;6o 



NATURE 



[February 9, 189^ 



length, being agreeahlv surprised at the place. Near here he 

 obtained several reptiles and bird-; which are now in the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens. Mis chief collection was made at Mombasa, 

 however. He speaks very highly of the hospitality of the 

 Europeans on that coast. — Mr. F. G. Fremantle read a paper 

 on Hermaphroditis-m, confining his attention to human beings. 

 He divided his subject into various cla'jses, ranging from com- 

 plete, or almost complete, neutrality of sex, to those cases where 

 either male or female characteristics preponderated, concluding 

 with some cases of pure deception. The paper was illustrated 

 with diagrams, and a large number of cases were cited in sup- 

 port of the statements made. He showed that a perfect herma- 

 phrodite both physiologically and anatomically could not exist, 

 either the male or female characters preponderating in every 

 case. After a short discussion the club adjourned until 

 February 17. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, January 30. — Prof.T.McK. Hughes, 

 President, in the Chair. — Mr. Bateson exhibited a dog's skull, 

 lent by Mr. J. Harrison of Northampton, in which the upper 

 canines were bigeminous, each having two crowns both in 

 the plane of the arcade. — The following communicitions were 

 made : — On a new fern from the coal measures, by Mr. A. C. 

 Seward. The specimen described as a new species, Rachiop- 

 teris Williamsoni, resembles in certain particulars the genus 

 Myeloxylon, but possesses distinctive characters not previously 

 recognised in fossil fern petioles. Rachiopteris Williamsoni 

 may be briefly described as a petiole with scattered vascular 

 bundles ; those near the periphery appear to be rather collateral 

 than concentric in structure, but the larger bundles have a more 

 decided concentric arrangement of the xylem and phloem. Each 

 group of xylem elements is surrounded by a ring of small secre- 

 tory canals. The hypoderm is like that of Myeloxylon, and 

 gum (?) canals are abundantly distributed in the ground tissue. 

 On the intestinal movements of Daphnia, by Mr. W. B. Hardy. 

 — On Urobilin, by A. Eichholz, Emmanuel College. 

 In this communication a new method of urobilin extraction was 

 described, by which the pigment is preserved in the state of 

 chromogen. The properties of urobilin in normal and febrile 

 urines were recapitulated in order to compare urobilin with the 

 reduction products from bilirubin and hcematin. The communi- 

 cation was then devoted to a description of experiments devised 

 to settle the question as to the possibility of artificial production 

 of urobilin from bilirubin and hjematin. After pointing out how 

 Maly's hydrobilirubin differs from true urobilin, and how conse- 

 quently the identity of Hoppe Seyler's and Neucki and Sieber's 

 urobilin from hsematin reduction becomes doubtful, it was 

 shown, in spite of statements to the contrary by McMunn and 

 Le Nobel, that it is possible by complete reduction of both 

 bilirubin and hsematin to obtain substances in each case accu- 

 rately resembling urobilin. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, January 30.— M. de Lacaze-Duthiers 

 in the chair. — On some objects made of copper of a very ancient 

 date, discovered in the course of M. Sarzec's excavations in 

 Chaldsea, by M. Berthelot. M. de Sarzec has unearthed some 

 relics of the most ancient Chaldsean civilisation, which confirm 

 M. Berthelot's views as to the existence of an age during which 

 pure copper was used instead of bronze, the latter being intro- 

 duced after the rise of the co nmerce in (in. A fragment of a 

 small votive figure, found among the foundations of an edifice 

 more ancient than that of the King Our-Nina, was assayed for 

 copper and chlorine by means of nitric acid. It contained 

 neither silver, bismuth, tin, antimony, zinc, nor magnesium ; 

 only traces of lead, arsenic, and sulphur, and 777 percent, of 

 copper, the bulk of the rest consisting of alkaline earthy car- 

 bonates and silica. Its composition resembles that of the 

 statuette of the Chaldsean King Goudeah, and also that of the 

 sceptre of the Egyptian King Pepi I. , of the sixth dynasty, show- 

 ing that in those early times tin was not known in the two most 

 ancient homes of civilisation.— On the diurnal variations of 

 gravitation, by M. Mascart. A barometric tube enclosing a 

 column of mercury 4-5m. in length, balaiced by the pressure of 

 hydrogen contained in a lateral vessel, has been kept surrounded 

 by earth for several years at the Pare Saint- Maur Observatory, 

 onlv the short upper end emerging from the ground. A 

 study of the daily motions of the column by means of photo- 

 graphic registration has recently, apart from the slow and steady 

 changes due to inevitable differences of temperature, shown 

 sudden variations lasting from 15 to 60 minutes, which can hardly 



NO. 121 5, VOL. 47] 



be explained otherwise than as due to corresponding variations 

 in gravitation. They have been as high as 1/20 mm., or 1/90000. 

