April ii, 1901] 



NA TURE 



579 



doublet, one of the elements of which is a long focus lens which 

 can be tilted and by that means made to yield a band of light 

 in place of the line, an effect ordinarily secured by means of a 

 cylindrical lens, as in Maclean's method. — The macro-lepidoptera 

 of Sherwood Forest, by J. R. Hardy. The paper contained a 

 list of 269 species collected in the course of the past twenty-two 

 years, mostly in the district between Worksop, Edwinstowe 

 and Chekerhouse. All the species, some of which are peculiar 

 to the district, have been deposited in the Manchester Museum. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April i. — M. Fouque in the chair. — 

 A general proposition in the calculus of probabilities, by M. A. 

 Liapounoff. — On the deformation of the general paraboloid, by 

 M. Servant. — On the sum of the angles of a polygon with 

 multiple connection, by M. M. d'Ocagne. — Studies in psycho- 

 acoustics, by M. F. Larroque. — On the electro-capillary pro- 

 perties of some organic compounds in aqueous solution, by M. 

 Gouy. If H is the maximum height of the column of the capil- 

 lary electrometer with a given solution of a standard electrolyte, 

 and H' the maximum height after the addition of an organic 

 substance, then looo (H - H')/H is a constant which varies 

 with a constitution of the body and which varies with dilution 

 in a characteristic manner. Preliminary measurements are 

 given for a number of organic substances. — On some osmyl- 

 oxalates, by M. L. Wintrebert. The osmyloxalates form a well 

 characterised series of salts, details being given of the mode of 

 preparation and properties of the salts of sodium, ammonium", 

 silver, barium, strontium and calcium. — On the reducing pro- 

 perties of magnesium and aluminium, by M. A. Duboin. — On 

 cinchonine, by MM. E. Jungfleisch and E. Leger. Ordinary 

 commercial cinchonine always contains a variable quantity of 

 hydrocinchonine, the separation of the latter being a somewhat 

 tedious process. The physical constants of the purified cincho- 

 nine salts were determined and found to differ considerably from 

 the accepted figures. — On some iodo-derivatives of phenol, by 

 M. P. Brenans. — The action of the esters of dibasic acids upon 

 the organometallic compounds, by M. Amand Valeur. The 

 reaction of magnesium methyl iodide with the esters of oxalic, 

 malonic and succinic acids was found to correspond with the 

 action of the same reagent upon the esters of monobasic acids, 

 except that with ethyl malonate an additional molecule of water 

 is split off with the formation of an unsaturated alcohol. — 

 On the organometallic compounds of magnesium, by MM. 

 Tissier and Grignard. The principal product of the action of 

 magnesium upon an alkyl iodide or bromide in ethereal solution 

 is a compound of the type Cnlljn+i - Mg - I, and this, on treat- 

 ment with water, gives the hydrocarbon CnH^n+a- In the 

 higher members of the series a secondary reaction takes place 

 in which the hydrocarbon CnHan+i -CnHjn+i is formed. Thus 

 secondary hexyl iodide gives hexane and dihexane. — Some new 

 reactions of the organomagnesium compounds, by M. Ch. 

 Moureu. Magnesium ethyl iodide reacts easily with amyl 

 nitrite, giving diethyl-hydroxylamine. Nitroethane gives the 

 same product, the reaction appearing to be a general one. — On 

 the organomagnesium derivatives, by M. E. E. Blaise. — On a 

 new synthesis of aniline, by M. George F. Jaubert. Benzene 

 and hydroxylamine hydrochloride, heated with aluminium 

 chloride, give traces of aniline. — On the mechanism of lipolytic 

 reactions, by M. M. Hanriot. — On the internal organisation of 

 Pleiirotomaria Beyrichii, by MM. E. L. Bouvier and H. 

 Fischer. Studies of the digestive tube and nervous system of 

 this animal. — The sexual variation in the males of certain 

 Coleoptera belonging to the family of the Bostrychides, by 

 M. P. Lesne. — On the mode of production of eggs in Trochus, 

 by M. A. Robert. The eggs of Trochus conuloides are pro- 

 duced in a long cylindrical string exactly resembling those of 

 TV. granulattis. — On the comparative value of saline and sugar 

 solutions in experimental teratogenesis, by M. E. Bataillon. — 

 On the origin of the paranuclei in the cells of the digestive 

 gland of the crayfish, by M. P. Vigier. — Influence of the 

 climatological conditions upon the growth of the shoots of the 

 vine, by M. F. Kbvessi. — The comparative study of the zoo- 

 spore and the spermatozoid, by M. A. Dangeard. — New 

 cytological researches on the Ilymenomycetes, by M. Rene 

 Maire. — On a conidian form of the fungus of black rot, by 

 M. G. Delacroix. — The position and approximate velocity of 

 a meteor, by M. Jean Mascart. A meteor which was seen in the 



NO. 1 64 1, VOL. 63] 



neighbourhood of Angouleme on September 24, 1900, had a 

 velocity of over 4 kilometres per second, and was entirely con- 

 sumed at a height of about 40 kilometres. 



