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NATURE 



[November i8, 19 15 



of eighteen months. It was found that within the 

 range of from 15° to 37° C. the higher the tempera- 

 ture the longer did the peroxide persist. 



Geological Society, November 3. — Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, president, in the chair.— Dr. C. W. Andrews : 

 Discovery and excavation of a ver}* large specimen of 

 Elephas antiquus near Chatham. The specimen was 

 originally discovered about three years ago b\- a i)arty 

 of sappers who were digging a trench. The extraction 

 of the bones was delayed until the past summer. 

 A great part of the skeleton has now been collected. 

 The skull, unfortunately, was in a very bad condition, 

 but two complete upper and one lower second molars 

 were obtained. One tusk, from 7 to <S ft. long, was 

 also found. The lower ends of both femora were 

 destroyed in the original trench, but of the other limb- 

 bones, nearly complete specimens from one or both 

 sides have been obtained, as well as a sufficiently 

 large series of bones of the feet to allow of their recon- 

 struction. Many vertebrae were also collected. The 

 animal, which was adult, must have been of verv large 

 size, having stood about 15 ft. at the highest part of 

 the back, or more than 3^ ft. higher than the large 

 African elephant mounted in the entrance hall of the 

 Natural History Museum. The molar teeth show 

 conclusively that the species represented is Elephas 

 antiquus, and from the thickness of the enamel and 

 some other characters it may be inferred that the 

 animal was probably of a type as early as, or earlier 

 than, that found at Grays. It is the first British 

 example of this species in which the skeleton has been 

 found directly associated with the teeth. — G. C. Crick : 

 Two Nautili from the Upper Cretaceous rocks of 

 Zululand. 



Mathematical Society, November 11.— Sir Joseph 

 Larmor, president, in the chair. — G. H. Hardy : (i)The 

 second theorem of consistency for summable series. 

 (2) \\'eierstrass's non-differentiable function. — F. B. 

 Pidduck : The kinetic theory of the motion of ions in 

 S-ases.—H. W. Turnbull : Some singularities of sur- 

 faces and their differential geometry. — Dr. J. W. 

 Campbell : Periodic solutions of the problem of three 

 bodies, in three dimensions. — C. R. Dines : Functions 

 of positive type and related topics in general analysis. 

 — C. H. Yeaton : Surfaces characterised bv certain 

 special properties of their directrix congruences. 



Royal Astronomical Society, November 12.— Prof. R. A. 

 Sampson, president, in the chair. — E. W. Maunder : 

 magnetic disturbances, 1904-13, and their association 

 with sun-spots. The results showed that there is a 

 strong tendency for disturbances to recur when the 

 name meridian returns to the centre of the sun's disc, 

 that is to say, after an interval of a svnodic rotation 

 of the sun.— Rev. A. L. Cortie : The efficiency of sun- 

 spots in relation to terrestrial magnetic disturbances. 

 It appears that magnetic disturbances are rela- 

 tively more numerous when the sun-spot area 

 is decreasing than when increasing. The "efficiency" 

 of sun-spots in relation to magnetic disturbances de- 

 pends on the position of the spots, increasing with 

 their approach to the solar equator. — H. H. turner : 

 Proposal for comparison of the magnitude scales of 

 the Astrographic Catalogue. Eighth note : the 

 Cape magnitudes for —42°. — A. R. Hinks : Some 

 questions relating to the shape of the earth, 

 suggested by Mr. Harold Jeffreys's paper, "Cer- 

 tain hvpotheses as to the structure of the Earth and 

 the ^foon." — A. S. Eddington : The dynamics of a 

 stellar system, being a third paper on the subject, 

 dealing:- with oblate and other distributions. — F. 

 Henroteau : Convection currents in hij^h regions of the 

 solar atmosphere. 



NO. 2403, VOL. 96] 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, October 25. — Prof. Newall, 

 president, in the chair. — R. Hargreaves : Examples 

 illustrating the use of integral forms. — S. Ramanujan : 

 A problem in the analytic theory of numbers. — C. E. 

 Weatherburn : Vector integral equations and Gibbs's 

 dyadics. — \\'. A. D. Rudge : A self-recording electro- 

 meter for atmospheric electricity. This instrument has 

 been devised to record the changes in the value of the 

 potential gradient. It consists essentially of a simple 

 form of quadrant-electrometer, in which the motion of 

 the needle is recorded photographically upon a strip 

 of bromide paper. The whole apparatus is compact 

 and can be constructed at a small cost. A number of 

 records showing the changes in the potential due to 

 the steam from trains, and to the dust raised from 

 the roads by passing traffic are given. — J. Reilly : The 

 resolution of asymmetric quinquevalent nitrogen com- 

 pounds. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, October 19. — Prof. 

 S. J. Hickson, president, in the chair. — C. L. Barnes : 

 James Wolfenden, a Lancashire mathematician. In 

 1807 he calculated the first tide-table for the port of 

 Liverpool. — W. C. Jenkins: Rainfall in Manchester 

 during 1915. The amount of rainfall, measured at 

 the Godlee Observatory, for the period commencing 

 November last to October 18, was 31-856 in. The 

 average amount for the last sixty 3-ears for the twelve 

 months November to October was 32820 in. — G. Elliot 

 Smith : The evidence afforded by the winged-disc in 

 Mexico and Central America for the Egyptian origin 

 of certain elements of the pre-Columbian civilisation. 

 The author had previously cited a very large series 

 of curious customs and beliefs, built up into an artificial 

 culture -complex, as a demonstration of the fact that 

 the ancient civilisation of America was derived from 

 the Old World. The proof is further corroborated by 

 the study of various component elements. The dis- 

 tinctly Egyptian, and wholly arbitrary, association of 

 the sun's disc with two serpents and hawk's wings 

 is found represented on the lintel of the sanctuary m 

 niany ancient sun-temples in Mexico and Central 

 Amenca. — D. M. S. Watson and H. Day : Notes on 

 some Palaeozoic fishes. The authors described the 

 structure of the head and of some other special regions 

 in the Rhipidistian Crossopterygians, Holoptychius, 

 Glyptopomus, Tristichopterus, Osteolepis, Gyroptychius, 

 and Rhizodopsis, arriving at a presumptive Rhipi- 

 distian head. They then described the roof of the skull 

 in the following Dipnoi : — Dipterus valenciennesi, D. 

 platycephalus, I), macropteriis, Scaumenacia, Phanero- 

 pleuron, Sagenodus, and Ceratodus. These fish in 

 their order of appearance in time give a perfectly 

 graded series, and obviously form an approximate 

 phyletic-line, agreeing with that deduced by M. L. 

 DoUo from a study of the unpaired fins. A study of 

 the teeth supports the view that this series is a genuine 

 one. The skull of D. valenciennesi is compared with 

 that of a primitive Rhipidistian, and shown to agree 

 with it bone for bone. It is also shown that both of 

 these can be perfectly homologised with that of a 

 Stegocephalian. 



November 2. — Prof. S. J. Hickson, president, in the 

 chair. — R. L. Taylor : Notes on hypochlorous acid and 

 chlorine. A solution of an alkaline hypochlorite rapidly 

 changes ordinary precipitated oxide of silver into black 

 peroxide, closely approximating in composition to that 

 represented by the formula AgoO.. Comparison was 

 made between the bleaching- activities of hypochlorous 

 acid and chlorine, the conclusion arrived at being that, 

 contrary to the general opinion, the latter is consider- 

 ablv the more active of the two. The remarkable 



