March 14, 19 18] 



NATURE 



normal. — Dr. H. S. Allen: A suggestion as to the 

 ^in of special series. The paper gives a develop- 

 nt of an idea put forward in an earlier paper, de- 

 ibing an atomic model with a magnetic core. It is 

 -umed that the principle of the constancy of angular 

 momentum may be applied to the total angular momen- 

 tum of the electron, and a certain part of the core 

 bearing a special relation to the electron. On the lines 

 of Bohr's theory this leads to an expression for the 

 oscillation frequency, which is similar to Rydberg's 

 formula, and contains a constant which is the same for 

 all elements. The "phase" ^u of a "sequence" is re- 

 garded as proportional to the angular momentum of a 

 definite portion of the core. In observed series the 

 phases of the two sequences are not equal to one 

 another ; consequently, whatever interpretation be given 

 to the pha^e, the two types of state concerned must be 

 in some way different from one another. When the 

 magnetic field of the core is taken into account, a 

 formula is obtained which is identical with that of 

 Ritz. An explanation of the series of enhanced lines in 

 spark spectra is also suggested. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, February 4. — Prof. Marr, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Major P. A. MacMahon : Certain 

 integral equations. — G. H. Hardy : (i) Sir George 

 Stokes and the concept of uniform convergence. (2) 

 Note on Mr. Ramanujan's paper entitled "Some De- 

 finite Integrals." — G. N. Watson: Asymptotic expan- 

 sions of hypergeometric functions. — S. Ramanujan : 

 (i) Certain trigonometrical sums and their applications 

 in the theory of numbers. (2) Some definite integrals. 

 February 18. — Prof. Marr, president, in the chair. — 

 , Prof. S. Gardiner and Prof. Nuttall : Fish-freezing. The 

 authors advocate the creation of a vast store of frozen 

 herrings against times of scarcity, instead of the her- 

 rings being pickled and exported. The value of fish 

 as food is weight for weight about 'the same as meat, 

 containing the same constituents. — P. Lake : Shell de- 

 posits formed by the flood of January, 1918. During 

 the flood of January 20 a remarkable and extensive 

 deposit of shells was laid down by the Cam on the 

 towpath near the railway bridge below Cambridge. 

 Most of the shells belonged to the genus Limnaea, but 

 other genera, both land and fresh-water, also occurred. 

 The freedom from silt of much of the deposit suggests 

 that even a muddy river may form a limestone as pure 

 as the fresh-water limestones of the Purbeck series. — 

 G. Matthai : (i) Reactions to stimuli in corals. The 

 series of movements which take place in the soft parts 

 of colonies in response to chemical and tactile stimuli 

 are of the nature of amoeboid or streaming movement 

 ; of protoplasm, the soft parts themselves appearing to 

 ' serve as the medium for the conduction of stimuli. 

 (2) Is the Madreporarian skeleton an extraprotoplasmic 

 secretion of the Polyps? In 1899 Bourne supported 

 f von Koch's view that the Madreporarian skeleton is 

 't formed as an extraprotoplasmic secretion of the calico- 

 l blastic layer of ectoderm, and entirely disagreed with 

 ( von Heider's suggestion that it is the result of the 

 [ deposition of carbonate of lime within calicoblasts. 

 The organic matrix revealed on slow decalcification of 

 thin sections of Coralla, and regarded by Bourne as 

 due to the disintegration of calicoblasts, is probably 

 part of the living calicoblastic sheet in which calcareous 

 matter has been laid down, as otherwise it is difficult 

 ; to understand how the manifold skeletal types of the 

 s Madreporaria can have arisen. Skeletal formation in 

 the Madreporaria would then be homologous to spicule 

 formation in the Alcyonaria — i.e. intraprotoplasmic. — 

 H. H. Brindley : Notes on certain parasites, food, and 

 capture by birds of Forficula auricularia. There sorms 

 no ground for attributing male dimorphism in eat wi:^-^ 



NO. 2524, VOL. lOl] 



