May 9, 1895] 



NATURE 



47 



commented on the interesting character of the paper from an 

 entomological point of \'iew, and the value c)f the observations 

 therein on the geology, botany, and climate of Hong-Kong. 



Geological Society, April 24. — Dr. Henry Woodward. 

 l-'.R.S., rri'>i<lcnt, in the chair. — (Jn the shingle Ijeds of 

 Kasterti East .Xnglia, l»y Sir Henry H. Howorth, K.K.S. The 

 author has carefully examined the country around Southwold, 

 where the beds known .as Westleton beds (which might well 

 have been associated with the name of Southwold) are developed. 

 He alluded briefly to the recent shingle, the |)ebl)les of which 

 are derived from the ancient shingles of the cliffs ; the formation 

 iif this shingle, he maintained, may belong lo a time not far 

 removetl from our own day. Turning to the Westleton beds, he 

 noticed that they were essentially "drifts," the component 

 pebbles not having Ijeen shaped on the spot, but brought as 

 pebbles from elsewhere ; and he gave reasons for sujjposing that 

 they were derived from pebbly beds in the Lower London 

 Tertiary group .and in the Red Crag. He also maintained that 

 the shells of the Westleton beds and Bure Valley beds were 

 derived from crag fleposits. Reasons were given for sup|xising 

 that the pebbles of the Westleton .shingle of Last .Anglia came 

 from the west, and that this moved eivstward from the jilateau of 

 Suffolk towards the sea. It was considered that these beds can 

 only be explained by a tumultuous diluvial .novement. 

 — Supplementary notes on the systematic position of the 

 Trilobites, by H. ^f. Bernard. Since the publication ot 

 a paper by the author in the Quarterly Journal of 

 the Geoloi>i(al Society for 1894, two im]iortant papers by Dr. 

 Beecher have appeared, giving details as to the structure 

 and appendages of Triarthrus. The author, therefore, returned 

 to the subject, and discussed in detail the more recent discoveries 

 in the light of the affinity between Apus and the trilobites. He 

 endeavoured to show how the results obtained by Dr. Beecher 

 bear on the larger question ;is to the suggested origin of both of 

 these animals from a chsutopod annelid modified in ada]itation to 

 a new manner of feeding. — An experiment to illustrate the 

 mode of flow of a viscous fluid, by I'rof. W. J. SoUas, 

 F. R.S. The author, recognising that it is by a knowledge of 

 the laws of viscous flow that we must seek to extend our in- 

 formation concerning the movements of flowing ice, conducted 

 an experiment, the details of which were described, with a model 

 of a glacier composed of the modification of ])itch usually 

 known as "cobbler's wax." In the model the pitch moved 

 under its own" weight over the horizontal floor of a trough, 

 which was crossed by a barrier to represent an opposing moun- 

 tain or the rising end of a lake. The results of the experimenl 

 showed that the movement of the pitch-glacier was not confined 

 to that portion of it which rose alxne the barrier, but extended 

 throughout its ina.ss, and that an upward as well as forward 

 movement took place as the barrier was a])proached. Thus the 

 transport of stones by glaciers from lower to higher levels was by 

 no means an incredible phenomenon, but a necessary con- 

 comitant of .such simple conditions as those a.ssumed in the 

 ex]ieriment. 



Malacological Society, April 19.— Dr. II. Woodward, 

 l'.R.,S., \ iic-I'resiilcnt, in the chair. — In addition to specimens 

 in illustration of authors" papers, the following were shown : 

 Mr. .\. S. Kennard exhibited a scries of .Mollusca from a I'leisto- 

 eene deposit at Crayford ; .\Ir. .S. Face exhibited two species 

 of Estheria from Persia and S. .\lgeria ; Mr. W. M. Webb ex- 

 hibited mollusca from a I'leistocene deposit at Chelmsford ; .Mr. 

 E. R. Sykes exhibited a distribution chart of Claiisilia. — The 

 following coumuinicaticms were read ; — On some new species of 

 British Mollusca from the 'J'rito)! Expedition, by 11. K. Jordan. 

 — The .\natomy of Nataliiia cajfra. Per, liy .M. K. Woodward. 

 — Descriptions of new species of Mollusca of the genera Bullia, 

 Mangelia, Troehus, Ike, from the .Mekran Coast, byd. li. 

 Sowerby. — List of Land and Freshwater .Mollusca from New 

 Providence Isle, Bahamas, by W. Bendall. — Notes on two cases 

 of the trans])ort and survival of Terrestrial .Mollusca in the New 

 Forest, liv T. Lcighton. 



Royal Microscopical Society, April 17.- Mr..\.I). MichatI, 

 President, in the chair. — The .Secretary s,aid they h.ad received a 

 valuable donatiim from the South London .Microscopical and 

 Natural History Club, in the .shape of a lantern with microsccjpe 

 attachment. — Mr. .V. Letherby read a .short paper upon the 

 structure of the Podura .scale.-- The President read a paper on 

 the structure of the brain in the Oribatid.v and in some other 

 Acarina. 



