94 



NATURE 



[xMav 27, 189; 



mixture is the more carefully dried ; this result does not favour 

 the view that " nascent " oxygen attacks carbonic oxide more 

 readily than ordinary oxygen. — On the decomposition of iron 

 pyrites, by W. A. Caldecott. The "slime" obtained on 

 crushing auriferous pyritic Witwatersrand conglomerate contains 

 no ferrous sulphide as it leaves the battery, but this substance 

 can be detected in the slime soon after deposition in the dams ; 

 ferrous sulphide is also formed when iron pyrites is crushed to 

 an impalpable powder in a mortar. It would thus appear that 

 ferrous sulphide, and not sulphate, is the first decomposition 

 product of pyrites. —Monochlordiparaconic acid and some con- 

 densations, by H. C. Myers. Monochlordiparaconic acid, 

 C^HgClOj, is obtained on treating dichlormethylparaconic acid 

 with barium hydroxide.— Corydaline, Part v., by J. J. Dobbie 

 and F. Marsden. On heating corydaline with dilute nitric 

 acid, dehydrocorydaline nitrate C.„H.,5N04iHN03 is formed, 

 and if the action of the acid be pushed further, corydic acid, 

 Ci4HflN(OMe)..,(COOH)„, is obtained ; on oxidising this with 

 permanganate, at least lour different acids are produced. 



May 6.— Prof. De war, President, in the chair.— The follow- 

 ing papers were read :— A Bunsen burner for acetylene, by A. E. 

 Munby. A modified form of Bunsen burner for use with 

 acetylene is descril^ed, which has a much greater heating eff"ect 

 than a Bunsen CDusuming an equal volume of coal-gas instead 

 of acetylene. — The reactions between lead and the oxides of 

 sulphur, by H. C. Jenkins and E. A. Smith. The authors find 

 that Hannay's hypothetical compound, PbSgOg. the formation 

 of which was premised in order to explain the reaction be- 

 tween sulphur dioxide and lead, and between air and galena 

 at high temperatures, does not exist. The investigation of 

 other of the reactions of lead salts at high temperatures prc.ve 

 the accuracy of the equations which Dr. Percy gave as the 

 basis of the metallurgy of lead.— X-ray photographs of solid 

 alloys, by C. T. Ileycock and F. H. Neville. The authors 

 have applied the fact that some metals, such as sodium and 

 aluminium, are comparatively transparent to X-rays, whilst 

 others, like gold, are opaque, lo the investigation of allocs ; a 

 thin section is cut from the alloy to be examined, and an X-ray 

 photograph obtained of it. Examined thus, pure sodium shows 

 no crystalline structure, but alloys containing 3-10 per cent, of 

 gold show transparent sodium crystals interspersed with opaque 

 gold crystals. Many other gold-sodium and some aluminium 

 alloys have been examined l^y this new method. 



Entomological Society, May 5.— Mr. Roland Trimen, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair.— Mr. C. H. Peers was elected 

 a Fellow of the Society. — Mr. J. J. Walker exhibited an earwig, 

 Apterygida arachidis, Yersin, new to Britain, and recently 

 found in large numbers in chemical works at Queenborough. 

 It had been probably imported among bones. — Mr. Burr showed 

 a complete series of the British species of Forficulidre.— 

 Mr. Enock showed eggs of Stenopsociis cniciatiis, L., containing 

 parasitic larvis of Alapttis fnsciihis, Hal. , the male of which 

 would probably prove to be A/aplns minimus, Hal. -Mr. 

 Merrifield exhibited the results of temperature experiments on 

 the pupje of Pier is daplidice, Melilcea didyma, and other 

 species. He thought that changes produced by abnormal 

 temperatures might be classed as follows: (i) enhancement or 

 diminution of intensity of colour without alteration in the form 

 of the markings ; (2) substitution of scales of a different colour, 

 scattered or in groups ; (3) imperfection in the development of 

 scales or their pigment.— Mr. Tutt showed a series* of insects 

 collected at Cannes in March, and remarkable for their early 

 emergence. — Dr. Dixey read a paper on mimetic attraction, in 

 which he dealt with the steps by which a wing-pattern, as in 

 South American Pierinae, could be modified in various directions 

 so as to secure a mimetic result, and with the theories of mimicry 

 put forward by Bates and Fritz Miiller. — Mr. Blandford ex- 

 hibited and discussed series of homoeochromatic and mimetic 

 Neotropical species of butterflies, chiefly of Heliconiida? and 

 Heliconioid Danaida;. The discussion was continued by Prof. 

 Poulton, who showed similar groups of several genera, remark- 

 able as having been collected and sent to England as example?. 

 of a single species, and by the President, and it was ultimately 

 adjourned to June 2. 



