190 



NATURE 



[December 20, 1894 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, December. — Inversion of 

 temperatures in ihe 26 68 day solar maenetic period, by Frank 

 H. Bigelow. The northern low-pressure and the southern 

 high-pressure be Its of North America vary in latitude directly 

 with the solar magnetic intensity, being further north at the 

 maximum and further south at the minimum of the period ; 

 whilst the northern high and southern low-pressure belts vary 

 in the opposite manner. This means that an increase of solar 

 magnetic intensity generates the cyclones further south, and 

 causes the anti-cyclones from the polar circulation to travel to 

 the south. — Remaiks on colloidal silver, by C. Barus. Col- 

 loidal silver possesses properties which can be explained with 

 reference to the analogous behaviour of suspended sediments, 

 allowance being made for differences in the size of particles. 

 The high degree of insulation detected in Carey Lea's metallic 

 mirrors may be interpreted as an instance of the altered be- 

 haviour of non-co herent metallic matter. —Resonance analysis of 

 alternating curre nts, by M. I. Pupin. Part ii. Closed magnetic 

 circuit transfer mers distort the primarv current considerably 

 more than trans formers with open magnetic circuits under equal 

 degrees of magnetisation. A ferric self-inductance in circuit 

 with an alternator which gives a simple harmonic E. M.F. 

 distorts the current by introducing higher odd harmonics, prin- 

 cipally the harmonic of three times the frequency of the funda- 

 mental. Rota ry magnetic fields produced by reasonably well- 

 constructed machines are not accompanied by fluctuations in 

 their intensity. —.An improved form of interrupter for large 

 induction coils, by F. L. O. Wadsworth. The interrupter 

 consists of a brass wheel about six inches in diameter, with 

 two insulating and two contact segments placed in its circum- 

 ference, and mounted directly on the shaft of a small electiic 

 motor making about 1200 revolutions per minute. Twocopper 

 brushes are made to bear on the hub of the wheel and its cir- 

 cumference respectively. The hub and the conducting sectors 

 are in one piece. The insulators are made of slate. 



Wiedemann's Annalen der IVtysik iind Chemie. No. 12.— On 

 the measurement of surface tension of water in capillary tubes 

 of different glasses, by P. Volkmann. A good wetting capacity 

 maybe insured bysoakirg the glass tubes in caustic pot.ish, and 

 then washing with distilled water. That the tubes are perfectly 

 wetted is shown by the perfect mobility of Ihe line of contact. 

 The more nearly circular the section of a lube is, Ihe more does 

 the value of the surface tension of water approach 7-38 mg/mm. 

 at 20-2'' C, whatever the kind of gla=s. Tubes of very small 

 diameter give larger values.— On Ihe thcrmochemical processes 

 in the secondary cell, by Kranz Sireintz. The following 

 thcrmochemical equations were derived from the author's 

 experiments : 



PbO, + H5SO, aq = PI)SO, -f Aq -f 767 K 

 PbO, -f SO, gas = PbSO, -f 844 K 



PbO, -f H, gas = PbO -)- HjO + 583 K 

 PbOj = PbO -f O gas- loi K 



TheE.M.F. resulting from these equations is I 885 volts. Oneo 

 the cells worked with, that having the least concentration, gave 

 1-90 volts.— On the magnetisation of iron and nickel wires by 

 rapid electric oscillations, by Ignaz Klemencic. The strong 

 damping action of magnelisable metals upon electric oscillation 

 i.s explamed by their circular or transverse magnetisation, which 

 crowds the oscillations into the surface layers much more than 

 in the case of other metals. Hence the resistance of a 

 magnetisabic wire to electric oscillations is much greater than 

 that of another of equal conductivity. This resistance was 

 determined by studying the development of heat in the wire by 

 means of a thermo couple. The permeabilities of the metals 

 deduced by the formul.-i- of Lord Raylcigh and Stefan were : 

 Soft iron, 118; steel pianoforte wire, soft 106, hard 115- 

 licssemer steel, soft 77, hard 7.} ; nickel, 27. These are very 

 near the values found by Ilaur and Lord Raylcigh for feeble 

 magnetising fields.— Studies of the cicclric resonator, by V 

 Drude. The author shows that a Hertzian reionator must be 

 chiefly affected by the electric forces pl.iying at that part of Ihe 

 resonator circuit which lies opposite the gap, and proves (his 

 experimentally. The resistance of a Zchnder vacuum tube 

 used in these experiments was incidentally found to be 2870 

 million ohms when the interruplor made 25 breaks per second. 

 NO. 13 I 2, VOL. 51] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Entomological Society, Decembers. — Capt. H.J. Elwes, 

 President, in the chair.— Mr. F. Merrifield exhibited hybrids 

 belonging to the genus Satiirnia, obtained by Dr. Standfuss, of 

 Ziirich ; viz. a male and female hybrid from a male o{ Satiiniia 

 favonia and a female of Saiurnia pyri, to which he had given 

 the name of Satiirnia emilia: : also hybrids from what Dr. 

