March io, 1892] 



NATURE 



455 



four in the porpoise to fourteen in Sowerby's whale. The 

 stomach of the lessser rorqual has five compartments, the first 

 of which has not a digestive function, so that in this respect it 

 resembles the dolphin's. The third compartment is very small, 

 its existence being indicated externally only by a faintly 

 marked line on the surface of what seems to be the third, but is 

 really the fourth. The size of the openings connecting the 

 various compartments diminishes rapidly from the anterior to 

 the posterior end. — Prof. Tait read a paper on the relation 

 between kinetic energy and temperature in liquids. He 

 showed how, by considering (in the usual pressure-volume 

 diagram) a Carnot's cycle formed by the horizontal part of an 

 isothermal below the critical temperature, the lines of constant 

 volume passini^ through the extremities of that part, and the 

 portion of the critical isothermal intercepted between these 

 lines, we can calculate the difference between the average 

 specific heats of the liquid and the vapour at constant volume 

 throughout the given range of temperature in terms of known 

 quantities, the vapour, of course, starting from the condition of 

 saturation at the lower temperature. In this cycle the sub- 

 stance is — except when in the state corresponding to the 

 horizontal part of the lower isothermal — either entirely liquid or 

 entirely vapour. In the case of carbonic acid, it appears that 

 the average specific heat at constant volume throughout 

 a given range is greater in the liquid condition than in 

 the state of vapour. In the liquid state (judging from 

 Amagat's results) the average at constant volume seems to 

 be about equal to the specific heat of the vapour at constant 

 pressure. He gave also a number of thermal details about I 

 COj, mainly based on Amagat's experiments. These in- I 

 eluded the latent heat of the vapour which (taking the volume ; 

 of I pound of CO2 at o°C. and i atmosphere as 8 cubic feet) | 

 was shown to fall from 53 units at 0° C. to 17 '8 at 30° C. ' 



Dublin. i 



Royal Society, February 17.— The Right Hon. the Earl of 

 Rosse, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Note on the basal con- 

 glomerate of Howth, by Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S. The author 

 discussed the characters of these lowest-lying deposits of the Hill 

 of Howth, and stated that he could find no evidence for the vol- 

 canic origin attributed to them by Sir A. Geikie : they had been 

 formed in more than one way ; a considerable part arose from 

 the dislocation, fracture, and crushing of the Cambrian slates 

 and quartzites in situ, the broken fragments being subsequently 

 rounded by intratelluric flow ; but some appeared to be true 

 conglomerates, which had been powerfully affected by crust 

 movements. This is only what one might expect when one 

 considered that from the higher beds of Bray there was an in- 

 crea-^ed development of arenaceous material downwards into the 

 lower beds of Howth : the approximation to a shore indicated 

 by the frequency of sandy shoals, leads at length to an actual 

 beach, indicated by the basal conglomerates. — The variolite of 

 Annalong, Co. Down, by Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole. This 

 rock occurs as a dyke north of Annalong, exposed above low 

 water for about 80 feet, and 4 feet wide. The mass consisted, 

 at the time of its consolidation, of spherulitic tachylyte through- 

 out, being a very remarkable development of basic glass, and 

 probably the crest of an olivine-basalt dyke. The extreme edges 

 still retain their glassy character. In the interior of the devitri- 

 fied mass the spherulites are I cm. in diameter. This is the 

 second recorded occurrence of variolite in the British Isles : a 

 specimen, correctly named, and collected by the Irish Ordnance 

 Survey some fifty years ago, led to the author's search for the 

 rock on the coast of the Co. Down. — Mr. J. Joly read a paper 

 entitled " On a .Speculation as to a pre-Material Condition of the 

 Universe." 



Oxford. 



University Junior Scientific Club, February 17. — Mr. 

 J. A. Gardner, of Magdalen College, President, in the chair. — 

 Mr. F. R. L. Wilson, Keble College, exhibited some Telugu 

 Palmyra-leaf manuscripts from the north-east of the Madras 

 Presidency. — Mr. H. H. G. Knapp, Non-Coll., read a paper 

 on muscular fatigue. A discussion followed, in which various 

 members took part. — A paper was read by Mr. R. E. Hughes, 

 Jesus College, on the nature of solution. A lengthy discussion 

 followed this paper. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, February 8.— Prof. Darwin, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The following communications were made : — 



NO. II 67, VOL. 45] 



