November 22, 1894] 



NATURE 



95 



Devon. He also exhibited for Mr. Sydney Webb, of Dover, 

 a longj series of most remarkable varieties of Arctia ca/a^ and 

 Arctia villica. — Mr. Gervase F. Matthew, R.N., exhibited 

 seven beautiful and striking varieties of Arctia villica, bred 

 from larvK obtained on the Essex coast, near Dovercourt, in 

 March and April 1893 and 1894. — Ilerr Jacoby exhibited two 

 specimens of [Slaps miurotiatus, with soft elytra, taken on a 

 wall at Hampstead. The Rev. Canon Fowler and Mr. G. C. 

 Champion made some remarks on the subject of the elytra of 

 immature l)eetles.— Mr. H. Goss exhibited a specimen of 

 Periplaneta aiistralasii£, received from Mr. C. E. Morris, of 

 Preston, near Brighton. Mr. McLachlan said the species had 

 been introduced into this countr)', but was now considered a 

 British insect. — Mr. B. G. Rye exhibited specimens of the 

 following rare or local species of Coleoptera, and gave the 

 names of the localities in which they had been taken : 

 Cicindela g^rmanica, Ettmicnis riifus, Triarthron markeli, 

 Mfzium affine, Homaloplia ruricola, Anomala frischi, var. 

 jtilii, Synapliis Jiliformis, Lixus pnrapUcticus, Balaninus 

 cerawrum, Asemtim striatum, and Ziugophora Jlavicollis.—yit. 

 McLachlan exhibited for Mr. G. C. IJignell two new species 

 of Ichneum.inida;, from Devonshire, viz. Pimpla liriJ;;mani, 

 Bign., a para-ite on a spider, Drasstis lapidicolens, Walck., and 

 Pracm absinthii, Bign., a parasite on Siphonophora absinthii, 

 Linne. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse stated that the Acridium re- 

 ceived from Captain Montgomery, and exhibited by Mr. Goss 

 at the last meeting, was Acridium septemfasciatum, and he ex- 

 hibited the species with the wings extended. — Mr. Ridley 

 exhibited a species of a scale insect (? Lecanium) found on a 

 nutmeg tree in Malacca, and made some remarks on Formica 

 smaragdina,, which makes its nest on the trees, joining the 

 leaves together by a thin thread of silk at the ends. The first 

 step in making the nest is for several ants to bend the leaves 

 together and hold on with their hind legs, and one of their 

 number after some lime runs up with a larva, and irritating 

 it with its antennae, makes it produce a thread with which the 

 leaves are joined ; when one larva is exhausted a second is 

 fetched, and the process is repeated. — Mr. Waterhouse read a 

 paper entitled "Some remarks on the Antennae of Insects." 

 A discussion followed, in which Messrs. Champion, Jacoby, 

 McLachlan, and Gahan took part. 



Mathematical Society, Novembers. — Mr. A. B. Kempe, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — At this meeting, which was 

 the first held since the incorporation of the Society, the by-laws, 

 which had been drawn up by the council, were passed unanim- 

 ously. The ballot was then taken, and the gentlemen whose names 

 were published in Nature (November i, No. 1305, p. 19) 

 were declared duly elected to form the new council and officers. 

 The new President (Major Mac.Mahon, F.R.S.) having taken 

 the chair, Mr. Kempe read his address, the title of which was 

 "Mathematics." Other communications made were — a general- 

 ised form of thehypergeometric series, and the differential equa- 

 tion which is satisfied by the series, F. H. Jackson ; third (and 

 concluding), memoir on certain infinite products, Prof. L. I. 

 Rogers ; on the kinematics of non-Euclidean space. Prof. W. 

 Burnside, F.R.S. 



Royal Microscopical Society, October 17.— The Rev. 

 Edmund Carr in the chair.— Dr. W. II. Dallinger, F.R.S., 

 described a new model microscope which had been made by 

 Messrs. Watson. — Messrs. Ross exhibited examples of their 

 "Eclipse" microscopes. — Mr. R. T. Lewis exhibited some 

 parasites which had been found upon |a penguin from Isipingo, 

 Durban. — Ur. H. Stolterfoth's paper on the genus Cortthron 

 was read by Prof. Jeffrey Bell.— Mr. E. B. Green read a paper 

 on some parasitic growths on the root-hairs of plants. Mr. 

 A. W. Bennett made some remarks on Mr. Green's paper. — 

 Prof. Bell called attention to the loss the Society had suffered 

 by the death of Dr. G. E. Blenkins, a former secretary. — Mr. 

 F. Chapman gave a rlsiimJ at part of his paper on the Fora- 

 minifera of the Gault of Folkestone. The chairman and Prof. 

