October 20, 1892] 



NATURE 



603 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, Juae i6. — "Thermal Radiation in Abso- 

 lute Measure." By Dr. J. T. Bottomley, M.A., F.R.S. 



The paper contains an account of an experimental investiga- 

 tion by the author in continuation of researches on the same 

 -abject which have been already published (Roy. Soc. Proc, 

 ^84, and Phil. Trans., 1887). In the earlier experiments 



lallic wire^ heated by an electric current were used. The 



>-; of heat from a heated body, however, depends to some 

 L xtent on the form and dimensions of the body ; and it seemed 

 mportant to experiment on the loss of heat from bodies differ- 

 in"; in form from th'e wires already used, and larger in dimen- 

 sions. 



Accordingly, two copper globes used by Mr. D. Macfarlane 

 in 1872 (Roy. Soc. Proc, 1872, p. 93) were employed for a new 

 ^eries of experiments. 



After preliminary experiments (using the same enclosure which 

 Macfarlane employed and with the surfaces of Macfarlane's 



>bes prepared in four different ways) new apparatus was con- 



nicted. The object was to experiment both with full air pres- 

 ire and with different amounts of exhaustion of the air, and 

 Macfarlane's enclosure is unsuitable for this purpose. 



In the arrangement adopted, the heated globes were hung at 

 the centre of a hollow metallic sphere, which was connected 

 with the Sprengel pump and surrounded with cold water, and 

 were allowed to cool. The temperature of the cooling globe 

 was read off at equal intervals of time by means of a thermo- 

 electric junction ; and from these readings the absolute loss of 

 heat per unit of cooling surface, per unit difference of tem- 

 peratures of surface and surroundings, per unit of time, is 

 calculated. 



The details of the apparatus and method of experimenting are 

 i^iven in the paper. It is enough to say here that the globes 

 were used with their surfaces in two different conditions : — (i) 

 Thinly coated with lamp-black, and (2) silvered and brightly 

 polished ; and in both conditions the absolute loss of heat, both 

 in air and in vacuum more or less complete, was determined. 

 The tables and curves attached to the paper give the details of 

 the results. 



To quote one or two examples .-—With the sooted surface a 

 total loisofheat by convection and radiationof 3'42 x io"^c.g.s. 

 units per square centimetre, per second, per j° C. of difference 

 of temperatures of globe and surroundings, was observed with a 

 diffeience of temperatures of 100^ C, and with the surroundings 

 at about 14° C. Under similar circumstances the radiation in 

 vacuum of ^M (half-a-millionth of atmospheric pressure of non- 

 collapsi'le gas) was about l'40x lo"'*. 



Taking a silvered and brightly-polished surface under the 

 -ame circumstances, the loss in full air was 2*30 x lo"-' c.g.s. ; 



nd with the highest vacuum and brightest polish obtained, it 



as reduced i '80 x 10"", with in this case a difference of tem- 



cratures of 180° C. The loss with 100° C. difference would be 

 considerably less, but is not known experimentally at present. 



The author returns thanks to Mr, James H. Gray, M.A., 

 H. Sc. , for excellent assistance given; and expresses himself 

 most deeply indebted, both for assistance in experimenting and 

 calculating of the results, and for most valuable and ingenious 

 aid of various kinds during the course of this work, to his friend 

 Mr. A. Tanakadate, now Professor in Tokio, Japan. 



Entomological Society, October 5. Henry John Elwes, 

 vice-pre-ident, in the chair. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse exhibited 

 a specimen of Latridius nodifer feeding on a fungus, Tricho- 

 sporiiim roseum — Mr. McLachlan, F.R. S., exhibited a male 

 specimen of EUnchus tenuicornis, Kirby, taken by the Rev. A. 

 E. Eaton, on August 22 last, at Stoney Stoke, near Shepfon 

 Montague, Somerset, and described by him in the iE'///^OT^/(?^/j/V 



' lonthly Magazine, October 1892, pp. 250-253. Mr. McLachlan 



ated mat another specimen of this species had been caught 

 liiout the same date in Claygate Lane, near Surbiton, by Mr. 

 Ivl^ard Saunders, who discovered that it was parasitic on a 

 homopterous insect of the genus Lihurnia, and had also described 

 '! in the Ento'»ologist's Monthly Magazine. — Mr. J. M. Adye 



\hibited, for Mr. McKae, a large collection of Colias edusa, C. 



iusa var. helice, and C. hyale, all taken in the course of five 



lays' collecting in the neighb lurh )od of Bournemouth and 

 Christchurch, Hants. There were twenty-six specimens of /ii?/«V^, 

 some of which were remarkable both in size and colour. He 

 stated that Mr. McRae estimated the proportion of the variety 



NO. I 199, VOL. 46] 



helice to the type of the females as one in fifty. Mr. Adye also 

 exhibited two specimens of Deiopeia pulchella, recently taken 

 near Christchurch. Mr. Hanbury, Mr. Jenner-Weir, and Mr. 

