46 



NA TURE 



[May 12, i; 



curve showing the relationship existing between the rise and fall 

 of the tide on the coast and that of the water in the well. The 

 result is to establish the existence of a wave in the well of the 

 same frequency as the tidal wave, but delayed, or with an 

 establishment of, three hours {plus or minus a few minutes). The 

 analyses of water taken from the well at its highest and lowest 

 show no difference, so that no sea-water enters the well directly. 

 On the other hand, the slight brackishness of the water appears 

 to prove the diffusion of a small amount of salt water into the 

 well. — Petalocrinus, by F. A. Bather. Certain curious fan-like 

 objects, obviously echinodermal, have for a long time been pre- 

 served in the Riks-Museum at Stockholm, but their significance 

 was first definitely ascertained when similar fossils were found in 

 Iowa, and brought to England by Mrs. Davidson. The latter 

 were described by Mr. Stuart Weller in a paper entitled '■'■Petalo- 

 crinus mirahilis (n. sp. ), and a New American Fauna " ; and the 

 former, with fresh material obtained by Mr. Weller from various 

 American localities, are the subject of the present communi- 

 cation. The Silurian crinoid genus Petalocrinus, Weller, is 

 discussed, on the evidence of all the original material from Iowa 

 and of the further material above mentioned. — On the origin of 

 the auriferous conglomerates of the Gold Coast Colony (West 

 Africa), by Thomas B. F. Sam. — This paper gives an account of 

 a recent journey from Adjah Bippo to the Ankobra Junction in 

 the Gold Coast Colony. A range of clay-slate hills is succeeded 

 for 6 miles by flat ground in which diorite was found, and that 

 by a lofty hill in which clay-slate dipping east occurs. The 

 Teberibie range with reefs of conglomerate, and a second range 

 with similar reefs were crossed. Gold-bearing alluvia are briefly 

 described, and the gold is supposed to have come from the hills. 

 The Adjah Bippo, Takwa, and Teberibie formations are con- 

 sidered to be part of a syncline. Some conclusions are drawn 

 as to the method of formation and probable auriferous character 

 of the rocks. 



Linnean Society, April 21.— Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — On behalf of Lieut. -Colonel Birch- 

 Reynardson there was exhibited a portion of the trunk of an 

 apple-tree which had been so seriously attacked by water voles 

 {Arvicola aniphibitis) as to cause the death of the tree ; and 

 several others, it was stated, had been similarly injured. Such 

 extensive damage from such a cause was regarded as unusual. — 

 Mr. G. E. Barrett Hamilton exhibited a head of the common 

 brown rat {Mus decuinanus), showing a curious deformity 

 arising from injury to the incisor teeth. — Prof Douglas Camp- 

 bell communicated a paper, which was demonstrated by Mr. A. 

 Gepp, on the structure of Dendroceros. The chief conclusions 

 arrived at were as follows: (i) In its apical growth and the 

 form of the thallus, Dendroceros differs decidedly from other 

 genera of the order Hepaticse. (2) The archegonium corre- 

 sponds in its structure to that of the other Anthocerotacese, and 

 is intermediate in character between Notothylus and Anthoceros. 

 (3) The antheridium is solitary, and arises, as in the others of 

 the order, endogenously. (4) The first wall in the embryo is 

 longitudinal, as in Anthoceros, but the first transverse wall 

 determines the limits of the foot, as in Notothylas. (5) The 

 origin of the archesporium is from the amphithecium as in the 

 other genera, but it is less massive than in either of these. 

 (6) The division of the archesporial cells into sporogenous and 

 sterile ones is less regular than in either of the other genera, and 

 the primary archesporial cells may be transformed directly into 

 sporogenous ones without any further divisions. (7) In D. 

 Breutelii the spores remain undivided, but in D, crispus (?) 

 they germinate within the capsule and are discharged as multi- 

 cellular bodies. (8) Leitgeb's statement as to the absence of 

 stomata from the capsule was confirmed. — Mr. W. P. Pycraft 

 read a paper on the morphology of the owls (Part i, Pterylo- 

 graphy). In this, the first instalment of a series of papers in 

 which it is proposed to deal with the affinities and phylogeny of 

 the group, the pterylographic characters were alone considered, 

 descriptions of adults, nestlings, and embryos being given. The 

 author remarked that, so far as the distribution of the feather- 

 tracts is concerned, the owls resemble the Accipitres more nearly 

 than any other group. The form of the external aperture of the 

 ear seems to have been originally subject to variations, the most 

 successful of which have become fixed by selection. In some 

 cases there is a marked asymmetry, which may either be con- 

 fined to the membranes surrounding the aperture, or may 

 extend to the skull itself The author considered that the facts 

 disclosed by a study of the pterylosis might justify a slight 

 revision and rearrangement of some of the genera. — A paper 



NO. 1489, VOL. 58] 



was read by Mr. J. Johnstone upon the thymus and thyroid 

 glands in the Marsupialia. The author had investigated the 

 neck-glands in adults of nine and pouch-specimens of seven 

 genera, representative of the leading Marsupial families. The 

 thymus was observed to be absent only in the Koala {Phascol- 

 arctus), and to persist predominantly in the region of the carotid 

 roots. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, April 19. — Mr. J. 

