668 



NATURE 



[February io, 191 6 



Geological Society, January 19. — Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, president, in the chair.— H. Bury : The physical 

 geography of Bournemouth. The curves ot the 

 plateaux in the Hampshire basin (including that of 

 Bournemouth) show a marked relation to the main 

 river-valleys, indicating that the latter were in exist- 

 ence before the plateau-gravel was deposited. The 

 fact that this gravel everywhere covers the main water- 

 sheds is inconsistent with the theory of deposition on 

 simple river-terraces, and points to widespread floods 

 and the formation of gravel-sheets at one or more 

 periods, Palaeoliths are most frequent at low levels 

 (below 140 ft. O.D.), but occur up to 350 ft. O.D., 

 where their presence must be due either to a vast 

 accumulation of gravel in Chellean times, or to 

 channelling at later dates. The Chines along the 

 coast of Bournemouth Bay did not originate at the 

 cliff-edge and grow inland, but are the over-deepened 

 bottoms of older and longer valleys. A similar double 

 structure is seen in the Chines of the south-western 

 corner of the Isle of Wight, where it is due to the 

 destruction of part of the valley of the Yar by the 

 sea since the deposition of the valley-gravel ; and it is 

 suggested that the Bournemouth Chines are due to the 

 breach of the Solent River by the sea at the same 

 late period. The 140-ft. bluff, running all across 

 Hampshire to the sea-cliff at Goodwood, is compar- 

 able with the loo-ft. terrace of the Thames, and was 

 probably formed in an estuary in pre-Chellean times. 

 The rate of recession of the cliff in the western part 

 of Bournemouth Bay is estimated at about i ft. per 

 annum. It may be' more in the eastern part. The 

 angle of the cliffs is said to have become steeper of 

 late years; but this is not true of the western part of 

 the bay, and it is desirable that the observations on 

 which the belief rests should be published. 



Linnean Society, January 20. — Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 president, in the chair.— Miller Christy : The definition 

 of "right" and "left" in relation to coiled, rolled, re- 

 volving, and similar objects : a problem in scientific 

 terminology. The author referred to such terms as 

 "right" and "left," following or against the sun (in 

 northern latitudes), "clock-wise" and "counter clock- 

 wise," as used by biologists, and also cited terms used 

 by mathematicians which could not be used by natural- 

 is'ts with any advantage. He advocated the usage 

 postulated by Linnaeus, in his " Philosophia botanica," 

 p. 103, before he became confused and altered his 

 definition to an absurdity, and recommended the use 

 of the heraldic terms ""dextral" and "sinistral" as 

 unambiguous terms. — H. W. Moncliton : Some aspects 

 of the flora of the Bagshot district. This communica- 

 tion deals with the area occupied by the geological 

 formation known as "The Main Mass of the Bagshot 

 Sands." About half is in Surrey, the remainder being 

 nearly equally divided between Berkshire and Hamp- 

 shire. The greater part was until recent times a tract 

 of pine-woods, heaths, and peaty swamps, and its 

 character was mainly due to the sandy nature of the 

 Bagshot formation and the gravels resting upon it. 

 The flora of much of the area resembles that of the 

 Oak-Birch-Heath Association ("Types of Brit. Vegeta- 

 tion," ed. by A. G. Tansley, Cambridge, 191 1, p. loi). 

 Other parts fit in well with the Heath Association, 

 o/). cit., p. 105. Much of the high ground forms 

 plateaux covered with gravel some 10 to 15 ft. thick, 

 and on it are found the usual heath-plants. Illece- 

 hrum verticillatum is perhaps the most interesting 

 plant found in the district. 



Manchester. 

 Literany and Philosophical Society, January 25. — Prof. 

