December 9, 191 5] 



NATURE 



417 



^de VVatteville. He described a simple and convenient 

 [burner by means of which the various flame pheno- 

 lena can be readily subjected to spectroscopic observa- 

 )n and experiment. Photographs were shown to 

 lustrate the changes in the_ Swan spectrum emitted 

 the explosion region of flames on passing from rich 

 very weak gas mixtures. For very weak mixtures 

 le ordinarj' Swan spectrum disappears, and another 

 ind spectrum develops. Some experiments were then 

 )wn to demonstrate the action of electric fields on 

 flames of weak gas mixtures charged with sodium 

 ipour. The great sensitiveness of such flames in a 

 igitudinal field was illustrated in several ways, and, 

 |i- particular, it was shown that when the gas mixture 

 id become so weak that in the absence of the electric 

 bid it would no longer ignite, it would do so imme- 

 lately on the field being restored. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, November 15. — Dr. J. Home, vice- 

 )resident, in the chair.— Dr. H. Drlnkwater : Pre- 

 iminary notice of a family showing inherited abnormal 

 »gmentation of the digits of both hands. The chief 

 latomical peculiarities were : — (i) The index, middle, 

 id little finger much reduced in length, the ring 

 iger projecting far beyond the others; (2) radiography 

 •s (a) that the hands belong to the minor brachy- 

 ictylous type, with abortive but separate middle 

 lalanx; (6) that the base of the proximal phalanx 

 ' the index finger was very oblique, instead of being 

 right angles to the length of the bone, a condition 

 lown to be due to the interposition of an extra bone 

 triangular shape ; (c) that there are frequently two 

 )nes in place of the normal single proximal phalanx 

 the middle finger, the extra one being in series 

 ith the extra bone in the index finger. The condition 

 id been hereditary in the family for (at least) four 

 Snerations, and was transmitted on Mendelian lines. — 

 rof. Cossar Ewart and Miss Dorothy Mackenzie ; The 

 )ulting of the king penguin. By means of a beau- 

 ful and complete series of photographs taken by Miss 

 [ackenzie at the Edinburgh Zoological Park, the 

 ^hole succession of stages in the process of moulting 

 was clearly demonstrated. Other connected peculiari- 

 ties of feather growth were also described. 



Dlhlin. 

 Royal Dublin Society, November 23,— Prof. VV. Brown 

 in the chair. — Prof. VV. Brown: The subsidence of tor- 

 sional oscillations and the fotigue of iron wires when 

 subjected to the influence of alternating magnetic 

 fields of frequencies up to 250 per second. In the 

 subsidence of torsional oscillations and in the fatigue 

 of iron wires under the influence of alternating mag- 

 netic fields it was found that the time taken to effect 

 the maximum fatigue was inversely proportional to 

 ;the frequency of the applied alternating magnetic 

 field, and that the maximum value of the fatigue was 

 the same for frequencies 50 to 250 per second. In- 

 creasing the frequency of the alternating magnetic 

 field five times had very little effect on the subsidence 

 of torsional oscillations. — P. E. Belas and Prof. M. 

 (Hartog : The path of a small permeable body moving 

 with negligible acceleration in a bi-polar field. When 

 a small pellet of paraffin wax containing iron dust is 

 floated in glycerine in the vicinity of the poles of an 

 electromagnet, certain curved paths are described by 

 the pellet, which moves so as to include the maximum 

 number of lines of induction. These paths were traced 

 by focusing the image of the pellet on the ground 

 glass of a camera fitted with a right-angled prism, 

 and dotting in with a pencil the successive positions 

 of the image. The curves were taken for similar and 

 dissimilar j)oles. — T. G. Mason; Preliminary notes on 

 the carbohydrates of the Musci. The wide divergence 

 of opinion that prevails concerning the carbohvdrates 

 NO. 2406, VOL. 96] 



of the angiosperms has suggested that an investigation 

 conducted among the Musci would be of interest, and 

 might shed light on the subject of photosynthesis. 

