February 21, 190 (J 



NATURE 



411 



centres ; Birmingham had a great opportunity of founding a 

 professorship ; at Cambridge, if a sum of 200/. or 300/. could be 

 guaranteed for a few years, a chair could be established ; this was 

 an opportunity for an Englishman to emulate the good works of 

 American millionaires in coming to the aid of science. Not only 

 in respect of teaching, but also in respect of ethnographical collec- 

 tions and accommodation for them, was Great Britain far behind 

 other nations. (See p. 402.) 



Geological Society, Feb. 6.— Mr. J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — On the structure and afifinities of the 

 Rhtetic plant Naiadita, by Miss Igerna B. J. Sollas, Newnham 

 College, Cambridge. (Communicated by Prof. W. J. Sollas, 

 F. R.S.) This plant, the remains of which are found in 

 Gloucestershire, was considered to be a monocotyledon by 

 Buckman, but a moss by Starkie Gardner. Material supplied 

 by Mr. Seward and Mr. Wickes has given the authoress ground 

 for the belief that Naiadita is an aquatic lycopod, and that it 

 is the earliest recorded example of a fossil member of the Lyco- 

 podiaceae, resembling in proportions and outward morphology 

 the existing representatives of the group. — On the origin of the 

 Dunmail Raise (Lake District), by Richard D. Oldham. The 

 conclusion arrived at is that the gap of the Dunmail Raise was 

 formed by a river, which flowed across the hills from north to 

 south and cut down its channel pari passu with the elevation 

 of the hills. The final victory of upheaval over erosion, 

 whereby this river was divided into two separate drainage- 

 systems and the barrier of the Dunmail Raise upheaved, may 

 have synchronised with a diversion of the head-waters -and con- 

 sequent diminution of volume and erosive power. It is pointed 

 out that this explanation comes into conflict with previously 

 published theories of the origin of the drainage-system of the 

 Lake District, inasmuch as the elevation postulated seems too 

 slow to be explicable by the intrusion of a laccolite ; and that 

 the existence of a large river crossing the area of upheaval, and 

 the maintenance of its character as an antecedent river-valley 

 for a long period, show that the surface was originally a pene- 

 plain of subaerial denudation, and not a plain of marine sedi- 

 mentation or erosion. From this it follows that the course of 

 the main drainage-valleys may not have been determined by 

 the original uplift, but, with the exception of those which are 

 old river-valleys, whose direction of flow has been reversed on 

 the northern side of the uplift, may have been formed by the 

 cutting-back by erosion into the rising mass of high ground — in 

 other words, that the principal valleys of the Lake District may 

 be subsequent, not consequent, in origin. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, February 5. — Prof. 

 Horace Lamb, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. T. Thorp 

 and Dr. C. H. Lees were nominated as auditors for the current 

 year. — Prof. Flux referred to the records of a recent report on 

 water, gas and electricity unde.rtakings, so far as they showed 

 the rate of return on the capital invested in each case. The 

 rates were grouped most thickly about 3 to 3^ per cent, for 

 each class of enterprise, more closely in the case of water and, 

 in a less degree, of gas than in the case of electricity. The 

 total number of undertakings contributing to the result named 

 was 1351, and the lowness of the figure representing the most 

 frequent rate seemed rather striking. — Mr. Thomas Thorp 

 mentioned that he had made further progress with an instru- 

 ment designed to yield a pure monochromatic image of the sun, 

 and had been able to obtain results of an encouraging nature. 

 He hoped to be able to perfect the instrument in a short time 

 and to exhibit it before the Society. — Dr. George Wilson read 

 a paper, prepared by Mr. H. Noble and himself, entitled " Note 

 on the construction of entropy diagrams from steam-engine 

 indicator diagrams," showing how the effect of the clearance 

 steam may be taken account of in the ordinary pressure-volume 

 curve, thus enabling trials of different engines to give directly 

 comparable results. — Mr. C. E. Stromeyer read a paper on the 

 representation on a conical mantle of the areas on a sphere, 

 in which he showed that the representation of points on the 

 surface of a sphere on an enveloping cone, the distance of cor- 

 responding points on sphere and cone from the vertex of the 

 cone being equal, gives a map on the developed cone the areas 

 on which are proportional to those on the. sphere. — The 

 president announced at the close of the meeting that April 22 

 had been provisionally fixed for the delivery of the postponed 

 Wilde Lecture by Dr. Metchnikoff. 



NO. 1634, VOL. 63] 



Edinburgh. 

