January 2, 1896] 



NATURE 



215 



Pyralidoe, the Schanobiiiue and Crambina. — A communication 

 was read from Mr. Oldfield Thomas, on deno/estes, a still- 

 existing survivor of the Epanorthidse of Ameghino, and the 

 representative of a new family of recent Marsupials. — Mr. 

 Walter E. Collinge read a paper on the sensory and ampullary 

 canals of Chiiiucra, and the innervation of the same. — Mr. 

 F. A. Bather read a paper on the fossil crinoid Uintacrintts. 

 The paper attempted a complete morphological description of 

 Uintacrintts socialis, based on specimens from the Upper 

 Cretaceous Beds of Western Kansas, now in the British 

 Museum. — A communication from Dr. C. Brunner von Wat- 

 tenwyl gave a list of the Orthoptera of the Hawaiian islands. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December i8, 1895. — Mr. 

 R. Inwards, President, in the chair.— Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., 

 read a paper on some of the differences between fogs, as related 

 to the weather systems which accompany them. In this it was 

 shown that there are at least two distinct classes of phenomena 

 described under the generic name of "fog." In the case of 

 anticyclonic fogs, no rainfall takes place ; the temperature is low 

 in the morning, and there is a considerable rise of temperature 

 during the day ; while in the case of cyclonic fogs, rainfall does 

 take place, and the temperature is high in the morning, fre- 

 quently approaching or even equalling the maximum for the 

 day. Mr. Scott also investigated the cases of several well- 

 marked fogs in London, and found that there was no direct 

 relation traceable between the temperature accompanying them 

 and the death rate. — Major H. E. Rawson described the results 

 of his analysis of the Greenwich barometrical observations from 

 1879 to 1890, with special reference to the declination of the sun 

 and moon. — A paper by Mr. S. C. Knott was read, giving the 

 results of his meteorological observations taken at Mojanga, 

 Madagascar. — Mr. Scott also exhibited some specimens of the 

 illustrations in the " International Cloud Atlas, which is now 

 being prepared for publication. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, December 23, 1895.— Annual 

 public meeting. — M. Marey in the chair. — The President de- 

 livered an address, in which reference was made to the celebration, 

 in October last, of the centenary of the Institute of France. 

 The members and associates deceased during the year — MM. 

 Pasteur, Verneuil, Larrey, Cayley, Dana, Vogt, Ludwig, 

 Huxley, Loven, Hellriegel — were referred to, and a brief r/stt;/te 

 given of the life-work of each. The President then announced 

 that a biennial prize (20,000 fr.), which is in rotation in the gift 

 of each of the five Academies, and which this year fell to the 

 Academy of Sciences, has been awarded to M. Raoult for his 

 discovery of the numerical relations between the molecular 

 weight of a substance and the lowering of the freezing point 

 and vapour pressure of its solvent. The other prizes were 

 awarded as follows : The Francceur prize to M. J. Andrade, 

 the Poncelet prize to M. G. Robin, for his contributions to 

 mathematical physics. In Mechanics, the extraordinary prize 

 of 6000 fr. was divided between M. Mottez (2500 fr.), for his 

 work on the correction of ships' compasses ; M. Houette 

 (i50ofr.), for his aids to navigation ; M. Gosselin (1500 fr. ), for 

 his method of studying the velocity of projectiles ; and M. 

 Baucher (500 fr.), for his study of the action of sea- water upon 

 metals. The Montyon prize was given to M. Galliot, for a new 

 application of electric traction on canals ; and the Plumey 

 prize to MM. Pollard and Dudebout. The Fourneyron prize 

 was divided between M. G. Marie and M. Lecornu, for their 

 experimental and theoretical work on steam governors In 

 astronomy, the Lalande prize fell to M. M. Hamy ; and the 

 Valz prize to Mr. Denning (of Bristol), for his work on 

 comets and shooting stars. In Physics, M. E. Bouty 

 was accorded the La Caze prize for his numerous re- 

 searches in electricity and magnetism ; in Statistics, 

 the Montyon prize was divided between M. A. Martin 

 and M. C. • Baltet, whilst honourable mention was 

 accorded to MM. Hovelacque and Herve. In Chemistry, the 

 Jecker prize was divided between M. Tanret (6000 fr.), M. 

 Renard (2000 fr.), and M. Burcker (2000 fr.) ; whilst the 

 La Caze prize was given to M. Le Chatelier for his researches 

 on the combustion of explosive mixtures, pyrometry, and 

 thermodynamics of chemical processes. In Mineralogy and 

 Geology, the Grand prize for the physical sciences was adjudged 

 to M. C. Brongniart for his researches in pala.^ontology ; the 

 Delesse prize to M. Delafond for his stratigraphical studies ; 

 whilst the Bordin prize is equally divided between M. de 



NO. 1366, VOL. 53] 



Pousargues and M. Barrat. In Botany, the Desmazieres prize 

 was awarded to M. Borzi, the Montague prize to M. F. 

