434 



NA TURE 



[February 28, 1901 



wings entirely dark, as in the male ; also a variety of Cartero- 

 cephahis palaemon, with the hind wings dark save for one con- 

 spicuous orange spot. — Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited a large 

 series of Endrosae, collected during the last few years by himself, 

 Mr. A. H. Jones, and especially by Mr. Tutt, showing the rela- 

 tive approximation of the several species. Except irrorella 

 from England, Finmark, and the Tyrol, and a few aurita from 

 the Tyrol, all were from the Western Alps of Switzerland, Italy 

 and France. Examples from each locality, he said, when suffi- 

 ciently numerous usually have a special facies. Some, as all 

 those from Arolla, radiate ; those from Bourg St. Maurice are 

 without radiate forms, and so on. Some are more yellow ; 

 others deeper orange ; some more mixed. Elevation tends to 

 produce radiation, but no other general conclusion as to the 

 effect of height, latitude or longitude seems fully justified by 

 the specimens. — Mr. G. C. Barrett exhibited for Mr. G. O. Day, 

 of Knutsford, a black variety of Aplecta nebulosa, Tr. , with white 

 cilia, and an asymmetrical 9 var. oi Fidonia atomaria, Linn. — 

 Mr. M. Jacoby exhibited an unknown specimen of the family 

 Haliicidte. — Mrs. Nicholl exhibited a collection of Rhopalocera 

 from the Lebanon district of Syria, and Mr. H. J. Elvves, on 

 her behalf, read a paper explaining and illustrating the ' several 

 species included. Among other species Mr. Elwes drew 

 especial attention to Thecla myrtale, which, since it was described 

 by Klug in 1832, has remained one of the least known members 

 of the palsearciic fauna. No specimens, it appears, had been 

 taken in the interval until Mrs. Nicholl found it on the high 

 mountains not uncommonly in May and June. — The following 

 papers were communicated : —A revision of the genus Astathes, 

 Newm., and allied genera of Longicorn Coleoptera, by C. J. 

 Cahan, M.A. , and a preliminary catalogue of the Lepidoptera- 

 Heterocera of Trinidad, by W. J. Kaye. 



Linnean Society, February 7. — Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. H. W. Monckton exhibited some 

 lantern-slides showing a large ammonite in the Kimmeridge clay 

 at Swanage, and several views taken at the Pentland oyster-bed 

 at Tilly Whim, and the Purbeck oyster-bed in Durleston Bay. — 

 The president, whilst demonstrating the property possessed by 

 certain vegetable liquids, such as coconut milk and the juice 

 of the pineapple and the potato, to cause the oxidation of 

 guaiacum tincture in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, a blue 

 colour being produced, drew attention to the recent researches 

 of Raciborski on the subject. Raciborski has made the interest- 

 ing discovery that certain tissues of the plant-body, more 

 particularly the sieve-tubes and the laticiferous tissue, contain 

 some substance, to which he gives the name leptomin, which 

 likewise causes guaiacum to turn blue in the presence of 

 hydrogen peroxide, and has gone on to infer that this leptomin 

 may be regarded as discharging in the plant a function analogous 

 to that of haemoglobin in the animal body. The president 

 urged, against this assumption, that although both leptomin and 

 haemoglobin give the guaiacum reaction, yet this fact does not 

 prove that leptomin can combine with oxygen, and can act as an 

 oxygen-carrier in the organism, in the manner which is so 

 ■characteristic of haemoglobin ; and that, therefore, the suggested 

 analogy between the two substances is at least premature. — Mr. 

 H. M. Bernard read a paper, of which an abstract had been 

 previously circulated, on the necessity for a provisional nomen- 

 -clature for those forms of life which cannot be at once arranged 

 in a natural system. A discussion followed in which Prof. Ray 

 Lankester, Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, Mr. Bateson, Mr. Elwes, 

 and Prof. Jeffery Bell took part. It was proposed by Prof. 

 Lankester, and seconded by Mr. H. J. Elwes, that the discussion 

 be adjourned to another meeting, and that resolutions be framed 

 for submission to that meeting when called. 



Anthropological Institute, February 12. — Prof. Haddon, 

 F.R. S., in the chair. — Mr. A. L. Lewis, treasurer of the 

 Institute, showed slides illustrative of the recent damage to 

 JStonehenge. — A paper was read on Malay metal-work, by Mr. 

 Walter Rosenhain. The paper dealt with some specimens of 

 Malay metal-work submitted to the author for microscopic and 

 other examination by Mr. W. W. Skeat. — Some Malay pro- 

 cesses actually witnessed by Mr. Skeat were described, and the 

 bearings of the microscopic examination on the explanations of 

 these processes were discussed. The first question dealt with 

 was the production of the " damask" pattern on a Malay kris. 

