March 31, 1892] 



NATURE 



527 



for a long time. The method consisted in boiling the thermo- 

 meters for eighteen days in baths of either mercury or sulphur ; 

 at the end of this time the zeros were found to be practically 

 fixed unless they were exposed to higher temperatures than 

 those of the substance in which they were boiled. The paper 

 was illustrated by a curve showing that the change in zero was 

 very rapid for the first few hours, amounting in a special case to 

 11" C. for twenty hours' heating, but that afterwards the change 

 became almost «?7as the heating was continued. — The elasticity of 

 cubic crystals, by Mr. A. E. H. Love. — Changes in the dimensions 

 of elastic solids due to given systems of forces, by M. C. Chree. 

 Expressions are found for the mean values of the strains and 

 stresses in any homogeneous elastic solid, whether jeolotropic or 

 isotropic, under the influence of any given system of bodily and 

 surface forces. The expressions for the mean values of the 

 strains, more especially of the dilatation, are employed in deter- 

 mining the changes in the dimensions of elastic solids in a 

 variety of special cases. The effects of gravitational and centri- 

 fugal forces are more particularly considered. — On the law of 

 distribution of velocities in a system of moving molecules, by 

 Mr. A. H. Leahy. A short proof is given of the Maxwell law 

 of distribution based upon the principle that a system of mole- 

 cules, whose velocities are instantaneously reversed, will return 

 to its former configuration. The limit which must be put to 

 the least number of molecules in a gas if the ordinary assump- 

 tions of the kinetic theory of gases may be relied upon is also 

 examined, and a note made on the evidence that a system of 

 molecules will ultimately attain to a steady state of distribution. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, March 7.— Prof. Sir W. Turner, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — Prof. Cossar Ewart read a paper on 

 the cranial nerves of man and Selachians. He compared the 

 cranial nerves of the skate and shark genus with those of man, 

 and discussed their probable identity. The facial nerve of the 

 fish is much more developed than that of any other vertebrate, 

 but is entirely sensory, while in man it is a motor nerve. In 

 some mammals, though not in man, there are vestiges of the 

 lateral sense-organs. These organs occur in the tadpole, but 

 are practically absent in the fully-developed frog. It would 

 seem, therefore, that the mammals originally possessed rudi- 

 ments of these organs, but that these rudiments disappeared as 

 development proceeded. 



March 14.— The Rev. Prof. Flint, Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — Mr. Robert Irvine read a communication, by Dr. John 

 Murray and himself, on the changes in the chemical composi- 

 tion of sea-water associated with marine blue muds. The obser- 

 vations recorded were made on mud dredged from Granton 

 Harbour and from the old quarry near Granton. — Dr. John 

 Murray read a paper, by Mr. Irvine and himself, on marganese 

 nodules in the marine deposits of the Clyde sea-area. Man- 

 ganese occurs in great quantities in that area, and this forms a 

 striking exception to the usual distribution of manganese as 

 regards depth of water. Dr. Murray, therefore, in a previous 

 paper on this subject, suggested that the large occurrence of 

 manganese in the Clyde area had its origin in the waste pro- 

 ducts discharged into the river from the manufactories at Glas- 

 gow. During the past year a great many dredgings have been 

 taken on the west coast of Scotland and in basins to the north of 

 the Mull of Cantyre, with the result that very little manganese 

 was found, while, as before, large quantities were obtained in 

 the Clyde sea-area — so much so that it would almost pay to 

 dredge it on the Skelmorlie Bank. Dr. Murray's explanation 

 is therefore strongly confirmed. — Dr. Murray exhibited a speci- 

 men of extremely pure chalk from Christmas Island (about two 

 hundred miles from the coast of Java) — Dr. Noel Paton read a 

 paper on a case of the occurrence of crystalline globulin in 

 urine.— Prof Tait read an additional note on the isothermals of 

 carbonic acid at volumes less than the critical volume. 



March 21. — The Hon. Lord M'Laren in the chair. — -The 

 Keith Prize for the period 1889-91 was presented to Mr. R. T. 

 Omond, Superintendent of the Ben Nevis Observatory, for his 

 contributions to meteorological science ; and the Makdougall- 

 Brisbane Prize for 1888-90 was presented to Dr. Ludwig Becker 

 for his paper on the solar spectrum at medium and low altitudes. 