 Bell made a few remarks on Mr. Chapman's contribution. — 

 Owing to the absence of the author, Mr. Nelsoii's paper, on the 

 measuring of the refractive indices of various media, was deferred 

 to the next meeting on November 21. 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, October 29.— Prof. T. McKenny 

 Hughes, President, in the chair. — The officers for the ensuing 

 session were elected as follows :— President : Prof. J. J. Thom- 

 son. Vice-Presidents : Prof. Sir G. G. Stokes, Prof. Hughes, 



NO I " VOL. 51] 



Mr. F. Darwin. Treasurer: Mr. Glazebrook. Secretaries: 

 Mr. I. armor, Mr. Newall, Mr. Bateson. New Members of 

 Council : Dr. Glaisher, Prof. Ewing, Mr. F. H. Neville, Mr. 

 E. II. Gr.ffiihs. Mr. W. B. Hardy, Mr. H. F. Baker. The 

 retiring President, Prof. Hughes, before vacating the chair, 

 addressed the Society. The President elect. Prof. Thomson, 

 on taking the chair, referred to the loss sustained by science in 

 the death of Prof, von Helmholtz. — Note on geometrical 

 mechanics, by Prof. Sir Robert S. Ball. — On a model of 

 the twenty-seven lines on a cubic surface, by Mr. W. H. 

 Blythe. Mr. Blythe exhibited a model of the twenty- 

 seven straight lines on a cubic surface, together with the draw- 

 ings from which it was constructed. He stated that the 135 

 points of intersection of these lines can, in a special case, be 

 determined by a simple geometrical construction without refer- 

 ence to any equation. Seven points taken at random on the 

 edges of a tetrahedron are sufficient to give values to all neces- 

 sary constants, and these points acting as pointers by pairs, fix 

 the position of eleven other points ; these eighteen points being 

 used to determine others, and so on. This method is also 

 applicable to the general case, but determines fifteen lines only ; 

 when however the sixteenth line or one point on it is fixed by a 

 process of adjustment the remaining points can be found in the 

 same way. — ^Exhibition of some photographs showing the marks 

 made by stars on photographic plates exposed near the focus of 

 a visual telescope, by Mr. H. F. Newall. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences,, November 12. — M. Loewy in 

 the chair. — The President announced the death of M. Duchartre, 

 and an account of this botanist's life and works was delivered 

 by M. Bornet. — On the transit of Mercury, by M. J. Janssen. 

 Owing to unf.-ivourable weather, only a part of the transit was 

 observed at Paris. — Researches on the condensation of electro- 

 lytic gases by porous bodies, particularly by metals of the 

 platinum group ; applications to the gas battery ; electric accu- 

 mulators under pressure, by MM. L. Cailletetand E. Collardeau. 

 Platinum and pr.lladium in the spongy condition, and ruthenium, 

 iridium, and gold in the finely divided state form poles which 

 condense electrolytic gases, and hence produce a gas battery, 

 on subsequent connection of the poles, capable of giving up 

 the stored energy during a short time. The storage capacity 

 may be vastly increased by subjecting the poles to great pressure 

 during charging. With spongy platinum and iridium a storage 

 capacity may be attained greater than the practical capacity of 

 lead accumulators per unit weight. Silver, tin, nickel, cobalt, 

 and carbon do not form accumulators under these conditions 

 with capacity increasing with the pressure. — New details con- 

 cerning .the Nymphaiin^ of the Lower Cretaceous system, 

 by M. G. de Saporta. — A study of the causes of saline 

 digestion, by M. A. Dastre. Saline digestion is not due 

 to the action of soluble ferments, and is not caused by 

 microbes. — On the disappearance of the southern polar spot 

 of Mars, by M. G. Bigourdan. — The transit of Mercury, 

 by M. E. L. Trouvelot. (See our Astronomical Column.)— 

 Onan error detected in the " theory of numbers" of Legendre, 

 by .M. Dujardin. — On the representation of left-handed 

 algebraical curves and on a formula by Halphen, by M. 

 Leon Autonne. — On an empirical formula, by M. Per- 

 vouchine, by .M. Ernest Ces,iro.— Direct experimental deter- 

 mination of the specific heat of saturated vapour and of the 

 heat of internal vaporisation, by M. E. Mathias. The general 

 method given permits, by means of a double series of calori- 

 metric experiments with an apparatus charged once for all, of 

 the complete resolution of the problem of the calorimetric 

 study of a substance, and shows that the .specific heat of satu- 

 rated vapour is susceptible of direct experimental determina- 

 tion.— Determination of the molecular weight of liquids, by M. 

 Ph. A. Guye. The author gives methods of determining mole- 

 cular weights of substances from a knowledge of their critical 

 coefficients and molecular refractions and from their critical co- 

 efficients only. The relationships for a number of hydrocarbons 

 are given, and the deduction is drawn that these hydrocarbons 

 have the same molecular weights in the gaseous state, in the 

 critical state, and in the liquid state. — On active amylacetic acid 

 and some of its derivatives, by Mdlle. Ida Well. The rotatory 

 powers of a number of these derivatives are given. Methyl 

 amylacetate has a rotatory power [ajo = + 671 ; for the cor 

 responding ethyl salt [o]b = + 6-66. The products of asym- 

 metry calculated for the same compounds bear the ratio 375 : 



