262 



NATURE 



[July 12, 1900 



contained an account of the development of the horns, descrip- 

 tions of the hoofs and skull, and a comparison between the skull 

 of the musk-ox and that of the Takin (Budorcas). — A communi- 

 cation was read from Mr. A. L. Butler, containing the descrip- 

 tion of a supposed new species of mountain-antelope from the 

 Malay Peninsula, for which the name Nemorhoedus swettenhami 

 was proposed. — The Society then adjourned till November next. 



Mathematical Society, June 14.— Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., 

 President, in the chair. — Three foreign members being present, 

 the chairman requested them to make communications to the 

 Society. This they did. Prof. Klein spoke on the continuation 

 of the edition of Gauss's collected works ; Prof. Darboux, " Sur 

 diifferents problemes relatifs aux transformations de I'espace et 

 aux deformations finis de la matiere et sur leurs rapports avec la 

 theorie des systemes triples orthogonaux " ; and Prof. Poincare, 

 *' Sur quelques theoremes relatifs a I'analysis situs et sur les 

 proprietes des poly^dres dans I'espace a plus de trois 

 dimensions." — Votes of thanks were passed to them by accla- 

 mation. — Prof. Stringham also made a few remarks on a proof 

 by non-Euclidian geometry of the form and directrix property 

 of a plane section of a cone. — Prof. Elliott, F.R.S., com- 

 municated some notes on the concomitants of binary quantics. — 

 Lord Kelvin read the titles of the following papers which had 

 been received : Some multiform solutions of the partial differ- 

 ential equations of physical mathematics and their applications. 

 Ft. ii., by H. S. Carslaw ; Some quadrature formulae, by W. F. 

 Sheppard ; Extensions of the Riemann-Roch theorem in plane 

 geometry, by Dr. Macaulay ; On the invariants of a certain 

 differential expression connected with the theory of geodesies, 

 by J. E. Campbell ; On the transitive groups of degree « and 

 class «- I, by Prof. Burnside, F.R.S. ; The invariant syzygies 

 of lowest order for any number of quartics, by A. Young ; 

 Canonical reduction of bilinear forms, Pt. ii., by T. J. 

 Bromwich ; The energy function of a continuous medium, by 

 H. M. Macdonald ; Note on the representation of a circle by a 

 linear equation, by J. Griffiths. 



Geological Society, June 20.— J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — On the skeleton of a Theriodont 

 reptile from the Baviaans River (Cape Colony), by Prof. H. G. 

 Seeley, F.R.S. The fossil described in this paper was dis- 

 covered by Mr. W. Pringle at Ealdon, in the bed of the 

 Baviaans River, a tributary of the Great Fish River. It is 

 now preserved in the Albany Museum. The slab containing it 

 is of hard siliceous sandstone, and is 31 inches long by loinches 

 wide. It is split so as to expose a portion of the skull, the 

 vertebral column and ribs as far as the pelvis, the scapula, part 

 of the humerus, the femur, and parts of the tibia and fibula. 

 The tail and left hind-limb, and apparently part of the right 

 fore-limb, are lost, owing to the jointed condition of the rock. 

 The bones have decomposed, and are represented by natural 

 moulds from which a beautiful cast was obtained by means of a 

 jelly mould in the Geological Department of the Natural 

 History Museum, before the specimen was I'eturned to Grahams- 

 town. The remains indicate an animal about 2 feet long, exclu- 

 sive of the tail, and standing probably about 8 inches high ; it 

 was not more than 6 inches wide in the fore part of the body. 

 The animal was of great mobility, capable of easily bending 

 the body, and, by straightening the limbs, of occasionally raising 

 its height to 10 inches or more. It is a new type of Theriodont 

 reptile, contributing important facts to the osteology of the 

 group, and especially in regard to the natural association of the 

 bones. It is possibly to be included in the Cynodontia, from 

 which it differs in characters of the ilium, scapula, and skull. — 

 Fossils in the Oxford University Museum (IV.): notes on 

 some undescribed trilobites, by H. H. Thomas. Two new 

 species of Dalniania from the Wenlock Shales and one of 

 Olenus from the Shineton Shales of Shropshire are described in 

 this paper. The specimens on which the first species of Dalniania 

 is founded were collected by the late Dr. Grindrod at Malvern 

 Tunnel. The species has a strong resemblance to certain varie- 

 ties of D. caudatus, especially those more nearly approaching 

 Z>. longicaudatus ; its nearest ally seems to be D. nexilis. 

