120 



NATURE 



[November 29, 1694 



(2 ? , hexene (l^ and a dihexylic ether. Mr. van Erp has also 

 observed the behaviour of neutral nitramines with alkalies. 

 Dimethylnitramine gives nitrous acid, monomelhylamine, 

 formic acid (and methyl alcohol ?). Diethyl- and dipropyl- 

 nilramine seemed not to be changed. Normal butylmethyl- 

 nitramine, less easily than dimethylnitramine, gives nitrous 

 acid, butylamine, formic acid (and methyl alcohol?). It 

 therefore seems that mixed nitramines give the amine with the 

 greatest alkyl, or the methyl radical is most easily separated 

 from the nitrogen. — On quadrinodat quintics, by Mr. Tan de 

 Vrie^. — On the cranial nerves of vertebrates in amphioxus, by 

 Mr. van Wijhe. The olfactory nerve represents a type of its 

 own. The ventral nerves, or nerves of the myotomes, do not 

 exhibit special characteristics. Among the dorsal or septal 

 nerves, the trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal and vagus 

 ner^•es could be recognised with more or less probability, chiefly 

 by their relations to the branchial clefts, the first of which on 

 the left side becomes the opening of the velum. 



DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 



LONDO.N. 



THURSDA y, November 39. 

 Sanitary I.sstitutb, at 3. — Workers io Copper, Zinc, Brass, and Tin : 

 Dr. R. M. Simon. 



FR/DAV, November 30. 

 RotalSocistv, at 4.— Anniversary Meeting. 

 Institl'tion op Civil Engineers, at 8.— Sub-aqueous Excavation at 



Ncwry: C. H. Ollcy. 

 Sanitary Institute, at 8.— Sanitary Law : Prof. A. Wyntcr BIyth. 



S[/.\'DAi% Decembkr a. 

 SuNDAT Lecture Society, at 4. — Village Life in India: Mr. R.W. Frazer. 



MONDAY, DbCEMBER 3. 



SociKTV OF Arts, at S. — Modem Developments in Explosives : Prof. 

 Vivian H. Lewes. 



SociBTVor Chemical lKDUSTRv(BurIinKtnn House), atS —The Rational 

 Sterili-^aiion of Alimentary Liquids : Mr. E- W. Kuhn (of Paris). — \i\ 

 Invcsiigationof the Natural Sodium Sulphate Lakes of Wyoming. US. A. : 

 Dr. D. H. Aiifield. — Specimens of Inrtia-mbbcr. and Petroleum Oil, 

 Varnish, and Soap will be exhibited by Mr. Thos. Christy. 



Victoria iNSTiTUTE.at 4.30.— Semitic Languages: Mr. T. G. Pinches. 



TUESDAY, December 4. 



Zoological Society, at 8.30.-00 some Points in the Anatomy of 

 (Jmithorh^-nclius paradoxus : Mr. T. M.inners Smith.— On certain Points 

 in the Visceral Anatomy nf Orniihorhynchus : Mr. F. E. Beddard, 

 F. K.S. — On M>me Remarkable Corals of Great Size from North- West 

 Australia: Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell.— Second Report on Additions to the 

 Lizard Collection in the Naiui.tl History' Museum: Mr. G. A. Boulenger, 

 F.R.S. 



iNsr.TiTiON OF Civil Engineers, at 8.— The Machitwry of War-Ships : 

 Mr. AlbenJ. Durston. -Colliery Surface-Works: Mr. E. H. Wain. 



Royal Statistical Society, at 4.45— The Eleventh United States 

 Census: Hon. R. P. Porter.— Kxhibition of the Hollerith Electrical 

 Counting Machine :«Dr. H. Hollerith. 



lYEDXESDAY, December 5. 



Society or Arts at S.— Fire Protection : Edwin U. Sachs. 



Geoliicical Societv, at 9. — Supplementary Note on the Narborough 

 District (Leicestershire): Piof. T. G. Bonney. F- R.S.— The Tarns of 

 UkeUnd: .Mr. J. E. .Marr. F.RS.-The Marble Beds of Natal: Mr. 