 Mathematical Society, February 8. — Note on the cooling 

 of a sphere in a finite mass of well- stirred liquid, by Dr. Peddle. 

 — Some inequalities relating to arithmetic, geometric and other 

 algebraic means, by R. F. Muirhead. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, February 11. — M. Fouque in the 

 chair. — On the generation of the hydrocarbons by the metallic 

 carbides, by M. Berthelot. From an examination of the thermo- 

 chemical data concerning the metallic carbides, it is shown that 

 the condition that an acetylide on treatment with water should 

 give acetylene is that the difference between the heats of for- 

 mation of the metallic hydrate and acetylide should be greater 

 than 196 'I calories. This is the case with the carbides of the 

 alkalies and the alkaline earths, but not for the acetylide of 

 silver, and this latter compound is accordingly not decomposed 

 by water. The cause of the production of a complicated gas 

 mixture in some cases is also discussed from a thermochemical 

 point of view. — Observations on the solutions of solid metals 

 in mercury, and more generally in other fused metals, by M. 

 Berthelot. It is pointed out that the use of the word solution 

 to express the uniform distribution of a metal in mercury is not, 

 strictly speaking, parallel to ordinary solution. — On precession, 

 by M. O. Backlund. Correcting an error in a previous note. — 

 On the specific heats of fluids, the elements of which are sub- 

 mitted to their mutual actions, by M. P. Duhem. It is shown 

 that all the laws demonstrated in elementary thermodynamics 

 for a fluid submitted to a normal and uniform pressure may be 

 extended to a fluid the elements of which exercise any actions 

 whatever upon each other, whether Newtonian or not. — On 

 the photography of the solar corona in solar eclipses, by 

 M. H. Deslandres. An account of the methods employed 

 and the results obtained on the photography of the sun's 

 corona during the solar eclipse of May 28, 1900. — On the 

 theory of the satellites of Jupiter, by M. J- J- Landerer. 

 A comparison of the results of observation with the theory 

 of Souillart. — A new class of algebraic surfaces which 

 admit of a continuous deformation and still remain algebraic, 

 by M. D. Th. Egorov. — On certain transformations of Back- 

 lund, by M. Clairin. — On the theorem of Hugoniot and the 

 theory of characteristic surfaces, by M. J. Coulon. — On a class 

 of partial differential equations of the second order, by M. R. 

 d'Adhemar. — On the linear partial differential forms of a 

 system of simultaneous differential equations which are also 

 the integrals of this system, by M. A. Buhl. — On circular 

 arches, by M. Ribiere. — On the diurnal variation of the mag- 

 netic declination, by M. Alfred Angot. — Calculation of the 

 formula giving the law of the regular distribution of the hori- 

 zontal component of the earth's magnetism in France on 

 January i, 1896, by M. E. Mathias. — An electric anemometer 

 indicating at a distance, by M. Emmanuel Legrand. The motion 

 of the vanes of the anemometer drives a small Gramme ring, 

 the current from which is connected to a d'Arsonval galvano- 

 meter at a distance. The electromotive force produced is pro- 

 portional to the velocity of rotation of the vane. — Telephonic 

 communication by means of a wire stretched across the snow, 

 by M. A. Ricco. — Remarks on the preceding communication, 

 by M. Janssen. — The law of transparency of matter for the X- 

 rays, by M. Louis Benoist. The specific opacity of a body to 

 the X-rays is independent of its physical state, of the mode of 

 atomic grouping and of the state of liberty or combination of 

 the atoms. For X-rays sufficiently penetrating and homo- 

 geneous, the specific opacity of elements is a determinate and 

 increasing function of the atomic weight, the two magnitudes 

 being approximately proportional. — New researches on electric 

 convection, by M. V. Cremieu. The author has repeated some 

 of his original experiments with additional precautions, and 

 considers it finally established that under the conditions of the 

 experiments of Rowland and Himstedt electric convection 

 produces no magnetic effect. — On musical impressions, by M. 

 Firmin Larroque. — On the formation and decomposition of the 

 acetals, by M. Marcel Delepine. The formation of acetals is a 

 limited reaction, a state of equilibrium being set up between the 

 alcohol, acetal, aldehyde and water. The results of experiments 

 upon the limiting values of this reaction are given for methylal, 

 dipropyl formal, erythrite diformal and mannite diformal. — On 

 the elimination of methane from the atmosphere, by M. V. 

 Urbain. Recent researches by MM. Muntz and Aubin and by M. 

 Gautier on the amount of methane in the atmosphere, compared 