 — The Astronomer- Royal for Scotland made a further com- 

 munication on Nova Auriga:. The atmospheric conditions 

 were remarkably favourable for observation until the ilth day 

 of February, when the star was of the fifth magnitude, but since 

 that time, until the i8th of this month, only occasional observa- 



NO. I I 70, VOL. 45] 



tions were possible. Between the 8th and the i8th no observa- 

 tions were obtained, and the star had meanwhile fallen from the 

 sixth to the ninth magnitude. In the beginning of March it 

 was fully 130 times as bright as it is at present. The spectrum 

 is now nearly continuous throughout with traces of bright lines. 

 Thus Nova Auriga presents closer analogies to Nova Corona: 

 than to Nova Cygni, in which an originally continuous spectrum 

 with bright lines changed to a discontinuous spectrum presenting 

 only one bright line close to one of the great nebular lines. One 

 of the lines in Nova Aurigce is very close to this nebular line, 

 but there is reason to believe that it is due to a substance other 

 than that which gives the nebular line. — Dr. R. H. Traquair 

 read a paper on the fossil Selachii of Fife and the Lothians. 

 Five new species are included. 



Glasgow. 

 Geological Society, March 10. — Mr. Dugald Bell read a 

 paper on the alleged submergence in Scotland during the 

 Glacial epoch, with special reference to the so-called "high- 

 level shell-bed " at Chapelhall, near Airdrie, 512 feet above the 

 sea. This "bed "had first been brought into notice by Mr. 

 Smith, of Jordanhill, in a paper to the Geological Society in 

 1850, and had since been generally accepted as proving a sub- 

 mergence of the land to at least that extent. Its existence, 

 however, rested on very imperfect evidence. It was said to 

 have been found in digging a well near the summit of one of the 

 high ridges of boulder-clay in the district ; and was described 

 as a bed of fine reddish clay, about 2 feet thick, and thinning 

 away rapidly on all sides, lying in a hollow of the boulder-clay, 

 which was 14 feet or more in thickness both above and 

 below it. The well seems to have been built up before Mr. 

 Smith had an opportunity of examining the section, though he 

 got some shells said to have been found in the clay, and which 

 were all of one species, Tellina cakarea. From that day to 

 this no geologist had seen the clay, though it had been sought 

 for all around, and though another well had been sunk within a 

 few yards of the old one, in the hope of finding it. At the very 

 utmost, it seems to have been a limited strip or patch of shelly 

 clay, intercalated in the boulder-ciay, such as had been found in 

 many other localities, and could not fairly be taken as a 

 sufficient proof of submergence. The more they were con- 

 sidered the greater seemed the improbabilities which the theory 

 of a submergence and re-emergence of the country to this 

 extent, and at that time, involved. There was not a particle of 

 corroborative evidence. No shells had been found at a similar 

 level in other parts of the midland valley, nor in the numerous 

 side-valleys, where they would be more likely to be preserved 

 than on this exposed knoll in the centre. None had been 

 found in the upper boulder-clay, which, if all this valley had 

 been a sea-bottom before the " second glaciation," should con- 

 tain abundance of at least shelly fragments. Further, a " mild 

 interglacial period " would probably accompany such a sub- 

 mergence, and this shelly clay was supposed to have been laid 

 down during such a period ; but the only species of shells found 

 in it indicated, not mild, but extremely cold conditions. In 

 face of all these difficulties, it was suggested that the layer 

 containing these shells may, have been transported (probably in 

 a frozen condition) by the ice-sheet, as in many other instances 

 that were well known. This seemed to be by far the more 

 probable account of it, and got rid of the complications con- 

 nected with a first glaciation, a deep submergence, a re- 

 emergence, and a second glaciation closely resembling the first. 

 The position of this patch of shelly clay, admittedly in the 

 track of the old ice-sheet, and in front of an obstruction pre- 

 sented by the highest rising ground in the district ; the highly 

 Arctic character of the organisms ; the very colour of the clay (as 

 reported) being different from the clays of the immediate 

 neighbourhood, — all favoured this conclusion. This Chapelhall 

 clay, therefore, he submitted, ought no longer to be cited as a 

 proof of submergence. An animated discussion followed. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 21. — M. d'Abbadie in the 

 chair. — A study of the properties of amorphous boron, by M. 

 H. Moissan. A full account is given of the physical and 

 chemical properties of pure amorphous boron. The following 

 conclusions are arrived at by the author : — Boron combines 

 more readily with the metalloids than with the metals ; it has a 

 great affinity for fluorine, chlorine, oxygen, and sulphur. At a 

 red heat it displaces silicon and carbon from their oxides. It 



