December 13, 1900] 



NA TURE 



T7f 



about three feet of water, and floated on the surface. The nest 

 was two feec long and a foot wide ; the walls of the nest stood 

 several inches out of the water around two sides and one end. 

 The opposite wall was low, and here was the entrance to the 

 nest. Nests of Heterotis niloticus, Hyperopisus bebe and 

 Sarcodaces odoe were also described. — A series of papers on the 

 collections made during the "Skeat Expedition " to the Malay 

 Peninsula in 1899-1900 was read, Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote 

 reported on the mammals, and enumerated the fifty-four species 

 of which specimens had been obtained. One new species was 

 described as Mus ciliata. Mr. N. Annandale gave a short 

 description, illustrated with lantern slides, of the country 

 traversed, and read the notes he had made on the habits and 

 natural surroundings of the insects he had observed. Mr. F, F. 

 Laidlaw gave an account of the frogs collected by himself and 

 Mr. Annandale ; they embraced examples of twenty-nine 

 species, of which four, viz. Rana signata, R. Lateralis, Biifo 

 jerboa and Microhyla mornata, had not previously been 

 recorded from the Malay Peninsula. The earthworms collected 

 during the expedition were reported upon by Mr. F. E. 

 Beddard, who described from amongst them ten new species 

 belonging to the genus Amyntas. — A communication was read 

 from Dr. Arthur G. Butler containing an account of the butter- 

 flies collected by Mr. Richard Crawshay in the Kikuyu Country 

 of British East Africa in the years 1899 and 1900. The species 

 represented in the collection were 116 in number, six of which 

 were described as new in the paper. — Mr. R. Newstead con- 

 tributed a paper on a new scale-insect (Walkeriana pertinax), 

 collected by H.B.M. Commissioner Alfred Sharpe, C.B., at 

 Zomba, British Central Africa, which was stated to be probably 

 the largest species of Coccid yet discovered, the maximum 

 measurements being 20*50 mm. long and 10 mm. high. As in 

 the genus Callipappus the abdomen was intus-suscepted, form- 

 ing a pouch for the reception of the ova and the hatching of the 

 larvae. 6258 of the latter were taken from the body of a single 

 female. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, November 19. — Prof. Copeland, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — The chairman gave the substance of 

 communications from the Scottish Office, Whitehall, and from 

 the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences, as to the Nobel Foundation. — In a paper on the 

 diurnal range of temperature in the Mediterranean during the 

 summer months, Dr. Buchan gave some important conclusions 

 based on the observations made by the staff" of the Austrian 

 ship Fola. These had been taken at various depths, and a 

 study of them showed that in water deeper than 100 fathoms a 

 daily change of temperature could be detected to a depth of 

 about 150 feet. Thus averaging from 50 distinct sets of 

 observations, he found that the temperature of the surface 

 waters in the afternoon" was greater than the temperature in the 

 morning by l '5° F., and that this difference gradually diminished 

 with increase of depth, having for example the value 0*3° F. at 

 a depth of 100 feet. That* such a depth should be reached by 

 the solar radiation seemed very remarkable, and the process by 

 which the heat was lost during the night seemed to demand a 

 careful consideration of our theories of radiation. — Dr. Alex- 

 ander Bruce read an elaborate paper on the topography of the 

 gray matter and motor cell in the spinal cord, the results being 

 demonstrated by a series of finely prepared lantern slides. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, December 3. — M. Maurice Levy in 

 the chair. — Study of the carbide of samarium, by M. Henri 

 Moissan. A mixture of samarium oxide and carbon, sub- 

 mitted to the temperature of the electric furnace, gives easily a 

 crystallised carbide of the formula SaC2, comparable with the 

 oxides of lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and praseodymium. 

 This carbide decomposes cold water in a similar manner to the 

 carbides of the alkaline earths, giving a complex mixture of hydro- 

 carbons, rich in acetylene. In this respect samarium behaves 

 more like the ytrrium group and differs from the cerium group 

 of rare earths. — Observations of the comet, 1900 b (Borrelly- 

 Brooks) made with the large equatorial of the observatory of 

 Bordeaux, by MM. G. Rayet and A. Feraud. The positions of 

 this comet were measured on nine evenings between September 

 13 and October 25. On the latter date the comet had still a 

 very faint tail, and the nucleus was slightly elongated. — 

 The changes of solar temperature and the variations of rain 



NO. 1624, VOL. 63] 



in regions surrounding the Indian Ocean, by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer and Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer. A connection is traced 

 between the occurrence of dry and wet seasons and the 

 maximum and minimum temperatures of the sun, as determined 

 by the area of sun spots. — New comparative researches on the 

 products of combustion of different apparatus for lighting, by 

 M. N. Grehant. The products of combustion from incande- 

 scent burners, candles and petroleum lamps were compared, 

 with especial reference to the amount of carbon monoxide pro- 

 duced. The results are best compared by examining the ratio 

 of the volumes of CO : COg produced. This ratio was I : 655 

 for the Auer burners, i : 1025 for the oil lamps and i to 1610 

 for the candles. — On isothermal surfaces, by M. A. Thybout. — 

 On the minimum of certain integrals, by M. H. Lebesgue. 

