September 24, 1891] 



NATURE 



507 



Major Powell explained that the U.S. Survey system is very 

 economical when the colour patterns are transferred to stones. 



Prof. T. McK. Hughes thought it very difficult to devise a 

 scheme that will meet the demands of everyone. Some refer- 

 ence must be had to the permanence of the colours, the readi- 

 ness with which they can be applied, and the distinctness with 

 which they show what is desired. He thinks the fittest scheme 

 must survive. 



In the afternoon, brief lectures were given by Prof. Chamber- 

 lin, Mr. Gilbert, Major Powell, and Mr. Emmons upon the 

 geology of the country to be traversed by the long excursion. 



Sixth Day. — A Committee on International Bibliography 

 was appointed. 



The Secretary announced that Messrs. Golier and Schmidt 

 convey an invitation from the Swiss Government to hold the 

 sixth International Congress, in 1894, in Switzerland. Mr. 

 Golier delivered an address in which he presented the invitation, 

 and the Congress unanimously accepted it. The following 

 Swiss members were appointed a local committee, with power 

 to add to their number and to appoint the time and place of 

 meeting : viz. Messrs. Helm, Renevier, Lang, Balzer, Schmidt, 

 and Golier. On the motion of Prof. Pumpelly, a vote of thanks was 

 passed to the Swiss Government and delegation. It is thought 

 that Berne will be selected as the place of meeting. 



The Geological Survey of Russia sent an invitation to hold 

 the seventh Congress in Russia. The Czar joined in the invita- 

 tion. Prof. Tschernychew made the formal presentation of the 

 subject to the Congress. A vote of thanks to the Survey and 

 the Czar was passed, and the Secretary of the Congress was 

 authorized to send a despatch by cable, transmitting the vote. 



The President of the Congress, Prof. 1 e Conte, delivered a 

 brief closing address, summarizing the work of the session, and 

 after passing several votes of thanks the Congress adjourned. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF ASTRONOMY 



AND COSMIC PHYSICS. 

 'T'HE Society of Friends of Astronomy and Cosmic Physics, 

 founded May 19, 1891, has been formed with a view to 

 the organization of systematic activity and co-operation in re- 

 search in the subjects named. It is intended to embrace, chiefly, 

 workers in astronomical science in Germany, Austro-Hungary, 

 Switzerland, and other neighbouring countries, and natives of 

 these countries in the colonies and elsewhere. Members of 

 other nationalities are, liowever, offered a welcome. 



The head centre of the Society is Berlin. The subscription 

 is 5 marks. 



Communications are invited from individual members, which 

 will be published together with the notices of meetings and 

 other business of the Society. These publications will bear the 

 title " Mittheilungen der Vereinigung von Freunden der Astro- 

 nomic und kosmischen Physik " ; they will be numbered con- 

 secutively, and will be supplied to all members gratis, but will 

 not be issued at regular or slated intervals. 



These communications will form at present the only direct 

 publication of the Society, until it is formed on a more sub- 

 stantial financial basis and consists of a larger number of 

 members (in the first four weeks the number rose from 50 to over 

 100). Contemporaries are at liberty to borrow any matters of 

 interest contained in the Society's communications, of course 

 acknowledging the source from which they are derived. 



Endeavours will be made to keep the Society carefully within 

 the limits in which alone it can be successfully active, leaving 

 on one side other closely related branches : for instance, those 

 of the Meteorological and Photographic Societies ; but, never- 

 theless, endeavouring to preserve the closest amity and co-opera- 

 tion with the related Societies. 



The Astronomische Gesellschaft, founded in Germany in 

 1S63, is regarded by the new Society as the principal Society, 

 whose office it is to foster astronomical research throughout the 

 whole earth. The new Society bears the same relation to 

 this international association as do those Astronomical Societies 

 already established in England, France, Russia, and North 

 America. 



The principal object of these smaller societies is to collect 

 observations made m the largest possible number of districts, 

 inasmuch as researches in astron )my and cosmic physics are 

 very largely dependent on the state of the weather, and the 

 relation of the place of observatinri to the phenomena in the 

 heavens. 



In the new Society the following branches of work have beei» 

 selected :—(i) Observations of the sun ; (2) of the moon and 

 surface of the planets ; (3) of the intensity and colour of the 

 light of the stars and of the Milky Way ; (4) of the zodiacal light 

 and meteors ; (5) of the polar light, magnetism of the earth, earth 

 currents, and air electricity ; (6) of the clouds and halos, and 

 thunder and lightning (care being taken in the two la'-t groups 

 not to encroach upon the ground already covered by the 

 Meteorological and Photographic Societies). 



Each of these groups is presided over by a member of the 

 Society whose attention is especially directed to the respective 

 subject. The duty of these Presidents is to organize the cor- 

 respondence, hold branch meetings, and preserve the connection 

 which binds each group to all the others. 



The Society will endeavour to further the organization of all 

 these researches, not merely by the publication of communica- 

 tions and by correspondence, but also by advice and aid in the 

 providing of apparatus, especially of suitable optic, electric, and 

 magnetic measuring instruments, charts, books, &c. 



The statutes of the Society will be sent post free on applica- 

 tion to the Secretary, Herrn Cand. G. Witt, Berlin, N.W.,. 

 Invalidenstrasse 57. 



The President of the Society is at present Prof. Dr. R. Leh- 

 mann-Filhes, Berlin, W., Wichmannstrasse iia. 



The Committee consists of the six members presiding over 

 the several groups of research. 



The Librarian of the Society is Herr Dr. P. Schwahn, 

 Berlin, N. W., Invalidenstrasse 57 ; and the Treasurer, to whom 

 subscriptions should be sent, Herr Rendant Bruck, Berlin, 

 N.W., Invalidenstrasse 57. 



THE PROTECTIVE DEVICE OF AN 

 ANNELID. 

 A MONGST a gathering of small Serpulids, &c., received 

 ■^*- from Mr. Sinel, of Jersey, I find some interesting little 

 worms related to the Sabellidae. They build a thin membrane- 

 like tube, about one-seventieth of an inch in diameter, coated 

 externally with flat translucent particles of sand. Its lower end 

 is closed, and embedded in sponge or other growths, but the 

 upper end is free, and, when the head of the inmate is pro- 

 truded, stands about a quarter of an inch high in the water. On 

 this head are two branchial tufts, each having five branches 

 beset with a double row of long ciliated filaments. When all 

 are fully expanded they curve backwards, and cover an area of 

 about one-tenth of an inch in diameter. The branches decrease 

 in size from the inner to the outer pairs, and at the back of the 

 longest but one in each tuft, near its base, is a chocolate or 



x/-? 



brown coloured vesicle. The two smallest branches curve back- 

 wards round the mouth of the tube, and keep up a constant 

 whipping or flicking motion. 



But the peculiarity is, that, upon the retreat of the animal, 

 the mouth of the tube not only instantly closes flatly and tightly 

 by collapse of the sides, but the tube itself, beginning at the 

 tip, proceeds to coil up like a spiral spring, looking very much 

 like a young fern-frond. This is, of course, an effectual pro- 

 tection against the intrusion of enemies, and the coiling and 

 uncoiling, which I have witnessed many times, is a most curious 

 sight. 



Fig. I shows the branchial tufts expanded. Fig. 2, tube begin- 

 ning to coil up. Fig. 3, tube partly coiled up — a process which i-i 



NO. I 143. VOL. 44] 



