December 15. 1892J 



NATURE 



167 



saddle, in fact, separates the Jordan- Arabah depression from 

 the Red Sea basin. Was it probable that this saddle was con- 

 temporaneous with the longitudinal fracture? Much depended 

 on the determination of this question. Canon Tristram had 

 shown that the fishes of the Jordan waters presented some 

 curious analogies with the fish fauna of those of Africa, and 

 Giinther, after studying his specimens, had confirmed this view. 

 Me (the speaker) believed that this connection was not over the 

 saddle of the Arabah, but might have been the 285-foot pass of 

 the gorge of Jezreel. If the Pliocene depression, which the 

 autlior thought was at least 200 feet, was a little greater, 

 it would at least cause an outflow in this direction. As to the 

 date of the basaltic eruptions, he thought the author's explana- 

 tion was not unreasonable. He remarked that the Jordan- 

 Arabah valley must have been of considerable antiquity, and 

 had many lateral valleys of erosion more or less pointing 

 towards the central hollow of the Dead Sea, whether from the 

 Jordan or the Arabah end. Whither had the material thus 

 eroded gone ? It could not have passed over the saddle into 

 the Red Sea, for the drainage had evidently been towards the 

 Dead Sea for ages. He allowed that much was soluble lime- 

 stone ; but that must be precipitated somewhere, and the only 

 conclusion he could come to was the someA^hat heretical belief 

 that the bottom of the Dead Sea had been an unsound one. 

 Messrs. Irving, I. B. Lee, Topley, Hinde, and Whitaker also 

 spoke. The author accounted for the change of species be- 

 tween the Cretaceous and Eocene limestones, as determined by 

 Zittel, by supposing that at the close of the Cretaceous period 

 the sea-bed had been elevated into a land-surface — but without 

 llexuring — owing to which the life-forms of the Cretaceous 

 ocean were destroyed, and upon resubmergence new forms 

 entered from the outer ocean ; in this way there would be no 

 appreciable discordance of stratification, but complete change 

 of species. As regards the origin of the siddle in the Arabah 

 valley, he believed it was formed during the formation of the 

 valley itself, not subsequently ; the valley contracted very much 

 at the saddle. — In reply to Mr. Topley 's question, the author 

 stated he had been informed that there was a very distinct ter- 

 race of gravel near the lake of Huleh, corresponding in level 

 with that in the Arabah valley. About 1200 feet above the 

 Dead Sea surface the intermediate representatives of this terrace 

 may be found, but doubtless had been to a large extent swept 

 away by floods and rains. In attempting to account for the 

 difference between the faunas of the Red Sea and Mediter- 

 ranean, it would be clear that once the isthmus of Suez had 

 been converted into land, and the seas dissevered, differentiation 

 would begin and proceed till all the forms unsuited to each had 

 disappeared ; difference in the temperature of the waters of the 

 two seas would be the chief cause of differentiation. —The base 

 of the Keuper formation in Devon, by the Rev. A. Irving. — 

 The marls and clays of the Maltese Islands, by John H, Cooke. 

 Oxford. 

 University Junior Scientific Club, November 23. — The 

 above club held its 124th meeting in the Physiological Labora- 

 tory, Dr. J. Lorrain Smith, President, in the chair. — Mr. E. M. 

 Hamilton, Keble, brought before the club what proved to be a 

 most interesting subject in his exhibit of " Flexible Sandstone," 

 he pointed out that but little was known of the structure and 

 consistence of this curious rock ; it was found in India and was 

 known by the name of Itacolumite. Mr. Hornby, Queen's, 

 mentioned that he had investigated part of the specimen 

 exhibited under the microscope alter previous crushing ; he held 

 that the flexibility was due, not to mica, as was by some pro- 

 posed, for in some specimens there was no mica, but rather to 

 rough ball-and-socket joints between the grains ; this idea was 

 suggested by the irregular indentations observed in some 

 granules and projections in others. — Prof. Green agreed with 

 Mr. Hornby's theory as extremely probable ; he gave an able 

 rhumi of the subject, and expressed his idea that there are 

 more than one kind of rock roughly known as Itacolumite. He 

 pointed out how the ball-and-socket arrangement might be pro- 

 duced, by the influence of pressure, in the presence of some 

 dissolving agent, of which the power would be increased at any 

 point of pressure, and so allow one granule to bore into 

 another. — Mr. Sworn then gave a somewhat lengthy description 

 of some results he had obtained with his rotatory hypsometer in 

 actual use. When after the lapse of time, this subject was 

 exhausted by Mr. Sworn, the club heard Mr. McDonald, Keble, 

 who read a very able paper on the stereochemistry of nitrogen ; 

 the paper contained a review of all the latest work on this 



NO. 1207, VOL. 47] 



subject, and was amplified by models illustrative of the constitu- 

 tion of the various isomeric bodies mentioned. — During the 

 meeting it was announced that Lord Kelvin had consented to 

 deliver the " Robert Boyle" lecture in connection with this 

 club, next summer term, the subject being '* Magnetic Waves." 



