22 



NA TURE 



[May 7, 189: 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, April i6.— "An Attempt to determine the 

 Adiabatic Relations of Ethyl Oxide. Part I. Gaseous Ether." 

 By Prof. W. Ramsay, F.R.S., and E. P. Perman, B.Sc. 



The object of the research described in the memoir is the 

 •determination of the behaviour of ether in the state of gas 

 tipproaching towards the state of liquid, when heat is communi- 

 cated to it, so as to alter its condition adiabatically. 



Previous researches by one of the authors in conjunction with 

 Dr. Sydney Young have yielded data regarding the relations of 

 pressure, temperature, and volume of gaseous and of liquid 

 ■ether from which the values of the isobaric and of the isochoric 

 differentials are obtainable. Such results lead directly to a 

 Ttnowledge of the difierences between the specific heats at 

 constant pressure and those at constant volume ; and these 

 differences are not constant, but vary with varying volume, 

 pressure, and temperature. 



The memoir contains an account of experiments made to 

 •determine the ratio between the specific heats at constant pressure 

 and those at constant volume. The velocity of sound in gaseous 

 ether was determined at various temperatures, pressures, and 

 volumes ; and by means of the isothermal differentials, and the 

 •experimental results for the velocity of sound, the ratios between 

 the two specific heats were calculated. From the differences 

 and the ratios of the specific heats, the values of the specific 

 heats were deduced. 



The general conclusion is that, for any constant volume, the 

 specific heat, whether at constant volume or at constant pressure, 

 decreases to a limiting value with rise of temperature, and sub- 

 sequently increases ;" and that the change with temperature is 

 more rapid, the smaller the volume. 



At large volumes, the specific heats tend towards independence 

 ■of temperature and volume, while at small volumes the influence 

 of change of temperature and volume is very great. 



The authors are at present investigating similar relations for 

 liquid ether. 



Zoological Society, April 21.— Prof. W. H. Flower, C.B., 

 F. R. S., President, in the chair. — A communication was read 

 from Lieut-Colonel Sir Oliver B. C. St. John, R. E., con- 

 taining notes on a case of a Mungoose {flerpestes mungo) breeding 

 during domestication. — Mr. R. E. H jlding exhibited and made 

 some remarks on some remarkable horns of f^ams of the domestic 

 Sheep of Highland and other breeds. — Messrs. Beddard and 

 Murie exhibited and made remarks on a cancerous nodule taken 

 from the stomach of an African '^J!\\\v^oz^xo% {Rhinoceros biconiis), 

 which had recently died, after living 22 years in the Society's 

 •Gardens. — Mr. E. T. Newton read a paper on the structure 

 and affinities of Trogonthermm cuvicri, basing his remarks 

 principally on a fine skull of this extinct Rodent lately obtained 

 by Mr. A. Savin from the forest-beds of East Runton, near 

 ■Cromer. — Mr. H. J. Elwes read the first part of a memoir on 

 the Butterflies collected by Mr. W. Doherty in the Naga Hills, 

 Assam, the Karen Hills in Lower Burmah, and in the State of 

 Perak. — Mr. J. J. Lister gave an account of the birds of the 

 Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean, as collected and observed during 

 a visit to this group made in H. M.S. Egeria in 1889. 



May I. — Sixty-second Anniversary Meeting, — Prof. Flower, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — After the auditors' report had 

 been read, and otherpreliminary business had been transacted, the 

 report of the Council on the proceedings of the Society during 

 the year 1890 was read by Mr. Sclater, F.R.S., the Secretary. 

 It stated that the number of Fellows on January i, 1891, was 

 3046, and that the number of Fellows elected or readmitted in 

 1890 was 121, being 4 less than the corresponding number in 

 1889. Since the last anniversary 2 Foreign Members and 11 

 Corresponding Members had been elected to fill vacancies in 

 those lists. In recognition of the efTective protection accorded 

 for sixty years to the Great Skua {Stercorarius catarrhactes) at 

 two of its three British breeding stations— namely, in the Island 

 of Unst by the late Dr. Laurence Edmondston and other members 

 of the same family, and in the Island of Foula by the late Dr. 

 Scott, of Melby, and his son, Mr. Robert T. C. Scott— the 

 silver medal of the Society had been awarded to Mrs. Edmonds- 

 ton, of Buness House, as representative of that family, and to 

 Mr. Robert T. C. Scott, of Melby. The total receipts of the 

 Society for 1890 had amounted to ;,^25,o59, which, although 



NO. II 2 3, VOL. 44] 



not quite equal to those of 1889, had exceeded those of 1888 by 

 upwards of ^1000, and might be deemed to be satisfactory. The 

 ordinary expenditure for 1890 had been ;i^23,342 6s. lid., which 

 was ;^659 2s. Sd. more than the corresponding amount for 1889. 

