June 21, 1900] 



NATURE 



191 



distribution of various types of complexion, iStc— A paper, by 

 Mr. D. Maclver, on recent anthropometrical work in Egypt, was 

 taken as read. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, June 4. — Prof. M'Kendrick, Vice-President, 

 in the chair.— Dr. R. Stewart McDougall read a paper on the 

 biology of certain species of Pis^odes and Scolyttis. Pissodcs 

 is a genus of Coleopterous insects very harmful to pine trees in 

 Great Britain, the eggs beinfj laid under the bark, and the grubs 

 tunnelling in the Cambial layer. In working out the life-history 

 of P. notattis, a pest on young pines, and of P. pint, which 

 attacks chiefly grown trees, the author found that imagos could 

 be obtained from March to November, and that breeding might 

 take place from April to September inclusive. A remarkable 

 feature was the long life of adult beetles of both sexes, with 

 repeated copulation. Specimens of P. notatus had lived 22, 

 24 and 37 months, hibernating twice in the first two cases and 

 three times in the last case. Marked adults kept in confine- 

 ment, but otherwise in natural conditions, began hibernation in 

 \' ivember, and appeared above ground again in the following 

 irch. Scolyliis ninltistriattis attacks the elm — almost invari- 

 ly dead or decaying trunks or branches. Attempts to develop 

 ic eggs in living trees had failed. The beetles are late 

 -warmers, appearing chiefly in July. The generation is an 

 mnual one. — Sir John Murray read a paper on the physical, 

 chemical, and biological conditions of the Black Sea. Certain 

 peculiar features were pointed out, notably the presence of a 

 cold layer at a depth of 50 fathoms, the deeper waters being 

 warmer ; the lack of vertical circulation, and the consequent 

 stagnation of the deep waters, which can find no outlet through 

 the comparatively shallow straits ; the presence of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen and the absence of o.xygen in these depths ; the 

 absence of animal life there ; and the deposit of carbonate of 

 lime on the bottom. This carbonate of lime was not of 

 organic origin, but was formed by chemical action, the sulphur- 

 etted hydrogen being one of the products. The special interest 

 of the inquiry arose from the fact that in several of these par- 

 ticulars the Black Sea conditions differed fundamentally from 

 conditions that obtained in oceans and other ocean-connected 



Mathematical Society, June 8. — Mr. R. F. Muirhead, 

 President, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — (l) 

 A general proof of the addition theorems in trigonometry ; 

 (2) a slight extension of Euler's theorem on homogeneous 

 functions, by W. Edward Philip ; note on proofs by projection 

 in trigonometry and co-ordinate geometry, by Prof. Gibson. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, June 11. — M. Maurice Levy in 

 the chair. — Reduction of certain problems of heating or cooling 

 by radiation to the more simple case of heating or cooling of 

 the same bodies by contact ; heating of a wall of indefinite 

 thickness, by M. J. Boussinesq. — On the radiation of uranium, 

 by M. Henri Becquerel. The rays from uranium are deviable 

 in a magnetic field, although on account of the comparatively 

 feeble action of the uranium radiations, the time of exposure 

 of the photographic plates has to be very long. Uranium salts 

 treated with barium salts and a sulphate have their radio- 

 activity reduced. The author has not been able to obtain an 

 inactive uranium salt. — Researches on the pressures of saturated 

 mercury vapour, by MM. L. Cailletet, Colardeau and 

 Riviere. An experimental study of the vapour pressure of 

 mercury from its boiling point up to about 880°. At the 

 point where the pressure is about 160 atmospheres, the 

 experiments were stopped by the iron tubes allowing the mer- 

 cury to pass through them, thus rendering the study of the 

 TJtical phenomena of mercury impossible. The pressures 

 A t.re read on a metallic manometer which had been directly 



dibrated against a mercury column, and the temperatures on a 

 Lhermo-couple. — On the )3-phenyl and )3-benzyl-a-alkoxy-a- 

 cyanoacrylic acids, by MM. A. Haller and G. Blanc. Starting 

 with phenylacetylcyanacetic and benzylacetylcyanacetic esters, 



he silver salts are prepared and these treated with alkyl iodide. 



i he esters so obtained are isomeric with the benzoylcyanacetic 



>ters, and are clearly derivatives of crotonic acid. — Note on an 

 earthquake in Mexico on December 19, 1899, by the French 

 Consul in Mexico. — On a photograph obtained at the Observa- 

 tory of Algiers during the total eclipse of the sun of May 28, 



by M. Ch. Trepied.— On the polarisation of the corona 

 of the sun observed at Elche, by M. P. Joubin. The ex- 

 periments of Prazmowski and Ranyard were confirmed. 