to infection by gregarines. Though earwigs are 

 always spoken of as garden pests, there appear to be 

 but scanty records of the plants they prefer. During 

 last August and September a large number kept in 

 captivity in the zoological laboratory were given three 

 kinds of plants together for several days at a time to 

 ascertain the favourites, with the following results : — 

 Vegetable marrow leaves much eaten ; horseradish 

 leaves very little ; Michaelmas daisy leaves and flowers 

 not at all ; beetroot leaves much eaten ; phlox flowers 

 also ; dwarf bean leaves but little ; white rose and blue 

 Anchusa petals much attacked, their leaves neglected; 

 golden rod leaves eaten, but flowers untouched ; yellow 

 CEnothera petals much eaten, pods untouched; white 

 Japanese anemone flowers somewhat nibbled, leaves 

 untouched ; raspberry leaves not eaten, but the hairy 

 undersides a most favourite hiding place; cabbage 

 leaves very thoroughly gnawed ; rhubarb leaves a good 

 deal; scarlet-runner flowers, pods, and foliage un- 

 touched. Plum fruit was readily attacked, but apples 

 and potatoes in their skins remained untouched even 

 when no other food was given for a week. When cut 

 across both were eaten, potato much more than apple. 

 Newstead {Supp. Journ. Board of Agric, December, 

 1908) reports the presence of earwigs in the alimentary 

 canal of only ten out of 128 species of British birds 

 the food of which was examined. Theobald and 

 McGowan {Ice. cit., May, 1916), investigating the food 

 of the starling month by month during 1912-14, found 

 353 earwigs in 748 birds. An analysis of their records 

 reveals that more earwigs were taken from October to 

 March than from April to September, though most 

 male earwigs die and the females are hibernating during 

 the latter period. This fact is puzzling, though it may 

 be that the starling is driven to search for buried ear- 

 wigs in the absence of other insect food. Stone curlew 

 and sparrows have been found to eat earwigs, but there 

 is no doubt that this insect is little molested by wild 

 birds. Domestic fowls eat it readily. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, February 4. — M. Paul Painlev6 

 in the chair. — The president announced the death, on 

 February 2, of M. E. Yung, corresipondant for the sec- 

 tion of anatomv and zoology.— E. Arifes : Formula 

 giving the pressure of the saturated vapour of a mon- 

 atomic liquid. A formula derived from an equation of 

 state given in a previous communication is applied to 

 the cases of crypton, xenon, and argon. A comparison 

 of the calculated and observ^ed figures shows good 

 agreement, with the exception of one temperature for 

 argon, for which an error of experiment is suggested 

 as the cause of the deviation.— G. A. Boulenger : The 

 oldest Characinidae, and its signification from the point 

 of view of the present distribution of this family. — 

 P. Barbarin : The dilemma of J. Bolyai.— P. Fatou : 

 Functional equations and the properties of certain 

 boundaries.— A. Denjoy : The curves of M. Jordan.— 

 D. Pompeiu : A* definition of holomorphic functions.— 

 R. de Montessus de Ballore : Skew quartics of the first 

 series.— A. Malihe and F. de Godon : A new catalytic 

 method for the formation of nitrilos. Ammonia and 

 the vapours of an aldehyde are passeil over thoria at 

 about 430T., when hydrogen is evolve<l and a nitrile 

 produced, aeconliiij; to the equation 



R.CIIOn^NH, = R.CN + H,0+H=. 

 tsoAmvl nitrile, i,f«butyl nitrile, propionitrile, 

 benzonitrile, and anisonitriie have been prepared 

 bv this reaction." L. Gentll. M. Lugeon. and L. 

 Joleaud : The geologv of the Sebou basin (Morocco).— 

 Mile. Y. Hehorne : ' The analogies of the branched 

 form in ilir jJoKpi s constructing reefs at the present 

 time with tin' sii wmatopores of the secondary strata.— 

 A. (iuilliermond ; ria>niol\ -i- of the opidermal nils of 



