June 27, 1895] 



NATURE 



215 



have been prepared. — fl;3-Dinaphthyland itsquinones, by F. D. 

 Chattaway. Two quinones are obtained by oxidising 33-dina- 

 phthyl under different conditions ; from their chemical behaviour 

 these seem to be ;8-naphthyl naphthoquinone, CjoHj.O.CijHj.O 

 (I : 2: 4) and 3)3-di-o-naphthoquinone, CjoHaOo.CioHjO, 

 (I: 2: 4: 1:2: 4). — Action of benzaldehyde on phenyl- 

 semicarbazide, by G. Young. The interaction of benzaldehyde 

 and phenylsemicarbazide yields a diphenyloxytriazole 

 NPh. NH. 



I >co, 



CPh : n/ 

 which on reduction gives diphenyltriazole 

 NPh. N, 



CPh: N^ 



— Note on the latent heat of fusion, by N. F. Deerr. Acid 

 compounds of some natural yellow colouring matters, part I, 

 by A. G. Perkin and L. Pate. The yellow colouring matters, 

 quercitin, rhamnazin, rhamnetin, luteolin, fisetin and morin 

 form orange or scarlet crystalline compounds with some of the 

 mineral acids ; catechin and maceurin do not yield such com- 

 pounds. — Action of sulphur on a-nitronaphthalene, by A. 

 Herzfeldcr. On heating a mixture of sulphur and o-nitro- 

 naphthalene an amorphous substance is obtained, w hich probably 

 has the constitution 



CH: CH. C^ I '^CH 



.. S I 

 CH: CH: C. | „CH, 



and to which the name oa'-thionaphthalene is given. 



Mathematical Society, June 13. — Major MacMahon, K.A., 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Mr. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 

 communicated a note on an extension of Boltzniann"s minimum 

 theorem, by Mr. S. H. Burbury, F.R.S. — Dr. J. Larmor, 

 F.K.S., gave a brief sketch of a paper by Mr. J. Brill, entitled 

 " On the form of the energy integral in the variable motion of a 

 viscous incompressible fluid for the case in which the motion is 

 two dimensional, and the case in which the motion is symmetrical 

 about an axis.' — A paper by Dr. Roulh, F. R. S. , on an expansion 

 of the potential function i/R«"iin Legendre's functions, was 

 taken as read. — Mr. Macaulay read a paper entitled "Groups of 

 points on curves treated by the method of residuation." The 

 President stated that Prof. A. M. Nash, of the Presidency 

 College, Calcutta, had died on the voyage home, for a two 

 years' furlough, after twenty years' residence in India. 



Zoological Society, June 18. — Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., 

 F. 1\.S., President, in the chair. — Mr. J. Graham Kerr read a 

 paper on sonic points in the anatomy of NatUiliis poinpiliiis. 

 The author advocated the abandonment of the view that the 

 arms in Cephalopods are pedal, and the resumption of what 

 appeared the inherently more probable view, that they are 

 processes of the head-region. In conclusion, the author drew 

 attention to certain indications which appeared to point to the 

 .\mphineura, and especially to the Chitons, as being of all 

 living .MoUusca those which most nearly approximate to the 

 ancestral form of the time w^hen the Cephalopods diverged from 

 the main Molluscan stem. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. F. F. Beddard, F.R.S., and Mr. A. C. Iladdon, contain- 

 ing an account of a collection of Nudibranchiate .Mollusca 

 recently made by the latter in Torres Straits. — Mr. Boulenger 

 rea<l a paper on a large collection of fishes made by Dr. C. 

 Ternilz in the Rio Paraguay. — .\ coninumication was read from 

 the Habu Uani Uramha Sanyal, giving an account of the moult- 

 ing of some Birds of Paradise in the Zoological Gardens, 

 Calcutta. — A communication was read from Jlr. O. Thomas 

 and Colonel J. W. Verbury, giving a description of a collection 

 of mammals made at Aden by Colonel Verbury in the winter of 

 this year. It was shown that thirty-six species of niamiiials 

 were now known to occur in the .Aden district. — A com- 

 munication was read from Mr. Edwyn C. Reed, containing a 

 list of the liemiptera-Meteroptera of Chili. — Mr. II. M. Drucc 

 read a paper on Bornean butterflies of the family Lyc;x;nid;v, in 

 which he had catalogued all the species already recorded from 

 that island, and gave descriptions of a considerable number of 

 new species, principally from Mount Kina-Balu. Mr. Druce 

 stated that the number of butterflies of this family previously 



NO. 1339, VOL. 52] 



recorded from Borneo was about 75, and that his paper contained 

 references to about 220. — A communication was read from Dr. 