 S. J. Hickson, president, in the chair. ^ — Dr. H. F. 

 Coward and F. Bailey : Causes of luminosity in coal- 



NO. 2415, VOL. 96] 



gas flames. A stream of coal-gas was passed through 

 a tube immersed in solid carbolic acid and ether, at 

 — 79° C. This condensed completely all the benzene, 

 toluene, and similar substances, but allowed the whole 

 of the ethylene to pass forward with the gas. The lumin- 

 osity of the flame of the issuing gas was very feeble in 

 comparison with that of the original gas. Measure- 

 ments carried out by Mr. W. Buckley at the Corpora- 

 tion Gas Works, Rochdale Road, Manchester, showed 

 that a particular coal-gas lost 78 per cent, of its illu- 

 minatini* power by this treatment. The benzene 

 hydrocarbons therefore contribute far more to the 

 luminosity of coal-gas flames than does ethylene, in 

 spite of the fact that the volume of ethylene present 

 is usually three to five times the volume of benzene 

 vapour.— Prof. S. J. Hickson, Dr. W. M. Tattersall,. 

 and others : Animal symmetry and the differentiation 

 of species. 



Edinburgh. | 



Royal Society, January 24. — Dr. Home, president, in I 

 the chair.— Dr. J. E. Mackenzie and Dr. Ghosh : The ^ 

 optical rotation and cryoscopic behaviour of sugars dis- 

 solved in (a) formamide, (b) water. To previous re- 

 sults already published the authors have added experi- 

 ments for ^-d-glucose, ^-d-galactose, and maltose. As 

 in the case of the water solutions of these sugars, the 

 constant rotation shown when there is equilibrium be- 

 tween the two multiplications is found to be the same 

 whether the starting point be the o or the /3 modifica- 

 tion. The phenomena are of the same nature in non- 

 aqueous and aqueous solutions. Any explanation of 

 mutarotation reactions must account for such actions 

 taking place in the absence of water. — Dr. Ghosh : 

 Note on the sublimation of sugars. It was shown that 

 under diminished pressure rhamnose and fructose 

 sublime. Up to this time the only sugar which had 

 been observed to sublime was glycolose. — W. Collinge : 

 A revision of British Idoteidae, a family of marine 

 Isopoda. The object was to revise the diagnoses cf 

 the British genera and species, and set forth, in greater 

 detail than has hitherto been done, their structure 

 and the classification and affinities of the family. The 

 investigation was carried out in the Gatty Marine 

 Laboratory of St. Andrews University. 



Dublin. 

 Royal Dublin Society, January 25. — Prof. J. A. McClel- 

 land in the chair.— Prof. Hugh Ryan and T. Dillon : 

 The hydrocarbons of beeswax. Inconsistencies in the . 

 results obtained in the analysis of beeswax led to an : 

 examination of the action of potash-lime on alcohols. 

 The volume of hydrogen evolved by the interaction 

 of higher primary alcohols and potash-lime is nearly 

 but not quite in accordance with the equation :— 



C,.H2„+i CH,OH + KOH = C„H2„+i COOK -1 all,. 



Higher secondary and tertiary alcohols, such as 

 pentadecyl-^-tolyl carbinol and heptadecyldimethyl 

 carbinol do not evolve hydrogen when heated to 

 250° C. with potash-lime, and similarly the volume 

 of hydrogen evolved by the action of alkali on glucose 

 corresponds very nearly to the one primary alcoholic 

 group in the sugar. The solids extracted by petroleum i! 

 ether from the product of the action of potash-lime on 

 myricin contain a small percentage of oxygen, and for 

 this, as well as other reasons, the "potash-lime 

 method " of determining hydrocarbons in beeswax 

 yields results which are too high. — Prof. Hugh Ryan 

 and M. J. Walsh : Desoxyhj^drocatechlntetramethyl 

 ether. The chromane formula for catechin proposed 

 by A. G. Perkin and Yoshltake exhibits the genetic 

 relations of the phlobatannins, the flavone, and the 

 anthocyan dyes, much more clearly than the coumarane 



