April 27, 1893J 



NATURE 



023 



Anthropological Institute, April ii. — Prof. A. Macalister, 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. G. M. Atkinson exhibited a 

 cranium and several metal ornaments found by Mr. A. Michell 

 Whitley and Dr. Talfourd Jones in a grave at Birling, near 

 Eastbourne, Sussex. The peculiar coffin-like shape of the skull 

 seemed to point to its belonging to the early Saxon period, 

 while the metal ornaments were assigned to the late Roman or 

 immediately post- Roman age. — Mr. R. Duckworth read a paper 

 on two skulls from Nagyr, recently added to the Cambridge 

 University collection. One of them is a female skull, and is 

 remarkably dolichocephalic, the cephalic index being 6t)'94. 

 The other skull is that of an adult male. — Prof. Macalister read 

 a paper on Egyptian mummies. He described the manner in 

 which they were prepared, the unguents used by the Egyptians 

 and the various cloths in which the mummies were rolled. 

 He explained the difference between the Egyptian cloths and 

 those manufactured in England at the pre-ent day, and said that 

 the object of using so few threads in the weaving was for the pur- 

 pose of saving time and trouble. The material at the same time 

 was brought to a high state of perfection as a manufacture, and 

 indeed might even compare with some of the finest linen pro- 

 ductions at the present day. Specimens of cloth were exhibited 

 and the author stated, on the authority of a linen manufacturer, 

 that there was only one specimen of linen manufacture in the 

 United Kingdom which could be recognised as of similar 

 structure to the Egyptian productions. — A paper on Damma 

 Island and its natives by P. W. Bassett Smith, R.N., was also 

 read. 



Geological Society, April 12.— W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 read : — On some Palaeozoic Ostracoda from Westmoreland, by 

 Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F. R. S. In 1865 the author determined 

 for Prof. Harkness some fossil Ostracoda which he had obtained 

 from the Lower Silurian rocks of South East Cumberland and 

 North- East Westmoreland, and subsequently other specimens 

 mentioned by Harkness and Nicholson in 1872. In 1891 Prof. 

 Nicholson and Mr. Marr submitted a series of similar microzoa 

 from the same district ; and the author now endeavours to de- 

 termine their specific alliances, and revises the list of those pre- 

 viously collected. He has to notice about eleven forms of 

 Primilia, Beyrichia, Ulrichia, ^chmina, and Cytherella — several 

 of them being closely allied as varieties, but all worthy of study 

 as biological groups, such as have been illustrated from other 

 regions by writers dn the Ostracoda, with the view of the exact 

 determination, if possible, of species and genera, of their local and 

 more distant or regional distribution, and of their range in time. 

 — On some Palasozoic Ostracoda from the Girvan district in 

 Ayrshire, by Prof. T. Rupert [ones, F. R.S. This paper aims 

 at the completion of the palasontological account of the Girvan 

 district, so far as the Ostracoda are concerned ; and follows up 

 the researches indicated in the "Monograph of the Silurian 

 Fossils of the Girvan District in Ayrshire," by Nicholson and 

 Etheri<lge, vol. i., 1880. In about a dozen pieces of the fossili- 

 ferous shales, submitted for examination some few years ago, 

 the writer finds nearly thirty specimens of Pritnitia, Beyrichia, 

 Ulrichia, Sulcuna, and Cypridina which show interesting 

 gradations of form, not always easy to be defined as specific or 

 even varietal, but valuable as illustrating mollifications during 

 the life-history of individuals, thus often leading to permanent 

 characteristics of species and genera. Like those formerly de- 

 scribed in Nicholson and Etheridge's "Monograph," the 

 specimens have all been collected by Mrs. Elizabeth Gray, of 

 Edinburgh. — The reading of these papers was followed by a 

 discussion, in which the President, Mr. Marr, and the author 

 took part. —On the dwindling and disappearance of limestones, 

 by Frank Rutley. The exister ce of chert between two sheets 

 of eruptive rocks at Mullion Lland seemed to the author to re- 

 quire some explanation. Cherts are usually associated with 

 limestones, and the absence of limestones in many cases where 

 cherts are found points to their removal by underground waters. 

 The older the limestone tlie greater the probability of its thick- 

 ness having dwindled. The thicknesses of the Ordovician, 

 Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous Limestones seem to be 

 in the ratio of i : 15 : 15 : 100. Many limestones once existing 

 in Archaean rocks may have disappeared, as also limestones in 

 later rocks. The author comments on the difficulty of distin- 

 guishing some cherty rocks from felstones. Two appendices are 

 added to the paper, the first on the tra'isference of lime from 

 older to newer deposits, and the second on the formation of 



nodular limestone-bands. — This paper gave rise to a discussion 

 in which the President, Prof. Hull, Mr. Walford, Prof. Judd, 

 General McMahon, Prof. T. R. Jones, Prof. Hughes, Mr. H. 