 Djvi '. I rji.rr —1 tr . rlpiion of a Ncw Instrument for Surveying by the 

 Ai'' '1 some Observations uiH)n the Applicability of the 



In-r I Purposes: Mr. J. Bridges Lee. 



Ent._ : ., at 8— A List of the L^-pidoptera of ihe Khasia 



Hili«, fart IJl.: Colonel Charles Swinhoe. — A Monograph of British 

 Braconidx, Part Vf. : Rev. T. A. Marshall. — On the Longicorn Cole- 

 »pirr^ .A ri,- UV^t India Islands: Mr. Charles J. Gahan. — Notes on the 

 iu- .«nd Eating Habit of Scricomyrmex opacus, Mayr. : Mr. 



F. '•'' 1 App.'xrrnt Case of Sexual Preference in a Male Insect : 



Pr^:. .. ... 1 ...;.n. I-.R.S. 



rZ/i/^.S'ZJWr, December 6. 



.'"'. — Experimcnial Researches on Vegetable Assimila- 

 No I. On a New Method for Investigating the 

 ■-1 of Plants. No 2 : i)n the Paths of fLxscous 

 al Leaves and the Atmosphere : Mr. F. F. Black- 



. at4 



at 4.30.— Roman and British Indian Systems of 

 . l.<e-Wamer, C.S." 



OVAL S'-iriPT^* 



tifin ' 



Car 



Kv 



man. 

 SociiTV or Arts, 



Government : Hod. W. 

 Linnran .Society, at 8. — A New Revision o' Dipierocarpex, with Lantern 



Slides : Sir !>. Brandts, F.R.S.— On the Spinning Glands in Phryous : 



M:. H. M. Bernard. 

 Chemical Society, at 8.— T>ir l\c of the GIi.be In the Study of Crystal- 

 lography: J V Buchan.-tn, F. R.S. — Latent He.ni of Fusion: Mr. H, 



Crompton. — New Method of F'rrp.iring Dihydroxytariaric Acid: Mr. H. 



J. H. Fcnion, — fc*i«oua; •>! d rtcp«: Mr. A. C. Chapman. 

 LnHi>ON Institution, ac 6.— The Fauna of Rivers and Lakes: Prof. 



Sydney Hick son. 



FRtDA >', \H' KMUHR 7. 



Royal Imstitutiok, at 5.— General Monthly Meeting. 



Gkol/>oi«.ts' A^«.ociation. .-it 8 — Noic -to Megalovaurian Teelh. dis- 

 covered by Mr. J. Alsioae in the Portlandianof Ayleshury : Mr. .A. Smith 

 Woodward.— On the Geology of the Si. Goihard Pass: Mr. H. W. 

 M Dock Ion. 



SATURDAY^ Dbcimber 3. 



ROTAL BOTAHIC SoCIKTV, at 3.43. 



NO. 1309, VOT.. 51] 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, andSERIALS RECEIVED 



BojK<. — Imperial University of J.apan, Calendar 1593-4 (Tky 

 Maruya).— Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural 

 History-): G. A. Boulenger, Vol. 2 (London).— The Flower of the Ocean, 

 the Island of Madeira : Surg eon -General C A. Gordon CBaillic'e). — Topo- 

 graphische Anatomic des Plerdes : Ellcnbur^er and Baum. Zweiter Teil 

 (Berlin, Parcy). — Buiterfiies and Moths (British): W. Furneau.v (Long 

 mans). 



Pamphlets.— Sulk Oscillazioni Eletiriche a Piccola Lunghezia d'Onda- 

 %fi. : Prof A. Kighi (Bologna). — North of England Institute of Mining and 

 Mechanical Engineers : Report of the Procecding^v of the Flamcless Ex- 

 plosives Commiiicc. Part i. Air and Combustible Ga-ies : A. C. Kayll 

 (Reid). — Rcsultate der im Sommer 1893 in dem Ni>rdlichsten Theile Nor- 

 wegcns ausgefuhrtcn Pendelbeobachtungen : O. E. Schiol? (Kristiania. 