 Dextrose, levulose, and sucrose have been identified in 

 the following species : — Polytrichuni commune, Sphag- 

 num cymbifoUum, and Thuidium tamariscinum. 

 Maltose was found in P. commune alone; it is found 

 only when starch is present. Invertase was detected 

 in P. commune, T. tanuirisciuum, S. cymbifoUum, 

 Brachythecium rivulare, and Dicranus mcijtis. The 

 distribution of diastase and maltase is dependent on the 

 presence of starch. In P. commune and S. cymbi- 

 foUum the hexoses are the chief form in which the 

 carbohydrates are translocated from the leaves. In 

 S. cymbifoUum sucrose is the first sugar to be formed 

 in appreciable quantities after the application of light. 

 — J, J. Dowling : A new form of very high resistance 

 for use with electrometers. To measure very small 

 currents by a steady deflection method, using an elec- 

 trometer, very large resistances are required. The 

 equivalent to such a large resistance may be obtained 

 by alternately charging and discharging a condenser, 

 as in Siemen's method for measuring small capacities. 

 Assuming that the electrometer system has a capacity 

 large compared with the condenser (c farads), which is 

 intermittently connected to it (n times per second), the 

 potential (V), to which the electrometer system rises, 

 when a current (i) is flowing in, is given by the 

 equation ncV = ». The arrangement is thus equivalent 

 to a resistance R—i/nc ohms. Values of R up to 

 10'" ohms have been worked with, but greater values 

 may be obtained. If the condenser is not simply dis- 

 charged each time, but charged with the opposite sign, 

 the method may be used as a "zero" or a "compensa- 

 tion " method. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, November 22. — M. Ed. Perrier 

 in the chair. — L. Maquenne : The action of saccharose 

 on the cupropotassic solution. In the action of alka- 

 line copper solutions upon invert sugar, the reducing 

 power is mainly dependent upon the proportion of 

 alkali and only slightly affected by the proportion of 

 copper. But with cane-sugar the reverse is the case ; 

 the action appears to be one of oxidation by the copper 

 salt, and is not a result of hydrolysis by the alkali. — 

 L. Guignard : New observations on the formation of 

 pollen in certain Monocotyledons. In all the species 

 of I ridaceae examined the mode of division of the mother 

 pollen cell resembles that typical in the Dicotyledons. — 

 A. Blondel and F. Carbenay : The forced oscillations of 

 an oscillating system with discontinuous damping. — 

 P. Carrasco : The structure of the line spectrum of the 

 solar corona. A photograph of the solar corona taken 

 during the eclipse of August 21, 19 14, gave a red line 

 as the most prominent in the spectrum (A 6374). It is 

 now shown that this line is included in Nicholson's 

 series, A = (18-5397— iio29n)', n having the values 

 o, I, 2, 3, etc. — J. Haag : The calculation of time. — 

 Gabriel Sizes : The resonance law of sonorous bodies. 

 — L. Tschugaefl and L. Tschernijaeff : The complex 

 hydroxylamine compounds of bivalent platinum. An 

 account of the preparation of all the members of the 

 series Pt(NH,.OH),(NH,)._„X^ of which only the 

 extremes, Pt(NH,),X, and Pt(NH,.OH),X, were pre- 

 viously known. — M. Dalloni : The upper Miocene in 

 the west of Algeria; the Hipparion layers of Tafna. — 

 P. VV. Stuart-Menteath : The lignites of Bidart-Biarritz. 

 — Louis Lapicque : New methods for electrodiagnosis. 

 — Charles NicoUe and Ludovic Blaizot : New researches 

 on exanthematic typhus. The virus can be preserved 

 indefinitely by transmission through guinea-pigs. 

 During the fever, the unknown micro-organism of 

 typhus is present in all the organs of the body, even 

 when free from blood. — E. Vastlcar : The terminations 

 of the atx)ustic nerve.— H. Colin : The sterilisation of 