December 2. — Dr. J. Lorrain Smith, President, in the chair. 

 — In the absence of Mr. Gunther, Magdalen, Mr. Hill, New 

 College, gave his exhibit of a caterpillar which was found in Java. 

 It was interesting on account of the curious flattened hairs with 

 which it was provided, and has not yet been classified. After a 

 short discussion the President read a paper on the thyroid 

 gland, in which he described a series of experiments performed 

 by him on cats as being the most suitable animal. He found 

 that although the cats almost invariably died after removal of 

 the thyroid gland, yet some lived a considerable time, and even 

 improved in health and appearance. One cat in particular was 

 even now in good health, although it was operated on in June 

 of the present year. However, in this case a decrease of 

 temperature brought on distressing symptoms such as convulsions. 

 He further showed that though the respiration temperature and 

 amount of the products of metabolism varied, the "quotient" 

 remained constant. The animals thus, after removal of the 

 gland, dying "quantitatively and not qualitatively." After a 

 discussion, in which Dr. Turrell, Messrs. Pembery, Ramsden, 

 Butler, and others took part, Mr. V. H. Veley read a paper on 

 the necessity of water in chemical reactions. The author 

 reviewed the works of Baker and others, illustrating his remarks 

 by experiments. Then passing to his own research he showed 

 that concentrated nitric acid did not react with dry sodium 

 nitrite, and further that dry carbon dioxide and sulphurous 

 oxide were not absorbed by dry calcium oxide. If absorption 

 did take place, the amount was directly proportional to the 

 quantity of water present. 



Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, November 16.— Prof. W. Noel 

 Hartley, F.R.S., in the chair. — Prof. T. Johnson described an 

 Irish alga — Pogotrickum hibernicum — new to science. He found 

 it growmg on Alaria esculenta, Grev., at Kilkee, co. Clare, in 

 September, 1891. P. hibernicum differs from P. filiformey 

 Rke. in having unilocular and plurilocular sporangia in the 

 same tuft, in having endophytic proliferous hyphse, and in size. 

 Comparison between P. hiberniciwi and Litosiphon laminaricz,. 

 Harv., of which herbarium material had been examined, was 

 made. The paper was well illustrated by means of the Society's 

 electric projector. — Mr. Alfred Harker then read a paper (com- 

 municated by Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S.), on the use of the 

 protractor in field-geology. Representing the inclination of a 

 plane to a fixed plane as a vector of the type given by the 

 gnomonic projection, the author deduces the laws of composi- 

 tion and resolution of such vectors, &c. Since the quantities 

 can be laid down at once by a straight protractor, the common 

 problems of field-geology and mining admit of ready graphical 

 solutions. — Mr. John R. Wigham described a means of prevent- 

 ing the pollution of water of cities and other places where ball 

 hydrants are used. He described the action of ball hydrants 

 which, while making a perfectly tight and true joint while the 

 pressure of water was in the mains, immediately fell from their 

 seats when that pressure was removed for repairs, attachment 

 of service pipes, &c., or reduced for any reason, and thus im- 

 mediately admitted into the mains any liquid, whether pure or 

 impure, which might be lying on the surface of the street or 

 roads near the hydrant, and pointed out a simple remedy devised 

 by Mr. Kelly, water inspector of Blackrock township. It con- 

 sists of a spiral spring inserted beneath the ball of the hydrant, 

 which assists the water to keep the ball in its place, and is at 

 the same time strong enough to hold the ball firmly there when 

 the pressure of water is removed. By the adoption of this 

 spring, which is easily applied and inexpensive, costing only a 

 few shillings, all danger of pollution from surface water is ab- 

 solutely averted. — Mr. G. H. Carpenter submitted a supple- 

 mentary report on the Pycnogonida collected by Prof. Haddon ia 

 Torres Straits, enumerating two additional species — PalUnopsis 

 Hoekii (Miers), and Rhopalorhynchus claripes, sp. nov. — Sir 

 Charles A. Cameron, M.D., communicated a paper on the action 

 of phosphine on selenium di-oxide. 

 Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, December 5. — M. d'Abbadie in 

 the chair. — On an opinion brought forward at the British 

 Association concerning sun-spots, by M. H. Faye. Regarding 

 the suggestion that an electric discharge, in accelerating evapo- 



