NA rURE 



[June 25, 1891 



in New York, exhibited by Messrs. Tiffany and Co. Represen- 

 tative articles in wrought metals ; amalgamation of metals ; 

 enamelling on silver and gold. 



Photographs of living corals taken in Torres Straits, exhibited 

 by Mr. W. Savile Kent. 



Prof. J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., exhibited:— (i) Photo- 

 graphs of"a group of sun-spots, A series ofenlargements of a group 

 of sun-spots shown on the 12-inch sun-pictures taken under the 

 direction of Lieut-Colonel Strahan, at Dehra Dun, India, on 

 December 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 1887. The spots have 

 been enlarged three times, and it will be seen that great changes 

 took place during the period of visibility.— (2) Photographs of 

 the temples at Karnak and Edfou. These are enlargements 

 from photographs taken in January 1891, with reference to the 

 orientation of the temples. The photographs show that, not- 

 withstanding the elaborate details of the architecture, the prin- 

 cipal axes of the temples were kept perfectly clear from one end 

 to the other. 



Prof. W. Roberts-Austen, C.B., F.R.S., exhibited a new, 

 brilliantly coloured alloy of gold and aluminium, and facsimiles of 

 medals asserted to be of gold and of silver, transmuted from base 

 metal by the aid of alchemy. One of the medals bears on its 

 reverse the statement that it was struck in 1675, by J. J. Becher, 

 in silver transmuted from lead. 



Mr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., exhibited :—(i) Nickel-carbon- 

 oxide. (2) Pure nickel extracted from nickel ores by means of 

 carbonic oxide. (3) Articles of pure nickel deposited from nickel- 

 carbon-oxide, and goods plated with nickel by exposure to 

 nickel-carbon-oxide [Ni(C0)4]. This unique chemical com- 

 pound was obtained in 1890 by Mond, Langer, and Quincke, by 

 passing a current of carbonic oxide over finely-divided metallic 

 nickel at the ordinary temperature, and refrigerating the resulting 

 gas. It is a colourless liquid, of high refractory power, boiling at 

 43° C, and solidifying at 25° C, and is split up again into nickel 

 and carbonic oxide on heating its vapour to 180° C. It is highly 

 poisonous ; while according to Prof. McKendrick's researches 

 it has, when injected subcutaneously in very small doses, a 

 remarkable power of reducing the temperature of animals. The 

 properties of this substance make it possible to volatilize nickel 

 at a low temperature, and to extract it industrially in a perfectly 

 pure state from all other substances with which it is found. 

 Articles of pure nickel, and goods plated with pure nickel, are 

 produced by exposing heated moulds or goods to nickel-carbon- 

 oxide vapour, or to a solution of this compound in suitable 

 solvents. 



Specimens of Japanese metal work, including Ojime, or 

 sliders, Yanone, or arrowheads, and Tsuba, or sword-guards, 

 exhibited by Prof. A. H. Church, F.R.S. 



Prof. A. Newton, F. R.S., exhibited a drawing, the first 

 received in Europe, of Notoryctes typhlops, a new form of 

 Marsupial of mole-like habit, and structure accordingly, sent by 

 Prof. E. C. Stirling, of the University of Adelaide, South 

 Australia. The first specimen of this remarkable mammal, one 

 of the most unexpected discoveries for many years, was sent 

 from the interior of South Australia by Mr. A. Molineux to 

 Prof. Stirling, of Adelaide, who contributed to Nature (vol. 

 xxxviii. pp. 588, 589) such a notice of it as its imperfect condition 

 admitted. He afterwards obtained other examples, which are 

 fully described in a memoir communicated to the Royal Society 

 of Adelaide. " Four or five of the cervical vertebrae are fused, 

 and there is a keeled sternum. An enormously thick and short 

 first rib, which serves the purpose of buttressing the sternum in 

 lieu of coracoids. Eyes mere pigment spots, underneath the 

 skin and temporalis muscle. It has a remarkable habit of 

 burrowing for long distances in the sand with great rapidity." 

 These specimens were obtained about 1500 miles north of 

 Adelaide, but a telegram from Prof. Stirling, dated May 3!. 

 1 89 1, states that he has himself obtained others in the course of 

 a journey, just completed, across the continent from Port 

 Darwin. 



Mr. Walter Gardiner, F.R.S., gave demonstrations of certain 

 important phenomena associated with the absorption and the 

 flow of the water taken up by plants:— (i) Root pressure. 