 Merrifield commented on the interesting nature of the exhibition, 

 and on the recent extraordinary abundance of C. edusa and the var. 

 helice, which was probably not exceeded in 1877. — Mr. Dallas- 

 Beeching exhibited four specimens of Plusia moneta, lately taken 

 in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells. — Mr. H. Goss ex- 

 hibited, for Mr. Gervase F. Mathew, two Plusia moneta and 

 their cocoons, which were found at Frinsted, Kent, on Sep- 

 tember 3 last. It was stated that Mr. Mathew had found seven 

 cocoons on the under side of the leaves of monkshood, but that 

 the iinagos had emerged from five of them. — Mr. Rye exhibited 

 a sprcimen of Zygcena filipendulcc var. chryanthemi, and two 

 varieties of Arctia villica, taken at Lancing, Sussex ; also varieties 

 of Coccinella ocellata and C. obloHgoguttata from Oxshott. — Mr. 

 A. H. Jones exhibited specimens oi Argynnis pales var. isis, and 

 var. arsilache, the females of which showed a tendency to melan- 

 i-im, recently taken in the Upper Engadine; also melanic forms 

 oi Ercbia melampus, and a specimen of Erebia ncrinc. — Mr. 

 Elwes exhibited specimens of typical Erebia melas, taken by 

 himself in the Western Tyrol, on July 25 last, at an elevation of 

 7000 feet ; also specimens of the same species from Hungary, Greece, 

 and the Eastern and Central Pyrenees. He stated that the absence 

 of this species from the Alps, which had seemed to be such a 

 curious fact in geographical distribution, had been first disproved 

 by Mrs. Nicholl, who discovered it at Campiglio two years 

 ago. He also exhibited fresh specimens of Erebia ucriuc, taken 

 at Riva, on the lake of Garda, at an elevation of about 500 feet ; 

 also specimens of the same species, taken at the same time, at 

 an elevation of about 5000 feet, in cool forest glades ; and re- 

 marked that the great difference of elevation and climate did not 

 appear to have produced any appreciable variation in this species. 

 — Mr. G. T. Porritt exhibited two varieties of ^/^;-«.v<?5^(W«/ar/- 

 ata, bred during thcpast summer from York larvje. Also a curious 

 Noctua taken on the sandhills at St. Annes-on-Sea on August 

 20 last, and concerning which a difference of opinion existed as 

 to whether it was a melanic form of Agrotis cursoria or of Cara- 

 drina cubicularis. Also a small dark form of Orgyia antiqua, 

 which had occurred in some numbers at Longridge, near Preston. 

 — Mr. A. Eland-Shaw exhibited a specimen of Mecostethus 

 grosstts, Linn., taken lately at Irstead, in the Norfolk-broad 

 district. He stated that this was the first recorded capture of 

 this species in Britain since 1884. — Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited 

 a specimen of ^yr/fMv^j fl/z'^«i, caught in Norfolk about the year 

 i860; a beautiful variety of Argynnis euphrosyne, caught this 

 year near Godalming ; and a series of varieties of Ennomof 

 angularia, bred from a female taken at Nunhead.— Mr. P. 

 Crowley exhibited a specimen of Zygana filipendulcr var. 

 chrysanthemi, taken last August at Riddlesdown, near Croydon. 

 —Lord VValsingham, F.R.S., sent for exhibition several 

 specimens of larvae of Sphinx pinastri, preserved by himself, 

 which were intended for presentation to the British Museum. 

 The larvae had been sent to him by Lord Rendlesham, who 

 obtained them from ova laid by a female captured in Suffolk last 

 August. — M. de Niceville communicated a paper entitled " On 

 the variation of some Indian Euplreas of the subgenus Stictoplcra ": 

 and Captain E. Y. Watson exhibited, on behalf of M. de 

 Niceville, the specimens referred to in this paper. Colonel 

 Swiiihoe, Mr. Hampson, Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., and the 

 chairman took part in the discussion which ensued. — Mr. W. 

 Bateson read a paper entitled " On the Variation in the Colours 

 of Cocoons and Pupa^ of Lepidoptera ; further Experiments."— 

 Mr. Poulton read a paper entitled " Further Experiments upon 

 the Colour-relation between certain Lepidoptera and their 

 Surroundings." — Miss Lilian J. Gould read a paper entitled 

 "Experiments on the Colour-relation between certain Lepi- 

 dopterous larvae and their surroundings, together with observations 

 on Lepidopterous larvae." A long discussion ensued, in which 

 Mr. Jenner Weir, Dr. Sharp, F.R.S., Mr. Merrifield, Mr. 

 Poulton, and the chairman took part. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 10. M. Duchartre in the 

 chair. M. Emile Picard presented to the Academy the second 

 volume of his " Traite d'analyse."— The University of Padua 

 invited representatives of the Academy at the forthcoming ter- 

 centenary celebration of Galileo's accession to his chair at that 

 University.- A decisive blow to the theory of centripetal and 

 ascending motion in cyclones, by M. H. Faye. — The move- 