 — Geometrography in space, by M. Emile Lemoine. — On the 

 theory of electrocapillary phenomena, by M. Gouy. The author 

 states that the view generally held as to the causes of electro- 

 capillary phenomena, the Helmholtz hypothesis of double 

 layers, is not in accord with experiment. The view is here put 

 forward that forces exist between the mercury and the ions or 

 molecules of the dissolved body which are non-electrical. This 

 leads to the conclusion that there exists in general a triple 

 electric layer, which may, in certain cases, be reduced to a 

 double layer. — Acidimetry of the aldehydes and ketones, by 

 MM. A. Astruc and H. Murco. The behaviour of a large 

 number of fatty and aromatic aldehydes and ketones towards 

 helianthine A, phenolphthalein, and Porrier's blue has been 

 studied. The results are in general accord with the 

 thermochemical data. — On some reactions of substituted ani- 

 lines, by M. CEchsner de Coninck. An account of the re- 

 actions between methyl-, dimethyl-, ethyl-, and diethyl-ani- 

 line and copper sulphate, chloride, and acetate, and 

 nickel and cobalt chlorides. — On the presence of an 

 iron thiocarbonate in the water of the Rhone, by M. H. 

 Causse. At certain times of the year the Rhone water possesses 

 the property of restoring the colour to Schiff's reagent. After 

 proving that no aldehyde was present in the water, the reaction 

 was proved to be caused by a thiocarbonate of iron, FeC02S, 

 which was made synthetically in two or three ways. There 

 appears to be some connection between the amount of this 

 substance present in the Rhone water and the number of cases 

 of typhoid fever in the Rhone valley. — Determination of over- 

 heating or under-heating of plaster of Paris in furnaces, by 

 M. L. Perin. — Permeability of the external wall of the marine 

 invertebrate, not only to water but also to salts, by M. R. 

 Quinton. It is shown experimentally in a decisive manner 

 that the external wall of the marine invertebrate is 

 permeable, not only to water, but to such salts as 

 sodium chloride and phosphate. Hence the higher marine in- 

 vertebrate, although closed anatomically, is osmotically open, 

 and hence resembles the lower marine invertebrate, physiologi- 

 cally and anatomically, in being a colony of marine cells. — A 

 volatile poison, the cutaneous secretion of lulus terrestris, by 

 M. C. Phisalix. During a research on the action of this venom 

 upon guinea-pigs, it was found that the poison was volatile ; 

 hence it is probable that the active principle is not an albumenoid 

 material. — The large migratory Acridians of the Old and New 

 World of the genus Schistocera ; their changes in colour accord- 

 ing to age and season ; the physiological rdle of pigments ; by 

 M. J. Kunckel d'Herculais. — On the disease of the carnation 

 produced by Fusarium Dianthi, by M. G. Delacroix. The 

 conidia of Fusarium Dianthi can be killed in seven hours 

 by the vapour of carbon bisulphide. Ordinary formalin 

 of commerce, diluted with one thousand parts of water, kills the 

 chlamydospores in an hour. — On the simultaneous production 

 of two nitrogen compounds in the crater of Vesuvius, by 

 M. R. V. Matteucci. During the recent eruption, the simul- 

 taneous ejection of rocks covered with sal ammoniac and iron 

 nitride was noticed, and these are regarded as being intimately 

 related in their formation. — Remarks by M. Armand Gautier 

 on the preceding paper. — On the tectonic continuity of Tonkin 

 with China, by M. A. Lecl^re. — Chemical and mineral ogical 

 examination of the Lan^on meteorite, by M. Stanislas Meunier, 

 — On some therapeutic applications of light, by M. P. Garnault. 

 Light may be utilised with great advantage in a certain number 

 of diseases, and the results obtained are certainly due to its 

 specific action. The cases most successfully treated are 

 muscular and chronic articular rheumatism, various ulcers and 

 chronic catarrh of the nose and ear. 



