464 



NA TURE 



[September 8, 1898 



hospital. At Charing Cross Hospital the session will commence 

 on October 3, when Prof. Virchow will deliver the second 

 Huxley lecture — " Recent Advances in Science and their Bear- 

 ing on Medicine and Surgery " — at the St. Martin's Town Hall, 

 Charing Cross. The chair will be taken by Lord Lister. At 

 Guy's Hospital the session will begin on October 3. The first 

 meeting of the Physical Society will be held on that day in the 

 new physiological theatre at 8 p.m., when Sir Samuel Wilks 

 will preside and a paper will be read by Mr. W. H. Crosse. 

 At St. Mary's Hospital the session will be opened with an 

 introductory address by Dr. Caley. At the Middlesex Hospital 

 Dr. Arthur F. Voelcker will deliver an introductory address. 

 At St. Thomas's Hospital the session will commence on 

 October 3, when the prizes will be distributed at 3 p.m. by the 

 Bishop of Rochester. At University College an introductory 

 lecture will be given by Mr. Sidney Spokes, dental surgeon to 

 the hospital'. The London School of Medicine for Women 

 will open with an introductory address by Dr. J. W. Carr, 

 senior assistant physician to the Royal Free Hospital. The 

 winter session at Mason College, Birmingham, will commence 

 oh October i, when Prof. Michael Foster will deliver an 

 address. At Yorkshire College, Leeds, the session will open 

 with an address by Dr. C. J. Cullingworth, president of the 

 Obstetrical Society. The University College of South Wales 

 and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, will open on October 3, and Dr. 

 Robert Saundby.will deliver an address on October 7, The 

 session at University College, Liverpool, will commence on 

 October i. The opening ceremony in connection with the new 

 laboratories of physiology and pathology will take place on 

 October 8, when Lord Lister will declare the laboratories open. 

 At University College, Sheffield, Dr. Dyson, vice-president of 

 the College, will deliver the introductory lecture. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, June 22.— Prof. D.J. Cunningham, 

 F.R.S., in the chair.— Dr. E. A. Letts and Mr. R, F. Blake 

 communicated a paper on the carbonic anhydride of the atmo- 

 sphere. The first part was read dealing with (i) a brief 

 historical account of the subject, with a discussion of the methods 

 which have been employed in the determinations ; (2) a de- 

 scription of the authors' modification of Pettenkofer's process, 

 whereby results of great accuracy were obtained with mixtures 

 of known volumes of purified air and carbonic anhydrid©; {3) 

 an account of the authors' experiments (qualitative and quantita- 

 tive) on the action of weak baryta water on glass ; and (4) on 

 the disturbing effect produced by soluble silicates on the delicacy 

 of the phenol colour reaction with alkalis. — A paper was next 

 read by Mr. E. St. John Lyburn, of Pretoria, consisting of 

 notes on the minerals and mining in the Transvaal and 

 Swaziland. — This was followed by a paper by Mr. A. Vaughan 

 Jennings and Mr. H. Hanna on Corallorhiza innata, R.Br., 

 and its mycorhiza. The coralloid rhizome is shown to be 

 covered with numerous papillae whereon tufts of hairs arise. 

 The latter enter very closely into relationship with the fungal 

 hyphoe growing in the soil, forming a mycorhiza. Owing to 

 changes taking place in the hairs, bundles of hyphi« pass down 

 in the inside of the hairs through the outer layers of cells into 

 the cortex, in the outer layers of which they form a coiled 

 mycelium, and in the deeper layers they undergo a process of 

 degeneration, and are absorbed by the protoplasm of the cells. 

 The evidence indicates that the host plant acts carnivorously 

 towards the hyphre. The hyphae constituting the mycorhiza in 

 this case were traced to one of the higher fungi, Clitccybe 

 infitudibuliforniis. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, August 29.— M. Wolf in the 

 chair. — On the measures to be taken for securing uniformity in 

 the methods and control of the instruments employed in physi- 

 ology, by M, Marey. After discussing the difficulties that have 

 arisen owing to the defective nature of some of the recording 

 instruments in common use, the resolutions adopted at the 

 recent meeting of the International Congress of Physiology at 

 Cambridge are quoted, proposing an international committee. 

 iThe object of the committee will be to study the means of 

 rnstituting comparisons between the various types of self- 

 -recording instruments, and to introduce some uniformity into 

 he methods employed in physiology. — Observations oi S'h? 



