94 



NATURE 



[May 24, 1900 



It follows from these results that the gold-copper series of 

 alloys presents many points of similarity with the silver-copper 

 series, and that the main difference is only one of degree, copper 

 being apparently more soluble in gold in the solid state than in 

 silver. 



Geological Society, April 25.— J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair.— The President read the following 

 resolution which had been passed unanimously by the Council : 

 " That this Council desire to place on record their deep sense 

 of the loss which both science and literature have sustained in 

 the death of the Duke of Argyll, who was the oldest surviving 

 past- President of the Geological Society" ; and stated that on 

 behalf of the Council he proposed to communicate a copy of the 

 resolution to the Duchess of Argyll, coupled with an expression 

 of respectful sympathy. — On a complete skeleton of an Ano- 

 modont reptile from the Bunter Sandstone of Reichen, near 

 Basel, giving new evidence of the relation of the Anomodontia 

 to the Monotremata, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. The 

 author discusses various views which have been expressed with 

 regard to the position of the Labyrinthodonts. He has already 

 separated these animals from the Amphibia and combined them 

 with the Ichlhyosauria in a group of reptiles named Cordylo- 

 morpha, and he enumerates a series of characters which 

 constitute so close a link between the two types " that it is not 

 possible, in the absence of evidence, to conceive of their being 

 referred to different classes of animals." In conclusion, the 

 author argues that the points of structure are so few in which 

 Monotreme mammals make a closer approximation to the higher 

 mammals than is seen in the fossil described and other Anomo- 

 dontia, that the Monotreme resemblances to fossil reptiles 

 become increased in importance. He believes that a group 

 Theropsida might be made to include Monotremata and Ano- 

 modontia, the principal differences (other than those of the 

 skull) being that Monotremes preserve the marsupial bones and 

 the atlas vertebra. Ornithorhyiichus shows pre-frontal and 

 post-frontal bones, and has the malar arch formed as in Anomo- 

 donts and some other reptiles. — On Longmyndian Inliers at 

 Old Radnor and Huntley (Gloucestershire), by Dr. Charles 

 Callaway. The grits, with some associated slaty bands, forming 

 a ridge near Old Radnor were considered by Sir Roderick 

 Murchison to be M\y Hill Sandstone. The author has dis- 

 covered that one of the beds of Woolhope Limestone, dipping 

 westward, is crowded with rounded and angular fragments of 

 grit bearing a general resemblance to the arenaceous parts of 

 the Old Radnor Group. 



May 9.— J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 

 — The Pliocene deposits of the East of England. Part ii. : 

 The Crag of Essex (Waltonian), and its relation to that of 

 Suffolk and Norfolk, by F. W. Harmer, with a report 

 on the inorganic constituents of the Crag by Joseph Lomas. 

 Three divisions of the Red Crag are proposed, namely, Wal- 

 tonian, Newbournian and Butleyan, which are distinguished 

 alike by the difference of their faunas, and by the position which 

 they occupy. The first, with its southern shells, is confined to 

 the county of Essex ; the second, containing a smaller propor- 

 tion of southern and extinct, and a larger proportion of northern 

 and recent species, occupies the district between the Orwell and 

 Deben, and a narrow belt of land to the east of the latter river ; 

 the third, in which Arctic forms such as Cardium gi-oenlandicum 

 are common, is found only farther north and east. All these 

 beds are believed to have originated in shallow and land-locked 

 bays, successively occupied by the Red Crag sea as it retreated 

 northward, which were silted up, one after the other, with 

 shelly sand. The conditions under which the Red Crag beds 

 originated seem to exist at the present day in Holland, where 

 sandy material brought down by rivers, with dead shells in 

 great abundance from the adjacent sea, is being thrown against 

 and upon the coast, principally by means of the westerly winds 

 now prevalent. From meteorological considerations, it seems 

 probable that strong gales from the east may have prevailed 

 over the Crag area during the latter part of the Pliocene epoch. 