NO. 1,^32, VOL. 52] 



Cambrii>c;f.. 

 Philosophical Society, April 29. — Exhibition of Pahphis 

 tiaraliis (a stickinseci from .Mashonaland I, by Dr. D. Sharp. — 

 A modified metliod of finding the s]iecific gravities of tis.sues, by 

 Dr. Lazarus- Barlow. The author showed an improved methoil 

 of finding the specific gravity of tissues. In a research on 

 the patholog)' of the ledema which accompanies passive con- 

 gestion, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal 

 .Society, he used the solutions made up with glycerine introduced 

 by Roy for the estimation of the sijecific gravity of blood, but 

 found th.at difficulty arose from the large i|iiantity of muscle used 

 in obtaining the correct specific gravity, and from the fact that 

 the glycerine alj.stracts water from the muscle with such rapidity 

 that after a very few seconds the piece of muscle invariably sank. 

 He therefore has used for the past year solutions of various 

 specific gravities made with gum arable, which he arranges in a 

 wide test-tube in their order of density, .\lternate layers are 

 coloured blue. Diffusion occurs with extreme slowness, so that 

 48 hours after arranging the test-tube the various layers are quite 

 evident. The s|)ecial advantages of the method are that one 

 piece of muscle is .suflScient for an estimation, as it sinks through 

 the layers of lower specific gravity until it reaches that layer with 

 which it is identical ; that water is abstracted from the muscle by 

 gum much more slowly than by glycerine, and that, as has been 

 shown by Hefi'ter, the vitality of cardiac muscle is better main- 

 tained by gum arable .solutions than by any other solution. 

 — Crania of native trilies of the I'anjab, by Prof. .Macalister. 



P.\RIS. 



Academy of Sciences, .April 29. — M. Marey in the chair. 



I — \ projected ballocm ex[)edition to the .'\rctic regions, by M. 



I S. A. .\ndree. The author defines the conditions necessary to 

 be fulfilled by a balloon destined for Arctic exploration, and 

 shows that such conditions can be fidfilled. He has succeeded 

 in obtaining a certain amount of directive power by using a rope 

 drag to retard the jirogress of the balloon relatively to the wind, 



! and then using a sail in the ordinary way. By this device a 

 mean deviation of 27° has been secured. .Sometimes a deviation 

 of nearly 40° has been obtained. .M. Emile Blanchard in con- 

 nection with this paper calls attention to the probability of exi.st- 

 ence of an open polar .sea, aiul points out the support this view 

 receives from the many flocks of web-footed birds observed 

 making their way northwanis by explorers when nearest to the 

 pole. — On the double points of a group of algebraical surfaces, 

 by -M. Ci. B. (hiccia. — On the types of groups Ci of substitutions, 

 of which the order equals the degree, by M. R. Levava,sseur. — 

 On an application of M. Darboux's method (mathematical 

 an.alysis), by .M. Beudon. — On the rotation of solids, by .M. R. 

 Liouville. — On a class of jieriodic solutions in a particular case 

 of the problem of three bodies, by MM. J. Perchot and J. Mas- 

 cart. — Measurements of the intensity of gravity in Rus.sia, by M. 

 C. Defforges. Data are given for Ptdkowa, Tiflis, Ouzoun .\da, 

 Bokhara, and Ta.shkend, from which it is shown that the negative 

 continental anomaly is very pronounced .at Ouzoun -Ada and Ta.sh- 

 kend. and at Bokhara is of the same order as at Paris ; the posi- 

 tive anomaly is greater th.an previously observed at Pulkowa. — 

 On the specific heat of superfused liquids, by M. Louis Hruner. 

 Thymol and paracresol give specific heats increasing with the 

 temperature range when cooleil without solidification to approxi- 

 mately the same extent below their melting-]Kiints for each 

 experiment. Menthol and bromal and chloral hydrates cannot 

 be obtained superfused by cooling. < >n the solidification of some 

 organic substances, by -M. Louis Bruner. — On the regularity of 

 luminous movement, by M. Oouy. — (Jn the electric resistance of 

 saccharine liquids, by M.M. Oin and Leleux. Expressions are 

 given showing the relationships between resistance and the con- 

 centration and tenqierature of saccharine solutions. The resist- 

 ance is shown to be a function of the current density. This 

 result is expLained (m the .Arrhenius hypothesis as due to the 

 state of ionisation of the badly conducting electrolyte. — New 

 researches im the heats of combination of mercury with the 

 elements, l)y .M. Raoul Varet. — (Jn the .action of the halogen 

 compounds of phosphorus cm metallic copper, by M. \. Granger. 

 Cojiper phosphide, CuP._„ is produceil liy jiassing jihosphorus tri- 

 chloride vapour in carbon dioxide over slightly heated copper ; 

 cuprous chloride is formed at the .same time and deposited at the 

 end of the tube. PBr, and PL give the same compound. PFj 

 needs a red-heat, and produces Cu.,P.j, -Researches on man- 

 ganese, by M. Charles Lepierre. The manganic-ammonium 



