May 19, 1898] 



NATURE 



71 



munication was read from Dr. F. A. Dixey, Mr. Malcolm Burr, 

 and the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, F.R.S., on the insects 

 and arachnida collected in Socotra by Mr. E. N. Bennett, who 

 had visited that island in 1896 and 1897 in company with the 

 late Mr. Theodore Bent. It was pointed out that though the 

 Socotran lepidoptera showed, as might have been expected, 

 strongly marked African affinities, some of them, by their rela- 

 tion to forms belonging to West Africa and South Africa and 

 the Mascarene group, suggested the conclusion that remains of 

 a more primitive fauna still survived in Socotra. — A communi- 

 cation was read from Miss E. M. Sharpe on a collection of 

 lepidoptera from San Domingo. This was accompanied by 

 field-notes by the collector, Dr. Cuthbert Christy. Ninety-one 

 species were enumerated, of which one — Telegonns christyi — 

 was described as new. — A second communication from Miss 

 Sharpe contained a list of lepidoptera lately collected by Mrs. 

 Lort Phillips in Somaliland. Two new species of Lycanida 

 were described, viz. Taruciis loiiisie and Spindacis waggir. 



Geological Society, May 4.— W. Whitaker, F.R.S., Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The carboniferous limestone of the country 

 around Llandudno, by G. H. Morton. At Llandudno the 

 precipitous Great Orme's Head presents fine sections of the 

 carboniferous limestone and its subdivisions referred to, and 

 may be easily examined in a continuous series of cliffs, 

 ridges, and quarries. The entire succession is, however, 

 not perfect, for the highest beds of the " Upper Grey Lime- 

 stone" have been denuded, and at the Little Orme's Head 

 the subdivision is altogether absent. Copper-lodes on the 

 Great Orme's Head appear to have been worked by the 

 Romans, and again in recent years until abandoned fully 

 thirty years ago. Some of the lodes are faults, but little can 

 be ascertained about them now, and only two or three are 

 faults with any appreciable amount of dislocation. It is to 

 the undulation of the limestone that the ever-varying dip of the 

 beds is attributed. Numerous fossils occur in the " Upper Grey 

 Limestone," and a few are peculiar to the subdivision and the 

 locality, but of these only a single specimen of each has been 

 found. — The dolomitisation of the carboniferous limestone is re- 

 markable, and almost peculiar to that around Llandudno, though 

 it also occurs at Penmon in Anglesey. The "Lower Brown 

 Limestone" has been almost entirely converted into dolomite, 

 and p<jrtions of the overlying subdivisions. The filling of the 

 faults has often been changed into dolomite, and the alteration 

 of the limestone has generally been very capricious : the author's 

 i>pinion being that the change took place after the dislocation of 

 I he strata in post-Triassic times. — The graptolite-fauna of the 

 Skiddaw Slates, by Miss G. L. Elles. This paper deals, not 

 only with the collections of the author, but with the Dover 

 Collection and others preserved in the Woodwardian Museum, 

 with the collections of Prof. H. A. Nicholson, Mr. Postlethwaite, 

 and that of the Keswick Museum of Natural History. An account 

 of the literature, both stratigraphical and paloeontological, of the 

 Skiddaw Slates is given, followed by a list of all the graptolites 

 known from the beds. This list comprises twenty-two genera 

 and fifty- nine species. 



Entomological Society, May 4. — Mr. G. H. Verrall, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — Colonel Verbury exhibited a series of 

 Diptera collected at Hyeres during March and April 1898, and 

 \x\z\\xdS.'s\^ Brae hy palpus valgus, Panz., Callicerafagesii, Guer. , 

 and a species of Plalystonia which appeared to be undescribed. 

 -.Mr. Barrett showed aberrant forms of British species of 

 Lepidoptera from Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. — Mr. 

 Waterhouse exhibited two burnished golden beetles, Anoplo- 

 }^nathus aureus from Queensland, and Plusiotis respkndensixom 

 Panama, which he stated to be interesting examples of a similar 

 result being attained by a process of natural selection in two 

 species of the same family in widely separated localities. Many 

 members of the family had a slight tendency to show metallic 

 colours. It would be interesting to ascertain whether there 

 were any similarity in their surroundings in the two countries 

 which would make this golden appearance an advantage, or 

 whether it might be considered a " warning colour." Allied 

 sjiecies, however, appeared to l)e edible. — Mr. Walker exhibited 

 specimens of the rare Philonthus fuscus, Grav. , found in a 

 CtJjjMJ-eaten poplar in Chatham Dockyard at the end of April. 

 — Mr. R. McLachlan communicated a paper on " Neuroptera- 

 Planipennia belonging to the families Osmylidie, Ilemerobiidce 

 and Chrysopida-, taken by the Rev, A. E. Eaton in Algeria." 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, May 9.— M. Wolf in the chair.— 

 Method for detecting and estimating small amounts of carbon 

 monoxide in air in presence of traces of hydrocarbons, by M. 