 ^^A description of the Salt- Lake of Larnaca in the Island of 

 Cyprus, by C. V. Bellamy. After a brief description of the 

 geheral geology and geography of the island, the author pro- 

 • ceeds to deal with the topography of the lake, which occurs in 

 a' basin shut off from the sea, its deepest part being about 10 feet 

 below sea-level. The barrier between the salt-lake and the sea 

 is made of stiff calcareous clay associated with masses of con- 

 glomerate resting on plastic clay, that on watery mud, and that 

 again on stiff calcareous clay. The sea-water appears to per- 



NO. 1595, VOL. 62] 



colate through the highest deposits, meeting with checks in the 

 conglomerates, and thus reaches the basin somewhat slowly, 

 where it is evaporated to dryness by the summer heat and 

 deposits its salt. Artificial channels have been made, to carry 

 the flood-water from the land direct to the sea, so that it does 

 not dilute the brine of the lake. The rainfall in the catchment- 

 area round the lake is at the most only enough to supply 223 

 million gallons, and as the lake contains 480 million gallons 

 when full, the balance of 257 million gallons must be derived 

 from the sea. The lake is probably situated on what was an 

 extensive arm of the sea at the close of the Kainozoic era. The 

 salt-harvest begins in August, at the zenith of summer heat, 

 and it is reported that a single heavy shower at that time of 

 year suffices to ruin it. Observations are given on the density 

 of the water, the plants and animals in the water, and the lake- 

 shore deposits." 



Zoological Society, May 8. — Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. , 

 Vice-President, in the chair. — Mr. Sclater exhibited a mounted 

 specimen of a male reedbuck, which had been obtained by Mr. 

 Ewart S. Grogan on the Songwe River, north of Lake Nyasa. 

 The specimen was of about the same size as the common 

 reedbuck {Cervkapra artindimim), but differed from that 

 species in several important points, Mr, Sclater considered it 

 referable to a new species, and proposed to name it Cervkapra 

 thomasinae. — Mr. C. Davies Sherborn made some remarks on 

 the progress of his " Index Generum et Specierum Animalium," 

 of which he expected the first portion ( 175 1 -1800), containing 

 about 60,000 entries, to be ready for publication at the end of 

 this year.— Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., read a paper on the 

 batrachians and reptiles collected by Mr. G. L. Bates in the 

 Gaboon (French Congo), among which were specimens of ten 

 new species and five new genera of the former, and of one new 

 species of the latter, which were described. These descrip- 

 tions were incorporated with a list of the previously known 

 species from the Gaboon, by which it was shown that the 

 batrachians known from this country reached thirty-nine in 

 number and the reptiles eighty,— Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant read 

 a paper on the birds of the Hainan, based on a collection sent 

 home by the late Mr. John Whitehead from the Five-Finger 

 Mountains in the interior of the island. Examples of many 

 interesting species had been procured, which were either new to 

 science or to the fauna of the island. Among the former, which . 

 numbered eleven, were mentioned a splendid silver pheasant, a 

 remarkable night-heron, and a peculiar brown-and-white jay of 

 the genus Urocissa. The paper contained a complete account 

 of the avifauna of Hainan as known at the present time. — Mr. 

 Philip Crowley read a paper on the Rhopalocera collected by 

 the late Mr. John Whitehead on the Five-Finger Mountains in 

 the interior of Hainan. Specimens of 108 species were 

 contained in the collection, of which eight were described as 

 new, and many others were recorded from that island for the 

 first time.— Mr. J. S. Budgett read a paper, entitled "Some 

 points in the anatomy of Polypterus," as deduced from an 

 examination of specimens lately procured by the author in the 

 River Gambia.— Mr. G. A. Boulenger gave a list of the fishes col- 

 lected by Mr. J. S. Budgett during his recent expedition to the 

 Gambia. Among these were examples of two new species, 

 which were proposed to be named Clarius budgetti and 

 Synodontis ocellifer. Altogether specimens of forty-two species 

 of fishes were obtained by Mr. Budgett from the river. 



Mathematical Society, May 10,— Prof. Elliott, F.R.S., 

 Vice-President, in the chair,— The chairman having read the 

 by-laws bearing upon the subject of the special meeting, an- 

 nounced that it was proposed " that by-law iv, i, be amended by 

 substituting the words ' half-past five o'clock in the afternoon ' 

 for ' eight o'clock in the evening.' " The motion having been 

 seconded by Dr. J. Larmor, F.R.S., was carried unanimously. 

 —At the ordinary meeting, Dr.Glaisher, F,R.S., communicated 

 a congruence theorem relating to Eulerian numbers and other 

 coefficients.— Prof, Lamb, F.R.S., spoke briefly on a peculiarity 

 of the wave-system due to the free vibrations of a nucleus in an 

 extended medium.— Prof. Love, F.R.S., gave a description of 

 some diagrams illustrating a paper, by Mr. J. H. Michell, which 

 treats of distributions of stress in two dimensions.— The follow- 

 ing papers were communicated by their titles :— The differential 

 equation whose solution is the ratio of two solutions of a linear 

 differential equation, by Mr, M, W. J. Fry ; Note on a quin- 

 quisectiohal equation, by Prof. L, J, Rogers ; On the differ- 

 entiation of single, theta functions, by. the Rev, M. M, U. 