On long rotating circular cylinders, by C. Chree, Fellow of 

 King's College. A solution is found for a long cylinder of 

 isotropic elastic material, with its cross-section bounded by a 

 circle or by two concentric circles, rotating with uniform velocity 

 about its axis. The solution is not exact, save when Poisson's 

 ratio is zero, but is approximate in the same way as Saint- 

 Venant's solution for beams. Formulae are given on which are 

 based tables showing the shortening of the cylinder and the 

 increase in its radius or radii under rotation. Formulae are also 

 found for the limiting safe speeds according to the stress- 

 difference and greatest strain theories, and these are compared 

 with the formulae arrived at by Prof. Greenhill on his theory 

 of instability. The results appear to be of considerable practical 

 importance. — On the theory of contact and thermo-electricity, 

 by J. Parker, St. John's College. The phenomena are deduced 

 by analytical thermodynamics solely from expressions for the 

 energy and entropy functions of the system. These are of the 

 most general type, in that they include all kinds of terms that 

 are formally possible, the coefficients of these terms being the 

 measures of physical properties of the system which may or may 

 not have an actual existence. Thus there will occur terms which 

 indicate, after Helmholtz, affinity between electricity and dif- 

 ferent kinds of matter. The results are just sufficiently wide to 

 include the known facts of thermo-electricity. Considerations 

 of a cognate kind have been treated by Lorentz, Duhem, and 

 Planck. 



February 22. — Prof. Darwin, President, in the chair. — The 

 following communications were made :— Preliminary notes of 

 some observations on the anatomy and habits of Akyoniitm, by 

 S. J. Hickson. Between the coelentera of Alcyonium there is a 

 dense, transparent gelatinous mesoglcea. This is penetrated ( i) by 

 endodermal cords connected with the endoderm of the coelentera, 

 and (2) a plexus of very fine nerve (?) fibrils connected with 

 a number of very small uni-, bi-, or tripolar ganglion cells. 

 The endodermal cords are not hollow canals, as they are usually 

 described, and all attempts to inject them failed. At the 

 periphery these endodermal cords come into contact with ecto- 

 dermal invagination at places between the old polypes, and 

 give rise to the buds. When the young buds have nearly de- 

 veloped all the characters of the older polypes, canals are formed 

 which communicate with the coelentera. The plexus of fine 

 nerve fibrils can only be made out in fresh specimens stained 

 with osmic acid. It could not be traced in the peripheral parts 

 of the colony in consequence of the great quantity of the cal- 

 careous spicules in this region. Some experiments were made 

 to determine whether in these animals the expansions and con- 

 tractions of the polypes occur rhythmically. During the first 

 two or three days after Alcyonium is placed in the tank it con- 

 tracts completely with tolerable regularity twice in every twenty- 

 four hours. After that time it either remains expanded or con- 

 tracts irregularly. Of six Alcyoniums that were placed in a 

 tank with an artificial tide that rose and fell every twelve hours, 

 only three unfortunately survived for more than a fortnii{ht, and 

 I these contracted with tolerable regularity once in twenty-four hours. 

 5 These experiments seem to prove that Alcyonium contracts nor- 

 ' mally twice in every twenty-four hours, and that the rhythm of 

 i these contractions continues for some time after it is removed from 

 the action of the tides, and that a new rhythm may be induced 

 I by subjecting them to the action of an artificial tide of a different 

 j period. — On the action of lymph in producing intravascular 

 clotting, by Dr. L. E. Shore. The sudden injection into the 

 I vascular system of a rabbit of a small quantity (4 c.c. to 15 c.c.) 

 i of lymph drawn from the thoracic duct of a dog causes death 

 ! with more or less complete intravascular clotting. The lymph 

 I loses this property after it has itself clotted. The injection of 

 even large quantities of lymph-serum produces no such effect. 

 Proteid bodies in the apparently normal lymph to which the 

 ! power is due have been isolated. — On the fever produced by 

 i injection of Vibrio Metschttikovi, by E. H. Hankin and A. A. 

 ' Kanthack. — On the method of fertilization in Ixora, by J. C. 

 Willis. The flowers are massed together and thus rendered 

 I conspicuous. Honey is secreted by a nectary upon the disk, 

 j and protected by the length (3-4 cm.) and narrowness of the 

 1 tube. The mechanism -resembles that of Campanula. The 

 anthers dehisce in the bud, covering the style, whose stigmas 

 are closed up with pollen. The stamens bend away when the 

 flower opens, nnd the style presents the pollen to insects. 

 Later the stigmas separate, but never bend back so far as to 

 effect autogamy. In /. Westii autogamy occurs in the bud, but 

 the flower appears to be self-sterile. 