 Standfuss described as " a male of Callimorpha dominula, var. 

 persona " (received from Tuscany) and a typical female of 

 Callimorpha dominula, to which he had given the name of 

 romanimi. Mr. Merrifield remarked that the so-calUd var. 

 persona differed entirely from the type of Callimorpha 

 dominula. — Mr. J. W. Tutt exhibited, and re.id notes on, 

 specimens of a very small form of Euchlo<\ taken in Shropshire 

 by the Rev. F. B. Newnham, who was of opinion that it was 

 distinct from E. cardamines. He pointed out that it w.is much 

 smaller than the latter species, and that the discoidal spot was 

 placed as in E. turritis and E. i;runcri at the juncture of the 

 orange and white spaces, and not, as in E. cardamincs, well 

 within the orange tip. Mr. Tutt also exhibited, and read notes 

 en, specimens of Noctua dahlii, from Cheshire, Essex, York- 

 shire, Aberdeenshire, and other counties. The variation in 

 the specimens was said to be partly due to their geographical 

 distribuiion. Herr Jacoby read a letter received from Mr. 

 Buxton Ferman, one of the Assistant Secretaries of the Post 

 Office, to the effect that the Postal Union had decided to make a 

 rule net to allow natural history specimens to be sent by sample 

 post, which was intended for the transmission of hoiui jide IrdLit 

 patterns or samples of merchandise, and consequently th.it the 

 forwarding of such specimens at the sample rate would in 

 future be irregular. Lord Walsingham, F. R.S., stated that he 

 had had a long correspondence wiih the Post Office authorities 

 on the subject, and that the late Mr. Raikes, when Postmaster- 

 General, promised him in 1891 that such specimens should, so 

 far as the British Post Office was concerned, be transmitted at 

 the sample rates ; and a letter to the same effect, from the late 

 Sir -Arthur Blackwood, when Secretary of the Post Office, was 

 published in the Proceediiij^s of the Society for 1S91. — Mr. C. 

 G. Barrett exhibited, for Mr. A. J. Hodges, a specimen of 

 Hydrilla paluslris, from Wicken Fen, also specimens of 

 Caradriua amhi-^ia, from the Isle of Wight. I le remarked that 

 one specimen of the latter had the hind margin of the right 

 fore-wing indented, and the wing broadened as though from an 

 injury to the pupa. In this wing the margins of the large 

 orbicular and reniform stigmata had become so joined that 

 the dividing lines had disappeared, and the stigmata were 

 fused into one irregular blotch. — ^Ir. McLachlan, F.R.S., 

 exhibited, on behalf of Mr. G. F. Wilson, F. R. S., a "grease 

 band " which had been tied round trees to prevent Ihe 

 females of Cheiviatobia hrumata from ascending the trunks 

 for the purposes of oviposition ; the band was thickly 

 covered with the bodies of Ihe females, to;,'clher with a 

 few males. — Surgeon-Captain .Manders exhibited a pair of 

 Chelura Idfasciata, from the Shan States, and c.illed attention 

 to the "assembling" habits of the males, some hundreds of 

 which were attracted by the numerous females which emerged 

 from the cocoons at sunset.— Mr. B. A. Bower exhibited a 

 beautiful variety of Zygcena lonicei.c, Esp.. having the spots 

 confluent, taken at Chattenden Wood, North Kent, in June 

 last. — Mr. H. Goss exhibited, for Mr. F. W. Uricli, of Trinidad, 

 a series of males, females, and workers of .Seriomyyme.x opacus, 

 Mayr., a species of fungus-growing and fundus eating an!. — 

 Colonel Swinhoe read a paper em it led " A List of the l.epidop- 

 t,ra of the Khasia Hills, Part III." — Mr. C. J. Gahan read a 

 paper entitled " On Ihe Longicorn Cokoplera of the West India 

 Islands." — Mr. F. W. Urich communicated a paper entitled 

 "Notes on Ihe F'ungus Growing and E.ating Habit of 

 Scricomyrmcy opacus, Mayr."— Prof. E. B. I'oulton, F.K.S., 

 read a paper, by Prof. E. B. Titchener, entitled "An apparent 

 case of Sexual Preference in a male Insect."— The Rev. H. S. 

 Gorham communicated a paper entitled "Notes on Herr A. 

 Kuwcrl's Revision der Cleridengallung Omailius, Lap." 



Geological Society, Decembers. — Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F. R.^., President, in the chair. — Supplementary note en the 

 Narborough district (Leicestershire), by Prof. T. G. Bonney, 

 F.R.S.— The tarns of Lakeland, by J. E. Marr, F.R.S. The 

 author had examined several tarns of the English Lake district. 