Geological Society, May 12.— Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair.— The following communications were 

 read:— On the gravels and associated deposits at Newbury 

 (Berks), by E. Percy Richards. After a general sketch of the 

 geology of the Valley of the Kennet, the superficial deposits at 

 and in the neighbourhood of Newbury were described in detail, 



NO. 1439, VOL. 56] 



from observations made by the author during the progress of the 

 main drainage-works in 1894 The author classified the strata 

 which he examined into five groups: (i) The Preglacial 

 Southern Drift; (2) the Glacial Thrift (Donnington) ; (3) the 

 Upper River-gravel ; (4) the Lower River-gravel ; (5) the 

 Neolithic peat-beds (shell-marl, peat, and loam). — The Mollusca 

 of the Chalk Rock, Part ii., by Henry Woods. The first part 

 of this paper, dealing with the Cephalopoda, Gasteropoda, and 

 Scaphopoda, appeared in the last volume of the Quarterly 

 Journal [yo\. lii. p. 68). In the new communication the author 

 gave an account of the characters, synonymy, and distribution of 

 the Lamellibranchia : 29 species were recognised, 6 being new. 

 In the concluding part the author compared the fauna of the 

 J\eussianiim--mr\*i (Chalk Rock) in England with that of other 

 European areas, particularly North-West Germany and Saxony. 

 In the latter country the number of species in some groups — 

 particularly Gasteropoda and Lamellibranchia — was much 

 greater than in England ; this diff"erence was probably due to 

 the sea having been of less depth than in the English area. It 

 was noticed that the species of Cephalopoda had a much wider 

 geographical distribution than the other groups of the Mollusca. 

 Finally, by a study of the present distribution of the genera— 

 j3art;cularly of those which formed the predominating clement 

 in the fauna — taken in conjunction with the other characters of 

 the zone, the author arrived at the conclusion that in England 

 the Reussianum-zone was probably formed between the depths 

 of 100 and 500 fathoms. 



Mathematical Society, May 13.— Prof. Elliott, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 made : — On cubic curves as connected with certain triangles in 

 perspective, by S. Roberts, F.R.S. — Determination of certain 

 primes, by F. W. Lawrence. — An analogue of anharmpnic ratio, 

 by J. Brill. — An es.say on the geometrical calculus (continuation), 

 by E. Lasker. — On the partition of numbers, by G. B. 

 Mathews.— Notes on synthetic geometry, by W. Esson, F. R. S. 



Zoological Society, May 18. --Prof. G. B. Howes in the 

 chair. — Mr. Sclater exhibited a plan of the new Zoological 

 Garden attached to the Para Museum, Brazil, and called atten- 

 tion to the description of it recently published in the " Der 

 Zoologische Garten " by Herr Meerwarth. — Mr. Sclater exhibited 

 the skin of a penguin which he had received in exchange from 

 the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris as a specimen of 

 Microdiptes serresiamis (Oust.); and read a note from Mr. 

 Ogilvie-Grant, according to which this specimen was only an 

 immature example of the Rock-hopper penguin {Endyptes chryio- 

 come). — Mr. R. E. Holding exhibited a skull of a Theban goat 

 {Caprahirais, var. ihebaica), and made remarks on the shorten- 

 ing of the skull in this and other domesticated animals. — Mr. 

 G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., read a paper entitled "A Revision 

 of the Lizards of the Genus Sceloporus." From a study of the 

 large mass of material in the British Museum, the author had 

 come to the conclusion that the difficult genus Sceloporus, so far 

 as was at present known, consisted of thirty-two species. 

 Nearly all the specimens examined, with the exception of very 

 young ones, had been measured, and their dimensions and the 

 number of scales and femoral pores possessed by each of them 

 were recorded in the paper. One new species {Sceloporus asper) 

 was described. — Dr. G. Herbert Fowler read the second of a 

 series of papers on the Plankton of the Faeroe Channel, which 

 dealt with the distribution of Conchcecia maxima (a midwater or 

 mesoplankton form), with the European species of Toinopteris, 

 and with the distribution of Tracheloteuthis riisei, — Mr. ^lartin 

 Jacoby contributed the second part of a paper on the Phyto- 

 phagous Coleoptera of Africa and Madagascar. Nine new 

 genera and eighty new species' of the families Euiiiolpinic, 

 Halticince, and Galeriuina were described. — Mr. W. G. Ride- 

 wood read a paper on the structure and development of the 

 hyobranchial skeleton of Pelodytes punctatus. — Messrs. Oldfield 

 Thomas and R. Lydekker, F. R.S., contributed a paper on the 

 number of grinding-teeth possessed by the Manatee. From an 

 examination of several specimens of this animal it had been 

 ascertained that the number of its grinding-teeth was not a 

 fixed one, but that it developed a continuous and indefinite 

 number to replace those which had become worn away by the 

 sand which was necessarily present in somewhat large quantities 

 in its food of water-weeds. 



Royal Meteorological Society, May 19. — Mr. E. Mawley, 

 President, in the chair.^ — Mr. F. Gaster, of the Meteorological 

 Office, read a paper by Mr. R. H. Scott, F. R.S., and himself. 