 Dybwad). 



Serials.— Casscll's Maganne, December (Cassell). — Proceedings of the 

 Aristotelian Society. Vol. 2, No. 3. Part a (Williams). — Transactions and 

 Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Vol. .\.v. Part i (Edin- 

 burgh). — Proceeding> of the American Academy of Arti and Sciences, new 

 series. Vol. xxi. (Boston). — Brain. Part Ixviii. (Macmillan). — Kr>' pi oga men- 

 Flora von Schlesien, iti. Band, a Halftc, 3 Liefg. (Brc-ilau, Kern). — Journal 

 of the Institute of Jamaica, September (Sotheran). — Longman's Magazine, 

 December (Longmans) — Chambers's Journal, December (Chambers). — 

 Natural Science, December (Macmillan). — Good Words, December and 

 Christmas (Isbistcr).— Sunday Magazine, December and Christmas (Isbis- 

 ter). — Ci:ntur>' M.tgazine, December (Unwin). — Humanitarian. December 

 (HutchinstJn). — Udgivct af den Norske Gradm-ialings-Konimission. \'aiid- 

 stansobscTvaiioncr. v. Hefie (Christiania, Fabritiiis) — Botanische Jahr- 

 bucher, &c., Zwanzigster Band, i and 2 Heft (Leipzig, Engelmann). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Locomotive Construction. Ry N. J. Lockyer ... 97 



Indo-Malayan Spiders. By R. I. Pocock 99 



The Plateau Region of Southern France. By 



Canon Bonney, F.R.S 100 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Ziwet : " An Elementary Tieatise on Theoretical 



Mechanics." — G loi 



Aubertin : " By Order of the Sun to Chile to see his 



Total Eclipse', April 16, 1893" 101 



Schmidt: ■' Keise nach SUdindien " loi 



Step: " By Vocal Woods and Waters " 102 



Letters to the Editor:— 



Acquired Characters. — Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 



F.R.S 102 



The Present Stale of Physiological Research. — 



Prof. Francis Gotch, F.R.S 103 



Wilde's Theory of the Secular Variation of Terrestrial 



Magnetism.- L. A. Bauer 103 



Boltzmann's .Minimum Theoicm. — Rev. H. W. 



Watson, F.R.S. ; Edwd. P. Culverwell ... 105 

 The Alleged Absoluioness of Motions of Rotation. — 

 A. E. H. Love, F.R.S. ; Prof.'A. G. Greenhill, 



F.R.S 105 



Science Teaching in Schools.— O. Henrici ; H. G. 



Wells ic6 



The Explosion of a Mixture of Acetylene and Oxygen. 



Dr. T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S lOO 



"Newlhs Inorganic Chemistry."— G. S. Newth ; 



M. M. Pattison Muir 106 



Singing W-iter Pipes.— W. B. Croft 107 



An Aurora on November 23. —J. Shaw ... 107 



A .Snake "Playing 'Pussum.' L. C. Jones . . . 107 



The Soaking of Seeds.— P. C. Glubb 107 



History of Encke's Comet, liy W. T. Lynn . . loS 

 Progress of the Cataract Construction Company's 



Works at Niagara 100 



The Nile Reservoir no 



Notes {IlliislraleJ.) '"> 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



The Parallax of Nebula A 2241 1 14 



A Possible New Zone of Asteroids 1 14 



.\ New Comet . . ■ ' '4 



A New Series of Nitrog:en Compounds 114 



The Scientific Investigations of the Scottish 



Fishery Board, liy W. G. . 115 



Sir John Donnelly on Technical Education . 116 



The Battle of the Forests. I. By Prof. B. E. 



Fcrnow >"> 



Societies and Academies 119 



Diary of Societies '20 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 20 



