204 



NATURE 



[January 14, 1892 



materials for the valley-gravels. He explained that, with the 

 possible exception of the Westleton Shingle, he entirely rejected 

 the theory of marine action in connection with the formation of 

 these gravels, and thought that the Glacial Gravels were probably 

 for the most part due to floods during melting of large quantities 

 of ice. The remaining gravels, he believed, had been spread out 

 by water in valleys ; as denudation proceeded, the gravel, by 

 protecting the ground upon which it lay, came to stand out as the 

 capping of the plateaux and hills ; as the gravel itself was de- 

 nuded, the materials were carried to lower levels, forming new 

 gravels ; and this process has been repeated up to the present 

 time. He explained that Prof. Rupert Jones and Dr. Irving 

 had already adopted this theory in part, but that he' differed 

 from them in the entire exclusion of marine action. After the 

 reading of this paper there was a discussion, in which the Chair- 

 man, Mr. W. Whitaker, Dr. Hicks, Mr. R. S. Herries, Prof. 

 Grenville Cole, and Mr. Monckton took part. — The Bagshot 

 Beds of Bagshot Heath, by Horace W. Monckton. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, January 4. — M. Duchartre in the 

 chair. — On an abnormal mode of propagation of waves, by M. 

 H. Poincare. — Remarks on the mechanism of the fixation of 

 nitrogen by the soil and plants, a propos of a reply by MM. 

 Schloesing and Laurent, by MM. Arm. Gautier and R. Drouin. 

 — Note on the late Herr Kronecker, by M. Hermite. 

 This is an obituary notice on Herr Kronecker, the renowned 

 mathematician, who died at Berlin on December 29, 1891, 

 after a short illness. — On electro- capillary phenomena and 

 differences of potential produced by contact, by M. Gouy. In 

 order to obtain some new information as to contact force, the 

 author has measured the surface tensions of more or less 

 polarized liquid amalgams, in comparison with mercury. The 

 first experiments were made with amalgams containing i/iooo 

 part of zinc, cadmium, lead, tin, bismuth, silver, and gold. And 

 the results lead to the provisional statement that in a system 

 consisting of non-polarized mercury, acidulated water, and an 

 amalgam of i/iooo more or less polarized, the superficial 

 tension of the amalgam is a function of the apparent differ- 

 ence of potential between the amalgam and the mercury. — 

 The direct combination of nitrogen with the alkaline-earthy 

 metals, by M. Maquenne. The metals employed have been 

 used under the form of electrolytic amalgams. They unite 

 rapidly with nitrogen when heated in a current of that gas, in 

 the absence of carbon and its compounds ; there is thus no 

 intermediate formation of a metallic carbide. The ease with 

 which the combination takes place may lead to a new inter- 

 pretation of the synthesis of alkaline-earthy cyanides by the 

 simultaneous action of nitrogen and carbon on the corresponding 

 bases. — Nitration of hydrocarbons of the methane series, by 

 M. Konovaloff. The normal hydrocarbons of the methane 

 series may be nitrated by weak nitric acid, and give as principal 

 products secondary nitro compounds. The yields are relatively 

 good, and the method may be used to prepare secondary nitro- 

 paraffins. Corresponding amines and ketones are obtained 

 by reduction, of these products. — On the embryogeny of 

 Sagitta, by M. S. Jourdain. — Influences of electric discharge 

 during thunderstorms on apparatus registering terrestrial mag- 

 netism, by M. Em. Marchand. An examination of the 

 tracings drawn by the registering magnetometers at Lyons 

 Observatory since 1887, and the records of thunderstorms, 

 establish a connection between lightning discharge and mag- 

 netic disturbances which has been frequently noted. Seventy- 

 three lightning discharges had their time of occurrence and 

 approximate distance recorded during the last five years. Forty 

 of these were accompanied by well-marked disturbances of the 

 declination curve ; in fifteen cases the oscillatory movements 

 were slight, but could be easily found when the time of dis- 

 charge was known ; thirteen cases were doubtful ; and in five 

 cases absolutely no trace of an abnormal oscillation could be 

 detected. No simple relation appears to exist between the 

 distance of the discharge and the amplitude of the oscillation 

 they produce. Some very violent thunder-claps have only been 

 accompanied by slight magnetic perturbations, whilst others, far 

 more feeble and distant, have produced very large ones. — On 

 the absolute values of the magnetic elements on January i, 

 1892, by M. Th. Moureaux. The following are the values at 

 the Pare Saint-Maur Observatory, deduced from the mean of 

 the horary observations obtained on December 31, 1891, and 



January i, 1892, and referred to the absolute measures made on 



December 27, 29, and 31, and on January 2 : — 



Absolute values on Secular variation 



January i, 1892. in i8gi. 



