July 15, 1920] 



NATURE 



^11 



vol. xciii., 1917, pp. 348-59), on the assumption of 

 smooth laminar tidal motion throughout the region. 

 — VV. G. Palmer : The catalytic activity of copper. 

 Part i. Simple apparatus is described for the 

 measurements by chronograph records of the reaction 

 velocities at diiferent temperatures of a typical 

 catalytic action — that of the dehydrogenation of 

 alcohol by copper. Details are given of the methods 

 used in preparing a reproducible contact material. 

 After oxidation and reduction a second time the 

 copper showed an activity of unchanged value. It 

 is shown that copper prepared electrolytically is quite 

 inactive as a catalyst, in spite of great variation in 

 the conditions of its deposition. Coppver reduced from 

 its oxide was active at temperatures above 200° C, 

 but this activity depended on the temperature at 

 which the metal was reduced from its oxide. — S. 

 Barratt : The origin of the "cyanogen " bands, (i) Ob- 

 servations have been made of the spectra of the 

 frames of a number of gases containing carbon, 

 hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. (2) The cyanogen 

 bands are strongly developed in the coal-gas-nitrous 

 oxide flame. (3) Evidence has been obtained that 

 they are entirely absent from the hydrogen-nitrous 

 oxide tiame if all traces of carbon are excluded, and 

 it ap|>ears to follow that the presence of carbon is 

 essential to their production. (4) The appearance of 

 the cyanogen bands is, under appropriate conditions, 

 a more delicate test for carbon than that of any of 

 the other bands associated with that element. On 

 the other hand, this spectrum is not necessarily 

 develof)ed when both carbon and nitrogen are present. 

 (5) The conclusion of Grotrian and Runge that the 

 cyanogen spectrum is to be attributed to nitrogen is 

 shown to rest on assumptions which are not con- 

 firmed in the present investigation. (6) The cyanogen 

 spectrum provides a very delicate test for the presence 

 of compounds of nitrogen when admitted in the form 

 of a gas to hydrocarbon flames burning in air, since 

 elementary nitrogen does not appear in ordinary 

 circumstances to be effective in producing the 

 cyanogen bands in such flames. (7) The intensity 

 of the cyanogen bands when carbon compounds are 

 admitted to the hydrogen-nitrous oxide flame bears 

 no simple relation to the amount of carbon thus 

 added.— F. Morton and Ann C. Davies : The effects 

 of electron collisions with atmospheric neon. The 

 critical velocities for electrons in neon were inves- 

 tigated by methods similar to those employed with 

 helium and argon. It was found that neon differed 

 from these gases in showing more than one critical 

 velocity both for radiation and for ionisation, these 

 critical velocities being detected under conditions such 

 as to preclude the possibility of any of them being 

 due J:o the displacement or removal of a second elec- 

 tron from the atom. — A. G. Bennett : The occurrence 

 of diatoms on the skin of w^hales. With an appendix 

 by E. W. Nelson. The author states that the skin of 

 certain fin whales and blue whales captured in sub- 

 Antarctic waters is discoloured by a superficial film 

 of a buff colour, resembling in tint the coloured 

 bands often observed on floating ice. Whales thus 

 affected are nea;-lv always fat. Microscopic examina- 

 tion showed that this film consists of immense 

 numbers of diatoms. The fat individuals are probably 

 those which have spent some time in the far South, 

 where the supply of whale-food is very abundant 

 during the summer. There is reason to believe that 

 the thin individuals are recent arrivals from warmer 

 water. The skin of these thin specimens appears to 

 be free from any noticeable film of diatoms ; their 

 light parts are thus white instead of having the yellow 

 tinge which has given rise to the name " sulphur- 

 bottom " applied by the whalers to whales in which 

 the light parts are yellowish. The cutaneous film 

 NO. 2646, VOL. 105] 



of Antarctic "sulphur-bottoms" may be composed of 

 the same diatoms as those which form the coloured 

 bands on ice. — R. VV. Wood : An extension of the 

 Balmer series of hydrogen and spectroscopic pheno^ 

 mena of very long vacuum tubes. — F. W. Aston and 

 T. Kikuchi : Moving striations in neon and helium. 

 When an induction-coil spark is passed through a 

 spectrum tube containing neon, and the discharge 

 observed with a rotating mirror, it is seen to consist 

 of bright striations moving from the anode towards 

 the cathode. When first observed the velocity was 

 found to be roughly that of sound in the gas. Further 

 investigations now show that this is only a limiting 

 case of a very complex phenomenon. The velocity is 

 found to decrease with increase of pressure, and also 

 to depend on the bore of the tube. The effect of 

 change of temperature has been investigated, and 

 curves are given showing that at constant volume 

 the effect is much greater than the expansion co- 

 efficient. At constant pressure the temperature effect 

 comes in only at high temperatures, when it is 

 probably due to impurities liberated from the tube. 

 Helium is found to give much the same sort of results 

 as neon. Experiments with mercur\' vapour and 

 other gases are also described. No satisfactory 

 theoretical conclusions have yet been arrived at, and 

 further experiments are in progress. 



Geological Society, June 23. — Mr. R. D. Oldham, 

 president, in the chair. — O. Holtedahl : The Scan- 

 dinavian mountain problem. A brief account is given 

 of the history of research regarding the Scandinavian 

 mountain problem, which deals with the superposition 

 of highly metamorphosed, often gneissose, rocks 

 upon slightly altered fossiliferous Cambro-Silurian 

 sediments. From a consideration of the phenomena 

 in the mountain-belt of deformation it is inferred that 

 the age of the displaced materials depends upon the 

 angle of inclination of the thrust-planes and their 

 depth. Though the thrusts have extended downwards 

 for a considerable distance, they have not generally, 

 in the author's opinion, reached below the level of 

 the pre-Cambrian plane of denudation, and no true 

 Archaean rocks could, as a rule, have been tapped. 

 In support of these conclusions some of the tectonic 

 features of two districts are indicated : (i) Finmarken, 

 in Northern Norway, and (2) the southern part of 

 the Sparagmite area near Randsfjord, in South- 

 Central Scandinavia. Brief descriptions are given of 

 the rock-groups in Finmarken and their structural 

 relations. Special attention is directed to the struc- 

 ture of the Alten district, where the main tectonic 

 feature is a highly undulating thrust which does not 

 intersect the pre-Cambrian floor. Regarding the 

 Randsfjord district, the original order of succession 

 of the strata is indicated from the Holmia shale to 

 the close of the overlying Cambro-Silurian sediments. 

 Pressure from the north in Late Silurian time 

 developed imbricate kructure in these sediments, but 

 such displacements are not supposed to have affected 

 the pre-Cambrian floor. As investigation proceeds it 

 seems to become increasingly evident (i) that the 

 highly metamorphic sedimentary rocks of the middle 

 and northern parts of the eastern mountain-belt are 

 mainly of earlier Ordovician age, while those west of 

 the Sparagmite region in the south-western mountain 

 district arc chiefly of Silurian age, and (2) that the 

 igneous materials associated with these highly meta- 

 morphosed sediments are younger intrusive rocks. 



Aristotelian Society, Julv 5.— Prof. Wildon Carr in 

 the chair. — Dr. W. F. Geikie-Cobb : Mysticism, true 

 and false. The application of the term "mystic" to 

 current psychic phenomena was unwarranted. True 

 mysticism was an immediate apprehension of the one 



