388 



NATURE 



[December 2, 1915. 



living protoplasm and with the coverings of certain 

 seeds), experiments have been made with a series of 

 closely-related organic solutes, viz., phenol, catechol, 

 resorcinol, quinol, and pyrogallol, all of which enter 

 the seeds of Hordeum when in aqueous solution. 

 Experiment appears to justify the conclusion that when 

 the temperatures, osmotic pressures, vapour pressures, 

 and viscosities of a series of solutions of permeable 

 solutes are equal, their rates of diffusion across the 

 seed-membrane are inversely proportional to their 

 surface tensions. — F. Kidd : The controlling influence 

 of carbonic dioxide. III.— The retarding effect of 

 carbon dioxide on respiration. Researches previously 

 described led to the conclusion that the resting stage 

 of the moist seed is primarily a phase of auto-narcosis 

 induced by tissue CO,. Inhibition of germination bv 

 CO2 was demonstrated in the laboratory and in the 

 field under a wide range of conditions. Inter alia, 

 it was shown that the inhibitory value of a given 

 carbon dioxide pressure diminishes with a rise of 

 oxygen pressure and also with a rise of temperature. 

 These researches have now been carried further to 

 determine if possible the mechanism CO^-narcosis. The 

 present paper deals with the effect of COn upon the 

 respiratory function. The outstanding result shown is 

 that CO3 causes a marked retardation of respiration. 



Physical Society, November 12. — Dr. A. Russell, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. J. A. Fleming and P. R. 

 Coursey : The effect of electric oscillations on the mag- 

 negtic properties of iron, investigated by the campo- 

 graph. In March last Prof. Fleming exhibited the 

 campograph, for photographing and delineating 

 physical curves. Since then the optical arrangements 

 have been improved, and the effect of electric oscilla- 

 tions on the hysteresis and permeability of iron have 

 been investigated with the improved instrument. When 

 an iron wire is taken slowly through a magnetic cycle 

 and a superposed high-frequency magnetising force is 

 also applied, then, if the maximum value of the slowly 

 periodic longitudinal magnetic force does not exceed 

 a certain value, the effect of the oscillations is to 

 increase the area of the hysteresis loop and to increase 

 the magnetisation at the ends of the cycle. If the 

 slowly periodic force has a large maximum value then 

 the hysteresis loop is diminished in area, but the 

 maximum magnetisation remains unaltered. The 

 increase in area of the hysteresis loop is generally less 

 for high frequency than for low frequency oscillations, 

 because in the latter case the oscillatory flux penetrates 

 further into the iron wire. If oscillatory currents are 

 passed along the iron wire whilst at the same time 

 the_ iron is taken slowly through a longitudinal mag- 

 netic cycle with continuous current, then when the 

 oscillatory current has a small R.M.S. value the effects 

 are generally similar to those produced by longitudinal 

 oscillatory magnetic forces. If the oscillatory current 

 is relatively large then their effect is to reduce the 

 hysteresis and magnetisation at the ends of the cycle. 

 This last action is due to the circular magnetisation 

 produced by the longitudinal current, which grips the 

 magnetic molecules of the iron, and prevents their 

 longitudinal colineatlon and reduces also the hysteresis. 

 The same effect is seen when a longitudinal continuous 

 current is passed along an iron wire. The effect of 

 superimposing on a steady feeble longitudinal mag- 

 netic force an alternating magnetic force either by 

 undamjped or damped oscillations is greatly to increase 

 the permeability at the ends of the cycle, provided the 

 oscillatory force does not exceed a certain value. Be- 

 yond that a diminution sets in. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, November 16.— Prof. 

 A. Keith, president, in the chair. — Prof. H. J. Fleure : 

 An anthropological analysis of the people of Wales. 



NO. 2405, VOL. 96] 



This paper embodied work by Dr. T. C. James and 

 the author during the past ten years. Remote country 

 districts were selected, and altogether 2500 natives of 

 these districts were examined, thirty points being noted 

 and tabulated for each individual. The results were 

 plotted out on maps, so that the physical characters 

 of the native of each district could be detected at a 

 glance. Centres of dark dolichocephalic people were 

 found around Mynydd Hiraethog, S. Cardiganshire, 

 and in the hill country of Glamorgan and Monmouth. 

 These and other centres were afterwards found to be 

 near prehistoric centres of settlement. A very primi- 

 tive type was found in the Plynlymon moorland, a 

 poor, isolated district, the head form of this type being 

 homologised with the Blackwater skull type. A type, 

 apparently related to the round-barrow man, but with 

 softened features, is characteristic of the valley cleft 

 from Bala to Towyn and of its branches. It is very 

 distinct physically and psychically from other Welsh 

 types. In districtis on the coast, with a pelagic 

 climate, and usually near megalithic remains, is found 

 a dark brachycephalic type, with strong jaws. This 

 may be the "old black breed" found in the Shetlands. 

 There is evidence of a chain of localities occupied by 

 people of this type, extending from S.W. Norway 

 (Arbo) along the shores of the Irish Sea, Brittany, 

 Spain, Italy, to the eastern Mediterranean. This line 

 was considered to be connected with a trade route 

 of the Bronze age. Nordic types, amongst Welsh 

 natives, were noted in certain estuaries and open 

 coast localities, and the possibility of Irish Nordic 

 types being represented In mid-Cardiganshire was dis- 

 cussed< To explain the distribution of Neolithic and 

 other types in Wales, Prof. Fleure maintained that 

 the Neolithic inhabitants had occupied only the higher 

 lying, wind-swept moorlands, and that the thickly 

 wooded river valleys served as barriers to migrating 

 peoples. 



Geological Society, November 17.— Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward, president, in the chair, — J. Parkinson : 

 Some observations on Xhe structure of the northern 

 frontier district and Jubaland Provinces of the East 

 Africa Protectorate. A floor of gneisses and schists 

 is overlain on the western side by lavas, including 

 those arising from the volcanoes Kulal, Assi, Hurri, 

 Marsabit, etc., and by probably older lava-fields which 

 together extend as far as long. 39° E. On the south, 

 it was found that the lavas north of Kenya reached 

 the Guaso Nyiro, but that a high gneiss country ex- 

 tended north-westwards from lat. 1° N. and long. 

 38° E. to within a short distance of Lake Rudolf. 

 Eastwards the coastal belt of sediments proved to be 

 of Upper Oxfordian age and to extend to long. 40^° E., 

 and these were lost southwards under the great alluvial 

 plain of Jubaland. At intervals throughout the alluvial 

 plain disconnected exposures were found of soft cal- 

 careous sandstones or limestones, the age of which 

 cannot now be definitely fixed. Evidences of the desic- 

 cation of the country were shown (i) by the laks, or 

 water-channels, characteristic of Jubaland, which con- 

 tained surface-water only during the rainy season and 

 then extremely rarely, if ever, throughout their length ; 



(2) by the presence of fresh-water molluscs in the 

 scarcely consolidated beds of such laks and at other 

 places where now no surface-water is present; and 



(3) by the presence of wells along fault-lines and in 

 other places where, but for the previous presence of 

 springs, it appears improbable that the natives would 

 have begun sinking. 



Linnean Society, November 18. -Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 president, in the chair. — Dr. E. J. Salisbury : Photo- 

 graphic studies of Welsh vegetation. The subject was 

 dealt with under the following heads :—(i) The vege- 