 Armand Gautier. The method described in previous papers on 

 the same subject at 60° C. (the action of carbon monoxide upon 

 iodic anhydrides) is here further developed. It is shown that 

 the iodine set free can be determined with great exactness by 

 passing the gases over copper at 100° C. ; the loss of weight of 

 the iodic anhydride, and the amounts of carbon dioxide and 

 water produced can also be accurately estimated. Test analyses 

 of known gas mixtures containing i part per looo, and I part 

 per 10,000 respectively, gave very satisfactory results : samples 

 of Paris air taken at different times gave from 0"0 to o'g parts 

 CO per million, while the air of the laboratory contained as 

 much as I2"3 parts per million. — On the losses of ammonia which 

 accompany the manufacture of farm manure, by M. P. P. 

 Deherain. The results of the experiments are given in the form 

 of three rules to be followed by the farmer, the chief point being 

 that in presence of an excess of carbonic acid the losses of 

 ammonia are much reduced. —Researches on the progres- 

 sive development of the grape, by MM. Aime Girard and 

 Lindet. A series of proximate analyses of the pulp, skins 

 and stones of the grape at various stages in its development. — 

 The modifications undergone by strips of skin in autoplastic 

 grafting, and the conditions which favour their growth in area, 

 by M. Oilier. — On a mode of obtaining cultures and homo- 

 geneous emulsions of the human tuberculosis bacillus in a liquid 

 medium, and on a mobile variety of this bacillus, by M. S. 

 Arloing. Minute details are given of the methods of preparing 

 homogeneous liquid cultures and emulsions of the tubercle 

 bacillus. The immobility of this bacillus is not absolutely- 

 characteristic, as has hitherto been supposed. — Simple explana- 

 tion of some celestial phenomena by the kathode rays, by M. H. 

 Deslandres. A recognition of priority of M. Goldstein in his work 

 on kathode rays, and a discussion of the application of this to 

 the solar chromosphere and comets. — On the magnification of 

 the discs of the sun and moon on the horizon, by M. D. liginitis. 

 The observations of the author show that none of the suggestions- 

 hitherto put forward to explain the increase in size of the sur> 

 and moon when low down in the horizon are sufficient. They 

 may contribute to the phenomenon to a small exter^t, but the 

 principal cause is still unknown. — Ontheexplicit determination of 

 differential equations of the second order at fixed critical points, 

 by M. Paul Painleve. — On the general theory of the character- 

 istics of partial differential equations, by M. E. Goursat. — On 

 total differential equations, by M. Alf. Guldberg. — On the 

 evaporation of iron at the ordinary temperature, by M. H. 

 Pellat. The effect previously shown to be produced upon a 

 sensitised plate is shown to be due to a vapour given off by the 

 iron, and not to any radiations of the nature of uranium rays. — 

 On the kathode rays, by M. P. Villard.— Strengthenir^ the X- 

 rays, by M. Virgilio Machado. The tubular portion of the 

 bulb is wrapped round with metal foil, or with an insulated spiral 

 of copper wire. — The effect of diffusion in developing baths, by M. 

 Adrien Guebhard. — On the limits of inflammability of carbon mon- 

 oxide, by MM. H. Le Chatelier and Boudouard. Under ordinary 

 conditions gas mixtures containing between 16 and 75 per cent, 

 of carbonic oxide are inflammable. The effects of the size of 

 tube, temperature, and pressure of gas were also studied. — On a 

 boro-carbide of beryllium, by M. P. Lebeau. The substance 

 C4B(jBeg is produced by heating an intimate mixture of glucina 

 and boron in a carbon boat at the temperature of the electric 

 furnace. — On some halogen salts of lead, by M. V. Thomas. 

 Treatment with nitrogen peroxide distinguishes between mixtures 

 of lead chloride and iodide, and a true chloro-iodide, only the 

 latter giving the corresponding oxychlorides. — Note on the micro- 

 structure of the alloys of iron and nickel, by M. F. Osmond. 

 The study of the micro-structure of these alloys confirms the 

 classification into three groups based upon their mechanical 

 properties. — Thermal data relating to ethyl-malonic acid. Com- 

 parison with its isomers glutaric and methyl-succinic acids, by 

 M. G. Massol. — Formation of furfurol by cellulose and some of 

 its derivatives, by M. Leo Vignon.— Preliminary note on the 

 geographical distribution and evolution of the Peripata, by 

 M. E. L. Bouvier. The specimens studied were collected in 

 Africa by the late .M. Thollon, in whose memory the one new 

 species is named Peripatus Tlwlloni. This species is inter- 

 mediate between the American forms and those of the Cape. — 

 On the organisation of the Pkurotoinaria, by MM. EI !.» 



NO. 1490, VOL. 58] 