 Among its characters are spines round the head, the height of 

 the head-shield, and the distance between the eyes. The type- 

 specimen of the second species came from the Wenlock Shale 

 of Builth. The Shineton specimen was presented to the Oxford 

 Museum by the Right Rev. Bishop Mitchinson. — On radiolaria 

 from the Upper Chalk at Coulsdon (Surrey), by W. Murton 

 Holmes. The radiolaria described in this paper were contained 



NO. 160 2, VOL. 62] 



in the cavities of two small flints which were thrown out of the 

 new cutting between Coulsdon Station and the new Merstham 

 Tunnel on the L. B. & S. C. Railway. They were probably 

 derived from the zone of Holaster planus. After treatment with 

 hydrochloric acid, the material yielded silicified casts of for- 

 aminifera as well as radiolaria. The surface of the radiolaria is 

 so much altered by corrosion that specific identification is in 

 most cases impossible. Twenty genera ha\'e been recognised, 

 and the organisms appear to belong to forty-one species of these 

 genera. A list of the" radiolaria is given, accompanied by a 

 short description of each form, and four new species are de- 

 scribed. The Discoidea appear to have the predominance, and 

 the species of Dictyomitra come next in numerical order. — The 

 Society then adjourned until Wednesday, November 7. 



Linnean Society, June 21.— Dr. A. Gunther, F.R.S., Vice- 

 President, in the chair.— Prof. M. Hartog exhibited and made 

 remarks on flowers of new ^^«///o«-seedlings, recently raised 

 by him, and pointed out the extreme variability shown in the 

 form of many of the leaves. — Dr. O. Stapf exhibited fruits of 

 various forms of Trapa from Europe, China and India, and 

 discussed the differentiation of the genus into species. — Mr. 

 Clement Reid, F.R.S., exhibited a series of plum-stones recently 

 found in a drain of the Roman baths, and in a rubbish pit, at 

 Silchester. The species identified were Cherry {Pruniis avium). 

 Damson (P. dotnestica), Bullace (P. insititia), Sloe {P. spinosa), 

 and Portuguese Laurel (P. Lauro-cerasus). Besides these, 

 there was a large variety of Plum, and a very small Sloe, the 

 species of which had not as yet been precisely determined. — 

 On behalf of Dr. O. St. Brody, Mr. B. Daydon Jackson ex- 

 hibited a small series of British orchids dried by a new process, 

 by which the flexibility of the plant and the natural colours 

 were in a great measure retained. — Mr. R. Morton Middleton 

 exhibited several rush baskets, plaited ropes and dredgers made 

 from Kosikovia grandiflora. Hook. f. ; and a crab-catcher and 

 limpet-detacher made from Berberis ilicifolia, Forster, all used 

 by the Yahgans south of Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego. — 

 Mr. F. Enock exhibited and made remarks upon some living 

 specimens of Ranatra linearis, Linn., together with their 

 curious eggs. — A paper by Miss Georgina Sweet, Melbourne, 

 was read, " On the Structure of the Spermiducal Glands and 

 associated parts in Australian Earthworms." — Dr. Charles 

 Chilton read a paper on the subterranean Amphipoda of the 

 British Islands, reviewing the known species of the genus 

 Gainmarus, and giving some account of the "Well-Shrimp" 

 and its distribution in England so far as he had been able to 

 determine it from specimens collected. — Dr. A. B. Rendle, 

 referring to his recently published " Revision of the genus 

 Najas" {Trans. Linn. Soc. 2nd Ser. , Bot. vol. v. Part 12), read 

 a supplementary paper on the same subject, in which he gave 

 additional information gained from a recent examination of 

 specimens in eleven Continental herbaria, particularly those at 

 Paris, Geneva, Vienna and Berlin. — The Society then adjourned 

 until Thursday, November i. 



Dublin. 

 Royal Dublin Society, May 16. — The Earl of Rosse, 

 F.R.S., in the chair. — Mr. R. J. Moss read a paper on the 

 adhesive and other physical properties of copper preparations 

 used in potato spraying. — Dr. W. E. Adeney read a paper, 

 entitled "Studies in the analysis of fresh and salt waters," 



June 20. — Sir Howard Grubb, F.R.S., in the chair. — Mr. 

 J. A.Cunningham read a paper, entitled "A contribution to 

 the theory of the order of crystallisation of the minerals in-^ 

 igneous rocks." The author discussed the theory recently pub-' 

 lished by Dr. J. Joly, F.R.S. {Sci. Proc. Roy. Dubl. Soc. vol. ix. 

 part 3, No. 20, p. 298), and then gave additional facts in 

 support of Bunsen's theory, that the order of melting points of 

 the minerals may be inverted by pressure. Mr. Cunningham 

 showed a rough method of arriving at the relative latent heats 

 of the minerals by means of their fusibilities ; and proceeded to 

 show how the latent heats might be determined by simple 

 chemical measurements. As an example, in the case of quartz, 

 the specific heats of quartz and amorphous silica are already 

 known, and by measuring the difference of the heats of solution 

 of the two substances in HF, the disengagement of heat in pass- 

 ing from the one form of SiOj to the other at any temperature is 

 known. Thus, assuming 1425° C. as the melting point of quartz, 

 the number 135 '3 was arrived at as a safe minimum for the 

 latent heat of quartz. — Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S., communicated a 



