JULV 19, 1894] 



NA TURE 



287 



Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, June 20. — D.-. W. Frazer in the 

 chair. — Ur. Telford Smith and Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F. R.S. , 

 gave a lantern demonstration of two microcephalic brains. One 

 of these weighed 352 grammes ; the other 559 grammes. The 

 authors contrasted these specimens with the brains of the ape 

 and the quadruped. The cerebrum in each had not passed in 

 its development beyond the quadrupedal stage. The initial 

 growth disturbance must therefore have occurred about the 

 fourth month of foetal development. With the aborted occi- 

 pital region there was associated a marked convolutionary dis- 

 turbance. The arrangement of the gyri and sulci did not cor- 

 respond with that present at any period of foetal life. It resem- 

 bled the simian more than the human type ; and what was most 

 remarkable was the mixture of low-ape and high-ape characters. 

 In some respects, therefore, the convolutionary pattern re- 

 sembled that of a baboon, and in others that of a chimpanzee or 

 an orang. The authors referred to the various theories which 

 had been put forward to account for the condition, and upon the 

 whole seemed to favour that of Karl Vogt, although the argu- 

 ments they brought forward were of a totally different character. 

 The results at which the authors have arrived will shortly appear 

 in the Society's Transadioiis. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, July 9. — M. Loewy in the chair. — ■ 

 The death of M. Mallard, member of the Mineralogy Section, 

 was announced. — On the photographs of the moon obtained 



I with the great coiidc equatorial of the Paris Observatory, by 

 MM. I.oewy and Puiseux. (.See our Astronomical Column.) — 

 On some of the work done at Nice Observatory, by M, Perrotin. 

 In connection with photographic exploration, the author ob- 

 serves that, in the sky regions examined, (i) the number of new 

 asteroids (magnitudes 7-13) is much less than the number 

 previously known ; (2I only in the case of asteroids of the 13th 



I magnitude are more now discovered than had been previously 

 observed ; (3) the tol.-il number of asteroids increases with de- 

 creasing magnitude as far as the I2lh mag. — On new derivatives 

 from bcnzoylbenzoic acid, by MM. A. Haller and A. Guyot. — 

 Experimental production of the contagious peripneumonia of 

 cattle by the aid of cultures. Demonstration of the specific 

 character of rneumobacillus liquefacicns bovis. Note by M. S. 

 Arloing. The author concludes from his results quoted that (i) 

 the virulent agent in contagious peripneumonia is an ordinary 

 microbe, and (2) this microbe is the Pncumobacillus liiiuefacicns 

 bovis. — Comparative researches on the products of the com- 

 bustion of lighting-gas given by an Argand burner and an Auer 

 burner, by M. N. Grehant. The combustion products from the 

 Auer burner yielded evidence of the presence of carbonic oxide 

 to the extent of I in 25S0, those from the Argand burner a trace 

 only, estimated at I in 75,000. — Special images of the sun given 

 by the simple rays corresponding to the dark lines of the solar 

 spectrum, by M. H. Deslandres. The author gives the first re- 

 sults of a study of the surface layers of the sun by means of 

 images formed by light from selected parts of the spectrum. — 

 On the calorific r.adiations included in the luminous part of 

 the spectrum, by M. .\ymonnet. The following conclusions 

 are deduced from a study of the spectra given by the Bourbouze 

 and Drummond lamps and by the sun : (l) the eye does not 

 perceive all the radiations between the red and violet ; (2) the 

 eye is not .acted on by rays intercepted by water; (3) when 

 the medium between the radiant source and the measuring 

 apparatus contains water, there is an imperfect concordance 

 between the distribution of heat and that of light in the same 

 region of the spectrum ; (4) the bright lines or bands which 

 we can observe in a spectrum are only those or a part of those 

 which pass through water. — On the polarisation of light diffused 

 by roughened surfaces, by M. A. Lafay.^On the relation 

 between the density of a saline solution and the molecular 

 weight of the dissolved salt, by M. Georges Charpy. The 

 density of a saline solution augments proportionally to the 

 molecular concentration if it be admitted that the molecular 

 weight of w.iter at 0° is about 3 x iS. The densities of equally 

 concentrated solutions of analogous salts are nearly j^roportional 

 to their molecular weights. — On a newglucosanc, loevoglucosane, 

 by M. Tanret. — .Syntheses by means of cyanacetic ether. 

 Phenylcyanacetic ethers, by M. T. Klobb. — On paraphtha- 

 lodicyanacetic ether, by M. J. Locher. — On pine tar, by M. 