 Cosmo Melvill, President, in the chair. — The following were 

 elected officers and members of the Council for the ensuing 

 year : — President, J. Cosmo Melvill ; Vice-Presidents, Prof. O. 

 Reynolds, F.R.S., Prof. A. Schuster, F.R.S., Charles Bailey, 

 and W. H. Johnson ; Secretaries, R. F. Gwyther and Francis 

 Jones ; Treasurer, J. J. Ashworth ; Librarian, W. E. Hoyle ; 

 other members of the Council, Prof. H. B. Dixon, F.R.S., 

 Prof. H. Lamb, F.R.S. , F. Nicholson, J. E. King, R. L. 

 Taylor, and F.J. Faraday. — Mr. Charles Bailey exhibited some 

 living plants of Jacquin's oxlip (Primula elatior), which he had 

 gathered ten days ago in a wood at Tindon End, near Thaxted, 

 Essex. He pointed out its peculiar distribution in England — 

 where it is confined to an area within the triangle formed 

 between St. Neots in Huntingdonshire, Stowmarket in Suffolk, 

 and Bishop Stortford in Hertfordshire — and explained the 

 botanical characters which separate it from the primrose and 

 the cowslip. With it Mr. Bailey exhibited a flower-scape from 

 a root which he brought some years ago from Gloddaeth, near 

 Llandudno, which was a natural hybrid between the cowslip 

 and the primrose, and which flowered every spring in his garden. 

 Such hybrids generally pass for the true oxlip, and they are not 

 infrequent in districts where both parents occur ; in the 

 neighbourhood of Manchester he had found this spurious oxlip 

 at Ashley, at Mobberley, and in several places in Derbyshire. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, April 4. — Prof. Copeland, in the chair.— At 

 the request of the Council, an address on theories concerning the 

 structure and origin of coral reefs and islands was given by Dr. 

 John Murray. After a brief sketch of the history of the subject, 

 and an exposition of the insufficiency of Darwin's famous theory 

 as an explanation of the origin of many coral reefs and islands. 

 Dr. Murray, with the help of lantern slides, gave an account of 

 the theory he himself supported, which was to a large extent a 

 return to the views of Chamisso (1820). The results of recent 

 investigations, such as Mr. Andrews' labours at Christmas Island, 

 the extensive observations by Alexander Agassiz in the Fiji 

 group, the boring in the island of Funafuti, and the work of the 

 Admiralty Surveyors in the Pacific Ocean, were then referred to ; 

 and, in spite of statements to the contrary which had been 

 going the round of newspapers, Dr. Murray concluded that all 

 these recent discoveries tended to verify his hypothesis rather 

 than that of Darwin. 



May 2. — Dr. Munro, in the chair.— In a paper on consonant 

 sounds. Dr. Lloyd discussed in detail the simplest group of 

 consonantal sounds, known as the spirate fricatives, namely,/, 

 V, th (both forms), s, z, sA, zh, the Scottish gutturals ich, och, 

 and the aspirate h. These are all produced by the friction of 

 the air escaping through interstices more or less narrow. They 

 could all be whispered through a range of pitch peculiar to each, 

 the pitch depending upon the length and shape of the resonating 

 cavity, which at the same time determined the vowel sound 

 associated with the consonant. — Prof D'Arcy Thompson com- 

 municated an examination of the so-called bipolar hypothesis. 

 Of the list of ninety forms deduced by Dr. Murray from the 

 Challenger Reports in support of this hypothesis, about half 

 were insufficiently authenticated, and a great number more were 

 very minute and described wholly from their hard parts ; of the 

 remainder some were not really arctic or antarctic forms, and the 

 few that seemed to present "bipolar" characteristics were re- 

 markable in other respects. Moreover, there were no examples 

 cited from well-marked groups, such as fishes and Crustacea, In 

 the discussion which followed. Dr. Murray argued that the fact of 

 bipolarity had long been recognised. Prof. D'Arcy Thompson 

 maintaining that the data supplied by Dr. Murray were insufficient 

 to establish its existence. — Mr. A. J. Herbertson exhibited maps 

 showing the mean monthly and annual rainfall over the land 

 surface of the globe. This was the first attempt to construct 

 mean monthly rainfall charts for the whole globe. All available 

 data had been used, and many interesting results had been 

 obtained. 