 W. Monckton, Dr. G. H. Hinde, and the author took part. — 

 On some Bryozoa from the Inferior Oolite of Shipton Gorge, 

 Dorset, Part II., by Edwin A. Walford. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 19.— Dr. C. Theo- 

 dore Williams, President, in the chair. —The following papers 

 were read :— The direction of the wind over the British Isles, 

 I 1876-80, by Mr. F. C. Bayard. This is a reduction on an 

 j uniform plan of the observations made twice a day, mostly at 

 I 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., at seventy stations during the lustrum 1876- 

 j 80 ; and the results are given in tables of monthly and yearly 

 percentages. — Notes on two photographs of lightning taken at 

 Sydney Observatory, December 7, 1892, by Mr. H. C. 

 Russell, F. R.S. These photographs were taken with a half- 

 plate view lens, mounted in a whole plate camera, and, as a 

 matter of course, there is some distortion at the edges. Both 

 photographs show the gaslights in the streets as white specks, 

 the specks being circular in the centre and crescent-shaped in 

 other parts of the plate owing to distortion. The lightning 

 flashes are also distorted. Mr. Russell believes that this distor- 

 tion may account for the so-called " ribbon " flashes, which are 

 seen in many photographs of lightning. He has also made some 

 measurements of the length and distance of the flashes, and of 

 the intensity of the light. — Notes on lightning discharges in the 

 neighbourhood of Bristol, 1892, by Dr. E. H. Cook. The 

 author gives some particulars concerning two trees in Tyntesfield 

 Park, which were struck by lightning, one on June i and the 

 other on July 18, and also some notes concerning a flagstaff on 

 the summit of Brandon Hill, which was struck on October 6. — 

 Constructive errors in some hygrometers, by Mr. W. W. 

 Midgley. The author, in making an investigation intp the 

 hygrometrical condition of a number of cotton mills in the Bolton 

 district, found that the mounting of the thermometers and the 

 position of the water receptacle did not by any means conform 

 to the regulations of the Royal Meteorological Society, and were 

 so arranged that they gave the humidity results much too high. 

 The Cotton Factories Act of 1889 prescribes the maximum 

 weight of vapour per cubic foot of air at certain temperatures ; 

 and the author points out that if the instruments for determining 

 the amount present in the mills have an error of 20 per cent, 

 against the interests of the manufacturer, it is necessary that the 

 makers of the mill hygrometers should adopt the Royal Meteor- 

 ological Society's pattern for the purpose. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, April 17. — M. Loewy in the chair. 

 — Note on the observation of the partial eclipse of the sun of 

 April 16, 1893, by M. F. Tisserand. — On the observation 

 of the total eclipse of the i6th inst., by M. J, Janssen. — 

 Effects of the drought upon this year's crops ; reply to 

 M. Demontzey's note on the planting of the highlands, 

 by M. Chambrelent.— Expansion of water at constant 

 pressure and at constant volume, by M. E. H. Amagat, At 

 pressures higher than 200 atmospheres water has no maximum 

 density above zero. At the lower temperatures, contrary to 

 what takes place in the case of other liquids, the coefficient of 

 expansion increases with the pressure. This increase is grad- 

 ually effaced as the temperature rises, is sensibly zero at 50° or 

 60°, and changes sign for higher temperatures. If water is kept 

 at a constant volume the pressure increases rapidly with the tem- 

 perature. Thus, for unit volume the coefficient of pressure 

 increases fourfold between 10° and 100°, and the variation is 

 proportionately even more rapid between 0° and 10*. — On the 

 structure of simple finite and continued groups, by M. Cartan. 

 —On a simple group with fourteen parameters, by M. F. 

 Engel. — Demonstration of the transcendental nature of the 

 number e, by M. Adolf Hurwitz.— Comparison of the inter- 

 national meter with the wave-length of cadmium light, by M. 

 Albert A. Michelson.— Photography of gratings engraved upon 

 metal, by M. Izarn. It is possible to reproduce opaque grat- 

 ings engraved upon metal in a manner analogous to the repro- 

 duction of transparent ones already described. On covering 

 such a grating with a layer of bichromated gelatine, and expos- 

 ing to the sun through this layer, a grating effect is produced 

 which, although rather feeble, is due to successive differences of 

 stiucture corresponding to the rulings. These differences of 

 structure are probably due to stationary reflected waves, and 



NO. 1226, VOL. 47] 