 Microphotographs were given showing that the "damask iron" 

 really consists of layers of loosely welded wrought iron, the only 

 other metal used being tool steel. The body of the blade is 

 made of steel and a layer of laminated "damask iron" is 



NO. 1635. VOL. 63] 



welded upon either side of the central layer of steel ; a thin 

 layer of steel is welded on outside the " damask iron." The 

 author believes that the striated " damask " effect is due to the 

 opening of the loose welds in the damask iron during the 

 forging of the blade, steel being driven between the laminae. 

 The outside layer of steel is entirely ground away, and when 

 the compound surface so produced is " etched" by the pickling 

 process employed, the more readily corroded steel is attacked, 

 leaving the edges of the layers of iron as a series of narrow pro- 

 jected ridges. — The final section of the paper dealt with ihe 

 Malay method of producing chains by casting, and was illus- 

 trated by some successful experiments. 



Mathematical Society, February 14. — Dr. Ilobson, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. Larmor, F.R.S., gave an 

 abstract of a paper by Mr. T. Stuart, entitled "The Dis- 

 tribution of Velocity and the Equations of the Stream Lines, 

 due to the Motion of an Ellipsoid in Fluid Frictionless and 

 Viscous. " — Lieut. -Colonel Cunningham communicated a paperon 

 factorisable twin binomials. Mr. C. E. Bickmore spoke on the 

 subject. — Mr. Tucker gave an account of the brocardal proper- 

 ties of some associated triangles.— The following papers were 

 communicated by the president : Concerning the Abelian and 

 related linear groups, by Dr. L. E. Dickson. — A geometrical 

 theory of differential equations of the first and second order, 

 by Mr. R. W. Hudson. — A note on stability, with a hydro- 

 dynamical application, by Mr. Bromwich. — Remarks on notation 

 in Lie's theory of groups, and on Schur's determination of a 

 continuous group of given structure, with remarks on Mr. 

 Campbell's paper (read at the January meeting), by Mr. H. F. 

 Baker, F. R.S. ; and a note on curves similar and parallel to 

 one another, by Mr. D. B. Mair. 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, February 4. — Prof. Macalister, 

 president, in the chair. — Geometrical notes, by the Master of 

 St. John's College. These notes give simple proofs of Haliey's 

 construction for the normal or normals from a given point to a 

 parabola, and Fregier's theorem that a chord of a conic which 

 subtends' a right angle at a fixed point of the curve passes 

 through a fixed point on the normal thereat. — On the inter- 

 ference bands produced by a thin wedge, by Mr. H. C. 

 Pocklington. The interference bands produced when mono- 

 chromatic light from a small but finite source falls obliquely on 

 a thin wedge of slightly reflecting material are investigated. It 

 is shown that if the incident light is a parallel beam, the bands 

 do not lie in the wedge, but in the air in a plane passing through 

 the edge of the wedge and perpendicular to the reflected 

 light, and that the distance between consecutive bands is A,/2o. 

 — On some rare and interesting fungi, collected during the 

 past year, by Prof. Marshall Ward.— On geotropism, by Mr. 

 F. Darwin. The experiments described were directed to the 

 question whether or not the tip of the root is the region 

 where the gravitation stimulus is perceived. The germinating 

 seeds were so placed that the tip of the root was fixed in the 

 horizontal position, while the base of the root together with the 

 seed could move. Since the supposed sensitive region remains 

 horizontal, it was expected that the motor region of the root 

 would continue to curve in response to the continued stimulation 

 of the tip. This was found to be the case. But the great 

 technical difficulties of the method and certain difficulties of 

 interpretation render the evidence less striking than might have 

 been hoped. — Notes on artificial cultures of Xylaria, by Miss 

 E. Dale (communicated by Prof. Marshall Ward). Two species 

 were cultivated from ascospores and grew equally well on pieces 

 of the sterilised wood of beech, oak and silver fir, on which 

 they produced several types of conidiophores. — The mycelium 

 penetrates into all the tissues of the wood which forms its sub- 

 stratum, passing from cell to cell through the pits. Its action 

 on the wood fibres, is peculiar. Straight hyphae pass down the 

 lumen and give off branches which penetrate the pits and grow 

 spirally, each lying in a channel which it has made in the cell- 

 wall, apparently by excreting some wood-destroying enzyme. — 

 The habits and development of some West African fishes, by 

 Mr. J. S. Budgett. The paper gave an account of a part of 

 the material obtained during a recent visit to the Island of 

 McCarthy on the Gambia river, in order to investigate the 

 development of Polypterus. The young larva of Polypterus 

 lapradii, Steind. , was described which had not yet developed the 

 bony scales on the body. The nests and larvae of Protopterus 

 annectens, Ow., were described and the. development shown to 