 Renauld, and the De la Fons-Melicocq prize (900 fr.) to 

 M. G. de la Marliere. In Anatomy and Zoology, the Thore 

 prize fell to M. P. Megnin, the Savigny prize being not 

 awarded. In Medicine and Surgery, three Montyon prizes 

 were given, to MM. Gangolphe, Imbert, and Teisser ; mentions 

 and minor awards went to MM. Chipault, Gouguenheim 

 and Glover, Polaillon, Bellini, and Parant. The Barbier 

 prize was divided between M. Boeckel and M. Dupuy, the 

 Breant prize being left unawarded. M. E. Reymond was 

 adjudged the Godard prize, M. Lancereaux the Chaussier prize, 

 and M. Vaillard the Bellion prize, with honourable mention to 

 M. Vincent and M. Rouget, M. Mauclaire and M. Detroye. 

 The M^ge prize was awarded to M. Baudron, and in connection 

 with the Dusgate prize (not given) honourable mention was 

 accorded to M. Icard. The Lallemand prize was divided 

 between M. Toulouse and M. Halipre, with mention of 

 MM. Chervin and Debierre. In Physiology, the Montyon 

 prize was given to M. Artus (with mention of M. Tissot), the 

 La Caze prize to M. Dastre, the Pourrat prize to M. Charrin, 

 the Philipeaux prize to M. Chabrie, the Martin-Damourette 

 prize being divided between M. Besson and M. Cristiani, with 

 honourable mention of Dr. de Keating Hart. In Physical 

 Geography, the Gay prize was awarded to M. Angot, a second 

 prize (1000 fr. ) being given to a paper by an anonymous author. 

 General prizes : The Montyon prize (unhealthy industries) was 

 given to M. Gerardin, the Tremont prize to M. B. Renault, the 

 Gegner prize again to M. Paul Serret, the Petit D'Ormoy prize 

 to M. Albert Ribaucour, for the mathematical sciences, and to 

 M. Pomel for the natural sciences. The Leconte prize was 

 awarded to Lord Rayleigh and Prof. Ramsay for their work on 

 the constitution of atmospheric air. The Tchihatchef prize 

 was adjudged to Dr. Radde, the Gaston Plante prize to MM. J. 

 and P. Curie, the Saintour prize to M. Termier. The Cahours 

 prize was divided between MM. Lebeau, Simon, and Varet, the 

 Alberto Levi prize (50,000 fr. ) between MM. Behring and 

 Roux ; to the former for his discovery of the antidiphtheric 

 serum, and to the latter for the happy application which he has 

 made in France of this discovery. The Kastner-Boursault prize 

 was awarded to M. Baudot for his improvements in multiplex 

 telegraphy, the Laplace prize to M. Bachellery, and the Felix 

 Rivot prize to MM. Bachellery, de Ruffi de Ponteves Gevaudan, 

 Delemer, and Labordere. Details of the prizes announced for 

 1896, 1897, 1898, and 1899 are given. 



• Berlin. 



Meteorological Society, November 5, 1895. — Prof. Hell- 

 mann, President, in the chair. — Dr. Zenker gave an abstract 

 of a lengthy paper on the thermal constitution of climates. 

 He explained how, from the solar radiation which he had 

 previously calculated out for the outer boundary of the 

 atmosphere, [he had deduced that which takes place at the 

 inner ; and how from the latter, taking into account the 

 radiation from the earth, and the existence of clouds, 

 he had determined the annual and monthly temperatures for 

 areas of each two degrees of the earth's surface. In part two 

 of his paper, he had compared the temperatures calculated as 

 above with those actually recorded for many places in India, 

 Africa, America, and Australia. — Mr. Archenhold exhibited the 

 negative of a photograph of a lightning-flash taken on August 24 

 last. The negative showed one narrow black flash on the dark 

 field of the heavens above the brightly illuminated tree-tops, and 

 a second much broader, bright flash, which was brighter than 

 the tree-tops. The opinion was expressed that probably the 

 great intensity of the possibly multiple- flash may have led to the 

 solarisation of its own image. 



Physiological Society, November 8, 1895. — P^of. du Bois 

 Reymond, President, in the chair. — Dr. Hausemann spoke on the 

 large interstitial cells of the testis. He had found that they occur 

 somewhat rarely in the connective tissue between the tubules in 

 hibernators dujing their winter sleep, but are, on the other hand, 

 extremely numerous after they awake. In man they are plentiful 

 in the newly-born and children, less numerous at puberty and 

 during manhood, and increase again largely in numbers in old- 

 age. — Dr. Rawitz had repeated Loeb's experiments on the 

 normal development of exovates, and the remains of impreg- 

 nated sea-urchin's eggs after treatment with dilute sea-water. In 

 most cases the exovates succumbed as well as the eggs ; in only 

 one case had he observed that while the exovate succumbed, the 



