May 



1895] 



NATURE 



95 



l':irt I, by E. P. Perman. From experiments on the pressure of 

 i-es dissolved in various solutions the author concludes that I 

 rlium sulphate exists in aqueous solution as the hydrate | 

 N.i,,SOj, lOlijO, and that silver chloride exists in amnioniacal 

 .■|ueous solutions as the compound Af;CI.3NIl3. — Derivatives of 

 T liromocamphoric acid, by F. S. Kipping. — Paraheplyltoluene 

 id its derivatives, by F. S. Kipping and O. F. Russell. — Note 

 1 the fdrmation of a phosphate of platinum, by R. E. Barnelt. 

 '11 passing phosphorus pentoxide vapour and oxygen over red- 

 1 ]ilatinum. a yellow phosphate PtP.,07, insoluble in aqua 

 n -la, is obtained. 



Linnean Society, May 2. — Mr. C. B. Clarke, President, in 



ic chair. — Dr. O. Nordstedt of Lund, Dr. Rudolph Philipppi of 



•Santiago, and Dr. M. Woronin of St. Petersburg, were elected 



i'lreign members. — Mr. H. M. Bernard showed under the micro- 



M'lipe the circumscribed patches of setie above and below the 



■igmatx-on the pupa of the vapourer moth (Oryi;ia aiitii/iia). 



The arrangement suggested a vanished notopodium just where, in 



■iL- Mexapods, a dorsal branch of a parapodium ought to have 



.mished, according to the exhibitor's method of deducing the 



lifterent groups of the Arthropoda from their Annelidan ances- 



■is, as sketched in his recent paper on the Galcodidic. — Mr. 



I . .M. Holmes exhibited some new British Alga; from Dorset- 



lire and Surrey; amongst others, Uluella ionfliieiis 3X\A Ecto- 



rpiis Kciitholdi, both discovered last month at Weymouth, and 



\'- latter previously known only from the Baltic. — \lr. J. E. 



I larting exhibited and made remarks on a specimen of Ciiciiliis 



uiionis in the rare hepatic ^Xumz^^ {Citcitius hepaticus, Sparr- 



inan), recently obtained at Bishop's Waltham, Essex. — Mr. 



\V. T. Thiselton-Dyer, C.M.G., then gave an abstract of a 



[Mperby the late Mr. John Ball, F.R.S., on the distribution of 



jilanls on the southern side of the Alps, prefaced by some account 



'if ihf author's life, and special work in relation to the Alpine 



Mathematical Society, Thursday, May 9. — Major P. A. 



Macmahon, K..\., F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Dr. Hobson, 



I . R.S., made a communication on the most general solution of 



\en degree of Laplace's equation. — Prof. ^L J. ^L Hill, 



U.S., read two short notes : (i) a property of a skew deter- 



iiianl ; (2) on the geometrical meaning of a form of the ortho- 



ii.al transformation. — Prof (ireenhill, F.R.S., and Mr. T. L 



'1 war gave an account of results relating to the spheincal 



iienary. The investigations given in Nature, p. 262, 



iiiuar)' 10, 1895, when the parameter of the associated elliptic 



I'l-gral of the third kind is of the form 4013//!, where u^ is the 



iiaginary |x;riod and ^ is an integer, worked out in detail for 



a = 3, 4, 5, and 8, have been extended by Mr. Dewar to the 



ji-es of /^ = 6, 7, 9, 10, and 12. 



In ])articular, when m = 10, the catenary is given by an 

 ' ijuation of the same form as for ;i = 5, 



1 - i'ie = H=' + IIij' + H,s3 + Has' + HjO + H5 



+ 2(Ls' + Li~ + Lj: + L3) v'Z, 



u here 



and 



Z = (I - 2=) (= - hf - X-, 



lid it was found that/ could be made to vanish, so that the 

 Iienary becomes a closed algebraical curve on the sphere, by 



I Ling 



/, = i ^ /L7, A = - -'- /5, L = - 5 /S, 

 2 V 3 10 V 3 6 V 3' 



L, = - 5 /ss, L. = 35 /S, I =11 /s5 ; 



36 \/ ' - 72 \^ 3 144 V 



6\- 



/■ 



Ilj = o, 



5 />7 

 12 V 3' 



108 



t 



H - 65 A? 11 _ 25 

 "^-288Vl'"=-iS- 



A model was exhibited of this spherical catenar)-, formed by a 

 chain wrajiped on a terrestrial globe ; and so far this appears to 

 be the only real algebraical case, for which it is jrossible for/ to 

 vanish. — Mr. G. Heppel exhibited a set of Napier's Bones, of 

 date 1746, and explained how they were used in calculations, 

 referring for a further description of them to the English 



NO. 1334, VOL. 52] 



Cyclopicdia. — The following papers, in the absence of their 

 authors, were taken as read : — On those orthogonal substitutions 

 that can be generated by the repetition of an infinitesimal ortho- 

 gonal substitution, by Dr. H. Taber. — Notes on the theory of 

 groups of finite order (contiiuiation), by Prof. W. Bumside, 

 F.R..S. — .\pplications of trigraphy, by .Mr. J. W. Rus.sell ; and 

 the reciprocators of two conies, by Messrs. J. W. Russell and 

 A. E. lolliffe. 



Zoological Society, May 7.— Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — .^ letter was read from Dr. F. 