 The diff'erences of sea-level from high to low water would only 

 jiroduce i/5ih of this variation. The phenomena, if due to sub- 

 terranean displacements, would be specially interesting in 

 volcanic districts. — On solar statistics for the year 1892, by M. 

 Rod. Wolf. — On the pathogenic properties ofihe soluble sub- 

 stances formed by the microbe of contagious bovine peri- 

 pneumonia, and their value for the diagnosis of the chronic 

 forms of this disease, by M. S. Arloing. — The H and K lines 

 in the spectrum of the solar facula, by Mr, George E. Hale. — 

 On the ditFerential equations of a higher order, the integral of 

 which only admits of a given number of determinations, by M. 

 Paul Painleve. — On ordinary linear differential equations, 

 by M. Jules Cels. — On the systems of linear differential 

 equations of the first order, by M, Helge von Koch. — 

 On the theory of spherical functions, by M. E. Beltrami. 

 —Decomposition of alkaline aluminates in presence of alu- 

 minium, by M. A. Ditte.— Electrometric study of acid 

 triplatohexanitrite of potassium, by M. M. Vezes. — Action of 

 water vapour upon perchloride of iron, by M. G. Rousseau. — 

 On two combinations of cuprous cyanide with alkaline cyanides, 

 by M. E. Fleurent. — On the composition of some hydrated 

 alkaline phenates, by M. de Forcrand. — Researches on the acid 

 salts and the constitution of the colouring matters in therosani- 

 line group, by M. A. Rosenstiehl.— Analysis of medicinal 

 creosotes; gayacol, by MM. A. Behal and E. Choay. — On an 

 apparatus for the quantitative determination of precipitates by 

 an optical method, by M. E. Aglot. — On the pre-existence of 

 gluten in wheat, by M. Balland. — The evolution of the intestinal 

 gregarinas of the marine worms, by M. Louis Leger. — Origin 

 and multiplication of Ephestia Kuehniella(Zeller) in the mills 

 of France. — On the perithecae of 6^«fz'«?//a spiralis in France 

 and the identity of the American and European Oidium, by 

 M, G. Couderc— Histological researches on the Uredinei, by 

 MM. P. A. Dangeard and Sapin-Trouffy.— New geological 

 observations in the French Alps, by M. W. Kilian. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Milky Way. By A. T 337 



The Theory of Substitutions and its Applications 



to Algebra. By G. Ch 338 



The Brain in Mudfishes 339 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Lea: " The Chemical Basis of the Animal Body." — 



W. D. H 340 



" Chambeis's Encyclopaedia " 340 



Huiton: "Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland (1776-79) " 341 

 Letters to the Editor: — 



Some Lake Basins in France. — Prof. T. G. Bonney, 



F.R.S 341 



Dust Photographs.— W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 



FR.S. ; F.J. Allen 341 



Fossil Plants as Tests of Climate.— Chas. E. De 



Ranee 342 



Lunar Rainbow in the Highlands. — O. S. B. ... 342 

 Optical Continuity. {With Diagrams.) By Francis 



Galton, F.R.S. 



■ ■ 342 



Briiish New Guinea. {Illustrated.) By Henry O. 



^^^o^'^es 345 



Noies 347 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Comet Holmes (1892 III.) 351 



Comet Brooks (November 19, 1892) 352 



Spectra of Planetary Nebulae and Nova Aurigce . . . 352 



Sun-spots and Magnetic Perturbations in 1892 . . . 352 



New Minor Flanets 3^2 



The Lunar Surface 352 



Geographical Notes 352 



The Institution of Mechanical Engineers 353 



The Seven Images ol the Human Eye. By E. E. 



F. d-A 354 



A Botanist's Vacation in the Hawaiian Islands. By 



Prof. D. H. Campbell • • 355 



Instruments for the Earthquake Laboratory at the 

 Chicago Exposition. By Prof.John Milne, F.R.S. ; 



F. Omori . 356 



UniverMty and Educational Intelligence 357 



Scientific Serials 357 



Societies and Academies . 358 