NO. 1506, VOL. 58] 



planet DQ Witt, made at the Observatory of Toulouse, with 

 the 25 cm. Brunner equatorial, by M. F. Rossard. — Observ- 

 ations of some shooting stars which appeared during the nights 

 of August 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 18, by Mile. D. Klumpke. — 

 Modification of the internal pressures exerted in closed, empty 

 receivers and submitted to the influence of electric currents, by 

 M. G. Seguy. Experimental evidence is given showing that 

 the pressure inside a vacuum tube is neither uniform nor con- 

 stant, so long as it is traversed by a current of electricity. — The 

 modifications undergone by the organs of the body during 

 seventy two hours on the bicycle, studied by phonendoscopy, 

 by MM. A. Bianchi and Felix Regnault. From the variations 

 in the size and shape of lungs and stomach, some thera- 

 peutical applications are suggested. The effects of prolonged 

 bicycling exercise are most severely felt by the lungs and heart. 

 New South Wales. 

 Royal Society, July 6.— Mr. G. H. Knibbs, President, in the 

 chair. — On the stringy-bark trees of New South Wales, especially 

 in regard to their essential oils, by R. T. Baker and Henry G. 

 Smith. Part i. This paper is the authors' third contribution 

 to a knowledge of the essential oils of the genus Eucalyptus. 

 Some notes on the classification of the species of this genus by 

 other authors are given, and the species now investigated are 

 arranged according to their chemical, economic, and botanical 

 affinities. It was shown that the essential oil of the red stringy- 

 bark, E. macrorhyncka, besides containing a large percentage 

 of eudesmol (the stearoptene of eucalyptus oil) gives an oil of 

 excellent quality containing over fifty per cent, of eucalyptol, 

 and answering all the requirements of the British Pharmacopoeia 

 with the exception of that of specific gravity. — On current 

 observations on the Canadian-Australian route, by Captain 

 Campbell Hepworth, R.M.S. Aorangi. This paper showed by 

 observations of ocean current made during sixty-four passages 

 between Australia and British Columbia in the liners Aorangi, 

 Warrimoo, and Miowera, the general set and strengths ot the 

 currents which are experienced, according to the season of the 

 year, by vessels making the passage between these two colonies. 

 The paper was illustrated by twelve charts, one for each month 

 of the year, on which was delineated each current observation 

 recorded, amounting to several thousand observations. 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. 



Books. — Medical Diseases of Infancy and Childhood : Dr. D. Williams 

 (Cassell). — Catalog der Handbibliothek des K.' Zoologischen und Anthro- 

 pologisch-Ethnographischen Museums in Dresden (Berlin, Friedlander).— 

 Schantung und seine eingangspforte Kiantschon : F. F. von Richthofen 

 (Berlin, Reimer). 



Pamphlets. — Colony of Natal. Report of the Government Astronomer 

 for the Year 1897 (Pietermaritzburg, Davis). — Arithmetic, Scheme B, 

 Standards i, 2, 3 (Reading, N.P.S.A., Ltd.). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Modern Taxidermy. By R. L 433 



Knuth's Text-Book of Floral Biology. By Francis 



Darvi^in, F.R.S 434 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Wasp and Bee Stings. — Sir J. F. D. Donnelly . . 435 

 The "Jelly-fish" of Lake Urumiah, — R. T. 



Giinther 435 



Science and Art Department Examinations. — D.Sc. 



(Lond.) 435 



Bookworms. By F. E. B 435 



The British Association 436 



Inaugural Address by Sir William Crookes, F. R. S. , 



President of the Association 438 



Section A. — Mathematics and Physics. — Opening 

 Address by Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., 



President of the Section 448 



Section B. — Chemistry. ( With Diagrams. ) — Opening 

 Address by Prof. F. R. Japp, F.R.S., President 



of the Section 452 



Notes 460 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



A Large Sun-spot 463 



The Atmosphere of D. M. -f 30° 3639 463 



The Exterior Nebulosities of the Pleiades 463 



Luminosity of Gases in Vacuum Tubes 463 



University and Educational Intelligence 463 



Societies and Academies . 464 



Books and Pamphlets Received 464 