New South Wales. 



Royal Society, December 5, 1900. — Prof. Liversidge, F.R.S. , 

 president, in the chair. — Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., and Sir 

 W.T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S.,were elected honorary 

 members of the Society. — The following papers were read : — 

 Intercolonial water rights as affected by federation, by H. G. 

 McKinney. — The organisation, language, and initiation cere- 

 monies of the aborigines of the south-east coast of New South 

 W^ales, by R. H. Mathews, and Miss M. M. Everitt. — This 

 article described the laws of marriage, descent and relationship 

 in force among the native tribes occupying the south-east coast 

 of New South Wales from the Hawkesbury River to Cape Howe, 

 on the Victorian frontier, and extending inland till met on the 

 west by the Wiradjuri organisation. A grammar of the language 

 of the Gundungurra, one of the principal tribes in the region 

 dealt with, was also supplied, in which the structure of the native 

 tongue was fully investigated and explained. The paper con- 

 cluded with a short account of the Kudsha, or Narramang, a 

 ceremony of initiation practised within the same geographical 

 limits, by means of which the young men are admitted to the 

 status and responsibilities of tribesmen. — Tables to facilitate the 

 location of the cubic parabola, by C. T- Merfield. In some brief 

 remarks the author gives an outline of the general application of 

 the cubic parabola, when used as a transition to connect the 

 straights and circular curves of railway lines. The paper forms 

 a contribution to the engineering profession, and will be found 

 useful to those engaged in the location of railway lines. A 

 valuable table is appended, from which the constants of the 

 curve for any case may be found. A complete numerical 

 example illustrates the method of using the table. — Boogaldi 

 meteorite, by Prof. Liversidge, F.R.S. This meteorite was exhi- 

 bited by Mr. R. T. Baker at the June meeting of the Society, 

 when he stated that it was found early in January 1900 at a 

 place two miles from Boogaldi, a post town fifteen miles north- 

 west of Coonanbarabran. Mr. Baker afterwards forwarded it 

 to Prof. Liversidge for investigation and analysis. The meteorite 

 is a metallic one or a siderite, and is somewhat pear-shaped ; it 

 is a little over five inches long by about three inches broad at 

 the widest part, and it weighed before cutting 2057*5 grammes. 

 Its sp. gr. at 14° C. was found to be 7*85. It was covered, as 

 usual, with a closely adherent skin of fused oxides, except in one 

 place where it had been detached, the exposed metal had a 

 bright lustrous appearance like nickel iron. At the thick end 

 of the meteorite the fused oxides forming the skin have been 

 thrown into well-defined concentric waves or rings with trans- 

 verse furrows in the direction of the thinner end of the meteor- 

 ite — the waves and furrows gradually fade away in this direction. 

 These waves and furrows are believed to show that the meteorite 

 travelled through the earth's atmosphere with the thick end in 

 front, the waves of fused oxide being thrown up by the resistance 

 of the air, just as waves are formed in sand by the wind. That 

 the meteorite did travel with the thick end first is confirmed by 

 the fact that at the thin end there are longitudinal ridges and 

 furrows in the fused skin which clearly show where the excess of 

 fused oxide was dragged off ; the luminous streak usually seen 

 behind a meteorite is, if not wholly, certainly in part, due to the 

 fused incandescence left in its trail. Hence the waves and other 

 markings in the skin not only show the direction in which the 

 meteorite travelled but also its position, i.e. with the curved 

 point of the thin end downwards as represented in the photo- 

 graph ; for the fused oxides forming the skin are thickest on the 

 lower side. — On a new aromatic aldehyde occurring in eucalyptus 

 oils, by Henry G. Smith. In this paper the author records 

 the results of his investigation (so far as he has gone) on the 

 aldehyde occurring in so many eucalyptus oils, which had for a 

 long time been supposed to be cuminaldehyde. The aldehyde 

 occurs in greatest amount in the oils obtained from members of 

 the group of Eucalypts known in Australia as the " Boxes." 

 The true boxes, E. hemiphloia, E. albens and E. Woollsiana^ 

 contain it in the largest quantity. The oil was obtained from 

 E. hemiphloia, this tree growing plentifully at Belmore, in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney. 1000 c.c. of the crude oil were 

 distilled, and the constituents distilling below 190° C. removed, 

 the remainder of the oil was agitated with acid sodium sulphite 



