September 2, 1915] 



NATURE 



27 



II SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 \ Paris. 



icademy of Sciences, August 23.— M. Ed. Perrier In 

 p chair. — G. Humbert : The reduction of the forms of 

 ermite in an imaginary quadratic body. — MM. 

 Costantin and Bois : Three types of commercial vanilla 

 of Tahiti. Since three-fifths of the world's production 

 of vanilla comes from the French colonies, the ques- 

 tion of its culture is worthy of investigation. The 

 fruit from Mexico and Reunion is superior to that of 

 the Tahiti type. In the present note a comparison is 

 made between the types of vanilla known under the 

 names of Mexico, Tahiti, and Tiarei, and some prac- 

 lical suggestions are made for cultivation. — Paul 

 Vuillemin : The staminal origin of the perigon of the 

 Liliaceae; proofs furnished by the flowers of Hemero- 

 callis. — E. F. Perreau : An electro-vibrator worked with 

 interrupted currents. Previous types of this instru- 

 ment, used in surgical work, have been worked with 

 an alternating current, but an interrupted continuous 

 current may be also used with advantage. Details of 

 the arrangement are given, which, for the detection 

 of non-magnetic bodies, is superior to the original 

 instrument. — Daniel Berthelot : The co-volume of the 

 gases disengaged by explosive materials. The co- 

 volume b, in the equation p{v~b) = RT, is usually 

 taken as o-ooi in calculations relating to explosives. 

 It_ is now shown that this only holds for gases the 

 critical temperature of which is sensibly equal to four 

 times the critical pressure. — M. Guilbaud : An apparatus 

 for the photolysis of powders. — J. Hepelin : The Creta- 

 ceous age (Begudian) of the detritic layers of Logis de 

 Nans (Var). — Henry Hubert : Subterranean waters in 

 western Africa. A chart of Senegal is given showing 

 the depths of the underground water. — Jules Amar : 

 Arthrodynamometric measurements. — H. Vincent : 

 Typhoid toxin and the production of a specific serum 

 against typhoid fever. A study of the conditions for 

 obtaining cultures of high toxic power. 

 Washington, D.C. 

 National Academy of Sciences, August 15 (Proceedings 

 No. 8, vol. i.).— J. Loeb : Weber's law and antagon- 

 istic salt action. The author had shown that the ratio 

 of the concentrations of antagonistic ions must remain 

 within certain limits for the normal functioning of an 

 organism. It is here shown that these limits remain 

 approximately constant as the concentration of one of 

 the ions is changed. — E. L. Nichols and H. L. Howes : 

 The polarised fluorescence of ammonium uranyl 

 chloride. The remarkable fluorescence spectrum of this 

 salt is described in considerable detail, observations 

 being made at + 20° C. and - 185° C— T. Michelson : 

 The linguistic classification of Potawatomi. By study 

 of the so-called verbal pronouns, which afford most 

 satisfactory classificatory criteria, it is shown that 

 Potawatomi belongs to the Ojibwa group of Central 

 Algonquian dialects.— H. Shapley and Martha Betz 

 Shapley : The light curve of XX. Cygni as a contribu- 

 to the study of Cepheid variation.^ The form of the 

 maximum of brightness in XX. Cygni is variable from 

 period to period, and thus suggests the hypothesis that 

 the periodic light and spectrum variations in this and 

 other Cepheid variables should be ascribed to internal 

 vibrations producing irregularities in luminositv in- 

 stead of to double-star phenomena. — C. B. Davenport : 

 The feebly inhibited. III. — Inheritance of tempera- 

 ment, with special reference to twins and suicides. A 

 statistical study on eighty-nine familv histories, afford- 

 ing 147 matings, leads to the conclusion that tempera- 

 ment is inherited as though there were in the germ 

 plasm a factor E, which induces the more or less 

 periodic occurrence of an excited condition and its 

 absence, e, which results in a calmness; also a factor 

 NO. 2392, VOL. 96] 



C which makes for normal cheerfulness and its 

 absence, which permits a more or less periodic depres- 

 sion, the factors behaving as though in different 

 chromosomes, so that they are inherited independently. 

 — H. Shapley : Second-type stars of low mean density. 

 Because of its bearing on the question of the order of 

 stellar evolution, the density of stars of the second 

 spectral type is discussed from the point of view of 

 the dependability of the observational and theoretical 

 work that is the basis of the derivation of occasional 

 extremely low values. — W. H. Brown and Louise 

 Pearce : The pathological action of arsenicals upon the 

 adrenals. That arsenicals of diverse chemical consti- 

 tution exert pronounced pathological action upon the 

 adrenals has not been generally recognised. It appears 

 from these observations that the adrenotropic action 

 of arsenicals is one of the most constant and impor- 

 tant features of arsenical intoxication, and it is sug- 

 gested that therapeutic doses of some arsenicals may 

 be found to produce definite stimulation of the adrenal 

 glands.— Louise Pearce and W, H. Brown : Variations 

 in the character and distribution of the renal lesions 

 produced by compounds. Not all compounds of arsenic 

 produce vascular lesions; some are capable of pro- 

 ducing tubular nephritis; the difference in the patho- 

 genic action being explainable only upon the basis of 

 the chemical constitution of the different compounds 

 of arsenic. — H. S. White : Seven points on a twisted 

 cubic curve. If seven points on a twisted cubic be 

 joined, two and two, by twenty-one lines, then any 

 seven planes that contain these twenty-one lines will 

 osculate a second cubic curve. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of South Africa, July 21.— Dr. L. 

 Peringuey, president, in the chair. — S. H. Haughton : 

 Exhibition and description of a new type of fossil 

 reptile from the Karroo. A somewhat incomplete 

 skull, with associated limb-bones and vertebrae, from 

 the upper Tapinocephalus zone of the Beaufort West 

 District were exhibited. The form seems to show 

 affinities both with the Dinocephalia and the Gorgon- 

 opsia. In the general form of the skull and of the 

 palate it recalls the Dinocephalia, although it is much 

 smaller, and its maxillary and premaxillary teeth are 

 herbivorous, like those of Tapinocephalus and other 

 forms; but in the possession of a few small palate 

 teeth, in the vertical occipital plate, the shallowness 

 of the basicranium and some other features it recalls 

 the Gorgonopsia. The form occurs in beds which con- 

 tain members of both groups, although the larger 

 Dinocephalia of lower horizons seem to have given 

 place to smaller forms. Watson has contended that 

 these two groups have arisen from a not very far 

 distant common ancestor; and although this form 

 cannot be looked upon as ancestral, it throws some 

 further light on the relationships between the two 

 groups. — K. H. Barnard : Conus shells illustrating 

 variation in markings. A series of shells was ex- 

 hibited, showing gradation in the pigment from a 

 condition in which the coloration is strongly marked 

 to that in which the shells are practically colourless. 

 The question of the origin of the pigment in its 

 relation to the environment and heredity of the 

 mollusc was discussed. — S. J. v. d. Llngen : (i) Simple 

 apparatus for finding " G " ; (2) simple apparatus for 

 standardising a given vibrator. Apparatus was de- 

 scribed the use of which does not involve assumptions 

 of dynamical quantities that the student cannot deter- 

 mine for himself, and which is adapted to give him 

 some definite idea about the acceleration of a freely 

 falling body. A piece of apparatus was also described 

 by which velocities and accelerations of trolleys, etc., 

 can be determined without the need of assuniing the 