 A. G. Butler, containing an account of a small collection of 

 butterflies sent by Mr. R. Crawshay from the country west of 

 Lake Nya.sa. Five species were described as new to science. 

 — Mr. J. -Anderson, F.R.S., read a paper describing a collection 

 of reptiles and batrachians made by Colonel Verbury at Aden 

 and its neighbourhood during the past winter. — Mr. Boulenger, 

 F. R. S. , gave an account of the reptiles and batrachians collected 

 by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith during his recent expedition in 

 Western Somaliland and the Galla country. 



Royal Meteorological Society, June 19. — Mr. R. Inwards, 

 President, in the chair.— -Mr. K. H. "Curtis read a paper on the 

 hourly variation of sunshine at seven stations in the British Isles, 

 which was based upon the records for the ten years 1881-90. 

 Falmouth is decidedly the most sunny station of the seven, hav- 

 ing a daily average amount of sunshine of 4A hours. This 

 amount is half an hour more than that recorded at Valencia, and 

 three-quarters of an hour more than at Kew. Of the other four 

 stations, Aberdeen, the most northern but at the same time a 

 coast station, with 3-64 hours, has more than either Stonyhurst 

 or Armagh, both inland stations ; whilst tilasgow, with only 3 

 hours, or about a quarter of its possible amount, has the 

 smallest record of the seven, a result to some extent due to the 

 nearness of the observatory to the large manufacturing works with 

 which the city of Glasgow abounds. At Valencia, Kew, Stony- 

 hurst, and Armagh, the maximum duration is reached in May, 

 the daily mean amount varying in the order named from 6J to 

 6 hours. At Falmouth and at the Scotch stations the increase 

 goes on to June, when the mean duration at Falmouth reaches 

 7 J hours, at Aberdeen t\ hours, and at Glasgow 5 '6 hours. 

 January and December are the most sunless months of the year. 

 The most prominent feature brought out at all the stations is the 

 rapid increase in the mean hourly amount of sunshine recorded 

 during the first few hours following sunrise, and the even more 

 rapid falling off again just before .sunset. — Mr. H. Harries read 

 a paper on the frequency, size, and distribution of hail at sea. 

 The author has examined a large number of ships' logs in the 

 Meteorological Office, and finds that hail has been observed in 

 all latitudes as far as ships go north and south of the equator, 

 and that seamen meet with it over wide belts on the polar side 

 of the 35th parallel. 



Royal Irish Academy, June 10. — Dr. J. K. Ingram, 

 President, in the chair. — A paper on a basaltic hill of Tertiary age 

 in county Clalway, by A. MacHenry and Prof. W. J. SoUas, 

 F.R.S. , was read (communicated by permission of the Director- 

 General of the Geological Survey). The extensive occurrence of 

 basaltic dykes ninning with a general north-west to south-east 

 direction through the whole northern third of Ireland has been 

 described by Sir Archibald Geikie, who, in a bold but true 

 generalisation, has referred them to the Tertiary period. The 

 authors bring forward evidence of a still more southern and 

 western extension of igneous activity in Ireland during this 

 period, basaltic rocks similar to those of .\nlrim being shown to 

 occur at Bunowen, seven miles south-west of Clifden, and 

 thus about five or six miles north of the latitude of Dublin. 

 They form a hill rising to a height of 200 feet above the sur- 

 rounding plain, which is composed of gneissose rocks, through 

 which the basalt has been extruded. The hill trends from north 

 to south, and is 450 yards in length. It consists of olivine bear- 

 ing dolerite, and vasicular basalt containing unaltered gla.ss, and 

 a substance which has been de.scribed ' as a mineral under the 

 name of " hullite." This substance is shown not only to occur 

 in the vesicles of the basalt as volcanic glass docs in the 

 " amygdaloiils " of the Tynemouth dyke described by Teall, but 

 also to contribute to the ground mass, where it presents all the 

 characters of an interstitial glass. Its most remarkable character 

 is its extremely low specific gravity (176), which is small even 

 for a hy<lrous volcanic glass, such as this so-called mineral must 

 be admitted to be. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, June 17. — M. Cornu in the chair. — 

 The President announced to the Academy the decease of M. 

 Verneuil, member of the Medicine and Surgery Section. — A 

 note on the law of absorption of bands of the oxygen 

 spectrum, by M. J. Janssen. — On the necessarily harmonic 

 form of displacements in ocean rollers, even when the 



1 " On Hullite," by E. T. Hardm.in and E. Hull (Proe. R. I. .A., Second 

 Scries, vol. iii. p. 161.) 