 A. lentink, concerning a monkey lately described as Cct-iocebus 

 aterriiiius, of which tJie type had lately been acquired by the 

 Leyden Museum. Dr. Jentink considered this monkey to be 

 the same as Cercocebiis albigena. Gray. — Mr. J. H. Gumey 

 exhibited and made remarks on a rare kingfisher (Alcedo 

 heava)ti) obtained in Ceylon by Mr. A. L. Butler. — Mr. G. F. 

 .Scott Elliot made some remarks on the fauna of Mount 

 Ruwenzori, in British Central -\frica. Mr. Scott Elliot stated 

 that elephants occur in great numbers on the east side of 

 Ruwenzori. There w ere also many still living and vast stores of 

 ivory in the Congo Free-State, just beyond the south-west 

 comer of the English sphere of influence. He pointed out the 

 presence of the hippopotamus in the Albert-Edward Nyanza, 

 and its extraordinary abundance in the Kagera River. The 

 rhinoceros was found frequently in the country of Karagwe, 

 usually near the marshy lakes leading to the Kagera. — On the 

 allu\ial plains about the east of Ruwenzori, Jackson's hartebeest 

 (Btibalis jacksoni), the kob {Coins tab), and another waterbuck 

 (perhaps of a new species) were common. No buffaloes were 

 seen. A bushbuck also occurred on Ruwenzori from 7000 to 

 8000 feet. Of monkeys, Mr. Scott Elliot had noticed the 

 presence of a black and white Colohus, which he could not 

 identify', and of at least two other species, probably a Ctiropithe- 

 iits and a baboon. Some small mice brought home had not yet 

 been identified. Leopards were numerous, and lions were also 

 common on the lower grounds. Two species of sunbird were 

 brought back, one of which ascends to 1 1,000 feet on Ruwenzori. 

 Mr. Scott Elliot concluded by remarking that the general idea 

 of distribution gathered from the flora seemed to confirm such 

 data as he could gather from the fauna of the country which he 

 traversed during his journey. — Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., and 

 Mr. P. Chalmers ilitchell made a communication on the 

 structure of the heart in the alligator, as obser\ed in specimens 

 that had died in the Society's menagerie. — Mr. Chalmers 

 Mitchell described the anatomy of the crested screamer ( C^a(/«a 

 t/iaz'ar/a), pointing out some resemblances between the ali- 

 mentary canal of that bird and the ostrich, and giving a detailed 

 comparison of the stnictures of C/iauita clia-'aria and Palatiiedea 

 (oriutta. — A communication was read from Dr. Percy Rendall, 

 containing field-notes on the antelopes of the Transvaal. — Dr. 

 Mivart, F.R.S., read a paper on the .skeleton of Lorius flavo- 

 palliatiis as compared with that of Psillacus crithaciis, 



"Geological Society, May 8. — Dr. Henr)- Woodward, 

 F. R.S., President, in the chair. — The .Stirling dolerite, by 

 Horace W. Monckton. The rock described in the paper forms 

 a mass of about eight miles in length, with an average width of 

 about a mile ; it is intruded into the lower part of the carbon- 

 iferous limestone series. There is little doubt that the Abbey Craig 

 rock, north of the Forth, is connected with the Stirling rock ; 

 and there is reason to think that the igneous rocks of Cowden 

 Hill and of the hills around Kilsyth are outlying portions of the 

 Stirling rock, being connected with it underground. All these 

 patches, as well as the main mass, are for the most part composed 

 of a more or less coarse-grained dolerite, the marginal part 

 always becoming finer-graine<l, whilst the actual edge has 

 apparently been a t.achylyte now devitrified. The author gave 

 the results of his macroscopic and microscopic examination of 

 the rocks from various parts of the mass. — Notes on some rail- 

 way cuttings near Keswick, Ity J. Postlethwaite. Several cuttings 

 have recently been made on the Cockermouth, Keswick, and 

 Penrith Railway, chiefly through drift, though some occur in the 

 Skiddaw slates, and in one case a diabase dyke (much decom- 

 ]X)sed) was met with. The author described the drifts as blue 

 clay beneath, and brown clay above, and considered that these 

 two clays were produced during two separate periods of glacia- 

 tion, with no long interval between. In some places near 

 Keswick water-borne gravel may be seen surmounted by blue 

 clay ; this gravel was considered by the author to be of fluviatile 

 origin. — The shelly clays and gravels of Aberdeenshire considered 