 Further observations with a Bravois bi-plate showed 

 that for all points of the sun's limb between the 

 equator, and about 15° to 20° from the north solar pole, there 

 was no elliptical polarisation. Above this, the colours of the two 

 plates could be clearly distinguished. — The method of Neumann 

 and the pri)blem of Dirichlet. — On the class of primitive con- 

 tinuous finite groups of transformations of Lie, by M. Edmond 

 Maillet —On the logarithms of the algebraical numbers, by M. 

 Carl Stormer.— On the angular points of solubility curves, by 

 M. H. Le Chatelier. — On the electrical distribution in a Hertz 

 resonator in activity, by M. Albert Turpain. — Permanent 

 modifications in metallic wires and variation of their electrical 

 resistance, by M. H. Chevallier. — On the kathcde rays, by 

 M. P. Villard. A study of the heating eff'ect produced upon 

 the kathode. The usual metal electrodes can be replaced by 

 ordinary lamp filaments, the kathode in this case being rapidly 

 raised to a white heat. The fall of potential necessary 

 for the production of light by a filament in this 

 way is much greater than when the carbon is heated 

 by the ordinary Joule eff'ect. — The campylograph, a 

 curve-tracing machine, by M, Marc Dechevrens. A new 

 method of producing Lissajous figures. Instead of being con- 

 fined to compounding two rectangular motions only, the instru- 

 ment can combine three simultaneous movements, two rectilinear 

 and oscillatory, the third uniform and circular. Seventeen 

 illustrations of the results obtainable accompany the paper. — 

 Heat of solution of hydrogen peroxide. Thermal value of the 

 hydroxyl group : influence of carbon and hydrogen, by M. de 

 Forcrand.— On the direct production by the wet method of 

 mercuric and mercurous iodides in the crystalline state, by M. 

 F. Bodroux. Mercuric iodide can be crystallised in octahedra 

 from boiling concentrated hydrochloric acid or from a solution 

 of potassium iodide. A better method is to leave mercuric 

 acetate in contact with methyl iodide. The substitution of 

 mercurous nitrate for mercuric acetate yields large crystals of 

 mercurous iodide. — On the impossibility of the primary forma- 

 tion of potassium chlorate obtained electrolytically, by M. 

 Andre Brochet. The electrolysis was carried out in 

 presence of large amounts of oxide of cobalt. Since 

 hypochlorites are destroyed by this oxide, whilst chlorates 

 are unaffected, only chlorate which has been formed by primary 

 interaction of the ions will be found. Since no chlorate is pro- 

 duced under these conditions, it follows that in the electrolysis of 

 alkaline chlorides, contrary to the hypotheses of (JUttel, Haber 

 and Grinberg, Forster, Torre and Miiller, the formation of 

 chlorate is never due to a primary action, but is always due to 

 the intermediate formation of hypochlorites, even in a strongly 

 alkaline medium. — On the decomposition of metallic chlorides, 

 by M. Qichsner de Coninck. — Addition of hydrogen to acetylene 

 in presence of reduced iron or cobalt, by MM. Paul Sabatier 

 and J. B. Senderens. At 180° reduced iron causes the interaction 

 of hydrogen and acetylene, ethane, ethylene, benzene and 

 higher unsaturated hydrocarbons being produced. Cobalt under 

 similar conditions gives a much larger yield of ethane compared 

 with that previously noticed for nickel. — On a product of decompo- 

 sition of a diiodhydrin of glycerol, by MM. E. Charon and C. Paix- 

 Seailles. The substance formed by the elimination of hydriodic 

 acid from the iodhydrin, CHgl.CHI.CH.jOH, is /3-iodopropion- 

 aldehyde, most probably the polymer (CH2l.CH.>.CHO)3. — 

 Action of acetylene upon cuprous chloride dissolved in a solu- 

 tion of potassium chloride, by M. Chavastelon. — On acidimetry 

 and alkalimetry in volumetric analysis, by M. A. Astruc— Fix- 

 ation of clay in suspension in water by porous bodies, by M. J. 

 Thoulet. Analysis of marine deposits consisting largely of 

 shells, showed great variations in the amount of clay present, 

 and it appeared possible that this clay might have been abstracted 

 from the water after the death of the animal by mechanical 

 means. Experiments with powdered pumice stone and with 

 wood charcoal confirmed this view. — Preliminary note on the 

 decapod Crustacea collected during the Belgian Antarctic expe- 

 dition, by M. H. Coutiere. — The embryos of mummy wheat and 

 barley, by M. Edmond Gain. A microscopical examination 

 showed that in spite of their external appearance of good pre- 

 servation, the mummy cereals do not possess a cellular organisa- 

 tion compatible with germination. — The ratio of nitrogen to 

 chlorides in the contents of the stomach during digestion, by 

 MM. J. Winter and Falloise. 



NO. 1599, VOL. 62] 