 Water present in the soil, and containing minute traces of 

 nutritive salts, is absorbed by the root-hairs so powerfully and in 

 such quantities as to set up a considerable pressure in the 

 interior of the plant. This "root pressure" may be demon- 

 strated by attaching to the cut end of a stem a manometer 

 containing mercury, or some coloured fluid. Here a solution of 

 nigrocine in water is employed. (2) The transpiration current. 



NO. II 30, VOL. 44] 



Among thej more important factors which determine the flow 

 and ascent of water from the root, upward?, is the sucking force 

 induced by the modified evaporation or transpiration of water 

 from the general free surface of the leaves. During transpiration 

 the water escapes as vapour, and the salts are retained for food. 

 In this experiment the existence of a " transpiration current " is 

 shown by allowing a cut branch to suck up milk, when the 

 movement of the fat globules registers the flow of the liquid. 

 (3) The amount of water absorbed by the root. This may be 

 estimated by simple measurement, employing some such form of 

 apparatus as that exhibited. 



Engravings to "Travels among the Great Andes of the 

 Equator," exhibited by Mr. Edward Whymper. These illustra- 

 tions are selections from Mr. Edward Whymper's forthcoming 

 work upon the Great Andes of the Equator (in which he gives 

 accounts of the first ascents of Chimborazo, Cayambe, Antisanal, 

 &c., &c.), and includes views on and about the equator at great 

 elevations ; incidents of travel ; numerous examples of the new 

 genera and species obtained on the journey ; a facsimile reproduc- 

 tion of the map of Don Pedro Maldonado (upon which existing 

 maps of Ecuador are based), and the original route survey, and 

 map of Chimborazo, made by the author. The work, with 200 

 illustrations and four maps, will be published in the present 

 year by Mr. John Murray. 



Mr. W. liatescu exhibited (i) models of double super- 

 numerary legs and antennas in beetles ; (2) mechanical model 

 showing the usual symmetry of double supernumerary append- 

 ages in beetles. Supernumerary appendages in leetles nearly 

 always spring as branches from a normal appendage, and are 

 generally double, being made up of two limbs more or less 

 compounded together. The two extra limbs are always a com- 

 plementary pair, one being structurally a right limb, while 

 the other is left. Commonly the symmetry of the parts is 

 arranged as follows : — {a) The two extra limbs and the normal 

 one stand in one plane, one of the extra limbs being nearer to 

 the normal limb and one remoter from it. {b) The nearer is in 

 structure and position an image of the normal limb, in a mirror 

 at right angles to the plane in which the three limbs stand ; and 

 the remoter is an image of the nearer in another mirror beyond 

 and parallel to the first. Thus the relations of the parts in 

 their several positions may be represented by the mechanical 

 riiodel exhibited, in which the extra legs, revolving round the 

 normal leg, take altitudes proper to the positions which they 

 occupy relatively to the normal leg. 



Prof. A. C. Haddon exhibited the geographical distribution . 

 and the progressive and retrogressive evolution, of art and 

 ornament in British New Guinea. The exhibit is designed to 

 show, that savage art can be studied as a branch of biology, 

 and that it is only when so treated that it yields its most valuable 

 results. Most savage and barbaric designs have only a very 

 limited geographical range, and those which have a wide dis- 

 tribution can, in the majority of cases, be proved to be homo- 

 plastic and not homogenetic. The evolution of a particular 

 pattern must be sought in the district in which it occurs, and its 

 developmental history can only be safely attempted when a 

 comparison is made of numerous objects from the same locality. 

 The foregoing propositions are illustrated by means of specimens, 

 rubbings, photographs, and sketches of decorated objects from 

 British New Guinea. 



At intervals during the evening, the Edison loud-speaking tele- 

 phone and Bell's receivers were connected with the performance 

 of " The Gondoliers," at the Savoy Theatre, London ; the 

 Prince's Theatre, Birmingham ; and with vocal and instru- 

 mental concert rooms at Liverpool and Birmingham. 



Photographs of volcanic phenomena were exhibited by Dr. 

 Tempest Anderson during the evening. These photographs of 

 volcanic phenomena were taken last year during a visit to 

 the Skapla Jokul, and other volcanic districts in Iceland. 

 The eruption of the Skapia Jokul, in 1783, was one of the 

 largest on record. A mass of lava, estimated to be equal in 

 bulk to Mont Blanc, flowed out in two streams, each forty to 

 fifty miles long. The actual craters situated in the desert interior 

 of the island appear not to have been previously visited. 



UNI VERSITY AND ED UCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The following are the speeches delivered by 

 the Public Orator (Dr. Sandys, Fellow and Tutor of St. John's 