Elements. 



Declination 15" 30'7 ... -5'"2 



Inclination ^ 65° 9'o ... - 1'*6 



Horizontal force ...* 019580 ... -foooo26 



Vertical force 0-42278 ... -f-ooooo6 



Total force 0-46592 ... -fo-oooi6 



— On the soundings of the Bourget Lake, and some other lakes 



in the Alps and the Jura, by M. A. Delebecque. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Books. — Elements of Agriculture: Dr. W. Fream (Murray). —An- 

 nuaire, 1892, par le Bureau des Longitudes, Paris (Gauthier-Villars).— 

 Monograph of the British Cicada;, Part 8 : G. B. Buckton (Macmillan).— 

 Richard Wiseman : Surgeon-General Sir T. Longmore (Longmans).— U.S. 

 Commission of Fish and Fisheries ; Part xv., Report of the Commissioner 

 for 1887 (Washington) —Observations made at the Blue Hill Meteorological 

 Observatory, Mass., U.S.A., in the Year \''<p (Camb., Mass., Wilson).— 

 Nature's Fairy-Land : H. W. S. Worsley-Benison ; 4th edition (E. Stock).— 

 A Cyclopaedia of Nature Teachings (E. Stock).— A treatise on the Ligation 

 of the Great Arteries in Continuity : C. A. Ballance and W. Edmunds 

 (Macmillan).— Rand, McNally, and Co.'s Indexed County and Railroad 

 Pocket Maps and Shippers' Guides of Connecticut, Massachusetts. Penn- 

 sylvania, and Washington (Stanford).- Guide to the Examinations in Mag- 

 netism and Electricity, and Answers to Questions : W. J. Harrison (Blackie). 

 —The Universal Atlas, Part 10 (Cassell). 



Pamphlet.— The Evolution of Mind in Man : H. B. Medlicott (Kegan 

 Paul). 



Seriai.,s.— Bulletin of the l>f .Y. Mathematical Society, vol. 1., Nos. 2 

 and 3 (New York).— Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lix.. 

 Part 2, 1890; Supplement No. 2 (Calcutta). — La Nuova Scienza, vol. vi. 

 fasc. V. (t'odi, Umbria). — Journal of the College of Science, Imperial Uni- 

 versity of Japan, vol. iv. Part 2 (Tokyo).— Ziitschrift fur wissenschaftliche 

 Zoologie, liii. Band, 2 Heft (Williams and Norgate)— Notes from the Leyden 

 Museum, vol. xiii. Nos. 3 and 4 (Williams and Nmgate).— The Record of 

 Technical and Secondary Education, No. 2 (Macmillan).— Journal of 

 Physiology, vol. xii., Nos. 5 and 6 (Cambridge) — Journal of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, December (Williams and Norgate). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Chemistry of Paints and Painting. By Dr. 



Hugo Muller, F.R.S 



Poincare's Thermodynamics. By P. G. T. . 



Insect Pests 



Our Book Shelf :- 



Wrightson : "Farm Crops" 247 



Smith: " Arithmetic for Schools." — W 247 



Bishop: "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan" . . . 248 

 May cock : " A First Book of Electricity and Mag- 

 netism " . 



Macmillan : " A Cyclopaedia of Nature Teachings " . 

 Letters to the Editor :— 



On the Attitudes of the Zebra during Sleep, and their 

 Influence on the Protective Value of its Stripes. — 



H. W 



The Migration of the Lemming. — Prof. George J. 



Romanes, F.R.S 



Destruction of Immature Sea Fish.— Ernest W. L. 



Holt 



A New Precessional Globe. — Dr. K. Haas .... 

 Simple Proof of Euclid II. 9 and 10.— Percival and 



Co 



The Alleged Discovery of a Bacillus in Influenza. 



By H. F. P 



On the Matter thrown up during the Submarine 



Eruption North-west of Pantelleria, October 



1891. By Gerard W. Butler ; Geo. H. Perry . . . 



The Spectrum of Iron and the Periodic Law. By 



John Parry 



The Growth of the Pilchard or Sardine. By Prof. 



J. T. Cunningham 255 



Science in Japan. By Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 



F.R.S 256 



Evidence of a Wing in Dinonds. ^Illustrated. ) By 



Henry O. Forbes 257 



Notes 257 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Stonyhurst Drawings of Sun-spots and Faculae ... 261 



Some apparently Variable Nebulee 261 



The Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition 261 



The Smithsonian Institution - . . 261 



Societies and Academies 262 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 264 



241 



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248 

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248 



249 



249 

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250 

 250 



251 



253 



NO. TI59. VOL. 45] 



