Januarv io, iqoi 1 



NATURE 



267 



material from the sun, giving rise to the streamers. These, 

 acting on the lighter materials of approaching and receding 

 comets, would tend to form the tails pointing in the well-known 

 manner. Electrons would be projected in great quantity along 

 with the streamers, and would, when they reached the earth, 

 have obvious effects upon terrestrial magnetism. These effects 

 would occur about a year after the outburst on the sun which 

 projected the electrons producing the effects. The second part 

 of the paper was very speculative, and aimed at showing that 

 gravitation and electric force were fundamentally the same. A 

 fuller presentation of this theory was promised in a future paper. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, Dec. 31, 1900.— M. Maurice Levy in 

 the chair. — Revision of the arc of meridian of Quito, by General 

 Bassot. The necessary funds having been voted by the French 

 Government, the plan of operations proposed is sketched out, 

 and the names of the surveying party given. It is proposed to 

 measure about six degrees of arc, and the operations, which will 

 be commenced about June 1901, will probably take four years. 

 A committee of the Academy, consisting of MM. Faye, H. 

 Poincare, Hatt, Bassot and LcEwy, was appointed to control 

 the operations of the mission. — Rectification of an analytical 

 datum relating to the amount of hydrogen disengaged from 

 granites by acids, by M. Armand Gautier. In a note previously 

 published upon this subject, the amount of hydrogen given was 

 too large, as it has been found that the powder was contaminated 

 with some iron introduced accidentally during the process of 

 powdering. — On the differentiation of the vascular tissues of the 

 leaf and stem, by M. Gaston Bonnier, An examination of the 

 origin of the vascular nieristem in the leaf, and a comparison of 

 its differentiation with that of the analogous tissues occurring in 

 the stem. The paper is accompanied by eight illustrations. — 

 M. Dedekind was elected a correspondent for the section of 

 geometry, and Prof. Strasburger a correspondant for the section 

 of botany, in the place of Sir Joseph Hooker, elefcted Foreign 

 Associate. — Remarks by General Sebert on the report of the 

 French Association for the Advancement of Science. — On the 

 longitude of the moon, by M. H. Andoyer. In the develop- 

 ment of the co-ordinates of the moon in trigonometrical series 

 by Delaunay, the coefficients are inexact. The correct 

 coefficients, recalculated by two independent methods, are 

 now given. — On a new calculating circle, by M. Pierre Weiss. 

 The circular slide rule described has a diameter of 16 cm., 

 and possesses an accuracy of I in 2000. It is claimed that 

 this instrument is simpler in working than the ordinary 

 straight form of slide rule. — On a relation between the 

 coefficient of expansion and the melting-point of metals, by M. 

 Lemeray. It is shown that if the coefficients of expansion of 

 the metals are plotted against their absolute melting-points, the 

 points lie roughly on a rectangular hyperbola. — The constant of 

 universal gravitation. On a cause of asymmetry in the use of 

 the Cavendish balance, by M. Marcel Brillouin. — The direct 

 application of a telephonic receiver to wireless telegraphy, by 

 MM. Popoff and Ducretet. A telephonic receiver for the 

 Hertzian waves is described and figured. By its use the relays 

 and the striker or automatic decoherer can be dispensed with, and 

 the sensitiveness of the instrument is greatly increased, messages 

 sent.by a small Ruhmkorff coil (4 mm. spark) being easily made 

 out at a distance of 500 metres, the ordinary arrangement with 

 relays giving no response under the same conditions. — On the 

 diurnal variation of atmospheric electricity, by M. A. B. Chau- 

 veau. — On the place of indium in the classification of the 

 elements, by MM, C. Chabrie and E. Rengade. The assump- 

 tion of an atomic weight of 113 for indium, corresponding to the 

 oxide IngOs, is confirmed by the preparation of well charac- 

 terised alums with csesium and rubidium. The acetonylacetonate 

 of indium was also prepared, in the hope of determining its 

 molecular weight by means of its vapour density, but although 

 a well-defined crystalline acetonylacetonate was obtained, it was 

 not volatile. — Study of uranium nitrate, by M. QLchsner de 

 Coninck. Solubility determinations in different organic liquids. 

 — The crystalline form of the luteocobaltic chlorsulphate and 

 chlorseleniate, by M. T. Klobb. — On the osmosis of liquids 

 through a membrane of pig's bladder, by M, G. Flusin. It has 

 been shown in a previous communication that the velocity of 

 osmosis of liquids through a membrane of vulcanised rubber 

 varies in the same manner as the absorption capacity of the 

 mernbrane . for the liquids. The same relation has now been 

 found to hold for a membrane of pig's bladder. — The anti- 

 coagulating action of intra venal injections of the milk of one 



NO. 1628, VOL. 63] 



animal species upon the blood of animals of the same species, 

 by M. L. Camus, — The cytological formula of the normal 

 serosities of. the pleura and peritoneum of the ox, by MM. J. 