 Besides this an extraordinary expenditure of ;rC230 45. 6d. had been 

 devoted to the material improvement of the Monkey House, which 

 brought up the total expenditure of the year to ;^23,572 lis. ^d. 

 The balance brought forward from 1889 was ^^ 1242 ly. i id , and 

 this, added to the income received in 1890, gave a total sum of 

 ;^26,302 lis. gd. available for the expenditure of the year 1890. 

 By these means the Council bad been enabled, after payment of 

 the ordinary and extraordinary expenditures of the year, not only 

 to devote the usual sum of j^iDoo to the reduction of the mort- 

 gage-debt on the Society's freehold premises (which at present 

 amounted to ;iC5O0O only), but also to purchase a sum of ;^looo 

 in Consols, in order to form the nucleus of a new reserve fund. 

 The usual scientific meetings had been held during the session 

 of 1890, and a large number of valuable communications had 

 been received upon every branch of zoology. These had been 

 published in the annual volume of Proceedings for 1890, which 

 contained 730 pages, illustrated by 57 plates. Besides this, 

 part X., being the concluding part of the twelfth volume, of the 

 Society's quarto Transactions had been issued. The twenty- 

 sixth volume of the Zoological Record, containing a summary of 

 the work done by British and foreign zoologists during the year 

 1889, had been issued to the subscribers in December last, and 

 had thus been published before the close of the year after that 

 to which it relates. The library had been kept in good working 

 order during the past year, and had been much frequented by 

 working zoologists. A large number of accessions, both by gift and 

 purchase, had been received and incorporated. In the Gardens the 

 only new work carried out in 1890 had been the completion of the 

 improvements of the Monkey House, but a large number of repairs 

 and renewals of the different buildings in the Gaidens had been 

 made, and other minor improvements had been carried 

 out. The number of visitors to the Gardens during the 

 year 1890 had been 640,987, the corresponding number in 

 1889 having been 644,579. The number of school children 

 admitted free in 1890 was 35,935- The number of animals in 

 the Society's collection on December 31 last was 2256, of which 

 693 were mammals, 1273 birds, and 290 reptiles. Amongst the 

 additions made during the past year, twelve were specially com- 

 mented upon as of remarkable interest, and in most cases repre- 

 senting species new to the Society's collection. About 28 

 species of mammals and 20 of birds had bred in the Society's 

 Gardens during the summer of 1890. The report concluded 

 with a long list of the donors and their various donations to the 

 Menagerie during the past year. — A vote of thanks to the 

 Council for their report was moved by Mr. W. H. Hudleston, 

 F.R. S., seconded by Mr. A. J. Scott, and carried unanimously. 

 — The report having been adopted, the meeting proceeded to 

 elect the new Members of Council and the officers for the 

 ensuing year. The usual ballot having been taken, it was 

 announced that Mr. William T. Blanford, F.R.S., Dr. Albert 

 Giinther, F.R.S., Mr. E. W. N. Holdsworth, Sir Albert K. 

 Rollit,M. P., and Mr. Howard Saunders, had been elected into the 

 Council in the place of the retiring members, and that Prof. Flower, 

 C.B., F.R.S., had been re-elected President, Mr. Charles 

 Drummond, Treasurer, and Dr. Philip Lutley Sclater, F.R.S., 

 Secretary to the Society for the ensuing year. — The remaining 

 business having been concluded, the President handed the silver 

 medal of the Society to Mr. Thomas Edmondston, who 

 attended on the part of Mrs. Ursula Edmondston, of Buness, 

 Unst, Shetland, and to Mr. A, P. Purves, who attended on 

 behalf of Mr. Robert T. C. Scott, of Melby, Shetland, in 

 recognition of the effective protection accorded by them and 

 their families respectively to the Great Skua at its breeding 

 places in the Shetland Islands.— The proceedings terminated 

 with the usual vote of thanks to the President. 



Geological Society, April 22.— Dr. A. Gelkle, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 read :— Results of an examination of the crystalline rocks of the 

 Lizard district, by Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., and Major- 

 General C. A. McMahon. The authors, in company with the 

 Rev. E, Hill, spent a considerable part of last August In ex- 

 amining anew those sections in the Lizard district vvhich had 

 any bearing upon the questions raised since the publication of 

 Prof. Bonney's second paper in 1883. They had also the ad- 

 vantage of occasional conference with Mr. Teall and Mr. Fox, 