 Adolphe Renard. — The quantitative composition of creosotes 



NO. 1 290, VOL. 50] 



from beech and oak, by MM. A. Behal and E. Choay. Beech- 

 wood creosote is richer in guaiacol than that from oak. — Inur- 

 ing ferments to antiseptics and the influence of this hardening 

 on their chemical work, by M. J. ElTront. — The nature of 

 onychomycosis, demonstrated by culture and by inoculations, 

 by iM. J. SabrazL-s. — On the coexistence of the sternum with 

 the shoulder-girdle and lungs, by M. Alexis Julien. The sternum 

 varies in its composition, form, and texture, in its development 

 and even in its connections. Notwithstanding this great varia- 

 bility, certain constant features may be distinguished. The 

 sternum always coexists with the shoulder-girdle and lungs, that 

 is to say, all vertebrates which have a sternum have also lungs and 

 shoulder-girdles, but the converse is not true. — On the insertion of 

 the membrane of Corti, by MM. Coyne and Canniew. — On 

 the topography of the attached urethra, studied on sections of 

 frozen suljjects, by M. L. Testut. — On the measurement of 

 the absorption of water by roots, by M. Henri Lecomte.- — On 

 the petrographic nature of the summit of Mont Blanc and the 

 neighbouring rocks, by MM. J. Vallot and L. Duparc. 



Berlin. 



Physical Society, June i. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — Prof Konig described a repetition of H. 

 Midler's experiments on the part of the retina in which the 

 sensation of light takes its origin, using, however, monochromatic 

 light. Midler, as is well known, had localised it in the rods 

 and cones by observing that the shadows cast by the blood- 

 vessels of the retina execute movements, when the source of 

 light is moved (Purkinje's experiment), which correspond to 

 the distance between the blood-vessels and the layer of rods and 

 cones. Prof. Kunig had repeated the measurements on the 

 normal eye of Dr. Zumft, whose constants he had accurately 

 determined, using four kinds of monochromatic light, namely, 

 that of the lithium line in the red, of the D sodium line, of the 

 thallium line, and of the line F. He found as a result of fifteen 

 separate determinations that the distance of the light-perceiving 

 elements of the retina from the blood-vessels which give the 

 shadows varies with the varying wave- lengths of the different 

 lights, a result which can only be explained on the basis of 

 Young's theory of colour- vision. — Dr. H. du Bois spoke on the 

 changes of resistance of a bismuth spiral in a powerful mag- 

 netic field. This change, discovered by Lord Kelvin, had been 

 measured in the case of bismuth in a magnetic field whose 

 maximum strength was 12,000 C.G.S. , and the curve of re- 

 sistance in the field, compared with that of the resistance out- 

 side the field, was found to be at first concave upwards and then 

 straight. The resistance in the field of maximum strength was 

 I '7 of that in zero field. The speaker, using some very powerful 

 electromagnets which he had recently exhibited to the Society, 

 and which gave an intensity of 38,000 C.G.S. , had, in con- 

 junction with Dr. Henderson, measured the resistance of spirals 

 of pure bismuth, and found that the curve pursues a further 

 straight-line course, so that the resistance in the field of greatest 

 intensity is three times as great as in a field of zero intensity. 

 The measurement of the resistances in a magnetic field at differ- 

 ent temperatures had yielded interesting results. In weak fields 

 a rise of temperature increased the resistance : in stronger fields 

 the effect was less, and became zero in a field of 7000 C.G.S. 

 In still stronger fields tne resistance of the warm spiral was less 

 than that of the cold. The experiments have so far been car- 

 ried on only for temperatures between 0° and 25°, but will be 

 pushed further up to 100". — Dr. Pring>heim described an in- 

 genious procedure by means of whicn he had succeeded in 

 obtaining positives of old manuscripts on which old and faint 

 characters were obscured by newer and dark writing. The 

 positives were obtained by a combination of several photo- 

 graphs, and showeil only the older and fainter characters in 

 sharp and clear definition. 



June 15. — Prof, von Helmholtz, President, in the chair. — 

 Prof, von Bezold gave an address in memory of Prof. \. Kundt, 

 the Vice-President of the Society, recently deceased, in which 

 he dwelt upon his scientific labours, and in particuLar upon his 

 distinguished efforts as a teacher. 



New South Wales. 



Royal Society, May 2. — Prof. Anderson Stuart delivered 

 the presidential address. He gave a detailed account of the 

 poison of Ornithorhynchus paradoxus and of the poison of the 

 '' Bush-tick," and alluded to that of the Australian varieties of 

 the spider-genus Lal/trodecliis. After describing the present 