 Sabrazes and L. Muratet. — On the muscular serum, by M. 

 Charles Richet. Muscle serum, although taken normally irito 

 the stomach as a food substance, produces strong toxic effects 

 when injected under the skin. This effect is not produced after 

 the serum has been coagulated by heat. — Indications of organic 

 substances in certain mineral waters in the precipitate obtained 

 with barium hydrate, by M. F, Garrigou, — On the common 

 origin of the tissues of the leaf and stem in Phanerogams, by 

 M. Leon Flot. — The presence of methyl alcohol in the fer- 

 mented juices of several fruits, by M. Jules Wolff. The juices 

 of the following fruits were examined : — black currants, prunes, 

 mirabelle plums, cherries, pears, white and black grapes. After 

 fermentation, the alcohol obtained was found to contain small 

 quantities of methyl alcohol, varying from 2 per cent, for the 

 spirit from black currants to 0'I5 per cent, in that from grapes. 



New South Wales. 

 Royal Society, November 7, 1900. — The President, Prof. 

 Liversidge, F.R.S., in the chair. — Current Papers, No. 5, byH, 

 C. Russell, C. M.G., F.R.S. This paper includes the records of 

 108 current papers collected during the past thirteen months. 

 The total number of papers recorded in the whole series is 

 now 602 ; these have been published in the Society's Proceed- 

 ings. At this stage it is worth while to see what important 

 results have been attained. Beginning, then, in the Indian 

 Ocean, it is found that north of the Equator current papers 

 drift to the eastward, but the number of papers found is too 

 small to determine the rate of drift. From the Equator to 

 latitude 10° south, current papers drift easterly on to equatorial 

 Africa ; five papers in this area made an average drift of 13 "3 

 miles per day. Taking the next section, that is, from 10° south 

 to 23" south, the average daily rate derived from eleven papers 

 is 1 6 "5 miles. From 23° south to 33" south, no papers have 

 been found drifting westerly or easterly, except a few papers 

 put afloat close to Australia, and they, as usual, went ashore. In . 

 the next area, i.e. between 33° south and 43° south, in the 

 Indian Ocean, the current papers drift easterly, or, more 

 accurately, east-north-east ; twenty-one long distance papers in 

 this area give an average daily drift of 7 6 miles. In the next 

 section, i.e. 43° south to 50° south, twenty current papers show 

 a daily easterly drift of 9*4 miles. Tabulating the dates at 

 which current papers are found, it appears that the smallest 

 number of current papers came ashore at the times of the 

 Equinoxes (March and September), and the greatest number 

 received in one month of each year is : — May 1897, ten papers ; 

 October 1898, twelve papers; August 1899, fourteen papers; 

 and February 1900, fourteen papers. — The Sun's Motion in 

 Space, Part i., History and Bibliography, by G. H. Knibbs. 

 Apart from its intrinsic interest, the determination of the 

 direction and quantity of the sun's motion in space is of impor- 

 tance, as the condition of further progress in developing a 

 satisfactory system of defining the places of stars. The estab- 

 lishment of such fixed planes of reference as will be unaffected 

 by the relative or absolute motions of the sun and stars, even 

 for great periods of time, is clearly a desideratum, if not 

 essential in any thorough scheme of analysis of such movements. 

 The preliminary paper (Part i.) gives an account of the history 

 and bibliography of the development of the idea of a motion of 

 translation of the sun through space, and also of the determina- 

 tions of the direction and amount of this motion, indicating 

 briefly, at the same time, the general principles underlying those 

 determinations. The conception of an indefinitely extended 

 stellar universe, in which the sun and its planetary system is 

 but a single and perhaps insignificant member, is one that the 

 world owes to Giordano Bruno, in 1584. The part played by 

 Bruno, Schyrleus, Fontenelle, Halley, Bradley, Wright, Kant, 

 Mayer, Lambert, Michell and Lalande in establishing and 

 extending the conception is indicated. The first deduction of 

 the direction of the solar motion was made by Pierre Prevost 

 in 1781 from twenty-six stars, the latest by Kobold from 226a 

 stars. — On a Eucalyptus oil containing sixty per cent, of geranyl 

 acetate, by Henry G. Smith. In this paper the author shows 

 that the oil of Eucalyptus macarthuri, known locally as 

 Paddy's River Box, is very rich in geraniol, it containing 60 

 per cent, of geranyl acetate, and I0'64 per cent, of free 

 alcohol, calculated as geraniol. 



Linnean Society, Nov. 28, 1900. — Mr. Henry Deane, Vice^ 

 President, in the chair.— Notes on the botany of the interior of New 



