the instrument can be made to furnish 

 accurate figures are worked out. — Mile. P. Collet : 

 Thin layers formed by mixtures of glyce rides. — H. 

 Chaumat : The measurement of power in alternating 

 currents in some abnormal cases. — M. Galibourg : 

 The utihsation of the thermo-electric force of contact 

 for the identification of certain steels. Diagrams 

 of the apparatus used are given and some figures 

 obtained for carbon, silicon, nickel, and chrome 

 tungsten steels. Taken in conjunction with the 

 Brinell test, the determination of the thermo- 

 electromotive force at 120° C, under the conditions 

 indicated, suffices to determine the nature of the steel 

 without an analysis. — M. Curie : The action of the red 

 and infra-red rays on phosphorescent sulphides. The 

 author puts forward the hypothesis that the action of 

 the extinguishing rays consists in making the medium 



